Founding year: the first Okolona post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Okolona’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Okolona is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Okolona’s overall grade.
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 Okolona’s 802 sits above most of its state (94% of Mississippi towns have fewer) while its 195 historic buildings outnumber those of 93% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.7 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 Okolona’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Okolona was named as Rose Hill in 1845 early in its settlement, but residents later discovered that another location had this name. When a US post office was established here on March 23, 1846, a new name was needed to avoid confusion in mail delivery. According to the Okolona Area Chamber of Commerce, Colonel Josiah N. Walton, postmaster of nearby Aberdeen, Mississippi, remembered an encounter with a Chickasaw warrior years earlier. The man's name was Oka-laua, meaning peaceful, yellow, or blue water. Walton renamed Rose Hill as Okolona in his honor. According to another account, Okalona is a Native American placename, possible from the Choctaw, meaning "people gathered together."
JoneslocaleOkolona Female CollegeschoolOkolona Industrial SchoolschoolOkolona Male and Female Academyschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Okolona
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US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Okolona’s history
What year was Okolona founded?
The Okolona post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Okolona rank for history?
Okolona is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Okolona?
4 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Elliott-Donaldson House (listed 1980, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Okolona Historic District and the Okolona College, with 193 contributing buildings. 195 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Okolona?
14% of Okolona’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.7 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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