This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Lee, Portis, Hines, Moore, Childers, Culp Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/oV.2ADE/1204.1 Message Board Post: Wilson is a town south of Osceola, its name came from Robert E Lee Wilson, who owned about everything there. The Osceola Times is a newpaper with a long history. It can be read on microfilm at the Ark. History Commission in Little Rock, and includes newsy items from Wilson and surrounding areas. My family, the Lees, lived in Golden Lake as early as 1890 and I'm piecing together the history. The railroad and major highway between Memphis and St. Louis ran through the area, and with 6 stops a day by passenger train, the Joiner, Evadale, Bassett, Wilson area was a bustling community. Golden Lake is an area south of Wilson, between the highway and the Mississippi river, and today is farmland only. The Mississippi County historical society is in Osceola, across from the courthouse on the town square. The population of the area decreased rapidly after mechanical cotton-pickers came into use. There is a History of Mississippi County book. The Butler Center for Genealogy in the main library of Little Rock has a copy of this book. Lepanto is another town in the area, just across the Poinsett county line, that shares much of the history. The Lepanto museum has photos from Wilson, as well as pictures from the floods and logging days. One amazing picture shows the Mississippi river frozen, with my Uncle Franklin Lee standing on an ice flow. I visited the area this summer. A distant cousin farms in the area, he told me how the steamboats on the rivers were like the Greyhound Bus, going from point to point and the dock hands would put people, cargo, livestock on the boats, that was until the roads were improved and the railroads built. There is much history in this area. Best regards, Darcy Mabelvale, AR