History :

The territory which now constitutes Scott County was granted to the State of Mississippi and to the United States at the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, concluded on September 27, 1830. The counties included in the Choctaw Purchase were Noxubee, Neshoba, Leake, Newton, Smith, Jasper, Clarke, Lauderdale, and Scott, all located in the central part of the state and six counties in other areas. xxx The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek stipulated that the Choctaw Indians leave the area of the Choctaw Purchase as quickly as they safely could. The number of Choctaws who emigrated to the Choctaw Nation west of the Mississippi River was reported by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of 1838 to have been 15,177. xxx Scott County, which was named for Governor Abram M. Scott, was formed on December 23, 1833. Governor Scott, a native of South Carolina, lived in Wilkinson county, Mississippi and served two terms as Lieutenant Governor. xxx The members of the first Scott County Board of Police (now called the Board of Supervisors) were John Dunn, James Russell, Wade H. Holland, Stephen H. Bery, and Jeremiah B. White. Other Officials were Sheriff John Smith, Clerk of the Probate Court Nicholas Finley, and Probate Judge William Ricks. Early Settlementxxx Scott County contains 584 square miles or 373,760 acres. It is one of the so-called "Hill Counties", not because it is extremely hilly, but to distinguish it from the Delta counties. It is a part of the Jackson Prairie Belt, consisting mostly of rolling upland prairie soil. Farming was the principal occupation of the early settlers of Scott County. Cotton was by far the most prevalent crop, but the early settlers, grew row crops for food. xxx According to the first census taken after the organization of the county, there were only about 200 white families with an average of two slaves per family. During the next ten years the population almost tripled. Many settlers in the Scott County area came from, or were descendants of people who came from France, Ireland, England, Germany, and Scotland. The first white child born in Scott County, A.B. Smith, was born in Hillsboro but moved to Forest in 1869. He was both a lawyer and leading Democrat of the time