The name
Oktibbeha is from a
Choctaw phrase meaning "ice, there in the creek." Indian artifacts more than 2,000 years old have been found near ancient earthwork
mounds located just east of Starkville, showing the area has been inhabited at least this long. The artifacts have been used to date the construction of the mounds to the
Woodland period, ending about 1000 A.D. The
Choctaw people occupied extensive territory in this area for centuries prior to European encounter. European-American settlers named the Indian Mound Campground nearby for the earthwork monuments. Artifacts in the form of clay pot fragments and artwork dating from that period have been found at the
Herman Mound and Village site, which is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. It can be accessed from the Indian Mound Campground.
American settlement of the area was started formally in the 1830s during the period of
Indian Removal initiated by President
Andrew Jackson. The Choctaw of Oktibbeha County ceded their claims to land in the area to the United States in the
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830. They were removed to other lands west of the Mississippi River, in
Indian Territory, part of what became the state of
Oklahoma. Like the indigenous peoples before them, European Americans were drawn to the Starkville area because of two large natural springs. The
Choctaw Agency was set up near what is now
Sturgis, first to trade and manage relations with the Choctaw. What was originally a trading post was located on
Old Robinson Road, about east of the
Noxubee River. Later the Choctaw Agency organized the sale of the former Choctaw lands to migrants arriving from other areas of the United States. A lumber mill was established southwest of town; it produced
clapboards, from which the settlement took its original name of Boardtown. In 1835, Boardtown was established as the county seat of
Oktibbeha County. Its name was changed to Starkville in honor of
Revolutionary War hero
General John Stark. After the Civil War, three groups of the
Ku Klux Klan arose in the county: in Starkville, at Choctaw Agency (Sturgis), and in
Double Springs. They used violence against blacks to try to suppress their vote and maintain
white supremacy.
Freedmen had largely joined the
Republican Party, headed by President
Abraham Lincoln, who had gained their emancipation and supported constitutional amendments to grant them citizenship and the franchise. Every election cycle was accompanied by violence of white Democrats against the mostly black Republicans. In 1876, for example, a group of 18 white men known as White-Liners, led by Dorsey Outlaw, surrounded the Republican Club in Chapel Hill near
Choctaw Agency. They fired upon the black members from ambush, shooting several in the back. Charles Curry was killed instantly, and 36 blacks were wounded, four of them possibly mortally. Jeff Gregory died the following day. The same group of White-Liners traveled to
Artesia the next day to intimidate black voters there, and on to
Columbus the next day. Following Reconstruction, white conservative Democrats dominated the state legislature.
Mississippi State University (originally known as Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi) was founded near Starkville in 1878 as a
land-grant university. It has become a major research university.
20th century to present In 1912 Mann Hamilton, a black man, was accused of assaulting June Bell, a white woman, at Bell's school house near
Maben. Although Sheriff Nickles tried to gain custody of the suspect, he was directed to the wrong location. Hamilton was captured,
lynched, and hanged by a white mob without any trial. This was one of six lynchings of African Americans committed by whites in the county in the post-Reconstruction period and extending into the early 20th century. In 1960, seven black men from
Little Rock, Arkansas used the only restroom at Weaver's Amoco in
Osborn; it was designated for whites only. They were arrested at Mayhew Junction in Lowndes County, 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 small fines at the county court in Starkville the next day. Since the late 20th century, Oktibbeha, along with
Clay and
Lowndes counties, has been designated as the
Golden Triangle in Mississippi. The three counties share a goal of collaborative economic development; they have had a history of rural and agricultural development. ==Geography==