Adam Monroe Byrd (1859-1912) built a home near this site and began a law practice in 1885. Byrd served as the Neshoba County superintendent of education (1887-89), in the Mississippi Senate (1889-96) and House of Representatives (1896-97), as prosecuting attorney for the tenth judicial district (1897), chancery court judge for the sixth district (1897-1903), and in Congress (1903-1911). In 1928 the Adam Byrd Literary Society was established at Philadelphia High School in his honor.