White settlers from both the Atlantic states and the Natchez District established small farms in southern Mississippi soon after it became an American territory in 1798, relying for transportation on the Pearl River and St. Stephens Road (now MS 43). Set on a hill overlooking MS 43, the clapboard one-story Newsom House, raised on brick piers, had an open dogtrot between the two primary rooms until the 1920s, when it was enclosed with French doors. The residence has a broken-slope side-gabled roof and original or early front cabinet rooms under the gallery. Isaac Jr. and Mary Eliza Newsom arrived from Georgia with between five and ten slaves and grew primarily cotton. Around 1839, their son John built a similar clapboard house, now called the Newsom-Lane House, about one-half mile north of New Hebron on the east side of MS 43.