Holly Springs

Images of America: Holly Springs commemorates the founding and development of northwest Mississippi's quaintest city. Located in Marshall County, Holly Springs was built by pioneering families, some of whose descendants still own land purchased during the Chickasaw Indian Land Cession of 1832. Holly Springs endured Union occupation during the Civil War and a yellow fever epidemic in 1878. Famous homes, including the raised cottage Featherston Place and the grand manor Airliewood, are included in this volume, as is the city's historical Presbyterian church, the outer walls of which bear the scars of Civil War minie balls and shrapnel. Also showcased is Rust College, a historically black institution founded in 1866 that thrives today.

Authors Alice Long and Mark L. Ridge teach at Rust College. Long is an award-winning writer who has published fiction, including several novels, and historical works centering on Jefferson Davis Jr., yellow fever, and Lewis and Clark. She holds a master of arts degree in literature and a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from University of Memphis. She is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and lives in Holly Springs. Ridge has written two books of prose poems and is completing a novel. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in creative writing from University of Memphis after retiring from the U.S. Navy.