Submitted by the Canton-Madison County Historical Society
For decades, Walterine B. Summerlin quietly preserved the history and genealogy of many families and institutions in Madison County.
Ms. Summerlin, who passed away on July 12, 2025, in Canton, at the age of 98, spent countless hours researching the families, cemeteries, schools, churches, and communities that shaped our county.
Recently, the Canton-Madison County Historical Society received a Facebook message from Lynn Bailey Wiggers of Kosciusko. Although she lives in Attala County, Lynn recognized that the two crates of historical and genealogical research she had acquired overwhelmingly documented the people, places, and families of Madison County.
Rather than keeping the collection or allowing it to be discarded, she reached out to ask if the Canton-Madison County Historical Society would be interested in giving it a permanent home.
Our answer was - yes.
A few days later, we met Lynn in the parking lot of the Madison Lowe’s, where she generously entrusted the collection to the Society.
The collection reflects a lifetime of careful work by Ms. Summerlin. Inside are family histories, cemetery records, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, research notebooks, and carefully organized files documenting generations of Madison County families, with particular emphasis on the communities of Canton, Camden, and Farmhaven.
Among the many family names represented are Ashley, Cain, Cameron, Culipher, Permenter, Payland, Ray, Shannon, and numerous others.
The donation also includes several important reference works, including Memories of Farmhaven School, 1924–1969, Sulphur Spring/Culipher Methodist Cemetery, CAMERON… Lest We Forget by Robert Howell Cauthen, and Cemeteries of Madison County, Mississippi, compiled by Walter W. Wellington.
Together with the binders, books, and research files, these materials preserve countless stories that might otherwise have been lost.
Genealogical research is often a quiet labor of love. It is built one document, one photograph, one cemetery visit, and one family story at a time.
We are especially grateful to Lynn Bailey Wiggers for recognizing that this remarkable collection belonged where its story began. Her generosity and thoughtfulness ensured that Ms. Summerlin’s work remained in Madison County, where it will continue to serve researchers, descendants, students, and anyone interested in our shared heritage.
The Canton-Madison County Historical Society is honored to become the steward of this extraordinary archive.
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