Wednesday, May 1, 2013

When Wesson Was a Boomtown ...

From the Don Jackson Collection, Lincoln, Lawrence, Franklin Library
"Main street in Wesson Mississippi. This was a copy that Mr Jackson made for a Mr Kern. Scanned from a 4 x 5 hard copy." -- Library caption.

Here's one I've not seen before.  This old postcard appears to be from the late 1800s, depicting the engine driving the economy, Mississippi Mills in the tall buildings.  Try as I may, I still cannot get my bearings in relation to today's town landscape.  If someone can turn me around and orient me, I would appreciate it.  I think some of the buildings on the left are still in existence today, but I could be wrong.

6 comments:

  1. Position yourself across the street from the liquor store (I guess it's still there?), facing northwest. Main Street was probably Hwy 51, running from south to north in the picture. And yes, I agree, those building on the left are still there. Was there a really big fire that took out the rest of the street?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing photo, Molly! I would have to take the pic and stand in Wesson to compare building facade in order to figure this one out. It is truly fascinating to know Wesson was like this at one time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Isn't it? I need to refresh my memory as to what happened to the ginormous buildings that housed the "Mississippi Silk" mills, which, by the way, used child labor at a time there were major campaigns nationwide against such doings. I need to refresh my memory before I speak out of turn about what happened to the mills. I'll post more once I dig that information up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Mississippi Mills were shutdown and disassembled after a labor union was formed around the turn of the century. The mill owners razed the buildings and sold the materials for scrap. The only remaining building today would be to the right of the photo on the parapet of the building where the American flag is flying.

    ReplyDelete