Union

Formed April 7, 1870 (67^th county)

Union County (27,782), New Albany (7,621)

The Classical Revival and Beaux Arts tan brick and masonry structure, built in 1909, is on a square of Court, Bankhead, Camp, and Main streets.  Mississippi Highway 178 is Bankhead.  H. E. Ostling is the building designer.  There was an 1882 version of the courthouse.  The building features a dome and a working clock.  The facility was renovated in 1994 and 2005 and is being renovated in 2015.  The county was founded on April 7, 1870 from parts of Lee, Pontotoc, and Tippah counties as the 67^th county with New Albany as the only county seat.  It was taken from several counties and was named for their “union.”  The county seat is named for Albany, Georgia. 

Union County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, an attorney, a collector, a coroner, an assessor and a clerk (executive).  It has 5 Supervisors (legislative.)  Four Chancery Court Judges serve Union, Alcorn, Itawamba, Lee, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss, and Tishomingo counties, Three District Court Judges serve Union, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Lafayette, Marshall, and Tippah counties and a court clerk serves Union County (judicial.) Union County is in the northeast part of Mississippi.  Memphis, Tennessee is northwest and Jackson, Mississippi is southwest of the county.  The county center is 3.3 miles Southeast of New Albany.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Tippah, Prentiss, Lee, Pontotoc, Lafayette, Marshall, and Benton counties. 

The area of the county is 416 square miles.  It is 70 out of 82 in the state.  It ranks 34 out of 82 in population in the state.  It has a density of 66.8 persons per square mile making it 21 out of 82 in the state.  Union County has 31.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 78 crosses diagonally from northwest to southeast in the county from Benton County to Lee County.  The county looks like a flat pistol.  New Albany is in the western half of the county.  New Albany is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 27.4% of the county population.

Sherman