[Granville-Hough] 14 May 2009 - Low, MS

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 07:31:32 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: LowMS -14 May 2009

A Town which never was: Recollections of Low, MS.

Low came into existence with the building of the Laurel Branch Railroad 
from Saratoga to Laurel. As one went east from Saratoga, you came first 
to the place called Coat, where my fatherÆs first cousin, I. W. ôWaddyö 
Walker, held forth with his general store. Then you moved up and over 
the Ware Cut, which was almost on the Smith-Simpson county line. Then 
you went downhill about a mile and came to the Clear Creek swamp, and 
the railroad builders called that place ôLow.ö I suppose it was marshy 
and mosquito-laden. Certainly the mosquitoes were still there when I was 
growing up. As the purpose of the Laurel Branch was to harvest the 
longleaf pine timber, there were frequent sidings and temporary branch 
lines into the woods for operating the skidders and loading the flat 
cars with logs for transport to Laurel. Low must have been on Frank Ware 
land, as his son Zollie Ware opened a store at the Low siding, and this 
siding was still in operation in my youth. In its heyday, Low had a post 
office and one or more stores. Unlike Coat and Milton, it did not have a 
sawmill. Milton also had a mill pond and water mill on Clear Creek. Then 
the next village was Abel, possibly named for Abel Sullivan, then on to 
Mize, the metropolis and intersection with the Cohay logging line.
In my youth, you could board the train at Low by flagging it down, and 
you could buy a ticket to get there from anyplace on the rail system. 
The siding was also used by the neighborhood for mass purchases of 
fertilizer or other goods such as lumber. You had to buy a box car load 
and it would be delivered to the siding, along with keys to the doors. 
Then you unloaded the car, each neighbor taking his allocation (whatever 
he had paid to get.) My father did this several times. First, it was 
cheaper, and second, the move by mule and wagon to our farm was a 
half-mile, while the move from Magee or Mize was seven or eight miles, 
and this was a laborious trip for a mule team. My father last arranged 
for a fertilizer shipment about 1934. By then, we were in Depression 
days, and few of our neighbors could pay their share. IÆm not sure 
anyone ever used the siding again.
It was to Low that I would be sent to collect visiting preachers from 
Laurel. The road was rapidly being overgrown, so that you had to know 
your way or get lost in the swamp. I would guide them up to the Jim 
Meadows cattle gate on the road, then north a half-mile to our home. It 
was at Low where I brought my Richardson cousins by train from Laurel in 
1936, and they still remember the place as far out of nowhere.
Jim Meadows at some point bought the Low land and townsite, and he moved 
Zollie WareÆs store up near his home on the road, where he used it as a 
ôstoö for his black tenants. Postmasters for Low included Jasper and 
Zollie Ware, Tommy Amason, and other close neighbors.
(It was said that some entrepreneurs wanted to establish a milling town 
in Simpson County about halfway to Jackson. That would save the hauling 
costs to Laurel or Jackson. They selected a place on Strong River which 
was low swampland. They called it ôLOWö until someone reminded them 
there was already a Low, MS, on the Laurel Branch Railroad. They then 
decided to name the place ôDAMN LOWö and so they did. Then, not to 
offend anyone with sensitivities, they abbreviated this name to ôDÆLo;ö 
and so it is known to this day. DÆLo, MS, survived as a town, but Low, 
MS, faded away, and even Laurel Branch west of Mize disappeared several 
years ago.)