1950 Map of Hornsby

About this map

Hornsby serves as the primary hub of this 1950 landscape, positioned where the Illinois Central railroad crosses the fertile drainage basins of the Hatchie River. The terrain is defined by the broad expanse of The Big Bottom, a network of sloughs and ditches that suggests a history of land management and drainage to reclaim the river valley for agriculture. Outside the central floodplain, the map reveals a rural topography dotted with neighborhood institutions like Walnut Grove School and Brints Chapel, which anchored small farming communities before the mid-century transition. Numerous family-named burial sites, including Wyatt Cem and Stanley Cem, are scattered across the rising ground east of the river, providing critical geographic markers for genealogists tracing ancestral homesteads in Hardeman and McNairy Counties.