Jones County

Jones County is the name of six counties in the United States:

It was also the former name of two Alabama counties:

Jones County, Mississippi

Jones County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 census, the population was 67,761. Its county seats are Laurel and Ellisville.

Jones County is part of the Laurel, MS Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

Less than a decade after Mississippi became the country's 20th state, settlers carved out a 700-square mile of pine forests and streams for a new county in 1826. They named it Jones County after John Paul Jones, the early American Naval hero who rose from humble Scottish origin to military success during the American Revolution.

Ellisville, the county seat, was named for Powhatan Ellis, a member of the Mississippi Legislature who claimed to be a direct descendant of Pocahontas. During the economic hard times in the 1830s and 1840s, there was an exodus of population from South Mississippi, principally to Texas, and the slogan "GTT" ("Gone to Texas") came into currency.

Soon after the election of Abraham Lincoln as United States president in November 1860, slave-owning planters led Mississippi to join South Carolina and secede from the Union in January 1861. Other Southern states would follow suit. Mississippi’s Declaration of Secession reflected the planters’ interests in its first sentence: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery…” However, the yeoman farmers and cattle herders of Jones County had little use for a war over a “state’s right” to maintain the institution of slavery. By 1860, slaves made up only 12% of the total population in Jones County, the smallest percentage of any county in the state.

Free State (province)

The Free State (Afrikaans: Vrystaat, Sotho: Foreistata; before 1995, the Orange Free State) is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Orange Free State Boer republic and later Orange Free State Province. The current borders of the province date from 1994 when the Bantustans were abolished and reincorporated into South Africa. It is also the only one of the four original provinces of South Africa not to undergo border changes, excluding the reincorporation of Bantustans.

History

Law and Government

The provincial government consists of a premier, an executive council of ten ministers, and a legislature. The provincial assembly and premier are elected for five-year terms, or until the next national election. Political parties are awarded assembly seats based on the percentage of votes each party receives in the province during the national elections. The assembly elects a premier, who then appoints the members of the executive council.

Free State of Jones

Free State of Jones may refer to:

Jones

Jones may refer to:

Places

See also