Columbus Timeline
1810 - By December 1810, John Pitchlynn, the U
S Interpreter for the Choctaw Nation, had moved to Plymouth Bluff,
where he built a home, established a farm and transacted Choctaw
Agency business.
1813 - In August Gen. F L Claiborne reported
that Pitchlynn was alarmed for his safety and was "fortifying".
1813 - In the fall of 1813 Pitchlynn's
settlement probably consisted of a log dogtrot house, slave
housing, blacksmith shop, kitchen, corncrib, smokehouse, and a
blockhouse within a stockade. The fort he built was referred to as
Ft. Smith and became a supply depot and meeting place for U S
military leaders and Choctaw leaders during the Creek Indian
War/War of 1812.
1815 - Settlers begin moving into the
Buttahatchie Valley. A family named Mhoon was said to have settled
near the present location of the Columbus Country Club between 1815
and 1817.
1816 - The Choctaw Indians signed a treaty on
October 24, 1816, ceding territory that included the future site of
Columbus.
1817 - In September, 1817, Capt. Hugh Young
completed the survey of the Military Road, which had been
commissioned by Congress in 1816, with it crossing the Tombigbee at
the location that would become Columbus. That location was about
four miles down river from Pitchlynn's.
1817 - In late 1817 Thomas Thomas built a "log
hut" at the future site of Columbus.
1818 - In the fall of 1818 Gideon Lincecum and
his family settled about where the Columbus Lock and Dam public
boat ramp is now located. That site was just across the river from
Pitchlynn's.
1819 - June 1819 saw the arrival of at least
four families who settled at the site of Columbus. Among this group
was Spirus Roach who possessed a distinctive pointed nose which
resulted in the Indians referring to him as possum and the new
settlement as Possum's Town.
1819 - Pitchlynn's home continued to be a
center for Choctaw Agency business and served as a post office with
Pitchlynn as postmaster 1819-1820.
1819 - In August, Gideon Lincecum moved to the
site of Columbus.
1819 - Columbus was believed to be located in
Alabama until late 1820. An act of the Alabama legislature in
December 1819, established a voting precinct at "some suitable
house in the town of Columbus." The act also provided that the
"House of Henry Greer" (now Columbus AFB) be the county seat of
Marion County, Alabama. THIS WAS THE FIRST OFFICIAL RECORD
REFERRING TO COLUMBUS AS A TOWN.
1820 - A post office opened in Columbus in
1820, and Pitchlynn's P O was discontinued.
1821 - The Mississippi legislature passed an
act creating Monroe County, Mississippi, which was signed by the
Governor on February 9, 1821. The new county was to be organized at
the house of Henry Greer.
1821 - The Mississippi legislature charted the
town of Columbus on February 10, 182