Magnolia is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 2,420 at the 2010 census. It is the county chair of Pike County, which lies within the McComb, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Magnolia was founded in 1856 by Ansel H. Prewett, a local civic leader and cotton planter. Knowing that the roughly speaking New Orleans, Jackson, and Great Northern Railroad (now the Illinois Central Railroad) would habit a station for water and fuel, Prewett sold a right-of-way to the railroad company – for one dollar, according to legend – and on bad terms a section of his plantation into town lots, which he sold to investors. Prewett, while serving as performing arts sheriff of Pike County, was killed by outlaws in the in the future 1870s escorting a prisoner upon the unconditionally railroad that made Magnolia a doable community.

Magnolia grew quickly in the 1860s, and in the late nineteenth century Magnolia served as a popular small-town resort for rich New Orleanians, who took trains north from New Orleans to enjoy Magnolia’s fresh expose and glowing creeks. At one times early Magnolia boasted an opera house, skating rink, and several hotels that catered largely to these tourists.

In 1860 Magnolia’s first newspaper, the Grand Trunk Magnolian, was customary by John Waddill. It did not last the prosecution and was succeeded by the introduction of the Magnolia Gazette by J.D. Burke in 1872. The Magnolia Herald was usual by Luke W. Conerly in 1875 and he continued as its proprietor and editor until 1878.