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By The Rivers Of Water
Walter Leake
Leakesville was named for the Honorable Walter Leake, a native of Virginia. He came to the Mississippi Territory as a Judge. He bought a plantation and built a home at a place called Mount Salus. The post office was named for the place and was dubbed by the local people as “Leake’s Letter Box”. In 1828, the name of the place was changed to Clinton and that is how it is known today.- However, the Presbyterian Church there is still called Mount Salus.
Leake was one of the first two Senators from Mississippi and served almost two terms as Governor. He died November 17, 1825, two months before his second term expired.
George County
Since the coast country developed at a much more rapid rate than the rural areas, there was a constant development of estrangement between its population and the rural people of the upper Townships. Moreover, the first Township below the 31st Parallel in Greene County was growing faster than the Piney Woods area up the rivers. Capitalists, like Gregory M. Luce, wanted a greater voice in this land. The time was ripe for a new county to evolve. L. G. Sellers of the Plain Dealer Weekly in Lucedale also desired a greater voice in the local government. There was a county paper at Leakesville. Lucedale and Leakesville were confirmed rivals in sports and in other matters. The time was ripe for a new union and a new distribution of power. The first Township was originally a part of Jackson County anyway and it had much in common with Townships Two and Three.
In addition to L. G. Sellers and Gregg Luce, there were such ardent partisans as Prentice Byrd, Dr. W. D. Ratliff, and Attorney Tom James who almost camped in Jackson lobbying for a new county. On the other hand, the opposition within the area of the proposed county was led by J. A. Cochran of Merrill.
An act of the Legislature, and duly signed by Governor Edmund F. Noel, on March 16,	1910, authorized the
establishment of the new county.