CHRONOLOGY of Turkey Creek HISTORY:
1850- Congress passes an “Act to Enable the State of Arkansas and other
States to Reclaim the Swamp Lands within their Limits”
1858 - Mississippi receives title to the lower Turkey Creek basin, which
includes Section 22, as proscribed under the Swamp Act of 1850
1860- Mississippi “secedes’ from the Union and US Senator Jefferson Davis (D-Miss) becomes President of the Confederate States of America.
1865- The Civil War ends and the “Reconstruction Era” begins. Slavery is permanently abolished by the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
1866- The Turkey Creek community of coastal Harrison County, Mississippi is settled by freed blacks, including Sam Evans and Jefferson White
1870- The first US Census to name and count all of Mississippi’s African-American men, women, and children as “full human beings” occurs
1877- The Reconstruction Era comes to an end with the withdrawal of US troops from the former Confederate states, including Mississippi.
1880- Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church is founded as a brush-arbor structure of tree limbs and palmetto fronds on Turkey Creek’s bank.
1885- Malinda “Grandma” Benton deeds land for a permanent Mount Pleasant
church building and one-room Turkey Creek schoolhouse.
1896- The US Supreme Court’s “Plessy vs. Ferguson” verdict approves of
racial segregation, supporting “Jim Crow” laws for the next 60 years
1898- The City of Gulfport is incorporated to the south of Turkey Creek, at the
coastal terminus of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad.
1906- Creosote and turpentine plants begin to operate in the Turkey Creek
community during south Mississippi’s historic forest industries “boom”.
1929- The stock market crashes and sends America into the Great Depression
1932- President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) builds a
new Turkey Creek Consolidated School building during the “New Deal”
1941- Eleven men were killed by a gas explosion at the Phoenix Naval Stores (aka Yaryan) turpentine plant on Creosote Road in the Turkey Creek community
1947- The Hurricane of 1947 hits the gulf coast and severely damages Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church, necessitating a new building
1948- Community members complete the new Mount Pleasant church building
1954- US Supreme Court’s 1954 “Brown vs. Board of Education” verdict
reverses the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision of 1896 and outlaws racial
segregation
1959- Turkey Creek’s Eulice N. White and other black leaders on the Mississippi
coast stage a wade-in to de-segregate the area’s beaches
1969- Hurricane Camille, the second-worst hurricane in US history strikes the Mississippi gulf coast.
1986- The US Environmental Protection Agency shuts down the creosote plant on Rippy Road, while Turkey Creek residents are required to cap their deep water wells and tie into municipal water and sewer.
1987- Casino gambling is legalized by the state legislature, sparking a “boom town” period of unprecedented growth on the Mississippi gulf coast.
1993- Turkey Creek, North Gulfport and most of the Turkey Creek watershed are annexed by the City of Gulfport.
2001- Turkey Creek’s ancestral cemetery is largely destroyed by development, and the community is named one of Mississippi’s “Ten Most Endangered Historical Places”
2002- Gulfport Mayor Ken Combs calls Turkey Creek and North Gulfport
Residents who oppose development of wetlands “a bunch of dumb bastards …. (who) didn’t vote for (him) anyway”.
2003- Turkey Creek Community Initiatives (TCCI) is founded.
2005- Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster in US history strikes the
Mississippi gulf coast. Eight men from the community save some two
dozen Turkey Creek residents from drowning in their homes.
2006- Communities of the lower Turkey Creek basin lose more wetlands and historic homes in the first six months after Katrina than in the two year period preceding the storm.
