Columbia, MS news and local guide

Columbia served as the temporary state capital from November 1821, when the legislature first met here, into 1822, when a special session inaugurated Governor Walter Leake and chose LeFleur's Bluff, now Jackson, as the permanent capital. For its first century the town relied on the Pearl River, then deeper and wider, for shipping, and steamboat captains such as John Black lived here. During the Civil War Union troops under General John W. Davidson camped outside town and took provisions, but the courthouse was spared. On February 7, 1894, crowds gathered to watch the hanging of Will Purvis, convicted of murder, but the noose slipped and he fell to the ground alive; he was pardoned in 1898, proven innocent by a deathbed confession in 1917 and paid $5,000 by the legislature in 1920. Mississippi's first rodeo, held September 24–26, 1935, at the Columbia High School baseball field, is recognized as the nation's first outdoor rodeo held at night under electric lights. Sources Wikipedia: Columbia, Mississippi The Historical Marker Database: Hanging of Will Purvis; Birthplace of Mississippi Rodeo (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)