Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Leakesville

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
B−History
History · Leakesville

Leakesville’s post office opened in 1829, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 50% of U.S. towns · #52 of 100 in Mississippi. What drives it

Below: maps from 1972 on and the census since 1910.

1829first post office
0on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
4famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Leakesville began

When was Leakesville founded?

1829

The Leakesville post office opened in 1829, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 466 in 19102020 census: 3,775197 years

How historic is Leakesville?

B−

More historic than 50% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Leakesville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Leakesville’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Leakesville is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns, #52 of 100 in Mississippi. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Leakesville’s overall grade.
Founding era1829, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194012.2% of homes (±8.2) · typical MS town 4.5% · U.S. 8.4%B−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical MS town 71.9 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 50%
NewerOlder
Mississippi towns of 2,500+ (100)Ahead of 48%

Mississippi towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Mississippi town has 71.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Leakesville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of Mississippi towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Leakesville’s 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 Leakesville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1829: 197 years of Leakesville.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Leakesville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Leakesville’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
Timeline

Leakesville, 1829 to 1972

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1829Post officeThe Leakesville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1911Born hereReed Green is born here
  5. 1936Born hereDonnis Churchwell is born here
  6. 1955Born hereWalter Packer is born here
  7. 1959Born hereKermit Davis Jr. is born here
  8. 1972On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Leakesville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Leakesville.

Read it all →

Like most of Mississippi, this area was part of the traditional territory of the historic Choctaw. Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, they were forced to cede their lands in this area to the United States. The Choctaw were the first of the Southeast Five Civilized Tribes to be removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), west of the Mississippi River. Some members remained in the state, and their descendants have maintained cultural identity. They gained federal recognition as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Leakesville, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Greene County High School MS2015Greene County High School MS
On the map

Leakesville on the map, 1972 to 1984

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Leakesville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Leakesville on the 1972 USGS mapLeakesville on the 1984 USGS map1972Leakesville sheet · 1:24,000

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

People over time

Leakesville, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0001920194019601980200020203,775

Grew from 466 people in 1910 to 3,775 in 2020, 8 times over.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Famous people

4 famous people were born in Leakesville

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

See all →
D
Donnis ChurchwellAmerican football player · b. 1936
Kermit Davis Jr.American basketball player and coach · b. 1959
W
Walter PackerAmerican football player · b. 1955
Reed GreenBaseball player · b. 1911
Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Leakesville’s post office has been open since 1829.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Dueitt
Gone or out of use
Greene County Agricultural High Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Leakesville
MagnoliaNew Providence

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

Questions about Leakesville’s history

What year was Leakesville founded?

The Leakesville post office opened in 1829, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Leakesville rank for history?

Leakesville is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns, #52 of 100 in Mississippi. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Leakesville?

12% of Leakesville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.2 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1974.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.