Old Money of Jackson (Ridgeland, Greenwood: 2015, apartment, rent)

[MathakFamily]

Just curious to find out where the old money has tended to settle in or out of the city of Jackson. I am interested in location more than the financial aspect of it.

[madison2013]

what kind of question is this?

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

If anybody would know the answer to that question, I bet it would be Grandview Gloria. She's the go-to person on just about anything concerning the high society in Jackson.

[GrandviewGloria]

Thank you, Ivory Lee!

Sadly, there is very little true Old Money in Mississippi. The Civil War bankrupted most people. And even members of the Third Floor Ballroom Class (Some, like the Delta's Hauff-Boyd family, had MULTIPLE mansions with ballrooms-on-top) - people connected to Ulysses Grant and the Seligmans, who'd been educated 'back East', who'd summered at Northern resorts, and who kept their fortunes intact through the war - were ruined by the Boll Wevil, or the panics of the early Twentieth Century (the Cotton Panic of '25 virtually shut the state down, without a truly robust rebound, IMHO, until the Seventies).

Then, there was the tendency for the moneyed elites to move away, before their money had become 'old'. Too, the scions of bankrupted Old Money, tended to move to more prosperous regions, to work their way back up. So, among the Upper Crust of Park Avenue, Southampton, Santa Barbara, Denver, Seattle, Scottsdale, La Jolla, and Grosse Pointe Farms (and obviously, Houston's River Oaks, Dallas' Highland Park , and Atlanta's Druid Hills), a savvy social sleuth would probably find a wealth of Old Mississippi names.

But one place Mississippi's Lovely Old Families, and Fine Old Families, whether or not they still had money, were loathe to move to, was Jackson. Jackson was considered to be a backwater, full of crude, crooked, murderous, religion-obsessed descendants of Reconstruction Era Carpetbaggers and Scalawags. Those unsavory types had succeeded in sending the Antebellum Aristocracy fleeing the Capital, following the Civil War. And, until the construction, in the Nineteen Sixties/Seventies, of two large malls, 'The Rest of Mississippi' avoided Jackson, as much as was possible.

Until Dallas and Atlanta became "Yankee Cities", Mississippians who were from good families, but who had heavy accents, used to move to those cities, to begin their careers. But when heavy accents became crippling liabilities, those who could not alter their speech, tended to be trapped inside Mississippi, where they would NOT be perceived as ignorant Goobers. After Integration (and the need for private schools - tuition taking all discretionary income, and eating through savings) began killing the state's smaller towns, many young people from Old Families were forced to move to the Jackson area, to get decent jobs.

Those young people were horrified by the meanness, social paranoia, crudeness, crookedness, and obsessive religiosity of 'Upper Class' Jacksonians. "Well, some of us moved to Belhaven, which was OK, until 'typical rednecky Jackson social climbers' caught-on, and started moving in around us." But a great many scions of the state's better families began moving out to the wilds of Madison County - planting tall hedges, and basically HIDING. About that time, The Chapel of the Cross (Episcopalian) became THE chic place for young aristos. And Mayor Mary was making Madison into the nicest place in the entire 'Ark-La-Miss' (and truly, the nicest place between Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Highland Park, Texas).

Because of all the aristos hiding behind their hedgerows - many of them workaholic super-achievers who truly don't have time to be bothered - Madison is very low-key and private. Again, I must say that while there is a great deal of moderate wealth there, and while much of that money is held by members of very old, very lovely families, the money is mostly new: two or three generations old, at the most - with many family fortunes still in the process of being brought back up from ZERO.

So, oddly, most truly Old Money in Jackson is from elsewhere. I know of a lady from a very old and quite wealthy Louisiana family, who lives in a Beaux Arts mansion in Belhaven. (Maybe they bought the place as a hurricane season pied-à-terre, and realized how blissfully convenient life was in Jackson - deciding to make it their primary residence.)

I know a gaggle of Argentinian aristos, who live in Eastover. And I know of a titled and wealthy French family, who've also moved into Eastover. There are a handful of others, and then.... NOBODY. The Mississippi fortunes are new or newish - even those held by Haute Sephardim (a group which includes most of my closest friends - all of whom grew up, like me, in desperate circumstances), and the "Colonial-Dames-eligible" (not that the two groups are mutually-exclusive...).

Jackson's home-grown "Fine Old Families" descend from Carpetbaggers and Scalawags, and from Gold Coast Bootleggers: Jackson Jambalaya: Rankin Grand Jury moves to shut down Gold Coast of East Jackson.

The area has, by the way, a large BLACK aristocracy. These families have been landowners, frequently, since before the Civil War. Third and fourth generation college grads are the norm. Traditionally, they have lived in Pecan Park, and in estate homes off Hanging Moss Road. Today, they're in Madison, and in Ridgeland's gated Bridgewater enclave.

Basically, more genteel people tend to settle in Belhaven, Eastover, and Madison. But while many of the families are old, their money is mostly new.

[Neshomamench]

I have found the Jackson area does not have much old money. Sure, there is certainly some, and like many places, it is deep, stoic, a respecter of manners and powerful, but like most things in Mississippi, there is less here than most other places per capita.

What you do have are a lot of old names who still think they are important but lack real funds. They hide behind the mask of "old money does not show off." Which is usually a code for "not much left." In a place as cheap as Mississippi, I am pretty sure I have observed many name brand people with remaining outer vestiges of wealth (Grandmother's stately home, an older luxury car and Jewelry handed down) but they maintain it on an absurdly small amount of money in clever ways. Perhaps incomes as low as 50K a year derived from some small timber work on the last acreage combined with rent from the garage apartment and the occasional selling of the dwindling asset pile. They live an astonishingly miserly life to maintain a brand. A few have overcome it by becoming successful professionals in their own right. A name brand person with MD, JD, or PE after his name can begin to fill drained family coffers.

The agriculture that produced the wealth in the first place does not work the same way these days and it has been enough generations that much of that wealth is gone. Either squandered, drained off or simply moved away. If I had to guess, I would bet you could find more "old money" with Mississippi roots outside of Mississippi than in it.

[sammyreynolds1977]

There isn't a lot of old money in Jackson anymore. There are pockets of old money in the delta but it's few and far in between. You have The Coker and Helton family in Yazoo City and The Lucas family in Greenwood and a couple of others but that's it. Like Neshomamench said most of these people have no influence anymore.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

My family and I favored Memphis over Jackson, if only because we have relatives around the big M.

[Bobby Joe Timkins]

Originally Posted by MathakFamily

Just curious to find out where the old money has tended to settle in or out of the city of Jackson. I am interested in location more than the financial aspect of it.

It is true

[MathakFamily]

Thank you for the replies. I was getting the impression the Jackson in an interesting state. My research already had Madison at the top of my list.

Everyone was so helpful for this, thank you.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by GrandviewGloria

[/i]Then, there was the tendency for the moneyed elites to move away, before their money had become 'old'. Too, the scions of bankrupted Old Money, tended to move to more prosperous regions, to work their way back up. So, among the Upper Crust of Park Avenue, Southampton, Santa Barbara, Denver, Seattle, Scottsdale, La Jolla, and Grosse Pointe Farms (and obviously, Houston's River Oaks, Dallas' Highland Park , and Atlanta's Druid Hills), a savvy social sleuth would probably find a wealth of Old Mississippi names.

Imagine if all these rich people were to bring their resources BACK to Mississippi! The state actually may begin to thrive. Think of the banks, service industries, etc. that could be created.

I plan to retire in Mississippi myself.