Norfield, Mississippi

Norfield, Mississippi
Unincorporated community
Illinois Central Railroad depot in Norfield
Norfield Show map of Mississippi Norfield Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 31°24′28″N 90°28′02″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Lincoln
Elevation	407 ft (124 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code(s)	601 & 769
GNIS feature ID	674932[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

1. "Norfield, Mississippi". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
2. Mississippi Department of Transportation-Lincoln County
3. Campbell, Brett (April 26, 2021). "Norfield historical marker approved". The Daily Leader. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
4. "Norfield". hmdb.org. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
5. "Perfection in the Manufacture of Mississippi Longleaf Pine". American Lumberman (1665): 44. April 20, 1907.
6. 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.
7. Howe, Tony. "Norfield, Mississippi". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
8. Howe, Tony. "Norwood & Butterfield Co. (1891-1900)". Mississippi Rails. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
9. "Lincoln County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
10. Komara, Edward; Johnson, Greg (2014). 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-8108-8921-7.