In the Wheel

Isaiah Thornton Montgomery, Founder and Mayor   The following is a complete excerpt from 1975 Application for Historic status for I.T. Montgomery House in Mound Bayou. It tells part of the story of the town's founding. The house attained listing on the National Register as a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Located in the Mississippi Delta region of Bolivar County, the town of Mound Bayou was one of a number of black settlements which was established during the post-Reconstruction period. It represents one of many important attempts by blacks of that era to establish independent communities in which they could exercise self-government.  The present town of Mound Bayou had its inception in a former settlement. Isaiah Thornton Montgomery and his cousin Benjamin Green were the slaves of the family of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. As an alternative to the institution of slavery, it was Jefferson Davis' idea that blacks be isolated on their own settlements. At ...