Turkey Creek History
1n 1906, when Melinda Benton, an early settler, considered the importance of employment stability to Turkey Creek families, she sold twelve acres on Bayou Bernard to the Gulf Coast Creosote Company so that a plant could exist near their homes. Here, at the height of south Mississippi’s forest industries boom, men from Turkey Creek and nearby districts sorted, shaved, trimmed and treated countless loads of longleaf pine. Enduring tremendous hazards and blistering heat, they fashioned railroad ties and utility poles to be floated, railed and shipped to destinations around the world. The importance of this plant, its workers, and Melinda Benton to the gulf coast’s twentieth century industrialization and development cannot be denied. Their contributions to the expansion of railroads, the Depression era electrification of the United States, and the World War II and postwar needs of our nation have rendered them integrally relevant to local, state and American history.
It is notable that some southern black communities thrived in surprising and remarkable ways during the era of Jim Crow. The Turkey Creek community stands out in this regard due to several factors, including: its relative isolation and autonomy; the land wealth of its residents; its ample supply of both creek and deep-well water for drinking, cooking and cleaning; its abundance of edible plant, fish and wildlife; its relatively steady job opportunities on Creosote Road; the entrepreneurial spirit of many residents; and the community’s exceptionally close-knit bonds of kinship, faith and neighborly cooperation. Even the thickly forested wetlands to the south, east and west served historically to protect the settlement from hurricanes and other undesired intrusions.
