On April 7, 1870, an act of the state legislature created Lincoln County, named for Pres. Abraham Lincoln, from Lawrence, Franklin, Copiah, Pike, and Amite Counties. Settlement began more than 50 years earlier with Samuel Jayne's small trading post on St. Stephens Road. Extensive timber resources, the arrival of the railroad in 1857, and the 1859 founding of Whitworth Female College put the county on the map. Logging, lumber mills, and other industries brought scores of people to the region. The agricultural endeavors of cotton and farming provided a way of life before the oil boom of the 1940s. The varied ethnic and religious history of the residents further shaped the county into what exists today.