The History of Kokomo, Mississippi

Kokomo…..The Birth

The community of Kokomo was organized by the Phillip Enoch family of Fernwood, Mississippi around 1912. The Enoch family visioned buying a railroad right-of-way from Fernwood to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. (However, it never went passed Columbia.) They planned to purchase timber to finance the railroad.

The Enochs planned to chip the tall pines and then to drip the turpentine. After this process, they would cut the tress and ship the lumber to the north.

After they had secured the right-of-way, the Enochs began to construct and lay the tracks. They chipped the trees and gathered the turpentine as they went on their way.

Since a railroad was already placed from Fernwood to Tylertown, the Enoch family started setting the track to the east of Tylertown. When the tracks would cross a public road, they would give the place a name. The names came in the following order: Davo, Barto, Carto, Knoxo, and Kokomo. Kokomo was approximately ten miles to the east of Tylertown. This was the last town the track would come to until it reached Foxworth (which was already named).

While in Kokomo, the Enochs set up a turpentine distillery. They also set up two commissaries, one for the logging camp and the other for the turpentine industry. This was the largest turpentine distillery in the United States of America at the time it was set up.

Kokomo… The Business

The first business in the area was a sawmill co-owned by Mack Williamson and Henry Bourn. In about 1905, after the timber had already been cut in the Society Hill Community, Williamson and Bourn moved their sawmill to what is now Kokomo. After a few years of prosperous work in building several of the homes of the community, Mack Williamson moved his family from Society Hill to Kokomo. It took two wagons to bring the family and their possessions to their new home, built by Williamson and Bourn’s sawmill, on that day in March of 1909. As Henry Bourn was a bachelor and didn’t have a family, he boarded with the Williamson family.

In about 1912, about seven years after the Williamson and Bourn Sawmill had entered the area, the logging camp and turpentine distillery moved in. With this event, the local people started businesses of their own. There were blacksmith shops, grocery stores, gristmills, and even a drug store. Sarah Forbes, better know as “Grannie Forbes”, owned a café and Ervin Ginn had a barber shop near the café. (Haircuts only cost a quarter back then.)

Since the town was growing, a post office and other necessities were needed. The post office was located in one room of the commissary of the company. Richard Conerly owned a general store with boarding rooms located in the back. Also a Mr. Bruce owned a store and a photography studio.

A Dr. Austin, who came with the company, stayed for a very short while, and after he left, Dr. Henry Lewis Carruth, born in Summit, entered the Kokomo area. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Illinois in 1910. Many people came from all over to consult him. He dispensed the medicine himself, and many people claimed to have felt better before even taking a dose of his medicine.

Kokomo… The Education

The first educational building at Kokomo was the Old China Grove School which was located on the Ginn property. This was a one-room cotton-house style building that was used from 1904 until 1912. After the sixth year of the school’s existence, a wing was added to the building. The school terms lasted about six months each year. In about 1912 the logging camp moved in and, this building was too far for the children to travel to and too small to hold very many students.

Like many other necessities that the employees of the railroad needed, they felt that their children needed an education. Thus, a new school building was erected to allow enough room for all of the regular students and the children of employees.

The first Kokomo Baptist Church was used as the school until the other building could be constructed. This building contained two-stories and was located where the Kokomo Baptist Church stands today. There were about 400 students who attended this school from grades one through ten. (If you wanted to graduate you would have to go to Columbia High School.) It was supplied with classrooms downstairs and an auditorium upstairs. The auditorium had a large stage and was used chiefly, besides for a school, for fiddling contests.

The school building was used from about 1912 to 1935, when the logging camp had gone and most of the population with it. The population that remained naturally needed a school for their children. Consequently, a new school was constructed in or a little after 1935. It contained nine large classrooms. Some being: an auditorium, a library, a principal’s office, a bookroom, and a science lab (all on one floor). Along with this building, other buildings were on campus. Two were, a Vocational Agricultural building and a Home Economics Building, which later housed the school cafeteria. Two teachers’ homes were also located on the campus.

With the super-consolidation of all schools west of the Pearl River, Kokomo High School closed in 1959. Though it didn’t cease to be an educational center for the area, the Baptist Church needed a building to house their services and bought the old school building. Today, this monument of education is still being used to house the services of the Kokomo Baptist Church.

Some of the teachers who taught at Kokomo are as follows: Mrs. Mable Lampton Henson, Mrs. Ethel Lampton Fortenberry, Mrs. Gene Lewis, Miss Lurline Mounger, Mrs. Peter Pittman, Miss Minnie Ginn, Miss Effie Ball, Ms. Eula Ginn and Ms. Lovie McGowan. Some of the principals are as follows: Elmo Toney, Mr. Peter Pitman, H.H. Mellard and Mr. Alford.

Kokomo… The Religion

The first church in what is now Kokomo was a Baptist Church. It was organized on September 12, 1911. The church building was constructed shortly after this time with the lumber being donated by Mack Williamson and Henry Bourn. Joe Morris donated the pews for the church.

The Baptist Church was a large, square building with an entrance on the northeast corner. It contained a large auditorium with the platform directly across from the entrance on the southwest corner. There were six Sunday School rooms, three on each side of the entrance, divided by curtains. This church stood just across the road and a few yards south of where the Kokomo Methodist Church stands today.

In 1959, when the Kokomo School closed, the congregation bought the school building. This building has since housed the services for the Kokomo Baptist Church.

The Kokomo Methodist Church was organized a few years after the Baptist Church, by Dr. Henry Lewis Carruth. Although Mack Williamson was a Baptist, his home was used to hold the first meeting of the Methodist Church. The Enochs, who owned the logging camp, donated the materials for the construction of the building. The Kokomo Methodist church was constructed similar to the Knoxo Methodist Church and still houses the services today.

Kokomo… That Which Never Was

At one time, Kokomo was to have a park for swimming, fishing, picnicking, and just relaxing. This park was to be named “Yellow Pine Park”. Along with the park, twenty-seven city blocks were laid out into numbered sections on a blueprint. There were six avenues named E, N, O, C, H, and S, for the Enoch family who owned the logging camp. However, the swimhole of “Yellow Pine Park” has all but dried up, and the land where it was to be is now vacant. Of course, the city blocks were never laid out, and if you happen to visit the small town, you can see for yourself that this is a part of Kokomo which never was.

Kokomo…Present

Although Kokomo is not what it was seventy-five years ago, presently this small area is a typical southern town with lots of charm and hospitality. The post office still stands, along with the churches, a trailer park, a vegetable shelling shop, a pecan cracking shop, and a couple of stores. There is also a softball field in Kokomo today—the Johnson Softball Field. Kokomo might not look like much to some people, but to those who live there it is one of the greatest places to reside...and too, some of God’s greatest people call it home.

Sources

Ms. Willena Williamson Rowley, 87, Darbun Community.

Ms. Eula Regan Conerly, Columbia.

Ms. Indiana Yawn Kendrick, New Hope Community.

Ms. Dessie Forbes Pittman, 82, Morgantown.

Mr. Jack Toney, Kokomo.

Kokomo Baptist Church, c/o Gail Kessler, Kokomo.

This research would not have been possible without the help of these sources who deserve much credit for their memory and enthusiasm of Kokomo and its history. I wish to thank them for their time and cooperation.

I would also like to thank Mrs. Judy W. Fortenberry and Mrs. Margaret Stevens for their help and cooperation. I also appreciate the Marion County Historical Society for giving me a chance to write the “History of Kokomo, Mississippi.”

Interviews and Research complied By Louis F. Morgan, Morgantown, MS 9/24/90