The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Vicksburg

VICKSBURG,, Miss., city, county-seat of Warren County, on the Mississippi River, a few miles below the mouth of the Yazoo River, and on the Alabama and Vicksburg, the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific and the Illinois Central railroads, about 45 miles west of Jackson, the capital and largest city of the State, and 230 miles northwest of New Orleans. The city has regular steamboat connections with all the important Mississippi River ports. It is in an agricultural region in which cotton is one of the principal products. It is on a high bluff overlooking the river, and the streets, though not broad, are regular, well-kept, and have a number of shade trees. The chief manufacturing establishments are cottonseed-oil mills, planing mills, railroad shops, foundries, machine shops and an ice factory. In 1910 (government census) there were 47 manufactories with a combined capital invested in plants of $1,235,743; and employing 1,433 persons, to whom were paid annually $695,000. The cost of raw material was $1,085,127 and the annual value of the product was $2,229,344. The city has an extensive trade in cotton and lumber products and general produce.

The principal public buildings are the government building, the county courthouse, the Charity hospital, the churches and schools. The educational institutions are a public high school, Saint Aloysius College (R.C.), for boys, Cherry Street College (colored), founded in 1892, Saint Francis Xavier's Academy, public and parish schools for both races and school libraries. There is here a National cemetery which contains 16,727 graves, of which 12,723 are of unknown dead. The eight banks have a combined capital of about $1,000,000. There are two daily newspapers. The government is vested in a mayor and board of aldermen, consisting of eight members. Vicksburg was laid out as a city on the plantations of John Lane and William Vick. In 1840 it was incorporated. It soon became a prominent distributing centre for the interior towns and a shipping point for the products of the plantations. It came into great prominence during the Civil War. The city suffered some damages in 1876, when the river cut through a neck of land. The government has since expended about $3,000,000 in efforts to divert the Yazoo River, and also to restore the harbor. Pop. 23,000.