Fourteen decades ago, on the day before Christmas Eve, December 23, 1833, Governor Hiram G. Runnels signed into law an act of the Mississippi Legislature creating sixteen counties from the lands acquired at Dancing Rabbit Creek.
Choctaw was one of the new counties thus brought into being.It countatine an area of 1,080 square miles, more than two and a half times the 414 square miles which have been within its boundaries since 1875. Thus, it may be said that December 23 is Choctaw County's birthday, and it is now one hundred and forty years old. It is sixteen years younger than the state of Mississippi (admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817), and it is twelve years younger than the capital city of Jackson (established 1821). The legal description of the new county appears at page 35 of the Acts of the legislature as published by the State Printer in 1834:

Beginning at point on Big Black River, at which the line between townships No. 16 and 17 crosses the same: from thence, up said Big Black River, to the point at which the line between ranges No. 6 and 7 east, crosses said river {a point which is 25 miles west of present day Ackerman}: from thence north. with said line between No. 6 and 7 east, to the line between townships No. 21 and 22 {a distance of 35 miles}; from thence east, to the line between ranges No. 11 and 12 east {a distance of 35 miles}: from thence south, with said line between ranges No. 11 and 12 east, to the line between townships No. 16 and 17 {a distance of 36 miles}; and from thence west, with said line between townships No. 16 and 17, to the Big Black River, the of beginning.