Byhalia, Mississippi
Byhalia (bye-HAIL-yah)), pronounced "bye-HAY-yah" by residents, is a town in Marshall County, Mississippi. The population was 1,302 as of the 2010 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.9 square miles (7.5 km2), all land.
History
The town of Byhalia was founded in 1838 when C.W. Rains and Wash Poe purchased land at the intersection of Pigeon Roost Road (now Church Street) and the Collierville-Chulahoma Road (now Highway 309). Pigeon Roost Road was originally the Chickasaw Trail, a long-used Native American path followed by Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto in 1541. Pigeon Roost Road had been improved in 1835 to accommodate the removal of the Chickasaw Nation to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).[2]
Byhalia was named for a creek spelled Bihalee. The Chickasaw word was Dai-yi-il-ah, meaning “White Oak.” The U.S. Postal Service accepted the name Byhalia in 1846.
Byhalia's location had several advantages for an early settlement, lying near the crossroad site where the Pigeon Roost Road ran from Memphis to Oxford and Pontotoc, Mississippi. Much land in Georgia, Virginia, and North and South Carolina had been depleted from continuous tobacco planting and lack of crop rotation, making the newly opened territory in north Mississippi an inviting opportunity for emigrant farmers.
