Norfield, Mississippi

Unincorporated community in Mississippi, United States

31°24′28″N 90°28′02″W / 31.40778°N 90.46722°W / 31.40778; -90.46722CountryUnited StatesStateMississippiCountyLincolnElevation

407 ft (124 m)Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST)) • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)Area code(s)601 & 769GNIS feature ID674932^[1]

Norfield is an unincorporated community in Lincoln County, Mississippi, United States.^[1]^[2]

History

The community was founded in 1886 as a sawmill town.^[3] Norfield's name is a portmanteau of the surnames of Frederick Norwood and John S. Butterfield, who founded the Norwood-Butterfield Lumber Company.^[4] The sawmill in Norfield was the first sawmill in the southern United States to use a bandsaw to cut yellow pine.^[5] In 1900, the community had a population of 347 and was estimated to have a population of 700 six years later.^[6] By 1930, the community had the second-largest population in Lincoln County and had a theater, hotel, and golf course.^[4]

Norfield is located on the Canadian National Railway.^[7] The Norwood-Butterfield Company operated the Natchez, Columbia & Mobile Railroad, a standard gauge logging railroad that ran 30 miles east from Norfield. The railroad operated six locomotives.^[8]

A post office operated under the name Norfield from 1891 to 1953.^[9]

Notable people

Little Brother Montgomery, blues pianist, lived in Norfield as a young man^[10]

Gallery

Aerial view of Butterfield Lumber Company mill
School in Norfield
The Norfield Hotel in 1907

Notes

^ ^a ^b "Norfield, Mississippi". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
^ Mississippi Department of Transportation-Lincoln County
^ Campbell, Brett (April 26, 2021). "Norfield historical marker approved". The Daily Leader. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
^ ^a ^b "Norfield". hmdb.org. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
^ "Perfection in the Manufacture of Mississippi Longleaf Pine". American Lumberman (1665): 44. April 20, 1907.
^ Rowland, Dunbar (1907). Mississippi: Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (PDF). Vol. 2. Southern Historical Publishing Association. p. 345.
^ Howe, Tony. "Norfield, Mississippi". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
^ Howe, Tony. "Norwood & Butterfield Co. (1891-1900)". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
^ "Lincoln County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
^ Komara, Edward; Johnson, Greg (2014). 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-8108-8921-7.