Lott

Lott was a small community near the site of Hidalgo twelve miles from Independence in northeastern Washington County. It had a general store and a United States post office that opened in November 1882. The town was named for its first postmaster, Joseph B. Lott, and grew up around Lott's store. Its population was predominantly black Republicans. The community was one of the sites of voting disorders in November 1886 investigated by the United States Congress in 1888. Lott's ballot box was stolen by the Ku Klux Klan, which supported a Populist-Democratic coalition, to prevent Republican control of county government. The rise of the McCraven community hastened the decline of Lott. In 1890, though the town's population was 200, the post office closed. Nothing remains of this agricultural community.