McComb, Mississippi: The Railroad President's Shop Town
McComb, Mississippi, carries the name of the railroad president who put his repair shops here, and those shops are what built the town. That’s not a guess from the name: every old source found for this article ties McComb the man to the railroad.
Colonel McComb’s shops
Mississippi’s 1938 state guide, written by the Federal Writers’ Project, is the most direct. “Col. H. S. McComb, founder of the town, was president of the New Orleans, Jackson & Northern R.R. built in 1857 between New Orleans and Jackson.” Then it says what made the place: “Colonel McComb’s decision to establish the railroad shops here was responsible for the town’s rapid growth.” Those shops, the guide adds, “were the biggest in the State and attracted a sturdy class of mechanics that became the backbone of the population.”
So the name and the shops go together. In the guide’s account, McComb founded the town, put his shops there, and the town grew up around them. The line ran north to Jackson, the state capital, which is the other end of the railroad the guide names.
Which railroad?
Here’s a wrinkle you’ll run into. Henry Gannett, writing for the Geological Survey in 1905, says McComb was “named for a former owner of the Mississippi Central Railroad,” not the New Orleans line. Dunbar Rowland’s 1907 encyclopedia of Mississippi repeats Gannett nearly word for word: the town “was named for a former owner of the Mississippi Central, now the Illinois Central R. R.”
Gannett and Rowland don’t give the owner’s first name, and the WPA guide doesn’t mention the Mississippi Central. The sources don’t conflict on the man, only on which of his railroads to mention. Rowland’s wording also tells you where both lines ended up: in the Illinois Central.
Still a shop town in 1907
Rowland says the Illinois Central kept “the largest and most complete railroad shops within the State” at McComb, with “a large number of men in building and repairing cars and locomotives.” The town had 2,383 people in 1890 and 4,477 in 1900. One of its two newspapers was the McComb City Journal, a hint that the town also went by McComb City.
The 1972 survey map shows how much ground the railroad still took up, a wide band of tracks and shop buildings running right along downtown.
Quick answers
Who is McComb, Mississippi, named after?
Col. H. S. McComb, the railroad president who founded the town, as the 1938 WPA guide tells it. Gannett (1905) says only that the town was named for “a former owner of the Mississippi Central Railroad,” and Rowland (1907) repeats it.
Why was McComb built where it is?
Because of the railroad shops. Colonel McComb’s decision to put the shops here “was responsible for the town’s rapid growth,” in the guide’s words.
Was McComb ever called McComb City?
A newspaper there was called the McComb City Journal in 1907, according to Rowland. None of the sources here gives a date for the shorter name.
Key dates
- 1857The New Orleans, Jackson & Northern is built between New Orleans and Jackson (WPA guide).
- 1890Census population of McComb: 2,383.
- 1900Census population: 4,477.
Getting there
Open McComb in Google Maps
Opens in a new tab. The pin is the center of McComb in the USGS place-name record.
The closest airports, Amtrak stations and intercity bus stops, measured in a straight line from the center of McComb.
Airports
- Baton Rouge Metro, Ryan Field (BTR) 64 mi 103 km
- Hattiesburg/Laurel Regional (PIB) Moselle 68 mi 109 km
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (MSY) Kenner 87 mi 140 km
Amtrak trains
- McComb station (MCB) under 1 mi 0.2 km
- Brookhaven station (BRH) 23 mi 38 km
Intercity buses
- Delta Bus Lines Inc. Woodville 51 mi 82 km
Distances are as the crow flies, not by road. We don't list schedules or fares because they change; check with the airline, Amtrak or the bus company before you go. Official data (FAA commercial service airports (2025), FAA airport locations, Amtrak stations and Intercity Bus Atlas) from the FAA and the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, checked Nov 6, 2026.
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Historical Sources & References
- Federal Writers’ Project, Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State (1938), p. 396. “Col. H. S. McComb, founder of the town,” president of the New Orleans, Jackson & Northern, and the railroad shops “responsible for the town’s rapid growth.”
- Henry Gannett, The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States (1905), p. 193. McComb “named for a former owner of the Mississippi Central Railroad.”
- Dunbar Rowland, ed., Mississippi, vol. 2 (1907), pp. 185-186. The same naming in Gannett’s words, the Illinois Central’s shops, the census figures for 1890 and 1900 and the McComb City Journal.
- GNIS feature 673307 (U.S. Geological Survey). The Geological Survey’s gazetteer entry for McComb, in Pike County.
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