The complainants were the owners of lot 12, of block 25, of the Caldwell survey of the city of Meridian, on which they had a storehouse and were engaged in the mercantile business. The storehouse faced Second street to the south and Twenty-Seventh avenue on the east. The tracks of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company crossed Twenty-Seventh avenue and Second street just opposite the corner of the store, running diagonally in a northeasterly and southwesterly direction, and the railroad company had maintained a crossing on Twenty-Seventh avenue for many, more than ten, years. The railroad company owned a tract of land east of Twenty-Seventh avenue and south of its right of way on which it desired to construct roundhouses, a coal chute, and a largo number of side tracks ; and in order to more easily approach this lot it had purchased block 31, as shown by the accompanying plat, and across block 31 it proposed to lay its tracks. In order to carry out its plans the railroad company proposed to the city that, if the city authorities would permit the closing of Caldwell street and the closing of that portion of Twenty-Seventh avenue between the northern boundary of the right of way at the intersection of Twenty-Seventh avenue and Second street, and the northern line of St. Andrews street … (see case below — includes plat of the location in question).

Here’s the outcome (today)

PDF of 1908 Mississippi Supreme Court Case

And here is another digest report that correctly identifies the James D. Poythress as the complainant in the case.  Note that the Mississippi Supreme Court record mis-identifies as John Poythress.

Poythress-Railroad-Southern Reporter