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History · Epes

Epes was first counted by the census in 1880

Most of Epes was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Below: maps from 1932 on and the census since 1880.

1880first census
0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Epes began

When was Epes founded?

1880

Epes first appears in the census in 1880. Two smaller post offices, Jones Bluff (1839) and Epes Station (1874), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 53 in 18802020 census: 272146 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓

What stands out about Epes’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Epes are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 722 in 1920; 272 people lived here in 2020.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Epes.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Epes’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Epes’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Epes, census by census

020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 722

Peaked at 722 in 1920; 272 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Epes’ Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Epes’s post office has been open since 1895. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Jones Bluff
1839–1874
Epes Station
1874–1895
Epes
1895–today
18301930today
Gone or out of use
Epes Lime PitmineFort TombecbemilitaryJones Creek Schoolschool
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Epes
HarrisMayMcInnis

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Epes came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Epes.

Read it all →

Epes has its origins in Fort de Tombecbé (Fort Tombecbe), one of the major fortifications built under Louis XIV, in what is now the American south, in the early eighteenth century. In January 1736, Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, governor of Louisiana, recruited a Swiss officer serving with the French, Joseph Christophe de Lusser, to construct a fort on the Tombigbee River, "atop an 80-foot bluff to support his campaign against the Chickasaws" that was to proceed in the year following; Bienville visited the site in April of the same year, and took control of the construction, leading to its completion and its support of his martial efforts against the Native Americans. After a 26-year stay, during which the French used this and other holdings to check "westward expansion by the British into the French colony of Louisiana," and to serve "as a trading post, solidifying France'…

Chapters18th century19th and 20th centuries

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Epes, 1839 to 1939

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1839Post officeThe Jones Bluff post office opens
  3. 1874Post officeThe Jones Bluff post office closes
  4. 1874Post officeThe Epes Station post office opens
  5. 1895Post officeThe Epes Station post office closes
  6. 1895Post officeThe Epes post office opens
  7. 20th century
  8. 1918Born hereCarol Forman is born here
  9. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 722
  10. 1932On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  11. 1939Born hereBill Oliver is born here
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Epes on the map in 1932

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Epes.

Epes on the 1932 USGS map1932Epes sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Epes.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Epes

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Carol FormanAmerican actress · b. 1918
B
Bill OliverAmerican football player and coach · b. 1939

Questions about Epes’ history

What year was Epes founded?

The Epes post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.