In 1855, Kemper County merchant John T. Ball and Alabama lawyer Lewis Ragsdale laid out separate town grids at angles to one another, with the grids meeting along what is today Meridian’s 6th Street. While locals called the area Sowashee, Ball established a post office and called his development Meridian, and the name prevailed. In 1855 the Mobile and Ohio Railroad built a spur line into the area, and by 1861 the town had become a railroad junction and home to a Confederate arsenal, which led to much destruction by the Union army. After the war, Meridian was made the seat of Lauderdale County, and by 1885 it was the junction of five railroads. The town boomed, becoming the largest in the state by the early twentieth century. After World War II, as passenger trains were supplanted by automobiles and planes, Meridian lost its significance as a transportation center, and today the most powerful economic drivers are medical facilities and, adjacent to one another, the Riley performing arts center (EM10) and Mississippi State University’s downtown campus.
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