Idx Harrison County

[Kanisha Marchant]

HarrisonCounty is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 208,621.[1] Its county seats are Biloxi and Gulfport.[2] The county is named after U.S. President William Henry Harrison.[3]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 976 square miles (2,530 km2), of which 402 square miles (1,040 km2) (41%) are covered by water.[4] The Tchoutacabouffa River has its mouth at Biloxi Bay just north of the city of Biloxi. Gulfport, Mississippi, is the chief port in the state, with access to the Gulf of Mexico through a ship channel. This is the second-largest county in Mississippi by total area.

Harrison County has been studied by CNN and other media, which have reported on the beatings of inmates in the Harrison County Jail in Gulfport. Inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr. died while in custody on February 4, 2006.[12] In 2006 and 2007, six Harrison County Sheriff's Department deputies pleaded guilty to crimes related to the abuse of inmates at the jail.[13] Sheriff Melvin Brisolara-R was elected in 2008, for Harrison County.

The Harrison County Health Department strives to improve public health services every year and to add new activities and programs to help prevent, promote and protect the population. We are proud to provide this county with over 40 years of public health services.

29 years ago, Harrison County Hospice was established to meet the needs of our community members. Some believe hospice is a scary word, but we believe it is a needed resource to help families as they navigate through the transition to the end of life. For the past 29 years, Harrison County Hospice has been your ONLY local hospice provider! We want to take this time to not only celebrate this amazing milestone but to share our story.

Harrison County Health Department & Hospice began the paperwork to acquire Home Health from the Harrison County Community Hospital in June of 2022. As many know, this is never a quick process with needing both state and federal approval before we can move forward with the change of ownership. Home Health was a part of the Health Department from 1981-2012, so we were excited when approached by the hospital to bring this service back to the Health Department. Both Home Health and Hospice are needed services in our community and we are excited to continue to bring you quality of care, close to home as your local Home Health and Hospice provider.

The Harrison County Health Department and Hospice is An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.Harrison County Health Department and Hospice complies with all applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex.

Welcome to the official website of the Harrison County Sheriff's Office, located in Bethany, Missouri. Harrison County is located along I-35 between Kansas City and Des Moines, Iowa. Harrison County encompasses the cities of Gilman City, Blue Ridge, Melbourne, Bethany, Cainsville, Eagleville, Blythdale, Hatfield, Martinsville, Ridgeway, Mount Moriah and New Hampton.

Harrison County was named after a deceased member of congress, Albert G. Harrison and was organized in 1845. Harrison County has a population of 8,816 and the county has a total area of 725 square miles. Bethany is the county seat and was once called Dallas. In 1845, an election was taken to change the name to Bethany.

Harrison County is located in northeastern Texas along the Louisiana border. Marshall, the county seat and largest town, is 152 miles east of Dallas and thirty-nine miles west of Shreveport. The county's center lies at 3230' north latitude and 9430' west longitude. Harrison County comprises 894 square miles of the East Texas timberlands, an area that is heavily forested with a great variety of softwoods and hardwoods, especially pine, cypress, and oak. The terrain is gently rolling, with an elevation ranging from 200 to 400 feet above sea level. Northern and eastern Harrison County, about two-thirds of the total area, is drained to the Red River in Louisiana by Little Cypress Creek, Cypress Bayou, and Caddo Lake. The other third of the county is drained by the Sabine River, which forms a part of its southern boundary. Two soil types, upland sedimentary and lowland alluvial, are found in the county. The former, although not so rich as the alluvial, is primarily a sandy loam noted for being loose and easily cultivated. Mineral resources include oil, gas, and clays that have proved valuable for making bricks and pottery. Temperatures range from an average high of 95 F in July to an average low of 37 in January, rainfall averages slightly more than forty-six inches a year, and the growing season extends 245 days.

Caddo Indians lived in the East Texas timberlands for centuries before the arrival of Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century. Agriculturalists with a highly developed culture, the Caddoes were no match for European weapons and diseases. Consequently, American settlers, who began to arrive in large numbers during the 1830s, had few Indian problems in the area that became Harrison County. The settlement of the area was well under way by the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. A dozen Americans received land grants there from Mexican authorities in the fall of 1835. After the revolution the area filled up so rapidly that the Congress of the Republic of Texas officially established Harrison County in 1839. It was drawn from Shelby County, organized in 1842, and named for Texas revolutionary leader Jonas Harrison. Marshall, founded in 1841, became the county seat in 1842. The original county boundaries were reduced by the establishment of Panola and Upshur counties in 1846. Since then, with the exception of a small adjustment with Marion County during Reconstruction, they have remained unchanged. Harrison County was settled predominantly by natives of the southern United States who duplicated the slaveholding, cotton-plantation society they had known before moving to Texas. By 1850 the county had more slaves than any other in the state, a distinction that it maintained through the next decade. The census of 1860 enumerated 8,784 slaves (59 percent of the total population), 145 planters who owned at least twenty slaves, and a cotton crop of 21,440 bales. Harrison County was among the richest and most productive in antebellum Texas.

As in antebellum times Harrison County remained overwhelmingly agricultural and rural from 1880 to 1930. During these fifty years, while the population grew slowly from 25,171 to 48,397, the number of farms rose from 2,748 to an all-time high of 6,802. Cotton continued as the main crop, although it was 1930 before production in a census year surpassed the 21,440-bale crop reported in 1860. Production in 1930 was 33,755 bales (see COTTON CULTURE). The county also retained its Black majority through these years. Blacks constituted more than 60 percent of the total population in every census from 1880 to 1930. Harrison County enjoyed transportation facilities that were better than average for East Texas counties, but its nonagricultural economy expanded slowly from 1880 to 1930. The Southern Pacific Railroad, constructed from Caddo Lake to Marshall before the Civil War, became part of the Texas and Pacific Railway system during the 1870s, and the area was soon linked with Shreveport to the east, Dallas-Fort Worth to the west, and Texarkana to the north. The railroad's shops and general offices for Texas were located in Marshall. The county seat benefited from the railroad and from its position as a retail center for the surrounding area, and by 1930 its population was 16,203, approximately one-third of the county's residents. Manufacturing establishments, located primarily in and around Marshall, employed 2,319 workers in 1930. Nevertheless, a majority of the county's workers were employed in agriculture.

The 1930s and 1940s, years of the Great Depression and World War II, marked the beginning of changes in Harrison County at least as significant as those brought on by the Civil War. Depression hit the county hard. The value of farm property fell 30 percent between 1930 and 1935, and there were almost 1,500 fewer farms in 1940 than in 1930. For the first time, a majority of workers depended on nonagricultural occupations, and unemployment became a problem. During the depths of the depression in 1935, 1,114 heads of families in Harrison County were on government relief. As late as 1940, 850 workers were employed on public emergency works, and another 838 were without jobs. World War II ended the economic disaster of the thirties, but it also brought about a significant emigration of Blacks from the county. Between 1940 and 1950, although they continued to constitute a majority, Blacks decreased by 17 percent in number while Whites increased 8 percent. The total population rose from 48,937 to 50,900 during the 1930s and then fell to 47,745 by 1950. The trends that originated during the years of depression and war continued for another twenty years after 1950. The White population increased, but the number of Blacks declined so rapidly that the county showed an overall population loss in each census, dropping to 44,841 by 1970. Agriculture occupied fewer workers each year, and cotton planting virtually disappeared. The agricultural census of 1978 reported only one farmer growing cotton in the county, which in 1860 had produced the third largest crop in the state. Those who stayed on the land depended on mixed farming and cattle raising; others left the area or moved to town. In 1960 and 1970 a majority of the county's people lived in Marshall. No single industry was dominant. Small-scale manufacturing of metal, wood, and clay products gave employment to nearly half of the work force; retail businesses occupied about 10 percent of workers; oil and gas production employed only a few hundred people.

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