Caile is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

located in

Sunflower County Sunflower County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,450. Its largest city and county seat is Indianola. Sunflower County comprises the Indianola, MS Micropolitan Statistical Are ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in the

Mississippi Delta The Mississippi Delta, also known as the Yazoo–Mississippi Delta, or simply the Delta, is the distinctive northwest section of the U.S. state of Mississippi (and portions of Arkansas and Louisiana) that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo ...

. Caile is located on U.S. Route 49W approximately north of Isola and approximately south of

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

. The origin of the community's name is unknown and was also known as 'Lawrence Deadening'. It was founded c. 1888 but never grew to more than a small settlement. The post office (called Ark, To avoid confusion with Coila in Carroll County (http://www.rootsweb.com/~mssunflo/towns1.htm#caile)) was discontinued in 1917 (Brieger,J. F. 1980. Hometown Mississippi p 456). There was a store that operated there until 1997. The store was owned and operated by Sid and Helen Windham continuously from April 1954. The store building itself was constructed in 1930 by Herman C. Burrus, and still exists today (June 2006) as the residence of Sid and Helen Windham. Families that settled in Caile were Aycock, Orr, Windham, Jones, Miller, Cook, Wright, Sumrall, Shepard, Maxwell, Bradley, Paxton, Pennebaker, Tinnin, and Gholston, to name a few. In the early part of the 20th century, (~1903) the

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y&MV) was incorporated in 1882 and was part of the Illinois Central Railroad system (IC). Construction began in Jackson, Mississippi, and continued to Yazoo City, Mississippi. The line was later expanded ...

(known locally as the Yellow Dog) purchased ROW and built a line through the Caile community. There was a commissary and loading platform on the property of Ellis Orr. This served as a flagstop for the Y&MVRR. A large open sandpit exists today just south of this site where dirt for constructing the roadbed was excavated. The railroad was abandoned in the 1980s.

Churches

The Caile United Methodist Church is east of the sandpit facing Route 49W. Across the highway from the church is the Caile Cemetery, which has been in use since 1894. St Lawrence Missionary Baptist Church, a church of African-American origin, is farther south on the highway. The cemetery for this church is on both sides of Route 49W. Many of the graves in this cemetery were moved west of the highway when right-of-way was acquired for expansion of 49W to four lanes. Property for both of these churches was donated in the 1890s by Ms Emma Reynolds, the postmistress of Ark.

Historical Buildings

Very few of the original dwellings remain in Caile. The Windham homestead, built in the 1870s, was originally part of the Jake Orr estate and still stands but is in very poor condition. The original commissary, which faced the railroad, was destroyed by a lightning fire in the 1930s.

Schools

There were two segregated schools in the Caile community. The African-American school was on the property of W. W. Gholston. It had not been in use since the 1950s, and was destroyed by fire in 2006. The "white" school was just south of the Caile store on the property of W. O. Jones. It was consolidated with Inverness in the early 1930s. The site of this school is now a large pit where dirt was excavated for highway construction during four-laning in the 1980s.

External links

Gallery

Image:CaileSign.jpg, A Cold Day in Caile Image:CaileStore.jpg, Caile Store, Constructed in 1930 Image:CaileUnitedMethodistChurch1.jpg, Caile United Methodist Church Image:CaileCemetary3.jpg, Cemetery at Caile UMC File:St Lawrence MB Church, Caile.jpg, St Lawrence MB Church File:St Lawrence MB Church Sign.jpg, St Lawrence MB Church Sign {{authority control Unincorporated communities in Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Sunflower County, Mississippi