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History · Louise

Louise’s post office opened in 1906, and 35% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1961 on and the census since 1910.

1906first post office
0on the National Register
35%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Magnolia677 · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How Louise began

When was Louise founded?

1906

The Louise post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 69 in 19102020 census: 178120 years
Founding year: the first Louise post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Louise’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 Louise are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 537 in 1920; 178 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Louise’s homes were built before 1956.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Louise’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Louise’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

Louise, census by census

0100200300400500600192019401960198020002020Peak: 537

Peaked at 537 in 1920; 178 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Louise came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Louise.

Read it all →

Louise was initially established following land purchases made during the 1840s and 1850s, including property acquired by James S. Reid in 1852. The town developed after William H. Reid and his wife, Sallie Luse Reid, conveyed a 100 foot strip of land to the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad on 28 April 1905. Reid subsequently laid out a settlement beside the railway, named it for his daughter, Louise Reid Rainer, and recorded the town plat in Yazoo County on 3 February 1906.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Louise, 1906 to 1961

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1906Post officeThe Louise post office opens
  3. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 537
  4. 1961On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Louise, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Louise, Mississippi2016Louise, MississippiMSMap-doton-Louise2007MSMap-doton-Louise
On the map

Louise on the map, 1961 to 1988

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

Louise on the 1961 USGS mapLouise on the 1988 USGS map1961Bayland 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 Louise.

Questions about Louise’s history

What year was Louise founded?

The Louise post office opened in 1906, 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 →
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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, 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.