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Biography/History:
Samuel McCorkle was born in North Carolina on January 1, 1795. He had moved to Paris, Tennessee, by 1818 and was employed as a bill collector, land speculator, and surveyor in the Obion River Valley. There, McCorkle ran the Cypress Bridge land lottery in 1832.
Following the Chickasaw Cession of 1832, McCorkle became more involved in land speculation. He worked as land appraiser and surveyor for Chickasaw land agent Benjamin Reynolds in 1833. After sales were completed, McCorkle had secured between sixty-eight and seventy-six square miles of Chickasaw Cession lands in north Mississippi.
Concurrently with his land-purchasing activities, McCorkle also became involved with several land companies. These included the Pontotoc Land Company (1835); Hernando Railroad and Banking Company (1837); and Holly Springs Real Estate Banking Company (1837), of which he was president.
The Holly Springs Real Estate Banking Company was an unchartered institution, which issued its own currency based upon declared land values rather than the sums actually paid for land. The company functioned from 1837 until the early 1840s, when it was forced to close following a financial panic. McCorkle and other company officers reportedly pledged private funds to cover the bank’s debts.
McCorkle and several Holly Springs Real Estate Banking Company partners were involved in the development of the towns of Lauderdale and Norfolk. Lauderdale was laid out, plans were developed, and some stocks were sold. Norfolk was similarly laid out, roads cut, and stock and even some lots were sold. Neither town flourished, however.
Kate McCorkle, daughter of Samuel McCorkle, married C. G. Nelms of Holly Springs on September 25, 1842. The land comprising the town of Norfolk was later listed on tax rolls as a plantation owned by Kate McCorkle Nelms.
Samuel McCorkle died on October 9, 1850, and he was buried in Holly Springs.
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