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Mayhew is an
unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in Lowndes County,
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 ...
. Mayhew is located west of Columbus, north of Artesia, east of Starkville and south of
West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
. According to the
United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...
, a variant name is ''Mayhew Station''.


History

In 1818, Mayhew Mission was established at Mayhew by
Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
s from
Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
under
Cyrus Kingsbury Cyrus Kingsbury (November 22, 1786 – June 27, 1870) was a Christian missionary active among the American Indians in the nineteenth century. He first worked with the Cherokee and founded Brainerd Mission near Chickamauga, Tennessee, later he ser ...
for the purpose of Christianizing and educating the
Choctaw The Choctaw ( ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States, originally based in what is now Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choct ...
Indians. The community was named Mayhew in honor of another missionary family from Massachusetts. The population of Mayhew Mission quickly declined after the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was signed and the Choctaw people were forced to relocate on the
Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...
. Mayhew Station was the original name given to the community when it was moved from its original site (near Muldrow, Mississippi) to alongside the tracks of the newly built
Mobile and Ohio Railroad Mobile may refer to: Places * Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city * Mobile County, Alabama * Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S. * Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Mobile ...
(later Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad) in the very early 1850s. The original location of the town of Mayhew is now referred to as Old Mayhew, but only a cemetery exists there today. In 1900, the population of Mayhew was 139. Bees, lumber, and hay were shipped from Mayhew and the community also had a tannery. Mayhew is also referred to as Mayhew Junction, or more commonly as "The Crossroads" by area residents, a reference to when U.S. Route 82 and U.S. Route 45 crossed as at-grade two-lane highways. Before the construction of the new U.S. Route 82 and the expansion of U.S. Route 45 to four lanes, the intersection of the original highways was a four way stop. Several bars and service stations, catering to students from the nearby
Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...
, lined the four sides of the original intersection and were torn down when the new expressways were built over a period of several years between 1975 and 1995. The East Mississippi Community College Golden Triangle Campus is in Mayhew.CATALOG 2007-2009
." East Mississippi Community College. 10 (10/147). Retrieved on March 1, 2011.
A post office operated under the name Mayhew from 1833 to 1837, under the name Mayhews Station from 1856 to 1903, and again under the name Mayhew beginning in 1903. In 1960, seven black men from
Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
used a restroom at Weaver's Amoco in Osborn, where there was only one restroom, which was for whites only. They were arrested in Mayhew and required to pay a $200 per person bond. According to the law, they faced a maximum penalty of six months in jail and fines of $500 each. The case was widely anticipated as the first test of the state's sit-in law, but was settled when the defendants unexpectedly pleaded guilty and paid a small fine in Starkville the next day. Mayhew was once home to Stover Apiaries, the world's largest
queen bee A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female ( gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are develope ...
apiary An apiary (also known as a bee yard) is a location where Beehive (beekeeping), beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to ...
, which shipped queen bees to beekeepers worldwide.


Notable people

* Beaumont B. Buck, Major General in the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
officer who served in the
Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
, the
Philippine–American War The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Philippine Insurrection, Filipino–American War, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged following the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in December 1898 when the United States annexed th ...
, and
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Commanded a regiment, brigade and division of the 1st Division during World War I. * Horatio B. Cushman, historian, author of ''History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians'' * Moon Mullens,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...


References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Lowndes County, Mississippi Unincorporated communities in Mississippi