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History · Scooba

Scooba’s post office opened in 1858, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1973 on and the census since 1900.

1858first post office
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Scooba began, and where its name came from

When was Scooba founded?

1858

The Scooba post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 286 in 19002020 census: 744168 years

How did Scooba get its name?

Scooba is a Choctaw word meaning "reed brake" (i.e., a farming tool used on reeds), and the early settlement was noted for its productive farmland.

Founding year: the first Scooba post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓

What stands out about Scooba’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 Scooba are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Scooba’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Scooba came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Scooba.

Read it all →

The first permanent settlement at Scooba was made in the 1830s. A line of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad passed through Scooba. A Democratic weekly newspaper, The Kemper Herald, was established in Scooba in 1876. By the early 1900s, Scooba had several residential homes, a hotel, a livery barn, a post office, two saw milling plants, a cotton gin, a general store, five churches (three white and two colored), a school, and a bank (the Bank of Kemper, established in 1904). Scooba was a local market for cotton.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Scooba, 1858 to 1973

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1858Post officeThe Scooba post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1921Born hereAbner M. Aust is born here
  5. 1962Born hereCharles Jones is born here
  6. 1973On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Scooba, decade by decade

Today1 recent
MSMap-doton-Scooba2007MSMap-doton-Scooba
On the map

Scooba on the map, 1973 to 1984

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

Scooba on the 1973 USGS mapScooba on the 1984 USGS map1973Scooba 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 Scooba.

People over time

Scooba, census by census

02004006008001,0001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 933

Between 286 and 933 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Scooba

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

See all →
Charles JonesAmerican basketball player · b. 1962
Abner M. AustAmerican flying ace · b. 1921

Questions about Scooba’s history

What year was Scooba founded?

The Scooba post office opened in 1858, 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 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.