We come to you this week from the Marshall County
town of Holly Springs. The first homes built
in the town were elaborate mansions instead
of the usual log cabins built in most early
Mississippi towns. And the town quadrupled its
population from 1840 to 1860. During the Civil
War, Holly Springs suffered sixty one raids.
It had hardly recovered from war and reconstruction
when it was struck by the yellow fever epidemic
of 1878.
While
the epidemic was raging in bordering counties,
there was not a single case of yellow fever
in Holly Springs. The authorities, believing
the germ could not live in high and dry altitude,
threw open the doors to the town to fever refugees,
and within a few months the town had lost half
of its population.
Paul
McLeod is the proud owner and operator of "Graceland
Too". He bills himself as the largest Elvis
fan in the world and his shrine in Holly Springs
proves his point.
We
follow Jackson resident and Senior Olympian
Olive Kendall as she travels to Baton Rouge
to compete for the gold in the 2001 Senior Olympics.
Phillips
Grocery is located along the railroad tracks
in Holly Springs. In the late 1800's and early
1900's it served as a saloon for passengers
passing through town. Today, Phillips Grocery
serves one of the finest hamburgers in the nation,
in a building that hasn't changed much over
the past 100 years.
Founded
in 1905 on the outskirts of Holly Springs, the
Mississippi Industrial College trained young
African-Americans for seventy-seven years under
the sponsorship of the Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church. Today, four historic buildings, listed
on The Ten Most Endangered Historic Places in
Mississippi, stand unused and deteriorating
on the west side of Highway 78.
On
this week's edition of Walt's Way, the story
of the Jacento Courthouse. We discover the tale
of how the county was taken away from the courthouse
and how the historic building was saved from
destruction.
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