Caile, Mississippi
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Caile is a small farming community in the Mississippi Delta. The origin of its name is unknown. Caile is located on Hwy 49W, 12 miles south of Indianola, Mississippi.
It was founded about 1888 but never grew to more than a small settlement. The post office (called Ark, for reasons unknown) was discontinued in 1917 (Brieger,J. F. 1980. Hometown Mississippi p 456). There was a store that operated there until 1997. The store was owned and operated by Sid and Helen Windham continuously since April of 1954. The store building itself, was constructed in 1930, and still exists today (June 2006) as the residence of Sid and Helen Windham. Families that settled in Caile were Aycock, Orr, Windham, Jones, Miller, Cook, Wright, Sumrall, Shepard, Maxwell, Bradley, Paxton, Pennebaker, Tinnin, and Gholston, to name a few. In the early part of the 20th century, (~1903) the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (known locally as the Yellow Dog) purchased ROW and built a line through the Caile community. There was a commissary and loading platform on the property of Ellis Orr. This served as a flagstop for the Y&MVRR. A large open sandpit exist today just south of this site where dirt for constructing the roadbed was excavated. The railroad was abandoned in the 1970's.
Churches
The Caile United Methodist Church is east of the sandpit facing Hwy 49W. Across the highway from the church is the Caile Cemetery, which has been in use since 1894. St Lawrence Missionary Baptist Church, a church of African-American origin is farther south on the highway. The cemetery for this church is on both sides of Hwy 49W. Many of the graves in this cemetery were moved west of the highway when ROW was acquired for four-laning. Property for both of these churches was donated in the 1890's by Ms Emma Reynolds, the postmistress of Ark.
Historical Buildings
Very few of the original dwellings remain in Caile. The Windham homeplace, which was originally part of the Jake Orr estate still stands but is in very poor condition. Also, the Methodist parsonage still stands, but it too is in poor condition. The only other older homes are on the Sumrall property.
Schools
There were two segregated schools in the Caile community. The African-American school was on the property of W. W. Gholston. It had not been in use since the 1950's, and was destroyed by fire in 2006. The "white" school was just south of the Caile store on the property of W. O. Jones. It was consolidated with Inverness in the early 1930's. The site of this school is now a large pit where dirt was excavated for highway construction during four-laning in the 1980's.
External Links
Caile Cemetary http://www.dixiescv.org/1-cemetery/mississippi/caile-cemetery/1-caile-cemetery.html
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