Appalachian Community Histories – Duck Hill, Montgomery County: Railroads, Iron Dreams, Outlaws, and Civil Rights
Along U.S. Route 51 in the rolling hills of north-central Mississippi lies Duck Hill, a small community in Montgomery County whose history reaches far beyond its present boundaries. Although the town developed around agriculture and the railroad during the nineteenth century, its past includes Native American history, the forced removal of the Choctaw, plantation slavery, a deadly Civil War railroad disaster, an unsuccessful iron-mining boom, a notorious train robbery, and events that became part of the national struggle for civil rights.
Like many communities across the rural South, Duck Hill experienced periods of growth and decline as transportation, agriculture, and economic opportunities changed. The railroad that once connected the town to distant markets also brought tragedy, while the surrounding hills attracted investors who believed that valuable iron deposits might transform the area into an industrial center. Local churches, schools, families, and businesses provided a foundation for community life, even as segregation and racial violence shaped the experiences of generations of Black residents.
Among the darkest chapters in Duck Hill’s history was the April 13, 1937, lynching of Robert McDaniels and Roosevelt Townes, two African American men whose murders attracted national attention and became part of the debate over federal anti-lynching legislation. Yet the community also contributed to American cultural history through individuals such as Lucie Eddie Campbell, an influential gospel composer, educator, and civil rights advocate who was born in Duck Hill during the nineteenth century.
The surviving historical record reveals a town whose history cannot be understood through a single event. From the first white settlement following Choctaw removal to the community preservation efforts of the twenty-first century, Duck Hill reflects many of the economic ambitions, social struggles, and cultural achievements that have shaped Mississippi.
The Choctaw and the Origins of Duck Hill
Long before the establishment of the modern town, the land surrounding Duck Hill formed part of the ancestral homeland of the Choctaw people. Generations of Choctaw communities occupied the forests, hills, and waterways of central and northern Mississippi, developing political, agricultural, and cultural traditions long before European American settlement expanded into the region.
The name Duck Hill is traditionally associated with a Choctaw leader remembered as Chief Duck, who was described in later local accounts as a medicine man and community leader. According to this tradition, a prominent hill near the present town served as a gathering place associated with him, eventually giving its name to the surrounding settlement. The 1891 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi also associated the nearby hill with an Indigenous leader named Duck, demonstrating that this explanation was circulating by the late nineteenth century.
Although the tradition has endured, the surviving sources do not establish every detail about Chief Duck’s life or provide a contemporary Choctaw account confirming the circumstances surrounding the place-name. It is therefore more accurate to recognize the connection as a longstanding local tradition rather than a fully documented biography.
The landscape changed considerably following the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, when the United States obtained the cession of the remaining Choctaw national lands east of the Mississippi River. Federal removal policies forced thousands of Choctaw people westward during the following years, although others remained in Mississippi despite the considerable difficulties imposed upon them.
As lands formerly occupied by the Choctaw became available to white settlers, plantation agriculture and new communities expanded into the region. This process established the conditions under which Duck Hill would emerge as a settlement during the 1830s.
John A. Binford and the Early Settlement
Local histories generally identify John Alexander Binford as one of the earliest white settlers in the Duck Hill area, placing his arrival around 1834. According to historical accounts preserved in Carroll County records and later local-history compilations, Binford constructed an early residence between Bogue Creek and the hill from which the community eventually received its name.
The surrounding landscape was considerably different from the developed town that followed. Forests covered much of the countryside, and local tradition remembered Binford killing a large bear near his cabin, with the animal’s hide reportedly becoming a rug that covered much of the floor. Although the account survives through later histories rather than a contemporary eyewitness document, it illustrates how early settlers remembered the wooded landscape of northern Mississippi.
Binford eventually established a cotton plantation, becoming part of the expanding agricultural economy that depended upon enslaved African American labor. Genealogical research drawing upon nineteenth-century census records identifies him as a substantial enslaver, reporting that 113 people were held in slavery under his ownership in 1860. Other plantations operated in the surrounding region, making enslaved labor central to the area’s agricultural production and economic development.
The history of these plantations is important because early accounts of Duck Hill frequently emphasized the accomplishments of white landowners while giving little attention to the enslaved men, women, and children whose labor made plantation wealth possible. Census schedules, wills, estate inventories, and property transactions offer opportunities to recover aspects of their lives, although many individual stories remain difficult to reconstruct.
Duck Hill originally belonged to Carroll County, since Montgomery County did not exist when the settlement was established. The community developed through the middle decades of the nineteenth century, eventually becoming connected to the expanding network of Mississippi railroads.
Historical references give different dates for Duck Hill’s formal establishment. A federal community development report published in 2018 described the town as having been chartered in 1852, while railroad histories and Mississippi municipal records place its incorporation in 1870. The latter date is supported by incorporation references identifying July 21, 1870, and by later state municipal documentation. The earlier date may reflect a different stage in the settlement’s development, but the original legal records would need to be examined to determine precisely what occurred in 1852.
On May 31, 1871, Montgomery County was established from portions of Carroll and Choctaw counties, placing Duck Hill within the newly organized county. Winona became the county seat, while Duck Hill continued developing as a smaller railroad and agricultural community to the north.
The Railroad That Helped Build Duck Hill
The arrival of the Mississippi Central Railroad transformed the economic possibilities of communities throughout northern Mississippi. Construction began during the 1850s, and the railroad completed its north-south connection between Canton and the Tennessee line in 1860, establishing an important transportation corridor through the region.
Duck Hill benefited from its position along this route. Cotton, agricultural products, merchandise, and passengers could move through the community by rail, connecting local farmers and merchants with markets that would otherwise have been difficult to reach. The railroad also supported employment connected with freight handling, station operations, maintenance, and transportation.
An unusually valuable glimpse into the community’s commercial development survives in the correspondence of John H. Schuler. On May 5, 1860, Schuler wrote from Duck Hill to John Henry Nelson about business, family affairs, and acquaintances. Another letter, cataloged by the University of Mississippi as June 24, 1860, discussed the possibility of establishing a mercantile business in Duck Hill and Schuler’s favorable impression of the economic opportunities available in Mississippi.
These letters demonstrate that Duck Hill was attracting commercial interest before the Civil War. Rather than relying exclusively on histories written decades later, the correspondence allows researchers to examine the words of someone considering business opportunities in the community while the railroad economy was still developing.
Over time, Duck Hill became associated with the Illinois Central railroad system, which absorbed important southern rail connections during the nineteenth century. A surviving photograph of the Illinois Central depot from approximately 1910 shows a substantial wooden station with a platform, railway signals, and several men standing outside. It offers a rare visual record of the place where travelers entered the town and agricultural products moved toward distant destinations.
The depot represented more than transportation infrastructure. For many railroad communities, the station became an important point of contact with the outside world, bringing newspapers, visitors, merchandise, and news of events far beyond the surrounding countryside.
The Deadly Duck Hill Railroad Collision of 1862
The railroad that supported Duck Hill’s development also became the setting for one of the community’s earliest major tragedies. On October 19, 1862, during the American Civil War, two Mississippi Central Railroad trains collided near Duck Hill, killing dozens of people and injuring many more.
According to historical accounts reproduced in the Montgomery County MSGenWeb archives, the collision occurred around 2:30 in the morning when a northbound train and a southbound train met head-on near the station. The locomotives were identified as the A. M. West and the James Brown, and both trains were operating along a railroad that had become particularly important for Confederate military transportation.
The disaster occurred only weeks after the fighting around Corinth, Mississippi, when Confederate troops and supplies were being moved through the state. Military transportation placed tremendous demands upon southern railroads, which were often operating under difficult conditions and with limited resources.
The number of victims varies slightly among surviving accounts. One newspaper report, preserved through a later reprinting, recorded thirty-five people killed and between forty and fifty wounded. Another historical account reported approximately thirty-four deaths, while the recollections of survivor Daniel Thatcher Lake gave a slightly lower figure.
Lake, a Methodist minister and former Confederate soldier, later described how he narrowly escaped death after moving from a platform between two railroad coaches before the collision. According to his recollection, two other passengers occupied the place he had just left and were killed when the trains crashed. His testimony provides a particularly personal perspective on a disaster otherwise remembered primarily through casualty figures.
The newspaper account identified victims associated with Confederate military units from Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, and other states. It also recorded the deaths of four Black individuals, including a railroad fireman, although the available report did not preserve their names.
The distinction is significant because the written record provides considerable identifying information about white military casualties while leaving the Black victims largely anonymous. Their deaths nevertheless formed part of the same tragedy, and their absence from the named casualty list demonstrates an important limitation of nineteenth-century reporting.
Most of the dead were reportedly buried near the wreck site in a common grave, with hundreds of people witnessing the burial. The collision was remembered long after the Civil War ended, and accounts of the disaster continued appearing in regional historical collections and newspapers.
For Duck Hill, the wreck demonstrated how a small railroad station could become the scene of an event involving soldiers and travelers from several states. Although no major Civil War battle occurred within the town itself, the collision connected Duck Hill directly to the transportation difficulties and human losses of the Confederate war effort.
The Iron Boom That Never Became an Industry
During the nineteenth century, Duck Hill attracted attention for another reason that seemed capable of transforming its economy. Reports of iron deposits in the surrounding hills encouraged speculation that the community might become an important mining and industrial center.
The 1891 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, published by the Goodspeed Publishing Company, offered an enthusiastic description of Duck Hill’s mineral prospects. The book portrayed the community as occupying an attractive valley surrounded by hills believed to contain valuable ore, and it reported that investors had organized a company to acquire and develop mineral property.
The account reflected considerable confidence that Duck Hill possessed commercially valuable iron resources. Investors imagined that the nearby deposits could support mining operations and attract additional businesses, potentially creating an industrial economy beyond the agricultural trade upon which the town had traditionally depended.
Yet the enthusiasm recorded in the nineteenth-century publication was not matched by the development that followed.
In 1913, Mississippi state geologist E. N. Lowe published A Preliminary Report on Iron Ores of Mississippi, which examined the state’s iron deposits and revisited earlier attempts at mineral development. Lowe described the speculation that had surrounded Duck Hill during the early 1880s, when encouraging mineral samples led investors to purchase land and search for workable deposits.
A later geological investigation by Marshall K. Kern, published by the Mississippi Geological Survey in 1963, confirmed that prospecting around Duck Hill had failed to identify commercially productive ore beds. Although some samples initially appeared promising, the anticipated large-scale mining industry did not materialize.
The contrast between the 1891 promotional description and the later geological assessments reveals how speculative economic development could influence rural communities. Investors and landowners saw the possibility of sudden prosperity, but the absence of economically workable deposits prevented Duck Hill from becoming the mining center that some had imagined.
The episode remains an important part of the town’s history because it documents a moment when local residents and outside investors believed the community’s economic future might change dramatically.
Rube Burrow and the Duck Hill Train Robbery of 1888
Before Duck Hill’s iron prospects had fully faded from public attention, the town became associated with one of the South’s most notorious railroad outlaws. On December 15, 1888, Rube Burrow and his accomplice William Brock robbed an Illinois Central express train near Duck Hill, an incident that resulted in the death of passenger Chester Hughes.
Burrow, an Alabama native, had already gained notoriety through a series of railroad robberies across the South and Southwest. His activities attracted the attention of railroad companies, law enforcement officials, and private detectives, particularly the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
One of the most detailed accounts of the Duck Hill robbery appeared in George W. Agee’s Rube Burrow, King of Outlaws, and His Band of Train Robbers, published around 1890. Agee included testimony attributed to people directly involved in the incident, making the book an important near-contemporary source, although its narrative should also be read with an awareness of the sensationalism surrounding famous outlaws.
According to engineer Albert Law’s account, the northbound express train stopped at Duck Hill on the evening of December 15 before continuing its journey. Shortly after the train departed, armed men climbed aboard the locomotive and forced the crew to comply with their instructions.
The robbers directed the train to stop outside the station, where they attempted to seize money from the express car. During the robbery, passenger Chester Hughes was shot and killed, turning what might otherwise have been remembered as another railroad holdup into a particularly serious crime.
The murder intensified efforts to locate Burrow and his associates. Railroad companies regarded such attacks as a threat to passenger safety and public confidence, while the increasingly widespread circulation of newspaper reports helped establish Burrow’s reputation as a dangerous fugitive.
The Duck Hill robbery demonstrates how the same transportation networks that encouraged commercial development also exposed small communities to crime involving people who traveled across state lines. By the late nineteenth century, the town’s railroad station had become associated with both a deadly Civil War collision and a highly publicized train robbery.
Churches, Schools, and Everyday Community Life
Although dramatic incidents attracted newspaper attention, much of Duck Hill’s history developed through the ordinary institutions that sustained its residents. Churches, schools, stores, agricultural businesses, and local families helped establish a community identity that extended beyond the railroad station.
A picture postcard preserved by the University of Mississippi’s Ann Rayburn Collection of Paper Americana depicts the Methodist Church in Duck Hill in 1922. The photograph provides evidence of the town’s early twentieth-century religious architecture and offers a reminder that churches were important parts of the community’s social landscape.
Education also occupied an important place in Duck Hill’s development, although public schooling reflected the racial segregation imposed throughout Mississippi. White and Black students attended separate facilities, often under substantially different circumstances, and school construction records demonstrate how segregation continued shaping local institutions well into the twentieth century.
One of the town’s most significant surviving educational buildings is the Binford Building, constructed in 1930 as part of the historically white Duck Hill School complex. The two-story building eventually became an important architectural landmark, representing the educational history and changing institutional needs of the community.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History records identify separate school construction projects in Duck Hill during 1963, including facilities described in the original state documents as Duck Hill Colored School, Duck Hill School Colored at Norwood, and Duck Hill White School. The terminology reflects the official segregated system under which the records were created.
These documents are especially valuable because they provide direct evidence of how racial separation was incorporated into school planning, construction, and public spending. They also offer opportunities for future research into the experiences of Black educators and students whose contributions are not always adequately represented in local histories.
On July 19, 2013, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History designated the Binford Building as a Mississippi Landmark. The designation recognized the building’s historical significance and helped establish a foundation for later discussions about its preservation and potential reuse.
Lucie Eddie Campbell and Duck Hill’s Musical Legacy
One of Duck Hill’s most influential native residents was Lucie Eddie Campbell, who became a nationally important figure in African American gospel music and education.
Campbell was born in Duck Hill on April 3, 1885, the youngest of nine children born to Burrell and Isabella Wilkerson Campbell. Her father worked for the Mississippi Central Railroad, while her mother supported the family through domestic work. After her father’s death in a railroad accident, her mother eventually moved the family to Memphis, Tennessee, in 1889.
Although Campbell spent much of her childhood and adult life outside Duck Hill, her origins remained connected to the Mississippi railroad community in which she was born.
Campbell received her education in Memphis and later attended Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She became a teacher, educational leader, composer, and advocate for the rights of African American educators during an era when segregation imposed considerable restrictions upon Black schools and their employees.
Her musical career proved particularly influential. Campbell published her first gospel composition, “Something Within,” in 1919 and eventually wrote more than one hundred songs. Among her best-known compositions were “He’ll Understand and Say Well Done,” “In the Upper Room,” and “Footprints of Jesus.”
She also played an important organizational role in the National Baptist Convention, helping develop musical programs and encouraging the careers of talented performers. Her work brought her into contact with major figures in African American music, including Marian Anderson and Mahalia Jackson.
Beyond music, Campbell challenged racial discrimination and worked to improve educational opportunities and professional conditions for Black teachers. Her contributions demonstrated how a person born in a small Mississippi community could influence national religious, musical, and educational institutions.
Today, a historical marker in Duck Hill recognizes Campbell’s life and achievements, preserving the connection between her birthplace and the contributions she made to American culture.
The Lynching of Robert McDaniels and Roosevelt Townes in 1937
The most internationally publicized tragedy associated with Duck Hill occurred on April 13, 1937, when a white mob murdered Robert “Bootjack” McDaniels and Roosevelt “Red” Townes, two African American men accused of killing a white storekeeper named George Windham.
The accusation concerned a killing that had occurred months earlier, and both men had entered pleas of not guilty before the violence took place. On the afternoon of April 13, they were seized from the custody of law enforcement officers following court proceedings in Winona and transported to an area near Duck Hill.
There, members of the mob chained the men to trees and tortured them with a blowtorch while attempting to force confessions. Both were subsequently killed. Historical accounts and the official commemorative marker identify McDaniels as having been shot to death and Townes as having been burned alive.
The murders were acts of racial terror carried out outside the judicial process, without a lawful trial or determination of guilt. Whatever the original accusations against the men, the mob denied them the most basic protections of American law.
Contemporary accounts also described the abuse of another African American man, Shorty Dorroh, who was suspected by members of the mob of involvement in the earlier killing. He survived the encounter but was subjected to violence and forced to leave the area.
Photographs taken after the murders circulated through national publications, including Time and Life. The images became important evidence of the brutality of lynching and attracted attention far beyond Mississippi.
The reaction reached the United States Congress almost immediately. On April 15, 1937, only two days after the murders, members of the House of Representatives discussed Duck Hill during debate over proposed federal anti-lynching legislation.
The Congressional Record preserves references to the murders, including arguments that the seizure of prisoners from the custody of law enforcement demonstrated the need for federal intervention. The House approved the Gavagan anti-lynching bill, H.R. 1507, by a vote of 277 to 120, but the legislation did not become law.
The reaction was not limited to Washington. On May 3, 1937, the United States Senate received a resolution from the Iowa General Assembly condemning the Duck Hill murders and urging the federal government to establish enforceable anti-lynching protections. The resolution specifically cited the deaths of the two men and called for equal justice regardless of race.
Despite the national attention, no members of the mob were successfully brought to justice for the murders. The absence of prosecutions illustrated the difficulty of obtaining accountability for racial violence in communities where perpetrators could act with the expectation of protection or silence.
The photographs also became part of international political propaganda. Nazi Germany used images of the Duck Hill victims to criticize racial violence in the United States, even while the Nazi regime pursued its own system of persecution and racial oppression.
For many years, the murders remained a painful chapter of local memory. Their significance nevertheless extended far beyond the town because they exposed the consequences of racial terror and became part of the prolonged struggle for federal civil rights protections.
The United States did not enact a federal law specifically addressing lynching as a hate crime until March 29, 2022, when the Emmett Till Antilynching Act became law, decades after the debates that followed the Duck Hill murders.
Duck Hill and the Racial Tensions of World War II
Racial conflict again brought national attention to Duck Hill during World War II, when an incident involving African American soldiers stationed at nearby Camp McCain resulted in gunfire directed toward the town.
The incident occurred during the night of July 5, 1943, following reports that Black servicemen had been mistreated in Starkville, Mississippi, on the previous day. According to an account published by Time magazine on September 13, 1943, a group of angry soldiers obtained weapons and ammunition and left Camp McCain with the intention of traveling toward Starkville.
The soldiers stopped near Duck Hill along the Illinois Central railroad tracks, where they fired rifle shots toward the town. Bullets reportedly struck buildings and other structures, including the water tower and post office, before the shooting ended.
No casualties were reported, but the incident frightened local residents and resulted in military disciplinary proceedings. The Time report stated that six soldiers had received sentences of ten to fifteen years of hard labor, while seven additional soldiers were awaiting court-martial.
The shooting was a serious incident, but understanding its historical circumstances requires consideration of the racial discrimination experienced by African American soldiers serving in the segregated United States military. Black servicemen were expected to defend the country during a global war against authoritarian governments while frequently encountering discrimination and violence within their own communities and military installations.
The events near Duck Hill were therefore part of a broader pattern of racial tension surrounding American military bases during World War II.
The incident also demonstrated that the racial conflicts underlying the murders of 1937 had not disappeared. The town continued to occupy a place within the larger struggle over race, citizenship, military service, and equality in the United States.
Changing Times and the Preservation of Duck Hill
As the twentieth century progressed, Duck Hill experienced many of the economic challenges affecting small agricultural and railroad communities throughout Mississippi. Changes in transportation reduced the central importance of railroad depots, while mechanization and changes in agricultural employment transformed the economic opportunities available to rural residents.
Historical photographs, census schedules, school records, and municipal maps help document the community through these changes. Records preserved by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History include maps from several decades, allowing researchers to trace the development of roads, neighborhoods, and other physical features.
The town’s population also changed over time. According to census data summarized by Mississippi State University Extension, Duck Hill had 732 residents in 2010 and 619 in 2020, a decline of approximately fifteen percent. These numbers reflect the continuing challenges facing small communities where employment opportunities and population patterns have shifted across generations.
Despite these difficulties, Duck Hill residents have worked to preserve historic resources and promote community development.
In 2018, Duck Hill participated in the federal Local Foods, Local Places program, which brought together local organizations, federal agencies, and community leaders to develop strategies for economic revitalization, historic preservation, improved access to healthy food, and environmental sustainability.
The resulting community action plan identified flooding, limited access to grocery stores, infrastructure needs, and the reuse of historic buildings as major concerns. It also emphasized the importance of using local history, cultural resources, and community participation to create opportunities for future generations.
One of the proposed projects involved transforming the historic Lloyd T. Binford School building into a center for arts, culture, and social impact. The plan connected the building’s educational history with the broader cultural legacy of Duck Hill, including the achievements of Lucie Eddie Campbell.
Other initiatives included improving stormwater drainage, developing community gardens, encouraging youth participation, and strengthening the town’s historic and cultural identity. The 2018 report documented considerable local organizing around these goals, although the plan itself should not be taken as evidence that every proposed improvement was subsequently completed.
These efforts demonstrated that Duck Hill’s historical buildings and cultural traditions could serve practical purposes beyond commemoration, becoming part of a broader discussion about the town’s future.
Remembering Bootjack and Red
An important development in Duck Hill’s recent historical preservation efforts occurred on April 13, 2023, when a historical marker commemorating Robert McDaniels and Roosevelt Townes was unveiled in the community on the eighty-sixth anniversary of their murders.
The commemoration followed years of work by descendants, historians, artists, and community advocates seeking to ensure that the men would be remembered as individuals rather than simply as victims in photographs of racial violence.
Among those involved was Talamieka Brice, whose grandmother, Jimmie Lee McNeil, had been a child living near the scene of the 1937 murders. Family recollections of that night helped inspire Brice’s efforts to document the tragedy and preserve the victims’ memory.
The marker was part of a wider movement to confront the history of racial terror throughout Mississippi and the American South. Rather than allowing the murders to remain a largely unspoken element of local history, the commemoration placed the names of McDaniels and Townes into the town’s public historical landscape.
Their recognition is especially significant because the initial national coverage often emphasized the brutality of the killings without preserving much information about the victims’ lives, families, or personal experiences.
The marker offers a different approach to remembrance by identifying the men by name and establishing a permanent public acknowledgment of the injustice they suffered.
It also illustrates how historical understanding changes over time. Events once discussed primarily through sensational newspaper reporting can be reconsidered through archival research, family testimony, and the participation of descendants who seek a fuller and more respectful historical record.
Why the History of Duck Hill Matters
Duck Hill’s history demonstrates how the experiences of a small Mississippi town can illuminate major developments in American history. Its origins reflect the displacement of Native American communities and the expansion of plantation agriculture, while its railroad history reveals the importance of transportation to nineteenth-century settlement and commerce.
The 1862 collision illustrates the human costs of Civil War transportation, and the unsuccessful iron boom reveals the hopes and uncertainties surrounding economic development in the rural South. The robbery committed by Rube Burrow connects Duck Hill to the history of nineteenth-century railroad crime, while the achievements of Lucie Eddie Campbell demonstrate the cultural influence of individuals who began their lives in places far removed from the nation’s major cities.
The murders of Robert McDaniels and Roosevelt Townes reveal another essential dimension of the town’s past. Their deaths became part of a national debate over racial violence, the failure of local law enforcement, and the responsibility of the federal government to protect citizens from mob murder.
At the same time, the schools, churches, family histories, and surviving municipal records remind us that Duck Hill was never defined solely by its tragedies. Generations of residents established homes, raised children, pursued education, maintained community institutions, and adapted to economic and social changes that shaped everyday life.
Today, historic photographs, letters, government records, newspaper accounts, and commemorative markers provide opportunities to reconstruct this history with greater accuracy and attention to people whose stories were previously overlooked.
For a community of its size, Duck Hill has an unusually complex historical record, one that connects the hills of Montgomery County to the Civil War, the development of American railroads, the growth of gospel music, and the long struggle for racial justice.
Preserving that record ensures that the history of Duck Hill remains more than a collection of distant incidents. It becomes the story of a community whose people and experiences reflect some of the most consequential changes in Mississippi and the United States.
Sources & Further Reading
Agee, George W. Rube Burrow, King of Outlaws, and His Band of Train Robbers. Circa 1890. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73001
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Appalachian Counties Served by ARC.” https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-counties-served-by-arc/
Carroll County MSGenWeb. “Early County Settlements of Carroll County, Mississippi.” Historical accounts of Duck Hill and surrounding settlements. https://www.msgw.org/carroll/history/townhist.htm
Encyclopedia of Alabama. “Rube Burrow.” https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/rube-burrow/
Federal Writers’ Project. “Lizzie Luckado.” Interview by Irene Robertson. Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936–1938. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn024/
Goodspeed Publishing Company. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891. https://books.google.com/books?id=G-pEAQAAMAAJ
Iowa Bystander. “Sheriff Accused of Aiding Duck Hill Lynching Mob.” May 20, 1937. Iowa State University Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.lib.iastate.edu/abvi/items/bystander19370520.html
Iowa Bystander. Coverage of renewed demands for an investigation of the Duck Hill lynchings. October 14, 1937. Iowa State University Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.lib.iastate.edu/abvi/items/bystander19371014.html
James Madison University. “Lynching of Bootjack and Red.” Memorializing Racial Terror: Lynching Markers in the United States. https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/lynchingmarkers/ms1937041301/
Kern, Marshall K. An Investigation of Mississippi Iron Ores. Bulletin 101. Jackson: Mississippi Geological, Economic and Topographical Survey, 1963. https://geology.deq.ms.gov/Publications/Bulletins/Bulletin0101/MGS_BU0101.pdf
Lowe, E. N. Preliminary Report on Iron Ores of Mississippi. Bulletin 10. Jackson: Mississippi State Geological Survey, 1913. https://geology.deq.ms.gov/Publications/Bulletins/Bulletin0010/MGS_BU0010.pdf
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Binford Building, Duck Hill School.” Mississippi Historic Resources Inventory Database. https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/prop.aspx?id=23866&view=facts
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes.” April 19, 2013. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series-files/mdah/s1250/pdf/2013.04.19%20Board%20of%20Trustees.pdf
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Duck Hill.” Series 0157, City and Town Maps. Digital Archives. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/mdot/s0157/s0157-duckhill
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Mississippi Landmarks, Montgomery County.” Official designation register, including the Duck Hill School complex. https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/rpt.aspx?City=Any&County=Montgomery&rpt=msLandmarkList
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “School Building Project Specifications and Plans, 1929–2002.” Series 1660. Government Records Finding Aids. https://finding.mdah.ms.gov/government-records/166-1
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “History Is Lunch: Talamieka Brice and Kiese Laymon, ‘Duck Hill Lynchings: Local and National History.'” 2022. https://www.mdah.ms.gov/event/history-lunch-talamieka-brice-and-kiese-laymon-duck-hill-lynchings-local-and-national-history
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Series 244: Federal Disaster Relief Funds Project Files, 1970–1978.” Archival finding aid containing Duck Hill records. https://finding.mdah.ms.gov/government-records/series-244
Mississippi Rails. “Duck Hill, Mississippi.” Railroad history, depot information, and historical population records. https://msrailroads.com/~msrailr1/Towns/Duck_Hill.htm
Montgomery County MSGenWeb. “Duck Hill Train Wreck, October 19, 1862.” Collection of contemporary newspaper accounts and historical recollections. https://www.msgw.org/montgomery/countyhistory/trainwreck.html
Montgomery County MSGenWeb. “Montgomery County History.” Historical records concerning county formation and early government. https://www.msgw.org/montgomery/countyhistory.html
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Records of the NAACP. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. Archival finding aid containing records associated with the Duck Hill lynchings. https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/gdcfindingaidpdfs/ms008007/ms008007.pdf
National Archives and Records Administration. 1950 United States Census. Montgomery County, Mississippi. Original population schedules, including Duck Hill Enumeration District 49-10. https://1950census.archives.gov/search/?county=Montgomery&state=MS
Smithsonian Institution, National Postal Museum. “The Burrow Brothers.” https://postalmuseum.si.edu/the-burrow-brothers
Time. “Races: Lynch & Anti-Lynch.” April 26, 1937. https://time.com/archive/6756940/races-lynch-anti-lynch/
Time. “Letters.” May 17, 1937. Contemporary reactions to the magazine’s coverage of lynching and racial violence. https://time.com/archive/6757078/letters-may-17-1937/
Time. “Army & Navy: Morale: The Attack on Duck Hill.” September 13, 1943. https://time.com/archive/6781965/army-navy-morale-the-attack-on-duck-hill/
University of Mississippi Libraries. “John H. Schuler to J. H. Nelson (5 May 1860).” William Cowper Nelson Collection, Archives and Special Collections. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/ciwar_corresp/622/
University of Mississippi Libraries. “John H. Schuler to J. H. Nelson (24 June 1860).” William Cowper Nelson Collection, Archives and Special Collections. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/ciwar_corresp/624/
University of Mississippi Libraries. “Methodist Church, Duck Hill, Miss.” 1922. Ann Rayburn Collection of Paper Americana. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/rayburn/192/
United States Congress. Congressional Record. 75th Cong., 1st sess., April 15, 1937. House debate concerning federal anti-lynching legislation following the Duck Hill murders. https://www.congress.gov/75/crecb/1937/04/15/GPO-CRECB-1937-pt3-v81-20.pdf
United States Congress. Congressional Record. 75th Cong., 1st sess., May 3, 1937. Senate proceedings containing the Iowa General Assembly resolution condemning the Duck Hill lynchings. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1937-pt4-v81/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1937-pt4-v81-11.pdf
United States Congress. Congressional Record. 75th Cong., 3rd sess., January 10, 1938. Senate discussion of lynching and proposed federal legislation. https://www.congress.gov/75/crecb/1938/01/10/GPO-CRECB-1938-pt1-v83-7-1.pdf
United States Environmental Protection Agency and Partner Organizations. Community Action Plan for Duck Hill, Mississippi. Local Foods, Local Places Technical Assistance. October 2018. https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/LFLPDuckHillMS.pdf
United States Geological Survey. “Historical Topographic Maps: Preserving the Past.” National Geospatial Program. https://www.usgs.gov/programs/national-geospatial-program/historical-topographic-maps-preserving-past
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Author Note: The history of Duck Hill reveals how a small Mississippi railroad community became connected to major events in American history, from the Civil War to the struggle for civil rights. Through original letters, government records, historical newspapers, and archival research, this article seeks to preserve both the achievements and tragedies that shaped the town and its people.