Fannin, Mississippi

The area comprising eventual Fannin was originally inhabited by Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. Following Mississippi being granted statehood in 1817—as well as the expulsion of local Indian tribes to Oklahoma—early settlers from the Carolinas claimed available land grants in the 1830s. The first settlers of Fannin were drawn to the area largely due to the abundance of grazing land, timber resources, and natural springs. These handful of early settler further sub-divided their land holdings to other settlers over a roughly 60-year period, resulting in moderate population growth, and the establishment of thriving timber and agricultural industries by 1900.

By approximately 1840, inhabitants of the area were starting to identify as a town proper, referred to then as the "little city" of Fannin. Local lore suggests the town took the name "Fannin" after a soldier of the same name died in a house fire. A small city section of schools, churches, stores, and other small businesses developed, centralized among the estates of land owners and slave holders. Still largely agriculturally based, the years approaching the turn of the century saw the growth of saw and timber mills, cotton gins, and livestock-based industries. Educational institution sprouted up, attended by children of wealthy land owners. Schoolhouses were maintained for the children of slaves and black free-men. A community college was established by a local chapter of Masons, which housed in its tower a silver bell, cast from metal of 200 silver-dollars donated by wealthy residents. The sound of the bell ringing became a staple of the Fannin community, but was lost, or perhaps stolen, when the college transitioned to a new location in the early 20th century.

From about 1930 to present-day, Fannin slowly devolved from an established town, into a rural farm community, and finally into little more than a geographic point of reference and curiosity known by local residents. A small grouping of churches and businesses remain at the intersection of present-day Fannin Landing Circle and Highway 471, marking the remains of the once thriving city center. The turning point of Fannin's decline can be traced, largely, back to the mid-1950s, following the dismantlement of the rail-line, when the Pearl River was impounded to create the Ross Barnett Reservoir in an effort to provide a drinking water resource for the nearby city of Jackson. At that time, a state agency- the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District (PRVWSD)- was created to manage the newly created watershed land. Land for residential development became much more valuable than for agricultural and industrial use, and, as a result, land sales focused more on the building of new homes in the rural setting, rather than large expanses of farm or timber land. Nearby cities of Jackson, Flowood, Brandon, and Ridgeland serve as city centers for Fannin residents’ commercial needs; school children attend Rankin County Schools based in Brandon; and, ultimately, following improvements in roads and transportation methods, the infrastructure of a town proper in the Fannin community became unnecessary. Today, Fannin is little more than an intersection of two rural roads, surrounded by a few old farmhomes, and mostly modern residential developments and subdivisions.

32°25′03″N 89°57′24″W