Go to the local registrar of deeds and ask for an archive plat map of the area you are interested in. That should begin to show you what you are looking for. Good luck. 
Google is your friend. A plat map is a scale map showing the division and sometimes includes ownership of land. Plats are usually done by registered surveyors. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems, basically digital computer mapping.
GIS is the Geographic Information System. Just about any county in the US has one now online. It will show property lines, tax information, etc. The perk to most of them is they include aerial photographs that sometimes go back a long ways. My county here in VA goes back to 1937. Cycling through the old aerials to the current ones helps me find the homesteads lost in the woods.
There are some old USGS topo maps available in USGS Archival Topo Maps that range in dates between 1915 and 1945. These are around Jackson. A fair sized cluster can also be found in the NW of MS. There are a few in the far NE, far SE and far SW. I notice that there is one topo from the 1885 to 1915 era that overlaps into MS in the Gainesville-Westonia area in far SW MS that is a good oldie and depicts various structures. Hit the USGS website and track down the historical/archival topo collection. I hope this helps and you get lucky.
I also use a software called CalTopo that provides LIDAR shaded relief information. Some areas of MS have better resolution than others. Some old cellars/foundations may be evident on the higher res shaded relief layer. This is fairly typical.
Beyond this READ historical books and articles. Tag up with the state historical society and plow through their archives. Get a feel for the ebb and flow of history in the areas you are interested in hunting. You are unlikely to find much where historical activity is lacking or absent. Civilization generally provides metal (but not always).
