Appalachian Community Histories – Tillatoba, Yalobusha County: Railroads, Cotton Gins, Churches, and the History of a Mississippi Town
In the western portion of Yalobusha County, Mississippi, the community of Tillatoba developed along a railroad corridor that helped transform northern Mississippi during the nineteenth century. Although the town never grew into a major commercial center, its history reflects the importance of rail transportation, cotton agriculture, religious institutions, and the rural communities that emerged during the decades following the Civil War.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, Tillatoba was an incorporated town with a railroad connection, a public cotton gin, and a post office that served residents of the surrounding countryside. Its population was relatively small, but the community occupied a place in a transportation network that connected Yalobusha County with larger markets throughout Mississippi and beyond.
One of the earliest detailed descriptions of Tillatoba appeared in historian Dunbar Rowland’s Encyclopedia of Mississippi History, published in 1907. Rowland identified the community as an incorporated town on the Memphis Division of the Illinois Central Railroad, approximately eighteen miles north of Grenada. He also reported that Oakland was the nearest banking town, indicating Tillatoba’s connection to the larger communities that supplied financial and commercial services.
The history of Tillatoba is closely tied to the changes that reshaped Yalobusha County throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the arrival of the railroad and the expansion of cotton farming to the experiences of local churches, families, and military servicemen, the surviving historical records provide a picture of a community whose importance cannot be measured solely by its population.
The Early History of Yalobusha County
The history of the land surrounding Tillatoba extends well beyond the establishment of the present town. Before the formation of Yalobusha County, the region formed part of the homeland of Indigenous peoples, particularly the Choctaw and Chickasaw, whose territories extended across large portions of what became northern Mississippi.
The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, signed in 1830, resulted in the cession of extensive Choctaw lands to the United States and contributed to the forced removal of Choctaw communities from Mississippi. The treaty and subsequent settlement policies opened much of the region to expanding white settlement, plantation agriculture, and land speculation during the following decades.
Yalobusha County was officially established on December 23, 1833, at a time when Mississippi was undergoing rapid territorial and agricultural development. The county originally covered a much larger area than it does today, but its boundaries were gradually reduced as additional counties were organized. Portions of the original territory were transferred to Calhoun County in 1852 and Grenada County in 1870.
During the 1830s and 1840s, settlers established communities throughout the county, including Hendersonville, Sardinia, and Preston. These early settlements developed around agricultural land, wagon roads, and commercial opportunities, although several eventually declined as newer communities gained advantages through improved transportation.
Agriculture dominated much of the county’s economy before the Civil War. Cotton, corn, and livestock supported local farming operations, while enslaved African Americans supplied a substantial portion of the labor upon which the region’s agricultural economy depended. According to the Mississippi Encyclopedia’s history of Yalobusha County, approximately 56 percent of the county’s population was enslaved by 1860.
The development of the railroad would eventually change the geography of settlement and commerce in Yalobusha County. Communities located near the tracks gained access to transportation and markets that were difficult to reach by wagon, while some older settlements gradually disappeared as their commercial importance diminished.
Tillatoba emerged within this changing landscape, benefiting from its position along one of the railroad routes that connected northern Mississippi with the rest of the country.
The Railroad Comes to Yalobusha County
The arrival of rail transportation during the 1850s represented one of the most important developments in Yalobusha County’s nineteenth-century history. Before the completion of the railroads, local farmers and merchants depended heavily upon wagon transportation and access to navigable waterways to move agricultural products toward distant markets.
The Mississippi Central Railroad was organized during the early 1850s to establish a transportation connection through northern Mississippi. Construction advanced from different sections of the proposed route, eventually connecting communities that had previously depended upon more difficult overland travel.
Water Valley emerged as one of the railroad’s most important centers. By 1858, railroad service had reached the community, and the company established facilities that contributed to the town’s rapid development. The line was completed on January 31, 1860, creating an important north-to-south connection through Mississippi.
The railroad also became strategically important during the Civil War. In 1862, Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant advanced along the Mississippi Central corridor during an unsuccessful campaign toward Vicksburg. Railroad infrastructure throughout the region suffered damage during the fighting, and the years following the war brought efforts to restore transportation and commercial activity.
By 1878, the Mississippi Central Railroad had come under the control of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. The Illinois Central would become an important influence upon the economy of northern Mississippi, particularly in communities where railroad stations provided transportation for agricultural products, passengers, and merchandise.
Tillatoba occupied a position along this corridor between Oakland and Grenada. Although the precise date when its railroad station was established requires further documentation, the community was clearly associated with the railroad during the latter nineteenth century.
An 1888 railroad map of Mississippi preserved by the Library of Congress documents the expanding transportation network of the period. Later maps, including Rand McNally’s 1911 map of Yalobusha County, identify Tillatoba alongside Oakland, Coffeeville, Scobey, and other communities that formed the county’s network of settlements.
For communities such as Tillatoba, the railroad provided a connection to markets and destinations far beyond the immediate countryside. Agricultural products could be transported more efficiently, merchandise could reach rural merchants, and residents could travel to larger towns without depending entirely upon the roads.
The railroad did not guarantee that a settlement would become a major town, but it provided opportunities that were essential to the development of many small Mississippi communities.
The Incorporation of Tillatoba in 1873
Tillatoba’s development as a recognized municipality can be traced to April 9, 1873, when the community was incorporated under Mississippi law.
A historical register of incorporated Mississippi towns, identifying records from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, lists Tillatoba in Yalobusha County with an incorporation date of April 9, 1873. The register identifies House Bill 289 among the enrolled legislative bills as the original record associated with the town’s incorporation.
The date places Tillatoba’s municipal organization during Reconstruction, only eight years after the end of the Civil War. Mississippi was still experiencing political, economic, and social changes resulting from emancipation, the restoration of civil government, and the continuing struggle over the rights of formerly enslaved people.
Incorporation gave Tillatoba formal recognition as a municipality, distinguishing it from the many small settlements and rural crossroads that existed throughout Yalobusha County. The original incorporation legislation remains an important source for determining the precise legal provisions under which the town was organized.
Although the surviving historical summaries do not establish the identities of Tillatoba’s founders or its first municipal officers, the incorporation record demonstrates that the community had developed sufficiently by 1873 to receive official recognition from the state.
Its position along the railroad was particularly important. The surrounding countryside depended heavily upon agriculture, and a recognized town with access to transportation could serve as a meeting point between rural producers and the larger markets upon which they depended.
Over the following decades, Tillatoba remained a small municipality, but its railroad connection and agricultural services gave it a place within the economic life of western Yalobusha County.
Cotton Farming and the Local Economy
Cotton played a central role in the agricultural economy surrounding Tillatoba during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fertile bottomlands and rolling countryside of Yalobusha County supported farming operations that depended upon both family labor and agricultural workers.
The federal government’s 1880 agricultural census report provides a detailed picture of the county’s farming economy during the period. According to the report, Yalobusha County contained 71,850 acres of cultivated land, including 30,398 acres planted in cotton and 23,609 acres devoted to corn.
Cotton production amounted to 12,989 bales, demonstrating the importance of the crop to the county’s economy. The report also described the contrasting geographical conditions found throughout Yalobusha County, including sandy ridges, wooded uplands, and fertile agricultural bottomlands.
These differences influenced where farmers planted crops and how agricultural communities developed. Cotton cultivation was particularly important in the productive western portions of the county, while the surrounding hills and smaller valleys supported additional farming activities.
Tillatoba’s agricultural importance was reflected in the presence of a public cotton gin.
In 1907, Dunbar Rowland specifically identified a public cotton gin as one of the town’s principal facilities. Cotton gins were essential to the cotton economy because they separated cotton fibers from seeds before the cotton could be prepared for sale and shipment. Having access to a gin reduced the need for farmers to transport harvested cotton over longer distances before it could enter commercial markets.
The gin’s presence suggests that Tillatoba served agricultural producers beyond the town’s immediate population. Farmers living in the surrounding countryside could make use of the processing services available within the community, while the nearby railroad connected the region with buyers and shipping destinations.
The county’s agricultural economy was not limited to cotton. Corn, livestock, fruit production, and other crops also contributed to farming operations throughout Yalobusha County, providing food for households and additional sources of income.
By 1919, Yalobusha County’s agricultural landscape had undergone further changes. In his 1925 publication Mississippi: The Heart of the South, Rowland reported that county farm property had been valued at approximately $7,545,000 in 1919, while agricultural crops were valued at approximately $2,926,000. Nearly 18,000 acres were devoted to cotton, producing approximately 6,800 bales.
Rowland also noted that approximately 22,000 fruit-bearing trees produced around 14,000 bushels of fruit during that year. These statistics demonstrate the continued importance of agriculture to the county’s economy and the variety of activities that supported rural communities.
The county’s prosperity, however, was not shared equally. Emancipation had ended slavery, but many African American farmers continued to face severe restrictions on landownership and economic opportunity. By 1900, approximately 81 percent of Black farmers in Yalobusha County worked as tenants or sharecroppers, according to the Mississippi Encyclopedia, while slightly more than half of white farmers owned their land.
These unequal arrangements were part of the agricultural system within which Tillatoba developed. Understanding the town’s history requires recognizing not only the businesses and transportation facilities that supported the community but also the labor and economic relationships that shaped life throughout the surrounding countryside.
The Post Office and Commercial Life
In addition to its railroad station and cotton gin, Tillatoba possessed a post office that connected the community with the wider world.
Dunbar Rowland’s 1907 description identified Tillatoba as having a money order post office, an important service for residents of a small agricultural settlement. Postal facilities provided more than the delivery of letters, as they also offered ways to send payments, conduct business, receive newspapers, and maintain relationships with people living outside the immediate community.
The money order service was particularly useful in communities where banks were not located within convenient traveling distance. Rowland identified Oakland as Tillatoba’s nearest banking town, illustrating how neighboring settlements supplied different services within the county’s commercial network.
The post office remained an identifiable local institution into the twentieth century.
A historical retrospective published by The North Mississippi Herald on September 3, 2014, reproduced an item from September 1944 reporting that James J. Craig had been named postmaster of Tillatoba following a nomination by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The appointment demonstrates the continued operation of Tillatoba’s postal service during the Second World War. It also connects the history of a small Mississippi community with the federal institutions that organized and administered postal services throughout the United States.
For residents, the combination of the post office, railroad facilities, and agricultural services helped make Tillatoba more than a collection of homes. These institutions provided reasons for people living in the surrounding countryside to conduct business and maintain connections with the community.
Churches and Religious Life in Early Tillatoba
Churches were another important part of Tillatoba’s history, providing places for religious worship, community gatherings, education, and charitable activities.
Some of the most detailed surviving information about the town’s early religious institutions appears in the records of the Yalobusha Baptist Association. Transcriptions and historical summaries of these records, preserved through the Yalobusha County MSGenWeb project, provide valuable information about church membership, ministers, missionary activities, and religious meetings.
The association’s 1887 records identify a Tillatoba congregation with twenty-one members. The church’s pastor was listed as W. M. Farmer, while H. A. Dame served as clerk.
The same records identified a Union congregation using Tillatoba as its postal address. This congregation was listed with thirty-seven members, demonstrating the presence of more than one Baptist church community associated with the Tillatoba area during the late nineteenth century.
By 1890, church records reveal that women from Tillatoba were participating in organized missionary activities.
During the Yalobusha Baptist Association’s October 1890 gathering, written reports concerning women’s missionary work were received from several churches, including Tillatoba. The association recorded contributions of $34.50 from Tillatoba’s Woman’s Missionary Society, an amount that reflected the congregation’s participation in religious and charitable efforts extending beyond the community.
The surviving records also identify women who helped organize and lead missionary activities throughout the association, including Mrs. Georgia Talbert, Mrs. L. H. Moore, and Miss Hattie Burke. Although the records do not establish that these women were residents of Tillatoba, their involvement demonstrates the broader organizational network in which the local missionary society participated.
Five years later, Tillatoba became the gathering place for an important regional church meeting.
According to the association’s 1895 records, the annual meeting was held at Tillatoba Church from October 10 through October 12. Ministers and representatives of member congregations gathered to discuss religious matters, missionary work, and organizational questions affecting Baptist churches throughout the region.
The meeting placed Tillatoba within the larger religious life of northern Mississippi and illustrates the importance of local churches as gathering places for people from surrounding communities.
The church continued to appear in the association’s records during the early twentieth century. In 1911, the Tillatoba congregation was listed with ninety-six members, eight baptisms, and a Sunday school enrollment of fifteen. H. W. Rockett was identified as pastor, while H. A. Dame continued to appear as church clerk.
The records also document a change in the local religious community in 1917, when Union Church disbanded and most of its members joined the Tillatoba congregation.
Together, these records provide some of the clearest evidence of organized community life in Tillatoba during its early decades. They preserve the names of local religious leaders, document the activities of congregations, and reveal the ways in which the town participated in the wider network of Baptist churches throughout Yalobusha County.
Population Growth and Change
Although Tillatoba never developed into a large municipality, federal census records document changes in the town’s population during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The 1900 United States Census recorded 115 people living in Tillatoba, a figure repeated in Dunbar Rowland’s 1907 description of the community. Rowland estimated that the population had reached approximately 150 residents by 1906, although this figure represented an estimate rather than an official census count.
The original 1910 census publication listed 103 residents, while the 1920 census report recorded 193. By 1930, the community’s population stood at 173.
Later federal census publications contain some discrepancies when repeating figures from earlier decades, so the reports published at the time of each census provide the clearest basis for following these changes.
The population figures suggest that Tillatoba experienced periods of modest growth and decline without becoming a major population center. Its connection to the railroad and agricultural economy remained important, but the community was considerably smaller than Water Valley and other established towns in the county.
The broader population history of Yalobusha County followed a similar pattern of change. The county recorded 19,742 residents in 1900, but its population had declined to 17,750 by 1930.
The Great Depression, agricultural changes, and later migration toward urban and industrial employment all influenced the development of rural Mississippi during the twentieth century. Although these wider developments provide context for Tillatoba’s changing population, the census totals alone do not establish the precise reasons individual residents left or remained in the town.
The records nonetheless demonstrate that Tillatoba continued to exist as a distinct community while many rural settlements across Mississippi experienced significant economic and demographic changes.
Tillatoba During the Second World War
The Second World War brought the experiences of military service and international conflict into communities throughout Yalobusha County, including Tillatoba.
One of the clearest surviving accounts of a Tillatoba resident’s wartime experience concerns Sergeant Harvey K. Tillman, a member of the United States Army Air Forces who served aboard a B-17 bomber.
A January 1944 report, later reproduced in The North Mississippi Herald’s historical retrospective of January 22, 2014, identified Sergeant Tillman as a gunner who had been reported missing in action over France.
The report brought the uncertainty of the European air war into the history of a small Mississippi town. During the war, thousands of American airmen participated in bombing operations over occupied Europe, where aircraft losses and missing crewmen became a devastating reality for families across the United States.
The surviving newspaper references show that Tillman’s fate remained a matter of concern long after he was initially reported missing.
A September 1945 newspaper item, reproduced in the Herald’s September 23, 2015, retrospective, reported that Sergeant Harvey K. Tillman of Tillatoba, previously listed as missing over France in 1943, had been declared dead.
Another historical item, originally published in July 1946 and reproduced by the Herald in 2016, reported that the body of Harvey K. Tillman Jr., son of Mrs. Keith Tillman of Tillatoba, had recently been found after he had been missing in action for approximately three years.
These accounts preserve a personal connection between Tillatoba and the larger history of the Second World War. While military histories often concentrate upon major campaigns and battles, local newspapers reveal the experiences of individual servicemen and their families.
The story of Sergeant Tillman demonstrates how a conflict fought thousands of miles away became part of the history of a community whose population numbered only a few hundred people.
Agriculture and Community Life After the War
The decades following the Second World War brought significant economic and population changes to Yalobusha County. Agriculture remained important, but the county experienced a continuing decline in population as employment opportunities and settlement patterns shifted.
By 1950, Yalobusha County had 15,191 residents, compared with 18,387 in 1940. The decline reflected broader demographic changes occurring throughout rural Mississippi during the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Tillatoba remained connected to the agricultural countryside that had supported its development, and local newspaper accounts continued to identify the community through its residents, farms, and surrounding properties.
One example appeared in the April 17, 1952, edition of The North Mississippi Herald. A report later reproduced in the newspaper’s historical column described a forest fire on the farm of W. V. Craig north of Tillatoba, where approximately five acres of pine seedlings were burned.
Although a relatively small event in the county’s history, the account provides evidence of the agricultural and wooded landscape surrounding Tillatoba during the postwar years. Farms, timber, and rural property remained important parts of the local economy, even as the railroad’s former dominance over transportation and commerce gradually changed.
The wider county also experienced changes in its educational and community institutions. School records, photographs, and educational surveys preserved in Mississippi archival collections document the development and eventual restructuring of rural school systems during the twentieth century.
For Tillatoba, original census schedules, school enumerations, church records, and local newspapers remain among the most promising sources for reconstructing everyday life. These records can help identify families, occupations, educational experiences, and the activities of residents whose names rarely appeared in statewide historical publications.
The Two Towns Named Tillatoba
An unusual detail in Tillatoba’s history is that the Yalobusha County community was not the first Mississippi settlement to carry the name.
A separate community named Tillatoba once existed in Tallahatchie County, where it served as an early county seat before eventually disappearing.
Dunbar Rowland specifically addressed the distinction in his 1907 Encyclopedia of Mississippi History. According to Rowland, the earlier Tillatoba had served as the county seat of Tallahatchie County until problems involving the title to the land contributed to the relocation of the county seat to Charleston around 1837.
Rowland identified several people associated with the abandoned settlement, including merchant W. H. Carothers, a tailor named Trewalla, and a physician named Dr. Coleman.
By the time Rowland published his historical account, the original Tallahatchie County settlement had disappeared. He explicitly warned readers not to confuse it with the newer railroad community of the same name in Yalobusha County.
This distinction is important when examining nineteenth-century maps, county histories, court records, and newspaper references. A record mentioning Tillatoba during the early settlement period may refer to the former Tallahatchie County town rather than the incorporated community that developed along the railroad in Yalobusha County.
The two settlements shared a name but followed separate historical paths. One disappeared during the early decades of Mississippi’s settlement and county organization, while the other survived as a railroad and agricultural town whose incorporation dated to 1873.
Tillatoba in the Twenty-First Century
By the beginning of the twenty-first century, Tillatoba remained one of the smallest recognized communities in Yalobusha County.
The 2010 United States Census recorded 91 residents living within the town, while the 2020 Census counted 95. These figures, documented in a Mississippi State University Extension Service population study, indicate that the population remained relatively stable during that decade.
The United States Census Bureau continued to recognize Tillatoba as an incorporated place, although federal geographic documentation has described its municipal government as inactive. The distinction illustrates how a community may retain its historical and geographic identity even when its municipal institutions no longer operate in the manner of larger towns.
The population of Tillatoba today is considerably smaller than it was during the early twentieth century, when the railroad, post office, and agricultural economy helped support the community.
Nevertheless, its history remains preserved in numerous original records. Federal census schedules document the households and occupations of residents, while historical maps reveal the transportation routes and neighboring settlements that shaped the community. Church records preserve information about congregations and religious activities, and newspaper reports provide glimpses into the experiences of local families.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History also maintains Yalobusha County tax rolls dating back to the nineteenth century, along with county court, land, and administrative records. These collections offer opportunities to investigate property ownership, local government, agricultural development, and the families associated with Tillatoba over successive generations.
For a town whose historical population rarely exceeded a few hundred residents, these surviving documents provide a substantial record of its place within Mississippi history.
Remembering Tillatoba’s History
Tillatoba’s history illustrates the experiences of the small railroad and agricultural communities that developed throughout Mississippi during the nineteenth century. Its growth was connected to the expansion of rail transportation, the importance of cotton farming, and the establishment of local institutions that served residents of the surrounding countryside.
The town’s incorporation in 1873 established its formal municipal identity, while the descriptions preserved by Dunbar Rowland reveal its importance as a railroad station with a post office and cotton gin. Church records document religious activity and community organization, including the work of women’s missionary societies and the gatherings of the Yalobusha Baptist Association.
Later census records and newspaper accounts reveal how the community continued through decades of economic change and national conflict. The wartime history of Sergeant Harvey K. Tillman, the appointment of local postmasters, and the everyday events recorded by county newspapers demonstrate that Tillatoba’s history was shaped by individuals whose lives connected the town with events far beyond its boundaries.
Not every important community developed into a large city, and not every historical place became the site of a famous battle or nationally recognized event. Many communities contributed to the development of their regions through farming, transportation, commerce, churches, and the generations of families who made their homes there.
Tillatoba belongs to that history. Although its population has remained small and many details of its earliest years await further investigation, the surviving records establish its place within the broader story of Yalobusha County and the transformation of rural Mississippi.
Its name remains on the map, and its history survives in the legislative records, census tables, church minutes, newspapers, and archival documents that preserve the experiences of the people who called Tillatoba home.
Sources & Further Reading
Rowland, Dunbar, ed. Encyclopedia of Mississippi History: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons. Vol. 2. Madison, WI: S. A. Brant, 1907, 784. https://ldsgenealogy.com/MS/books/Encyclopedia-of-Mississippi-History-Comprising-Sketches-of-Counties-Towns-Events-Institutions-and-Persons-Vol-II-part-94.htm.
Rowland, Dunbar. History of Mississippi: The Heart of the South. Vol. 2. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1925. https://msgw.org/history/yalobusha.htm.
Hathorn, Hiram Percy. “Organization and Early History of Yalobusha County.” Master’s thesis, University of Mississippi, 1933. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1730/.
Turner, James. Yalobusha County Geology. Bulletin 76. University, MS: Mississippi State Geological Survey, 1952. https://geology.deq.ms.gov/Publications/Bulletins/Bulletin0076/MGS_BU0076.pdf.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Mississippi Towns Incorporated.” Legislative incorporation register, including Tillatoba’s April 9, 1873, incorporation under House Bill 289. Reproduced by Genealogy Trails. https://genealogytrails.com/miss/towns_incorporated.htm.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “Yalobusha County Tax Rolls, 1834–1899.” Series 1202. Digital Archives. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/osa/s1202/yalobusha.
Mississippi Department of Archives and History. “State Census Returns, 1818–1880.” Series 100. Digital Archives. https://da.mdah.ms.gov/series/sos/100.
Mississippi State Archives. “Yalobusha County Records on Microfilm.” Yalobusha County MSGenWeb Research Collection. https://msgw.org/yalobusha/research/Microfilm/microfilmindex.html.
United States Census Office. Report on Cotton Production in the United States. Tenth Census of the United States, 1880, vol. 5, section on Mississippi. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1884. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1880/vol-05-06-cotton/1880v5-04.pdf.
United States Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910. Vol. 2, Population: Reports by States, Alabama–Montana. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1913/dec/vol-2-population.html.
United States Bureau of the Census. Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920. “Population: Mississippi, Number of Inhabitants, by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions.” Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1920. https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1920/bulletins/demographics/population-ms-number-of-inhabitants.pdf.
United States Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930. Vol. 1, Population: Number and Distribution of Inhabitants. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1931. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1931/dec/1930a-vol-01-population.html.
National Archives and Records Administration. “1950 Census Records.” Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/census/1950.
Rand McNally and Company. Railroad Commissioner’s Map of Mississippi. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1888. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/98688503/.
Rand McNally and Company. Rand, McNally & Co.’s Sectional Map of Mississippi. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1894. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3980.ct010755/.
Yalobusha Baptist Association. “Yalobusha Baptist Association Minutes, 1880s.” Historical minutes transcribed by the Yalobusha County MSGenWeb Project. https://msgw.org/yalobusha/history/YBA/minutes/1880minutes.html.
Yalobusha Baptist Association. “Yalobusha Baptist Association Minutes, 1890s.” Historical minutes transcribed by the Yalobusha County MSGenWeb Project. https://msgw.org/yalobusha/history/YBA/minutes/1890minutes.html.
Yalobusha Baptist Association. “Yalobusha Baptist Association Minutes, 1910s.” Historical minutes transcribed by the Yalobusha County MSGenWeb Project. https://msgw.org/yalobusha/history/YBA/minutes/1910minutes.html.
The North Mississippi Herald. “Look Back in Yalobusha History.” January 22, 2014. https://www.yalnews.com/2014/01/22/look-back-in-yalobusha-history-136/.
The North Mississippi Herald. “Look Back in Yalobusha History.” September 3, 2014. https://www.yalnews.com/2014/09/03/look-back-in-yalobusha-history-168/.
The North Mississippi Herald. “Look Back in Yalobusha History.” September 23, 2015. https://www.yalnews.com/2015/09/23/look-back-in-yalobusha-history-214/.
The North Mississippi Herald. “Look Back in Yalobusha County History.” July 20, 2016. https://www.yalnews.com/2016/07/20/look-back-in-yalobusha-county-history-10/.
The North Mississippi Herald. “Look Back in Yalobusha History.” April 18, 2012. https://www.yalnews.com/2012/04/18/look-back-in-yalobusha-history-44/.
Library of Congress. “The North Mississippi Herald (Water Valley, Yalobusha Co., Miss.), 1888–1929.” Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn87065497/.
Mississippi Encyclopedia. “Yalobusha County.” Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, 2017. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/yolabusha-county/.
Brown, Trent. “Dunbar Rowland.” Mississippi Encyclopedia. Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, 2017. https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/dunbar-rowland/.
Mississippi State University Extension Service. Tillatoba Census Profile (2010–2020). Publication P3716-409. Mississippi State University. https://extension.msstate.edu/publications/tillatoba-census-profile-2010-2020.
Appalachian Regional Commission. “Appalachian Counties Served by ARC.” Washington, DC: Appalachian Regional Commission. https://www.arc.gov/appalachian-counties-served-by-arc/.
Author Note: The history of Tillatoba reminds us that even Mississippi’s smallest communities played an important role in the development of the state’s railroad, agricultural, and religious institutions. I hope this article helps preserve the stories of the people who lived here and encourages others to share additional photographs, documents, and memories of Tillatoba’s past.