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Exit Number 10, Hwy 78 |
Ingram's Mill is located about twenty miles southeast of Memphis, TN and five miles south of the hwy 78 exit at mile marker ten. Because of its convenience to Memphis, Desoto County has become the fastest growing county in Mississippi.
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Community Center |
Fountainhead United Methodist Church
This small country church was established in 1879. However the present building was built around 1950 and stands across the road from where the original wood-framed building stood. The quaint church is loaded with charm and reminders of the past. The pews in which the parishners sit are the original ones installed in the 1950's. They must be at least eighteen feet long on each side of the center aisle and have a deep, rich finish on them. The walls are yellow pine and shine from the years of oiling and polishing. Behind the pupit a very large stained-glass window of the virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus is embedded in the wall, and is illuminated from behind. Each side of the sanctuary is lined with stained-glass windows. Each displays the name of the donors who made that window possible. The majority of the families and descendents of those that are named on the windows still reside in this area. However, a once prosperous congregation is now struggling as many of its members have died or are now shut-ins. It is the hope of the Fountainhead members that a new membership will arrive from the new residents of the area.
ACI Volunteer Fire Department
The Alphaba-Cockrum-Ingram's Mill Volunteer Fire Department opened in the late 1980's. The Ingram's Mill satellite station was erected after a request for an extension of service was needed due to the increasing population and the number of homes that were being built. Though only manned by volunteers, we have one of the best response times of any volunteer fire department in North Mississippi. In 1997, a brand new fire truck was purchased with a government loan. The fire department only asks for yearly dues of $20.00, from each family to allow them to have money for new equipment, fire suits, and radios. There is a plan in the works to add a water system in the area that would provide fire hydrants, which would further lower the insurance rates.
Ingram's Mill Grocery
The Ingram's Mill Mercantile, as it was called back in 1958 when it was built, originally offered clothes, food, and farming supplies. Currently, The Ingram's Mill Grocery, as it's called by the locals, is where you go when you need a "cool drink", some fast groceries when you've got a pot on the stove and realize that you don't have an important ingrediant, or where you go to get the local news, from some of Ingram's Mill's best "sleuths". The folks at the grocery are always cheerful, happy and knowledgeable about the most recent gossip, the newest residents, who's in the "news" and who's not. The Ingram's Mill Grocery serves as a landmark when you have to have something delivered and you need to describe something that a driver can't miss, or you can just have your packages delivered there. Heck, they can even establish a line of credit for you, if they get to know you well enough.
Ingram's Mill Trading Post
The Ingram's Mill Trading Post is across the street from the Ingram's Mill Grocery.(The "leaning building" in this picture is an old store that hasn't been used in thirty or more years.One of these days it is gonna fall. That day will be a bg day in "The Mill".) The trading post is a pawn shop that offers tools, guns, and electrical equipment, as well as some computers on consignment. There is a little something for everyone. And Jim, the owner, is a real character. Stop in and take a long, look around.
The Chatterbox Restaurant
The Chatterbox Restaurant has been in business about a dozen years, now. They are the local experts in catfish, coleslaw, and steaks. The prices are reasonable, the atmosphere is quaint and the waitresses are friendly. What more could anyone want? They are open only Thursday thru Sunday, and they request that large groups please call ahead at 662-838-3300. Their hours of operation are Thursday, 4pm to 8pm, Friday, 4pm to 9pm, Saturday,4pm to 9pm, and Sunday, from noon to 8pm. Be prepared to eat a lot, but try to save room for the homemade desserts. They are deeelicious!
Antebellum Community Bequeaths Rich History
by Dorothy Ward, Staff Writer
Ingram's Mill,, tucked away in the southwest corner of Desoto County, Miss., is one of the oldest and least known communities, but the grandchildren of its founders are keeping its history alive.
Ingram's Mill- which is the way it is spelled on highway signs- got its name in the 1840's because Jeremiah Brown Ingram (called "Brown") operated a sawmill in the area.
Three of Ingram's granddaughters still live near the old mill's location. One of them, Mrs. Nora Ingram McKinney, lives in a home built on the site of her great-grandfather's and grandfathers original homes.
"When my husband and I decided to build a new house, we tore down the old one so we could rebuild on the very same spot," Mrs. McKinney said. "My father, James Kelley Ingram, inherited the house, so all of us children were born there. When my father died, my husband and children and I moved in to be with my mother. But the house was in such poor condition, builders told us it would be cheaper to build a new house than to try to restore it."
Ingram's Mill also was the site of the home of her great-grandparents, James and Ellen Smith, who came to Desoto County from Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1830. A log smokehouse that Smith built still stands in the back yard.
Brown Ingram's parents came to Desoto County from South Carolina and bought 10 sections of land following the treaty with the Indians, Mrs. McKinney said.
The town was the site of a Civil War skirmish on Oct. 12, 1863. According to Volume 5 of The War of the Rebellion at Memphis and Shelby County Main Library, the grounds of the Ingram home served as the campsite of a Confederate Calvary unit commanded by Col. R V Richardson. When several thousand Union Calvary poured into the area, Richardson's unit retreated to Wyatt, which the Union troops later burned.
The skirmish at Ingram's Mill, according to the same volume, was part of Confederate Gen. James R. Chalmers' raid into North Mississippi and West Tennessee. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the 15th Army Corps was the Union commander in the area. He later gained fame in his march from Atlanta to the sea.
The action at Ingram's Mill followed the Battle of Collierville by one day. It was at Collierville that Confederate Calvary wrecked a Union troop train.
According to a report by Col. Edward Hatch, commander of the Second Iowa Calvary, "I struck the enemy near Ingram's Mill south of Byhalia at 3p.m. and fought two hours and drove them back from positions and followed until 9 that night."
"We came upon the enemy under Gen. Chalmers and Col. Richardson posted in strong positions on a hill, with a swamp in front and two six pounders (cannon) at the center commanding the road. Our men drove in and skirmished the enemy out of the swamp when the Confederates opened their artillery at our line."
"At about five o'clock Lt. Col. Jesse J. Phillips deployed some of our men on the right and center, moving a howitzer to the front, and opened up on the log houses occupied by the Confederates. The Rebels charged our center and were met by the 7th and 9th Illinois Infantry and driven back. Phillips then charged with the 7th Illinois and 7th Kansas Calvary and the Confederates broke in confusion, mounted and rallied two miles away. We pursued till 9 toward Hernando and believe the Confederates fled to Oxford."
A report by Lt. Col. W. L. Duckworth, 7th Tennessee Calvary, CSA, said he was ordered to camp on the night of the 12th four miles south of Ingram's Mill and move out early the 13th.
"We moved out at the appointed time, but found the bridge and mill occupied by the enemy, " Duckworth wrote, giving no hint of where his unit then went.
The bridge was across Pigeon Roost Creek, which apparently was the swamp the Union officer referred to in his dispatches.
Mrs. McKinney and her sisters, Mrs. Janie Ingram Bumpous and Mrs. Sue Ingram Greenwood, said that several years ago, Civil War buffs using metal detectors "tramped all over that old creek bed, looking for buttons and belt buckles and things like that."
"We knew there had been a battle here, " Mrs. Bumpous said. "My daddy used to tell about it because his daddy was right in the middle of it with the mill and the camp behind the old house. He used to talk about it a lot. Our father was much older than most daddies. He was 60 years old when my sister, Sue, was born."
The Ingram's plan to remain at Ingram's Mill. Three of the four Ingram sisters of this generation live along Red Banks Road within a half mile of each other. Most of their children live nearby, too. There were three Ingram boys, too, but all died in infancy, Mrs. Bumpous said.
"Our roots go deep, " said Mrs. McKinney as she led a reporter to the family cemetery on a hill near her home. The Smith's and early Ingram ancestors were buried there beginning in the 1860's, along with several persons from this generation, including her husband, and a small son of Mrs. Greenwood.
"Each one of us girls has space for a line of graves in the cemetery, and we all plan to be buried here."
Ingram 1832-1898
A headstone from the Ingram's Family cemetery.
Homes
There is plenty of variety in the styles of home, here in Ingram's Mill. Everything from single and double-wide manufactured homes, to suburban ranch, country farmhouse, to log cabin. Some homes can be seen from the street, but a lot are secluded in the surrounding woods, affording privacy for their residences.
Log Cabin Under Construction
Even with the great numbers of families moving into Desoto County, this area remains rural. At least three acres of land is the requirement to build a home. Often times, these homes are built on larger tracts of land. Therefore, one does not have to look out their window and stare into the house next door.
Natural Surroundings
Cattle
Several families in Ingram's Mill still own hundred acre and more tracts of land, and farming is still a way of life for many residents. Cattle is a primary crop, with some people still engaging in the historic art of lumbering and sawmill ownership, the reason Ingram's Mill was put on the map in the first place.