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Mississippi County
Leake County, Mississippi
Carthage's piney hills character and central Mississippi's agricultural corridor - from Leake County's position in the central Mississippi piney hills (the rolling red clay hills and longleaf pine landscape of Leake County represent the transition zone between Mississippi's coastal plain and the central hill country - a landscape of small farms, timber operations, and rural communities that has maintained a distinctive character through generations of economic change) to Leake County's proximity to the Choctaw Reservation and the economic influence of the Pearl River Resort on the surrounding central Mississippi region.
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Sheriff: Leake County Sheriff’s Office – 316 C.O. Brooks Street, Carthage, MS 39051 | (601) 267-7361 | Fax: (601) 267-4658; Sheriff Randy W. Atkinson; staff of roughly 50 employees across Patrol, Investigative, Narcotics, K-9, and Jail Divisions.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: MS-16 and MS-35 serve Carthage, the county seat, in central Mississippi. Leake County borders the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians’ reservation lands, which extend across parts of Leake, Neshoba, Newton, Scott, Jones, Attala, Kemper, and Winston Counties.
Notes: Leake County was founded in 1833, named for antebellum Governor Walter Leake. The county has one of Mississippi’s most significant Native American populations – Choctaw residents made up roughly 6% of the county’s population as of the 2000-2010 census, among the highest concentrations in the state alongside neighboring Neshoba and Newton Counties. Leake County has also historically been Mississippi’s second-highest milk-producing county, reflecting a strong dairy farming tradition.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Leake County Courthouse – Court Square, Carthage, MS 39051.
Notes: Leake County is genuinely the home of the Leake County Revelers, a celebrated country string band formed in 1926 in nearby Sebastopol, led by fiddler Will Gilmer with R.O. Mosley (mandolin/banjo-mandolin), Jim Wolverton (banjo), and Dallas Jones (guitar). The band recorded 40 sides for Okeh and Columbia Records between 1927-1930; their biggest hit, “Wednesday Night Waltz,” sold over 195,000 copies by 1931 and remained in print into the 1950s – a genuinely significant contribution to early American string band and country music. Author Katherine Bellamann, born in Carthage in 1877, is another notable native. The county was also the site of “Operation Pretense,” a major 1980s public corruption investigation centered in Carthage.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Leake County Veterans Service Office – confirm current contact via leakecountyms.org.
Federal: VA facilities accessible via a Jackson, MS VA medical center; confirm current routing.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Confirm current Carthage public library address/phone via leakecountyms.org.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians’ cultural sites, Court Square in downtown Carthage, and the county’s dairy farming heritage are among the county’s notable features.
Notes: The genuine musical legacy of the Leake County Revelers – one of the most commercially successful early American string bands – is a distinctive local fact covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Leake County Tax Assessor – confirm current contact via leakecountyms.org.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Remos Rescue – Leake County, MS; rescues and advocates for homeless, neglected, and abused dogs and puppies in Leake County and surrounding areas.
Animal House – Carthage, MS; a local animal welfare organization founded 2023.
Animal cruelty/neglect may also be reported to the Sheriff’s Office, (601) 267-7361.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Leake County Road Department – 312 C.O. Brooks, Carthage, MS 39051.
NOTES: Leake County is the fifth county in the sixth batch of the Mississippi v2 A+ sourced redo. The genuine musical legacy of the Leake County Revelers – one of the most commercially successful early American string bands – is a distinctive local fact covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Leake County
Leake County is central Mississippi’s piney hills agricultural county – the rolling red clay terrain between Jackson and Philadelphia supports timber, livestock, and small-scale farming communities in the Mississippi interior.
Carthage (the county seat, population ~4,600) serves Leake County’s agricultural and timber communities in the central Mississippi hills.
All Services
Browse every category and topic available for this county.
Leake County Tax Assessor at 109 S. Pearl Street, Suite 3, Carthage, MS 39051, phone 601-267-3021. MS residential assessed at 10% of true value.
Courts & Legal
Leake County Chancery Court at 109 S. Pearl Street, Carthage, MS 39051, phone 601-267-7371, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CHANCERY CLERK
101 Leake County Civic Center Dr., Carthage, MS 39051
(601) 267-7371
CIRCUIT CLERK
101 Leake County Civic Center Dr., Carthage, MS 39051
(601) 267-7371
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Leake County Chancery Court (probate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Leake County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Leake County Chancery Court P.O. Box 72, Carthage, MS 39051 (601) 267-7371 Leake County is in central Mississippi, seated in Carthage.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Mississippi has not adopted the Uniform Probate Code and instead follows its own statutory framework under Miss. Code Ann. Title 91, Chapter 7. Mississippi’s small-estate threshold, at $75,000, is one of the lowest in the country, so most estates end up needing at least some court involvement.
Small Estate Affidavit (Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-322) – personal property only, up to $75,000 (excluding liens and encumbrances). A 30-day waiting period after death applies. The affidavit is presented directly to whoever holds the property (a bank, for instance); that party is not required to investigate the truth of the affidavit and is protected from liability once it complies.
Muniment of Title (Miss. Code Ann. § 91-5-35) – a limited proceeding to transfer real property named in a will, without full administration, when the estate’s non-real-estate assets are $75,000 or less and all debts (including taxes) have been paid. A petition is still filed with the Chancery Court to declare the will valid; the will and court order are then recorded in the land records.
Formal Administration – required for most estates with real property beyond the muniment-of-title threshold or significant liquid assets. The Chancery Judge reviews the petition, the will (if any), and supporting documents before issuing Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration appointing the personal representative.
Step 2: filing for probate
File a petition with the Chancery Court in the county where the decedent was domiciled.
The personal representative inventories assets and notifies creditors; Mississippi’s creditor claim period runs 90 days (Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-145).
Claims and disputes are adjudicated by the Chancery Court if contested.
Once debts are settled and the creditor period closes, the estate can be distributed and closed.
What it costs
Costs are the Chancery Clerk’s per-county filing fee (built on the statewide base under Miss. Code § 25-7-9), plus recording fees and publication costs.
Mississippi has no state estate tax or inheritance tax. Only the federal estate tax could separately apply, and only to very large estates.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
101 Leake County Civic Center Dr., Carthage, MS 39051
(601) 267-7281
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
ELECTIONS
101 Leake County Civic Center Dr., Carthage, MS 39051
(601) 267-7371
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Office: Leake County Health Department (Mississippi State Department of Health) – confirm current phone via leakecountyms.org.
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