History of McComb

McComb was founded in 1872, when Elizabeth town, Burglund and Harveytown, three small communities in McComb City, agreed to consolidate and incorporate. The Jackson and Northern Railroad extended its line 105 miles north of New Orleans and the new railroad terminal became the center of the new municipality which was to bear the name of one of the railroad officials, Henry Simpson McComb. Many of the pioneer families moved here from New Orleans to work in the new railroad maintenance shops. In the original charter of the city it was stipulated that no intoxicating liquors should ever be sold within the limits.

At the turn of the century, Captain J.J. White, released from a federal war prison, built a sawmill in south McComb, which ultimately employed 500 workmen. Thousands of acres of virgin , longleaf, yellow pine trees became seemingly lifeless, cutover land.

In 1904, Captain White erected an industrial building with 120,000 square feet of floor space and established McComb Cotton Mills. The McColgan Brothers, Hugh and William, contemporaries of Captain White, built a large ice plant, perhaps the largest in the south at the time. Thousands of cars of strawberries, tomatoes, and beans were iced along its ramps.

In 1921, a modern, steel car shop was erected by the Illinois Central. Here freight cars were repaired and manufactured.

In 1926, Xavier A. Kramer, a civil engineer who later served several terms as Mayor, purchased the realty interests and ice plant from the McColgan Brothers. He established cotton warehouses, a milk processing plant, and helped to diversify the agriculture of the area.

In 1936, Hugh White, a native of McComb and son of the hard hitting promoter, Captain White, became governor of the state. Governor White set in motion statewide "Balance Agriculture with Industry" program. the impetus of this program helped to diversify the the industry of McComb. Manufacturing, aluminum processing, feed production, wire bound boxes, excavating buckets, wood products, and processed poultry. The new job opportunities enabled farmers to free themselves from the clutches of King Cotton's one-crop farm economy. Now they could produce beef cattle, dairy products, poultry and trees.

In the early days of McComb's history, an old black woman affectionately known as "Aunt Caroline" lived here. She planted japonicas and gave both the lovely blooms and productive cuttings to her friends. When Bellingrath's Gardens were being established near Mobile, many of McComb's large japonica bushes, now called camellias, were purchased by Bellingrath agents and moved near Mobile. This served to stimulate even greater interest in the growing of camellias in McComb. Today, McComb is known as "The Camellia City of America". No place in America can boast a larger variety of camellias.

In 1949, reverend Earl B. Emmerich, a Methodist Minister who had served as a missionary in Korea, suggested to the editor of the Enterprise Journal that McComb should light her azaleas in keeping with the traditional lighting of the cherry blossoms in Japan. The idea caught fire and now in the springtime, McComb stages an annual lighted azalea trail which converts the community into a fairyland of color and beauty.

In 1958, oil was discovered in Little Creek, near McComb, the largest United States oil discovery that year. In 1959, oil sands of porosity were discovered within less than a mile of McComb's corporate limits.

The people of McComb have a slogan: "It's a privilege to live in McComb". Three years in a row, McComb was selected as "The Hospitality City" of "The Hospitality State". The citizens of McComb are a friendly people and civic minded. they love flowers, trim their lawns, support their schools, obey their laws, attend their churches, love their family and friends, and find joy and happiness in living in McComb. It is indeed a privilege to live in McComb.