Formed January 1, 1811 (10th county)
Marion County (24,438), Columbia (5,870)
The masonry Classical Revival courthouse was constructed in 1905. It is located at Main Street at Broad Street. Mississippi State Highway 43 passes in front of the facility. Patrick Henry Weathers was the architect. The building was remodeled in 1946, enlarged in 1974, and renovated in 1999. A Courthouse Annex was added in 1968. The courthouse features a working clock dome and columns with a veterans’ slab on the grounds. The county was formed on January 1, 1811 from parts of Amite, Franklin, and Wayne counties as the 10th county with Columbia as the only county seat. The county is named for Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. The county seat is named for Columbia, South Carolina.
Marion 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 Marion, Forrest, Lamar, Pearl River, and Perry counties, Three District Court Judges serve Marion, Jefferson Davis, Lamar, Lawrence, and Pearl River counties a court clerk serves Marion County (judicial.) The county is in the southern part of the state on the border with Louisiana. Jackson, Mississippi is northwest and New Orleans, Louisiana is south of the county. The county center is 6.8 miles Southeast of Columbia nearer Lampton. The county is surrounded clockwise by Jefferson Davis, Lamar, and Pearl River counties and Louisiana and Walthall and Lawrence counties.
The area of the county is 542 square miles. It is 44 out of 82 in the state. It ranks 39 out of 82 in population in the state. It has a density of 45.1 persons per square mile making it 36 out of 82 in the state. Marion County has 24.0% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 98 crosses the county east to west from Lamar County to Walthall County. The county looks like the number 9. Columbia is in the northern third of the county. Columbia is the county seat and the largest city as it is the only incorporated city. It is 24.0% of the county population.
Columbia
