Wailes traveled through the community in 1852 and wrote in his journal: After crossing [the] Bouie over a bridge (passing through the bottom land in which there is a good deal of large oak & gum mixed with some Shortleaf pine) ascended a considerable eminence to a level table land of Oak and hickory, on which the village of Mount Carmel is situated.

[2]Around 1873, John Fielding Holloway built a large house in Mount Carmel, and it remains the community's only 19th-century structure.

The new community began to prosper, and contained all the essential services, goods and farm products needed for self-sufficiency.

[2] In 1911, Robert Decatur "Cap" Polk, a leading African-American planter and businessmen, purchased the Holloway House, and installed a large and modern farm on the nearby property.

[2] Now called the John Fielding Holloway House, it remains one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Jefferson Davis County.