The story
Read it all →How Mounds came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Mounds.
The town was named for the prehistoric monumental earthwork mounds in the area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Mounds
Mounds’ post office opened in 1903, and 21% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1910 on, and the census since 1900.
1903first post office
0on the National Register
21%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Quick answers
How Mounds began
When was Mounds founded?
1903
The Mounds post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Burkeville (1857), Mounds Junction (1886) and Beechwood (1892), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 854 in 19002020 census: 661123 years
Founding year: the first Mounds post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Mounds’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Mounds.Boom and bustPeaked at 2,661 in 1920; 661 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Mounds’ homes were built before 1964.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Mounds’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mounds’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Places that used to be
Lost post offices and burying grounds
Mounds’s post office has been open since 1903. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Burkeville
Mounds Junction
Beechwood
Mounds
18501940today
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Mounds
BeechwoodSaint Marys
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
People over time
Mounds, census by census
Peaked at 2,661 in 1920; 661 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mounds’ Wikipedia page.
Timeline
Mounds, 1857 to 1931
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1857Post officeThe Burkeville post office opens
- 1860Post officeThe Burkeville post office closes
- 1886Post officeThe Mounds Junction post office opens
- 1892Post officeThe Mounds Junction post office closes
- 1892Post officeThe Beechwood post office opens
- 20th century
- 1903Post officeThe Beechwood post office closes
- 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 2,661
- 1927
In the archive1927 Mississippi Flood - 1927Born hereJo Sullivan Loesser is born here
- 1931
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
Mounds, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1920s1 item
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your albumToday1 recent
2023On the map
Mounds on the map, 1931 to 1993
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mounds. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1931Cairo sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Mounds.
Every building
Mounds, building by building, 1910
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.
1910Sheet 1 of 2BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this view1927 Mississippi Flood, 1927
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Mounds’ page.
Retake this view · +15Questions about Mounds’ history
What year was Mounds founded?
The Mounds post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 Wikimedia Commons (2), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.