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Hazlehurst, Mississippi is the county seat of Copiah County. The first European-American settlement was by two lawyers and brothers-in-law named Walters and Saunders, who had come from Gallatin, Tennessee in 1819, naming the village Gallatin for their hometown. They built their homes on the banks of the Bayou Pierre. Incorporated in 1829, the first decades of Gallatin was based on slave labor, and the town’s charter was repealed in 1862. When the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad came through near Gallatin in 1865, a new town developed east of Gallatin that was named for Colonel George H. Hazlehurst, a railroad engineer who also has a city in Georgia named for him. As Gallatin declined, Hazlehurst prospered as a railroad stop. In 1872, the county seat was moved from Gallatin to Hazlehurst. US Route 51 passes through the center of Hazlehurst, leading north to Crystal Springs and south to Brookhaven. Interstate Highway 55 runs west of the city, parallel to US Route 51, with access to Hazlehurst from Exits 59 and 61, while Mississippi Highway 28 crosses US Route 51 and I-55 in the northern part of the town, running east to Georgetown and west to Fayette. Jackson, Mississippi is about thirty-five miles northeast of Hazlehurst.

 

 

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