Quitman County officials page puts courthouse contacts in one place

Quitman County residents looking for the right courthouse door do not have to guess. The county’s officials page gathers the main names, offices, phone numbers, and Marks locations that handle everyday government business, from records and court filings to taxes, law enforcement, and school administration.

That makes the page more than a directory. It is a working contact sheet for a small county where most public business still runs through 220 Chestnut Street in Marks.

Start with the offices residents use most

The officials page lists Beatrice Pryor as county administrator and comptroller, T.H. (Butch) Scipper as chancery clerk, Teareathrea Keeler as circuit clerk, Oliver Parker, Jr. as sheriff, Alice Crowder-Smith as tax assessor and tax collector, Walter L. Atkins, Jr. as coroner, and Jeremy Moore as superintendent of education. Each listing includes office location and phone number, which is what turns the page into something residents can actually use when they need help fast.

Most of those offices are at or near 220 Chestnut Street in Marks, which matters in a county where public access is built around one courthouse block. Instead of forcing residents to sort out separate departments scattered across the county, the page points them toward the same center of local government.

That kind of concentration lowers the friction of getting help. If you need property-tax questions answered, court records pulled, sheriff’s office business handled, or a school-system contact identified, the county has placed the relevant people in one place and named them plainly.

What each office handles

The chancery clerk and circuit clerk listings carry special weight because they are not just names on a page. Mississippi State University Extension Service guidance says the chancery clerk serves as clerk of the Board of Supervisors and the chancery court, while the circuit clerk serves circuit court duties, administers elections, and issues marriage licenses. That means the county’s contact page ties residents directly to offices that handle some of the most sensitive public functions in local government.

The county administrator position also has a legal backstory. Mississippi law allows the Board of Supervisors to appoint a county administrator, including the chancery clerk if that clerk agrees to serve in that role. In practical terms, that gives the board flexibility in how it manages county administration, while the officials page tells residents who is filling that role now.

The sheriff, tax assessor and collector, and coroner listings round out the countywide core. Those are the offices people rely on for public safety, tax administration, and death investigations, so having all of them identified by name and number in the same place is exactly the sort of basic government transparency rural residents often have to demand elsewhere.

Board meetings stay anchored at the courthouse

The same county website also posts the Board of Supervisors meeting schedule. Meetings are posted as recurring events at 9 a.m. at 220 Chestnut St. in Marks, and public participation is “highly encouraged.”

That detail matters because it gives residents a fixed time and place to raise concerns about roads, taxes, permits, and county services. The meeting notice works alongside the officials page: one tells people who to call, the other tells them when the board is available in public.

In a county where many questions start and end at the courthouse, that combination is practical accountability. Residents do not have to track down separate calendars or wonder where county business happens. The board’s meeting time and place are visible, and the courthouse is the venue.

Why the courthouse still defines county government

The building at 220 Chestnut Street carries its own history. The Quitman County Courthouse in Marks was constructed in 1910-11, designed by Chamberlin & Associates in the Neoclassical, or Classical Revival, style, and designated a Mississippi Landmark in 1990. Marks has been the county seat since 1910, after earlier county seats in Belen and then Marks.

That history explains why the courthouse remains the center of county life. The building is not just an old landmark; it is still the address where residents find the county’s most important offices and the meetings where supervisors conduct public business. In a county shaped by a small-town courthouse tradition, the building’s role has stayed remarkably intact.

Quitman County’s population makes that centralization even more important. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 5,364 residents in 2025, down from 6,176 in the 2020 census. In a county that small, an easy-to-use courthouse directory is not a convenience, it is access infrastructure.

The school connection runs through the same county map

The superintendent listing also helps connect county government to education. The Quitman County School District says it is located in Marks and serves the entire county, so the superintendent reference on the officials page is not a narrow city office listing. It points residents to a countywide school system that shares the same seat of government as the courthouse.

That is an important part of the page’s value. It shows how education leadership sits alongside the other county offices residents use for records, taxes, and elections. The result is a broader map of public authority, with the same physical center tying together different parts of county life.

For Quitman County, the officials page and board schedule do what a good courthouse guide should do: name the people in charge, show where they sit, and give residents a clear way in. In a small Delta county where public trust depends on access, that clarity is not ornamental. It is the point.