Kokomo, Mississippi

Kokomo is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Mississippi, United States. It was organized by the Phillip Enoch family of Fernwood, Mississippi around 1912. They planned to purchase timber to finance the existing Fernwood railroad the family was purchasing. After they had secured a right-of-way, the Enochs began to construct and lay the track east of Tylertown, Ms. The first tracks were not metal but were made of wood, but they were replaced with metal later. When the tracks crossed a public road, they would give the crossing 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. While in Kokomo, the Enochs set up a turpentine distillery. This was the largest turpentine distillery in the US at that time. There were blacksmith shops, café, barbershop, grocery stores, gristmills, and a drug store. The first education building at Kokomo was the Old China Grove School. This was a one-room cotton-house style building that was used from 1904 until 1912. The school terms lasted about six months each year. 1912 the logging camp moved, and so a new school building was erected at the new location in Kokomo. The first Kokomo Baptist Church was used for the school until the new school building could be constructed. In 1935 when the logging camp had move out of Kokomo and most of the population with it, Kokomo became a small town.

Churches

The Baptist Church 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 Bourne. Joe Morris donated the pews for the church. This church stood just across the road and a few yards south of where the Kokomo United Methodist Church stands today. In 1959, when the Kokomo School closed, the Baptist Church bought the school building. This old school building was used until 2001 for the Kokomo Baptist Church.

In 2001 the Baptist Church moved into a newly constructed building at the same location. The Kokomo Methodist Church was organized in 1910. Before being organized they had started worshipping in 1906 under the leadership of J. E. Williamson. Later from 1907 to 1909 W. B. Waldrop led the worshippers. In 1910 the worship leader was T. H. King and in 1911 it was D. Scarborough. Dr. Henry Lewis Carruth was one of the dedicated people of Kokomo who met in October 1911 to organize Kokomo Methodist Church.

Although Kokomo is not what it was ninety years ago, presently this small area is a small southern town with a lot a charm and hospitality. The post office still stands, along with the churches, a trailer park, a pecan cracking shop and a few stores.

External links

* [http://www.ourlordsway.com/reusing__information.htm public domain release notice]
* [http://ourlordsway.com/marion-so/history_of_kokomo_ms.htm text]