Gloster is a town in central

Amite County, Mississippi Amite County is a county located in the state of Mississippi on its southern border with Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,720. Its county seat is Liberty. The county is named after the Amite River, which runs through th ...

, United States. The population was 897 at the 2020 census.

History

Gloster was incorporated on March 11, 1884. It was largely founded as a railroad town. Gloster was named after the engineer who put the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley R.R. through in the 1880s. Drax Biomass operates a per year

wood pellet Pellet fuels (or pellets) are a type of solid fuel made from compressed organic material. Pellets can be made from any one of five general categories of biomass: industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, an ...

production facility in Gloster. The facility was expected to create 45 jobs, and is called Amite BioEnergy.

Economic revival

Governor

Tate Reeves Jonathan Tate Reeves (born June 5, 1974) is an American politician serving as the 65th List of governors of Mississippi, governor of Mississippi since 2020. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Reeves served as the ...

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

came down to Gloster to announce Claw Forestry Services will build a $200 million sawmill on about 50 acres comprising the former Georgia-Pacific mill site and the adjoining former elementary school property. The elementary school has been closed for many years. Mayor Jerry Norwood said the announcement is "one of the proudest moments in my life, and my proudest moment as mayor." William VanDevender, chief executive officer of Claw, said once the plant is up and running, it should produce about 250 million board-feet of lumber a year, using about 1 million tons of logs annually, and make sales of more than $100 million a year. VanDevender and other Claw officials "recognize the quality of the workforce and the quality of the timber basket in Southwest Mississippi," Reeves said after the presentation. "This will benefit not just the 130 families that have workers at the plant, but boost timber owners across a four to five-county region." Governor Reeves said he "expects

Southwest Mississippi Community College Southwest Mississippi Community College is a public community college in unincorporated Pike County, Mississippi, in Summit, MS The college's district includes Pike, Amite, Walthall, and Wilkinson counties. History The college was officia ...

will play a large role in providing training for employees at the plant. Gloster Forestry announced: "In connection with the new sawmill facility, efforts are underway to resume operation of the Gloster Southern Railroad to further revitalize industry and jobs in the underserved community." The new sawmill facility started operation in 2024. Also a grant of $52,000,000 was received to rebuild the Gloster Southern Railroad on the existing right-of-way.

Demographics

Population

According to the 2020 census, there were 897 people in Gloster. As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 960 people, 223 households, and 114 families residing in the town.

Race

In 2010, the racial makeup of the town was 54.99%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 44.18%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.56% from other races, and 0.28% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.77% of the population. In 2020, the racial makeup was 70.57% African American, 25.64% non-Hispanic white, 0.33% Native American, 1.56% other or mixed, and 1.78% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Education

Gloster is in the Amite County School District.

Notable people

* Carl Augustus Hansberry, civil rights activist and real estate broker, father of playwright

Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin ...

, litigant in '' Hansberry v. Lee'' (1940) * William Leo Hansberry, scholar and Afrocentrist, professor at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

, brother of Carl Hansberry * Elden Hayes Hansberry, professor of agriculture at Alcorn A&M, father of Carl and William * * * * * *

References

External links

Gloster website
{{authority control 1884 establishments in Mississippi Populated places established in 1884 Towns in Amite County, Mississippi Towns in McComb micropolitan area Towns in Mississippi