By John Nelson

Columnist

It was the transportation provided by the Tallahatchie River that brought the first settlers to our area and created the old town of Panola.  River boats brought in supplies and loaded cotton for sale in New Orleans, but the river offered only somewhat reliable transit during a few winter months when the river was high enough for steamboat navigation.

The only other option was to haul cotton to Memphis by wagon where the bales were loaded on boats plying the always navigable Mississippi.  Supplies and merchandise for the stores were brought back on the return trip, but this was an arduous journey requiring at least two days each way when the roads were good.

Those wanting more reliable transportation were quite pleased when the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad (M&TRR) reached the area in 1857.  A depot was constructed about a mile from Panola, and the stores began receiving their merchandise from trains rather than river boats.  After awhile, it seemed more logical to build stores around the depot rather than to haul goods to Panola.

A new town grew up around the depot that took the name Batesville from Rev. J.W. Bates, a popular Methodist minister who had been instrumental in assisting the M&TRR in acquiring land for a right of way.  Perhaps as a reward for his public relations work, the railroad hired him as a conductor.

Batesville and the railroad grew up together, and each profited for the success of the other, but that didn’t prevent the two from getting into some pretty heated squabbles. While supplying the town with most everything sold in the stores, trains on the main track and sidings sometimes blocked the crossings connecting the upper and lower sections of the square.

Photos from the early 1900’s show a square filled with wagons and the occasional automobile, and in most such photos, there is a freight train stopped on the tracks.  By 1916, townsfolk had such a bad case of the Railroad Crossing Blues that the feud resulted in proceedings before the Chancery Court of the 2nd Court District of Panola County.

The railroad, the Illinois Central Railroad Company (ICRRC) at the time, showed the court that the M&TRR had been consolidated with the Chicago, St, Louis & New Orleans Railroad Company in 1889.  That company then granted a long term lease to the ICRRC, and thus it had legal rights to the holdings of the old M&TRR.

The Illinois Central’s position rested on the great job that Rev. Bates had done in convincing landowners to sell sufficient holdings not only for a right of way but also adequate space for a depot and necessary sidings.  Recorded land transactions presented by the railroad revealed that it owned a big chunk of the town square, and that Batesville had been squatting on railroad land for more than fifty years.

The town, represented by the law firm of Pearson & Carothers, and Lomax Lamb, couldn’t really dispute the record of land transactions but rested its claim on the fact that after occupying the land for more than fifty years, the town and the public then depended on the use of the square and the roads passing through it.

Chancellor J.G. McGowan’s position was a little like that of Solomon when he had to decide which of two women was the real mother of a baby.  In a compromise ruling, the judge recognized the railroad’s ownership of much of the town square, but gave the town and the public perpetual use of it except those portions actually required for the railroad’s operation.  He also decreed that both parties were to share the court costs.

An important part of the judge’s ruling was that the two railroad crossings through the square, north and south of the depot, were recognized as public streets.  The railroad was ordered to maintain the crossings and to keep them open.

The 1916 court ruling might have cleared the air for a time, but with ever increasing business activities being conducted in a square that couldn’t increase in size, traffic jams occurred as cars and trucks circled around looking for parking  spots.  All that was needed to make a bad situation worse was a freight train blocking one, or sometimes both of the crossings.

Judge McGowan had decreed that the crossings were to be kept open, but all understood that some periods of blockage would be necessary for the railroad to conduct operations.  Thus it was a matter of opinion just how long of a blockage was too long.

As the square reached its worst period of congestion in the 1950’s, the town was primed to sing another chorus of the Railroad Crossing Blues.

(Part 2 of this column will appear in a future edition of The Panolian)