YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

*eE,

NEW STATE CAPITOL. (See Vol. I p. 356.)

MISSISSIPPI

Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events,
institutions, and Persons, Arranged in
Cyclopedic Form

' PLANNED AND EDITED BY
DUNBAR ROWLAND, LL. D.
DIRECTOR, MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTORY; MEMBER,
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

IN THREE VOLUMES

VOL. II

ATLANTA
Southern Historical Publishing Association
1907

Copyright, 1907,
By
THE SOUTHERN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING
ASSOCIATION

mississi ppi

Labauve, Felix, was born at Vanziers, France, Nov. 16, 1809.
His father died when he was a child, and he was sent by his
mother, who was poor, to her brothers at Camden, S. C, to be
reared by them. He became a clerk in their store; came to Mis
sissippi in 1835 ; carried on a mercantile business among the In
dians in DeSoto county ; moved to Hernando in 1838 ; became a
lawyer and an ardent Democrat; was one of the editors of the
Phoenix in 1841-42 ; was elected to the legislature in 1843 and to
the State senate in 1845. He served as a county official for two
years; was an ardent secessionist; and while too old to be a regu
lar soldier, was in the Confederate service part of the time. On
one occasion he captured, single handed, four of the enemy. He
served in the legislature in 1866, and was the State commissioner
to the Paris exposition in 1877. He never married and when he
died, at an advanced age, his will gave $5,000 to Miss Bertha Pon-
sin, of France, his only relative living; generously remembered a
number of widows ; gave some property for the building of a
Catholic church ; and gave the rest of his estate for the creation
of scholarships in the University of Mississippi to bear his name.
Ladner, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Pearl River
county," situated on the Wolf river, about 15 miles distant from
Poplarville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50.
Lafayette County was established February 9, 1836, and was
named in honor of the distinguished friend of the American Re
public, the Marquis de Lafayette. It is one of the dozen counties
carved from the Chickasaw Indian lands in northern Mississippi
during that year, after the Chickasaws, in 1832, had surrendered all
their remaining lands by the Treaty of Pontotoc. The original act
defines its boundaries as follows: "Beginning at the point where
the line between townships 11 and 12 intersects the basis meridian,
to the center of township 6; thence west, through the center of
township 6, according to the sectional lines, to the center of range
5 west ; thence south, through the center of range 5 west, according
to the sectional lines, to the-northern boundary line of Yalobusha
county, to the point where the line between townships 11 and 12
intersects the eastern boundary line of Yalobusha county, and
thence east with the said township line to the beginning." (See
Marshall county for present boundary between Lafayette and
2-II 17

18 MISSISSIPPI
Marshall.) The total area is about 673 square miles. Two of the
earliest settlements in the county were at Eaton and Wyatt — both
of which are now extinct. Eaton was about fifteen miles west of
the present town of Oxford, on the Tallahatchie river, where there
was a ferry enabling the settlers of parts of Panola and Lafayette
counties to cross the river, on their way to and from Oxford. The
panic of 1837 destroyed the incipient town. Dr. Corbin was a
prominent planter of the neighborhood in the early 30's. Wyatt
was located about 13 miles from Oxford, on the supposed head of
navigation of the Tallahatchie river. It was first settled about the
time of the Chickasaw cession, and was once the shipping point
for a large section of country, and boats plied between it and New
Orleans. The Brooks gin, manufactured here, was widely used in-
northern Mississippi. Here dwelt for a time the celebrated Dr.
Robert Watt, called the best physician in Northern Mississippi ;
Thos. H. Allen, A. Gillis, Andrew Peterson, Maj. Alston, Dr. R. O.
Carter and Dr. Edw. McMucken. The town decayed rapidly after
the panic of 1837. Lafayette county is bounded on the north by
the county of Marshall, the Tallahatchie river forming part of the
dividing line ; on the east, by Union and Pontotoc counties ; on the
south by Calhoun and Yalobusha counties and on the west by
Panola county. The most important town and the county seat is
the thriving city of Oxford, built on a beautiful ridge near the
center of the county. It contained a population of 1,825, in 1900, an
increase of nearly 300 over the census of 1890 ; in 1906, the popula
tion of Oxford was estimated at 2,000. It is noted as the seat of the
State University and the home of many families of wealth and
culture. It received its name from the English university town of
the same name, in anticipation of its subsequent selection as the seat
of the State's chief institution of learning. The Uuiversity was
located here by Act of the Legislature in 1840, and during the last
ten years, has advanced materially in the thoroughness and scope
of its work, as well as in point of attendance. There was also
located in Oxford (until 1904), the Union Female College, incor
porated in 1838 as the Oxford Female Academy, and, in 1854, re
incorporated and placed under the auspices of the Cumberland
Presbyterian church. This was the second institution of learning
chartered within the limits of the Chickasaw cession, and ranked
as the oldest female school, in the State, of unbroken history. There
are 82 white schools and .57 colored schools in the county. Besides
Oxford, the towns of Abbeville, Taylor and Springdale are railroad
towns of importance. The county is watered by the Tallahatchie
and Yocona rivers and their numerous tributaries. The Illinois
Central R. R., crosses the central part of the county from north to
south and gives the region excellent transportation facilities. The
prosperous town of Water Valley, in Yalobusha county, is the
market and shipping point for the southern part of the county. The
general character of the soil is good and the region produces cotton,
corn, oats, sorghum, and all kinds of grasses. A good deal of
attention has been paid to the cultivation of fruits and this industry

MISSISSIPPI 19
has been much encouraged by the liberal policy of the Illinois
Central Railway Company. Apples, pears, peaches, figs and small
fruits are raised and shipped to the /large northern markets. There
is a good deal of valuable timber left in the county, much of it
hardwood, and industries to utilize its great resources in this respect
will, no doubt, come in time. Much attention is being paid to stock
raising, for which the region is well adapted. There is little manu
facturing done in the county as yet and its wealth lies in its live
stock and the products of its soil.
The twelfth census for 1900 gives the following statistics for
Lafayette county : vNumber of farms, 3,871 ; acres in farms, 346,743 ;
acres improved, 127,915 ; value of the land exclusive of buildings,
$1,880,120 ; value of live stock, $696,649 ; value of all products not
fed to stock, $1,419,478. The number of manufacturing establish
ments was 71 ; capital invested, $139,115 ; wages paid, $17,140 ; cost
of materials, $64,183, and total value of products, $138,552. The
population of the county in 1900, consisted of 12,378 whites; 9,732
colored, a total of 22,110 and 1,557 more than in the year 1890. The
total population in 1906, is estimated at 25,000. The total assessed
valuation of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was
$2,820,216 and in 1906 it was $3,325,560, showing an increase during
the year of $505,344.
Lafayette Springs, an incorporated post-town on the eastern border
of Lafayette county, about 15 miles east of Oxford, the nearest rail
road and banking town. It has two churches and an academy.
Population in 1900, 124 ; population in 1906, estimated at 200. The
town is prosperous and growing.
Lafayette's Visit. During the celebrated visit of Gen. Lafay
ette to America in 1824-5, he made a hurried tour of the south
western States in the spring of 1825. His voyage up the Mississippi
river on the steamer Natchez has been minutely recorded in the
journal of his faithful secretary, A. Levasseur. Of his visit to
Natchez, the only town in the State of Mississippi which he visited,
he has this to say: "On Monday, the 18th of April, some distant
discharges of cannon, which we heard at dawn, announced our
approach to a city. Some minutes afterwards, the first rays of
the sun gilding the shores of the Mississippi, which, in this place,
rose a hundred and fifty feet above the surface of the water,
showed us the tops' of the houses in Natchez. Our steamboat
stopped a little while previous to arriving opposite the town, and we
went on shore at Bacon's landing, where the citizens, with a calash
and four horses, and an escort of ca-valry and volunteer infantry,
were waiting for the general. ... In proportion as we advanced,
the escort increased. It consisted of citizens on horseback, mili
tia on foot, ladies in carriages, and nearly the whole population,
who came in a crowd to see their beloved and long expected guest.
Two addresses were made to the general ; one by the president of
the committee of arrangement, on entering the city; the other by
the mayor, on one of the most elevated spots on the banks of the
Mississippi, within view of the town and the river, its source of

20 MISSISSIPPI
prosperity. ... At the moment we were preparing to enter
our hotel, we observed a long procession of children of both sexes
approaching us. They were led by Col. Marshall, who requested
of the general for them, permission to shake hands with him. The
general willingly complied. . . .
"The inhabitants of Natchez neglected nothing which could
contribute to the pleasure of their guest during the twenty-four
hours he remained with them. The public dinner concluded with
toasts, 'To the Nation's Guest — The Triumph of Yorktown —
France fighting for the liberty of the world — The victory of New
Orleans' — in fact to all glorious and patriotic American recollec
tions." On leaving Natchez "the committee of New Orleans were joined
by two gentlemen from Natchez, as representatives of the state
of Mississippi, near the person of General Lafayette."
La Grange was once a thriving little town in the northern part of
Choctaw county, about V/2 miles south of the Big Black river. It
was selected as the county seat in 1871, after Choctaw county had
been divided to assist in the formation of Montgomery county,
because Greensboro, the first county seat, was too far from the
center of the county, and the court house there, moreover, had been
destroyed by fire. It was not, however, suffered to remain the
county seat for long. Choctaw county was again divided in 1874
by the Legislature, which was then Republican, to form the new
county of Webster. Two months earlier, the court house at La
Grange had been burned — it was rumored by incendiaries — who
favored a division of the county to create a Republican county out of
part of it. For these reasons, the county seat was again moved — this
time to Chester, and La Grange dwindled away, and is now little
more than a postoffice site. Its population in 1900, was only 39.
Capt. J. B. Dunn, F. A. Critz, S. R. Boyd, J. P. Mullen, Capt.
R. F. Holloway, D. B. Archer, and J. W. Pinson, lawyers; Drs.
A. R. Boyd, and J. W. Robinson, physicians ; and Seward, Boyd &
Co., Nolen & Bridges, J. M. Petty, G. W. Gunter and Allen Philly,
merchants, were the leading citizens during the prosperous days of
La Grange.
Lake, a post-village in the eastern part of Scott county, on the
Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., 54 miles east of Jackson, and 10 miles
east of Forest, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice,
four churches, two seminaries, a bank which Was established in
1905, two saw mills, one of which is the largest in the county, good
hotels and livery stable. Its population in 1906, was estimated
at 500.
Lake City, a postoffice of Yazoo county, situated on Wolf lake,
8 miles northwest of Yazoo City. It has several stores, a church and
good schools. Its population is about 50.
Lake Como, a little village in the southwestern part of Jasper
county, 14 miles southwest of Paulding, the county seat, and 1
mile east of Tallahoma creek. Bayspring, 4 miles to the west, on

MISSISSIPPI 21
the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., is the nearest railroad,
banking and telegraph station. Population in 1900, 50.
Lake Cormorant, a post-hamlet in the western part of De Soto
county, situated at the junction of the main line of the Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley R. R., and its Riverside division, 15 miles north
west of Hernando, the county seat, and nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 52 ; th^ population in 1906, was estimated at 100.
Lakeshore, a post-village of Hancock county, situated on the Gulf
coast, and a station on the Louisville & Nashville R. R., 7 miles
southwest of Bay St. Louis, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50.
Lake View, a post-hamlet of De Soto county, situated on Horn
Lake, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 18
miles northwest of Hernando, the county seat.
Lake, William A., was born in Maryland in 1808. He was ad
mitted to the bar, and was a member of the legislature in his
native State; he removed to Vicksburg, Miss., in 1834, where he
attained prominence as a lawyer, and was elected to the State sen
ate of 1848, and to the United States congress in 1855-57 ; he
represented Warren county in the legislature, 1859-61 ; and in
1861 was a candidate for the Confederate States congress, and was
killed in a duel by his opponent, Chalmers.
Lamar, an extinct town of Benton (formerly Marshall) county.
It was located on the stage road between Holly Springs and La
grange, Tenn. Its site is now a cultivated field. (See Benton
county). It gave its name to the present incorporated town,
situated 2 miles east on the Illinois Central R. R. The present town
of Lamar is a prosperous little station, with a church and a good
school. Its population in 1900, .was 70.
Lamar County was the last on the roll of Mississippi counties to
be established, and was created March 10, 1904 from the second
judicial district of Marion county and the northern part of Pearl
River county. It has an undulating surface of 540 square miles.
It received its name in honor of Justice L. Q. C. Lamar, and the
early history of the region composing its territory has been else
where recounted under the titles of "Marion County," and "Pearl
River County." The original act, amending the previous act of
February 19, 1904, defined its boundaries as follows : "Commenc
ing at the northwest corner of township 5, range 16 west of Saint
Stephen's Meridian, thence running east along the township line
to the northeast corner of township 5, north, range 15 west ; thence
along the range line to the southeast corner of township 5 north,
range 15 west ; thence east along the township line to the northeast
corner of township 4 north, range 14 west ; thence south along the
range line to a point one mile north of the 31st parallel of latitude;
thence west to the line between ranges 15 and 16 west; thence
south along the range line to the 31st parallel of latitude ; thence
west along said 31st parallel to the line between ranges 16 and 17 ;
thence along said line to the place of beginning. And that part of
Pearl River county contiguous to said above described territory,
circumscribed by line run as follows : Beginning at the point where

22 MISSISSIPPI
the line between sections 33 and 34, township 1 north, range 15
west, intersects the 31st parallel of north latitude, and running, east
along said 31st parallel to a point where theJine between sections
2 and 3, township 1 south, range 15 west, intersects said 31st
parallel ; thence south along line between sections 2 and 3 to corner
of sections 2, 3, 10 and 11, township 1 south, range 15 west ; thence
east along line between first and second tiers of sections south of
said 31st parallel to the corner common to sections 5, 6, 7 and 8,
township 1 south, range .14 west; thence north along line between
sections 5 and 6 to said 31st parallel ; thence east to a point where
a line drawn centrally north and south through section 32, town
ship 1 north, range 14 west, intersects said 31st parallel; thence
north 1 mile to the line between Pearl River and Marion counties ;
thence west along said line separating said counties to the point
where it intersects the line between sections 33 and 34, township
1 north, range 15 west; thence south along section line to point of
beginning." The act further declares that Purvis shall be the seat
of justice, and authorized the governor to appoint three com
missioners from Pearl River county and "also three commissioners
from the second judicial district of Marion county, to organize the
county, and to appoint the usual county officers to hold until their
successors shall be elected and qualified. Lamar county was at
tached to the second Supreme Court district, the sixth Congressional
district, and the second Chancery, Circuit Court, and Railroad Com
missioner's Districts, and the fourth Senatorial District. The
county assumed its share of the debts of Marion and Pearl River
counties, and received its share of the funds in the treasuries of the
two counties. Purvis, the county seat, is a lumbering town of 564
people (census of 1900), and an estimated population of 1,500 in
1906, on the line of the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R. It is
a thriving place and growing at a rapid rate. Besides the rail
road above mentioned, a branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R.,
traverses the new county from east to west, and the Mississippi
Central R. R., crosses the northern part of the county from east
to west. Lamar is located in the long leaf pine region of the State,
and the resources, climatic conditions, and general topography have
been described elsewhere. Artesian water has been found at Sum-
rail and Lumberton. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property of Lamar county in 1905 was $3,683,826 and in
1906 it was $3,882,029, showing an increase of $198,203 during the
year. Lamar, Lucius Q. C, was a descendant of a French family that
came to Virginia before 1663, and was represented subsequently
in Maryland, whence, after several generations, John Lamar, born
in 1769, who married his cousin, Rebecca Lamar, moved to
Georgia, and established the Lamar homestead in Putnam county,
dying in 1833. He was a devout Methodist, as were his descend
ants. One of his sons, Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, established a
State Rights paper at Columbus, Ga., went to Texas in 1835 and
was conspicuous in the revolution, founded the educational system

MISSISSIPPI 23
of that State, was United States minister to southern republics in
1*57-58, and died in 1859. He was also a poet of no ordinary abil
ity. Another, and the eldest son of the Georgia pioneer, was
Lucius Q. C. Lamar, who began practice at Milledgeville in 1818,
compiled one volume of the statutes, became a partner of Judge
Crawford, was elevated to the circuit bench in 1830, and was
famed as a judge, when he died, July 4, 1834. His wife was Sarah
Bird, whose father was of a Maryland family, and whose mother
was a daughter of Col. Williamson, a famous Georgia patriot of
the Revolution. Another of the colonel's daughters was the wife
of Gov. John Clarke, and another was the mother of Justice John
A. Campbell, of the United States supreme court. The eldest son
of Judge Lamar and his wife, Sarah, was Lucius Quintus Cincin
natus, born at the old homestead in Putnam county, Ga., Sept. 17,
1825. Most of his childhood years were passed at Milledgeville
and his father's village home at Scottsboro. He was a frail lad,
small for his age, quiet and retiring, a great lover of books, with
which he was surrounded, and considered rather slow mentally
than quick. He loved to be alone, cultivating the powers of ab
straction and concentration, and without in the least deserving it,
gained a reputation for moroseness. After his father's death he
attended the Georgia Conference manual training school, in which
the boys were put to farming. When the school became Emory
college, under the presidency of A. B. Longstreet, he continued as
a pupil, and was graduated in 1845. Within that time, Longstreet
was a notable participant in the proceedings of the general con
ference of the Methodist church at New York which resulted in
the separation sectionally, on the question of permitting the clergy
to be slaveholders. After 1845 he studied law at Macon, with
Absalom H. Chappell, an old line Whig; was a short time his
partner, and then moved to Columbus, Ga. July 15, 1847, he mar
ried Virginia L., daughter of Judge Longstreet. When the latter
assumed the presidency of the University of Mississippi in 1849,
Lamar followed, and began the practice of law at Oxford in 1850,
also taking an assistant professorship in mathematics under Albert
T. Bledsoe, 1850-52. In the great political campaign of 1851 he
was a state rights champion, supporting Jefferson Davis, and met
the famous Senator Foote in joint debate at Oxford. Though but
26 years of age, he seems to have won enthusiastic praise. But
in this period he thought more of devoting his life to the church
than to the State. After two years that were more collegiate than
juridicial, he returned to Covington, Ga., practiced his profession,
and was elected to the legislature in the political revulsion of 1853.
He moved to Macon in 1854; made a visit to Mississippi, bring
ing his negro to add to the plantation force of Judge Longstreet;
was a candidate for nomination to congress from Georgia in 1855,
but was defeated; and in October of that year finally made His
home in Mississippi, purchasing a plantation he called "Solitude,"
on the Tallahatchee river, and forming a law partnership with

24 MISSISSIPPI
Christopher H. Mott and James L. Autrey, which continued until
1861. In 1857 Lamar had his choice between candidacy for Congress
to succeed Daniel B. Wright, and the chair of metaphysics in the
university. He chose the political path, and though opposed on
the ground of his relationship by marriage to Howell Cobb, who
was distinguished in Georgia as Henry S. Foote was in Missis
sippi, he was nominated by the Democratic convention at Holly
Springs on the 60th ballot. The main political issue then was the
admission of Kansas and the policy there of Robert J. Walker.
James L. Alcorn was nominated by the Whigs, and there was an
exciting joint canvass, resulting in Lamar's election. He made
his first speech in congress Jan. 13, 1858. In the course of the
furious struggle over Kansas admission there was a resort to
physical prowess early one February morning, at the close of an
all-night session, in which Barksdale, of Mississippi, was conspic
uous, and "even Lamar of Mississippi and Parson Owen Lovejoy
had a little set-to in the course of the passing gust," a correspond
ent wrote. But "he was a peacemaker rather than a peacebreaker."
In some disgust with politics, Lamar was disposed to return to
the University. Chancellor Barnard wrote to him that though the
sectional battle for control of the senate was over, the North hav
ing an incontestible majority, yet the country needed in congress
"men of genuine, unselfish patriotism, of spotless probity and un
bending integrity of principle," like himself. Reelected in 1859
without opposition, he participated with great eloquence in the
debates of the famous session of 1859-60. At this time he wrote
to Chancellor Barnard : "The sectional war rages with unabated
violence. No one started out with more of honest indignation
than I felt. But I begin to hope that there exists a mutual mis
understanding between the two sections, brought about by ultra
party leaders and deluded fanatics. I think I can see, through all
the rancor and madness of this struggle, the slow evolution of
right principles. What is now the greatest need is some one man,
one true man, who will present the whole controversy in its true
light; who, rising above the passions and prejudices of the times,
will speak to both sections in a spirit at once tolerant, just, gener
ous, humane and national." In the spring of 1860 he was a dele
gate to the Charleston convention, opposed the withdrawal of the
Southern Democrats, and signed with Mr. Davis an address call
ing on them to meet again at Baltimore. "There is so little of
unity," he wrote at this time, "so much of discord, jealousies and
distrust, between the most patriotic of our men, that I am op
pressed with emotions of the profoundest and most hopeless sad
ness. I endured, in beholding its exhibition at Charleston (and
that, too, in the face of a compact and hostile sectional organiza
tion), a mental torture that allowed me no relief except in the
thought that it could not be otherwise." In June he accepted the
chair of ethics and metaphysics in the University, but he was active
in the campaign of 1860, and was particularly effective in restrain-

MISSISSIPPI 25
ing the growth of the Bell party. Upon the election of Lincoln Mr.
Lamar wrote to Judge Longstreet: "If South Carolina will only
have the courage to go out, all will be well. We will have a South-
• ern republic, or an amended constitution that will place our
institutions beyond all attack in the future." He was a partici
pant in the council that advised the governor preparatory to the
secession convention, and opposed precipitancy, but on the next
day, at Brandon, as reported in the newspapers, urged the South
ern people to rouse from their lethargy and "arm for resisting
Black Republican domination," and submitted a plan for concerted
secession. In December he sent to P. F. Liddell, of CarroUton, a
plan of secession, including a draft of an ordinance to be adopted
by the Mississippi convention, repealing the State ordinance by
which the State "consented to become a member of the Federal
union," and inviting fourteen other States (slaveholding) to unite
with her in a federal union, "under the name and style of the
United States of America." He proposed to continue the national
constitution and laws without the dotting of an i or the crossing
of a t. Returning from congress, he was a member of the consti
tutional convention, in January, 1861, and framed the ordinance
that was adopted, which was in some important respects a depart
ure from his original plan. (See Mayes' Lamar. Appendix 5,)
Subsequently he aided Gen. Mott in raising a regiment, the first
one raised in Mississippi for the full period of the war. It was
numbered the 19th, and Mott was elected colonel, Lamar lieuten
ant-colonel. June 1st he made an enthusiastic address, following
President Davis and Governor Wise, at Richmond. While there
he had the first attack of vertigo, which ever afterward oppressed
his life. He was at home through the summer, his left leg para
lyzed. But he was in the battle of Williamsburg, in May, 1862,
and succeeded to the command of the regiment when his friend,
Col. Mott, fell. His disease returned a few days later, he was com
pelled to return home, and in October, to resign, giving place to
Col. N. H. Harris. In November, he was appointed special com
missioner to Russia, whither he started by way of Texas. His
letters from London, in 1863, show his appreciation of the impor
tance to the North of the friendship of the great English labor
leader, John Bright, and the industrial classes in Germany. The
Confederate senate refused to confirm his appointment, for diplo
matic reasons, based on the hostility of Napoleon III, to Russia.
After visiting Paris, he returned by way of Halifax, and Bermuda,
and by blockade runner to Wilmington, narrowly escaping capture.
In March, 1864, he made eloquent speeches in Georgia defending
the suspension of the habeas corpus, meeting the opposition of
Governor Brown and A. H. Stephens. His brother, Col. Thomp
son B. Lamar, of the 5th Florida regiment, was killed in Virginia
in this year. In December he returned to Richmond, during the
remaining few months of the war was judge advocate for A. P.
Hill's corps, with the rank of colonel of cavalry, and was with the
army at Appomattox. On his journey home he began the friend-

26 MISSISSIPPI
ship with Gen. Walthall that exerted a great influence upon his
life. In September, 1865, he formed a partnership with Gen.
Walthall for the practice of law at Coffeeville, Miss. For
some years after this, Col. Lamar was not at all hopeful.
He considered himself "discredited as a public leader." He made
no effort, as others did, to be relieved of the civil disabilities de
clared to exist because of his support of the Confederate govern
ment. In his oration at the University in 1866, "he did not think
that there was even the shadow of the doctrine of State Rights
left, and he deemed it cruel to delude the people with false views
as to our present status, and with false hopes as to the future.
He could see no liberty when a political line is drawn with right
on the one side and on the other power. He was of the opinion
that all that is left for the South is the moral and intellectual cul
ture of her people." (Mayes' Lamar, 157.) In 1870 he wrote that
"for five or six years past I have deemed every duty to which man
is subject — duty to himself, duty to his family, duty to his coun
try — to dictate to such men silence; and by this I mean not to
censure those whose convictions and acts are different from mine."
But he took a keen interest in the fate of Mr. Davis, and quietly
exerted his influence. He went to work on his plantation, and in
September, 1866, began the duties of professor of ethics and meta
physics at the University, also acting as professor of governmental
science and law, which was his exclusive function in 1867-70.
"The love and affection which he aroused in the hearts of young
men was wonderful," wrote C. E. Hooker. Of his attitude during
the crisis of 1868-69, United States Marshal Pierce wrote, "It was
mainly due to his efforts and personal influence that a riot was
averted at Oxford, at an election held during November, 1869,
and I knew him to be conservative, law-abiding and considerate
of the views of other men." After the establishment of a negro
majority at the polls, and the inauguration, in 1870, of Gov. Alcorn,
whose election he had strongly opposed, Lamar resigned his pro
fessorship, and for a time thought of transferring his law school
to Macon, Ga. ; but he decided to remain at Oxford, and declined
a professorship at Emory college. In the years 1865 to
1872 he passed through many days of brooding over the
great calamities of his people. The effect was not injurious, though
his fiery nature sometimes spurred him to revolt. A friend wrote
to him that sorrow had "softened, rounded and made sympa
thetic" his nature. His meditations went to the heart of things. He
wrote to a friend in Ohio that he no longer looked to political par
ties as a means of improving public affairs. "I have not merely
lost confidence in them ; they fatigue my contempt." But in 1872,
the year of the Greeley campaign, he decided to accept nomina
tion for congress, though his disabilities had not been removed.
Gov. Powers and the Federal and State officers joined in a peti
tion for his relief. He was elected by a majority of about 5,000,
his main opponent being Col. R. W. Flournoy, Republican. His
election was so fair, that when he appeared at Washington, the

MISSISSIPPI 27
only Democratic representative elect, from Mississippi, Congress
was almost unanimous in removing his disabilities, though he was
remembered as a "fire-eater." Realizing his great responsibility
he felt about anxiously for a solid foundation upon which to build
a policy for the welfare of his people. "The course of political
history after the war had caused between the masses of the North
and those of the South a mutual distrust deeper, and a hostility
apparently greater, than existed when the Confederacy fell. The
rivalry of arms which, although baptized in blood, -was yet gener
ous, had given place on the one side to suspicions, and on the
other to sullen or fierce resentments, which augured but ill for
the happiness, the tranquillity, and the glory of the republic. It
was given to Mr. Lamar, with a noble self-forgetfulness, to dare
the perilous task of throwing himself, like another Curtius, into
the widening chasm and bidding it to close. With sympathetic
hand he touched the freezing hearts of North and South, unlock
ing their latent stores of kindly and generous feeling, and kindling
anew in them the fast- failing fires of love." (Mayes.) The coun
try needed "one true man," as he observed in 1860, and now he
was to be the man. He waited for an opportunity — such an effort
could not be forced upon an unwilling audience — waited two years
for a time worthy of the cause, and it came in an invitation from
Massachusetts to second the motion of Mr. Hoar to devote the
27th day of April, 1874, to the memory of Charles Sumner. On
this theme Lamar was heard at first with amazement, then with
tears, and at the close the yast auditory united in generous ap
plause. He laid before his hearers the ripe fruit of his years of
meditation. He understood Sumner better than his old friends
did. "Let us hope," he said, "that future generations, when they
remember the deeds of heroism and devotion done on both sides,
will speak not of Northern prowess and Southern courage, but
of the heroism, fortitude, and courage of Americans in a war of
ideas ; a war in which each section signalized its consecration to
the principles, as each understood them, of American liberty and
of the constitution received from their fathers." He had in conr
gress watched with anxious scrutiny the sentiments of his North
ern colleagues; he knew the feelings of his Southern brothers,
"and I see on both sides only the seeming of a constraint, which
each apparently hesitates to dismiss. The South — prostrate, ex
hausted, drained of her life blood, as well as of her material
resources, yet still honorable and true — accepts the bitter award
of the bloody arbitrament without reservation, resolutely deter
mined to abide the result with chivalrous fidelity ; yet, as if struck
dumb by the magnitude of her reverses, she suffers on in silence.
The North, exultant in her triumph, and elated by success, still
cherishes, as we are assured, a heart full of magnanimous emo
tions toward her disarmed and discomfited antagonist; and yet,
as if mastered by some mysterious spell, silencing her better im
pulses, her words and acts are the words and acts of suspicion
and distrust. Would that the spirit of the illustrious dead whom

28 MISSISSIPPI
we lament today could speak from the grave to both parties to
this deplorable discord in tones which should reach each and every
heart throughout this broad territory: 'My countrymen! know
one another, and you will love one another!' " Lamar was a mas
ter of metaphor and simile; in this speech he "talked straight on,"
but, in his own words to his wife, "the rhetorical triumph was as
prodigious as it was unexpected." He became famous at once
above all other living American orators. "From one end of the
Union to the other," said the Memphis Appeal, "the press teems
with praises of the brilliant Mississippian." But there were not
a few papers, Southern papers, that fiercely criticised him. He
wrote to his wife : "My eulogy has given me a reputation that I
have never had before. The whole world is my audience. No
one here thinks I lowered the Southern flag, but the Southern
press is down on me. That is unfortunate, for what they say will
be copied by the radical press of the North as evidence that the
South still cherishes schemes of secession and slavery. . . .
It is time for a public man to try to serve the South, and not to
subserve her irritated feelings, natural and just as those feelings
are. I shall serve no other interests than hers, and will calmly
and silently retire to private life if her people do not approve me."
Back of all this, incidentally, the speech was a tribute to the great
est enemy of President Grant, whom Lamar distrusted, and it
contributed powerfully to the Democratic victory in the elections
of 1874, which hastened the downfall of negro domination in Mis
sissippi. An effort designed solely for these purposes, which might
have been called personal and partisan, could not have found more
effective expression. The success gave Lamar a footing which he
at once improved by a great speech on "Misrule in the Southern
States." In this speech he again asserted that secession and slav
ery were dead beyond resuscitation, and that the people of the
South "regard the new amendments to the constitution, which
secure to the black race freedom, citizenship and suffrage, to be
not less sacred and inviolable than the original charter as it came
from the hands of the fathers. They owe allegiance to the latter ;
they have pledged their parole of honor to keep the former, and
it is the parole of honor of a soldier race." He defended these
two speeches before his constituents in the campaign of 1874.
During the revival of rancor on account of the acute disturbances
in Louisiana he was patiently quiet, writing to a friend that it
would be ruin for him to attack President Grant or Gen. Sheridan
as tyrants and despots. The Northern people wanted to see the
South prosper; but they loved Grant and Sheridan. Their quiet
resentment of military interference would in time bring all the
South asked. He firmly, with great moderation of speech, pro
tested against the proposed Civil Rights bill, and by personal
appeal to Speaker Blaine received from that distinguished Repub
lican a hint that was used to secure the delay necessary to kill the
bill. (Mayes' Lamar, p. 215.) In the spring of 1875 he and Gor
don, of Georgia, made Democratic speeches in New Hampshire,

MISSISSIPPI 29
and in Boston also he appealed for just treatment of his people.
This was the year of political revolution in Mississippi. At the
outset Lamar had moments of hopelessness. He wrote to his wife
in February: "I think the future of Mississippi is very dark.
Ames has it dead. There can be no escape from his rule. His
negro regiments are nothing. He will get them killed up, and
then Grant will take possession for him. May God help us." In
May Albert G. Brown recanted his criticism of Lamar's congres
sional speeches and called on every citizen to recognize him as
the leader of the people. "Be he Democrat, Conservative, Repub
lican, if the ends he aims at be his country's, God's and truth's,
then let him cast prejudice aside and follow the lead of a man
who has already thrown prejudice to the winds, and in the great-
•ness of his soul, standing amid the ruins of his State, has said :
'My countrymen ! let us know one another, and we will love one
another.' " Answering the popular call, Lamar canvassed the
State, denouncing the Ames administration and its corruption and
usurpations, but exerting his influence against "the formation of
parties founded upon differences of race or color." When he was
unanimously renominated for congress, the platform "cordially
invoked the union of good citizens of every race and color" to de
feat the State administration. In his speech before the Demo
cratic State convention in 1875, he said that any impairment of
the constitutional amendments would be a violation of the duty
of citizens. "They confer upon the newly enfranchised race the
sacred rights of freemen, and their rights are your duties. Any
effort looking to the abridgement of their rights is fraught with
disaster and burdens and ruin to this people. The color line was
talked of. He declared that it would be ruinous to the victors, if
victory could be won that way. . . . It is tyranny unmixed,
and is fraught with disaster. Woe be unto you if you find your
selves, confronted, on such a suicidal policy, by the powers of a
vindictive government brought upon your defenceless heads."
(Mayes' Lamar, 252.) A few weeks later he wrote to a Northern
friend: "I have just emerged from a struggle to keep our people
from a race conflict. I am not sure that we are yet safe, for the
black line is still maintained by the agents of the Federal govern
ment. The negro race, which has no idea of a principle of gov
ernment or, of society, beyond that of obedience to the mandate
of a master, sees in these agents the only embodiment of authority
(mastership) in the country, and their obedience to them is not a
whit, less slavish than it was formerly to their masters. We
could, by forming the 'color line,' and bringing to bear those
agencies which intellect, pluck and will, always give, overcome the
stolid, inert and illiterate majority; but such a victory will bring
about conflicts and race passions and collisions with Federal
power. Our only deliverance is in a change of Federal policy
toward us." George was the organizer and general of the revolu
tion of 1875 ; Lamar the statesman who inspired patriotism at
home and friendship abroad. Wiley P. Harris wrote of his part

30 MISSISSIPPI
in the campaign : "I doubt whether there was a man in the State
who made more speeches. There was certainly no man who made
abler ones. But the incomparable service which he rendered was
before the canvass and outside of the State. He has done more
than any living man— and Horace Greeley alone is excepted among
the dead — to produce that state of popular feeling at the North
which made Ulysses Grant afraid to lay his hands upon us during
the late election. It was that sentiment that enabled us to win.
To Lamar, more than to any other one man, was this feeling due.
Without it, we could not have succeeded."
Henry Grady, of Atlanta, described him in 1875: "Mr. Lamar
has all the physical characteristics of his knightly and illustrious
family; that peculiarly swarthy complexion, pale but clear; the
splendid gray eyes ; the high cheek bones ; the dark-brown hair ;
the firm and fixed mouth; the face thoroughly haughty and re
served when in repose, and yet full of snap and fire and magnetism
when in action."
When Congress met in December, 1875, the Democratic ma
jority made him permanent chairman of the caucus in the house.
In his speech of acceptance he declared the grandest aspiration of
his party was to make the constitution "the protector of every
section and of every State in the Union, and of every human being
of every race, color and condition in the land." Of his own people
he said "We want a government that we can love and revere, and
serve from the motive of reverence and love. We hunger for a
patriotism which shall knit all the people together in a generous
and loving brotherhood, and which shall be as broad as the terri
tory over which the national flag floats." In comment the Mem
phis Appeal said, "He has contributed more than any one man in
all this broad Union toward securing the present Democratic ma
jority in the house of representatives, and there is a universal
desire among Democrats outside of Mississippi to see the great
talents, statesmanship and patriotism of L. Q. C. Lamar transferred
to' the United States senate." Despite some opposition, partly by
those disposed to keep up a protest against constitutional amend
ments, partly on account of his value in the lower house, he was
chosen unanimously by the legislative caucus, but in his accept
ance he found it advisable to again explain the Sumner speech.
His explanation was that he meant every word he said. "Charles
Sumner imagined that he was acting in the cause of humanity and
freedom when he advocated universal suffrage." When he re
turned to Washington he found his cause endangered by the
"chapter of blunders" known as the "Amnesty bill" debate. A
Northern newspaper correspondent had written of Lamar: "He
is ever courteous, never insulting and abusive, never announcing
himself personally responsible, as used to be too common in Con
gress, and which bad specimens of bad breeding, bad manners and
bad feeling seem again coming into vogue." In this debate Blaine,
for partisan reasons, purposely provoked some Southern members
to passionate outbursts, tending to create distrust and revive mem-

MISSISSIPPI 31
ories of ante-bellum conditions. Lamar found fault with no one,
but immediately took advantage of debate on the Centennial bill,
to put himself heartily in support of that great enterprise and
assert with masterly logic and unapproachable eloquence "the
majestic sovereignty of our nationality." A correspondent said
he "poured out an exposition of nationalism and constitutionalism
which equalled in effect one of Webster's masterpieces." His
opponents bowed at once to his masterly strategy and manly sin
cerity. The bold defiance of old prejudices won the praise of those
who had been his opponents at home. The Belknap impeachment
followed, in which Blaine again attempted the same tactics, but
this time Lamar answered him, with perfect coolness and gentle
ness, and humiliated his antagonist by an exposure of his weak
point, ignorance of constitutional law. Later in the year he made
a great speech on the general Southern question, explaining rea
sonably the instances of riot, and insisting that the only cure was
tolerance by the nation of local self-government. In 1877 he sup
ported the bill for an electoral commission, as the only hope for
the success of Mr. Tilden, refusing to consider the talk of an ap
peal to arms, because Northern Democrats would not have gone
into it, and such a move by Southern Democrats would have fin
ally and irretrievably ended the hopes of the party. Besides, "I
know what civil war means, and you know it," he said to his con
stituents. He opposed filibustering and quietly acepted the result.
The wisdom of his course is now unquestioned, but he was fiercely
criticised at home. Th result crowned the work of Lamar's two
terms in Congress. When there was delay in withdrawing the
troops from Louisiana and South Carolina after the inauguration
of Mr. Hayes, Mr. Lamar wrote him a strong letter of appeal,
March 22. Next day the president began to move visibly in the
matter, and within two weeks the troops were withdrawn from
support of the Chamberlain and Packard governments.
March 5, 1877, Mr. Lamar presented his credentials to the sen
ate. There had been an investigation designed to impeach the
fairness of the election of the legislature in 1875, and he was not
certain that the majority would permit him to take a seat. Kel
logg was at hand with credentials as senator from the Packard
government in Louisiana. Morton, the radical leader in the sen
ate, proposed to make Lamar wait until Kellogg was seated on his
prima facie title, investigation to follow. Again Mr. Blaine came
to the aid of Lamar, who was sworn in without delay. In the
following August Senator Lamar appeared before the State con
vention of his party and was received with tremendous applause.
He had reached the culmination of his work of "reconstruction,"
and advised his friends to turn their attention to questions of na
tional policy. The first of these questions that demanded an utter
ance from him in the session of 1877-78 was the proposition that
the United States bonds were rightfully payable in silver dollars.
He opposed this, denying the validity of the "free silver" argu
ments, and asserting that the proposed step tended to contract the

32 MISSISSIPPI
currency and impair the financial standing of the nation. As the
"free silver" policy was favored by the Democratic party gener
ally, Mr. Lamar's speech and votes produced what Senator Wal
thall called "the temporary jar, the only one that ever occurred,
between the people of Mississippi, or some of them, and Mr.
Lamar." The lower house of the Mississippi legislature passed,
a resolution declaring that the "Hon. Blanche K. Bruce, senator
of the United States from this State" had, in voting in favor of
the silver proposition, "reflected the sentiment and will of his
constituents." Both houses instructed the senators to vote for
the remonetization of silver. Senator Lamar had the resolution
read in the senate, and declared that he had always tried to teach
the young men of Mississippi that "truth was better than false
hood, honesty better than policy, courage better than cowardice."
He must now manifest his loyalty to his honest convictions. "I
will vote against this bill." He knew, he said, "that the time is
not far distant when they will recognize my action today as wise
and just." Walthall's comment on reading this speech, was, "He
has done it, but grander even than I thought; and now his claim
to greatness is permanent and fixed." The New York Nation said
that the speech, "for manliness, dignity and pathos, has never been
surpassed in Congress." But the attitude of the majority in his
own State more deeply concerned Lamar. He wrote his wife:
"Can it be true the South has not the intelligence and public vir
tue needed to meet the emergencies upon her? . . . Have the
spirit of her fathers, the sagacity of Jefferson, the patriotism of
Washington, the virtue of Clay, departed from her? And is she
to be the victim of the demagogue — blind leaders of the blind to
their common destruction?" His own defense of his policy may
be epitomized by those words in which he recalled a favorite ex
pression. The South stood in Congress, he said, "on her parole of
honor." And what is that parole? he asked. "The validity of the
public debt shall not be questioned." During the year 1878 some
of the Mississippi newspapers continued to antagonize him, and
about the time when he was meeting Blaine in debate on the accu
sation of suppression of the colored vote and illegitimate repre
sentation in congress, a letter from Jefferson Davis was published,
citing the precedents of Greece and Rome, reviving the formulas
of State sovereignty, and declaring that it had been the practice -of
Democrats "either to obey instructions or to resign." This sur
prised and pained the senator, as Mr. Davis had never given him a
sign of disapprobation before putting this letter in the hands of
his most active newspaper critic, Ethelbert Barksdale, and he
hated to see "anything trashy" come from Mr. Davis. A few days .
later he made a dramatic defense of Mr. Davis from aspersion in
the United States senate, and Mr. Davis sent him a letter of
thanks. It was in June, 1879, that Mr. Lamar had the famous
verbal encounter with Senator Roscoe Conkling, of New York.
Conkling, a lordly and overbearing man, deliberately charged him
with bad faith in regard to the conduct of proceedings, relating

MISSISSIPPI 33
to consideration of the Army bill. Lamar, who had long expected
some such encounter, replied that if the senator from New York
meant anything inconsistent with good faith, "I pronounce his
statement a falsehood, which I repel with all the unmitigated con
tempt that I feel for the author of it" Conkling rejoined that if
the senator from Mississippi "did impute or intend to impute to
me a falsehood, nothing except the fact that this is the Senate
would prevent my denouncing him as a blackguard and a coward."
Mr. Lamar then said: "Mr. President, . I have only to say that
the Senator from New York understood me correctly. I did mean
to say just precisely the words, and all that they imported. I beg
¦ pardon of the senate for the unparliamentary language. It was
very harsh ; it was very severe ; it was such as no good man would
deserve, and no brave man would wear." The incident could not
be understood except through the knowledge that Lamar habitu-
*ally avoided Conkling, and that he felt that Conkling was plotting
to break his reserve and draw him into a discussion that he re
garded as "unwise and silly" on the part of his Democratic col
leagues. His rejoinder, therefore, was not an outburst of passion,
but was carefully calculated for political as well as personal posi
tion. There was talk of a duel ; but the day had passed for that
mode of assuaging verbal discomfitures. In the fall of 1879 he
took part in the State campaign, when the party was in danger of
disorganization between the efforts of the Greenbackers and those
called "Bourbons" or "the unreconstructed." In his speeches, the
attacks upon him compelled him to combat with elaborate argu
ment the theory of State sovereignty as applied to the right of
the legislature to control the action of national delegates. He
showed remarkable power to win the popular approval in these
campaign speeches, and worked a revolution in sentiment wher
ever he went. In the following January he exerted his influence
toward the election of Gen. Walthall to the senate, but the Walthall
and Barksdale men found it necessary to unite on Gen. George.
After this he was for several weeks disabled by his illness, pre
viously mentioned, and though he returned to congress it was
with a sensation of the imminence of death. An event of 1881 for
which he was censured by some, hastily, was his brief speech in
favor of putting Gen. Grant upon the retired list of the army. The
session beginning in March, 1881, was one of the most acrimon
ious in the history of the senate, because of the equality of the
parties, Gen. Mahone, of Virginia, holding the balance of power.
Lamar found occasion again to say that though he had been a
secessionist, and had devoted himself to the conception of two
republics, he had returned to his first love, taught him by his
father and mother — -"that of one grand, mighty, indivisible repub
lic upon this continent, throwing its loving arms around all sec
tions ; omnipotent for protection, powerless for oppression, cursing
none, blessing all." In the election of 1881, of a legislature to
choose his successor or reelect him, he was indirectly opposed by
several powerful newspapers, and the matter was complicated by
3-II

34 MISSISSIPPI
the contest, for governor. His friends desired the nomination of
John M. Stone for governor, and in this they were defeated. A
Greenback-Republican fusion was effected, supporting the nom
ination of Benjamin King for governor. Lamar looked upon this
as an attempt to revive "negro government," the domination of
the negro vote, "just as it was before 1875, with not one feature
of mitigation, and with many other elements of aggravation and
degradation." On this theory he made a great campaign for the
election of Gen. Lowry, the Democrtic nominee, while the nation
looked upon it, with deep interest, as a fight largely for the justifi
cation of the broad and generous national policy of which he was
himself the exponent. The result was that when the legislature
met he was reelected senator without the formality of a caucus.
In 1883 he made his first great speech on the tariff, supporting the
Democratic position. In 1884 he made speeches in the State fav
oring the candidacy of Mr. Cleveland for president. His Holly
Springs speech had this theme: "We white people ought to keep
united," and attracted wide attention. When the news came" of
Cleveland's election he said, "It is a terrible responsibility," and
fell into a prolonged reverie. His life for years had been given to
rigid repression of every impulse but the conquest of a hostile
majority by courtesy, tolerance, and appeal to the fundamental
facts of social life and organization. He had lost the capacity for
partisan jubilation. At the end of the year his wife died. George
F. Edmunds wrote to him tender words, closing, "Come on then,
my dear sir, and put your strong shoulder to the wheel of gov
ernment and to all the good things to be done, and all will be well."
Toward the latter part of February he accepted an invitation from
Mr. Cleveland to take a place in his cabinet, and on March 5 he
was appointed Secretary of the Interior. In this position he dis
played an enormous capacity for hard work. His order to close
the department and put the flag at half mast upon the death of
Jacob Thompson, former secretary, was taken advantage of by
the political opponents of the administration to create a greater
storm of criticism of Mr. Lamar than he had theretofore known.
Mr. Thompson's name was popularly associated in the north with
disagreeable traditions. At the same time Secretary Lamar was
accused of not favoring the South in appointments to department
position, and he came in generally for his share of the partisan
censure of Mr. Cleveland's methods, in regard to "spoils," which
have since then become the settled policy of the government! In
1886 he received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard university, at
its 250th anniversary. Jan. 5, 1887, he was married to the widow of
Gen. W. S. Holt, a daughter of James Dean, of Georgia. In the
following April he delivered the oration at the unveiling of the
Calhoun -monument at Charleston. This was probably his own
most monumental work, and he spoke without more than a hour's
special preparation, putting into words the fruit of his study and
experience regarding the relations of the States and Federal gov
ernment. Later in the same year he was the guest of honor at the

MISSISSIPPI 35
119th annual banquet of the New York chamber of commerce and
responded to the toast, The President. In May, Justice Woods,
of the supreme court, died, and some Southern man was in the line
of succession. Cleveland looked to Lamar as "certainly the best-
of living men," saying "his mind and heart are right, and he can
not decide anything wrong."
His name was sent to the senate December 6. A presidential
campaign was at hand, and partisan opposition was made, which
delayed confirmation. He resigned his place in the cabinet Jan. 7,
1888, forcing the senate to consider his name as that of a private
citizen. Gen. Walthall then proposed to resign from the senate,
to which he had been elected to succeed Lamar, that the latter
might be reelected, but Lamar refused to listen to it. The judiciary
committee reported against his confirmation, on the grounds of
age and legal qualifications, but the senate confirmed his appoint
ment Jan. 16, Riddleberger of Virginia and three Western sena
tors furnishing the majority. This was the greatest honor accorded
any former Confederate, the highest recognition up to that time
of the national fealty of the men who had been Confederate sol
diers a quarter century earlier. He was installed upon the bench
of the supreme court of the United States Jan. 18, 1888, and his
work there continued until his fatal illness, in 1892. Of this work,
Chief Justice Fuller said, "He was invaluable in consultation. His
was the most suggestive mind that I ever knew, and not one of us
but has drawn from its inexhaustible store." He was also fully
up to the average of the justices in the work of preparing opinions.
Other activities occupied part of these final years. He delivered
an address before Emory college in 1890, and another before Cen
ter college, Ky., in 1891. In October of the latter year he was a
delegate to the Ecumenical council of the Methodist church at
Washington. In February, because of a great failure in strength,
he visited Pass Christian. Subsequently he resumed his place on
the bench. In December, 1892, he started again for the Mississippi
coast, but was compelled to stop at Macon, Ga., the old home of
his wife, where he died suddenly, Jan. 23, 1893. He was buried
temporarily near that city, and about a year later the body was
carried to Oxford, Miss., for final interment. (Abridged from
"Life, Times and Speeches," by Edward Mayes, LL. D.)
Lamb, a postoffice of Bolivar county.
Lambert, a postoffice of Quitman county.
Lameta, a postoffice of Leake county.
Lamkin, a postoffice of Yazoo county.
Lamont, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Bolivar
county, at the junction of two branches of the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R., 25 miles by rail south of Rosedale. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 75.
Lampton, a postoffice of Marion county, on the Columbia branch
of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 4 miles south of Columbia, the
county seat.

36 MISSISSIPPI
Land Claims, British. In 1815 the legislative council and house
of representatives of the Mississippi territory petitioned congress
for relief from the claims under British patents against lands held
under Spanish patents and by donation or purchase from the United
States. "From January 1768 to September, 1779, numerous British
grants were made by the governor of West Florida; those in the
Natchez district being chiefly made to officers of the British army
and navy, and in many instances were of large dimensions. The
largest embraced 25,000 acres; two others, 20,000 each; several
were for 10,000, and very few for less than 1,000 acres. These were
so located as to embrace a large portion of the most valuable
lands bordering on the Mississippi, for a breadth of six or eight ,
miles from Fort Adams to the Yazoo, and extending along the al
luvial lands of the principal streams of the district."
"To each of these grants was appended, by a ribbon, a ponder
ous wax seal, some three inches in diameter, the British arms be
ing impressed on the obverse, surrounded by the inscription:
"Sigillum provinciae nostra Florida occidentalis," with other in
scriptions and legends. The conditions of these grants as to occu
pancy cultivation and improvement were such, if not regarded as
mere words of form, to render them utterly void. Few of the lands
granted were occupied or improved to the extent required, proof
of which was to have been made within a stated time. They were,
therefore, inchoate, if strictly construed, and were never perfected.
Many of them, however, were nevertheless recognized and con
firmed by the succeeding Spanish government, which, though ac
quiring the country by conquest, yet with great liberality guaran
teed these possessions to the holders, upon the performance of
certain reasonable requirements, such as presentation and proof of
title, accompanied with occupancy, allowing several years for this
purpose." (Wailes, Report of 1854).
There is a distinction to be made between the grants to persons
about to occupy the lands themselves, and those who obtained
patents with the purpose of organizing speculations of colonies,
and a third class who were given patents as a token of the royal
appreciation The last class usually received a mandamus from the
king, while the ordinary .applicant presented a petition to the gov
ernor and council at Pensacola, and received a warrant of survey,
directed to the surveyor-general. Upon the proper return from the
surveyor a patent issued.
There were grants to William Walter, Alexander Moore and
Alexander Boyd, on the Mississippi, in 1768 ; to Daniel Clark, near
Natchez, in the same year; to Jacob Phillippi, James Watkins and
Daniel McGillivray, on Cole's creek, to Alexander Mcintosh, on
Petit Gulf, 1770. After this there was a period when West Florida
was without a governor, or lieutenant-governor, and Chester did
not sign many grants until 1772 in the Mississippi region. Anthony
Hutchins obtained a grant of 1,000 acres on Second creek in 1772,
for 434 in 1773. Other grants in 1772-73 were to Amos Ogden

MISSISSIPPI 37
(by royal mandamus) 14,115 acres on the Homochitto, Oct. 27,
1772, mostly conveyed to Samuel Swayze ; Daniel Perry, on Cole's
and Second creeks; William Ratcliff, on Second; John Campbell,
on the Mississippi; Samuel Wells and Innis Hooper, on Second;
Sarah Holmes, William Alexander, Alichael Hooter, Alexander
Mcintosh, John Campbell, Jacob Winfree, William Joiner. In
1775 Thaddeus Lyman, (See Lyman Colony.) by mandamus, was
granted 20,000 acres on Bayou Pierre. Thomas Hutchins was
granted 1,000 on the Homochitto in the same year, and John Hol
comb a tract on the same waters. In 1775-76 there were grants to
Robert Robertson, Daniel Perry, John Caldwallader and the Wil-
liamses (Grove Plantation), Samuel Lewis, Evan Cameron, Wil
liam Hayes, John Blommert, Enoch Horton. In 1777-79, the period
of greatest immigration and the last two years of British control
on the Mississippi, there were grants to James Cole, James Robert
son, William Vousdan, Seth Doud, Thomas Comstock, John Bolls,
Sara Mayes, Charles Percy, James S. Yarborough, William Hiern,
Zaccheus Routh, William Case, John Hartley, John Smith, David
Adams, Andrew Cypress, John Row, John Talley, John Collins,
Nathan Sweazy, John Luck, Richard Ellis, Christian Bingaman,
John Bentley, William Brown, Phillip Hannon, Alexander Mcin
tosh, Samuel Gibson, Isaac Johnson, Alexander Ross, Jacob Paul,
Christopher Guice, James Perry, Athanasius Martin. The Brit
ish royal instructions in 1765, entered at Pensacola, regarding those
proposing to settle, were that 100 acres be granted to every head
of family, and 50 for every other man, woman or child in the fam
ily, including negroes, and as much more as deemed advisable,
not to exceed 1,000 acres, provided, "it shall appear to you they are
in condition and intention to cultivate the same." The conditions
were that the settler should pay to the receiver of quit rents, on
day of grant, five shillings for every fifty acres, and a perpetual
quit rent of a half penny per acre, payable at the feast of St.
Michael annually. Further grants were to depend upon the cul
tivation of the original grant.
By the treaty of 1783, between Great Britain and Spain, the sub
jects of King George, including the loyalist colonies and refugees
from the United States, were granted 18 months in which to sell
their estates and remove their effects as well as their persons. On
the expiration of that period the property was to be forfeited of
all those who did not swear allegiance to the king of Spain. This
allowance of time was afterward very liberally extended. But
where the terms were not finally complied with, by actual occu
pation of the land and oath of allegiance, the lands were confiscated
and regranted to any satisfactory applicant. There was also a con
siderable confiscation of British grants after the revolt of 1791,
where the holders were concerned in that uprising against the
Spanish. It was the custom of the Spanish government to make
new grants of such lands as were not occupied by former grantees
or were vacated after occupation. A title without occupation and
cultivation was contrary to Spanish policy. Hence it followed

38 MISSISSIPPI
that during the Spanish reoccupation of the region up to the Yazoo
from 1780 to 1798, land grants were made which covered old
English grants, the holders of which made no remonstrance, evi
dently because their claims would not have been valid under a con
tinuance of Spanish government. They lacked the essential Span
ish conditions of occupation, cultivation and improvement.
When the United States took possession title was claimed by
many non-resident holders of British grants, among them the fol
lowing, from the list made in 1809, the number of acres being ap
pended to the names : Elihu Hall Bay, 1,100, also as assignee of
William Gamier 4,800; William Grant, 2,000; Dr. John Lorimer,
2,000 ; John Smith, James Barbour, 850 ; Amos Ogden, 3,075 ; Thad-
deus Lyman, 2,100. Grant's and Lorimer's grants were at Wal
nut Hills, dated 1776. Alexander McCullagh, on the grants to
various parties, for about 5,000 acres; Col. Augustine Prevost, for
9,000 acres mainly on Cole's creek, granted to himself; Robert
Callender's heir's, 2,000 at Loftus cliffs, grantee of John Blom-
mert, 2,000: Sir George Bridges Rodney, 5,000 on the river Mis
sissippi; various representatives of Amos Ogden for several thou
sand acres on the Homochitto, representatives of David Hodge for
several large tracts assigned to him. Altogether the commission
ers reported about 80,000 acres claimed by non-residents under
British grants.
Some claimants had imperfect titles for other reasons, such as
William Silkrigs, (Silkrag?) who claimed he got a British war
rant for survey of 200 acres on the Mississippi in 1777, which was
surveyed by William Vousdan, after which he did work upon it,
but was taken prisoner by the Americans in 1779 and carried down
the river. After this he remained with the Americans until he
was retaken by the British. By this time the Indians had plund
ered his place, and he remained in the settled parts of the country
until the Americans took possession.
An interesting light upon these claims is found in the corres
pondence of Anthony Hutchins (Mississippi Archives). Writing
Jan. 7, 1799, to Col. William Johnstone: "You have a tract or two
below the White Cliffs adjacent to lands I bought of my brother,
Capt. Thomas Hutchins. I don't know in whose name you claim
it, whether in the name of Mrs. Johnstone or a Mr. Hughs, or in
your own name. I cannot well remember, but as it adjoins my
land and after I returned from England Mr. Isaac Johnson told
me he was your attorney I cleared and cultivated a few acres in
tending to secure the possession of it for you, which improvement
I still occupy and think that nothing can be wanting but your
titles and your more fuller power of attorney to hold it for you,
although a Mr. Daniel Clark has obtained a Spanish grant for it in
the name of a Spaniard and hath sold it to a Mr. Farrar. Mr.
Isaac Johnson has removed below the line and is now a Spanish
subject." In September previous Col. Hutchins had served notice
on Benjamin Farrar "as a neighbor, that Col. Johnstone claims
that land and is the lawful and rightful owner of it."

MISSISSIPPI 39
The Madison, Gallatin and Lincoln commission of 1803, which
outlined the policy to be followed in acts of congress, said of these
claims: "The West Florida patents were, with but few excep
tions, accompanied with a clause of forfeiture, unless the land
should be improved within ten years ; and the Spanish government
seem to have considered all the unimproved lands as forfeited.
It is, however, alleged on the part of the grantees, that, although
a condition of settlement was commonly annexed to the grants
in the British provinces under the royal governments, with a
penalty of forfeiture in case of default, this has never been en
forced either by the British government, or, after the Revolution,
by the States; and that the Indians at first, and the Spanish con
quest, afterwards, rendered in this case a fulfillment of the condi
tion impossible. Where the land has been regranted by Spain,
the parties must be left to a judicial decision ; but where it remains
unclaimed by any other person, the commissioners are of opinion
that it would be improper for the United States to grant it again,
until the amount and nature of the grants shall have been fully as
certained." Under the first land law relating to the Territory, 1803, British
claimants under British grants were required to register at
Natchez, before the last day of March, 1804. There was a memo
rial by various claimants, nonresident, transmitted to the United
States government, through Minister Erskine in that month, and
a supplemental act was passed, extending the time for lands west
of Pearl river to the last of November, 1804. Another and final
extension, by act of March 2, 1805, was to December 1 of that
year. The question also arose, did Spain have any right to make
grants of land north of 31°, which was the boundary of the United
States agreed to by Great Britain in 1787 and acceded to by Spain
in 1795, although she had occupied the disputed territory between
those dates, and on to 1797. Spanish grants were recognized by
the United States land office up to the date of the treaty of 1795,
and many of these grants bore date in that year. Some were under
suspicion of being antedated.
In the Georgia cession it was agreed, by article 2, "that all per
sons who, on the 27th day of October, 1795, were actual settlers
within the territory thus ceded, shall be confirmed in all the grants
legally and fully executed prior to that day by the former British
government of West Florida, or by the government of Spain.
Then, by the act of congress of March 3, 1803, provision was
made for issuing certificates to claimants under English and Span
ish grants, who were actual settlers at the date named, but it was
also provided that British grants, valid in other respects but with
out actual settlement should be reported to congress, and the lands
"contained in said grants shall not be otherwise disposed of until
the end of one year after that date." By the Georgia cession
5,000,000 acres were reserved from sale to compensate claimants
other than actual settlers; and Section 8 of the law of 1803 speci-

40 MISSISSIPPI
fied claimants under "British grants for lands which have not been
regranted by the Spanish government" is this class, to be compen
sated out of the reservation.
In case the Spanish government had regranted land covered by
an old British grant, the land commissioners were required, by a
proviso of the law of 1803, to state the fact in the certificate, "in
which case the party shall not be entitled to a patent, unless _ he
shall have obtained in his favor a judicial decision in a court having
jurisdiction therein." This latter provision defeated the purpose
of the actual settlers clause in the Georgia cession, and the first
sections of the law of 1803, and permitted the paper titles of_ Brit
ish favorites to cloud the claims of actual settlers. This was in the
face of the admitted disregard of these alleged British titles by the
Spanish government, last in possession of the domain. In this con
nection the British claimants made a great show of that law of
nations, laid down in Vattel, called jus postliminium, by virtue of
which things taken from an enemy are restored to their former
status on coming again under the former dominion. This "would as
sume that British royalists came into their own as it was under
British dominion, when Spain relinquished the Natchez district
to the United States. As pointed out by Col. John M. White in
Florida, in passing on the same kind of claims, the doctrine would
not apply unless the United States and Great Britain were allies
in 1776-83.
In 1812 congress enacted that every person or legal representa
tive of such person, claiming lands in the Territory, by virtue
of a British or Spanish warrant or order of survey, granted prior
to Oct. 27, 1795, who was on that day actually resident in the
Territory, and whose claims had been regularly filed with the
proper register of the land office, be confirmed in his rights to the
land claimed. But this left out those who were reviving old Brit
ish warrants for speculative purposes. These sent agents into the
country and there was considerable annoyance of those who were
then occupying the land claimed on such warrants.
In November, 1815, the general assembly of Mississippi terri
tory adopted an appeal to congress, setting out the condition.
"The patents by which these British claims are held," they said,
covered tracts of land for the most part of enormous size. In many
cases the lines were never run, nor had they any other than nat
ural boundaries, and but few of the grantees, if any, were ever in
possession. "One great ground upon which they assert their
claims is the treaty commonly known as Jay's treaty (1794) ; but
it appears to your memorialists that they could not have been in
cluded in the just meaning of that treaty, as the United States
were not in possession of the territory at its date ; but if these
claimants were included therein, their claims were forfeited by their
laches under proclamation of the Spanish government.
"The present holders, or persons from whom they have pur
chased for valuable consideration, under the full faith and credit
of the Spanish government, received those grants, and wading

MISSISSIPPI 41
through all the toil, difficulty and danger attending the settlement
of a new country, have improved those lands (which at that time
were considered of little or no value) at the expense of vast labor
and treasure, until they have risen in value from ten to thirty dol
lars per acre. Under the Spanish government those settlers re
mained in quiet and peaceable enjoyment of their lands, because
the British claims (with which our citizens are now threatened)
were considered as invalid. They lay dormant and would forever
have slept, had it not been for the event of the United States get
ting possession of the territory — an event which has been hailed
by every emigrant from the United States, and of whose govern
ment they have shown themselves worthy, and have handsomely
supported by their conduct during the late war."
Mr. Robertson, chairman of the congressional committee, to
which this memorial was referred, reported Feb. 12, 1816, pointing
out that congress had impaired the security of titles guaranteed in
the Georgia settlement, and recommending a bill for quieting and
adjusting claims to lands in the Territory. In this report it was
said: "It is not for the committee to say whether the British grants
are void on account of their magnitude, because the conditions on
which they were made may not have been performed, or because
they were disregarded by the Spanish authorities and the tracts
covered by them regranted as vacant land. Nor do they deem it
incumbent on them to decide how far Spain was founded in keep
ing possession, granting lands and performing other acts of sov
ereignty over the country, from the date of the treaty of peace of
1783 to the time of her yielding it up in 1798 ; or how far she had
a right to annul the grants previously made by the British govern
ment. In ascending to the source of the evils which exist, and
which threaten with vexations the most intolerable, or entire ruin,
a numerous and respectable portion of our fellow citizens, they are
found to flow from an omission on the part of the United States
to take an earlier possession of the country in question ; and there-
. fore, the present inhabitants, who may be the innocent victims of
the course pursued, are, in the opinion of the committee, clearly
entitled to the just and benevolent interposition of the govern
ment." At this time Seth Hunt was the most active claimant of lands
under the British grants. The claims presented by him covered
72,190 acres, to be located above and below and around Natchez, at
Loftus Heights, on the Homochitto, Bayou Pierre and Buffalo.
These claims were based on grants to the earl of Harcourt, Ad
miral Bentinck, Thomas Comyn, Admiral Ferguson, Admiral Mc-
Dougal, Admiral Sir Richard Onslow, Sir William Dalling, Maj.
Francis Hutchinson, John Bradley and others, twenty-four in all.
-Besides, there was the claim of the Earl of Eglinton for 20,000
acres, F. A. Haldimand for 1,500, Sir G. B. Rodney for 5,000, Au-
gustin Prevost for 9,000, Elihu Hall Bay for 16,375, Alexander
McCulloch, of South Carolina, for 3,700, Admiral Spry for 3,500,

42 MISSISSIPPI
Thaddeus Lyman for 20,000 on Bayou Pierre, John Stevenson,
3,000, Mrs. Wegg, 3,000, Philip Barbour 2,000 at Grand Gulf.
These made the total number of grants prosecuted 38, and area
claimed 174,465 acres, in the most closely settled part of the Mis
sissippi country.
In 1818 the matter was referred by congress to William H.
Crawford, secretary of the treasury, for an opinion, and he reported
a bill for the settlement of claims, but it appears that congress took
no action, leaving the claims to be adjusted under the law of 1803
and the amendments thereto.
See Domain, Law of.
Land Commissioner. The constitutional convention of 1890,
by ordinance, required the legislature to provide for the elec
tion of a Land Commissioner at the general election in 1895, for a
four years' term of office, to have charge of the swamp and over
flowed lands, the Internal Improvement lands, the records of the
office of Surveyor-general turned over by the United States to this
State, the Chickasaw school lands, the Sixteenth section and In
demnity lands, the lands forfeited for non-payment of taxes, and all
other public lands and land records of the State not otherwise
provided for. Accordingly, Col. John M. Simonton was elected
in November, 1895, for a term of four years, beginning in Jan
uary, 1896. (See Swamp Lands.) Upon the death of Col. Simon
ton, in 1898, the governor appointed E. H. Nail, who has since then
held the office by election. His last report shows sales of lands
in 1903-05, of $143,000. ,
In 1899 Warren county secured in the chancery court an injunc
tion against the sale by the land commissioner of a tract of land
in Issaquena county, the county claiming title under the acts of
congress and the legislature regarding levee lands. On appeal
to the supreme court, the claim of the county was sustained.
Land Grants, French, 1717-21. The Western Company sent
over a large number of settlers to Louisiana during the years
1717-1721. Numerous concessions, or grants of land, were made
also to private individuals at this period of time. Among the
more important ones was a grant of 16 leagues square to John
Law, about 30 miles above the mouth of the Arkansas, where he
established a post. One on the Yazoo, to M. le Blanc and others;
one at Natchez to M. Hubert; one on the Red river to M. Benard
de la Harpe ; one at Point Coupee, to M. de Meuse ; one at the Ton
kas, to M. de St. Reine; one at Baton Rouge, to M. Diron d'Ar
taguette ; one at Bayou Manchac, on the west side of the river,
at the Bayagoulas, to M. Paris Duvernay; one at the Tchoupitou-
las, to M. de Muys ; one at Cannesbrule, to the Marquis d'Artag-
nac ; one on the Black river to M. de Villemont; one on the Pas
cagoula river to Madame de Cheaumont ; one at the Bay of St.
Louis and Old Biloxi, to Madame de Mezieres; one at Natchez
to M. de la Houssaye, also on the Quachita; one at the Houmas,
to the Marquis d'Ancenis.
The owners of these grants were wealthy and prominent people

MISSISSIPPI 43
in France. They were expected to send to the colony agents,
laborers, tools, implements, etc., and to proceed at once to the cul
tivation of the soil. These various grants were described in some
detail by Father Charlevoix, who inspected them all in his journey
down the Mississippi in 1721. The failure of John Law in 1720
had seriously affected the operations of the Western company, and
had almost put a stop to immigration and the improvements on the
concessions. Things were at a standstill. This was the condition
of affairs which prevailed at the time of his visit, and we need
not be surprised that he reported the concessions in a very un-;
favorable light. The plantations were either devoid of laborers
for the most part, or the ocupants were so lazy and incapable that
their poverty "very unjustly disparages a country which will ren
der a hundred-fold of whatever is sowed in it." Though he found
the numerous grants, which had cost so much labor and effort,
and whose fabled richness had created such a sensation in France,
in a wretched condition, he nevertheless declares that he has never
heard Louisiana lightly spoken of, "but by three sorts of people
that have been in the country, and whose testimony is certainly to
be rejected. The first are the mariners, who, from the road off
Ship Island or Isle Dauphin, could see nothing but that island
quite covered with barren sand, and the still more sandy coast of
Biloxi,' and who suffered themselves to be persuaded that the
entrance of the Mississippi was impassable for ships of a certain
bulk, or that it was necessary to go fifty leagues up this river to
find a place that was habitable.
The second sort are poor wretches who are being driven out of
France for their crimes or bad conduct, true or false, or who,
whether to shun the pursuit of their creditors, have engaged them
selves in the troops or in the grants. Both these looking upon this
country as a place of banishment, are disgusted at everything.
They do not interest themselves in the success of the colony, of
which they are members against their inclination.
The third sort are those who, having seen nothing but poverty
in a country on which excessive expenses have been bestowed, at
tribute to it what we ought entirely to cast on the incapacity or
on the negligence of those who had the care of settling it. You also
know very well the reasons they had to publish that Louisiana
contained great treasures, and that it brought us near the famous
mines of St. Barbe and others still richer, from which they flat
tered themselves they could easily drive away the possessors (the
Spaniards) ; and because these idle stories had gained credit with
some sillv people, instead of imputing to themselves the error, in
which they were engaged by their foolish credulity, they have
discharged their spleen on the country, where they have found
nothing of what had been promised them." Journal of Father
Charlevoix, His. Coll. of La., part III, pp. 187-8).
The concession on the Yazoo was obtained by M. le Blanc,
French Minister of War, M. le Compte de Belle-Isle, M. le Mar
quis d'Asfeld and M. le Blond, brigadier engineer, the last named

44 MISSISSIPPI
being in the colony with the title of director-general. On De
cember 14, 1720, the ships l'Elephant and le Dromedaire arrived
at Ship Island bringing 250 people for this concession, including
the officers MM. Dillon, Fabre, Duplessis, Leviller, La Suze and La
Combe. This grant was about nine miles from the mouth of the
Yazoo, and was protected by Fort St. Peter (St. Claude), and a
small garrison of soldiers.
M. de la Harpe, who visited this concession early in 1722, wrote
as follows of it: "About thirty arpents of this concession is cul
tivated, but the rest of the soil is so thin and sandy, that it can
never be cultivated, besides the situation is unhealthy. The course
of the Yasous from its mouth is northwest, and then it turns and
runs north-northeast a half league to the stone bluffs, upon which
is situated the establishment of M. le Blanc. The cabins of the
Yasous, Courois, Ossogoula, and Ouspie are dispersed over the
country upon mounds of earth made with their own hands, from
which it is inferred that these nations are very ancient, and were
formerly very numerous, although at the present time they hardly
number two hundred and fifty persons." The settlement was de
stroyed, and the inhabitants butchered by the Indians, December
12, 1729, a short time after the massacre at Natchez. (See Western
Company ; Charlevoix ; Fort Rosalie ; Fort St. Claude.)
Land Grants, Spanish. "Lands were obtained with little diffi
culty or expense. The immigrant made his selection of any unoc
cupied parcel, and presented a written request for an order of sur
vey. If no obstacle intervened, the governor issued the order,
and on the return of the plat and the payment of very moderate
fees for surveying, the grant issued. Many settled under the order
of survey merely, if the survey could not be immediately made.
The earliest Spanish order of survey in the Natchez district, is
dated April 20, 1784, and the latest, September 1, 1795." (Clai
borne, p. 140).
The grants of land by the Spanish government in the Natchez
district began to be made in considerable abundance in 1787, and
continued until the district was surrendered to the United States.
Among the grants were the following, Celeste Hutchins, 1,000
acres near White Cliffs, 1788; Cato West, 1,500 on Cole's creek,
1789; Daniel Burnet, 2,000 on Bayou Pierre, 1790 and 1795; Ab
ner Green, 665 on West Bayou Pierre, 600 on the Mississippi, 135
on St. Catherine, 1789; Maria Green, his wife, 500 on Second
Creek, 1788; Gerard Brandon, 800 on west Bayou Sara, 1790;
Gabriel Benoist, 1,600 on Fairchild's creek, 1788, 1,000 on Cole's
creek, 1793; Benajah Osmun, 600 on Bayou Sara, 1795; Anthony
Hutchins, 1366 on the Mississippi, 1789-90, 2,146 on west Cole's,
1790, 242 on Cole's 1795; Narsworthy Hunter, 1,000 on Cole's
creek, 1795 ; Adam Bingaman, 3,898 on Bayou Sara and St. Cath
erine, 1788-89 ; William Dunbar, 4,950, mainly on Bayou Sara
waters, 1787-95; Ann and William Dunbar, jr., 2,000 on Feliciana
creek, 1793; Stephen Minor, 500 on Mississippi, 1786, 1,015 on Sec
ond creek, 1787, 13 in Natchez, 1795, 1,000 on Second creek, 1792,

MISSISSIPPI 45
1,180 on Big Black, 1795, 875 on Mississippi, 1795; Manuel Gayoso
de Lemos, 242 near Natchez, 1794.
All the Spanish land titles were recognized by the United States
after occupation of the territory, so far as the claimants were in
the actual possession and use of the land on the day of the treaty
of San Lorenzo, by which Spain relinquished her claim to the
region. (See British Land Claims.)
"The titles derived from the Spanish government were of two
grades ; orders of survey, and complete patents, the former being
the incipient or incomplete form of the latter. To procure a grant
of land, the applicant addressed a requete, (request or petition)
to the Spanish governor, in New Orleans, and hence, from the cor
ruption of the word, the term ricket, by which one class of the
claims were known to the early settlers. If the petition was
granted, an order of survey was issued by the governor to the
Surveyor-General Don Carlos Trudeau, to cause the land prayed
for to be surveyed and put into possession of the petitioner. This
duty was performed by the deputy-surveyor of the district, and
the survey being approved and returned, accompanied by a plat,
the governor thereupon granted his patent; the usual fees being
paid in all the stages of the process by the grantee." (Wailes,
Report of 1854.)
Many/'occupants of land contented themselves with the warrant
of survey, without going to the expense of obtaining a patent, and
as Gov. Claiborne reported in 1802, "this species of title is esteemed
here as very strong, in an equitable point of view ; and I am well
informed they were viewed as legal under the Spanish govern
ment, and, by custom, the proprietor was authorized to sell after
three years' occupancy."
William Vousdan was at one time the surveyor for the district
of Natchez, and was succeeded by William Dunbar.
"The grants of the Spanish government appear to have been
confined to persons actually residing on the lands ; but they were
made indiscriminately on every unoccupied tract, whether the
same had been previously granted by the British government or
not; nor did they discontinue making concessions, even after Spain
had, by the treaty of October, 1795, recognized the right of the
United States to the whole territory north of the 31st degree of
north latitude. Until the evacuation, which was delayed for nearly
two years, had taken place, grants were issued, sometimes bearing
their real date, and sometimes, as is alleged, antedated." . . .
Incomplete grants were more common in Spanish than in English
titles, "it having been customary until the American settlers at
Natchez requested patents, to consider a Spanish order of survey,
when executed and returned, as a sufficient title ; whilst, on the
other hand, few settlers are obliged to claim under incomplete
British titles, as they generally applied, in lieu of them, for Span
ish grants, and now claim under them." (Report of Madison com
mission, 1803.)
Strangely, the treaty of 1795 made no provision to protect those

46 MISSISSIPPI
who had been given title to land by the Spanish in the region re
linquished by that treaty. In 1798 the Spanish colonial authori
ties declared the treaty would not be carried out until some ar
rangement was made on the subject between the two governments ;
but nothing was done, and the remonstrance seemed a mere pre
text to cover other reasons for delay.
Antedated grants were also a subject of much discussion. The
principal claims thus under suspicion, were to William Vousdan,
Robert Moore, Thomas Burling, James Moore, Sarah Scott, Wil
liam Moore, James White (2,200 acres), Margaret Thompson,
Jacintha Gallagher (who became Jacintha Vidal), and were mostly
on Bayou Sara and Bayou Pierre. The list included a grant to
William Dunbar for a lot in Natchez. In December, 1801, Gov.
Claiborne wrote to the secretary of state :
"Subsequent to the ratification of the treaty with the United
States and Spain, and shortly before this district was evacuated
by the Spaniards, the Spanish governor and his agents granted to
some of their favorites much valuable land, and in order that the
grants, upon inspection, might appear legal, they were made to
bear date previous to the treaty. This kind of conduct is known
to have been practiced, and indeed some persons who have been
benefited by the fraud are stated to me to- have avowed it. In some
instances the fraudulent grants were made for lands which had
been previously bona fide granted, and in a case of this kind, where
suit has been brought, the holder of the fraudulent grant (which
was eldest in date) obtained a recovery. In the inferior court,
where the case was first inquired into, parole testimony was ad
mitted to invalidate the antedated grant, and the defendant ob
tained a verdict ; but, upon appeal to the superior court, the parole
testimony was declared inadmissable, and, of course, the plaintiff
suceeded." The legislature proposed to enact a law authorizing
the admission of the excluded testimony, but the governor advised
against this for the present, but could see no way according to the
rules of law to remedy the wrong. The question was cleared
up by the ruling of Levi Lincoln, attorney-general of the United
States, May 11, 1802, that "nothing can be clearer than that all grants
made by the Spanish government after the ratification of the treaty
by which the land was ceded to the United States, are void," and
further that "the only question is, when was the patent granted,
not when it was executed, or what is its date?" Finally, after
much litigation it was established as a principle of law that the
Spanish government had no rightful authority to grant lands in
the Natchez district after Great Britain, in 1783, had acknowledged
the limits of the United States to include the district. But the
congress had full power to recognize such of the grants as it
deemed advisable.
Land Laws, Spanish. The instructions regarding new settlers,
issued by Gov. Gayoso at New Orleans, Sept. 9, 1797, were that
unmarried immigrants, those not farmers, must reside four years
before they would be granted lands. There must be an under-

MISSISSIPPI ' 47
standing that the children of settlers must become Catholics, if
they were not, and no Protestant preacher would be admitted
under any circumstances. "To every new settler, answering the
foregoing description and married, there shall be granted 200 ar
pents of land ; 50 arpents shall be granted for every child he shall
bring with him." It was further provided that where a settler
brought negroes he should be allowed 20 arpents for each negro,
but never to exceed 800 arpents in all to any one proprietor. "It
is necessary, by all possible means, to prevent speculation in lands."
"No lands shall be granted to traders, as they live in the towns,
they do not need them." "Immediately on the arrival of a new
settler, the oath of fidelity shall be required of him." If married
he must submit proofs of the same, show what is his property and
what his wife's, and make this representation correctly, or forfeit
his property. "The new settler to whom lands have been granted
shall lose them without recovery if in the term of one year he shall
not begin to establish himself upon them, or if, in the third year,
he shall not have put under labor ten arpents in every hundred."
There was no right to sell until three crops had been raised on
one-tenth of the land.
Land Offices. The first enactment of the United States con
gress regarding the lands of Mississippi territory, bears date March
3, 1803. The territorial government was established in 1798, but
the authority of the United States to provide for the rights of the
inhabitants in the lands they held and regulate the sale of vacant
lands, was not clear until after the' agreement with Georgia in
1802. This act provided, "That, for the disposal of the lands of the
United States within the Mississippi Territory, two Land Offices
shall be established in the same : one at such place in the county of
Adams, as shall be designated by the President of the United
States, for the lands lying West of 'Pearl River,' sometimes called
'Half-way River' ; and one at such place in the county of Washing
ton, as shall be designated by the President of the United States,
for the lands lying East of Pearl River; and for each of the said
offices a Register and Receiver of Public Moneys shall be ap
pointed," etc., the same regulations being made as in the North
west territory.
Until more land than the old districts of Natchez and Mobile,
north of latitude 31°, should be acquired from the Indians, it was
the duty of the register in each district to act with two persons to
be appointed by the president, as a commission to adjust the claims
arising from grants and other acts of the former governments of
the country.
On July 9, 1803, Edward Turner, of Mississippi, was appointed
register of the land office for the lands lying west of Pearl river.
He was reappointed Nov. 18, 1804. On March 3, 1805, Thomas
Hill Williams, of Mississippi territory, was appointed register for
the county of Adams, west of Pearl river, and the latter was suc
ceeded by Nehemiah Tilton, of Delaware, by appointment Jan.

48 MISSISSIPPI
10, 1811. East of Pearl river Joseph Chambers was the first regis
ter. The commissioners appointed were Thomas Rodney, of Del
aware, and Robert Williams, of North Carolina, for the western
district, to have their office at Washington; and Ephraim Kirby,
of Connecticut, and Robert Carter Nicholas, of Kentucky, for the
eastern district, to have their office at St. Stephens.
The board for the district west of Pearl river "convened at the
town of Washington on December 1, 1803, and continued open
for the reception of claims until July 3, 1807, when it was ad
journed sine die, after having received for record 2,090 claims.
Some of these claims were subsequently contested in the high
courts of the United States." There were no public lands to be
disposed of ab initio, except such as might be found unclaimed in
the Natchez district. Settlers upon the land, who were in posses
sion March 3, 1803, were to have the preference in becoming pur
chasers at the price then fixed by law for public lands, and these
constituted the main class of pre-emptors.
April 21, 1806, it was enacted that persons entitled to a right
of pre-emption by virtue of certificate from the commissioners,
should be allowed until Jan. 1, 1807, to make the first payment,
when, if they failed so to do, their right became void. As for those
without title who were actual settlers in 1798, they were donated
640 acres to each male settler of full age. Finally, by act of Jan.
10, 1808, every person the head of a family or of full age, who
on March 3, 1807, actually inhabited and cultivated a tract of land
not claimed under a land commissioners' certificate, and had ob
tained permission to reside on' the lands under the act of March,
1807, should have the right of preference in becoming a purchaser
of not to exceed 640 acres, and be allowed until Jan. 1, 1809, to
make the first payment.
Sept. 19, 1808, the Mississippi house of representatives, F. L.
Claiborne, speaker, adopted a memorial to congress, asking further
indulgence in making the first payment. It was represented that
the planters "have been cut off from every hope of payment by an
act of that government to which they were indebted. It has been
deemed expedient to suspend, by embargo, our mercantile opera^
tions, and thereby our produce lies, unsold and unsaleable in our
barns. The policy of this measure is nowhere admired more than
by the people of this territory . . . but . . . we deplore
the severe and destructive effects which will inevitably accompany
the operations of the law, if the payments due to the United
States are rigidly exacted." The committee on public lands re
ported adversely to the petition, saving the pre-emptors already
had had a longer time for making their first payment than other
purchasers, and had enjoyed the selection of the best lands without
competition. In March, 1808, the first Choctaw purchase was
ordered opened to sale, and thereafter the land office had to deal
with the original sale of land outside of the historic ground of
Natchez district, and sales were made under the general land laws
of the United States.

MISSISSIPPI 49
Under the act of 1808 Thomas W. Murray, of Virginia, was
register, and Lemuel Henry, receiver, at St. Stephens, for the dis
trict east of Pearl.
Before the Choctaw cession of 1820 there were 4,792,000 acres of
land sold in Mississippi and Alabama, for $17,656,549, of which
$5,577,057 had been paid.
The sales were about $150,000 in 1807, when they began; next
year, when there was war in prospect, they dropped to $35,000;
after that they varied from $150,000 to $300,000 until 1813-15, the
war period, when the annual sales were $60,000, $82,000 and $54,-
000. Then in 1816 the sales leaped to over $1,000,000, next year
to $2,000,000, and in 1818 to $3,715,000. The sales in 1819 were,
however, unprecedented — $9,700,000, more than half the total from
1807. This was almost entirely In Alabama, however, in the new
Indian cessions.
Under the act of March 3, 1819, a land office was established
at Jackson Courthouse, (county seat of Jackson county), to take
evidence regarding titles to land in the coast region based on
French, English and Spanish grants. William Barton was regis
ter; William Barnett, receiver; John Elliott, clerk and interpre
ter. These officers also had charge of the sale of the lands in that
region, annexed in 1812 from West Florida south of the Ellicott
line and east of the Pearl river. The report for October 1, 1821,
was west of Pearl river district, total lands in district, 3,502,080
acres, all surveyed ; Jackson Courthouse, 2,097,600, no surveys ;
east of Pearl river (Ala.), 6,904,320, 5,253,000 surveyed. The re
ceipts of the Jackson county officer in 1820 were $13,405 ; at Wash
ington $90,876 ; while the receipts at Huntsville, Cahawba, were
$407,000, and at St. Stephens $67,000.
By the act of May 6, 1822, the old district east of Pearl river
in the first Choctaw cession was divided, and that part of it in Mis
sissippi was assigned to the Jackson county land office, which was
removed to Augusta. The territory of this office was then the
southeast corner of the State, south of the "old Choctaw boundary."
The same act also created a new district to include the lands ceded
by the Choctaws at Doak's Stand (q. v.) in 1820, estimated at over
5,000,000 acres, the land office to be established at such convenient
place as the president might direct. The president was authorized
to order all or part of the land surveyed and offered for sale, the
first sale to be held at any convenient place west of Pearl river
if so desired. To this new district was attached the lands east of
the Tombigbee in Mississippi,^ to which the Indian title had been
extinguished in 1816, and which had belonged to the Madison coun
ty district. (Ala.)
In 1822 the president appointed Gideon Fitz register, and James
C. Dickson, brother of David Dickson, receiver for the land of
fice at Jackson. Surveyor Freeman recommended the sales to be at
Washington or Port Gibson, but the legislature in December, 1822,
petitioned for sales at Jackson, where the first sale occurred in
November, 1833.
4-II

50 MISSISSIPPI
The act of Feb. 22, 1827, authorized the president to order the
removal of "the land office now located at Jackson," and it was
accordingly, changed to Mount Salus, the former home of Gov.
Leake, (now Clinton), upon request of the legislature.
Under the act of 1803, there was also appointed a "surveyor of
the lands of the United States south of Tennessee," to whose
duties were added the survey of the lands of Orleans district in
1805, and the country annexed from West Florida in 1812. Isaac
Briggs, of Maryland, was the first surveyor, appointed April 7,
1803. He was succeeded by Seth Pease, of the District of Colum
bia, appointed March 2, 1807, who arrived in May of that year.
Thomas Freeman was appointed Aug. 27, 1810, and he continued
in office until his death in 1821. His jurisdiction was restricted
in 1817, by the appointment of Gen. John Coffee as surveyor in
the northern district of Mississippi territory, which district was
changed in the following year to Alabama territory, leaving Free
man the surveyor of all public lands in the State of Mississippi.
Jan. 9, 1822, Levin Wailes was appointed, to succeed Freeman.
Joseph Dunbar, collector of the revenue district was appointed
surveyor in Jan., 1830, vice  removed.
The report of B. L. C. Wailes, register at Washington, in July,
1824, showed: Area of Natchez District, 2,031,800 acres; Subse
quent purchases 12,475,000 acres ; Yet in hands of Chickasaws and
Choctaws, 15,700,000 acres. The State was divided into three
land districts, one for the district west of Pearl, with the land
office at Washington, and one east of Pearl, with office at Augusta,
and the Choctaw district, with the office at Clinton, where all
transactions were on the cash basis, no debts or forfeitures. In
the western district the private claims confirmed by the United
States, chiefly British and Spanish grants, amounted to 545,480
acres. Only about one-third of the lands in the district had been
disposed of, say 988,000 acres. The forfeitures March 4, 1829,
were about $159,000.
There were six land districts, called the Paulding, the Columbus,
the Washington, the Grenada, the Jackson, and the Chickasaw
districts, with an office at each of the towns named, there being
no separate office for the Chickasaw district. In 1869 all the
offices were consolidated in one at Jackson, with C. L. C. Cass as
receiver and Charles W. Loomis register. The receivers since
Mr. Cass have been Robert J. Alcorn, A. H. Kimball, John T.
Hull, Wallace McLaurin, George C. McKee, Mrs. A. H. McKee,
R. W. Banks, George Edward Matthews, Isaiah T. Montgomery,
Thomas B. McAllister. The registers in the same period have
been R. C. Kerr, James D. Stewart, Henry Kernagan, Robert E.
Wilson, James Hill, F. W. Collins, L. Q. C. Lamar, Jr.
Land Pre-emption. James Madison, Albert Gallatin and Levi
Lincoln, United States commissioners to make an amicable settle
ment with the State of Georgia, who, in the performance of this
duty,; arranged the Georgia relinquishment of 1802, made a report
to congress Feb. 16, 1803, accompanied by a report from Gov.

MISSISSIPPI 51
William C. C. Claiborne, and these statements of fact and recom
mendations theron were the basis of the legislation upon land titles
and pre-emption, so far as the principles already established were
adapted to this region. In the report of the commissioners are set
out the facts regarding the holding of lands in the Natchez and
Mobile districts by inhabitants, at that time. All who had been
actual settlers at the time of the signing of the treaty with Spain,.
Oct. 27, 1795, under grants that had been legally and fully executed,
whether from Great Britain, or Spain or the State of Georgia,.
under the Bourbon county act, were invited by the governor of the-
territory to exhibit their claims to the clerks of the county courts,.
prior to Nov. 1, 1802. Some failed to do so, either "through inat
tention, or from an unaccomodating disposition," said Gov. Clai
borne, or because a report was put in circulation industriously by
"some designing characters" that the call for titles was intended to>
work injury to those who had them. The governor was of the
opinion that there were not more than 350,000 acres on the Missis
sippi covered by claims of this character, which the government
was pledged to confirm. But there were many people who had"
never completed their titles, and held only the original order to the
surveyor to survey land for them, with or without an actual survey,
and all of these without any subsequent confirmatory proceedings.
There were also many settlers without any evidence of title. Ac
cording to the governor, "one hundred and thirty heads of families
had, prior to October, 1795, formed settlements, without any other
title but what might be derived from the Bourbon act; and seven
hundred more have settled in the country since that time, (up to
1802), who either have no title whatever, or rest their claims on-
Spanish orders of survey and grants issued after the date of the-
treaty." Those of the last description, who immigrated before the-
Spanish posts had been evacuated, urged their ignorance at first
of the treaty, and the subsequent acquiescence of the American
government in the continued possession by the Spanish govern
ment. The commissioners recommended that titles based on
orders of survey be recognized in the hands of actual settlers at
the critical day. The commissioners also advised the appointment
of a commission to pass on the claims, and that the right of pre
emption of 640 acres be extended to settlers who were weak in
title. Gov. Claiborne urged that it was essential that the latter class
should be protected. The heads of families of this description, in
the counties of Jefferson, Adams, Wilkinson and Claiborne, he
said, exceed 700 and their wives and children to near 3,000. "I
do sincerely hope that these citizens may be secured in their im
provements, and that the government will sell out the vacant lands
in this district upon moderate terms, and in small tracts, to actual
settlers." If this were not done, said the governor, much distress
would result, and many of the settlers would leave the territory
in disgust, to find more generous treatment beyond the Mississippi,..
while their farms would fall into the hands of rich speculators..

52 MISSISSIPPI
either in the Natchez district or from the United States. Thus,
"the most distant and infant settlement of the United States, at
present insulated and defenceless, would be rendered more weak
and defenceless by the banishment of the poor class of white citi
zens, and the introduction of a few wealthy characters, with a
large increase of negroes; a description of inhabitants already
formidable to our present population."
It is to be borne in mind that though this region was under the
United States government from 1798, it was not decided who was
to convey title to lands until the Georgia settlement of 1802, and
then there was nothing to convey, except in Natchez and Mobile
districts, which had long been relinquished by the Indians, until
the Indians were persuaded to cede more lands. The vacant lands
alluded to by the governor were in the district of Natchez, or the
upper district of Mobile, as they were definitely bounded under the
British administration of West Florida.
The act of congress of March 3, 1803, conformed to the main
recommendations of the commissioners and the governor. In
complete claims on orders of survey were to be confirmed the
same as if completed, if made by actual inhabitants and cultivators
on Oct. 27, 1795.
Besides, any one being of legal age or the head of a family on
that day, who dtd actually inhabit or cultivate, without title from
Spain or Great Britain, a tract of land in the territory, not claimed
under some grant protected by the terms of the Georgia cession,
should be donated not to exceed 640 acres.
Also, any person of legal age or the head of a family, being
on March 3, 1803, the inhabitor or cultivator of a tract of land not
claimed by others as already specified, or by a British grant, or
subject to the claims protected in the Georgia cession, was assured
of a preference in becoming the purchaser from the United States,
at the regular price.
These were the three classes of actual settlers of small bodies
of land, protected by the United States law against loss of their
property, though they were annoyed for some years afterward by
the pretensions of non-resident British claimants.
The register of the Land office, created by the same act of 1803,
with two other persons appointed by the president constituted the
commission recommended by Madison to receive and hear testi
mony regarding claims. Where they were satisfied that the claim
ant was entitled to land under the Georgia agreement, in virtue
of a British and Spanish grant fully executed, they so certified,
and the certificate being recorded by the register of the land office,
served the purpose of a deed from the United States. Similar
certificates were given upon sufficient proof of claims under the
Bourbon county act, or claims of the two classes of inhabitants
in October, 1795, which entitled the claimant to a patent from the
United States. Where the pre-emption right was claimed, the
certificate entitled the claimant to become the purchaser, provided

MISSISSIPPI 53
he entered his certificate with the register by Jan. 1, 1805, and
paid a fourth of the purchase money and expenses, by Jan. 1, 1806.
The final report of the land office in regard to these claims exist
ing when the law of 1803 went into force, was that up to July,
1807, to which limit the time for making proof was extended, from
time to time, there had been entered 819 certificates founded on
British and Spanish patents; which entries made a perfect title
in those cases. Besides, there were 300 cases in which patents
were to be issued, without any payment of purchase money to be
required, under the first provision of the law of 1803, to holders
of survey warrants and such like imperfect titles, who were occu
pants at various dates from 1787 up to March 30, 1798. There had
also been 345 pre-emption claims filed. Titles in sixteen cases were
clouded by conflicting British claims and seven pre-emption claims
were clouded in the same manner.
The pre-emption claims were generally under 640 acres. Four
of them were in excess, one of these being the claim of Peter B.
Bruin for 1,160 acres on Bayou Pierre.
Land Titles, French. The French land titles generally ceased
with the English ocupation of 1763. D'Abbadie, commandant at
New Orleans, wrote the French government January 10, 1764:
"Immediately after the delivering up of Mobile to Mr. Farmer,
who took possession of it in the name of his Britanic Majesty,
this officer issued a captious decree, which is calculated to produce
the greatest anxiety in the minds of the French inhabitants. (1)
He requires the French inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance
within three months, if they wish to be protected in their prop
erty. What right has he to impose any such obligation on those in
habitants, since the treaty grants them a delay of eighteen months
to emigrate, if they choose, and since it is stipulated that they shall
be, under no pretext, subjected to any restraint whatsoever? (2)
The French inhabitants are prohibited from disposing of any land
or real estate, until their titles thereto are verified, registered and
approved by the commanding officer. No titles are accepted as
good, except those which are founded on concessions in due form,
given by the governors and the Interidant Commissary of New
Orleans, when, on account of the small number of inhabitants, and
of the immense extent of public lands, the mere fact of taking pos
session and the continuation of it, on permission given to select
a tract of land and to clear it of its timber, has always been looked
upon as a sufficient title."
Landon, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Harrison county,
on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 5 miles by rail north of Gulfport.
Langford, a postoffice of Rankin county, 5 miles north of Brandon,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Langley, a postoffice in the north-central part of Attala county,
12 miles north of Kosciusko, the county seat, and nearest railroad
and banking town.
Langsdale, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Clarke
county, about 15 miles southeast of Quitman, the county seat, and

54 MISSISSIPPI
8 miles Sast of Shubuta, the nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 36.
Lantrip, a postoffice of Calhoun county.
Lapanto, a postoffice of Yazoo county.
L'Argent, a post-hamlet of Sharkey county, situated near the
mouth of Big Sunflower river, about 25 miles southeast of Rolling
Fork, the county seat. Population in 1906, 25.
Larue, a hamlet in the western part of Jackson county, about
22 miles northwest of Pascagoula, the county seat. It has a money
order postoffice.
La Salle, Robert Cavelier de. La Salle's chief title to enduring
fame lies in his famous journey of exploration to the mouth of the
Mississippi river in 1682. He was born at Rouen, France, and
educated at a Jesuit seminary. While still a young man, he went
to Canada to seek his fortune, and was patronized by M." Talon,
the Intendant. For his eminent services in the exploration of the
Canadian lakes, he was rewarded with a patent of nobility by king
Louis, on the occasion of a visit to France in 1675. In 1678 he was
commissioned to undertake the exploration of the Mississippi and
was issued the following patent:
"Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre : To
Our Dear and Well Beloved Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle,
Greeting :
"We have received with favor the very humble petition, which
has been presented to us in your name, to permit you to endeavor
to discover the western part of New France; and we have con
sented to this proposal the more willingly, because there is noth
ing we have more at heart than the discovery of this country,
through which it is probable a road may be found to penetrate
to Mexico ; and because your diligence in clearing lands which we
granted to you by the decree of our council of the 13th of May,
1675, and by Letters Patent of the same date, to form habitations
upon the said lands, and to put Fort Frontenac in a good state of
defense, the seigniory and government whereof we likewise grant
ed to you, afford us every reason to hope that you will succeed to
our satisfaction and to the advantages of our subjects of the said
country. "For these reasons, and others thereunto moving us, we have per
mitted and do hereby permit you by these presents, signed by our
hand, to endeavor to discover the western part of New France,
and for the execution of this enterprise to construct forts wher
ever you shall deem it necessary; which it is our will that you shall
hold on the same terms and conditions as Fort Frontenac, agree
ably and conformably to our Letters Patent on the 13th of March,
1675, which we have confirmed as far as is needful, and hereby
confirm by these presents. And it is our pleasure that they be exe
cuted according to their form and tenor.
"To accomplish this and everything above mentioned we give
you full powers; on condition, however, that you shall finish this
enterprise within five years, in default of which these presents shall

MISSISSIPPI 55
be void and of no effect ; that you carry on no trade whatever with
the savages called Outaouacs and others who bring their beaver
skins and other peltries to Montreal ; and that the whole shall be
done at your expense and that of your company, to which we have
granted the privilege of the trade in buffalo skins. And we com
mand the Sieur de Frontenac, our Governor and Lieutenant-Gen-
eral, and the Sieur Duchesne, Intendant, and the other officers who
compose the supreme council of the said country, to affix their sig
natures to these presents ; for such is our pleasure. Given at St.
Germaine en Laye, this 12th day of May, 1678, and of our reign
the thirty-fifth. "(Signed) Louis."
It will be noted that the king seems to have had no higher motive
than to permit LaSalle to explore the western part of New France
at his own risk and expense. France would benefit mightily from
the projected voyage, both in knowledge and territory. La Salle
must find his recompense in the "privilege of the trade in buffalo
skins" and the seigniory of the forts established and the settlements
which might be expected to spring up about them. It was not
known that the Mississippi flowed into the Gulf and not into the
South Sea; forts established along its course cemented the owner
ship of France. LaSalle saw the possibilities in this great and
fertile valley and expected to establish on a firm basis the claim
of France to a splendid new empire. He was just the man to un
dertake this great work. Endowed with extraordinary capacity,
tact and perseverance, and indomitable courage, he finally arrived
at the mouth of the Mississippi, on the 9th of April, 1682. He then
ascended a short distance to a considerable elevation and with all
possible ceremony planted the cross and raised the arms of France
together with the inscription : "Louis Le Grand, Roi, de France
et de Navarre, Regne: Le Nouvieme April, 1682." Then after
chanting the hymn of the church "Vexalla Regis" and the "Te
Deum," in the name of his majesty, he took possession of the
Mississippi river, of all rivers that enter it and of all the country
watered by them, and called the country Louisiana. The narrative
of Father Membre recites: "An authentic act was drawn up,
signed by all of us there, and amid a volley from all our muskets,
a leaden plate inscribed with the arms of France, and the names
of those who had just made the discovery, was deposited in the
earth." Detailed accounts of this famous voyage have been fortunately
preserved to us in the narratives and memoirs of De Tonty, Father
Membre, and other members of the expedition. (See His. Coll.
of La., By B. F. French).
Once more LaSalle returned to France. The great French Min
ister, Colbert, was now no more, and his son, Seignelay, was Min
ister of Marine. To him he delivers two memoirs, the one his
official account of the taking possession of Louisiana, and the other
urging an expedition by sea to the Mississippi, with a memorandum
of the equipment and supplies necessary to undertake it. He was

56 MISSISSIPPI
duly authorized to build forts and plant colonies in Louisiana and
fitted out an expedition of four ships,- and 280 persons, including
Father Zenobe, and M. Joutel, the future historian of the expedi
tion. This expedition sailed on the 24th of July, 1684, reached the
Gulf of Mexico in the following December, but missed the mouth
of the Mississippi, and LaSalle was compelled to effect a landing
in the bay of St. Bernard, where he built a fort. He made a num
ber of attempts to find the Mississippi, and during the last one was
assassinated by one of his countrymen, on one of the branches of
the Trinity, March 20, 1687. In this inglorious manner died the
man who has been styled the "Father of French Colonization in
the Mississippi Valley." Says Sparks, "To him must be mainly
ascribed the discovery of the vast regions of the Mississippi Val
ley, and the subsequent occupation and settlement of them by the
French ; and his name justly holds a prominent place among those
which adorn the history of civilization in the new world."
Latonia, a post-village in the northeastern part of Jackson county,
on the boundary line between Mississippi and Alabama, about 35
miles north of Pascagoula, the county seat. It is on the right bank
of the Escatawpa river, and is a prosperous station on the Mobile,
Jackson & Kansas City R. R. Population in 1900, 200.
Latourette's Map. The first of the modern maps of Mississippi
was published by Latourette in 1840. Gov. McNutt recommended
the purchase of 200 by the legislature.
Lattimore, William, was born at Norfolk, Va., Feb. 9, 1774;
after an academic education he prepared for the practice of medi
cine, and with his brother, David, also a physician, came to Nat
chez in 1801. In 1802 they were given charge of the small-pox
camp established by Gov. Claiborne, also of the vaccination of the
inhabitants. David Lattimore, in 1802, was appointed a member
of the Territorial council by President Jefferson, to succeed Adam
Bingaman. On March 12, 1803, William Lattimore was elected
by the general assembly as delegate in congress to succeed Thomas
M. Green. In communicating this to Secretary Madison, Gov.
Claiborne wrote : "Doctor Lattimore is a young man of promis
ing talents and a firm and genuine republican." He was reelected
in 1805. In 1807 and 1809 George Poindexter was chosen as dele
gate, and upon his declining to serve longer, Dr. Lattimore was
again elected, in 1813 and 1815, serving until the State was ad
mitted. His election in 1813 was by a plurality over Cowels Mead
and Thomas B. Reed, and was a victory for the Whig element.
Marschalk wrote of him at this time : "Modest, fond of retirement
and confident of the good sense and justness of his fellow-citizens,
he has been always willing to rest his services and reputation in
the hands of a generous and discriminating public." In 1817 he
was a member of the constitutional convention, in 1819 was ap
pointed one of the seven censors of the medical profession, under
the law of that period, and in 1823 he was an unsuccessful can
didate for governor against Walter Leake.
He was the head of a party that deprecated the early discussion

MISSISSIPPI 57
of a division of the territory and statehood. When division was
inevitable, "his project was to follow the Choctaw boundary east
erly, from the northwest corner of Washington county to the
Tombigbee, thence up that river to Cottongin port, thence north
to Bear Creek. It is very evident, from his whole course in this
matter, that this intelligent and conscientious man intended to
represent the whole territory fairly in this and all other matters.
But a terrible howl was made in the west against his surrender of
the only seaport (Mobile), and of the Tombigbee, and he was not
only defeated, but never recovered his popularity, though no man
had served the Territory with more fidelity. And in private life,
of all our public men, he had ever been the most exemplary and
unimpeachable." (Claiborne's Mississippi.) Both brothers "were
men of sense and cultivation and wrote and spoke fluently and
forcibly. In private life they were greatly beloved. William Lat
timore settled in that part of Wilkinson which subsequently be
came the county of Amite. . . . His last public service was
as commissioner, in connection with Gen. Thomas Hinds and
Judge Peter A. VanDorn, to select a site for the seat of govern
ment for the State. They selected the site of the present city of
Jackson. Dr. William Lattimore died in Amite county, April 3,
1843." Lauderdale, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part
of Lauderdale county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 18 miles north
east of Meridian, the nearest banking town. Wild Horse creek, an
affluent of the Tombigbee, flows one mile north of the town. Like
the county, it received its name in honor of Col. James Lauderdale.
It has a money order postoffice, several stores, two churches and a
grist mill. Population in 1900, 288.
Lauderdale County, one of the richest and most populous counties
in the State, was established December 23, 1833, while Charles
Lynch was acting-governor. It has a land surface of 677
square miles, and is located about the middle of the eastern border
of the State next to the Alabama line. It received its name in
honor of Col. James Lauderdale, of the War of 1812. # By the
original act it embraced "all the territory within townships 5, 6,
7 and 8, of ranges 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19," and has an area of
about 19 townships. It is bounded on the north by the county of
Kemper, on the east by Sumter county, Ala., on the south by Clarke
county, and on the west by Newton county. Its early county seat
was located at Marion until 1866 ; at Marion Station from 1866 to
1870 ; it was then removed to Meridian, the present county seat. In
addition to the old county seat of Marion, the towns of Alamutcha
and Daleville, and the villages of Sageville and Chunkeyville, were
settled at a very early date in the history of the county. All four
towns are now extinct. Alamutcha was once an Indian village,
situated not far from Kewanee. Daleville is now known as Lizelia,
and was about 10 miles northwest of Meridian ; it was named for
Gen. Sam Dale, who first settled there. A few miles distant is
Cooper Institute, now known as Daleville. Sageville was near the

58 MISSISSIPPI
present station of Okatibbee, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R. ; E. J.
Rew and Abram Burwell were citizens of the old village. Chunkey-
ville was absorbed by Chunkey Station, on the Alabama & Vicks
burg R. R. Before the War, Lauderdale Springs was a popular
health resort. No city in the State can show a more remarkable
growth since the War than Meridian. Up to 1854, it was a junction
point, whose very name was in dispute ; in 1866, its first factory was
established — a foundry and machine shop. Its growth was then
steady, being only interrupted by a number of disastrous fires, and
by the great fever epidemic of 1878. There were 22 manufacturing
establishments in 1890 ; 119 in 1900, showing a gain in one decade of
440.9 per cent. Today it is the largest manufacturing center in
the State according to the twelfth census, and contains a popula
tion which was estimated at 25,000 in 1906, having passed Vicks
burg since the last census. It is the most important railroad center
in the eastern part of the State, and is the junction of the Mobile
& Ohio, New Orleans & North Eastern, Alabama & Vicksburg,
Alabama Great Southern, and the St. Louis & San Francisco rail
roads. The last named road runs its trains into the city over
leased lines. The State's East Mississippi Insane Hospital is
located at Meridian, which was also the seat of the East Mississippi
Female College, recently destroyed by fire, and now succeeded by
the Meridian Female College and Conservatory of Music. The
Meridian Male College is another excellent school located here.
Some of the other towns in the county — all of them small in size —
are Lauderdale, Lockhart, Marion Station, Toomsuba, Russell,
Arundel, Savoy, Meehan Junction, Graham, Kewanee, Lost Gap,
and Bonita, which are railroad towns, and Daleville, Obadiah,
Morrow, Post and Increase, interior villages away from the rail
roads. The superior transportation facilities of the county, afforded
by the numerous roads which cross its borders, and its great natural
advantages of soil, climate and forests, assure to this county a
continuance of its remarkable growth in wealth and prosperity.
It is well watered by numerous small creeks and streams, which
are for the most part head waters of the Chickasawhay river, or
small branches of the Tombigbee, and it is well timbered with
pine, oak, hickory, gum, beech, chestnut, poplar and sycamore,
which are being rapidly worked up by its numerous mills and fac
tories. It is one of the few counties in the State where the value
of the manufactured products is greatly in excess of that of the
farms. The soil, however, produces good crops of cotton, corn,
sugar-cane, oats, peas, potatoes, vegetables and fruits of all kinds,
the last two items being extensively raised for market, and the live
stock industry is in a flourishing condition.
The following statistics taken from the last United States census
for 1900, will prove interesting as an illustration of the resources
at that time of Lauderdale county : Number of farms, 3,358 ; acreage
in farms, 315,542 ; acres improved, 130,159 ; value of the land ex
clusive of buildings, $1,616,880; value of the buildings, $675,930;
value of the live stock, $623,959, and total value of farm products

MISSISSIPPI 59
not fed, $1,388,146. Number of manufacturing establishments,
194; capital invested, $2,128,954; wages paid, $613,112; cost of ma
terials, $1,818,306, and total value of products, $3,292,923. The
population of the county in 1900, consisted of whites, 19,190;
colored, 18,960, a total of 38,150 and an increase of 8,489 over the
year 1890. The population in 1906, was estimated at 45,000.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in the
county in 1905 was $8,755,762 and in 1906 it was $11,515,689, show
ing an increase of $2,759,927 during the year. Artesian water is
found in the county, there being several flowing wells. The county
is taking a great interest in its public highways.
Laura, a postoffice of Montgomery county, 10 miles northeast of
Winona, the county seat.
Laurel, a thriving town in Jones county, 7 miles northeast of
Ellisville, the county seat. The name was derived from the dense
laurel thickets growing within its limits. It is the junction point
for three railroads : the New Orleans & North Eastern, the Mobile,
Jackson & Kansas City, and the Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship
Island. It is watered by the Tallahalla creek, an excellent logging
stream. The manufacturing of lumber is the chief industry. It
has four large saw mills, a wagon factory, a machine shop and
foundry, a large brick plant, a cotton compress, a cotton mill, and
an oil mill. The Bank of Laurel, now the First National Bank,
was established here in 1899 with a capital of $60,000 ; the Peoples
Bank, now the Commercial Bank & Trust Co., was established in
1900 with a capital of $20,000. The Chronicle, a semi-weekly, Dem
ocratic newspaper, edited by A. W. Noble, was established in 1897 ;
and the Ledger, a Democratic weekly edited by W. R. Hardy, was
established in 1902. Few towns in the State have had a more rapid
growth within recent years. Its population in 1900 had reached
3,193, and in 1906, the population was at least 5,000. It has ex
cellent schools, having five public school buildings for white scholars
and one building for colored people. The capacity of the central
public school building has recently been doubled.
Laurelhill, a hamlet in the western part of Neshoba county, 12
miles west of Philadelphia, the county seat. The postoffice at this
place was discontinued in 1905, and it now has rural free delivery
from Madden. Population in 1900, 48.
Law, John. See Western Company.
Lawrence, a post-village of Newton county, on the Alabama &
Vicksburg R. R., 60 miles east of Jackson, and 10 miles southwest
of Decatur, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, sev
eral general stores, two churches and a grist mill. Population in
1900, 75; the population in 1906 was estimated at 125.
Lawrence County was one of the fourteen territorial counties
represented in the Constitutional Convention of 1817, and was
created December 22, 1814, from the older county of Marion,
originally embracing within its area all the eastern half of the
present county of Lincoln. The original act defined its boundaries
as follows : "Beginning on the Franklin county line, where the

60 MISSISSIPPI
middle section of the fifth township intersects the same; thence
east along the said line to its intersection with the eastern boundary
line of the county of Marion. And all that tract of country on
the north side .of said line, and within the original boundary of
Marion county, shall form a county, known by the name of Law
rence." Its original area was about 1,000 square miles. By act
of January 5, 1819, it contributed of its eastern area to form the
county of Covington (q. v.), and February 12th, of the same year,
it surrendered to Marion county the northern half of township 5,
ranges 17 and 18 ; in 1870, it contributed of its western area to form
the new county of Lincoln (q. v.). The present area of the county
is 414,382 acres, or 638 square miles. For a period of five years
county courts were held at the house of Wright Mitchell, and then
a rude log court house was built on the site of the present build
ing: Harmon Runnels, Chief Justice of the Quorum; Stephen
Noble, J. Q. ; Benjamin Goodson, J. Q. ; James Stigler, J. Q. ;
Harmon M. Runnels, Clerk, and Hardin D. Runnels, Sheriff, con
stituted the first court as organized March 6, 1815. The civil
officers of the county in 1818 were as follows: George W. King,
Chief Justice of the Quorum, and John Reagan and Eli Garner,
Justices of the Quorum ; Samuel Alexander, Randolph Traylor,
Fort Alfred,  Warner, Francis Ross, Harper Garner, Alex.
Hall, Jesse Maxwell, Wm. Smith, Sr., Samuel Pepper, Joseph Hart,
Francis Tilman, Thomas Ship, Arthur Fox, John N. Field, Justices
of the Peace; John Burney, Assessor and Collector; Harper Garner,
County Surveyor; Wylie Bohahnon, County Treasurer; Jonathan
Armstrong, Leonard Green, Wm. D. Hathorn, Thos. P. Honea,
Thos. Matthews, ¦ — — Phillips, Parish Garner, Ezekiel Loften,
William Mallet, Constables. The county was named in commem
oration of James Lawrence, captain of the Chesapeake in the
memorable battle with the British on Lake Erie. Its northern
boundary is the old Choctaw boundary line of 1805, separating it
from Copiah and Simpson counties on the north, Covington county
is on the east, Marion and Pike counties on the south, and Lincoln
county on the west. It is an old settled region in the south central
part of the State, and its hardy and vigorous pioneers contributed
largely to the early beginnings of Mississippi. The little village
of Monticello, with a population of 500 and situated on a high bluff
on the western bank of the Pearl river, is the county seat; it was
the home of Harmon Runnels, Hiram G., Harmon M. and Hardin
D. Runnels, his sons. Harmon Runnels came to the State from
Georgia, built the first house in Monticello and was a forceful
representative in the constitutional convention of 1817. He reared
a large family, which became influential in the annals of the State.
Hiram G. Runnels, one of the sons, became Governor of the State
in 1833. There are no large settlements in Lawrence county, the
more important ones being Monticello, the county seat, and the
railroad towns of Grange, Hebron, Prentiss and Silvercreek. The
county is well watered by the Pearl river which flows through the
center, together with its numerous tributaries. Pearl river is navi-

MISSISSIPPI 61
gable for steamboats and is extensively used for shipping purposes
and in lumbering operations. The Gulf & Ship Island R. R.,
crosses the county from north to south, the Mississippi Central R.
R., enters the county from the east, and passes through westward
crossing the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., at Silvercreek. A short
spur of the Illinois Central R. R., from Brookhaven, enters the
northwestern part of the county and extends to Monticello,
and the N. C. & M. R. R. enters its southwestern corner.
The timber growth of the county is chiefly of the long leaf or yellow
pine variety and is of an excellent quality. The general surface of
the region is undulating and hilly, and level on the river and creek
bottoms. The low lands are very fertile; on the uplands the soil
is sandy and needs fertilizing. In common with most of the
southern counties in the long leaf pine region, there are extensive
areas of "reed-brakes," which, when drained and cultivated, can be
made to yield bounteously. The products of Lawrence county are
cotton, corn, rice, sugar-cane, sorghum, potatoes and all the fruits
and vegetables which grow in the temperate zone. There is plenty
of good pasturage, winter and summer, and many have engaged in
stock raising and sheep husbandry.
The twelfth United States census for 1900 shows that there were
in the county 2,510 farms, acreage in farms 276,683, acres improved
92,662, value of the land without the buildings $810,010, value of
buildings $386,610, value of live stock $461,692, total value of
products not fed $974,152. The number of manufactures was 43,
capital $59,061, wages paid $13,075, cost of materials $24,528 and
total value of manufactured products $63,975.
The population of the county in 1900 consisted of 7,535 whites,
7,568 colored, a total of 15,103, or 2,785 more than given by the
census returns for 1890. The manufacturing interests of the county
have increased at least 500 per cent, in the last five years. The
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county
in 1905 was $2,687,068 and in 1906 it was $3,631,197, which shows an
increase during the year of $944,129. The completion of the Mis
sissippi Central and the Gulf & Ship Island railroads through the
county has opened up an extensive area of valuable timber lands,
and saw mills are to be found every few miles along these lines.
Lawshill, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Marshall county,
about 15 miles southwest of Holly Springs. Population in 1900, 20.
Lazarus, a post-hamlet in the southeastern corner of Harrison
county, situated on the Back Bay of Biloxi, 2 miles north of Biloxi.
Leaf, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Greene county,
on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 18 miles southwest
of Leakesville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 37.
Leake County was established December 23, 1833, and was one
of the sixteen counties created at that time from the final cession
of the Choctaw Indians, under the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, 1830.
It was named for Governor Walter Leake, member of the Constitu
tional Convention of 1817, United States senator and twice governor
of the State. The original act defines its limits as follows : "Be-

62 MISSISSIPPI
ginning at the northeast corner of Scott county, and running from
thence north with the line between ranges 9 and 10 east, to the line
between townships 12 and 13 ; from thence west, with the line be
tween townships 12 and 13, to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east ;
from thence south with said line between ranges 5 and 6 east, to
the line between townships 8 and 9; and from thence east to the
place of beginning."
The county is an exact square, contains 16 townships or 561
square miles and is located almost at the center of the State. It is
bounded on the north by Attala county, on the east by Neshoba
county, on the south by Scott county and on the west by Madison
county. There are as yet no railroads within its borders, but trans
portation facilities are afforded by the Pearl river, which runs
through the county from the northeast to the southwest and is
navigable to Edinburg on the eastern border. Besides the Pearl,
the region is watered by its numerous tributaries, the Yokahockany
river, Yellow, Young Warrior and Standing Pine creeks. There are
no large towns within its area. Carthage, near the center, 2 miles
north of Pearl river, is the county seat and contains a population of
416. Some of the more important settlements are Walnut Grove,
Edinburg, Standing Pine and Goodhope. As early as 1837 it pos
sessed a population of 1,136 whites and 531 slaves. Among the
earliest settlers may be numbered the families of the Harpers,
Loyds, Warners, Freeneys, Dicksons, Boyds, Eades and Vanans-
dales. The general surface of the region is undulating and hilly,
and a large section is composed of level, bottom or swamp lands.
The last census shows about one-third of the land improved, the rest
timbered with pine, oaks, hickory, beech, poplar, chestnut, maple,
walnut, sycamore and cypress. The soil is red clay in the hills,
loam, second-bottoms and alluvial soils called "reed-brakes." These
bottom lands, when reclaimed by drainage, are extremely produc
tive. The products of the county are cotton, corn, sorghum, sugar
cane, rice, potatoes and all kinds of fruits and vegetables. There is
little manufacturing done, but pasturage is good and live stock does
well and many have embarked in this industry. The live stock in
1900 was valued at nearly $500,000.
The twelfth census of the United States for the year 1900 shows
that there were in the county 2,756 farms, embracing an acreage of
302,264, of which 102,736 were improved. The value of the land,
exclusive of the buildings is $886,180, value of the buildings.
$394,860, value of the live stock $468,227, and the total value of
products not fed $966,529. The number of manufacturing estab
lishments is 48, capital invested $84,501, wages paid $9,278, cost of
materials $32,203 and total value of products $62,069. The popu
lation in 1900 consisted of whites 10,747, colored 6,613, a total of
17,360 and 2,557 more than in the year 1890. The total assessed
valuation of real and personal property in Leake county in 1905
was $1,549,795 and in 1906 it was $2,626,254, showing an increase
during the year of $1,076,459.

MISSISSIPPI 63
Leake, Walter, third governor of the State, "was born in Albe
marle county, Va., May 20, 1762. He was the son of Capt. Mask
Leake, a Revolutionary officer, and Patience Morris, of Hanover,
and was named for his paternal grandfather, Walter Leake, of
Goochland, who was a son of William Leake and Mary Bostick,
first of the family in Virginia. He was at one time a member of
the Virginia legislature from Albemarle county, and a few years
later we find him a candidate for the United States congress
against Thomas Mann Randolph, Mr. Jefferson's son-in-law.
Randolph beat him by two votes. Leake immediately announced
his intention of running again ; but before another election Mr.
Jefferson appointed him chief judge of the Mississippi territory,
which appointment he accepted. He accordingly removed with
his wife (Elizabeth Wingfield) and family to his new post
of duty. (Virginia Hist. Mag., April, 1904.) He was ap
pointed one of the judges (there being no such office as "chief
judge") of the Mississippi territory, to succeed George Matthews,
March 2, 1807, and arrived at the town of Washington in May.
He made his home in Claiborne county, about 60 miles from Wash
ington (see Judiciary, Territorial). Hinds county was fifteen years
in the future, and was then in the undisturbed possession of the
Choctaws. Judge Leake served with distinguished ability as Ter
ritorial judge until the general assembly, Oct; 9, 1817, elected him
one of the first United States senators from the State. Meanwhile
he had been elected a delegate from Claiborne county to the con
stitutional convention of 1817, of which he was a valuable mem
ber, with his associates' on the Territorial bench, Poindexter and
Simpson. He took his seat in the senate Dec. 11, 1817, and drew
the four years' term. He resigned his seat to become a candidate
for governor, and was elected over Charles B. Green by a vote of
nearly four to one. The bank monopoly question was to some ex
tent an issue, it having been raised against the bank by Gov. Poin
dexter. -June 17, before the election, Gov. Poindexter appointed
him to the supreme bench to succeed John Taylor, deceased, and
serve until the legislature should elect. Taylor had succeeded
him in 1817. He was again on the bench, also holding circuit
court, until he became governor Jan. 7, 1822. In his farewell mes
sage, Gov. Poindexter offered his "congratulations on the judicious
selection which has been made, in the worthy and distinguished
citizen who has been chosen to succeed me in this office. If in
tegrity the most pure and unsullied, combined with sound intel
ligence and great experience in public life are qualifications for
the highest trust in the gift of the people, they are identified in
the individual selected as your chief magistrate." His letters in
the executive journal are dated from Jackson or Spring Plains, his
home, until March, 1825, when the name Mount Salus appears.
His last letter on the journal is dated, "Mount Salus,. August 10,
1825." He died Nov. 17 of that year. One child survived him, a
daughter, who married Henry Goodloe Johnston. A grandson of
the governor, Walter Leake Keirn, was an officer of the Confed-

64 MISSISSIPPI
erate States army and members of the legislature from Holmes
county, 1892-98.
The home he built and called Mount Salus, on land purchased
in 1823, was "fashioned after the manner of old English manor
houses; square built, with wide windows, heavy doors and solid
floors, was inviting in its hospitality and was often the scene of
social gayety." (C. H. Brough.) The home of Cowles Meade
was about a mile distant. The town that grew up bore the name
of Mount Salus until changed to Clinton three years later.
When General Lafayette visited Mississippi in 1825 Gov. Leake
was confined to his bed by the disease that caused his death, and
sent his aide-de-camp to pay his respects to the distinguished visi
tor. Lafayette remembered the name and declared to those about
him that Leake was a deserter. When Capt. Mask Leake went
into the field in 1781, having sent his oldest son into the army, he
told Walter to remain at home and care for the mother and
younger children. But later, the father found Walter in the lines
before Yorktown, and took 'him before Lafayette, who was kind
to the young man and assigned him to duty. "And so," said La
fayette, "Walter Leake deserted home to fight for his country."
(Richmond Enquirer.) "As a patriot and statesman," said David
Holmes, "he was distinguished from early life for the ardor, abil
ity and fidelity with which he discharged the various and impor
tant trusts committed to him by his country."
Leake's Administration. Governor Walter Leake took office Jan.
7, 1822, at the town of Columbia, then the seat of government.
The governor's residence at this time was at Spring Plains, Clai
borne county. In the preceding November the two houses had
elected Samuel C. Wooldridge to succeed P. P. Schuyler as treas
urer; John A. Grimball, secretary of state, and Hiram G. Runnels,
auditor. ThomaaB. Reed was attorney-general, 1821-25. On account
of the changes made the legislature was not in session at the begin
ning of his term, and did not convene until the special session at
Columbia, June, 1822, for the consideration of the Poindexter code.
At this time Lieutenant-Governor Dickson was installed. The
governor's first message, in June, was mainly devoted to an elab
orate argument against a proposition of New Jersey and Ken
tucky that congress should reserve lands, for the support of their
educational^ funds as well as for those of the new States.
This legislature passed an important act, revising the boun
daries of the counties (q. v.). At this time all the Chickasaw and
Choctaw purchase of 1816 was called Monroe county, and all the
Choctaw purchase of 1820 Hinds county, but in the latter there
had yet been no sale of land.
The year 1822 is memorable for the beginning of the towns of
Jackson and Vicksburg (q. v). In 1822 a small, two-story, brick
State house was built on the west side of the bluff on Pearl river,
on the1 northeast corner of Capitol and President streets (see Cap
itol), and the legislature convened there two days before Christ
mas. In his message the governor said : "Permit me to congratu-

MISSISSIPPI 65
late you on your first meeting at the place determined on as the
permanent seat of our government; where, for the first time, your
deliberations may be conducted in a house, the property of the
State, and erected exclusively for the purpose of legislation; and
also, on the prospect of comfortable accommodations at a place
where so little could have been reasonably expected. I am fully
persuaded, that if your acommodations will not be equal to the
wishes of those who provide them, they will at least exceed the
expectations of those who partake of them. When we reflect that
this town was but a short time since entirely in the woods, in the
midst of a wilderness, the former abode of untutored savages, who
draw but a scanty support from the beasts of the forest and not
by agricultural pursuits, that but little more than six months have
passed by since the town of Jackson was laid off; that but few
persons have as yet been authorized to occupy lots therein; the
great distance it lies from whence all necessary supplies are to be
transported — through a country, too, where no persons reside to
keep the roads in repair — and above all, when we view the num
ber, dimensions and style of the buildings erected in the town of
Jackson, we cannot but admire the enterprise, industry and per
severance of its citizens, and at the same time feel disposed to extend
to them every reasonable indulgence that their situation may seem
to merit."
He gave considerable attention to the criticisms that had been
made of the Poindexter code. He suggested that laws should be
tried before being changed. "It becomes much more important
that laws should be known and understood than that they should
be entirely approved by every member of society; because the
former is not difficult to attain where laws remain permanent,
while the latter is impracticable in any situation of things." He
would not have the method of the Medes and Persians, but he
would wait until defects should be developed by practice, unless
there were palpable and glaring faults, "for it is a sound maxim in
political science that too much legislation is much more injurious
to society than too little."
In accordance with an act of legislature he had borrowed $5,500
from the bank to expend in improving the Pearl and Big Black
rivers. i
In his message to the legislative session of Dec, 1823 (to Feb.,
1824), the governor recommended the opening of a road from
Columbus, in Monroe county, by way of Jackson to Natchez. A
road had just been marked from Huntsville, and Columbus, to
Doak's stand. He also recommended a road from Winchester to
the seat of government, which would relieve the people of that
quarter from "the hardship, fatigue and extreme exposure of trav
elling unfrequented paths through an unsettled country, to the seat
of government." But the legislature had no right to open roads
through the Indian country and could only petition Congress. He
also suggested that authority be asked to apply the Three per cent
fund (See Const. Conv., 1817) to the improvement of river naviga-
5-II

66 MISSISSIPPI
tion, as well as roads. He received from the general government,
Aug. 10, 1825, $15,780, on this account. The Winchester road "(1825)
was paid for out of it.
Gov. Leake and Lieutenant-Governor Brandon took office Jan
uary 7, 1824, and the legislature reelected Wooldridge as treas
urer, H. G. Runnels auditor, and John A. Grimball secretary of
state. This legislature adopted a resolution cordially approving _ thfe
"Monroe' doctrine," and pledged all the resources of Mississippi,
to maintain the principles of "justice and republicanism in this
hemisphere." The legislature elected Richard Stockton, Jr., judge of the First
circuit, by 24 votes, Thomas A. Willis, secretary of the senate,
receiving 16. Thomas H. Williams was unanimously reelected to
the United States senate. At this session, the organization of the
counties of Yazoo, between the Mississippi and Pearl rivers, and
Copiah, on both sides of the Pearl, were provided for. The middle
part, on both sides of the Pearl, retained the name of Hinds, given in
1821. There were yet no sales of land in all this region, except
in the town of Jackson.
The first sale was in November, 1823, at Jackson, when Gov.
Leake purchased, in behalf of the State, two half-quarter sections,
adjoining the plat of Jackson, at $1.25 an acre.
There was a deficit in the treasury, Nov. 1, 1822, of $8,000, and
this was increased in the following year to nearly $10,000. The
receipts of 1823 were, in round numbers, $54,000 ; the disburse
ments $56,000.
In May, 1823, White Turpin was appointed escheator-general of
Mississippi. It was his duty to look after unclaimed estates for
the benefit of the literary or school fund.
At the election in August, 1823, the vote for governor was: Wal
ter Leake, 3,996 ; David Dickson, 2,511 ; William Lattimore, 1,986.
For lieutenant-governor, Gerard C. Brandon, 5,132 ; Thomas An
derson, 1,933 ; Isaac R. Nicholson, 952.
The deficit in the treasury had grown at the close of the year
1824, to nearly $16,000, besides the debt of $15,000 to the bank.
This was evidently because of the legislative proneness to seek a
reputation for economy by neglecting to provide for necessary
expenses in advance. Said the governor: "It is surely no light
matter to see the public credit sinking, and its creditors hawking
their warrants about in the markets, and disposing of them at a
considerable discount, when, at the same time, the resources of
the state are sufficiently ample, if they were called into action by
legislative authority."
In January, 1825, the legislature passed resolutions joining in
"the general burst of national gratitude and welcome" to General
Lafayette, (q. v.)
The removal of the Choctaw Indians was begun in this year.
(See Treaty of Washington.)
The venerable governor was ill in the year 1825 at his home at

MISSISSIPPI 67
Mount Salus. One of his last official acts was the appointment of
Powhatan Ellis to the United States senate, to succeed David
Holmes, who had resigned to become a candidate for governor.
(See Brandon's Adm.) At the election in August Holmes re
ceived 7,846 votes, and Cowles Mead 1,499. For lieutenant-gov
ernor Gerard C. Brandon was reelected, receiving 4,526 votes to
4,496 for Bartlett C. Barry.
Leakesville, the capital of Greene county, is on the Chickasawhay
river, 44 miles northwest of Mobile, and 25 miles south of Stateline.
A short railroad spur connects it with the Mobile & Ohio R. R., at
Vinegar Bend, Ala. It was named for the Honorable Walter Leake,
one of the State's early governors. Lumbering, stock raising and
agriculture are the chief industries of the vicinity. The Greene
County Herald, a weekly newspaper, was established here in 1898,
and is published by E. W. Taylor. Population in 1900, 56.
Learned, an incorporated post-town of Hinds county, about 18
miles from Jackson, and 9 miles from Raymond, the county seat.
It is a station on the Natchez branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R. Population in 1900, 138.
Leaton, a post-hamlet of Amite county, 12 miles north of Liberty,
the county seat. Population in 1900, 53.
Leavell, Zachary Taylor, was born in Pontotoc county in 1847;
graduated at the University of Mississippi in 1871 ; became a Bap
tist preacher in October, 1870 ; served as pastor of Baptist churches
at Dalton, Ga., Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Columbus, Ky., and in
1887 returned to Mississippi. After serving as pastor at Oxford,
Natchez and Clinton be came financial agent of Mississippi col
lege, and afterwards a member of its faculty; was president of
Carrolltown Female college, 1890-95. He is the author of "Bap
tist Annuals," "History of Mississippi Baptists," and other pub
lications. He died at Jackson, Miss., August 12, 1905.
Lebanon, a postoffice of Marshall county, 12 miles south of Holly
Springs, and 4 miles southwest of Potts Camp, the nearest rail
road town on the Frisco System.
Leddrew, a hamlet of Covington county, situated on the west
bank of the Leaf river, about 15 miles northeast of Williamsburg,
the county seat. The postoffice here has been discontinued and mail
now goes to Oakahay.
Lee, a postoffice of Lawrence county.
Lee County, formerly embraced within the limits of Itawamba
and Pontotoc counties, was established October 26, 1866, and was
named for General Robert E. Lee, commander of the armies of the
Confederacy. This region was originally part of the Chickasaw
cession of 1832 (q. v., also Itawamba, Pontotoc), and is located in
the northeastern part of the State, in the so-called "northeastern
prairie belt." It is a long, narrow county bounded on the north by
Prentiss county, on the east by Itawamba county, on the south by
Monroe and Chickasaw counties and on the west by Pontotoc and
Union counties, and contains about 449 square miles of territory.
E. G. Thomas, C. A. Marshall, Jesse Hunt, Jas. R. Harrill, Burrell

68 MISSISSIPPI
Jackson, W. H. Calhoun and Jacob Bardin were appointed com
missioners to organize the new county by the original act, and the
first courts were directed to be held at Saltillo, pending the selec
tion of a permanent seat of justice at a special election, when Tupelo
was chosen April 15, 1867. The first officers of the county were
Jacob Bardin, Probate Judge; D. P. Cypert, Probate Clerk; A. J.
Cockran, Circuit Clerk; J. M. Dillard, Sheriff; A. M. Robinson, As
sessor; W. A. Dbzier, County Surveyor; Robert Gray, Coroner;
W. R. Hampton, Ranger; J. L. Finley, County Attorney. The
county school commissioners were G. C. Thomason, E. G. Thomas,
John B. Sparks and Rev. J. D. Russell. Col. John M. Simonton was
the first State Senator, and Col. J. D. Wilson and Hugh H. Martin
were the first representatives of the county in the Lower House.
The old brick court house, erected in 1871 at a cost of $25,000,
was burned in 1873. It was replaced by a brick structure which was
also destroyed by fire in 1904; and then the present court house
was erected in 1904 at a cost of $60,000. The county has a fine brick
jail, erected at a cost of $15,000. Its largest town is Tupelo, near
the center, and the junction point of the Mobile & Ohio, and the
St. Louis & San Francisco railroads. Tupelo has a population
of 3,500, is a manufacturing city of importance. By reason of
its situation near the line where the black prairie and Pontotoc
Ridge sections meet, it is the center of a rich farming region. Other
important railroad towns are Baldwyn (pop. 750), in the northern
part, Nettleton (pop. 600), in the southern part, and Shannon,
Verona, Guntown, Saltillo, Plantersville and Belden. The county
is traversed from north to south by the Mobile & Ohio R. R.,
and from the northwest to the southeast by the St. Louis & San
Francisco R. R., which provide it with excellent transportation
facilities. The county is watered by numerous creeks, the head
waters of the Tombigbee river, of which Old Town is the principal
one. The southern part of the county is a prairie region, but there
is considerable timber found in the northern part and east of the
Mobile & Ohio R. R. The timber consists of oak, hickory, ash,
gum, poplar, beech and walnut. A good deal of the larger growth
has been cut off and the land brought under cultivation. The soil
is very productive — black hammock, beeswax prairie, black sandy
and sandy — and cotton, corn, oats, wheat, tobacco, potatoes, fruits
and vegetables all do well. This is an excellent stock country and
the industry has developed rapidly within the last decade. The
value of the live stock now exceeds $700,000. Excellent church
and school facilities are provided in every section of the county and
the people as a whole are prosperous and contented. The railroad
advantages already enjoyed and the proximity of the region to the
Alabama coal fields, should eventually render Lee county an im
portant manufacturing dis'trict.
The twelfth census of the United States for 1900 gives the fol
lowing statistics for the county : Number of farms 3,501, acreage in
farms 238,491, acres improved 134,379, value of land, exclusive of
buildings $1,585,950, value of buildings $510,440, value of live stock

MISSISSIPPI 69
$710,790 and total value of products $1,356,017'. Number of manu
facturing establishments 75, capital $297,876, wages paid $40,195,
cost of materials $143,854 and total value of products $277,465. The
population in 1900 consisted of whites 13,297, colored 8,659, total,
21,956, increase over the year 1890, 1,916 ; estimated population in
1906, was 25,000. Manufactures, especially in the city of Tupelo,
have increased at a rapid rate, and in the city alone there has been
invested at least $500,000 in manufacturing industries in the last
five years. The total assessed valuation of real and personal prop
erty in the county in 1905 was $3,308,452 and in 1906 it was $4,776,-
623, showing an increase during the year of $1,268,171. Under
a special drainage act by the Legislature, Lee county was
empowered to drain about 25,000 acres of swamp and over
flow lands along Town, Mud, Twenty Mile, Coonewah and
Chiwappah creeks. Over 60 miles of ditches were excavated and
the lands brought into cultivation have become the most fertile -in
the county. These lands were thereby increased in value from $2 to
$50 and $60 per acre. Land values in Lee county have rapidly ad
vanced in the last five years and realty that could have been
bought for $2 to $5 per acre, is now readily sold at $10 to $30 an
acre. Artesian water is found in various parts of the county and
flowing wells are to be seen in almost every locality. Within the
last six years the banks in Lee county" have increased from two to
seven in number.
Lee, Stephen Dill, was born at Charleston, S. C, Sept. 22, 1833,
of patriotic lineage. His great-grandfather, William Lee, was
one of 40 leading citizens of Charleston whose devotion to the
Continental cause was punished by imprisonment on a prison ship
and transportation to St. Augustine, Fla. His grandfather,
Thomas Lee, was appointed United States district judge by Pres
ident Monroe, and was a supporter of President Jackson during
the Calhoun nullification period. Stephen D. Lee was graduated
at West Point in the class of 1854, and was a first-lieutenant and
regimental quartermaster of the 4th U. S. artillery when he re
signed in 1861, because of the secession of his State. He was one
of the two officers of South Carolina troops sent by Gen. Beaure
gard to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter, and upon the re
fusal of- this demand he ordered the nearest battery to fire upon
the fort. He. served as captain of a battery in the Hampton Legion
until November, 1861, when he was made a major of artillery. In
the spring of 1862 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and after
gaining distinction at Seven Pines and in the Seven Days battles
against McClellan, he was given command of the 4th Virginia
cavalry. At the opening of the campaign against Pope he was
promoted to colonel, ,and his conduct was such at Second Manas
sas that President Davis said : "I have reason to believe he served
to turn the tide of battle and consummate the victory." At Sharps-
burg, with the same command, he was again distinguished. Then
it became necessary to reinforce the army in Mississippi with
skillful commanders as well as troops for the defense of Vicks-

70 MISSISSIPPI
burg, and Gen. R. E. Lee, being asked to select his most efficient
artillery officer for transfer, designated Col. S. D. Lee, who was
promoted to brigadier-general, Nov. 6, 1862, and assigned to duty
in the west. (See Vicksburg, Second campaign; Vicksburg cam
paign of 1863; Vicksburg, siege of; War of 1861-65; and Army of
Tennessee.) He was paroled at Vicksburg, and when exchanged,
was promoted August 3, 1863, to major-general and put in com
mand of cavalry; June 23, 1864, was promoted to lieutenant-gen
eral and given command of the department of Mississippi, Alabama,
East Louisiana and West Tennessee, and after Gen. John B. Hood
was put at the head of the army in Georgia, he was called to take
command of Hood's corps. He fought the battles of Ezra Church
and Jonesboro, near Atlanta, and was in corps command during
the subsequent flank movement in north Georgia and the Nash
ville campaign. In the battle of Nashville he held Overton hill
against the enemy's assaults until after the left and center of the
army were driven back and, on the next day, his corps, the only
one with organizations intact, covered the retreat, repulsing every
effort of Wilson's cavalry from dawn till late at night. During this
day's fighting Gen. Lee was severely wounded. His last campaign
was -in North Carolina, where he was paroled with Johnston's
army. In February, 1865, he married Regina Harrison, of Colum
bus, Miss., where he made his home. He was a member of the
State senate of 1878, from Lowndes, and a delegate to the consti
tutional convention of 1890. As president of the Agricultural and
Mechanical college, he was of great service to the South, from
1880 until he resigned in 1899 to accept appointment as a member
of the Vicksburg National park association. After several years
as commander of the Mississippi division United Confederate Vet
erans, he was made lieutenant-general commanding the depart
ment east of the Mississippi, and upon the death of Gen. John B.
Gordon he was chosen head of this patriotic order in the United
States. He is president of the Mississippi Historical society, and
of the board of trustees of the Department of Archives and His
tory. He is the author of "The South Since the War," in the
Confederate Military History; a series of papers on the A. & M.
college; and a series published in the Historical Society publica
tions, covering the Vicksburg campaigns and siege, and other
military subjects.
Leeke, a postoffice of Covington county.
Leesburg, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Rankin
county, about 15 miles northeast of Brandon, the county seat, and
8 miles north of Pelahatchie, the nearest railroad station and bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 50.
Leeville, a hamlet in the northwestern corner of Lauderdale
county, 2 miles east of Battlefield station at the terminus of the
Tallahatta Railway spur. It has rural free delivery from Battle
field. Leflore. — An old village in Carroll county which flourished during
the 30's. It was a prosperous place when the present city of Green-

MISSISSIPPI 71
wood was only known as Williams Landing. It was located about
midway between CarroUton and Greenwood, upon land belonging
to Col. Greenwood Leflore. Its first merchant is reputed to have
been Uriah Tison. It once supported several stores and a church.
When the village of Point Leflore sprang up in the present county
of Leflore, only a few miles to the west, Leflore gradually dwindled
and died.
Leflore, a postoffice in the southwestern part" of Grenada county,
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 17 miles southwest of
Grenada, the county seat. It has three stores, a good hotel, a public
cotton gin, and a population of 50.
Leflore County was formerly a part of Sunflower, Tallahatchie
and Carroll counties (q. v.), and was established March 15, 1871,
during the administration of Governor Alcorn. It was directed by
the act creating the county, that the county records, together with
the buildings and grounds at McNutt, now in Leflore county,
should be retained by Leflore (see Sunflower county), and that the
county seat should be located at Greenwood. It was named in
honor of Greenwood Leflore, the last and most powerful chief of
the Choctaws in Mississippi. Located in the northwestern part of
the State, it constitutes a long, irregularly shaped district on the
eastern side of the fertile Yazoo delta, and has a land surface of
578 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Tallahatchie
county, the Yazoo river forming part of the boundary line, on the
east by Grenada and Carroll counties, on the south by Holmes
county, the Yazoo river again forming part of the boundary line,
and on the west by Sunflower county. No section in the State is
possessed of greater natural resources and the county ranks among
the first in the value of its products. The white population is
small, being outnumbered by the colored in the proportion of eight
to one. On account of the low, level topography of the region and
its moist, warm climate, malarial fevers prevail to some extent.
In common, however, with the rest of the Delta region, it is under
laid by an artesian basin, and plenty of pure, cold water can be ob
tained by drilling wells from 160 to 1,500 feet in depth. This has
tended of late years to minimize the dangers from bilious and inter
mittent fevers. Greenwood, the county seat, was also named in
honor of Greenwood Leflore. Greenwood was first called Williams
Landing, and was incorporated in 1845 and called Greenwood.
It is a place of 6,000 inhabitants, situated in the eastern part of the
county on the Yazoo river, 3 miles below where the Tallahatchie
and Yalobusha rivers unite to form the Yazoo river. It is on the
Southern Ry., and at the junction of two branches of the Yazoo
& Mississippi Valley R. R's. It is a manufacturing and shipping
point of importance, and two large oil mills, several saw mills and
stave mills, a brick factory, machine shops, etc., are located here.
Other towns, most of them on the railroad, are Sunnyside, Itta
bena, Sidon, Shellmound, Schlater and Philipp. The railroads are
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, and the Southern, a branch of the
latter road, running north from Ittabena to Webb, in Tallahatchie

72 MISSISSIPPI
county. Besides the excellent railroad shipping facilities, the
Yazoo and Tallahatchie rivers pursue a tortuous course through
the center of the county, and are navigable the entire year. Other
streams and waters are Howling Wolf Bayou, Turkey Bayou,
Bear creek, Lake Henry, and Blue, Mclntyre, Mossy and McNutt
lakes. The soil is alluvial and extremely fertile and will produce
from one to two bales of cotton to the acre and from 30 to 60
bushels of corn. It produces abundantly all the crops common to
the Delta region. The timber is large and of great variety, consist
ing of red-gum, white-oak, black-oak, red-oak and cow-oak, ash,
elm, pecan, hickory, tupelo gum, walnut, cypress and many others.
The twelfth United States census for 1900, gives the following
statistics for the county : Number of farms 4,266, acreage in farms
192,108, acres improved 117,013, value of land exclusive of buildings
$3,430,180, value of buildings $658,020, value of live stock $622,761,
total value of products $2,032,187. The number of manufacturing
establishments was 97, capital $630,005, wages paid $94,817, cost of
materials $574,956, total value of products $933,799. The population
in 1900 consisted of whites 2,796, colored 21,038, total 23,834, in
crease of 6,965 over the year 1890. Total population in 1906 is
estimated at about 30,000. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property in the county in 1905 was $4,802,540 and in 1906
it was $5,837,563, which shows an increase during the year of
$1,035,023. There are 25 white schools and 8 colored schools in the
county. There has been a general gain in the development of every
phase of business, and in the clearing of farms of at least 33J^ per
cent, since 1900.
LeFlore, Greenwood, was born June 3, 1800, at LeFleur's bluff,
near the site of Jackson, Miss., son of Louis LeFleur, a French
trader, who came to Mobile in 1792, and in the course of his opera
tions established a station at the bluff on Pearl river that after
ward bore his name, and married an Indian girl named Rebecca
Cravat. When Greenwood, who got his name in honor of an Eng
lish sea-captain, once a partner of Louis, was twelve years old,
the family moved to a spot now included in Choctaw county, on
the Natchez trail northward, where the senior LeFleur kept tav
ern. The place is yet known as French Camp. Maj. John Donly,
mail carrier between Nashville and Natchez, took a liking to
young LeFlore and carried him to Nashville for schooling. He
there fell in love with Donly's daughter and married her. Mean
while, in 1813, Louis LeFleur had aided in holding the Choctaws
for the United States during the war with England, and had served
as a major under Chief Pushamataha, who held the rank of col
onel. (Mrs. N.. D. Deupree, M. H. S. Publ., VII, 141.) Young
LeFlore returned home in 1817, a shrewd, ambitious, educated
man> with the ability to take an important part in the affairs of
the State.
After making the treaty of Doak's Stand in 1820, Gen. Jackson
reported: "The application of Greenwood LeFlore to become a
citizen of the United States and have his section of land, to in-

MISSISSIPPI 73
elude his improvement, secured to him in fee, is believed to be
just and reasonable, and ought to be granted. It will, it is pre
sumed, .have a good effect, and in a short time induce all those
who remain on this side of the Mississippi to petition for the same
privilege." He was granted this privilege by the treaty of Wash
ington, 1825. About the time of the treaty of 1826, (q. v.) which
failed in its object, he and David Folsom were elected chiefs, in
place of others whom the nation suspected of being friendly to a
cession of land.
Subsequently the rights of the nation under the laws of con
gress were invaded by State laws. He was the regular law maker
of his part of the nation, there being three mingoes of the Choc
taws, in all, and he endeavored to preserve and restore the an
cient virtues of the people by rigorous laws. (See Claiborne,
Mississippi, 515.)
A great council of the Choctaw nation met on March 15, 1830,
and Greenwood Leflore was unanimously elected chief of the west
ern district, after which he was carried in triumph through the
captains and warriors of the other districts, who on the second
day, resigned their offices and elected Leflore chief of the whole
nation. A discussion of the question ' of removal followed, and
among the speakers were warriors who had fought under Andrew
Jackson and Anthony Wayne. The vote was in favor of emigra
tion, and a treaty to that effect was prepared and signed, and sent
to Washington by David W. Hailey. Leflore instructed the cap
tains to "execute faithfully the laws of the nation, not in opposi
tion to Mississippi, but in the belief that Mississippi would not
interfere when she discovered the Choctaws were endeavoring to
get^put of her way." (Natchez Galaxy, April 8, 1830.) He was
a prominent figure in the treaty of 1830, at Dancing Rabbit Creek
and probably saved that conference from failure. He petitioned
the convention of 1832 that the new constitution should pro
vide for thfe .pitizenship of such Choctaws as chose to remain
in the State, "it being the intention . . . not to remove to
their country beyond the Mississippi, but to remain and demean
themselves as faithful citizens of the State." LeFlore was elected
to the legislature of 1835 by Carroll county, and the legislature
broke up on the question of admitting him and the other repre
sentatives of new counties. In 1841-44 he was a member of the
State senate. Through the operations of the treaties and conse
quent speculations he acquired 15,000 acres of land, much of it
the finest in the State, and became a wealthy planter, owning 400
slaves. For his plantation convenience he founded the town of
Point LeFlore, at the junction of the Tallahatchie and Yalobusha
rivers, established a steam sawmill, opened a road with bridges,
that cost him $75,000, and owned a steamer which plied the rivers.
His splendid mansion, Malmaison, nine miles east of the city of
Greenwood named in his honor, was built in 1854, succeeding an
older home built in 1835. He was also head of a syndicate owning
large areas of land in Texas. In 1861 he exerted all his influence

74 MISSISSIPPI
against secession, and throughout the Confederate period he re
fused to recognize the change of government or accept Confeder
ate money. At his death Aug. 21, 1865, his grandchildren, at his
request, held the old flag over his bed, that it might be his last
vision. Col. LeFlore was married three times and left two daugh
ters and a son, Greenwood, who removed to Indian Territory.
Leggett, a postoffice in the central part of Pike county, 8 miles
due east of Magnolia, the county seat, and nearest railroad town.
Leggo, a postoffice of Yalobusha county, 10 miles west of Water-
valley, the nearest railroad town. It is noted on account of its
famous mineral well, which is visited by many people annually to
partake of the waters. There is an excellent hotel here for the
accommodation of guests.
Legislature, State, 1817-33. The constitution of 1817 provided
for a "General Assembly" composed of a senate and a house. To
be eligible to election as a senator one must be a citizen of the
United States, an inhabitant of Mississippi four years, and of his
district one year ; age, at least 26 years ; property, 300 acres of
land, or an interest in real estate of the value of $1,000. For rep
resentative the property and State residence requirements were
modified by half. Each county should have at least one repre
sentative. The number should be between the limits of 24 and 36,
apportioned according to the number of free white inhabitants.
The senators should be apportioned to districts on the same basis,
and their number should be one-fourth to one-third of the repre
sentatives. The first senators elected should draw lots for a divi
sion into three classes, to serve one, two or three years. There
after one-third would be elected every year, the term of all being
three years. Representatives were to be elected annually. If any
city or town had the population adopted at any time as the basis
of apportionment of representatives, it should be given separate
representation from the county.
The first election was set for September, 1817, the general As
sembly to meet at Natchez on the first Monday of October, and
the schedule adopted with the constitution made a temporary ap
portionment of members. Accordingly, the following 1st Gen
eral Assembly of the State of Mississippi was elected : Senate. —
Warren and Claiborne, Daniel Burnet; Adams, Henry Postle-
thwait ; Jefferson, Hezekiah J. Balch ; Wilkinson, Duncan Stewart ,
resigned, Joseph Johnson; Amite, David Lea; Franklin and Pike,
David Dickson, resigned, Nathaniel Wells ; Lawrence, Marion and
Hancock, Charles Stovall; Greene, Wayne and Jackson, Josiah
Skinner. House. — Warren, Jacob Hyland; Claiborne, Thomas
Barnes, Henry G. Johnston; Jefferson, Benjamin M. Bullen, re
signed, Cowles Mead, Edward Duggan; Adams, Philander Smith,
Joseph Sessions, Edward Turner, Charles B. Green; Franklin,
Joseph Winn; Wilkinson, Thomas M. Gildart, Abram M. Scott,
John Joor; Amite, David Davis, Hardy Coward, Angus Wilkinson;
Pike, Elbert Burton, David Cleveland ; Lawrence, Harman Runnels ;
Marion, George H. Dixon; Hancock, Noel Jourdan; Greene,

MISSISSIPPI 75
/
George B. Dameron; Wayne, William Patton; Jackson, Archibald
McManis. This legislature convened at Washington, Oct. 6,
1817, and organized by electing Thomas Barnes speaker, Peter
A. VanDorn clerk, and John Lowrey doorkeeper. Duncan Stew
art, who had been elected both senator and lieutenant-governor,
was made president pro tempore of the senate ; the veteran sec
retary of the Territorial council, Felix Hughes, secretary and
Duncan Roberts doorkeeper. When he had qualified, next day,
the lieutenant-governor was president of the senate, with a voice
and vote in committee of the whole and a vote in case of tie on
any occasion.
In forming the house committees, Turner, Green and Runnels
were entrusted with the organization of the judicial system; Ses
sions, Nixon and Joor with the militia; Smith, Joor, Nixon, Dam
eron and Johnston with the finances.
The two houses elected Walter Leake and Thomas H. Williams
United States senators, Oct. 9, and on the same day adjourned,
on account of the yellow fever. They met again at Natchez Dec.
8, at a house of Edward Turner, lately occupied by Manuel Texada,
and Cowles Mead was make speaker pro tem. of the house, and
Abram Defrance sergeant at arms of both houses.
By act of this legislature future sessions were to convene on the
first Monday of January, every year, at Natchez. The annual
general elections were to be on the first Monday and Tuesday of
August. A census was ordered to be taken as a basis of appor
tionment of representatives.
At the session of January, 1821, Felix Hughes resigned the of
fice of secretary of the senate, and a resolution was passed
acknowledging his service for 15 years, to both council and sen-
ateV*with "distinguished merit." At this session the time of meet
ing was changed' to the first Monday of November, and there was
another session, therefore, in that year.
The sessions of November, 1821, and June, 1822, were at Colum
bia; of December, 1822, and thereafter in January, at Jackson.
In 1830 the session was changed back to November. By the ap
portionment of 1822, there were 32 representatives, one of them
being from the city of Natchez. The membership of the senate
was increased to 11 in 1826.
The lieutenant-governors, presidents of the senate, were Dun
can Stewart, 1817-18-19; James Patton, 1820-21; David Dickson,
1822-23; Gerard C. Brandon, 1823-24-25; Thomas Freeland, pro
tem., Jan. 2, 1826 ; Gerard C. Brandon, Jan. 6, 1826 ; Abram M.
Scott, pro tem., 1827; William Dowsing, pro tem., 1828; Abram
M. Scott, 1828-31.
Thomas Barnes was speaker of the house in 1817-18; Edward
Turner, 1820 ; Beverly R. Grayson, January, 1821 ; G. C. Brandon,
1822; Cowles Mead, November, 1821-Deeember, 1825; Isaac R.
Nicholson, 1826-27; Charles B. Green, 1828; William L. Sharkey,
1829; Joseph Dunbar, Jan., 1830; M. F. DeGraffenreid, Nov. 1830-
31. (John L. Irwin, pro tem.) There was no session in 1832.

76 MISSISSIPPI
Legislature, Territorial. The legislative body in Mississippi
territory at the organization was composed of the governor and
three judges, all appointed by the president of the United States.
(See Ordinance of 1787.) Upon petition of one party of the inhab
itants, dissatisfied with Governor Sargent, congress extended the
right of a general assembly to the territory in 1800, although the
qualified voters were probably less- than a fourth as numerous as
required by the ordinance. It was also proposed, during consid
eration of the measure, to modify the governor's power to veto
and prorogue, but the act as passed did not make such changes.
A bill was passed by a strict party vote in the lower house of con
gress, the Republicans having a small majority, was amended by
the senate, and finally became a law May 10, 1800.
It provided that so much of the ordinance of 1787 "as relates to
the organization of a general assembly therein, and prescribes the
powers thereof, shall forthwith operate, and be in force in the
Mississippi territory ; Provided, That until the number of free male
inhabitants, of full age, in the said Territory, shall amount to five
thousand, there shall not be returned to the general assembly
more than nine representatives," of which Adams and Pickering
counties should each choose four and the Tensas and Tombigbee
settlements one. The first election was to be on the fourth Mon
day of July, 1800, under the control of the governor, and all sub
sequent elections should be regulated by the legislature; the rep
resentatives to be convened by the governor at Natchez, on the
fourth Monday of September, 1800 ; the general assembly to meet
at least once a year on the first Monday of December, unless they
shall by law appoint a different day; provided, that the governor
shall have power, on extraordinary occasions, to convene the -.gen
eral assembly. That neither house, during a session, should have
power, without rthe consent of the other, to adjourn for more than
three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two
houses should be sitting. The election was duly called and held,
whereupon the governor announced that the return of the sheriff
of Pickering county showed the election of Cato West, Thomas
M. Green, John Burnet and Thomas Calvit; and they -were asked
to convene at the appointed time at Natchez. The Adams county
return, as the governor viewed it, showed the election of only two
members, "though Messrs. Sutton Bankes, Abner L. Duncan,
William Conner and William Dunbar have their names inserted
in the return (some of them with a considerable plurality of votes)
and are in consequence invited to assemble also." On account of
this, and the failure of an election in Washington, the governor
advised the house to proceed with caution. Sept. 22 he adminis
tered the oath to Cato West, Thomas M. Green, John Burnet,
Thomas Calvit, Henry Hunter and James Hoggatt, (the latter
two from Adams). After investigation they seated Anthony
Hutchins and Sutton Bankes, whom the sheriff did not return as
elected. The ordinance reauired that a representative should
have been a citizen of one of the United States three years and a

MISSISSIPPI 77
resident in the district, or should have resided in the district three
years, and, in either case, be the owner of two hundred acres of
land. The messenger to Washington county lost his horse in going
through the Indian country, and did not arrive in time. An elec
tion was held August 16, but Judges Lewis and Bruin gave an
opinion that this was not legal, and the representative thus chosen,
John McGrew, was not seated. Joseph Thompson was elected in
1801. William Dunbar refused to contest the election in Adams
county, as invited to by the governor, probably because, as the
latter said, he had never been a citizen of the United States before
1798, "and our district was not of three years' standing."
The house was organized by the election of Col. Henry Hunter
as speaker (Peter Walker was appointed clerk), and after settling
its membership, made the nominations of ten men, out of which
, the president should select five to compose the council or upper
house. These were promptly forwarded by the governor, who
thought it "a duty to observe that there seems an unnecessary
as well as general lack of the attributes which the very name im
plies as essential to the office—an evident intention to exclude men
of sense and letters — melancholy considerations indeed." But he
made an exception of Messrs. Ellis and Bingaman, as men of
wealth and worthy members of society.
As if in reply to this letter, it was said in the reply of the house
to the public address of the governor, the reply being delayed until
Anthony Hutchins was seated, and written by him :
^'With candor we acknowledge that men of much superior talent
and discernment this country could produce to compose the house,
but that any can have the interest and welfare of the community
more at heart we deny. Our fortunes, and what is still more
dear — our wives and children call upon us to discharge the sacred
trust reposed in us with probity and honor. . . . That the
characters of some of those who are now become members of this
house have been grossly misrepresented to the general govern
ment heretofore, cannot we believe be denied and that they will
now have the opportunity of proving the injustice of the accusa
tions is their greatest satisfaction."
It seems that at this session of the house of representatives con
gress was memorialized to change the time of meeting of the gen
eral assembly. On acount of delay in appointments of the
council, there was no session as provided by the ordinance, in De
cember, 1800. The commissions did not arrive until the early
part of April, 1801, when it appeared that the members selected
were Adam Bingaman, John Ellis, John Stampley, Alexander
Montgomery and John Flood McGrew, the latter from the Tom
bigbee. Before calling the assembly, Secretary Steele sought in
formation from the secretary of state in regard to what change
had been made in the sessions, if any, and this he assigned as the
reason for delay in calling a special session when, on May 6th, he
was brought a letter of inquiry from Speaker Hunter, by Messrs.

78 MISSISSIPPI
Hutchins and West. Gov. Sargent had departed for the east in
April. On May 26 the secretary proclaimed the first session of
the first general assembly, to convene July 28. Governor Clai
borne wrote from Nashville : "They continued in session (as I
am advised) about five weeks, but transacted little business, and
what they did is left incomplete for want of the Governor's sanc
tion, Col. Steele being too much indisposed to attend to his official
duties." (See Steele's Administration.)
The council had- been in session six weeks, August 27, when they
asked Steele's advice about the non-appearance of Mr. Bingaman
in all that time. ' The Secretary advised them to ask Mr. Binga
man. Presumably that gentleman did not accept the appointment.
John Ellis was president of the council at this session and con
tinued in that honor until a new council was chosen, five years
later. Probably also, he signed some acts. However, one may
take the regular session convened Dec. 1, 1801, as the first effective
popular legislative body. Gov. Claiborne delivered an address to
both houses and received responses of hearty welcome. He wrote
to the secretary of State that from brief acquaintance with the
assembly: "I hazard the opinion that it is composed of honest
men, much attached to the United States, and devoted to the in
terests of this territory." At this session, also, Henry Hunter was
speaker of the house.
In the following January Governor Claiborne wrote to the sec
retary of state: "The legislature of the territory continues in
session, but will probably adjourn in a few days. With love of
country and honesty of intention this body is amply supplied, but
there is deficiency in legislative information and experience, which
occasion much embarrassment, and will, it appears, be attended
with some public injury."
In February, 1802, David Lattimore was commissioned a mem
ber of the council in place of Adam Bingaman.
In July there was an election of representatives, after an excit
ing campaign, and some of the most prominent friends of ex-Gov
ernor Sargent were chosen. The members elect were: Adams
district: William Dunbar, William Connor, James Hoggatt,
(Name of fourth member does not appear in journal of 1803.)
Jefferson district: Thomas Calvitt, John Girault, Roger Dixon,
Cato West, who resigned to become secretary and was replaced
by John Brooks. Washington district: Nicholas Perkins, the
attorney-general of that district.
At the regular session in December, 1802, Roger Dixon was
speaker of the house; John Ellis, president of the council. Wm.
Gordon Forman appears to have been speaker in January. The
governor wrote in March, 1803 : "On the 12th instant the legisla
ture adjourned, to meet again in October next." An act had been
passed to change the session from December to October.
The journals are preserved in the Mississippi archives, of the
second session of the second general assembly, begun Oct. '3, 1803,
the house journal in writing, and council journal, as printed at

MISSISSIPPI 79
Natchez by Andrew Marschalk. John Ellis was president of the
council, William Connor, speaker of the house. Gov. Claiborne ad
dressed both houses, nine gentlemen in all being present, in the
"representatives' chamber," and dwell with satisfaction upon the
solution of the Mississippi river troubles and the cession of Louis
iana. He again urged encouragement of the militia, communicat
ing a letter from President Jefferson on the 'subject, and suggested
providing a special superior court for Washington county and the
inspection of cotton in the district. The session, which was
marked by considerable disagreement between the two houses,
closed Nov. 19.
No record is available of the representatives elected in 1804, for
the 3d general assembly, except that in Adams district, John
Steele, Lyman Harding, Philander Smith and Ferdinand L. Clai
borne were elected over Richard Butler, George Poindexter, Adam
Tooly and Henry Hunter, the vote being 224 to 189, for the high
est. John Shaw was a member from Jefferson district, and Col.
Caller represented Washington county. Smith and Steele served
as speaker.
The 3d general assembly, meeting for the first time Dec. 3, 1804,
the attempt to change the time of session evidently having failed,
was called upon to elect a delegate to congress to succeed Dr.
William Lattimore. A joint session was held for this purpose Jan.
3, and the vote was as follows : William Gordon Forman, 4 votes ;
William Lattimore, 5 ; Cato West, 5. This remained the vote for
6 ballots, and a 7th ballot was ordered, but while the members
were scattered about, the speaker declared the house of repre
sentatives adjourned, and when the council attempted to resume
balloting, the house objected and proceeded with regular busi
ness. Such was the record of the council on the subject. It does
not appear that another attempt was made at election. Another
episode of interest was the calling to account of Lyman Harding,
one of the representatives, for leaving in the council chamber a
burlesque bill, entitled "An act for the furtherance of justice."
The speaker of the house was requested "to take such measures
as will do justice to the injured and insulted feelings of the mem
bers of the council." Harding protested he meant nothing more
than "inoffensive merriment." The house passed a resolution that
for the encouragement of industry and the promotion of economy
the members of the general assembly should at future sessions
wear clothing of "the homespun manufacture of the Territory."
The session adjourned March 8, 1805.
The administration of Robert Williams, (q. v.) which began
soon afterward, was marked by a stubborn conflict between the
governor and the general assembly, apparently caused by politi
cal differences within the Jeffersonian party.
A new council was commissioned in 1806, from the nominees of
the session of 1804-05, as follows : Col. Daniel Burnet, Lemuel
Henry (of Washington county), Thomas Hinds, Maj. Joseph
Sessions and Col. Joshua Baker, who was chosen president. Gov.

80 MISSISSIPPI
Williams declared that the people were greatly dissatisfied with
this council.
Jefferson district elected representatives in July, 1806, as fol
lows: George W. Humphreys, Samuel Bridges, William Snod
grass, Thomas Fitzpatrick. The Adams county Republican cau
cus nominated Col. John Ellis, Alexander Montgomery, George
Poindexter and Col. Henry Hunter, and they were probably all
elected. Col. Ellis was elected speaker.
Hunter and Humphreys resigned in 1807, Poindexter also re
signed, and Bridges died. Cowles Mead, Micajah Davis, Stephen
Bullock and Samuel Cook were elected at special elections, which
were very close, showing a strong support of, the governor.
This Fourth general assembly, council and house both, were dis
solved by the governor March 1, 1808, and an election ordered for
representatives. This fell under the new law of Congress, Jan. 9,
.1808, providing an apportionment by the legislature and _ an in
crease to twelve members. The assembly, before dissolution, or
dered a census of the Territory, and apportioned the representa
tives as follows': Claiborne 2, Jefferson 2, Adams 4, Wilkinson 2,
Washington 2. After a great debate at a special session in Sep
tember, the newly elected house voted as follows on the motion
of Mr. Bullock to nominate a new council: Aye, Ferdinand L.
Claiborne, speaker; Stephen Bullock, John Caller, Samuel Cook,
Henry D. Downs, Lemuel Henry, William Snodgrass, Philander
Smith ; No, Henry Cassels, Henry Hunter, Cowles Mead, William
B. Shields. But Claiborne and two others were counted against
the governor in making the nominations, which was done in a
strictly partisan way. The council appointed from these nomi
nations was composed of, Daniel Burnet, James Lea, John Flood
McGrew, Alexander Montgomery, and Thomas Calvit. Burnet
was chosen president. The Fifth general assembly, thus consti
tuted, was dissolved by Gov. Williams upon his resignation March
3, 1809.
The nominations of the house in July, 1809, special session, for
the council, were as follows : Adams county : Alexander Mont
gomery, William B. Shields; Jefferson: Jonathan D. Wilds, David
McCaleb ; Claiborne : David Burnet, Thomas Barnes ; Washing
ton : William Buford, Joseph Carson ; Amite : Lewis Perkins ; Wil
kinson : Joseph Roberts. President Madison appointed Mont
gomery, McCaleb, Barnes, Carson and Roberts, who were notified
Sept. 30.
Joseph Roberts resigned, November, 1810. Edward Ward was
appointed to fill the vacancy, but declined. James Titus, of Madi
son county, was appointed in 1812, and Nathaniel Ware in 1813,
to fill vacancies. The council of 1809, with these changes, con
tinued the regular five years. The appointments in 1814 were:
Thomas Barnes, Joseph Carson, Beverly R. Grayson, Howell W.
Runnels, James Titus. By an act of congress, Oct. 15. 1814, the
appointment of four more members was authorized. The repre
sentatives nominated Cato West, Robert Cocks, F. L. Claiborne,

MISSISSIPPI 81
Daniel Williams, David Williams, David Files, Robert Beaty,
David Cobb.
The journal of the session of November, 1816, notes the follow
ing councilors present: James Titus, president; Howell W. Run
nels, Beverly R. Grayson, Cato West and Joseph Carson. Also
the following appeared and took their seats by appointment under
the act of 1814: Joseph Taylor, Thomas Torrance and David Will
iams. Cato West had been appointed to succeed Thomas Barnes,
resigned. Robert Beaty, appointed in 1815, was also a member
of this session of the council. Ferdinand L. Claiborne was ap
pointed (1815) but died about this time.
James Titus, of Madison county, was the only member of the
council whose residence was within the limits of Alabama terri
tory in 1817 (Wheeler, History of Alabama), and during the en
tire first session of the general assembly of that Territory at St.
Stephens, he sat as the legislative council and considered and
passed or disagreed with the acts of the lower house, which was
composed of the old Mississippi representatives from Washington,
Madison, Monroe, (and Montgomery), Mobile and Clarke coun
ties. Alexander Montgomery was president of the council, 1809-13 ;
Thomas Barnes, November, 1814, 1815 ;' and James Titus, Novem
ber, 1816.
At the session of the general assembly in November, 1809, under
the administration of Governor Holmes, William Snodgrass was
speaker of the house. It seems to have required a special act of
congress, in 1810, to give Madison county (Huntsville) a repre
sentative. The first session of the Seventh general assembly began Nov.
4, 1811, with the following members of the house present: Adams
county: Samuel Postlethwait, Philander Smith, Philip Hoggatt,
Joseph Bowman, Cowles Mead and Joseph Sessions. Jefferson
county: Daniel Beasley, H. J. Balch. Claiborne: Allan Barnes.
Warren : Edward Turner. Franklin : George W. McConnell.
Amite: Lewis Perkins, John Lowry. Wayne: James Patton.
Washington: James Caller, William McGrew. Madison: Gabriel
Moore, Peter Perkins, Hugh McVay. Cowles Mead was elected
speaker ; Thomas B. Reed, secretary ; John Lowry, doorkeeper ;
Abram DeFrance, sergeant at arms of both houses. Members later
appearing were Joseph P. Kennedy, from east of Pearl river, and
Tanner. Barnes, of Claiborne, died in 1812.
The first session of the Eighth general assembly was postponed
to December, 1813, on account of the Creek war, which busied
some of the members and the governor. The membership of the
house was as follows : Madison : Gabriel Moore, Hugh McVay,
James McCartney ; Franklin : Bailey E. Chaney ; Wilkinson : Dun
can Stewart, John B. Posey; Amite: Christopher Rankin, Henry
Hanna ; Marion and Hancock : Harmon Runnels ; Washington :
Samuel Smith ; Clarke : Reuben Saffold ; Warren : Henry D.
6-II

82 MISSISSIPPI
Downs; Claiborne: Daniel Burnet, Ralph Regan; Jefferson: Heze
kiah J. Balch, John Burch; Adams: David Greenleaf, Philip Hog-
gatt, Samuel Montgomery, Joseph Sessions; William B. Shields,
John Taylor; Baldwin: Benjamin Baldwin; Greene and Wayne:
James Patton; Hinds, Snodgrass. William Briscoe was elected
to the second section in 1814, in place of Regan, resigned. Mobile
and Jackson counties were represented in the second session, by
William Crawford, which was the first appearance of Mobile in
the territorial legislature. Daniel Burnet was elected speaker, and
Beverly G. Grayson clerk, the latter being succeeded by Derrick
Peterson- in the second session.
The Ninth general assembly, meeting in November, 1815, had
the following opening attendance in the house : Madison : Gabriel
Moore, Hugh McVay, William H. Winston; Claiborne: William
Briscoe, James Wood ; Jefferson : Joseph Dunbar, John Hopkins ;
Warren: Henry D. Downs; Adams: William D. Baker, Anthony
Campbell, George Newman,- Nathan Swayze, Edward Turner,
James C. Wilkins ; Franklin : John Shaw ; Wilkinson : Gerard C.
Brandon ; Amite : Henry Hanna, Jesse Winborne ; Marion, Law
rence and Hancock: John Bond, jr.; Clarke: Reuben Saffold;
Washington : Josiah D. Lister ; Wayne and Greene : Josiah Watts.
Henry Hanna was elected speaker and Derrick Peterson clerk.
This session considered a resolution requesting the governor to
accept a house in Natchez for the meeting of the next legislature,
but finally postponed it.
The last session of the Territorial assembly was in November,
1816. Legislature, 1833-76. Under the State constitution of 1832, "the
legislative power of the State shall be vested in two distinct
branches ; the one to be styled the Senate, the other the House of
Representatives, and both together the legislature of the State
of Mississippi. And the style of their laws shall be, Be it en
acted by the Legislature of the State of Mississippi." The previous
property qualification for membership was abolished. The conr
ditions of eligibility were, for senator — a citizen of the United
States, an inhabitant of the State four years next preceding elec
tion, the last year a resident of the district he appeared to repre
sent, and age of thirty years ; for representative, the same with
the lower time requirements of two years' residence, and age of
twenty-one years. The membership of the house was required
to be not less than 36 nor more than 100; of the senate not less
than one-fourth nor more than one-third, that of the house. But
"each county shall always be entitled to at least one representa
tive." Out of this grew trouble when new counties were being
created by the wholesale, in the Indian country. The senators
were to serve four years, after the first elected, who were divided
by lot into two classes, serving two and five years. Thereafter, at
regular biennial elections, part of the senators and all the repre
sentatives were chosen. The first regular session under the con
stitution, began on the first Monday in November, 1833, and the

MISSISSIPPI 83
regular sessions were every two years thereafter. But, to put the
constitution into effect as soon as possible, the schedule provided
for an election of a legislature in December, 1832, which convened
on the first Monday in January, 1833, and ordered an election for
all State and county officers on the first Monday of May, 1833.
The office of lieutenant-governor was abolished ; the president
of the senate, elected by that body, to be the successor of the gov
ernor when that office became vacant. The senate elected Charles
Lynch president and David Dickson, secretary. Joseph Dunbar,
Adam L. Bingaman, A. M. Keehan and David Pemble were can
didates for speaker of the house. Bingaman withdrew after the
9th ballot, Keegan being in the lead, and on the 15th ballot Pem
ble was elected.
The members of the House in the legislature of January, 1833,
were: Adams — Adam L. Bingaman, William Vannerson. Amite
— David Pemble, William Vannorman. Claiborne — John A.
Barnes, Benjamin F. Stockton. Copiah — Barnabas Allen, John
Beasley. Covington — Elam S. Regan. Franklin — Orin Shurtleff.
Green — David McRae. Hinds — William C. Demoss, Alexander
Morrison. Jones — Samuel Ellis. Jackson — John McDonald. Jef
ferson — Philip Dickson, Joseph Dunbar. Hancock — Burwell B.
Brewer. Lawrence — Aloysius M. Keegan. Marion — Charles D.
Learned. Lowndes — Tilghman M. Tucker. Madison — Andrew E.
Batie. Monroe — John Bell. Perry — Abner Carter. Simpson —
James Powell. Pike — Jesse Harper, William G; Martin. Rankin—
Nathan G. Howard. Warren — William Vick. Wilkinson — Gor
don G. Boyd, Francis R. Richardson. Washington — Robert P.
Shelby. Yazoo — David Vance, James C. Bole. Wayne — John A.
Edwards. The journals of the legislature of this period are not all avail
able. There was a session in November, 1833. In the period
before 1836, Gen. P. Briscoe was president, and A. L. Bingaman,
speaker. The time of meeting was changed to the first Monday in
January. In the latter part of 1835 there was a special session of
the senate to elect a president, and the choice fell upon John A.
Quitman. (See Runnel's administration.) In January, 1836, Will
iam Van Norman was president pro tem. until the inauguration
of Gov. Lynch. In the house, after several ballots, John L. Irwin
was elected speaker over Bingaman, Whig. At the extra session
in January, 1837, occurred the trouble about the admission of rep
resentatives from new counties, and a special session was called
to meet April 7, on account of the bank failures'. (See Lynch's
Administration.) A. G. McNutt was elected president on the 16th
ballot in January; John L. Irwin, speaker. At the regular session
in January, 1838, A. L. Bingaman was elected president on the
19th ballot. This was the first full senate of the State under the
constitution of 1832. John W. King was elected speaker.
In 1840, the senate on 44th ballot elected George B. Augustus
president. Jesse Speight was elected speaker of the house. In
January, 1841, James Alexander Ventress, speaker, vice Speight,

84 MISSISSIPPI
resigned. George B. Augustus continued as president. In his
message to the legislature of this year Gov. McNutt said: "This
is the seventh session of the legislature which has assembled dur
ing the last five years. The four extra sessions have cost the State
about $200,000 and have bankrupted the State treasury. A careful
examination of all the acts of the special sessions will demonstrate
that they have been productive of little good and much evil." The
plain intent of the constitution of 1832 was biennial sessions.
In 1842, Jesse Speight was elected president of the senate on
the 11th ballot. Robert W. Roberts, speaker of the house. A
special session of this legislature was convened July 10, 1843, on
account of the Graves defalcation. Gen. Speight having resigned,
Gen. Arthur Fox was elected president pro tem. In 1844 Jesse
Speight was president; J. L. Totten speaker. In 1846 George T.
Swann was president; James Whitfield, speaker. In 1848 George
T. Swann was president; John J. McRae, speaker. In 1850, Dab-
rey Lipscomb, of Lowndes, was president; John I. Guion, presi
dent pro tem. ; John J. McRae, speaker. (See Guion-Whitfield
Adm.) At a special session, November, 1851, James Whitfield
was elected president, continuing in 1852, when William S. Pat
ton, was speaker. In 1854 John J. Pettus was president, J. M.
Acker, president pro tem. ; Hiram Cassedy speaker. In 1856-57,
Pettus continued as president and William S. Barry was speaker.
James Drane was president, 1858-65 ; J. L. Autry was speaker in
1858, J. A. P. Campbell in 1859-60, William A. Lake, January,
1861, J. P. Scales, November, 1861-63, Lock E. Houston, 1863-65.
The legislature had three sessions in 1861, January, July and
November. In 1863 the capitol was abandoned, and the sessions
were at various places. (See Pettus and Clark administrations.)
"In attempting to meet the exigencies of war the legislature did
not always observe strictly the limits set to its action by the con
stitution, and in fact seems to have amended it by simple resolu
tion, as occasion demanded. Thus the following enacting clause
appears in a statute of April 5, 1864: 'Be it enacted that the con
stitution of Mississippi be and the same is hereby altered and
amended,' etc. In 1861 an act was passed amending an ordinance
of the convention." (Garner, Reconstruction, 43.) In 1864 the
legislature was in session in March and April, and again in August
at Macon. At the latter session the governor was authorized to
sell State bonds to the amount of $2,000,000, to form a military
fund. During the session at Columbus, February and March,
1865, the governor was then authorized to dispose of $500,000 of
the bonds above named, "for such premium as he may be able
to obtain in the market," and sell out the Confederate bonds in
the treasury "for such price as he may be able to obtain for the
same." In March, 1865, though it was a portentous epoch, the leg
islature incorporated two "female institutes" at Canton and
Crystal Springs, and the Pioneer machine company. This legisla
ture 'allowed the secretary of the senate $40, the clerk of the house
$5.0, and doorkeepers $15 a day. But the members resolved to ac-

MISSISSIPPI 85
cept only their expenses of travelling and attendance. Two months
later the last session of the Confederate era met at Jackson, May
18. It followed close upon the heels of the surrender at Meridian
(see Clark Adm.), and was for the purpose of preparing for restor
ation to the Union. But the session did not survive the day, the
United States government not admitting the survival of the civil
governments existing during the Confederacy. (See Clark's Adm.)
The next legislature was the last elected by an exclusively white
vote. It met "at the State House, in the city of Jackson, on Mon
day, the 16th day of October, A. D. 1865, and the sovereignty of
the State of Mississippi the forty-ninth, and the ninetieth year of
the Independence of the United States of America." (House Jour
nal.) Col. J. M. Simonton was elected president of the senate, and
Gen. Samuel J. Gholson speaker of the, house. The vote for speaker
was Gholson 38, Alcorn 26, Simrall 9. After a session of 45 days
the legislature adjourned Dec. 6. It was called in special session in
1866, and was in session 42 days, Oct. 15, 1866 to Feb. 21, 1867,
with an adjournment Oct. 30 to Jan. 21.
After this, under the congressional reconstruction, there was no
legislature until the one elected in November, 1869, the negro
population sharing in the elective franchise. This legislature con
tained nearly 40 negro members, including 5 of the senators. Some
of these had a little education and some were unable to read or
write. The negro members, with those whites who had been sol
diers of the Union army, and some native white republicans, con
stituted the majority. The senate was divided, 36 Republicans,
7 Democrats; house, 82 Republicans, 25 Democrats.
This legislature convened in provisional session, Jan. 11, 1870,
by the call of Gen. Ames, commander Fourth military district and
provisional governor. W. M. Hancock was chosen president pro
tem., and he and the senate were sworn in by Chief Justice Peyton.
On the third day, R. C. Powers, lieutenant-governor elect, con
sented to be sworn in, and by virtue of his office, was president of
the senate, as before 1832. The house elected F. E. Franklin repre
sentative from Yazoo, who was a recent immigrant from New York,
as speaker. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were rat
ified at the end of the first week. United States senators were
elected, (q. v.) and the provisional session then adjourned Jan.
20, until "the second Tuesday after the admission of the State
into the Federal Union." Accordingly the legislature met March
8, 1870, with the State fully recognized and considered as "in the
Union," for the first time since January, 1861. The session closed
July 21, 1870. The provisional session is noteworthy for the first
and only instance in which the legislature acknowledged the favor
of railroad transportation by resolution of thanks. The session of
1870 was the longest the State had yet known. The session lasted
four months and a half. The mileage of members was $29,664 in
1870 and $22,128 in 1861. The per diem of members in 1870 was
$166,632. The session beginning Jan. 3, 1871, was the first regular one

86 MISSISSIPPI
under the constitution of 1869, requiring annual sessions beginning
on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January. Senator
Dowd was elected president of the senate, pro tem., when the
lieutenant-governor, Powers, became governor, and H. W. Warren,
recently of Massachusetts, was elected speaker- of the house. He
was clerk in 1873. This session did not adjourn until May 12,
(a little, over four months) having on hand the task of adopting a
revised code.
The legislature of 1872 was in session from Jan. 2 until April
4. Joseph Bennett was president pro tem. of the senate; John
R. Lynch (negro), speaker of the house. The session of 1873 be
gan in January and ended April 19. In the legislature of 1874,
was the culmination of negro representation. Lieut.-Gov. A. K.
Davis, a negro, presided over the senate, and the house elected
another negro, I. D. Shadd, of Vicksburg, speaker. The political
division was, senate, 25 Republicans, 12 Democrats; house, 77
Republicans, 36 Democrats, and several Independents. There were
9 negro members in the senate and 55 in the house. There was a
special session, December 17-24, 1874, upon call of the governor,
which appointed a committee to investigate the Vicksburg riot.
(q. v.) The session of 1875, was January 5 to March 6, Shadd
speaker. Another special session met July 27, 1875, to amend the
registration law.
The legislature of 1876 was the product of the political revolution
of 1875. The senate had 26 Democrats to 11 Republicans (5
negroes); the house, 97 Democrats, 19 Republicans (15 negroes).
The impeachments of Gov. Ames and other State officers were the
exciting features of the session which began January 4 and ended
April 15. Hugh M. Street was speaker of the house. Lieutenant-
Governor Davis presided over the senate until his impeachment
in February, when Senator John M. Stone, who had been elected
president pro tem. by acclamation on the first day, took the chair.
When Stone became governor W. H. Sims was made president
pro tem.
Legislature, 1876-1906. The constitution of 1869 continued in
force, except as amended, until 1890. The legislature of 1876
met again in 1877. Its political complexion was: Senate, 26 Demo
crats, 11 Republicans, House, 97 Democrats, 19 Republicans. H.
M. Street was speaker ; W. H. Sims, president of- the senate.
It required five ballots to elect a speaker of the house in 1878,
W. A. Percy, W. H. H. Tison, W. F. Tucker and M. H. Whitaker
being the candidates, and Percy was finally successful. George M.
Gevan was elected clerk. Reuben O. Reynolds was president of
the senate until Lieut.-Gov. W. H. Sims was inaugurated. This
session continued 48 days. Part of its important business was to
amend the constitution, as approved by popular vote, so that the
sessions should be biennial, beginning in 1878. Accordingly the
next session began in January, 1880.
The legislature of 1880 contained 15 members of the National
or Greenback party, 3 Independents and 6 Republicans. B. F.

MISSISSIPPI 87
Johns was speaker of the house. The session continued 53 days,
and was membrable for the election of Senator George; the adop
tion of Campbell's Code; and the discussion of the Humphreys'
railroad bill.
In 1882 the Greenbackers had only two members, and the Re
publicans 18. The opposition representation in the legislature
from this time rapidly dwindled. In 1888 the legislature was al
most solidly Democratic. The speaker in 1882 was W. H. H.
Tison; in 1884, W. M. Inge; in 1886, J. H. Sharp; in 1888, C. B.
Mitchell ; in 1890, J, S. Madison.
Under the constitution of 1890 both the representatives and
senators are elected every four years. There is a series of regular
sessions, every four years, beginning in 1892, and a series of special
sessions every four years, beginning in 1894, the special sessions
being limited to 30 days unless the governor finds it desirable to
extend the session for a specific number of days, nothing to be con
sidered at such special sessions but appropriation and revenue
bills, "except such other matters as may be acted upon at an extra
ordinary session called by the governor, the compensation for spec
ial sessions to be limited to $5 per diem and mileage." All members
are required to take oath that they "will not vote for any measure
or person because of a promise of any other member of this legis
lature to vote for any measure or person, or as a means of influ
encing him or them to do so." Liability as a principal for public
moneys, conviction of bribery, perjury or other infamous crime,
and bribery in connection with elections and appointments, are dis
qualifications for membership. The powers of the legislature are
more definitely stated than in any previous constitution. Appro
priation bills are carefully regulated, their passage forbidden in
the last five days of the session, and the governor authorized to
approve them in part and veto them in part. The veto of any
measure may be overcome by a two-thirds vote in each house.
If the governor does not return a bill within five days it becomes
a law without his signature, unless the legislature adjourns mean
while, "in which case it shall become a law unless sent back within
three days after the beginning of the next session of the legisla
ture." The legislature is particularly charged with legislation for cer
tain ends, such as the limiting of land holding by aliens and cor
porations. A standing committee in each house on local and
private legislation is required, through which all such measures
must pass. Private, special and local laws are forbidden in a large
number of particulars (Section 90). There are absolute prohibi
tions of a number of functions previously exercised. "The legis
lature shall not elect any other than its own officers, State librarian
and United. States senators." Included in the constitution was an
apportionment among the counties of 133 representatives, includ
ing several "floaters" among counties, and representatives of the
cities of Meridian and Natchez. The counties were districted for
45 senators. A State census was ordered in 1895 and' every ten

88 MISSISSIPPI
years thereafter, as a basis of new apportionment by the legislature.
All sessions begin on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in
January. The legislature of 1892 was occupied mainly with consideration
of the codified laws and new laws presented by the commissioners
under the constitution of 1890. The next code session was in
1906. There was an extraordinary session in 1897, and with this
exception the sessions have been biennial.
At the congressional election in 1900 an amendment to the con
stitution was adopted, and the same was inserted in the constitu
tion by the legislature of 1902, providing that the legislature may
apportion senators and representatives on the basis of the Federal
decennial census. At such apportionments each county shall have
at least one representative. Virtually, three new political sub
divisions are made, and required to have equal representation, re
gardless of population. The first section is composed of the coun
ties of Tishomingo, Alcorn, Prentiss, Lee, Itawamba, Tippah,
Union, Benton, Marshall, Lafayette, Pontotoc, Monroe, Chicka
saw, Claiborne, Yalobusha, Grenada, Carroll, Montgomery, Choc
taw, Webster, Clay, Lowndes and Oktibbeha, and any counties
that may be sub-divided therefrom. The second section is com
posed of the counties of Attala, Winston, Noxubee, Kemper, Leake,
Neshoba, Lauderdale, Newton, Scott, Rankin, Clarke, Jasper,
Smith, Sunflower, Copiah, Franklin, Lincoln, Lawrence, Covington,
Jones, Wayne, Greene, Perry, Marion, Pike, Pearl River, Hancock,
Harrison and Jackson, and any counties that may be sub-divided
therefrom. The third section is that embraced within the present
territory of the remaining counties of the State. Each section is
to "never have less than 44 representatives," and any change in the
number of representatives is to be apportioned equally to the three
sections. The number of representatives is limited between 100
and 133, the number of senators between 30 and 45.
Under the laws now in force the members of the legislature re
ceive $400 salary for each regular session, and 10 cents mileage
each way, and $5 a day for special sessions. The regular sessions
terminate at 60 days.
The lieutenant-governors (president of the senate) since 1876
have been: William H. Sims, 1878-82; G. D. Shands, 1882-90; M.
M. Evans, 1890-96; J. H. Jones, 1896-1900; James T. Harrison,
1900-1904; John Prentiss Carter, 1904. The speakers of the house
since 1890 have been: H. M. Street, 1892; James K. Vardaman,
1894: J.-F. McCool, 1896, 1897, 1898; A. J. Russell, 1900, 1902; E.
N. Thomas, 1904, 1906.
The legislature of 1906 created a new department of State gov
ernment, called the Department of Agriculture and Commerce,
and placed under the direction of a Commissioner. It was provided
that the Commissioner be appointed by the governor to serve until
the first general election in 1907, and afterwards be elected by the
people. Hon. H. E. Blakeslee was appointed Commissioner of the
new Department. At this session of the legislature a change was

MISSISSIPPI 89
made in the management of the State convict farms, the control
being placed in the hands of three Trustees, appointed by the gov
ernor to serve until the firsj: general election in 1907, and after
wards elected by the people together with a Superintendent ap
pointed by the governor. An act providing for a geological Sur
vey was passed. Two new circuit court districts were created to
meet the demands of the rapid development in the Southern part
of the State. In the same section of the State two new counties
were formed; Jefferson Davis, taken from Lawrence and Coving
ton, and named in honor of the President of the Southern Confed
eracy, and Forrest, embracing the second court district of Perry
county, and named in honor of Gen. N. B. Forrest of the Confed
erate army. The greater part of the session of 1906 was given to
the adoption of a new code of laws which was compiled by A. H.
Whitfield, T. C. Catchings and W. H. Hardy, and to be known as
the Mississippi Code of 1906. During this session, among other
things, a liberal appropriation was made for the support of Beau
voir, the Confederate soldiers' home, and the sum of $50,000 was
appropriated for the erection of a monument in the National Park
at Vicksburg in honor of the Confederate soldiers of Mississippi.
Lela, a postoffice of Wilkinson county.
Leland, an incorporated post-town of Washington county on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., and the Southern Ry., about
10 miles east of Greenville. The land on which Leland stands was
patented in 1834. The first settlement was made in 1847 by Judge
James Rucks. In 1884 the town was laid out on the advent of the
railroad. It is a railroad junction point, and has a telegraph office,
an express office, a newspaper office, and two banks. The Enter
prise is a Democratic weekly established in 1901, of which Hill &
Hanson are the editors and publishers. The Bank of Leland was
established in 1899 with a capital of $15,000, and the Delta Bank of
Leland was established in 1903 ; capital $50,000. Leland lies in the
fertile Delta region, and is a cotton shipping point of importance.
Among its industries are a large saw mill, a large cotton seed oil
mill with a daily capacity of 100 tons of cotton seed ; the Leland
Ice and Cold Storage Co., capital stock $20,000, capacity 20 tons
daily ; bottling works ; Leland Compress Co., capital stock $50,-
000; Leland Lumber Co., capital stock $10,000. There are five
public school buildings for whites; also one school for colored
pupils. There are five churches ; two for whites and three for
blacks. The city owns its electric light and water works. The
Leland Cotton Co., organized in 1903 for the purpose of selling
cotton, is the only organization of its kind in existence. Population
in 1900, 762; estimated in 1906 at 2,000.
Lemon, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Smith county, 9
miles north of Raleigh, the county seat, and 15 miles south of
Forest, the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in
1900, 100.
Lena, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Leake county, 12
miles south of Carthage, the county seat. The station of Raworth,

90 MISSISSIPPI
on the A. & V. R. R., 15 miles to the south, is the nearest railroad '
town. Population in 1900, 63.
Lenoir, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Marion county,
situated on the west bank of the Pearl river, 10 miles northwest
of Columbia, the county seat.
Leonia, a postoffice of Jasper county, 5 miles south of Paulding,
the county seat.
Leota Landing, a post-hamlet of Washington county, situated
on the Mississippi river, about 25 miles south of Greenville, the
county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population in
1900, 50.
L'Epinay. M. de L'Epinay was appointed governor of Louisiana
by Crozat in 1716, to succeed Cadillac, and served in that capacity
for a period of about eleven months. He arrived in Mobile Bay on
the 9th of March, 1717, accompanied by M. Hubert, commissioned
to succeed M. Duclos as Commissaire Ordinnateur; also three
companies of infantry, commanded by MM. Aruths de Bonil, de
Loze and Gouris, and fifty other persons, among whom were MM.
d'Artagnette, Dubreuil, Guenot, Trefontaine, and Mossy, wealthy
and prominent Frenchmen, who came to establish colonies in Lou
isiana on their several concessions. De L'Epinay brought Bien
ville the cross of St. Louis, which the king of France had granted
him as a special reward for his long and distinguished services in
the interest of French ascendency on the Mississippi. La Harpe,
in his Journal, tells us that "the commander of the Paon (one
of the vessels which brought the new governor and his compan
ions), who had lately entered the port of Dauphin Island by a
channel of twenty-one feet of water, discovered in two days after
that it had changed, and he was compelled to unload and go out
by the Grand Gosier Channel, which had only a depth of ten feet."
This sudden chocking of the Dauphin channel, no doubt, was one
of the principal reasons for the reestablishment of the headquar
ters of the colony in the Bay of Biloxi (see Bienville.) De L'Epinay1
seems to have engaged at once in the same dissensions with Bien
ville as his predecessor, Cadillac. He was ignorant of conditions
in the new world and caused some regulations to be enforced in
opposition to the wishes of Bienville, which created great dissatis
faction. As above stated, De L'Epinay's tenure of office was brief.
Crozat surrendered his charter in 1717, and in August of that year,
the "Western Company" succeeded to its privileges. On the 9th
of February, 1718, the ships Dauphin, Vigilant and Neptune, be
longing to the Western Company, arrived at Dauphin Island, and
brought orders for the recall of De L'Epinay and the appointment
of Bienville as governor-general.
Lerma, a postoffice of Webster county, 8 miles northwest of
Walthall, the county seat.
Lespideza, a post-hamlet of Panola county, 8 miles east of Sardis,
one of the two seats of justice for Panola county, and the nearest
railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 40.
Lessley, a postoffice of Wilkinson county.

MISSISSIPPI 91
Lettie, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Winston county,
about 14 miles southeast of Louisville, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 50.
Levees. Since the advent of the white man into the Mississippi
Valley, efforts have been made to confine the mighty flood of the
Mississippi within its channel by means of levees, or dikes of
earthwork. Owing to the sinuosities in the ever changing bed of
the stream, the Mississippi washes the western boundary of the
State for a distance of 500 miles. From the standpoint of protec
tion against the overflow of flood waters, this distance constitutes
the "danger line" of the State of Mississippi. The river has been
likened, with its tributaries, to a huge funnel, with a small tapering
spout. It drains a total area of 1,240,038 square miles, or nearly
800,000,000 acres. The spout of the funnel is really only half a
spout, open at the upper half and semi-cylindrical at the bottom,
which permits the flood waters to escape freely over the sides. The
Yazoo basin of Mississippi is one of the largest basins in the valley
of the great river. It has a length of 190 miles and a width of more
than 50. Its area is 6,650 square miles, all of which is subject to
overflow except a narrow ridge along the upper Yazoo. Lower
down are 278 square miles of alluvial lands in the Homochitto
basin, making about 7,000 square miles in the State subject to
inundation. The necessity of protecting this great area of over 4,250,000 acres
of rich land, extending along the river front for 340 miles, from
the annual visitation of flood waters through a system of levees
or dikes is of prime importance to the State of Mississippi. Scien
tists, engineers and governments, for more than a century, have
sought the proper solution of the Mississippi river problem. This
problem has been all the more difficult, when it is borne in mind
that below the junction of the Ohio, for more than 1,100 miles,
the great river sweeps around a succession of great bends, with
a deep, wide and rapid current of five or six miles an hour during
the floods. Its surface is nearly on a level with the alluvial banks,
which continually yield more or less to the power of the stream.
In all this distance are no hills or mountains and only a few lone
bluffs, and much of the flood area is from five to ten feet below the
level of the river banks. Indeed, the peculiarity of the immediate
banks of the river being higher than the alluvial plain, is charac
teristic of the whole course of the lower Mississippi. In extreme
floods, when not protected by levees, these low grounds were cov
ered by the redundant waters nearly to the level of the river surface.
As the surface of the river approached the high water mark the
water escaped in a thousand places, through "low banks, outlet
bayous, sloughs, or crevasses, becoming an immense forest lake and
enclosing thousands of islands and ridges of alluvion only a few
feet above the water level." No wonder the minds of men were
early directed toward the prevention of these recurring overflows,
and the protection of the rich arable lands. The period of floods
in the lower Mississippi varies from four to nine months. It

92 MISSISSIPPI
generally commences in December or January and lasts until June
or July.
The extreme rise and fall of the Mississippi varies greatly at
different points. It is greatest between the Ohio and Lake Prov
idence, one hundred and thirty-five miles below the mouth of the
Arkansas. It is least from the mouth up to New Orleans.
A close study of the records shows that extraordinary floods
have occurred on the Mississippi during the following years : 1782,
1797; 1809, 1815, 1823, 1828, 1844, 1849-51, 1858-59, 1862, 1874,
1880, 1881, 1882, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1897, 1899, and 1903. Quot
ing from the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society for
1904, p. 353, we read "The floods of March and April, 1903, which
occurred in the lower Ohio and Mississippi, were notable because
of the unprecedentedly high stages which occurred in the latter
river. The stages of the water were, with a few exceptions, great
er than any before known from Memphis to the Passes, exceeding
the previous highest stages (principally those of 1897) from 0.9
feet at New Orleans to 2.8 feet at Memphis. Where the crest
stage was below the maximum stage of 1897 the deficiency was usu
ally due to crevasses in the levees." Speaking of the great floods
of 1882, 1897, and 1903 the report goes on to say: "At Memphis
the river was above the danger line in 1903 for 54 days, as against
65 and 53 days in 1882 and 1897 respectively, but it remained at
38 feet or higher for 13 days, and at 40 feet for two days in 1903 ;
while in 1882 and 1897 the highest stages were 35.2 and 37.1 feet
respectively. At New Orleans the river was at or above the danger
line (16) feet in 1882 for six days, with a maximum stage of 16.2
feet ; in 1897 it was at or above the danger line for 75 days, and at
19 feet or more for 29 days, with a maximum stage of 19.5 feet;
while in 1903 it was at or above the danger line for 85 days, and at
or above 19 feet for 43 days, with a maximum stage of 20.4 feet.
The conclusion is that the causes of these differences in the three
floods in the lower Mississippi river is to be found in the restrain
ing influence of the levees, which have been in course of construc
tion for many years, and especially during the last ten years.
These new levees, except where crevasses occurred, served to con
fine the flood to the immediate channel of the river, and consequent
ly an abnormal increase in the height of the flood crest was inevita
ble. The more levees are built, and the more they are improved and
strengthened, the higher the stages become."
6,820 square miles of territory was inundated in 1903, 13,580
square -miles in 1897, and prior to 1897 the greatest extent was
29,970 square miles. While it has cost much to strengthen and
repair the levees of late years, the flood losses have been compar
atively insignificant as contrasted with the amount of property
saved. In Gould's History of River Navigation is found this description
of the first levee on the Mississippi river: "The water of 1718 was
much higher and interfered seriously with the men laying the foun
dations of New Orleans, they being compelled to stop work and

MISSISSIPPI 93
devote themselves to the construction of a rude levee in front of
the town and for some distance above it, which sufficed to keep it
clear of water. This was the first levee in Louisiana, and was
constructed under the auspices of Sieur LeBlonde de la Tour chief
of the engineers of the colony and a knight /of St. Louis. This levee
was merely a temporary one, but answered its purpose. It was
worked on each successive year, raised and strengthened from
time to time, being finally completed under Perrier in 1727. It
then presented an 18-foot crown and 60-foot base, and was 5,400
feet, or slightly over a mile, in length. This was more than the
city front and was ample to protect it." The levees were gradually
extended both above and below the city, experience from disas
trous floods like that of 1782 having convinced the early inhabitants
on the lower Mississippi of their necessity and efficacy. The total
length of levees in Louisiana in 1812 was 340 miles, built at an
estimated cost of $6,500,000. A big sum for a young country.
Meanwhile few levees had been built in the Territory of Mis
sissippi. Governor Sargent in his notes, declares that the inhab
itants of the Natchez District could not understand the flood of
¦ 1809, which destroyed many of their crops. It was thought by
many that the Great Lakes had forced an outlet into the upper
Mississippi and were pouring down on them. In 1828 the line of
levees extended from New Orleans to Red River Landing, a dis
tance of 195 miles, and for 65 miles below the city. Above Red
• river they were in an unfinished state to Napoleon. From 1828
to 1844 they were gradually extended on the west bank to the
mouth of the Arkansas, and there were also by this time many
miles of levees on the Yazoo front, though they were by no means
continuous. Above Napoleon, little had been done in the way of
levee building. Those tracts in the delta that were above the
level of ordinary flood were promptly settled, in spite of great
dangers to health. Hence the region produced 39,000 bales of cot
ton in 1840. In 1850, there yet being no levees, the product was
42,000 bales.
Throughout the great speculative period of 1832 to 1844 the dis
mal swamps of the river valley were left in the hands of the gov
ernment, which offered them in vain at $1.25 an acre. "The idea
of a levee had not been considered. The country was regarded
as valueless. Even as late as 1848, some of the intelligent men in
the State regarded a levee upon the Mississippi, looking to the re
clamation of the whole country, as impracticable, the idea as
Utopian." (Alcorn report.) But in eight years all this was changed,
prospectively at least.
The Memphis river convention of 1845 made an earnest appeal
to the United States to grant the planters assistance in the matter
of levee building, without which, it was declared, the settlement
of the lower Mississippi Valley could not go on successfully. The
planters had expended millions in building dikes, and it was pointed
out that with more levees millions of acres of fertile lands could

94 MISSISSIPPI
be reclaimed. It was proposed that these flooded lands, still un
sold, should be given to the States to aid in levee building and in
reclaiming them. As a result of this appeal, a survey of the Mis
sissippi was authorized by congress to ascertain the best method
of reclaiming these alluvial lands, and the same year it also gave
assistance, for the first time in constructing levees.
Gov. Brown in 1846 reported that a levee had been surveyed
and recommended by the State topographical engineer from the
Tennessee line to the mouth of the Yazoo, in 1844, and the cost
estimated at about $90,000. It was hoped that congress would
donate alternate sections of unsold lands to help in doing this
work. It was beyond the resources of the State at that time.
It was in the administration of Zachary Taylor, (1849-50), him
self a Mississippi planter, that the first resolutions were adopted,
by the United States senate, directing a survey of the river, to as
certain the best method of reclaiming the alluvial lands. The
movement thus begun, resulted after many years, in the report
of Chief Engineers Humphreys and Abbott that the levee system
was the only method.
In 1849, Congress donated to Louisiana to "aid in constructing
the necessary levees and drains to reclaim the swamps and over
flowed lands there, the whole of these swamps and overflowed
lands which may be, or are found unfit for cultivation," and by the
act of 1850 extended the grant so as to give to the several States
all swamp and t overflowed lands, within their limits, remaining
unsold, and directed that "the proceeds of said lands, whether from
sale or direct appropriation in kind, shall be applied exclusively,
as far as necessary, to the reclaiming of said lands by means of
levees and drains." This action by the Federal government was
based on the broad ground of an enlarged public policy, valuable
public as well as private interests being thereby subserved, and im
portant sanitary ends secured. The assistance thus given by the
Federal Government gave a great impetus to levee building, and
the next ten years were the most active and successful in reclaiming
the alluvial region below the mouth of the Ohio. The largest
recipients of the bounty of the General Government were the
three river States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, which
have received 18,545,270 acres of swamp overflowed lands.
The Mississippi legislature enacted a law putting levee work
under the control of a commission in each river county. In 1854
J. L. Alcorn proposed a system of general superintendence, and
this being adopted, he was appointed president of the superior
board of levee commissioners. He reported in 1856 that the work
had progressed so that much land theretofore worthless was sell
ing at $20 an acre. State lands and school lands shared in the
general appreciation, and were being eagerly sought by purchasers.
In January, 1856, there had been completed 9 mile's of levee in
DeSoto, 36 in Tunica, 52 in Coahoma, 83 in Bolivar, 50 in Issa
quena; Washington made no report. The incomplete figures indi-

MISSISSIPPI 95
cate an expenditure of about three quarters of a million in cash
and as much more in script.
The law of 1858 provided for a tax paying district to support the
work, and though it "did not embrace the entire territory which
equity and good conscience demanded," yet a start was made on
the true principle. The tax levied was fifty cents per acre, an
nually for five years, but this fund from the river counties was for
three years withheld from the general board to be used in paying
the debts of the local boards. At the expiration of the three years,
bonds to the amount of $500,000 were authorized to be sold. Pres
ident Alcorn did not regard the financial provision as adequate.
Tunica county alone had in 1858 a debt of $150,000 in levee script,
drawing interest at%10%. By reason of local prejudice the en
forcement of the law was embarrassed by litigation, and it became
impossible to sell the bonds, and he was helped out by a special tax
of twenty-five cents an acre in the river front counties. At the
beginning of 1860 he had under contract about $750,000 worth of
work, including the crevasses of 1859, one of which occasioned an
expense of $50,000 for repairs in the levee. But a recent opinion
of Judge Henry, of Yazoo, that the law of 1858 was entirely uncon
stitutional, made it doubtful if much could be done.
Meanwhile the floods of 1858 and 1859 had demonstrated that
without levees the last vestige of civilization would be driven from
the Yazoo-Mississippi bottom. While the people of the delta were
murmuring at a thirty-five cents tax, they were paying across the
river 60 to 80 cents, and in Louisiana, $2.20. Alcorn said that
because of the levee work, since 1850, the Chickasaw school fund
had sold 130,000 acres for $6 an acre, and the State had been able
to sell 500,000 acres of internal improvement land and apply the
proceeds to railroad building.
"At the outbreak of hostilities 310 miles of continuous levees
stretched from the base of the hills near the Tennessee line to
Brunswick landing in Warren county, protecting from overflows
the Yazoo basin comprising 4,000,000 acres of as fertile land as
there is on the globe, and constituting the heart of the cotton zone
of the United States. Although sparsely settled, this region in
1860 produced 220,000 bales of cotton and 2,500,000 bushels of
corn. During the progress of hostilities the levees which protected
it were cut in many places by one or the other of the contending
armies. The floods of 1867 completed the destruction." (Garner).
The old levees were of an average height of 8 to 10 feet and a
width, at the base, of from 50 to 75 feet ; the width of the crown
being somewhat less than the height. Of course some were of
much greater size. The great levee at Yazoo Pass was, for a dis
tance of half a mile, 28 feet high and at some points 38 feet, and in
places nearly if not quite 300 feet broad at its base. In view of
the manner in which most of the levees were built before the war —
mainly by slave labor — it is difficult to ascertain the cost of these
dikes up to that period. It has been estimated that the total cost

96 MISSISSIPPI
of all the levees in the river States, from the beginning of levee
building to 1862 was as follows :
Louisiana  '  $25,000,000
Mississippi  14,750,000
Arkansas  1,200,000
Missouri  1,640,000
Other States . '.  560,000
Total  $43,150,000
"Under the French rule, and for a long period thereafter, the
levees were built and maintained by the front proprietors. At a
later date the police June, corresponding to the county commis
sioners in other States, took charge of the levees in Louisiana;
but in time of danger the riparian proprietors, occupying alluvial
lands within 7 miles of the river, were compelled to lend a helping
hand. When a crevasse was threatened the planters and farmers
met and decided on the line of action to be pursued. Each gave
the labor of a number of his slaves, each in accordance with his
means." (Internal Commerce of the U. S.)
Land purchasers in the delta had used their lands as security to
borrow n money for improvement. When the war came on the
delta inhabitants found themselves, generally, without further re
sources and in debt to capitalists to the limit of their productive
capacity. Upon the . cutting of the levees, the situation re
verted to the former one, planting of the high places, and in ad
dition the planters were crushed hopelessly under debt and the
resources of government land were exhausted. This condition
was estimated to mean an annual deficit in the income of the
people of $8,000,000.
In the constitutional convention of 1865 Judge Yerger proposed
a commission of four to confer with the authorities at Washington
regarding the rebuilding of the levees. The negroes, now learning
to work for wages, declined to take the risk of wages or shares on
plantations subject to overflow. The United States government
took some action to restore the levees and it was proposed in 1866
to use the negro troops for that purpose.
A board of levee commissioners for Bolivar, Washington and'
Issaquena counties was created by act of November 27, 1865, which
expended up to October 1, 1870, $1,300,000 in the reconstruction
of the levees. To provide funds bonds were issued to the amount
of $1,288,000, and $1,238,000 taxes were collected to retire the
bonds. The act limited the issue of bonds to $1,000,000, but emer
gency in the work demanded the overissue, which was legalized
by the legislature. Unfortunately, the Cammack levee, on which
had been expended $73,000, was swept away in 1870.
The last session of the legislature in the administration of Gov
ernor Humphreys passed an act (February, 1867) to create the
"general levee board" of the State, of not less than five members,

MISSISSIPPI 97
to take charge of rebuilding the levees. They were authorized to
borrow $6,000,000 of the United States government for that purpose
and issue bonds. An annual tax of 20 cents per acre was levied in
the counties to be benefited, for a period of twenty years. The legis
lature of 1870 petitioned the United States congress to again come
to the aid of Mississippi by an appropriation of $2,000,000 and
5,000,000 acres of land.
The legislature of 1871 provided for a board of levee commis
sioners for District No. 1, Tunica, Coahoma, Tallahatchie, Panola
and De Soto, with an elaborate code of procedure. At the same
time the act of 1858 was amended so that one commissioner should
take the place of the board under that act, for the purpose of
liquidating liabilities incurred prior to January, 1862.
Bonds were authorized to the amount of $1,000,000, and sold,
and a tax levied for 12 years on the lands of the district to pay
the same. Later, the board was abolished, but large areas of land
were acquired by the board for non-payment of taxes. The State
also acquired many acres in the same region for non-payment of
State taxes. The act of 1878 provided that- the bonds of the dis
trict should be receivable in redemption of lands. An act of 1884
was construed by the auditor's department to apply in the re
demption both from State and Levee taxes, and permitted the con
tinued use of these bonds in payment of delinquent taxes by pur
chasers ; but in 1891 the supreme court ruled, in the case of Wynn
vs. Auditor, that the law of 1884 repealed the law of 1878, and
sales made for bonds thereafter were void.
By an act of 1877 the legislature attempted to compel the hold
ers of levee bonds to submit to a forced reduction in the amount
due on their bonds ; but the supreme court held this unconstitu
tional, and declared that the lands forfeited for levee taxes were
absolute property of the levee board for the benefit of the bond
holders (Stone's message, 1878). Under an act of 1882, the liqui
dating commissioners reported sufficient funds on hand to pay off
the entire levee debt, but by injunction they were prevented from
paying out $37,000 collected from the Memphis & Vicksburg rail
road. June 28, 1879, an act of Congress provided for a permanent com
mission for the improvement of the river and protection of lands.
The first national commission was composed of Benjamin Harri
son, James B. Eads and B. Morton Harrod, with three officers
from the engineer corps of the army, Gillmore, Comstock and Suter,
and one representative of the Coast survey. Their preliminary re
port in 1880 favored the levee system as a valuable adjunct of the
jetty system for the purpose of improving navigation and keeping
the river under some sort of control. A committee of Congress
for the first time visited the Mississippi river, studying it closely
from VicksJDurg down, in 1880.
An Inter-State Levee convention was held at Vicksburg in Oc
tober, 1883. In 1884 an act of the legislature created the Board
of Levee Commissioners in Yazoo-Mississippi delta, to protect
7— II

98 MISSISSIPPI
the country flooded by the breaking of the levees in the floods
of 1882 and 1883, and which was largely under water when the
act was passed. The first board was composed of C. L. Robinson
and C. C. Crews for Tunica county, Thomas W. White for DeSoto,
J. M. Heathman for Sunflower, B. W. Sturdivant for Tallahatchie,
B. S. Ricks for Yazoo, W. H. Stovall and J. F. Townsend for
Coahoma, P. S. Mayre for Leflore, W. A. Turner for Quitman, and
Thomas McGehee for the M. & V. railroad. The board sold bonds
to raise money, and began levee repairing and building in the fall
of 1884, prosecuting the work with so much vigor that there was
again an unbroken river wall in 1886. But it was seen that higher
and more substantial levees were necessary.
The State makes provision for the continuance of its levee system
by Article XI in the Constitution of 1890, which declares, Sec.
227, "A levee system shall be maintained in the State as provided
in this article."
"Sec. 228. The division heretofore made by the legislature of
the alluvial land of the State into two districts, viz : The Yazoo
Delta Levee District; and the Mississippi Levee District, as shown
by the laws creating the same, and the amendments thereto, is
hereby recognized, and said districts shall so remain until changed
by law: but the legislature may hereafter add to either of said
districts any other alluvial land in the State.
"Sec. 229. There shall be a board of levee commissioners for the
Yazoo-Delta Levee District, which shall consist of two members
from each of the counties of Coahoma and Tunica, and one mem
ber from each of the remaining counties or parts of counties, now
or hereafter embraced within the limits of said district, and the
governor may appoint a stockholder in the Louisville, New Or
leans and Texas Railway Company as an additional commissioner;
and there shall also be a board of levee commissioners for the
Mississippi Levee District, which shall consist of two members
from each of the counties of Boliyar and Washington, and one
from each of the counties of Issaquena and Sharkey. In the
event of the formation of a new county or counties out of the ter
ritory embraced in either or both of the said levee districts, such
new counties shall each be entitled to representation and member
ship in the proper board or boards."
In the early spring of 1890 the levees gave way in several places,
and a large part of the delta was inundated, but there was no
loss of life and the damage was not serious. The United States
government put several hundred tents and a large quantity of
rations at the disposal of the governor. There was a flood in 1891.
but it was not serious. The Palmyra district, including Palmyra
island in Warren county, was created in 1896. The Yazoo-Chick
asaw levee district was created in 1898. Governor McLaurin esti
mated in 1898 that the delta counties had expended more than
$13,000,000 in levees.
At the congressional election in 1898 a constitutional amendment
authorizing the levee commissioners to cede rights of way, and

MISSISSIPPI 99
levees, and maintenance, management and control thereof to the
United States, was voted upon, the result being 14,500 for; 5,000
against. Total general vote, 27,378.
The levee organization in 1905 is as follows : Yazoo-Mississippi
Delta levee district commission: H. H. Hopson and O. H. John
son, Coahoma county; Will Polk and S. A. Withers, Tunica; J.
R. Baird, Sunflower ; W. S. Barry, Leflore ; R. V. Powers, Yazoo ;
D. G. Pepper, Holmes; L. Marks, Quitman; W. P. Conner, De
Soto ; George M. Murphy, Tallahatchie ; M. Gillease, Y. & M. V.
railroad company. Mississippi Levee district commission: J. C.
Brooks, Bolivar; J. T. Atterbury, Washington; W. H. Barnard,
Sharkey; J. S. Walker, Washington; W. H. Fitzgerald, Washing
ton. Palmyra levee district commission : L. Page, A. B. Curvil-
lion, Robert Wade, W. S. Lovell, A. M. Fultz. Tallahatchie river
levee district: C. B. Vance, J. S. Goff, W. W. Perkins, Aaron
Greenwall, L. H. Shuford.
The Mississippi River Commission, and the U. S. government
engineers envolved a theory for the building of levees and the
protection of the lands from inundation, which they have carried
out in practice for nearly half a century. It was declared "to be
a law of nature that if a stream of running water is confined to cer
tain limits or the channel be contracted, the velocity of the cur
rent increases and, with the increased velocity, a scour takes place
which in ordinary cases deepens the channel." It was estimated
in 1861 that the cost of "the proper and absolute protection of the
alluvial lands along the Mississippi river from Cairo to the Gulf"
would be about $17,000,000, and the value of the existing levees
were about $9,000,000 — though, as we have seen their probable
cost was more than twice that amount. Wm. Dunbar Jenkins
thus attacks the theory on which the U. S. engineers have worked.
"An expenditure of over $50,000,000 has since been made on levees,
the levees are still incomplete and the work of enlarging, raising
and strengthening them and of closing the basins must go on
as long as the floods overtop the present levees or crevasses occur.
. . . The expected scour has not taken place," he declares, "and
to get results the continual dredging at an additional expense must
go on as long as the appropriation lasts. . . . We have seen
the 'parallel straight jetty' system tried for fifty years and it has
proven a failure. The course of the Mississippi river is not straight,
— it is made up of a series of alternate curves or bends ; it seems
therefore that what the river 'wants to do naturally' is to assume
a serpentine, or S shape — then why not let it do so and use curved
jetties in place of parallel or straight jetties? Where a bend forms
in the river, the deepest water or natural channel is invariably
found on the concave side, the convex side being either a sand-bar
or gradually sloping bank with shallow water; therefore, we have
to deal with but one side in improving the channel (the concave
side) thereby lessening the expense about one-half, protecting that
side -or 'holding the bank' and giving nature a chance to do the
rest. This is known as the 'one jetty system' or Haupt system.

100 MISSISSIPPI
. . . A single curved jetty, on one side of the stream, will train
the outflow of the river to a single channel of ample capacity and
will in time build a natural bank on the opposite side, automatically
adjusted to the requirements of the stream — a reverse curve on the
opposite bank in the next bend will serve to preserve the align
ment, the channel swinging gently from side to side."
It has been shown that the restraining of the river from spread
ing over the alluvial plain, and banking it within narrow limits
tends to place the surface of the floods at higher and higher levels.
The continual increase in the height of levees is necessary, not
because of greater floods, but because of the closer confinement of
the waters. Figures of the height of levees often show a great
increase over the former ones, but in many cases the increase is
due to the position on the flood-plain. The caving away of the
high alluvial banks has forced the building of levees on the ground
of the back slope of the flood-plain. Where a levee 5 feet high met
the demands in 1874, now a 17-foot levee is needed; the top of the
levee, however, is not much higher than before, while the bottom
is 10 feet lower.
An objection to levees often advanced is, that the prolongation
of the delta by deposition of sediment, will cause an ultimate rise
of bed and a future necessary increase in the height of levees.
This objection has been answered by calculations which show that
in 100 years the flood height at New Orleans will rise an inch
from this cause.
The location of levees is a serious problem. In the eight years
subsequent to 1866, 107.5 miles out of 800 miles of levee caved in
in the State of Mississippi. The immediate banks are not in gen
eral, a safe foundation, as undercutting is possible. The levees
must always present to the flood a smooth front, sharp salients
being avoided. Where caving is excessive, a double system of em
bankments is recommended.
Causes of breaks in levees include: a. "Insufficiency in height.
The criterion for height has been the highest known water-mark.
The increased construction, as has been shown, demands higher
and higher levees. Crevasses have been common occurrences;
and as the efficiency of levees increases and crevasses become less
the rule, the standard height will be attained.
b. "The stirring of a full river into action by the winds. The
March floods, accompanied by high and persistent winds, are much
dreaded." Owing to its elevation above the Gulf, there is no tide
in the Mississippi, and its level is affected by winds, more than by
other causes.
c. "Unsoundness or faulty construction. Here may be placed
insecure or treacherous foundations and injudicious cross-sections.
d. "Maliciousness. There have been recorded — strange to say —
breaks that result from a desire for revenge, because of a private
hostility_ against a wealthy planter. Again, landowners, under the
threatening break and destruction of their own property, have re
lieved the strain by opening the levees on the opposite bank. The

MISSISSIPPI 101
swampers, who in the dry season cut timber for the market, and
who have depended on the overflow to raft their logs, have claimed
that the levees were injurious to their business. Breaks have been
attributed to these men.
e. "Burrowing of animals." Crawfish, rats, etc.
The problem of improving this great highway is a national one,
and whether the "Outlet system," the "Waste-wier," the "Reser-
Voir," the "parallel jetty," or the "one jetty system," each of which
has been advocated by eminent engineers, shall afford the ultimate
solution, the teeming population and the fertile lands along the
lower reaches of the Father of Waters are entitled to permanent
protection from the annual floods so destructive to life and prop
erty. Leverett, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, 9 miles south of
Charleston, the county seat, and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 30.
Lewis, Clarke, of Cliftonville, Miss., was born in Madison coun
ty, Ala., Nov. 8, 1840. He early removed to Mississippi, and after
attending Summerville institute, taught school, and then entered
the Confederate army in 1861. He served through the war, and re
sumed teaching in 1865. He afterwards became a planter, and was
elected to the State legislature in 1877. In 1888 he was elected to
the 51st congress,, and served till 1893.
Lewis, Daniel. (See Lewis, Seth.) Daniel Lewis, Jr., married a
Miss Fairchild at Sheffield, Mass., and with her and their son,
Archibald, accompanied the Lyman colony (q. v.). In 1799 his
widow married Richard Carpenter, and after his death she married
Gen. George Matthews, of Georgia. She died in 1803, near Wash
ington, Miss. Says J. F. H. Claiborne : "From Daniel Lewis Sr.,
and wife, are descended the Guions, Mellens, Peytons, Sages, and
many other prominent families in Mississippi and Louisiana, ma
ternally of the same stock with Sir William Pepperell, General
Prescott, of Bunker Hill, Prescott the historian, Chief Justice Mel
len, S. S. Prentiss, Judge Parsons, etc."
Lewis, Seth, was a descendant of a London merchant who took
refuge from _ religious persecution in Connecticut. Daniel, father
of Seth, was a farmer in Massachusetts. Seth was born October
14, 1764. In 1774 the parents, having suffered financial misfor
tune, migrated to West Florida, taking with them their three sons
and four of their daughters. The youngest of these, Sarah, at a
later date married Maj. Isaac Guion, and was mother of one of
Mississippi's governors. The Lewis family reached New Orleans
by sea early in 1775, and taking boat up the river began a settle-'
ment on the banks of the Big Black, in the wilderness. Their
privations were severe; the father died of fever in June and the
mother in September. The children found refuge with the neigh
bors, some miles distant, until the elder brother, Daniel, gathered
them together. In 1777 they moved to Natchez, where Daniel
went into business. In 1778, one of the brothers, Asahel, joined
Willing's command, (q. v.) and was taken prisoner at Manchac

102 MISSISSIPPI
by the British loyalists and carried to Pensacola. The Tory sen
timent being strong at Natchez, Daniel, with the remainder of the
family, moved to Plaquemine, La., and soon afterward he was
drowned while going to New Orleans. Seth found it necessary
to bind himself out as an apprentice with a tanner and shoemaker
on the coast. While in this situation he learned French from his
associates. This and some instruction in childhood, was all' his
schooling. But he had access to books, which he studied in leisure
moments. At 21 years of age he and his sisters went to live at New
Orleans, and he became clerk to a trader, who sent him to Ope-
lousas, where he gained the friendship of an old French merchant,
Duvolde, who took him as a partner, admitted him to his family,
and gave him a place of honor in the community. When Duvolde
retired from business, Lewis engaged in various occupations until
at Natchez, in 1790,' he undertook the sale of a flatboat load of
goods at Nashville, Tenn., from Genevieve. At Nashville, he
formed the acquaintance of Josiah Love, and began the study of
law. He was married in 1793, to a daughter of Col. Thomas Harde
man. In 1795 he began the practice, was immediately successful,
and was elected to the first State legislature. While preparing to
return to Mississippi, for the sake of his health, the office of chief
justice of the Territory became vacant, and he secured the ap
pointment from President Adams, May 13, 1800. Here he found
an unpleasant situation. The wealthy and aristocratic men of the
district, having adopted theoretically the politics of Mr. Jefferson,
professed to be incensed at the appointment, by a Federalist presi
dent, of "a poor, ignorant shoemaker," as chief justice. On coming
into the office he drew up a law regulating the practice of the
courts, adapted from the laws of Tennessee, as required by the
United States laws, and united with the governor and Judge Bruin
in passing the act. His persecutors proposed to have him im
peached for this. He also excited enmity by his independence
as a judge. When the Jefferson party came into control in 1802,
the Territorial legislature presented articles of impeachment and
summoned him to appear before that body. In reply, he declared
his innocence of all charges of misconduct, and said he was
answerable to the congress of the United States, before which he
was ready to appear. This ended the legislative proceeding. Af
ter congress had adjourned without action, Judge Lewis resigned
his office, 1803. It had brought him the salary of $800 a year.
In the course of his duties he visited the Tombigbee settlements,
at stated periods, to hold court, riding through the Choctaw coun
try and fording the rivers. In 1803 he presented a petition to the
general assembly praying that he be reimbursed for a horse stolen
in the Indian country as he was returning from holding court in
Washington district. At the next election, his enemies were gen
erally defeated by the people, and Col. Anthony Hutchins, the
great leader of the anti-administration party, in his last illness
called him to take charge of an important matter of litigation.
He was also employed by two of the sons-in-law of Hutchins, Col.

CONFEDERATE MONUMENT AT LIBERTY.

MISSISSIPPI 103
F. L. Claiborne and William Brooks, as counsel in the struggle
over division of the property which followed the death of Hutchins,
and Lewis arranged with George Poindexter, attorney of the other
heirs, an amicable arrangement. In April, 1807, he was appointed
attorney-general for the counties of the Natchez district, an office
he resigned in 1808. In 1810, when he removed to Opelousas, Gov
Claiborne, of Louisiana, offered him the place of parish judge of
Attakapas. Under the State government, 1812, he was made dis
trict judge. During the time of the codification mania in 1820-25
he attacked the penal code proposed by Edward Livingston, and
caused its rejection. This triumph, however, caused a renewal
of the cry of "shoemaker," that embittered his life, for it actually
estranged many from him. After 27 years as parish and district
judge, he died Nov. 15, 1848. (Autobiography, Miss. Archives.)
Judge Lewis was the first master of a lodge of Masons in Missis
sippi. Lewisburg, a post-hamlet in the east-central part of De Soto
county, 10 miles east* of Hernando, the county seat and nearest rail
road and banking town. It has three churches and a school.
Population in 1900, 72.
Lexie, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Pike county,
situated on McGee's creek, a tributary of the Bogue Chitto, 18
miles east of Magnolia, the county seat.
Lexington, the capital of Holmes county, is an incorporated post-
town on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 12 miles west of
Durant, and 62 miles north of Jackson. It is located in the hills,
and is surrounded by a good agricultural district producing cotton,
corn, oats, rye, Irish and sweet potatoes, strawberries, sugar cane
and all garden trucks. It has a money order postoffice, and telegraph,
express and banking facilities, a court house, nine churches and two
schools. The Lexington Advertiser, a Democratic weekly, was
established here in 1838. The Bank of Holmes County was founded
in 1889, and has a capital of $40,000; the Bank of Lexington was
founded in 1896, capital $40,000; the Bank of Commerce was
founded in 1902, capital $40,000. The town has an electric lighting
plant and three hotels. Among its present manufacturing enter
prises may be mentioned an oil mill, cotton compress, broom fac
tory, and saw mills. There is a city debt of $7,000 on railroad
bonds ; the assessed valuation of property is $1,000,000 ; . the tax
rate is 6 mills. - Population in 1900, 1,516, an increase of about 500
over the census for 1890. The present estimated population is
about 2,200.
Liberty, the county seat of Amite county, is an incorporated post-
town, about 50 miles southeast of Natchez and near the west fork
of the Amite river. A short branch road now connects it by rail
with McComb, on the Illinois Central R. R. The town is located
almost exactly at the geographical center of the county, and was
selected as the seat of justice in 1809, the year the county was
formed. It was incorporated in 1828. In 1863 the Federal troops
destroyed the college buildings and burned much of the town.

104 MISSISSIPPI
After the war, the town was rebuilt, and is now a prosperous little
place of about 600 people. The Liberty Bank was established here
in 1902 with a capital of $25,000. It has a male and female academy
and one newspaper, the "Southern Herald," a Democratic weekly,
established in 1866. J. W. Forsyth published the "Liberty Advo
cate" here for many years prior to the founding of the "Southern
Herald." In 1871 the patriotic citizens of Liberty erected a shaft
of Italian marble in honor of the 282 soldiers it sent forth a decade
earlier to fight the battles of the Confederacy. This is the first
monument erected in the South in honor of the Confederate dead.
There is a large saw mill and manufacturing plant located here, a
fine cotton ginnery, and brick works. When the railroad is ex
tended, the town will add to its already increasing population. A
substantial hotel has recently been opened for business.
Libertyhill, a post-hamlet of Lafayette county, 16 miles east of
Oxford, the county seat. Population in 1900, 22.
Libraries. The State library had its inception in the joint reso
lution of the legislature of 1817, authorizing the secretary of state
to purchase for the State such books as the secretary of the Ter
ritory was required to purchase, "and also Mellish's map of the
United States, Darby's map of the State of Louisiana, Arrow-
smith's map of the world, four copies of Ludlow's new map of the
State of Mississippi."
The State library was established by act of Feb. 15, 1838, but
we find no records showing the name of the first librarian. Wil
liam Wing was librarian in 1841-42. The librarian in the early
period of the office was also the custodian of the capitol.
The library was at first under the management of trustees, and
the library committee of the legislature sometimes passed on the
purchase of books. In 1848 the legislature called for a report of
purchases in the previous four years, and the public documents of
1850 contain a catalogue, showing a considerable collection of legal
works, court reports, and books on medicine, political economy,
theology and church history, travel, biography, fiction, poetry,
etc., the dryest part of which yet remain upon the shelves. A cat
alogue of the State library covers fifty-five closely printed pages
of the House Journal in 1857. At that time the rules and regula
tions of the library required it to be open every day except Sunday
during the legislative and court sessions. At other times it was
to be kept open three days in each week.
The librarians after William Wing are as follows: James M..
Lewis, 1842 to 1848 ; John W. Patton, 1848 to 1852 ; M. M. Smith,
1852 to 1854; James McDonald, 1854 to 1856; R. C. Kerr, 1856 to
1858; B. W. Saunders, 1858 to 1861; F. W. Johns, 1861; Marian
Smith, 1866; John Williams, 1870; J. D. Works, (negro,) 1870;
I. N. Osborn, 1872 to 1876 ; J. B. Harris, for Mrs. Mary Morancy,
1876 to 1880; F. M. Shelton, for Mrs. Mary Morancy, 1880 to 1884;
Frank Johnston for Mrs. Mary Morancy, 1884 to 1892 ; T. J. Bu
chanan for Miss Rose Lee Tucker, 1892 to 1896; Mrs. Helen D
Bell, 1896 to 1900; Miss Mattie Plunkett, 1900.

MISSISSIPPI 105
In 1891 the State Library was, according to the New York
World, "the second in value of its kind in the Union, the Massa
chusetts library only outranking it," having reference to its supe
riority as a law reference library.
The State library now contains about 60,000 volumes, including
law reports and public documents. In volume V., Mississippi
Historical Society publications, is a list of the libraries in the
State with an estimate of the number of volumes from a publica
tion of 1893. The University of Mississippi library, the second
in importance in the State, and the largest of general resource,
was then reported at 13,000 volumes, (now about 20,000) ; the St.
Stanislaus College at Bay St. Louis, 50,000; Mississippi College
at Clinton, 2,200 ; Fisk Memorial Library at Natchez, 5,000 ; Holly
Springs State Normal, 3,000. There are a considerable number
of other libraries in the State containing from 1,000 to 2,000 vol
umes. One of the most successful public libraries in the State
is the Ricks Memorial of Yazoo City.
Liddell, a hamlet in the southern part of Montgomery county, 8-
miles east of Vaiden, the nearest railroad and banking town. The
postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905 and mail now goes
to Vaiden.
Light, a postoffice of Rankin county, 14 miles east of Brandon,
the county seat.
Lightsey, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Wayne county,
18 miles west of Waynesboro, the county seat.
Lilac, a postoffice of Montgomery county.
Lily, a postoffice of Attala county, 10 miles north of Kosciusko,
the county seat.
Limerick, a postoffice of Yazoo county.
Lincecum, Gideon, was born in Hancock county, Georgia, April
1793, the son of Hezekiah Lincecum of French ancestry. He at
tended school in a log house in South Carolina; served in the war
of 1812; was tax collector of his county; studied medicine and
taught school on the boundary line of Georgia and the Creek
country; moved through 500 miles of wilderness to Tuscaloosa,
Ala., with his wife and his father's family, then to the Tombigbee
river country, building his cabin near the present site of Columbus.
In 1819 the government surveyed a road from Nashville, Tenn..
to Natchez, which crossed the river where Columbus now stands.
He went there to see what kind of a place it was; found a man
with some goods in a flatboat; bought the goods, built a house-
and opened a store. The legislature appointed him chief justice,
with authority to appoint all the officers, of the new settlement.
He was also appointed to lay off the town, which was located on
school lands, and to lease the lots for 99 years. He appointed four
other county justices and a county clerk ; organized a county court
and appointed the county officers. He was also school commis
sioner and sold enough lots to bring $4,500 — enough to begin
building schools ; removed to Cotton Gin, and was in business there
eight years. He lost his health; became destitute, and in 1830'

106 MISSISSIPPI
began the practice of medicine in the country ; was successful ;
removed to Texas and settled near Houston April 1848. He died
November 28, 1873.
Lincoln County was established quite late in the history of the
State, April 7, 1870, and was named for President Abraham Lincoln.
The county has a land surface of 574 square miles. It is located in
the southwestern part of the State and the counties of Lawrence,
Franklin, Copiah, and Amite, were divided to form its area. The
original act defined its boundaries as follows : "On the east by
R. line between ranges 9 and 10 east; on the north by T. line be
tween townships 8 and 9, except sections 3 and 4, included in the
present corporate limits of the town of Wesson ; and on the west
by the present boundary line between the counties of Copiah and
Jefferson; on the south by the present boundary line between the
counties of Copiah and Franklin, to a point one mile east of the
point where said boundary line intersects the range line separating
R. 5 from R. 6 ; thence due south to the township line, which sepa
rates T. 4 from T. 5 ; thence east along said township line to the
commencing point." The act located the seat of justice at Brook
haven. Lincoln is bounded on the north by Copiah county, on the
east by Lawrence county, on the south by Pike and Amite counties
and on the west by Franklin and Jefferson counties. It is in the
heart of the long leaf pine region and its timber has always con
stituted its most valuable asset. Brookhaven, on the Illinois
Central R. R., is the county seat and largest town in the county.
It has a population of 3,652 (1906), is an important industrial center,
has several planing mills, foundries, machine shops, cotton gins,
grist mill., etc., and is the seat of Whitworth Female College,
founded in 1859, and one of the best female colleges in the State.
Other towns of importance are Bogue Chitto and Norfield, and the
little towns of Montgomery, Hartman, Thayer and Derby, all on
the railroad. The Illinois Central R. R., runs through the center
of the county from north to south and two short branches extend
east from Brookhaven and Norfield, giving the county excellent rail
transportation. Wesson, a manufacturing center of importance, is
just across the northern border of the county, in Copiah, and is an
important market for agricultural products in the northern part of
Lincoln. Owing chiefly to her wealth of timber resources and to
the prominence of the lumbering industry, Lincoln has passed the
great majority of her sister counties in the total value of manufac
tured products, which had attained the very respectable total of
$1,767,239 in 1900. The principal streams in the county are the
Bogue Chitto, Amite, Homochitto and Bayou Pierre rivers, which
with their tributaries are extensively used in logging operations.
The general surface of the region is undulating— level on the
bottoms. The soil is sandy loam on the ridges and fertile on the
numerous bottoms. It produces cotton, corn, sugar-cane, rice,
oats, peanuts, potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, fruits and melons.
Church and school privileges in Lincoln are very good and the

MISSISSIPPI 107
climate is mild and healthful. Brookhaven is 500 feet above tide
water at New Orleans.
The twelfth United States census for 1900, gives the following
statistics for the county : Number of farms 2,316, acreage in farms
221,388, acres improved 87,007, value of the land exclusive of the
buildings $883,050, value of the buildings $520,990, value of the live
stock $498,584, total value of products not fed $961,807. Number
of manufacturing establishments 89, capital invested $1,505,300,
wages paid $281,103, cost of materials $962,359, total value of
products $1,767,239. The population of the county in 1900 con
sisted of whites 12,341, colored 9,211, a total of 21,552 and an in
crease of 3,640 over the year 1890, while a safe estimate in 1906
would place the population at 25,000. The total assessed valuation
of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $4,629,015
and in 1906 it was $6,215,395, showing an increase of $1,586,380
during the year.
Lines, a postoffice of Winston county.
Lingle, a postoffice in the northern part of Smith county, 13
miles north of Raleigh, the county seat.
Linn, a postoffice of Sunflower county, situated on Jones Bayou,
15 miles north of Indianola, the county seat.
Linton, a postoffice of Clarke county, 9 miles east of Quitman,
the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Lintot, William, was a native of Connecticut, where he married
Grace Mansfield. They were among the early American settlers
of Natchez district. One of his daughters married James Surget,
born at Baton Rouge in 1785. Bernard Lintot was one of the prom
inent early settlers of Natchez district. One of his daughters
married Stephen Minor, and another married Philip Nolan.
Liquor Laws. There was some regulation of the sale of intoxi
cating liquor from the earliest days of the territory, by the re
quirement of license. The Poindexter code of 1823 limited license
to the keepers of inns and taverns, and the recommendation of
six respectable freeholders or householders was required, and a bond
in the sum of $500. The first temperance society in the State was
organized at Natchez in 1828, the movement being suggested by
similar organizations in Massachusetts. James Burke travelled
from Natchez, organizing these societies throughout the inhabited
part of the State. The Mississippi Christian Herald, Natchez,
1837, edited by Rev. J. N. Maffott, mentions a large temperance
meeting at Natchez. A temperance convention was called at
Natchez in April of that year, to be representative of the South
west. (Handbook of Prohibition, C. B. Galloway.) In 1839, Henry
S. Foote, having been elected to the State legislature, secured the
passage of the famous "Gallon law," entitled, "An act for the sup
pression of tippling houses and to discourage and prevent the
odious vice of drunkenness." It prohibited the sale in less quanti
ties than one gallon, prohibited under penalty of fine and impris
onment the retailing of intoxicants to be drunk on the spot, the

108 MISSISSIPPI
treating of voters by candidates, and other excesses that had long-
worked to the great injury of society. He was hung in effigy in
Jackson, but the law was in force for a year or two, after which it
was repealed (1842) as "a gross infraction of popular rights."
Foote commented : "In a country like ours, where the successful
solution of the problem of self-government is confessedly depen
dent upon the intellect and virtue of the people themselves, the
strange theory of human rights which has been alluded to is cer
tainly one of a very incomprehensible character."
The literature of the early period of the State contains abundant
evidence of the prevalence of intoxication. The references to a
few public men, governors, senators and the like, as subject to in
toxication, must be understood as signifying merely a lack of self-
restraint in an almost universal habit. "There was nothing more
noticeable in the period 1830-40," says Henry S. Foote, "than the
immense quantities of intoxicating drinks consumed by those who-
dwelt in this much-favored section of the United States. Drunken
ness had, indeed, become a common vice, owing to which, and the
deplorable fact that nearly all classes of the population went habit
ually armed, the number of scenes marked with personal violence
which occurred it is really astounding to contemplate, even in rec
ollection." The revised code of 1857 required the applicant for license to
present a petition signed by a majority of the legal voters in the
municipality or supervisor's district. The legislature of 1864, as
a "war measure," made it unlawful for any person to distil spir-
itous liquor, or to establish or erect a distillery, and all laws per
mitting the sale of spiritous liquor was prohibited during the con
tinuance of the war, except as permitted in this law. The State-
government was authorized to establish two distilleries, for medi
cinal purposes, to be dispensed by two agents in each county
upon the prescription of physicians and not otherwise. This was
the first "dispensary" law in Mississippi, and under it one State
distillery was established. This was sold out in 1866.
Gov. Alcorn reported in 1871 that in 13 counties from which he-
had statistics, there were 86 dram shops in 1865, and 219 in 1870,
figures which showed "that those particular agencies for the waste
of the means of the people have increased upwards of 150 per cent."
The reconstruction legislature of 1870 had adopted a license law,
but it had yet hardly gone into effect. The revised code of 1871
provided for counter petitions to the petition contemplated in the
code of 1857, and a counter-petition with a majority of voters'
names would carry prohibition for one year. The legislature of
1871 prohibited the sale of intoxicants at various places, including
Clinton, StarkviUe and Hernando, and local prohibition by special
acts continued to be the rule during the Powers and Ames ad
ministrations. In 1874, during the Ames administration, an amendment to the
law of 1871 required the applicant to have a majority of the female-
citizens as well as male. "This provision sent dismay into the

MISSISSIPPI 109-
Tanks of the whiskey men and they stoutly resisted it. A test case
was agreed upon — Rohrbacker vs. City of Jackson — and carried
up to the supreme court for a decision upon the constitutionality
•of the law. The opinion of the court, delivered by Justice Simrall,
sustained the validity of the amendment and reaffirmed the doc
trine of legislative power to prohibit the sale altogether." (Gal
loway.) The legislature of 1876 repealed the amendment of 1874. In
1880 another amendment to the law of 1871 required the publi
cation of names of petitioners for license. In the same year the
notorious "Pint law," was enacted, which was repealed in 1882.
At this time a license fee of $200 to $1,000 was required.
After 1876 the legislature continued to enact prohibition by spec
ial laws. It was declared in 8 towns in 1878 ; in one county, 12
towns and in the neighborhood of nine churches, in 1880 ; in 49
towns, etc., in 1882 ; and in 8 counties, besides 34 towns, 10 districts
and about 18 churches and schools, in 1884. Meanwhile there was
an active prohibition movement (q. v.) and a demand for a general
local option law. Such a law was enacted, and approved March
12, 1886. This law provides that upon petition of one-tenth of the
qualified voters in any county, a county election shall be held to
determine the question of sale or no sale, the decision to be effec
tive for two years. If the majority is against sale, it works abso
lute prohibition in the county. If the majority is favorable, the
applicant for license is under strict requirements and regulations,
with heavy penalties.
Under this law elections have been held in nearly all the coun
ties of the State. In most of them the contests were very warm
and exciting, but the prohibition element has gradually gained
ground and now there are only five counties, Warren, Adams,
Harrison, Madison and Washington, in which saloons are per
mitted. By the laws of 1902 the sale of whiskey is generally forbidden,
except in cities and towns of 500 inhabitants or more, having
police protection day and night.
Lissa, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Jackson county,
near the west bank of the Pascagoula river, and about 35 miles
northwest of Pascagoula, the county seat.
Literary Fund. ' See School System.
Little, a hamlet of Amite county, situated on the east fork of the
Amite river, 8 miles southeast of Liberty, the county seat and
nearest railroad and banking town. The postoffice is now discon
tinued and mail goes to Liberty. Population in 1900, 23.
Little Leader, a noted Choctaw military chief, or captain, known
to his people as Hopeiya Isketina, was tried at the May term of
circuit court, 1837, in Kemper county, on the charge of murder in
having killed a fellow Choctaw. The case is described by Reuben
Davis, in his "Recollections," (pp. 59-62.), but the name of the
captain is given, mistakenly, as "Pushmattahaw." Davis says the
captain "had in some way "incurred the hatred of the land com-

HO MISSISSIPPI
panies organized to purchase reservations. [See Choctaw Frauds.]
It was important to them that he should be got out of the way,
and to this end they employed a number of able attorneys to aid
me in the prosecution. To avoid censure, it was determined that
there should be only one speaker." The indictment was secured,
though Davis says: "If I could have controlled this matter, this
chief should never have been prosecuted, nor so much as indicted.
His dominion as a chief was not at an end. His tribal laws were
still in force and his sovereign power unquestioned by the wild
people who willingly submitted to his rule. . . . Several tribes
had gone west to take possession of their new homes and Pushmat
tahaw [Little Leader] was preparing to follow." The Choctaws
had friends and the land speculators had enemies, and some of the
ablest lawyers in the State were engaged to defend Little Leader.
Davis was assisted in the argument by Samuel J. Gholson. Joseph
G. Baldwin was permitted to make his maiden effort also in the
prosecution, and his success was one of the interesting features
of the event. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. Upon hearing
the sentence to be hung, the captain "rose to his full height and
gave vent to a wild war-whoop, so full of rage and despair that it
was terrible to hear. As there were many Indians present, there
was for a time danger of attempted rescue." A petition for his
pardon was sent to the governor by the citizens of Kemper and
-adjoining counties, but as the day set for execution approached,
he was told by some one, "in cold-blooded and inhuman malice"
that the petition had failed. This almost succeeded in gratifying
the conspirators against him, for he broke a bottle in his cell, cut
an artery and nearly bled to death before his condition was dis
covered by the sheriff. The petition, dated December, 1837, pre
served in the Mississippi department of Archives and History, sets
forth the honorable record of Little Leader, a man sixty years of
age, of fine natural endowments and great bravery, who had been
the watchful and efficient friend of the early settlers, and one of the
first to enlist with Pushmataha in the war against the Creeks. The
pardon was granted by Governor Lynch.
Little Springs, a post-village in the southeastern part of Franklin
county, about 12 miles from Meadville, the county seat. The station
of Bogue Chitto, on the Illinois Central R. R., 18 miles due east, is,
the nearest railroad town. Population in 1900, 157.
Livingston, an early settlement of importance in Madison county,
is situated about 15 miles southwest of the present county seat,
Canton. In its early days it was the most thriving settlement in
the county, and was the second county seat. Some of the wealthy
planters of the neighborhood were B. Ricks, John Johnston, 
Hudnell, John Lowe, N. Hinton, John Robinson and John Simmons.
It was incorporated in 1836 ; other acts relating to its charter were
passed 1837 and 1848. When the county seat was transferred to
Madisonville, the old town rapidly declined, and it is now an insig
nificant settlement and postoffice. In the 50's the community
surrounding Livingston was remarkable for culture and wealth.

MISSISSIPPI HI
Some of the wealthiest planters in the South lived there and dis
pensed a lavish hospitality.
Lizelia, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Lauderdale county,
situated on Ponta creek, 13 miles from Meridian. Population in
1900, 57. It occupies the site of old Daleville, now extinct.
Loakfoma, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Winston
county, 15 miles northeast from Louisville, the county seat. Popu
lation in 1900, 48.
Lobdell, a post-hamlet in the western part of Bolivar county.
It is a station on the Riverside division of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R., 10 miles south of Rosedale, one of the county seats
of justice, and the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 52.
Lobutcha, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Attala
county, 19 miles east of Kosciusko, the county seat. Population
in 1900, 30. '
Lockhart, a post-village of Lauderdale county, on the Mobile &
Ohio R. R., 12 miles northeast of Meridian. It has a church and a
Male and Female Institute. Population in 1900, 100.
Locopolis, an important town in Tallahatchie county (q. v.)
during the 30's and 40's, but which declined and was finally aban
doned before the War of 1861-1865, owing, probably, to its bad loca
tion as a shipping point, and to the frequent inundations of the Mis
sissippi. It derived its importance from the fact that it was situ
ated on the Tallahatchie river, and was the first shipping point in
the county. It was about 10 miles west of Charleston, Dr. F. L.
Riley tells us in his sketch of the old town that in 1837, "an appro
priation of $2,000 was made to build a turnpike from that place to
Holly Grove. In 1839 a road was 'viewed out' along the township
line, and the privilege was granted to establish a ferry at Loco
polis. In 1840 the Locopolis turnpike was leased to a company of
gentlemen, who in return for their services in extending it were
'allowed to charge one dollar for the passage of a wagon or a double
carriage, fifty cents for a cart, six and one-fourth cents for a horse
back rider, and three cents each for footmen.' "
Locum, a hamlet of Union county. The postoffice at this place
was discontinued in 1905, and it now has rural free delivery from
Dumas, in Tippah county.
Locust, a post-hamlet in Tate county, about 10 miles north
west of Senatobia, its nearest banking town.
Lodi, an incorporated town in the eastern part of Montgomery
county, about 12 miles northwest of Winona. Kilmichael is the
nearest banking town, on the Southern Ry., 6 miles to the south.
Population in 1900, 29.
Loftus Expedition. "When Governor Johnstone arrived in West
Florida, there came with him a Major Loftus, who had been ap
pointed to take charge of the Illinois country. Early in 1764, that
officer sailed from Pensacola to New Orleans, and thence to Man
chac, where he joined his detachment, which had been some time
exploring that bayou." (Pickett's Alabama, II, 4).

112 MISSISSIPPI
"Major Loftus, with 400 troops of the Twenty-second regiment,
from Mobile, attempted in 1764 to ascend the Mississippi to take
possession; but on March 20th these were driven back by Tunica
Indians at Davion's bluff before they had well started, with the
loss of five killed and four wounded.'^ (Hamilton's Colonial Mo
bile.) Aubry, French commandant at New Orleans, reported at
the time : "A number of officers, with three hundred and twenty
soldiers, twenty women and seventeen children, left New Orleans
on the 27th February, under command of an officer named Loftus,
in ten boats and two pirogues. M. D'Abbadie [acting governor]
had caused the Indians to be harangued in favor of the English,
and had ordered the French commanders stationed at the several
posts on the bank of the river, to afford aid and protection to Lof
tus and his party, and had given them Beaurand as interpreter."
On March 15th, Gayarre relates, the party had reached Point
Coupee without trouble, except the desertion of 80 men. At that
place, the refuge of the old French Natchez settlers, one of the
inhabitants recognized a negro on board as his slave, a fugitive to
New Orleans, and invoked the aid of the French commandant in
recovering the slave, which Loftus denied, calling his men to
arms. As the party left the vicinity of Point Coupee, Beaurand
left them, with a warning against the Indians. "The English had
come up to Davion's bluff, when, on the 19th March, at ten o'clock
in the morning, some Indians, who were in ambuscade on both
sides of the river, fired at the two pirogues, which were recon-
noitering ahead of the bulk of the convoy, killed six men and
wounded seven. The pirogues fell back on the main body of the
English, who without firing a shot slunk back to New Orleans,
where they arrived on the 22d. The Indians who had attacked
them did not number more than thirty men, and might easily have
been repulsed. But Loftus and his party were frightened by the
bugbear of French treachery, and were under the impression that
whole Indian tribes had been instigated to lie in wait for them
on their way to Illinois." Aubry complained afterward that Loftus
accused D'Abbadie of instigating the attack, and receiving a report
of the affair from the Indian chief. "He returned to Manchac, and
despatched a captain, with twenty men to Mobile, through the
lakes, who arrived safe at that place. Major Loftus, with the
residue of his command, dropped down to the Balize, and thence
went to Pensacola." (Pickett's Alabama, II, 4.) In Colonial
Mobile Mr. _ Hamilton has collected information regarding a sec
ond expedition, under Lieut. John Ross, which was outfitted with
boats and Indian goods by Logan, Terry & Co., the English trading
house at New Orleans, the expenditure being in the neighborhood
of 5,000 pounds. Ross must have gone up river in the spring of
1765. "Up among the Chickasaws he draws for 103 pounds in
favor of the trader, John Brown, who seems to have supplied
guides from there to the Illinois, and this was in addition to the
compensation of Francis Underwood, who acted as guide and in
terpreter. Daniel Clark, Sr. makes presents of forty wampums

MISSISSIPPI 113
(costing over 57 pounds) on the way; and Logan, Terry & Co.
supply 350 pounds of goods to pay the rowers of the bateaux em
ployed by Captain Lagauterais for the public presents to the Illi
nois. . . . The result of this expensive expedition we do not
know. But it must have been exceedingly satisfactory to the
Indians at least. . . . The final occupation of the Illinois was
in the fall of 1765, and effected by the operations of Captain Stir
ling with Highlanders, who penetrated the Ohio valley from Fort
Pitt; while Major Farmer, shortly afterward, in December, took
the 34th regiment up the Mississippi to join him. The French
commandant, Saint Ange, then retired across the river to the vil
lage of St. Louis, and the English entered Fort Chartres. With
this the British occupation of the Mississippi basin was completed."
(Hamilton, and Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 457.)
Logtown, a post-village in the southwestern part of Hancock
county, situated near the east bank of the Pearl river, 3 miles north
of Pearlington, the nearest banking town, and 18 miles west of Bay
St. Louis, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, an ex
press office, lumber mills, two churches and two stores. Popula
tion in 1900, 220 ; in 1906 the population was estimated at 500.
Longbeach, a post-village of Harrison county, situated on the
Gulf of Mexico, and a station on the Louisville & Nashville R. R.,
3 miles west of Gulfport, the nearest banking town. It is sur
rounded by a fine trucking country. Population in 1900, 110;
estimated to be 800 in 1906.
Longino, Andrew Houston, governor of Mississippi from 1900 to
1904, now a resident of Jackson, was born in Lawrence county, on
May 16, 1854. His parents were John Thomas and Annie Porter
(Ramsay) Longino, who lived near Monticello. The father died
in 1855 and his remains lie buried beside those of his father and
mother in the family cemetery in Lawrence county. The mother's
demise also occurred while the subject of this sketch was "still a
small child. His early educational advantages were acquired in the
country schools of his native county, under such efficient teachers
as Charles Mikell, Miss Mildred Waller, Jack Wardlaw, Miss Mary
Burkett, W. H. Butler and W. B. Easterling. When he had com
pleted his preparatory work he matriculated at Mississippi college
at Clinton, and in 1875 was graduated at that institution. From
1876 to 1880 he was clerk of the circuit and chancery courts of Law
rence county, and in the latter year, after a special legal course in
the University of Virginia, was given a degree as a graduate of the
law department of that institution. In 1881 he was admitted to
practice in the courts of Mississippi, the license being granted by
Chancellor T. B. Graham. He pleaded his first case in the circuit
court at Columbia, Marion county. In politics Mr. Longino is
recognized as one of the leaders of the Democratic party in the
state. From 1880 to 1884 he represented Pike, Lawrence and Lin
coln counties in the upper house of the state legislature. In 1888
President Grover Cleveland appointed him United States district
attorney for the southern district of Mississippi and he served iri
8-II

114 MISSISSIPPI
that capacity for a period of two years. In 1894 he became chan
cellor and for five years was the incumbent of that office, resigning
in April, 1899. In November of that year he was elected to the
office of chief executive of the state, and served a full term of four
years. His inauguration was in January, 1900, and it was during
his incumbency of the office that the new state capitol was erected.
(See Longino's Administration.) Aside from his official positions
he has been a delegate to almost every Democratic state convention
since he attained his majority and in 1900 was the chairman of the
Mississippi delegation to the national convention of the Democratic
party at Kansas City which nominated William Jennings Bryan for
the presidency. His religious affiliations are with the Baptist
faith, and he is a deacon and Sunday school superintendent of the
First church of that denomination in Jackson. Fraternally he is
identified with the Masonic order and the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. On April 14, 1887, at Jackson, Mr. Longino married
Miss Marion Buckley, a daughter of James M. and Bethany (Craft)
Buckley of Jackson. The five children of this union are Mack
Buckley, Sylvester Gwin, James Marion, Annie Ramsay, and Gay.
Longino's Administration. Governor Longino was inaugurated
January 16, 1900. The State officers elected in 1899, to serve dur
ing his administration, were James T. Harrison, lieutenant-gover
nor; J. L. Power, secretary of state; W. Q. Cole, auditor; J. R.
Stowers, treasurer; Monroe McClurg, attorney-general; H. L.
Whitfield, superintendent of education ; E. W. Brown, clerk of
supreme court; E. H. Nail, land commissioner; Wirt Adams, reve
nue agent; J. D. Mclnnis, A. Q. May and J. C. Kincannon, railroad
commissioners. In his inaugural address the governor urged the building of a
new State House, aid of the State Historical Society, establishment
of a textile school at the Agricultural and Mechanical college,
laws to prevent mobs and lynchings, employment of all convicts
on the State farms, improvement of roads under a road commis
sioner in each county, a general primary election law, reform of
school law to make distribution of fund depend upon actual school
attendance, and he argued against the proposed policy of making
a race distinction in the matter of school support. Regarding cor
poration legislation, he expressed a hope that "no more senti
mental or prejudiced opposition to railroads or other corporate
enterprises will find favor with the legislature, so that capital
hunting investment will have no just cause to pass Mississippi and
go to other States offering legitimate inducements."
The year 1900 was memorable for financial legislation. Gover
nor Longino said, in his message of 1902 : "The legislature of two
years ago seems to have marked the parting of the ways between
an old and a new sentiment of governmental liberality. Your
honorable body at that session was liberal above all your predeces
sors, for many years at least, in the appropriation of funds for the
assistance and maintenance of the State institutions and the proper
objects of State aid. It has been gratifying to note also that the

MISSISSIPPI 115
spirit of progress and liberality manifested by you has been hearti
ly appreciated by the people, who have come to know of a cer
tainty that tax money, when judiciously expended for the comfort,
education and general benefit of the masses, is not extravagance,
but a safe and becoming investment by the State." (See Finances.)
By the same legislature the building of a new State house was
ordered, at a cost of $1,000,000; and the purchase of a Delta farm
for the penitentiary, at a cost of $80,000. The State treasury was
aided by the appropriation of over half a million dollars, the pro
ceeds of lands donated by congress, to the colleges, and a portion
of the million dollars back taxes collected from the railroad com
panies. (See Back Tax.) Hence the building of the new capitol
was carried on without issuing $1,000,000 4-per cent, bonds, as
authorized. But in this transaction the State acquired a debt of
$575,000, drawing six per cent, interest "in perpetuity." (See Fi
nances.) An amendment to the constitution, supposed to have been
adopted at the general election in 1899, was inserted in the con
stitution, making the judges of the supreme, circuit and chancery
courts elective by the voters of the several districts, but the
supreme court May 30, 1900, held that it was not constitutionally
adopted. (See Judiciary.) At the congressional election in 1900
two amendments to the constitution were adopted, one strictly
devoting the poll tax to the school funds of the counties (See Com
mon School Fund), and the other doing away with a State census
and providing a new basis of apportionment for the legislature.
(q. v.) Early in 1901 the disputes among the oyster fishermen
on the coast led to the appointment of a boundary commission by
the governor. (See Boundaries.) August 15, 1901, Governor
Longino made a sudden demand upon the State treasurer for a
count of the cash on hand. When it was made, the same day, a
shortage of $107,000 was discovered, which it was understood was
loaned to a foreign bank, contrary to law. The money was returned
to the treasury, but after a correspondence' between the governor
and treasurer (for which see message of 1902), the treasurer was
suspended August 28, and he resigned September 6. This trans
action led to the indictment of the treasurer, F. T. Raiford, the
cashier, and Phil A. Rush, a banker of Senatobia, who was tried,
and after a mistrial, was acquitted. As Stowers' successor, the gov
ernor appointed G. W. Carlisle. A few days later, J. L. Power,
secretary of state, died, and his son, J. W. Power, was appointed
to fill the vacancy. November 5, there was a special election to
fill these offices, at which J. W. Power received 12,335 votes to
about 11,000 for other candidates, and Mr. Carlisle 13,107 votes to
9,770 for M. M. Evans. In the previous year a special election
had been held to fill various vacancies in office, at which the vote
was even less, practically amounting to a disregard of the franchise
privilege. The total vote for presidential electors in 1900 was only
59,000. In concluding his message of 1902 Governor Longino
said : "It gives me pleasure to say that it is manifest in the State

116 MISSISSIPPI
that there exists a better recognition of the mutuality of interests
among all classes, and that there is a more fraternal feeling among
the people generally than I remember to have ever before wit
nessed. There exists also absolute friendliness between labor and
capital and a becoming liberality of sentiment by the masses to
ward corporate and other investments of money in our midst.
The progressive spirit displayed by your honorable body at the
session in 1900 seems to have inspired the people with new hopes
and to have given fresh impetus to all manner of business enter
prises in the State. For the past two years the capital incorporated,
on which the required charter fees were paid, amounts to the
handsome sum of $26,500,000. Banking capital during said period
has increased about $6,000,000 ; ten or a dozen mills for the man
ufacture of cotton have been built; twelve railroad charters have
been granted ; and, as shown by the Railroad Gazette at the close
of the year 1900, Mississippi stood fourth on the list of States in
the number of miles of railroads built during that year. ... I
feel that the legislature and the people are to be congratulated
upon the material advancement going on in the State and the au
spicious signs for even greater success in the future."
The burning of the Deaf and Dumb asylum, March 17, 1902, led
to the building on new grounds of a new building, completed in
1905. The legislature of 1902 created two new departments of
State administration, of Insurance, and Archives and History,
which are the subjects of special articles in this work. Upon the
resignation of Treasurer Carlisle, Tbad B. Lampton was appointed
November 1, 1902. Attorney-General McClurg resigned Febru
ary 4, 1903, and William Williams, his assistant, was appointed
by the governor to fill the vacancy. He .was succeeded as assist
ant, by James N. Flowers.
June 3, 1903, is memorable as the date of the corner-stone lay
ing, or dedication, of the new Capitol, a magnificent structure then
completed. (See Capitol, new.)
At the congressional election in 1902 three amendments to the
constitution were submitted to popular vote. The first limited and
regulated the voting of aid to railroads and other enterprises ; the
second provided that when amendments are submitted to popular
vote a majority of the voters for or against the amendment shall
be sufficient to adopt ; the third changed the beginning of ses
sions of the legislature to the first Tuesday after the first Monday
of January. None of the amendments received a majority of the
votes cast at the election.
The Primary election law of 1902 (q. v.) had its first trial in
1903. There was a primary election August 6, under the manage
ment of the Democratic executive committee, for the nomination
of a Democratic State ticket, including United States senator. It
resulted in a choice of candidates for all offices except that of
governor, for which James K. Vardaman received 39,679 votes,
F. A. Critz 34,813, and E. F. Noel 24,223, and railroad commis
sioners for the first and second districts, for which latter offices

MISSISSIPPI 117
the vote was very light. A second primary election was held
August 2?, the two candidates having the highest votes being the
only candidates permitted in each case, and the vote for governor
was, Vardaman 53,032 ; Critz 46,249. R. L. Bradley was success
ful over J. D. Mclnnis, and S. D. McNair over F. M. Sheppard,
for railroad commissioners. Unsuccessful candidates who received
large votes at the first primary were W. G. Kiger for lieutenant-
governor, F. M. Runnels for secretary of state, J. W. Maxwell for
auditor, J. H. Sharp for treasurer, G. C. Myers for clerk supreme
court, L. Brame for attorney-general, W. G. Stovall, railroad com
missioner. For list of successful candidates see Vardaman's Adm.
The ticket thus nominated was elected without opposition at the
regular election in November, the vote cast for governor being
32,000. Under the Primary Election law no opposing candidates
could be put upon the ticket unless nominated at regular primaries.
E. W. Brown, clerk of the supreme court, died September 18,
1903, and the governor appointed George C. Myers to the vacancy.
At the regular election in November Mr. Myers, as a candidate,
was opposed by W. J.. Brown, Jr., J. O. Walton, J. W. Brady, A.
C. Fant and Henry Yerger. There was no majority, and in 1904
the house of representatives elected Mr/ Myers.
In his last message (1904) Governor Longino said, "Encouraged
by liberal laws and tempted by the unequalled opportunities for
profitable investment, capital has poured into the State by the
millions and given to Mississippi an industrial, manufacturing and
commercial importance and thrift, never before enjoyed by our
people." The statistics collected by Secretary Power showed that
in the four years 1896-99, 365 charters were granted and recorded,
and in the period 1900-03 the number was 1,312. These enter
prises were capitalized at $25,644,000 in the first period, at $73,-
500,000 in the second. The bulk of investment, as indicated by
the charters, was in mercantile companies, lumber manufacturing,
oil mills, electric companies and banks. The valuation of prop
erty for taxation had been increased to $250,000,000, an addition
of about $100,000,000 to the valuation that prevailed from 1870 to
1890, and later. In the four years of the administration 733 miles
of new railroad had been built, and 400 more were under construc
tion. In the same time the expenditures of the State government
had risen to an average of about $2,500,000 annually, and educa
tion both in the common schools and colleges was supported with
a liberality before unknown.
Long's Expedition. James Long, a native of Culpepper county,
Virginia, in his boyhood left home for Kentucky, and thence trav
elled into Tennessee. He made a mercantile venture at the age
of 15, but having failed, clerked two years in his father's store,
and studied medicine under Dr. Holland, of Tennessee. He was a
great favorite with Gen. Andrew Jackson, and at the age of 20
was attached to the medical staff of Carroll's brigade, in the New
Orleans campaign. After the victory of January, 1815, he accom
panied Generals Carroll and Coffee to Natchez, and while in at-

118 * MISSISSIPPI
tendance upon an invalid soldier at the home of a Mr. Calvitt, met
Jane Wilkinson, the fourteen year old niece of Gen. James Wilkin
son. They were married in May. Subsequently he practiced
medicine a while at Port Gibson, until, at the solicitation of his
wife, he bought a plantation near Walnut Hills. From that he
turned to the business of a merchant at Vicksburg, which occupied
him two years before 1819.
There was a public meeting at Natchez in that year, in support
of an expedition against the Spanish authorities in Texas, which
Gen. Adair was expected to lead. When Adair declined, Dr. Long
was invited to take the command. He accepted with enthusiasm,
pledged all he had to the enterprise, and many choice spirits joined
with him, among them Henry S. Foote. Long and about 75 men
left Natchez, June 17, 1819, and pushed on to Nacogdoches, where,
soon after their arrival, the force was increased to 300 men. The
purpose of the movement, on the part of the leaders and the best
element, was to get possession of Texas and open it to settlement
from the United States. A government was organized, with Long
as president, and a supreme council, of which 11 members were
chosen : Horatio Bigelow, Hamlin Cook, W. W. Walker, Stephen
Barker, John Sibley, S. Davenport, John G. Burnet, Joshua Child,
and two Mexicans, Procello and Guitaris. Texas was declared an
independent republic and laws were enacted. Long made a trip
to Galveston to enlist the aid of LaFitte, the ruler of that port,
and armed parties were sent out to various places, and in their
absence, the remaining revolutionists were stampeded from Nacog
doches by news of the approach of Spanish troops. There was a
desperate flight to the Sabine, with the Spaniards in hot pursuit.
A number of the party were killed, among them David Cook,
brother of the general. Long's wife, after a journey of great hard
ship, joined him in Texas just in time to join in the flight. Long
collected the remnant at Point Bolivar, went to New Orleans, re
turned to Galveston with reinforcements, and took possession of
Goliad, after which he was notified of the success of the Mexican
revolution (1821) under Iturbide. He was invited to the capital,
and treated with distinction, but soon fell under suspicion, and
was assassinated. (Foote's Texas and the Texans.)
Longstreet, Augustus B., was born in Augusta, Ga., Sept. 22,
1790, a descendant of Dirk Langestraat, a Dutch settler of Long
Island ; graduated at Yale college in 1813 ; was admitted to the
bar in 1815 ; married Frances Eliza Parker, of North Carolina,
about 1815 ; was a member of the Georgia legislature- in 1821 ; was
made judge of the circuit court in 1822; became a Methodist
preacher in 1838 ; was pastor of the Methodist church at Augusta
in 1839; president of Emory College, 1839-48. "Called to preside
over the Centenary College, of Louisiana, he accepted the call,
but remained there only five months, when, finding the field
wholly unsuited to his views, he resigned and returned to Geor
gia. Hardly had he arrived in the state when he received the in
formation, from official and private sources, nearly all at the same

MISSISSIPPI 119
time, that he had been elected unanimously to the presidency of
the University of Mississippi, not having been a candidate for the
office. Here his career was eminently successful. Entering upon
the duties of his office in September, 1849, he gave his best serv
ices to the institution, and in the unparalleled prosperity of the
University during the seven years of his incumbency, he reaped
the truest, richest and most gratifying reward for all his unweary
ing and faithful toils. . . . He tendered his resignation of the
office of president in July, 1856, and retired to a residence distant
some twelve miles from Oxford, where he proposed to spend the
evening of his days in tranquil retirement. In this, however, he
was destined to be disappointed, as on the 25th of November, 1857,
he was elected president of the South Carolina College, and after
two years spent there, was compelled to abandon the office and
retire to private life by the revulsion of public affairs, consequent
upon the breaking out of the Civil War. After the close of the
strife he returned to Oxford, and ended his days in the midst of
his family and his many friends on the 9th of July, 1870." (Me
morial by John N. Waddel.) His famous book of character
sketches, "Georgia Scenes," was begun when he was a judge. In
that period also, he was an ardent politician of the State Rights
school. (See Lamar, L. Q. C.)
Longtown, a post-village in the northwestern part of Panola
county, 12 miles west of Como depot, on the Illinois Central R. R.,
and 16 miles northwest of Sardis, the county seat of justice. It has
two churches and a high school. Population in 1900, 175.
Longview, a post-hamlet in the central part of Oktibbeha county,
on the Aberdeen division of the Illinois Central R. R., 7 miles by
rail southwest of StarkviUe, the county seat and the nearest bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 40.
Longwood, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Washington
county, 1 mile from the Mississippi river, and a station on the
Riverside division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 18
miles south of Greenville. Population in 1900, 30; estimated in
1906 to be 100.
Lonoke, a postoffice of Benton county, 10 miles southwest of
Ashland, the county seat.
Looxahoma, a post-hamlet of Tate county, 8 miles east of Sena-
tobia, the county seat, and the nearest railroad and banking town.
It has two churches, several stores, a gin and a good school. Popu
lation in 1900, 87.
Lopez. See Quitman and Quitman's Adm. In 1848 Lopez was
executed by garrote in Cuba, and with him Clement Stanford, a
daring young enthusiast from Natchez.
Lorena, a post-hamlet of Smith county, 12 miles south of Forest,
on the A. & V. R. R., the nearest railroad and banking town, and
12 miles north of Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 100.
. Lorenzen, a post-hamlet of Sharkey county, situated on Indian
Bayou, 3 miles west of Rolling Fork, the county seat, and nearest

120 • MISSISSIPPI
railroad and banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Popu
lation in 1906, 76.
Loring, a postoffice of Madison county, about 14 miles northeast
of Canton, the county seat.
Loring, Israel, was born in Sunbury, Mass. ; moved to Marietta,,
Ohio, in 1787; was a commissary in Gen. Wayne's army; moved
to Claiborne county, Miss., 1803, and built the first frame house
in Port Gibson; was third grand-master of Masons in the State;
died at Port Hudson, June 18, 1843.
Lorman, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Jefferson county,
and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 9 miles
(direct) north of Fayette, the county seat, and the nearest banking
town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 82.
Lorraine, .a post-hamlet in the southern part of Harrison county,
situated on the Biloxi river, 8 miles north of Gulfport, the county
seat. Population in 1900, 60.
Lotteries were frequently authorized in the early days of Mis
sissippi. The latest instance was legislation in the administration
of Governor Humphreys, in aid of the Southern asylum, the Nat
chez orphan asylum, the Lunatic asylum and Orphans home.
"The Mississippi Agricultural, Educational and Manufacturing
Aid Society" was incorporated for the purpose "of encouraging
manufactures and agriculture and to aid in raising a fund to edu
cate destitute orphans," etc., and authorized to run a lottery at
Vicksburg and other points, after paying $5,000 for the benefit of
the State university.
The constitution of 1869 prohibited the legislature from author
izing any lottery, or allowing the sale of lottery tickets, "nor shall
any lottery heretofore authorized be permitted to be drawn or
tickets therein to be sold." The prohibition is continued by the
constitution of 1890.
Lottville, a post-hamlet of Madison county, 12 miles east of
Canton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 22.
Lotus, a postoffice in the extreme southeastern part of Sunflower
county, situated on Great Sky Lake, about 15 miles southeast of
Indianola, the county seat.
Louin, an incorporated post-hamlet in the western part of
Jasper county, 16 miles from Paulding, the county seat, and 4 miles
southwest of the station of Montrose, on the Mobile, Jackson &
Kansas City R. R. It has good general stores, a saw mill, a shingle
mill, a church, a good school and a bank. The Bank of Louin was
established in 1906. Population in 1900, 25; the population in
1906 was 300.
Louis Phillippe. This Bourbon prince and his party were at
Natchez in the early part of the year 1798, when the town was
under two flags, and viewed with melancholy interest the remains
of old Fort Rosalie. The duke of Orleans was attended by his
brothers, and the Marquis de Mountjoy, and was on his way to
New Orleans, to take shipand sail under armed convoy for Spain,
where they would join their mother who had taken refuge in that

MISSISSIPPI 121
country. Concerning them, Gen. Wilkinson wrote to Capt. Guion,
-January 10, commanding the United States battalion, "When you
receive this letter you will probably see the future king of France.
The duke of Orleans is popular and a soldier. Fulfill your orders
respecting foreigners, and treat these wanderers, who are friendly,
with hospitality and respect." (See Constitution, 1832.)
Louisiana Purchase Exposition. An act of 1902 appropriated
$50,000 for "a suitable display of Mississippi's progress and his
tory, and the industrial, agricultural, mineral, educational and
other resources of the State," at the centennial exposition to be
held at St. Louis in 1903. The Exposition bureau was created,
composed of the governor, and four members appointed by the
governor — Dr. O. B. Quin of McComb City, I. C. Enochs of Jack
son, V. P. Still of Senatobia, and Frank Burkitt of Okolona. The
board appointed as State commissioner R. H. Henry, of Jackson.
The Commission provided a creditable exhibit, which properly
presented the resources of the State. A State building was also
erected, which was a replica of Beauvoir, the home of Jefferson
Davis. Louisiana Relations, 1763-79. The region of the State of Mis
sissippi was separated from the Louisiana colonial government by
the treaty of Paris, 1763, which yielded the dominion to Great
Britain of all the territory east of the river, except New Orleans
and the island on which it stands. Kerlerec was governor at that
time. He had been notified as early as the fall of 1761 that France
had applied to Spain for assistance in protecting Louisiana from
the English, and he sent out couriers to the Indians to advise them
of the prospect of Spanish alliance and trade. Spain seemed in
disposed to give assistance without compensation, and finally,
November 3, 1762, thes king of France "ceded to his cousin of
Spain, and to his successors, for ever, in full ownership and with
out any exception or reservation whatever, from the pure impulse
of his generous heart, and from the sense of the affection and
friendship existing between these two royal persons all the coun
try known under the name of Louisiana." The King of Spain ac
cepted this donation, "in order the better to cement the union
which existed between the two nations as between the two kings."
This conveyed to Spain Mobile and all the territory of the present
state of Mississippi. But the act was kept secret, and the king
of France continued to act as sovereign of Louisiana, until after
the open treaty of Paris, between all the powers at war, when the
cession of the eastward region was made, as above stated, by
France, without any reference to the previous secret family treaty.
This was in February. In March, the king of France announced
that he had determined to disband his troops in Louisiana and
maintain only a factory (trading establishment) with a -guard of
four companies of infantry. D'Abbadie was sent to New Orleans
as director of the factory and military commander. Kerlerec re
turned to Paris and was thrown in the Bastile on charges of
usurpation and extravagance. D'Abbadie informed his government

122 MISSISSIPPI
that the colony was in "a state of complete destitution," "a chaos
of iniquities." This was the result, after an expenditure estimated
at forty or fifty millions of livres.
April 21, 1764, the king, by letter, informed D'Abbadie of the
secret cession to Spain, and- ordered him, when Spanish authority
presented itself, to withdraw all the French officers, soldiers and
officials, and send to France or to French colonies those who might
not be disposed to remain under Spanish dominion. D'Abbadie
published this letter in October. February 4, 1765, D'Abbadie
died and Aubry became his successor. In that year the colony was
greatly strengthened by the advent of the refugees from the Illi
nois and Mobile regions and the Acadians.
Despite the withdrawal of their flag, the French government had
great influence over the Indians of the interior. The English
blamed them with inciting the red men to hostilities, and the French
retorted with denials, alleging that the British treated the In
dians with such insolence and brutality that hostilitie's were in
evitable. Subsequent to the peace of 1763, the Indians of the Ohio valley
made a fierce outbreak against the English, led by the famous Pon-
tiac, but "even Pontiac made a peace after his ambassadors to
New Orleans learned from the dying D'Addabie that their French
father had indeed abandoned his red children in America." (Ham
ilton.) At New Orleans "the French saw with distrust the frequent
transportation of English troops, through the very heart of the
poor remnant of their once so extensive and magnificent posses
sions. They heard with uneasiness the morning and evening guns
which the English fired as they went up and down the river. This
gun firing greatly alarmed and excited the Indians, who took it
as a sign of hostility or triumph. They could hardly be persuaded
that it was no more than a military usage, and they had imbibed
the impression that the French admitted their inferiority, or
showed cowardice, in not resenting this provocation offered to
them. ... A frigate was sent to the mouth of the Manchac,
where she was to remain until a fort should be constructed. It
was also known that another frigate was to ascend to Natchez,
where the erection of a fort was contemplated." — (Gayarre.)
Aubry had no battery on the river, but he ranged 20 pieces of
artillery before the barracks, with which to return salutes. He
permitted Du Pare to help the British clean out the Manchac chan
nel, but he refused Farmer and his Illinois expedition, in the spring
of 1765, the use of the ordinary passage from Mobile to New Or
leans, through the lakes and Bayou St. John. "He has the river;
let him use it."
The French of Louisiana sent Jean Milhet to Paris, and he, ac
companied by the great Bienville, then in his 86th year, pleaded
before the duke of Choiseul that France should retain Louisiana.
It was in vain. July, 1765, brought word that the eminent An
tonio de Ulloa, appointed governor by the king of Spain, had

MISSISSIPPI 123
reached Havana, and would soon be at New Orleans. He arrived
March 5, 1766, with two companies of infantry, under Captain
Pedro Piernas, and a board of officials, Loyola, Gayarre, and
Navarro. The French were still indisposed to submit. Ulloa did not in
sist, gave some time to establishing posts on the frontier, allowed
Aubry to continue to be the practical head of affairs, and secluded
himself for months at Balize, greatly to the bewilderment of the
French, until a ship brought there as the governor's bride the
young and beautiful Marchioness of Abrado, one of the richest
heiresses of Peru.
In 1768 Ulloa established military posts opposite those of the
British, at Manchac and Natchez, at Balize, and at "Missouri."
Piernas commanded at the Natchez post. Aubry complained of
this to the French government. In October the French dissatis
faction broke out in revolt. New Orleans was seized, and Ulloa
was forced to take refuge in the Spanish frigate. The provincial
council dismissed Ulloa from the colony. In preparing for this
revolt envoys were sent to Pensacola to engage British assistance,
which was refused.
The Spanish government, when informed of the revolution, dis
cussed the question whether it was advisable to attempt to hold
the province. Possibly the counsel of Aranda was the shrewdest
given to the king, namely, that it was necessary for the protection
of Mexico, because there were no established limits between Louis
iana and Mexico, and if any power other than France should sub
sequently obtain control beyond the Mississippi, serious conse
quences would result. He would not attempt more than a military
establishment, to maintain the river frontier, and depend upon
setting the Indians against the English to keep the latter at bay.
Consequently Lieutenant-General O'Reilly, an Irishman and
one of the great soldiers of his time, was ordered to reduce the
French to subjection. He arrived from Havana with a fleet and
army July 24, 1769. The French peaceably submitted, but the
leaders were promptly arrested. Six were sent to Moro castle, and
five were sentenced to hanging and permitted to be shot.
When O'Reilly reported the condition of the province he wrote :
"I found the British in complete possession of the commerce of
the colony. They had in the town their merchants and traders
with open stores and shops, and I can safely assert that they pock
eted nine-tenths of the money spent here. The commerce of
France used to receive the productions of the colony in payment
of the articles imported into it from the mother country; but the
English, selling their goods much cheaper, had the gathering of
all the money. I drove off all the English traders and the other
individuals of that nation whom I found in this town, and I shall
admit here none of their vessels." (Report, Oct. 17, 1769.) But
it was not long after this that Oliver Pollock, bringing a cargo of
flour from Baltmore, by an act of generosity won permission of
free access as long as he lived.

124 MISSISSIPPI
Later, it appears that the Spanish authorities made no serious
attempt to prevent the French inhabitants from trading with the
British. The latter had perfect freedom of access, to the river,
which their vessels were constantly ploughing upon and down.
"Under the pretence of going to their possessions of Manchac,
Baton Rouge and Natchez, the English contrived clandestinely to
supply the inhabitants of New Orleans and the planters above and
below that town with goods and slaves. They took in exchange
whatever their customers had to spare, and extended to them a
most liberal credit. Besides, they had very large warehouses at
Manchac, Baton Rouge and Natchez, and a number of vessels
constantly moored a short distance above New Orleans, opposite
to the spot now known as the city of Lafayette. To these places
the inhabitants of Louisiana used to resort." (Martin and Gay
arre.) There were also two vessels fitted up as stores, with shelves
and counters, which went up and down the river, bringing the con
veniences of the city to every planter's door. In this way, the
English made the province of Louisiana worthless to Spain, ex
cept as a military frontier.
In 1776, Don Bernardo de Galvez, son of the viceroy of Mexico,
was made colonel of the regiment of Louisiana, a favored organiza
tion of French Creoles. It was the year of the American declara
tion of independence, and a number of merchants trading at New
Orleans from Boston, New York and Philadelphia, among them
Oliver Pollock, procured a good supply of arms and ammunition
for the inhabitants of western Pennsylvania, which they delivered
to Col. Gibson, who had come down the river from Pittsburg.
(Gayarre.) This served as a check to the West Florida campaign
projected by John Stuart. The Spanish authorities connived at
this breach of neutrality, having confidential relations with the
commercial agents.
Early in 1776 Gov. Unzage, at New Orleans, was asked to report
his war resources. He said he would be practically helpless if
attacked, and must retreat to the Mexican frontier. But he sent
Bartholomew Beauregard to Philadelphia to get at the truth of
the situation. Upon the transfer of Unzaga to Carracas, Col. Gal
vez became provisional governor Feb. 1, 1777, arid within a few
days two French commissioners arrived, to carry out an agreement
of the home governments that Louisiana should be permitted to
trade with the French West Indies. Consequently, under Galvez,
the English trade supremacy was dethroned, and the French be
came the commercial masters. In April, 1777, the commissioners
reported .that Galvez had seized 11 English vessels, richly laden,
which were trading with the planters on the river. To help the
situation, the king of Spain offered to take all the tobacco the col
onists could raise, at a liberal price, and all restrictions were re
moved from the importation of negroes.
t Galvez received several orders to give the American colonies
secret assistance, and this was communicated to the revolutionary
government. Boats came down in 1777 from Pittsburg to New

MISSISSIPPI 125
Orleans for loads of army munitions, Pollock acting as agent in
charge of this business.
Col. George Morgan, in command at Fort Pitt (Pittsburg, Pa.)
writing to Galvez in April, 1777, proposed that if his excellency
approved, an expedition might be organized of a thousand men,
to capture Mobile and Pensacola. This was not, however, agree
able to Galvez, and he set about the building of gunboats to close
the river against such a torrent of revolution. He might have
feared the effect upon the French, who were not indisposed to fol
low the American example, as their friends at home did, a few
years later. Galvez also reported that he had secured the pledges
of the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Creeks to remain neutral be
tween the English and Americans and prevent the Americans
from crossing their territory to invade the Florida posts. What
ever he did served to defeat the plan of Stuart. Some negotiations
relative to Natchez district are to be suspected from the Madrid
advice to Galvez that if the Americans seized any British settle
ments on the Mississippi, and were disposed to deliver them up
to Spain, in trust, Galvez should receive and hold them, with due
regard to British interests.
It was in this condition of affairs that James Willing made his
second expedition, and by the depredations of his troops caused
acts of hostility, and drove a good many planters across the Mis
sissippi to seek Spanish protection, thereby giving some encour
agement to the plan of using the troubles of the revolution as a
pretext to regain eastern Louisiana and all Florida. "The Span
iards here see with regret these conquests," the French commis
sioners wrote, "because it cuts off their hope of executing them on
their account, and of thereby securing for themselves the exclu
sive possession of the gulf of Mexico." They added, revealing the
hope of France, "It is the interest of Spain that France should
recover the possession of Louisiana." The idea was to restore the
old condition, before 1763. Spain would willingly relinquish Louis
iana to France. Her desire was Pensacola and East Florida, assur
ing command of the gulf, to protect Cuba and Mexico.
In July, 1778, the British flag had not been seen on the Missis
sippi river for three months, except at the masthead of the frigate
on guard at Manchac.
Early in this year France had recognized American independ
ence, and thereupon sought the aid of Spain. Great Britain used
her influence to prevent such a combination, and Madrid became
the seat of a great diplomatic contest. There was actually no
doubt of the disposition of Spain, but the eminent minister of
Charles II, Florida Blanca, kept the situation open as long as pos
sible. It followed that in 1778-79 the position of Spain was of
commanding importance. France was in a perilous situation,
overwhelmed by debt and- suffering from the destruction of her
commerce. "Spain offered herself as mediator between the allies
and their common enemy, and through her the terms of pacifica
tion wefe discussed. In the negotiations, protracted and on both

126 MISSISSIPPI
sides largely insincere, between Spain and Great Britain relative
to the proposed pacification, the winter of 1778-79 was consumed."
—(Wharton.) The propositions of Florida Blanca were rejected by England,
probably as was expected When they were framed. Meanwhile
the great Spaniard had negotiated all round the world in support
of a war on England. Holland and Denmark were conciliated by
trade concessions and their anger at English aggression fomented,
Catherine of Russia was encouraged in the policy of armed neu
trality, a peace was promoted between Austria and Prussia in
order, to relieve France, an understanding was reached in India
with Hyder Ali, Portugal and the Barbary powers were bound
with treaties. Then, in June, 1779, with the earnest expression of
indignation at the scornful treatment of her plans for peace, and
protestations against English encroachments on Spanish com
merce and territory, Spain declared war on England, hoping to
regain Gibraltar and Florida, the keys of the two great inland
seas. The Spanish Conquest followed, and this region again came
under the sway of Louisiana.
Louisiana Relations, 1798-1803. In the early part of 1798 Win
throp Sargent, secretary and acting governor of the Northwest
Territory, was engaged in suppressing an uprising of disaffected
spirits under the French flag in the Illinois country, so impairing
his health that he was really unfit to assume the government of
the Mississippi territory. He was embarrassed after coming to
Natchez by the presence of some of the Northwestern French
sympathizers, while he was organizing militia under rumors of a
French hostile fleet off the Balize. Mississippi territory was ex
pected to be the theatre of war, as Louisiana would undoubtedly be
involved. Congress called for troops, on account of the relations
with France. Gov. Sargent wrote to Andrew Ellicott, September
10, 1798 : "I cannot close without congratulating you that the old
and illustrious commander of our armies has again resumed the
sword, and his example has been followed by a whole train of
worthies — Knox, Pinckney and Hand, major-generals; Hamilton,
inspector, and a whole host of brigadiers. Military ardour beats
high, and the whole American world are in arms. The president
is authorized to banish aliens, as he shall think proper, and I have
seen the skeleton of a pretty comfortable sedition bill, which has
since passed the house."
At the same time the governor informed the secretary of state
that the opinion was prevalent at Natchez that Louisiana would
be acquired by the French, and that the Creoles, who would fight
for such a government, could raise an army of 2,500. "The In
dians (now I fear wavering), would be induced to join them, and
in the aggregate constitute an enemy by no means contemptible
to the United States." He advised the organizing of volunteers
in the west to prevent the possession of Louisiana by the French,
with provision for "early arrangement and sudden execution."

MISSISSIPPI 127
Early in 1799 an address was sent to the government pledging
the loyalty of Natchez district in the expected war with France.
But the relations with Louisiana were peaceful. There were com
munications between- the governors regarding the passage of
fugitives from justice and deserters across the line, and the chronic
war of the Choctaws and Chickasaws with the Osage Indians west
of the Mississippi gave some annoyance, but the only serious
apprehension of a revival of old troubles was when the Spanish
governor, Marquis de Casa Calvo, began negotiations with the
Choctaws in 1799. It appeared that the Spanish were sending
out presents lavishly, were sour about the loss of trade, and were
inviting the Choctaws to a council without regard to the terri
torial limits. The object seemed to be peaceful, however, and was
doubtless connected with the business of William Panton, the
main spring of a great part of Spanish policy. William Augustus
Bowles was loose again on the Florida coast, in the bay of Apa-
lachee, and the military preparation that alarmed Gov. Sargent
was for a naval expedition to capture again that perennial thorn
in the flesh of Panton and the Spanish government. On reaching
Pensacola later the expedition was blockaded by privateers, but
Bowles was finally captured and lodged in Moro castle. Sargent
feared that the Choctaws would be armed by the Spanish and
enabled to express by hostilities their dissatisfaction at the slow
ness of the United, States in fulfilling promises, but there was no
disturbance of the peace. The Spanish government seems to have
acted in good faith in regard to the threatened obstruction by the
Choctaws of the Ellicott survey.
In the treaty of San Lorenzo it was agreed that the United
States should have a place at New Orleans for depositing goods
for export, from which they could be loaded on ocean going ships.
The right of deposit at New Orleans was to run three years,
from the ratification of the treaty (1796), when the king had the
option to extend it or designate some other place. (See Treaty of
San Lorenzo.) The language was somewhat ambiguous. Spain
did not recognize the treaty as in force until 1798, and in the fol
lowing year the intendant of Louisiana, Juan Morales, considering
the three years as expired, issued an order prohibiting the use
of a depot at New Orleans, and naming no other place. This
aroused great indignation throughout the west, to which the gen
eral government responded. War with France then seemed in
evitable, and the raising of an army was authorized by Congress,
to be commanded by Gen. Washington. Daniel Clark, Jr., of New
Orleans, was at Natchez in October, 1799, on his way to the cap
ital to give the government information regarding the Morales
order. Gen. Wilkinson, a little while before this order was made,
took boat at New Orleans, after visiting Gov. Gayoso and Intend
ant Morales. The latter reported to his government that in
"moments of effusion," "moments when the individuals of that
nation are in the habit of opening their hearts," (to arrive at which
moments, it appears, Gayoso sacrificed his life. — Gayarre, III, 403,

128 MISSISSIPPI
405), the General said he would see the president and return with
full authority to help the Spanish against England, provided Spain
did not declare war against the United States. Monette (Vol. I,
543) says that under the appearance of war with France, the
United States was at this time preparing to "redress the wrongs
upon American rights and commerce on the Mississippi, which
were more pressing than those from France on the ocean." In
the Wilkinson papers, says Edward Everett Hale, who looked over
them before they were burned, was a full account of "the proposal
of John Adams, when he was president, to move an army from
Cincinnati down the river and take New Orleans. The army was
to be under the care of General Hamilton." (M. H. S., IV, 284.)
If Adams had done this, he would have had a second term, Sar
gent also, perhaps. Intendant Lopez y Angullo, who took office
January 1, 1800, made concessions, and commerce was revived. In
the fall of the same year Spain secretly ceded Louisiana to Napo
leon, by the Treaty of San Ildephonso. The secret treaty was con
firmed by the treaty of Madrid, March 21, 1801, which, though its
terms were kept secret, was known in Paris and London and com
municated by Rufus King to the United States government within
a few weeks. It soon became known also, as a rumor, on the
Mississippi, for Judge Lewis wrote to Gov. Claiborne, then at
Nashville, September 3 : "It seems to be confirmed that Spain
has actually agreed to give up Louisiana to France." Claiborne
commented, "I know not what grounds there are for this report,
but it has prevailed in this State (Tennessee) for several months
and obtained general belief."
It was a saying of Montesquieu that "it is happy for trading
powers that God has permitted Turks and Spaniards to be in the
world, since of all nations they are the most proper to possess a
great empire with insignificance." That the French should again
come into possession of the western empire the United States
could not permit. Consequently the rumors of cession were a
presage of war, and this occupied the mind of Gov. Claiborne dur
ing his administration, explaining in part his activity in regard to
the militia. The diplomatic negotiations in regard to the cession
were begun by the United States before Gov. Claiborne arrived at
Natchez, along the line of policy of preventing the transfer or
obtaining New Orleans and the Floridas as the price of agreement
to it. But the Spanish government continued at New Orleans, and
there was no disturbance in relations with Mississippi until by
proclamation of October 16, 1802, Morales again suspended the
right of deposit. The government was at this time, and probably
had been for some time, worse than that of Turkey, as the French
commissioner observed. Bribes were necessary to do business
with all departments. Morales claimed that suspension of the
right of deposit was necessary because the Americans could de-.
posit their goods "without paying anything else than storage."
Morales also maintained, when the Spanish minister implored him
to rescind his order, that he alone was responsible, and the gov-

MISSISSIPPI 129
ernor had opposed his measure. The proclamation was very
injurious to New Orleans, almost producing a -famine by stopping
the shipment of flour and other western produce, and aroused a
storm of protest in the west, including another revival of threats
by the restless to secede from the Union.
The Spanish governor also refused permission for the shipment
of government stores from Natchez or Fort Adams for Fort Stod-
dert, on the Tombigbee, and this being reported by William E.
Hulings, vice consul at New Orleans, Gov. Claiborne addressed
a remonstrance to the Spanish governor. The proclamation ap
peared to be "that the port of New Orleans is shut against for
eign commerce and the American deposit." Claiborne reported
to Madison : "The late act of the Spanish government at New
Orleans has excited considerable agitation in Natchez and its
vicinity. It has inflicted a severe wound upon the agricultural
and commercial interest of this territory, and must prove no less
injurious to all the western country." There was not absolute
prohibition of trade. Americans were allowed to land their prod
uce on payment of a duty of six per cent.
This famous suspension of the right of deposit figures as a
mystery in history, but it may find a partial explanation in the
fact that the United States proposed to ship goods for its new
Choctaw trading post on the Tombigbee through New Orleans.
This promised a serious disturbance of the trade enjoyed by Pan-
ton, Leslie & Co., who were at the same time humbly beseeching
the United States to permit the Choctaws to cede them a large
area of land in payments of debts for merchandise.
The reply of Gov. Salcedo to Gov. Claiborne was that the sus
pension was the order of the intendant, who was independent of
the general government of the province ; but that it was in con
formity with the king's commands, under the treaty of peace in
Europe, suspending the commerce of neutrals, the king having
also determined upon the propriety of suspending the deposit,
which had been permitted tacitly to continue. It was also alleged
that it gave rise to an infinity of abuses and frauds upon the Span
ish government. Salcedo said the matter had been submitted to
the» home government, the orders of which would be obeyed.
Meanwhile, the order was rigorously enforced, so much so, the
governor of Mississippi reported, that when a cotton boat was up
set by the wind opposite New Orleans, there was some difficulty
in obtaining permission to place the cotton taken from the river
on the levee.
Gov. Claiborne wrote "to Madison January 3, 1803:
"The violation of the treaty, so far as related to the deposit at
Orleans, gave rise to much agitation in this territory, and the
recent attack upon every principle of friendly intercourse and of
those acts of civility which ought to take place between two na
tions in a state of peace, has rendered the ferment still greater.
We have in this part of the Territory, about two thousand militia,
pretty well organized, and with a portion of this force (say six
9-II

130 MISSISSIPPI
hundred men) my opinion is that New Orleans might be taken
possession of, provided there should be only Spanish troops to
defend the place. I deem it my duty to inform you that there
are in Orleans and on the coast a number of inhabitants devoted
to the American interest, and in the event of hostilities would
most certainly join the American standard."
(This is the letter as recorded in the governor's journal. J. F.
H. Claiborne's Mississippi gives two versions of it (pp. 239, 243),
neither of which is correct, and one is a curious distortion.)
In acknowledging Gov. Claiborne's communication that the
Morales order was without the direct command of either the gov
ernment of Spain or Louisiana, the governor was informed that
James Monroe had been appointed (in January) minister pleni
potentiary and extraordinary, immediately to France and eventu
ally, if expedient, to Spain, for the purpose of more effectually
securing and if practical enlarging the rights of the United States
on the Mississippi and the territories eastward thereof. A letter
was also sent to the government at New Orleans through Gov.
Claiborne, from the Spanish minister, asking that the order of
suspension be revoked. Claiborne forwarded this letter to Hul-
ings in February, 1803.
Claiborne wrote in March, 1803, that Mr. Monroe's mission was
highly satisfactory to most of the reflecting citizens of the Terri
tory, "but there are some few characters among us (from whose
standing in society a contrary conduct was expected), who either
from sinister views or sanguine temperaments reprobate the pol
icy pursued, and have not been wanting in exertions to .inflame
the public and excite among them a spirit of discontent."
January 5, 1803, according to the historian Claiborne, the gen
eral assembly adopted resolutions of protest against the suspen
sion of the right of deposit.
Morales persisted in his policy, yielding enough, however, to
propose to admit flour and provisions subject to a duty of six per
cent, if for the Louisiana market, or if for export subject to addi
tional duty, and no export permitted except in Spanish bottoms.
General Wilkinson claimed that he secured this concession by
negotiation from Fort Adams. It seems that actually, there was
no great inconvenience from the order. Gov. Claiborne wrote in
March, 1803 : "The western boats are arriving daily at Natchez ;
our markets are low. but there is no difficulty in exporting prod
uce from hence to the Atlantic states or to Europe. There are
many vessels yet lying opposite to New Orleans waiting for
return cargoes, and there are several more on their passage to
Natchez in quest of freight which I understand is not high." In
the absence of permission to land goods, the river boats trans
ferred their cargoes to the ocean vessels as they lay at anchor in
- the river.
The prospect of French occupation revived the talk of separat
ing the Mississippi vallev from the United States. Daniel Clark
wrote of the French prefect that had been sent to New Orleans:

MISSISSIPPI 131
"He has already talked of mountains as natural boundaries and
the advantages to be gained by the western people by the occupa
tion of this country by the French." Encouraged by a letter from
the Mingo Pposkoos, of the Chickasawhay towns, the Chevalier
Villiers was sent among the Choctaws to engage their friendship
against the United States. So Power reported to Wilkinson.
Power himself proposed to be a Frenchman if necessary, but un
der all, conditions, he would be loyal to the great project he had
in common with Wilkinson.
But Napoleon was compelled to abandon his "darling project"
of a partition of North America with the English speaking peo
ples. He gave peace to the world in the treaty of Amiens. But
regarding the subject of Louisiana England was ominously silent
during those negotiations. She chose to misconstrue the purpose
of the navy Napoleon was fitting out in the Dutch ports for New
Orleans. The house of Hanover could not submit to French pre
dominance in Germany, nor English merchants endure French
control of the gulf of Mexico. The British made counter demon
strations that forced from Napoleon the protest "I must have Malta
or war." It became evident that to persist in his plan of paying
his soldiers with grants of land in America, meant an alliance of
England and the United States. Denied his dream of peace with
supremacy on two continents he sold Louisiana to the United
States and gave the signal for war on England.
Gov. Claiborne was notified November 9, 1803, of his appoint
ment as commissioner, with Gen. Wilkinson, to take possession
of New Orleans and the province of Louisiana, also as successor
of the Spanish governor-general until a form of government should
be devised. Wilkinson had been busy lately retracing the boun
dary of Mobile district, north of the 31st parallel, and acting in
connection with Indian affairs in Georgia, and his absence caused
the governor much anxiety. Spain had remonstrated against the
sale of the province by Napoleon, and it was prudent to be pre
pared for hostilities. The , governor consulted with Captain Tur
ner, the commandant at Fort Adams, regarding the military escort,
made his best efforts, with discouraging results, to get out the
militia, and corresponded with Daniel Clark, consul at New Or
leans, regarding the situation there. Though the responses from
Clark and the French prefect, Laussat, were promising of peace,
the governor believed a show of military strength would have a
good effect.
Prefect Laussat was visited at New Orleans November 23 by
Gen. Wilkinson, on his way from Pensacola to meet Gov. Claiborne
at Fort Adams, and just as the general was being ushered out, an
officer delivered the instructions of Napoleon for taking posses
sion of Louisiana and delivering it to the United States. Laussat
took possession for France November 30. The Spanish garrison
having, departed, Daniel Clark organized a battalion of Ameri
cans and French Creoles, about 300 in all, to maintain order in the
interim. Among these were Col. Reuben Kemper, George Mar-

132 MISSISSIPPI
tin, George King, George Newman, Benjamin Morgan, Dr. Will
iam Flood and Woodson Wren, the latter afterward a postmaster
and court clerk at Natchez.
At Natchez, December 1, Claiborne was able to embark for Fort
Adams a company of the Natchez artillery, another of riflemen,
and a company of militia infantry, in all about a hundred men,
upon the schooner Bilboa, which he found on the opposite side of
the river and impressed as a transport. He followed by land next
day. Then followed a long delay at the fort. The boats for the
expedition were not yet completed. On December 8 he wrote:
"An embarkation is talked of on tomorrow, but so many prepara
tory arrangements yet remain to be performed, that I fear much
longer delay. Our militia were mustered this morning and
amount to about two hundred." The regular troops numbered
about 250.
"On the 17th of December, the two American commissioners
encamped within two miles of New Orleans." After communi
cating with Laussat, they visited his house, "with an escort of
thirty of the Mississippi horse volunteers, and, on their approach,
were saluted with nineteen guns." Laussat, with an escort, re
turned the call. Dec. 20, the American troops marched into the
walled city, through the gate, greeted by a salute of 21 guns, and
formed upon the plaza (now Jackson square) facing the Louisiana
militia. At the city hall there was the formal reading and ex
change of documents, after which Laussat proclaimed the transfer
of the province and handed the keys of the city to the governor
of Mississippi, who then arose and spoke, welcoming the inhabi
tants upon their future participation in the rights of American
citizens. The French tricolor dropped, the stars and stripes went
up, the signal gun boomed, and the roar of cannon sounded from
the batteries and boats, in which joyous tumult the Natchez artil
lery and their brass field piece had due participation.
Monette says (II, 354) the governor's "military escort consisted
of a company of volunteer cavalry, under the command of Capt.
Benjamin Farrar, the first troop ever formed in the territory, and
one which for many years afterward maintained an elevated char
acter for patriotism and chivalrous bearing."
Tennessee troops arrived in time, perhaps, to join the expedi
tion, though they had not arrived at the date of Claiborne's last
letters from Fort Adams. It is certain that Col. Doherty's Ten
nessee regiment of mounted infantry spent the month of January
at Natchez and vicinity. Some of them were in hospital at Fort
Dearborn under the care of Dr. John W. Tulloch.
Until January, 1804, the Spanish flag still waved at Concord,
across the river from Natchez. Maj. F. L. Claiborne wrote Jan
uary 10: "On Thursday, ten o'clock, Concord will be taken pos
session of. If Colonel West will honor us with his company on
the occasion, it will be gratifying."
Louisville, the county seat of Winston county, is an incorporated
post-town on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., about 46

MISSISSIPPI 133
miles southwest of Columbus, and 95 miles northeast of Jackson.
It was named in honor of Colonel Louis Winston, an early settler.
The new extension of the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R.„ has
recently been completed from Mobile to Middleton, Tenn., so that
the old town is now provided with good shipping facilities. The
region about it is devoted to farming and stock raising. Louisville
has a court house, a State Normal School, four hotels, and the fol
lowing church buildings : Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Cum
berland Presbyterian and Catholic. Among its important industries
are two cotton gins, a saw mill, a spoke factory, and two brick man
ufacturing plants. The Winston County Journal, a Democratic
weekly, was established here in 1892. The Bank of Louisville was
established in 1903 ; it is a branch of the Grenada Bank, one of the
strongest financial institutions in the State. The following fraternal
orders have lodges here : Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias
and the Woodmen of the World. The population of Louisville in
1900 was 505 ; in 1906 it was estimated at 1,200.
Love Station, a small village in the southern part of De Soto
county, on the line of the Illinois Central R. R. It is situated about
5 miles south of the county seat, Hernando, and has a population
of 131. In the early days of the county, Dr. W. R. Love was a
prominent physician and planter of the locality. A money order
postoffice is maintained here.
Love, William Franklin, was born March 29, 1852, in Amite
county, Mississippi, near Liberty. He was educated at the Uni
versity of Mississippi, and was a planter by profession. He was
elected to the legislature for ten years, and to the State senate for
eight years. He was a delegate to the Constitutional convention
in 1890, and in 1896 was elected to the 55th congress. He died in
office, October 16, 1898.
Lovell, William S., was born at Washington, D. C, November,
1829, son of Dr. Joseph Lovell, surgeon-general of the United
States army. After the death of his parents in 1836 he resided
with an aunt in New York, and in 1845 was matriculated at Will
iams college, Mass., which he left to enter the United States navy.
He was on duty off the coast of Africa in 1848, and in 1850 sailed
as second officer of the brig Advance, in the Grinnell expedition
in search of Sir John Franklin. His ship was frozen in the ice
for 260 days. He passed the examinations at Annapolis in 1853,
and after a South American cruise, sailed in 1855 again for the
arctic regions as master and executive officer in the successful
search for Dr. Kane. He received for this service medals from
Queen Victoria and was promoted to lieutenant. ' In June, 1858,
he married Antonia, daughter of Gen. John A. Quitman, of Nat
chez, and in the following year resigned his commission and en
gaged in planting with his brother, Joseph Lovell, afterward a
Confederate general. In 1860 he organized at Natchez the Quit
man Light Artillery, with which he went to Pensacola as captain,
in the spring of 1861. There he was made chief of harbor police,
and soon promoted to major and ordered to New Orleans, where

134 MISSISSIPPI
he became lieutenant-colonel of the 22d Louisiana regiment, and
had charge of aiming the river defense vessels, on the staff of his
brother. After the fall of New Orleans he was inspector-general
on the staff of Gen. Pemberton, with headquarters at Vicksburg.
In 1864 he ran the blockade at Wilmington, N. C, to take command
of a blockade runner, and was at London for this purpose when
the war closed. Returning to Natchez he resumed the work of
planting and after the death of his brother in 1869, was one of the
greatest planters in the South.
Low, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Smith county, 12
miles distant from Raleigh, the county seat. It is a station on the
Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 8 miles north of Mt.
Olive, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 45.
Lowndes County was erected January 30, 1830, and was named
for William Jones Lowndes, member of Congress for South Caro
lina. The county has a land surface of 504 square miles. It was
originally the southern part of Monroe county and embraced within
its area .a part of the present county, of Clay. The act creating the
county defined its boundaries as follows: "All that portion of
Monroe county lying south of a line commencing at a point on the
State of Alabama, where a line running due east from Robinson's
bluff, on the Buttahatchie river, would strike the state line of
Alabama; thence from said point, due west, to said Robinson's
bluff ; thence down the said river to its mouth ; thence west, to the
western boundary line of the county of Monroe, as designated by
the act of 1829, extending process into the territory occupied by the
Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes of Indians, shall form a new county,
etc." December 6, 1831, its limits were extended "to commence on
the State line of Alabama, at the house of William Lucas, and to
run from thence in a northwest direction, so as to cross the Robert
son road, at a place on said Robertson's road, known by the name
of Wilson's stand, so as to include said Wilson's stand ; and from
thence on a direct line from the place of beginning until said line
strikes the Natchez trace; and from thence north, along the said
Natchez trace to the northern boundary line of said county of
Lowndes." And again Dec. 23, 1833, it was extended to include "all
the territory south of a line, running from the junction of the But
tahatchie river, with the Tombigbee river, to the northeast corner
of Oktibbeha county, and east of and between Oktibbeha county
and the Tombigbee river, and north of Noxubee county." Finally
in 1871, its northern and western limits were modified, when some
of its area was taken to form part of the county of Clay (q. v.).
The first County Court convened at Columbus, April 12, 1830,
and consisted of Thomas Sampson, President, and Micajah Brooks,
Samuel B. Morgan, Associates. Other county officials the same
year were R. D. Haden, County Clerk; Nimrod Davis, Sheriff;
John H. Morris, Assessor and Collector; O. P. Brown, County
Treasurer, and William L. Moore, County Surveyor.
Lowndes county has long been known as one of the most pros
perous and wealthy sections of the State. As early as 1817, some

MISSISSIPPI I-35
scattered settlements were made in this region, and in 1818 Dr.
Gideon Lincecum built the first house on the present site of Colum
bus. His autobiography contains the following reference to this
incident: "We made preparation to set out (from Tuscaloosa,
Ala.) on November 1, 1818. In the afternoon of the twelfth day
we reached the Tombigbee river, three miles above where Columbus
now stands, and there I made my camp. Father went two hundred
yards below and pitched his tent. As soon as I got my house done,
I went over the river to see the Choctaws. After the road was
made by the government from Nashville to Natchez, which crossed
the river where Columbus now stands, J went down there to see
what kind of a place it was. I thought it was an eligible town site.
I was so fully impressed with this belief, that I went home and rived
a thousand boards, put them on a raft and floated them down the
river with the intention of building a snug little house on a nice
place I had selected. I was not the only person that had noticed
the eligibility of that locality, for when I got down to the place, a
man named Coldwell was about landing a keel-boat. He was from
Tuscaloosa (Ala.) and had a cargo of Indian goods which he cal
culated on opening on that bluff as soon as he could build a house
to put them in. I proposed to sell him my boards and he in turn
proposed to sell me his goods. After some parleying, I took the
goods, hired his boat hands and went to work, and in three days
had knocked up a pretty good shanty. We soon got the goods into
it and commenced opening boxes and taking stock ; but the Indians
heard of the arrival and flocked in by hundreds. I began selling
whiskey and such goods as we had marked, and this prevented us
from work in the day time. Having only night time to work on the
invoice, it took ten days to get through, but I had sold enough to
pay the first installment and Coldwell went home highly pleased.
I bartered with the Indians for every kind of produce, consisting of
cowhides, deer skins, all kinds of furs, skins, buck horns, cow horns,
peas, beans, peanuts, pecans, hickory nuts, honey, beeswax, blow-
guns, etc. Every article brought cash at 100 per cent, on cost. I made
frequent trips to Mobile for sugar, coffee and whiskey, staple articles
in the Indian trade, but all my drygoods came from the house of
Dallas and Wilcox, Philadelphia."
That portion of the county lying east of the Tombigbee river is
older historically by fourteen years than the western part, as the
former came under territorial control by the Choctaw cession of
1816, while the western part was not acquired until the Choctaw
cession of 1830. The first white man to reside permanently upon
the soil of what is now Lowndes county, was Major John Pitchlyn,
(q. v.) the son of an English army officer, who was reared from boy
hood among the Choctaws, and was in after life the sworn inter
preter of the United States in various treaties and dealings with the
Choctaws. The following is a list of the pioneer settlers on the east side
of the Tombigbee, as compiled by William A. Love, in his interest
ing sketch of Lowndes county: Settlers in 1817, John Halbert,

136 MISSISSIPPI
Silas McBee, Benjamin Hewson; 1818, .Thomas Cummings, William
Butler, Peter Nail, William H. Craven, Newton Beckwith, John
McGowan, Westley Ross, A. Cook, James Brownlee, John Port-
wood, Thomas Kincaid, Ezekiel Nash, Wm. Weaver, Thomas
Cooper, Cincinnatus Cooper, Conrad Hackleman, David Alsop,
Spirus Roach, Thomas O. Sampson, Hezekiah Lincecum, Gideon
Lincecum ; 1819, Robert D. Haden, Ovid P. Brown, Richard Barry,
Dr. B. C. Barry, Martin Sims, Bartlet Sims, William Cocke, Thomas
Townsend, William L. Moore, Wm. Ellis, Wm. Leech, John Egger.
In the extreme southwestern part of the county was an old
postoffice known as Dailey's Cross Roads for its postmaster John
A. Dailey. Another old postoffice that antedated the building of
the railways, was Prairie Hill, in the west central part of the county.
The early settlements at Plymouth, West Port, Nashville and
Moore's Bluff, are now all extinct, but were important trading
points on the Tombigbee river in the early history of the county.
(See sketches of above towns under separate titles.) These early
settlers were attracted from the older states by the richness of the
county, its contiguity to a fine navigable stream, its mild climate
and the fact that the "Military Road," from New Orleans to Nash
ville, opened by U. S. troops 1817-1820, offered ready means of
access to the region. A little later, when the Indian lands were
offered for sale, settlers came in rapidly, and as early as 1837, the
county had a population of 5,495 whites and 7,362 slaves. Columbus
was an incorporated town in 1822 and by 1837 had a population of
about 3,500 and was the center of a thriving trade for all the sur
rounding region. It is the county seat and is a thriving place of
12,000 inhabitants, located on the east bank of the Tombigbee river,
at the junction of the Mobile & Ohio, and the Southern railways,
giving it excellent shipping connections north, south, east and west.
It is an unusually attractive city and the home of much wealth
and culture. It is one of the largest manufacturing centers in the
northern part of the State, being grouped with Corinth, Biloxi and
Scranton by the returns of the last census. Besides its industrial
enterprises, it is the seat of one of Mississippi's most noteworthy
schools — The Industrial Institute and College, (q.v.) founded in 1884.
This Institution possesses a noble group of buildings and has been
highly successful in carrying out the purposes of its founders, the in
dustrial and collegiate training of young women. Over 5,000 young
women have received its instruction and over 700 are now entered
on its roll of attendance. Some of the more important villages in
the county are Artesia (pop. 343), Crawford (pop. 389), Caledonia,
Mayhews Station, and Penn. The Mobile & Ohio R. R. crosses
the county in two directions and the Southern Ry. runs from north
east to southwest until it reaches Columbus, then northwest to
Westpoint. The Tombigbee river flows through the county and is
navigable to Columbus, and, with its numerous tributaries, gives
the county plenty of water advantages. About one-half of the
county lies west of the Tombigbee river in the black prairie belt,
a gently undulating, rich region, well timbered and producing good

MISSISSIPPI I37
crops of cotton, corn, oats, sorghum, wheat, clover, grasses and all
kinds of fruits and vegetables. The region east of the Tombigbee
is not so rich, the soil being light and sandy and somewhat hilly,
but capable of making a fine grade of cotton. A good deal of
attention is paid to raising live stock and the industry is a profitable
one. The live stock of the region was valued at nearly $700,000
in 1900. Churches and excellent schools abound throughout the
county and the climate is mild and healthful.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, will be found instructive and shows the develop
ment of the county in agriculture, manufactures and population at
that date: Number of farms 3,467, acreage in farms 242,942, acres
improved 150,057, value of the land exclusive of the buildings
$2,280,260, value of the buildings $703,940, value of 'live stock
$687,598, total value of products not fed to stock $1,486,173.
Number of manufacturing establishments 103, capital $684,696,
wages paid $145,733, cost of materials $404,228, total value of
products $806,680.
The population in 1900 consisted of 7,121 whites, 21,974 colored,
a total of 29,095 and an increase of 2,048 over the year 1890. The
population in 1906 was estimated at 35,000. Manufacturing has
greatly increased in the last five years, there being no less than
$300,000 worth of new investments in Columbus alone. Artesian
water has been found in various 'parts of the county. The public
highways are improved and maintained by direct taxation. The
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Lowndes
county in 1905 was $4,675,390 and in 1906 it was $5,341,632, showing
an increase during the year of $666,242.
Lowrey, Mark P., was born in McNairy county, Tenn., Decem
ber 29, 1828, and was reared in poverty, having lost his father in
early childhood. Toward the close of the war with Mexico he
went with a Mississippi company to that country, and on his re
turn he learned the craft of a brickmason. At the age of 21 he
married . Sarah R. Holmes, of Tishomingo county, Miss. Three
years later he entered the ministry of the Baptist church, and in
1860 he was the pastor at Kossuth. Under the call for troops in
the spring of 1861 he raised a company there, which was assigned
to the 32d regiment of which he was elected colonel, and commis
sioned April 3. At the battle of Perryville, Ky., he commanded
Wood's brigade, and received a painful wound in the left arm.
At the battle of Chickamauga he again commanded the brigade,
and his conduct impelled Gen. Cleburne, the division commander,
to call him the bravest man in the Confederate army. He was
promoted to brigadier-general. As one of Cleburne's most trusted
generals, he won new distinction at Missionary Ridge and Ring
gold Gap and throughout the Atlanta campaign, at the battles of
Franklin and Nashville, and in the last campaign in the Carolinas.
He was frequently in command of a division, and in every capacity
proved his ability. Throughout the war he continued his work as
a preacher, and labored incessantly for the religious cause. After

138 MISSISSIPPI
the war he farmed on a small scale for the support of his family
and continued preaching; acted as State evangelist and reorganizer
for his church ; and declined various suggestions of political
honors. He was a well-known writer for the religious press ; was
for ten years president of the Baptist state convention, and in
1873 founded the Blue. Mountain female college, of which he was
president for 12 years. February 27, 1885, he died suddenly in
the railroad depot at Middleton, Tenn. His will, drawn up not.
long before his death, closed with these words: "I subscribe my
self the friend of all humanity and the humble servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ."
Lowry, Robert, was born in Chesterfield district, S. C, March
10, 1831, son of Robert Lowry, a native of the same State, of an
old and prominent Scotch-Irish family. About 1833 the elder
Robert Lowry moved with his family to west Tennessee and
thence, in 1840, to Tishomingo county, Miss. At the age of 13
young Robert Lowry went to the home of his uncle, Judge James
Lowry, in Smith county, where, after a few years, he was a mer
chant at Raleigh, until 1851, when he and his uncle embarked in
business at Brandon. Three years later he removed to Arkansas,
where he read law and was admitted to practice. Returning after
an absence of five years he became a partner of Judge A. G.
Mayers, at Brandon. In 1861 he. enlisted as a private in the Ran
kin Grays, Capt. J. J. Thornton, and at the organization of the
Sixth regiment at Grenada in August, Thornton was elected col
onel and Lowry major. Under Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston he
served in Kentucky at the battle of Shiloh, where he was twice
wounded. On the resignation of Col. Thornton he was elected
colonel and commissioned in May, 1862. He led his regiment in
the famous Mississippi battles of Corinth, Port Gibson and
Baker's Creek, served under Johnston during the siege of Vicks
burg, went with Polk's army to Georgia in the spring of 1864, and
thereafter was identified with the army of Tennessee. He com
manded the brigade skirmish line at the battle of Kenesaw Moun
tain, and was distinguished for gallant performance of duty
through the Atlanta campaign. When Gen. John Adams was killed
at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., Nov. 30, 1864, he succeeded to
command of the brigade, and was commissioned brigadier-general
Feb. 4, 1865. He was in the Nashville campaign, and was finally
on duty with Johnston at the capitulation at Greensboro, N. C,
April 26, 1865. Returning to Brandon he resumed the practice of
law. As a Democrat, he was elected to the State senate in 1865,
and during the subsequent reconstruction period he was an ardent
worker throughout the State for the policy of his party. In 187.8
he was a candidate before the State convention for nomination for
governor, but was defeated on the tenth ballot by John M. Stone.
In 1881 he was nominated and elected, and in 1885 was reelected.
His residence since then has been at Jackson. In association with
W. H. McCardle he is the author of "A History of Mississippi,"
Jackson, 1891, also a school history, published in 1902.

MISSISSIPPI 139
Lowry's Administration, 1882-90. In his inaugural address,
January 9, 1882, Gov. Lowry said of the recent election, "The part
borne in that contest by prominent citizens of the State, not here
tofore identified with the successful party, is worthy to be men
tioned and remembered." Looking backward, he recalled the
predictions of the impossibility of such race adjustment as had
been made. "Thanks be to God, these gloomy prophecies have
not been fulfilled in our history. We have survived, as best we
could, the demoralizing effects of war, and the domineering evils
incident to the existence of peculiarly distinct and different races,
equally free, under the same government. And the trials of the
past give courage and confidence to the present and the future.
Great deeds and virtues are the legitimate offspring of great
trials. To solve successfully the grave social and political prob
lems with which we yet stand face to face, and to adjust mutual
¦* differences and peculiarities of races as to render them mutual
helps, instead of drawbacks to public and private interest, are ob
jects, worthy of the loftiest ambition, and in which every citizen,
high and low, may participate." Of education he said, "Free in
stitutions cannot be separated from free schools. Universal suf
frage is tolerable only when connected with universal education."
Of immigration, "Prejudices against us must be( combatted —
apprehensions of insecurity among us, whether just or unjust,
must be removed, and the advantages and attractions of the State
must be potent factors in working out this result." Of industrial
conditions — "We buy too much and sell too little. Our corn-cribs
and smoke-houses are too far from home. Our income is princely,
our expenditures are utterly exhausting. . . . When life, lib
erty, and the pursuit of property are secure, when the public
morals are protected, an efficient system of public education estab
lished, and the public health, convenience and safety well guarded,
and all at the smallest practical cost, there is but little omitted from
the fundamental obligations of government. Under these condi
tions, individual action, diversity of interest, and, above all, the
production of the necessaries of life at home, ought to cause the
springs of prosperity to flow, and insure contentment, progress
and independence. . . . Whoever, either in a public or private
capacity, contributes to diversify the industries of Mississippi,' and
to relieve her from dependence on other States and countries, is a
benefactor to the State. The president or managers of a successful
factory among us ought to be more highly appreciated and hon
ored by us than any public functionary in the land."
The legislature of 1882 was very liberal in appropriations, in
support of schools, institutions and immigration, exempted new
railroads from taxation for ten years, also extended the same ex
emption to all factories hereafter erected. An appropriation of
$15,000 was made for the relief of Mississippi flood sufferers, which,
with contributions from the National government, were expended
under the direction of W. L. Hemingway, who was stationed at

140 MISSISSIPPI
Memphis, while the governor personally aided the citizens' com
mittee at Vicksburg.
The valuation of realty in 1882 was (in round numbers) $80,-
000,000, of personalty $37,000,000 ; in 1883 the increase in the total
was $17,000,000. The land valuation of 1883 was over $20,000,000
larger than in 1879. This permitted further reduction of the tax
rate, or increased revenues at the same rate.
The treasury statements showed receipts in 1882, $770,959; ex
penditures, $1,057,441. In 1883, receipts, $746,864; expenditures,
$836,500. The cash balance was reduced from $545,000 at the be
ginning of 1882 to $169,000 at the first of 1884. The public debt to
the Chickasaw and Seminary funds was $1,360,000; to the Agri
cultural college fund, $227,000. Over and above this, if the debt
to the Common School fund ($817,646) were disregarded,' the
State debt was $510,000, January 1, 1884. The legislature of 1882
increased the common school revenues by $100,000 per annum and
decreased the rate of taxation from three to 2l/2 mills, a reduction
equal to $50,000 per annum. These two items made a difference
of $600,000 in the financial transactions of the State in the four
years following. Gov. Lowry commented in 1884 : "It is wett to
increase school facilities and to reduce taxation, but, unfortunately,
both cannot be done at the same time without increasing the
debt." He said in his first message to the legislature of January, 1884:
"In some respects the history of Mississippi since the war is with
out a parallel in the history of the world." Though there had
been accusations of disregard of law and order, the revelations of
the census of 1880 were a complete disproof. Comparing previous
conditions with those then existing, he said : "The public debt
has been almost extinguished. Taxation has been reduced from
9y2 mills in 1875 to 2l/2 mills in 1883. State and county taxation
has been reduced from an average of about $27.85 on the $1,000
in 1874, to an average of about $16 on the $1,000 in 1883. All the
lands forfeited to the State for taxes have either been redeemed
or purchased, except abput 700,000 acres. In the last two years
alone 461,783 acres have been purchased through the Auditor's of
fice from the State. There is a growing confidence in the future
as shown by the purchase of these lands and of 435,110 acres held
by the Federal government in the last two years, together with
the unprecedented homestead entries, amounting to 286,283 acres.
The reduction in the debt and the rate of taxation and yearly ex
penditures has been accomplished without detriment to the pub
lic service or neglect of the different charitable and educational
institutions. All these have been liberally sustained and new ones
established." About 450 miles of railroad had been built in two
years, and large amounts invested in cotton factories and com
presses and oil mills.
He also pointed out in his message of 1884 that the laws fav
ored the maintenance of chain gangs. "The enormity of the wrong
is patent. The prisoner is required to pay the fine and costs

MISSISSIPPI 141
within 24 hours after sentence, notwithstanding it may be practi
cally impossible to estimate the costs because of the witnesses
failure to prove attendance until five days after the adjournment
of the court." There were various pretexts also, for holding pris
oners in the gangs after they had served their time, sometimes
to make up periods of sickness caused by brutal treatment. The
legislature attempted to reform the system by an act of 1882.
"A fruitful source of crime is the too prevalent habit of carrying
concealed weapons." He recommended that the use of deadly
weapons in assault should be declared a crime not admitting ex
cuse or justification.
Notable acts of legislature in 1884 were for the protection of
contracts between landlord and tenant; providing penalties for
persuading an employee to leave an employer to whom he was
bound by written contract, also penalties for the employee who
violated a contract; an act making it a misdemeanor for officials
of the State to accept railroad passes ; an act establishing the In
dustrial institute for white girls, and the Railroad commission
bill. (q. v.)
This legislature invited Jefferson Davis to make a visit to Jack
son, which he did in March, 1884. He was received by the gover
nor and the supreme court in presence of a joint session of the legis
lature, and made a brief address expressing his strong attachment to
the State and her interests. Several changes occurred in the con
gressional representation and in the composition of the supreme
court, which are treated in the appropriate articles'. In 1885 the
East Mississippi Insane Hospital (q. v.) was opened at Meridian.
During the winter of 1883-84, attention was publicly called to the
evils of the Convict Lease System, and a"n agitation began which
led to the creation of the Board of Control (q. v.). In the
winter of 1884-85' the World's Industrial and Cotton Exposition
was held at New Orleans, with Maj. S. A. Jonas as state commis
sioner. This was the first exposition at which Mississippi had
been adequately represented.
There was a balance in the Treasury at the beginning of 1884
of $168,989. In the year the expenditures were $886,158, which
was met-by the initial balance, $61,700 from sale of 5 per cent.
bonds, and $665,281 from ordinary sources, of which $152,334 was
licenses and forfeitures, etc., belonging to the school fund, and
$56,915 was railroad tax. Less than $275,000 was from the State
tax levy. Among the disbursements were $250,000 for the com
mon schools, and $65,295 for Chickasaw school fund interest. The
cash balance at the end of the year was less than $10,000. In 1885
the receipts were $902,142, including $81,000 from bonds sold ; and
the disbursements $904,494. The indebtedness of the State was
about $1,000,000, exclusive of Chickasaw and Seminary Common
school funds. The State tax rate was increased slightly and the
sale of bonds for $500,000 authorized.
G. D. Shands was lieutenant-governor during Lowry's first ad
ministration, and the department officers were H. C. Myers, sec-

142 MISSISSIPPI
retary of state; W. L. Hemingway, treasurer; Sylvester Gwin,
auditor; T. C. Catchings, attorney-general; J. A. Smith, superin
tendent of education.
Attorney-General Catchings was elected to congress in 1884 and
resigned in February, 1885. The governor appointed T. S. Ford,
of Marion county, in his stead.
At the election in 1885 there was no ticket in the field but the
Democratic. Gov. Lowry, who was nominated, received almost
the entire total vote of about 90,000. The other officers elected,
for 1886-90, were: G. D. Shands, lieutenant-governor; George M.
Govan, secretary of state ; W. L. Hemingway, state treasurer ;
W. W. Stone, auditor; T. Marshall Miller, attorney-general; J. R.
Preston, superintendent of education.
The year 1886 was memorable for the adoption of an effective
law relating to common schools (q. v.), and the local option law (see
Saloon legislation).
The revenue of 1886 was $1,295,707, of which $483,000 was de
rived from the sale of bonds and 8 per cent, certificates, and the
disbursements were $1,039,678. In 1887 the total revenue was
$1,069,568, of which $215,783 was derived from the sale of bonds,
and the disbursements were $1,023,098. In the two years the dis
bursements were nearly $400,000 more than the receipts from reg
ular sources. (Auditor's statement.) The State debt had increased
to $3,750,000 or $1,345,000 more than what the treasury owed the
trust funds.
In his message of 1888 Governor Lowry said that signs of in
dividual and general prosperity were more manifest in Mississippi
than at any time of the decade. He discussed vigorously the grow
ing debt of the State, the* gross irregularities of the revenue laws,
the great under-valuation of taxable property, the non-collection
of poll taxes, and the abuses of the judicial system in regard to
payment of costs in criminal cases by the counties.
In the summer of 1889 it was generally advertised that a prize
fight by two individuals distinguished in pugilism would occur
in Mississippi. Such exhibitions were generally prohibited in the
States, but it was purposed to have this encounter at some point
in Mississippi to be reached by train from New Orleans. Gov.
Lowry issued a proclamation directing that the fight should not
be permitted, and stationed State troops at various points to aid
the sheriffs. But, through the connivance of the Northeastern
railroad, said the governor, communication between the governor
and sheriff of Marion county was prevented, and the fight was
brought off in that county in July. The principals were arrested
in New York and Maryland, and tried in the circuit courts, from
which they appealed to the supreme court. The governor re
quested the attorney-general to begin proceedings to forfeit the
charter of the Northeastern railroad.
John M. Stone was nominated for governor at the Democratic
convention in 1889, and elected in November.
There was a balance in the treasury of $276,980 at the begin-

MISSISSIPPI 143
ning of 1888, the receipts were $1,033,712, and the expenditures
were $976,480, leaving a balance of $334,211. The receipts of 1889
were $1,151,055, bringing the total, including balance, up to
$1,485,266. The disbursements of 1889 were $929,816, and a bal
ance of $555,450, was reported.
The State debt at the close of Governor Lowry's administration
was $1,417,026, exclusive of the trust funds for educational pur
poses, which swelled the aggregate indebtedness to $3,837,490.
In 1890 Governor Lowry had been "the agent of the people in
the executive department of the State government for eight years,
a greater length of time than had been served by arty of his pre
decessors since the admission of the State into the Union." He
congratulated the State upon the favorable outlook of affairs.
There had been a great increase in the valuation of taxable prop
erty; the mileage of the railroads in the State had been more than
doubled since 1882 (1,078 to 2,366 miles) ; agriculture was gener
ally prosperous and rapid progress had been made in truck farm
ing and fruit growing; the Mississippi levees were better than ever
before, and that region dwelt in security. Banks were increasing
in number, and to all appearances the prosperity was solid and
enduring. Since 1881 riot a vote had been cast in .opposition to
the State ticket of the Democratic party, and, added the gover
nor, "the intimation, from any quarter, of invoking improper
methods in State elections is a slander upon the fair name of our
Commonwealth, for there has been no opposition to the party
nominated by the white people, who pay 99 dollars of every 100
required for the support and maintenance of the State govern
ment." Loyal League, or Union League, an organization of negroes
after the war of 1861-65. The Union League was originally a
secret organization in the North, begun in 1862, to support the
Union and oppose the efforts pf the "Copperheads," and Knights
of the Golden Circle. The organization was spread southward
among the Unionists as early as 1863. The membership was at
first entirely white, and included some old Whigs, as well as
United States army officers and ex-soldiers of the Union army
who settled in the South. The Northern league, with which these
Southern white leagues were affiliated, was active in support of the
reconstruction measures and disseminated thousands of pamphlets,
some of them highly partisan and exaggerated.
In 1866 the organization of negro councils began, at first with
the color line sharply drawn. "Before the end of 1867, all of the
negro leaders were members and the mass of the black population
organized in 'Union Republican clubs,' for political control and
instruction. The admission of negroes caused most of the native
whites to desert at once. Henceforth the order consisted of a
few white leaders with a membership of blacks, principally local
leaders, though every negro was considered an ex colore member.
In every negro community there was a council of the Union league;
in each State there was a State grand council with headquarters

144 MISSISSIPPI
at the State capital, and the national grand council with head
quarters in New York. During 1867 and 1868 the Loyal League,
as it was popularly called, gave to the negroes an organization
and a training that made it possible for a few alien leaders to con
trol them and to vote them solidly for several years against the
native whites. . . . The dislike of the whites to the Union
league was so great that the local bodies began to assume other
names : . . . Alcorn clubs in Mississippi, etc. ... By 1870
the organization was broken up in the South, most of the councils
that survived becoming simply Republican clubs. The discipline
of the league was greatly missed after 1870 by the Radical leaders
in the South, who, without its aid, could no longer count upon the
negro majorities. The permanent result of the work of the Union
league in the South was the alienation of the races; this alone
made it possible for outsiders to control the negro vote and draw
the color line in politics." (Walter L. Fleming, Documents Relat
ing to Reconstruction.)
The local lodges were called councils. "Lynch council" at Jack
son was one of the most important. The Freedmen's bureau
agents aided in the organization among the negroes. There was
a great increase in this movement after the congressional recon
struction began. As the negroes could not read, it was necessary
to collect them in meetings to be addressed by the Bureau agents
even for legitimate advice, and as politics began to be worked in
with this, it was an easy step to the organization of councils,. "One
thing about the league that attracted the negro was the mysterious
secrecy of the meetings, the wierd initiation ceremony that made
him feel fearfully good from his head to his heels, the imposing
ritual and songs. The ritual, it is said, was not used in the North ;
it was probably adopted for the particular benefit of the African."
(Fleming.) The ceremony consisted mainly in introducing the
candidate to the emblems of the order: the altar, the Bible, the
declaration of independence, the constitution of the United States,
the flag of the Union, censer, sword, gavel, ballot-box, sickle, shut
tle, anvil and other emblems of industry, and included an oath, in
a darkened room, before the "fire of liberty," with one hand on the"
flag, to support the government, elect true Union men to office,
and "To defend and perpetuate freedom and union, I pledge my
life, my fortune and my sacred honor." The main sign was pro
nouncing, with the right hand in corresponding positions, the four
words, "Liberty, Lincoln, Loyal, League." The councils met at
night, sometimes with the members armed, and when in session
stationed armed guards. The negro churches and schools were
commonly used as meeting places. The negroes were instructed,
as appears from publications made in the North for the purpose
of instruction, that the Democrats would take away all their
rights, and if possible return them to slavery. "They are devoid
of principle, and destitute of all sense of justice where the colored
man is concerned." So reads a catechism published by the order,
in which it was also asked and answered : "Do all white people

MISSISSIPPI 145
belong to a party which would treat us in that way? They do
not. There are many who have stood up nobly for your rights,
and who would aid you to the end; indeed all the Republicans are
such. To what party do the people of the South belong? The
larger portion belong to the Democratic party." This instruction
was preparatory to the organization of a Union Republican club. It
was charged that the leagues or clubs were the scenes of incendiary
advice to the negroes, and in some regions military drill was carried
on at night. The signs of the league were used to influence negro
magistrates, and juries, where there were such. There was much
intimidation and persecution of negroes who were delinquent in
their loyalty to these organizations, or who failed to vote the Re
publican ticket. In Lester and Wilson's history of the Ku Klux
Klan, written in Tennessee, it was said : "It is a part of the history
of those times that there was a widespread and desperately active
organization called the Loyal League. It was composed of the
disorderly element of the negro population and was led and con
trolled by white men of the basest and meanest type just now re
ferred to. They met frequently, went armed to the teeth, and lit
erally 'breathed out threatening and slaughter.' They not only
uttered, but in many instances executed the most violent threats
against the persons, families and property of men, whose sole crime
was that they had been in the Confederate army."
Loyd, a post-hamlet of Calhoun county, 7 miles east of Pittsboro,
the county seat, and 15 miles northwest of Houston. Population
in 1900, 56.
Lucas, a postoffice in Lawrence county, on the Mississippi Central
R. R., 10 miles northeast of Monticello, the county seat.
Lucedale, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Greene county,
on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 41 miles by rail north
west of Mobile, and 16 miles south of Leakesville, the county seat.
Population in 1900, 100.
Lucern, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Newton county,
8 miles from Decatur, the county seat, and nearest railroad town.
Population in 1900, 40.
Lucile, a post-hamlet of Lauderdale, 2 miles north of Meridian.
It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 100.
Lucky, a postoffice of Jones county.
Lucre, a post-hamlet of Sharkey county, 15 miles southeast of
Rolling Fork, the county seat, on the Sunflower river. Population
in 1906, 25.
Lucy, a postoffice of Leake county, 10 miles northwest of Car
thage, the county seat.
Ludlow, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Scott county,
situated on Coffee Bogue, a tributary of Pearl river, about 20 miles
from Forest, the county seat. Morton is its nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 100. It has a good saw and grist mill combined,
and a good gin.
Lula, an incorporated post-town in the northern part of Coahoma
county, at the junction of two branches of the Yazoo & Mississippi
10-11

146 MISSISSIPPI
Valley R. R., 10 miles northeast of Friar's Point, and about 8 miles
southeast of Helena, Ark. It has a money order postoffice. Popu
lation in 1900, 174; population in 1906 estimated at 250.
Lumberton, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of
Lamar county, 25 miles southwest of Hattiesburg and 10 miles
southwest of Purvis, the county seat. The Mendenhall-Maxie
branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. crosses the New Orleans
& North Eastern R. R. at this point, and provides it with excellent
shipping facilities. It is a thriving town and growing rapidly. Its
name is derived from its chief industry. It is situated in the heart
of the long leaf pine section of the State, and large lumbering
operations are carried on in the vicinity. It is also extensively
engaged in the manufacture of naval stores. It has express, tele
graph and telephone offices, a money order postoffice, a bank and a
newspaper office. The First National Bank was established in 1900
with a capital of $25,000 ; the capital and surplus have been increased
to $100,000. The Head-Block is a Democratic weekly, established
in 1889, T. B. Geiger, editor and publisher. Population in 1900,
1,509 ; the population in 1906 was estimated at 3,000. The town is
supplied with an excellent electric light and water plant. «It has
many fine churches and a splendid system of schools.
Luna, Tristan de. In 1557 Phillip II confided the conquest and
settlement of Florida to Don Louis de Velasco, the viceroy of
New Spain, and two years later, Velasco dispatched an army of
1,500 soldiers and settlers under the command of Don Tristan de
Luna. The object of the expedition was not primarily one of con-
questjibut rather. of conciliation and settlement. The Indians were
to be well treated and a number of Dominican friars accompanied
the army. The expedition arrived at the Bay of Ichuse (Santa
Rosa bay) in July, 1559. Before he could unload his, vessels, they
were struck during the night of Sept. 19, by a storm which lasted
24 hours, destroying five ships, a galleon and a bark, and beaching
one caravel and its cargo high and dry in a grove. Many of the
people perished and most of the stores intended for the colonists
were lost. Left thus in as miserable a condition as any ship
wrecked party before, De Luna was not disheartened and ad
vanced with over 1,000 of his company to the Indian town of
Nanipacna, on the Escambia, which had been taken and wasted
by De Soto. In July of the following year, a detachment of the
Spaniards in search of provisions reached Coca, on the Coosa
river, an Indian town of thirty houses, near which were seven other
towns of the same tribe. In order to gain the good will of the
Coosas, they agreed to aid them in a campaign against the Napo-
chies, who lay on the Ochechiton, or great water, which the Span
iards took to be the sea. These were in all probability the Natchez.
The Natchez were defeated by the allies, and the Spaniards reached
the pchechiton, which proved to be a mighty river, the Rio del
Espiritu Santo, or Mississippi, thus once more discovered by the
Spanish adventurers and missionaries. Revolts and open mutiny
had meanwhile arisen in De Luna's camp, and though he was re-

MISSISSIPPI 147
luctant to abandon the projected settlement, the desire to abandon
the country where all had suffered so severely was universal, and
Luna seeing himself utterly abandoned, embarked for Havana
with a few servants. Until the coming of the French under Iber
ville, the region of the Mississippi was left undisturbed.
Lunch, a postoffice of Itawamba county, 14 miles north of
Fulton, the • county seat.
Lurline, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Tate county,
situated on Bear Tail creek, a tributary of the Coldwater river, 9
miles northeast of Coldwater, the nearest railroad and banking
town. It has a general store, a church and a school.
Luster, a postoffice of Chickasaw county, 8 miles northeast of
Houston, the county seat, and nearest railroad town.
Luther, a postoffice of Leake county, 6 miles north of Carthage,
the county seat.
Lux, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Covington county,
on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., about 17 miles from Williamsburg,
the county seat. Seminary is the nearest banking town. Popu
lation in 1900, 50.
Luxembourg, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Issaquena
county, situated on Lake Lafayette, 6 miles northeast of Mayers
viUe, the county seat. Population in 1900, 48.
Lyman, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Harrison county,
on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 10 miles north of Gulfport. It has
a money order postoffice, an express office, a large saw mill, and a
good general store. It has a population of about 150.
Lyman Colony. The Company of Military Adventurers, com
posed of persons principally from Connecticut, under a mistaken
"expectation of obtaining a large grant from the British crown,
sent agents in 1773 to West Florida, for the purpose of exploring
the country. The governor of that province promised to grant
lands to such as should become settlers, on as advantageous terms
as he was authorized to do, and to reserve till next spring, for that
purpose, nineteen townships, which had been selected and sur
veyed by the agents. A number of emigrants from Connecticut,
accordingly removed to the Mississippi in 1774 ; the war prevented
the progress of the settlements; and one hundred and forty of the
settlers left the country in 1781, when the Spanish conquest took
place, and traversing the Choctaw and Cherokee country, reached
the inhabited parts of Georgia. "The claim which is now set up in
the name of the company for the nineteen townships has no foun
dation. Such of the settlers as had obtained grants, or have con
tinued on the lands, will be embraced by the provisions made for
other claimants of a similar description." (Report of Madison,
Gallatin and Lincoln, 1803.)
The moving spirit in this scheme of colonization was Gen.
Phineas Lyman, of Suffield, Conn. Gen. Lyman was born in Dur
ham, Conn., in 1715 ; graduated at Yale University, subsequently
practiced law in his native State, and was major-general in com-
mand of all the Connecticut troops during the French and Indian

148 MISSISSIPPI
War. In 1762, he was sent with 2,300 men to assist in the capture
of Havana, and was subsequently placed in command of the entire
provincial force during that unlucky expedition; and at its close,
was deputed by the surviving officers to go to England and re
ceive the part of the prize money that remained due. He had been
concerned in the formation of the "Company of Military Adventur
ers" chiefly composed of those who had served in the late wars,
to obtain from the British government a tract of land on the Mis<
sissippi and Yazoo rivers. Unfortunately, soon after his arrival
in England, a change of ministry took place and so many obstacles
intervened that he remained in England until 1772, unwilling to
return and admit failure. He was at last induced to return by his
son, the wreck of his former self, but not until an order had been
passed by the king in council, authorizing the governor of West
Florida to grant lands in that province to the Provincial officers
and soldiers, in the same manner and proportion as given to his
majesty's regular troops, viz: To a field officer, 5,000 acres; to a
captain, 2,000 acres ; to a subaltern or staff officer, 2,000 acres ; to
a non-commissioned officer, 200 acres ; and to a private man, 50
acres. Unfortunately, General Lyman brought no written docu
ment to substantiate the grant, but at a meeting of the Company
held in Hartford, Conn., in 1772, his word was so far credited that
the meeting resolved to explore the lands, and appointed a -com
mittee consisting of Rufus Putnam, Capt. Enos, Thaddeus Lyman,
and Col. Israel Putnam, accompanied by Daniel Putnam, a son of
the Colonel, and a hired man, for that purpose. On their way to the
Mississippi, they interviewed Gov. Chester and his council, but
were informed that no order for granting lands to the Provincials
had yet arrived. However, in the hope that it might yet arrive,
and it being proposed to grant lands to the company on terms al
ready within the governor's power, they decided to proceed and
make surveys. Rufus Putnam, in later years the pioneer of Ohio,
was commissioned by Gov. Chester, as a deputy surveyor of the
province of West Florida. In the course of their explorations
they ascended the Yazoo river some nine miles, but were later in
formed by Capt. George, a Chickasaw chief, that at a congress of
his people, it had been decided that no whites should settle on the
Yazoo, but that they might do so on the Big Black, but not higher
np on the Mississippi. They made a survey of lands on the Big
Black, and ascended it some 25 miles by boat, to a rocky rapid,
which was deemed an excellent mill seat. They found here plenty
of fine rich land on the left bank of the river, hilly, but watered with
several springs.
Thos. Hutchins, in his Narrative of Louisiana and West Florida,
published in 1784, speaking of the Lyman Colony, says: "At six
miles further the high lands are near the river on both sides, and
continue for two or three miles, but broken and full of springs.
This land on the left was chosen by Gen. Putnam, Captain Enos,
Mr. Lyman and other New England adventurers, as a proper place
for a town ; and by order of the governor and council of West

MISSISSIPPI 149
Florida in 1773, it was reserved for the capitol. The country
around is very fit for settlements."
In his description of the regions explored on the left bank of the
Mississippi from the Yazoo to Manchac, Mr. Putnam states that
he saw but a few small streams of water, and none suitable for
mills; that the only mill-seat he saw or heard of was on the Big
Black. As a result of this exploration, says Mr. Putnam, "So
favorable was the report of the committee, as to the quality of the
land, climate, etc., and moderate terms on which the governor and
council had engaged to grant them, that at a meeting of the mil
itary land company in the fall of 1773, at Hartford, they resolved
to prosecute the settlement; and during that autumn, winter, and
spring following, several hundred families embarked from Massa
chusetts, Connecticut, and other places, for the purpose of settling
on the lands we had explored. But they were sadly disappointed.
On the 6th of October of that year, Gov. Chester received an order
from the king in council, prohibiting him from granting any more
lands, either on family rights, or on purchase, until the king's
pleasure be further signified to him. Thus the land office was shut
before the emigrants arrived,, and indeed I believe before any of
them sailed, and never opened afterwards." While the Provincials
were much disappointed, they were permitted to occupy any vacant
lands they could find. Says Hildreth, "the emigrants of 1774 ar
rived generally so late in the season, that many of them sickened
and died in this new climate, and the war which soon followed,
put a stop to any further attempts to prosecute the settlement."
In the instructions to Mr. Putnam as deputy surveyor, the sur
veyor-general of West Florida, Elias Dunford, required notices
of important places on the river for landings, wharves, towns,
etc. The townships were in no case to exceed in width one-third
of their length, in order not to occupy too much space on the river
bank. The whole grant from Gov. Chester embraced nineteen of
these townships, intended to contain about 20,000 acres each, mak
ing the whole grant amount to 380,000 acres. The cost to the
company was simply the fees of the officers of the government,
amounting to five pounds sterling, or $18.20 for every thousand
acres. One member of the company, Capt. Michael Martyn, settled 45
miles up the river Amite, in August, 1774. He wrote that his fam
ily had been sick, but he was pleased with the country.
General Lyman, accompanied by his eldest son and a number of
the other members of the company, and their families moved on
to the Big Black river in the surveyed territory in 1774. It was
his intention to get his plantation in shape for the reception of his
family, who were to follow him later. However, when Mrs. Lyman
and five more of his children arrived in 1776, she found both hus
band and son dead.- She did not long survive him and died in 1777.
Captain Matthew Phelps in his "Memoirs" states that the fol
lowing were fellow voyagers on his two trips to the Mississippi
country: In 1773 — "Thaddeus and Phineas Lyman with eight

150 MISSISSIPPI
slaves, these were from Suffield, as were likewise Moses and Isaac
Sheldon, Roger Harmon, and one Hancks ; Seth Miller, and Elisha
and Joseph Flowers of Springfield ; Moses Drake, Ruggles Winchel,
and Benjamin Barber of Westfield; Mr. Wolcott, from Winsor;
Daniel and Roswell Magguet of Hartford; Thomas Comstock and
Mr. Weed of New Hartford; Capt. Silas Crane, Robert Patrick,
Ashbel Bowen,. John Newcomb, and James Dean of Lebanon ;
Abraham Knap of Norfolk ; Giles, Nathaniel Hull, James Stoddert,
and Thaddeus Bradley of Salisbury; Ephraim Case and Hezekiah
Reu from Sheffield; John Fisk and Elisha Hale of Wallingford;
Timothy Hotchkiss and David Hotchkiss of Waterbury; John
Hyde, William Silkrag, Jonathan Lyon, and William Davis of
Strafford or Derby. We sailed in the Gulf of Mexico, in company
with a vessel from Connecticut, commanded by Captain West
Goodrich of Durham, on board of which were Capt. Ladley of
Hartford, since dead ; General Lyman of Suffield, dead ; Hugh
White from Middletown ; Thomas and James Lyman ; Capt. Els-
worth, Ira Whitmore, and  Sage, from Middletown and Major
Early of Weathersfield. In a vessel that followed us the October
following my sailing on my first voyage, there went to the same
place James Harmon and family, and Elnathan Smith, of Suffield,
William Hurlburt and Elijah Leonard, of Springfield, with a num
ber of slaves. On my second voyage I sailed in a vessel com
manded by Capt. Eggleston, with whom went passengers Major
Timothy Dwight with a wife and one child; Sereno and Jonathan
Dwight of Northampton; Benjamin Day, and family; Harry
Dwight and three slaves ; Joseph Leonard and Josiah Flowers,
with their families, from Springfield ; Rev. Mr. Smith and family,
from Granville, Mass. ; the wife of Elnathan Smith, and family,
who on her arrival found her husband was dead; Madam Lyman
with three sons and two daughters, children of General Lyman,
Whom with one son she found dead on her arrival, the knowledge
of whose death she survived but a few days ; and John Felt and
family, from Suffield. There are several others who accompanied
me in my two voyages, whose memories I shall ever respect, al
though their names have escaped my recollection."
In the "History of the Mississippi Valley" by Spears and Clark
(1903) it is stated "In 1773 General Lyman, of Connecticut, and
some military friends, laid out several additions to the old French
settlement at Natchez, and to that point no less than 400 families
emigrated during the year named, passing down the Ohio in flat
boats, while an unrecorded host travelled by way of Boatyard,
Sullivan county, Tenn." Among the old land grants of this period,
which can still be found among the files of the land office for the
Natchez District, is one of 20,000 acres, on Bayou Pierre to Thad
deus Lyman, dated October 27, 1772.
The colonists erected a mill at the falls on the Big Black and
planned to ship lumber to New Orleans. This prospect was
blasted, however, by the Spanish prohibition of that trade soon
after.

MISSISSIPPI 151
In the year 1802, the survivors of the colony, about one hundred
in number, reorganized themselves, and petitioned congress for a
confirmation of their old grants, but it does not appear that any
thing was done for them. Thus ended this famous land venture,
which caused a good deal of excitement in New England at the
time. Lynch, Charles, came to Mississippi from South Carolina, and
was a resident of Monticello. "His retired country life, domestic
habits, agricultural pursuits and associations among the laboring
portion of the community, were admirably well calculated to enable
him to prepare his highly cultivated mind for future usefulness."
In 1822, the legislature conferred upon him the appointment of
judge of probate of Lawrence county. He accepted it reluctantly,
for he was not a lawyer. In 1824 he was elected to the State
senate, where he served in 1825-27. In August, 1827 he was re
elected for the district of Simpson and Lawrence. He was selected
as the leader of the Jacksonian Democracy in the senate, and was
the author of the resolution of 1828, remonstrating against the
United States bank, and the introduction of a branch in Missis
sippi. In January, 1829, he was a candidate for the United States
senate, supported by Plummer and others. But, as it is stated in
a campaign biography of Lynch, "the Aristocratic, Federal and
Bank party triumphed in the election of Hon. Thomas B. Reed."
Being again elected to the senate in 1830 Lynch opposed the intro
duction of a branch of the bank, but in this he was overruled by
the majority. After the adoption of the new constitution he was
again elected to the senate, and chosen president of that body in
January, 1833. Upon the death of Gov. Scott, June 12, 1833, he
became acting governor of the State, and so continued until Gov.
Runnells was inaugurated in November. In his annual message to
the legislature, that met in the latter month, he took a bold stand
against the course of the Calhoun party in South Carolina. "Be
wildered," said he, "in the mazes of theory, they glided with as
tonishing facility over facts that are destructive of the conclusions
to which they arrive, and become the ready victims of passion
and continued prejudice. The prompt action of the chief magis
trate, and the expression of an overwhelming majority of the
American people, have met and denounced the doctrine of nulli
fication in a voice so decided as to blast the hopes of the enemy
of free governments ; and affords to us and to the world the highest
evidence of the intelligence, virtue and fidelity of the people, with
the cheering assurance that our union and liberty shall live for
ever." He urgently recommended the establishment of primary
schools in every neighborhood. He was also a firm friend of
internal improvements. In 1829 he was a member of the State
board and made a report recommending the opening of various
rivers to navigation. It was claimed by his friends that he deserved
the title of father of the system of internal improvement. But his
plan, for the building of three railroads, through the State, con
necting the most important points, was neglected in favor of

152 MISSISSIPPI
various schemes for the benefit of speculators in which vast sums
of money, drawn from the people, were squandered.
In the famous campaign of 1835 he came out for governor in op
position to the caucus nominee of the Democratic party, Hiram
G. Runnells, and was supported by those who favored the reelec
tion of Senator Poindexter; while the supporters of Runnels fav
ored the election of Robert J. Walker. It appears that the friend
ship of Lynch for Jackson, and his opposition to nullification,
were expected to counteract the record of Poindexter. In this
combination David Dickson and James C. Wilkins were the can
didates for congress, and Silas Brown was named for secretary
of state, John P. Gilbert for auditor, and C. C. Mayson for treas
urer. The Walker-Runnels ticket was J. F. H. Claiborne and B.
W. Edwards for congress, B. W. Benson for secretary of state,
J. H. Mallory for auditor, Upton Miller for treasurer.
The opposition called Lynch "the White, alias VanBuren, alias
Jackson, alias anti-Jackson, alias anything candidate." He had
the support of the United States bank, the State banks, and the
enemies of both, and was elected governor by a majority of 426.
Edwards and Claiborne were chosen for congress ; Benson, Mal
lory and Mason for the other offices, and an anti-Poindexter leg
islature. Gov. Lynch was inaugurated in January, 1836. In his
inaugural address, read by the great Whig leader of Mississippi,
Adam L. Bingaman, there was this appropriate passage:
"But, gentlemen, there are occasional intervals in this bustle
and vicissitude of human affairs, that fall upon the spirits like an
evening's calm, and prompt us to still and control the turbulence of
thought, which the day may have brought forth ; soberly to review
our past conduct, and to ponder well on the future. Under such
profound impressions, the mind is brought to pause ; by reflection
it is chastened, and we rise from our meditations with our hearts
softened if not subdued; feeling in the approaching desolation of
nature alike the littleness of our angry passions and the disposition
to merge them in the more charitable and lofty feelings engendered
by that kindred evening which must soon close upon us all."
The vexed question of State sovereignty had been elaborately
discussed in the message of his immediate predecessor, Acting-
Governor Quitman, who held the theory of a sort of divine, "sa
cred and intangible" State, in which was perpetuated the "sover
eignty" of ancient government. Governor Lynch said : "Our
government was the first and as yet is the only one, fairly and
fully bottomed on the sovereignty of the people. ... As a
nation we have experienced a degree of prosperity and happiness
far beyond the enjoyment of any other government, nor is there
a people on earth upon whom the preservation of liberty and the
universal welfare, impose such dread obligations. The eyes of the
friends of liberty from every quarter of the globe are turned upon
us with intense interest."
After the close of his service as governor Mr. Lynch was en
trusted, as sole commissioner, with the completion of the State

MISSISSIPPI 153
house, and governor's mansion, which still stand, and the peniten
tiary, which has given way to the present Capitol. He was also
burdened with the presidency of the Alabama & Mississippi rail
road and banking company, which had been expected to build a
railroad from Jackson east, but was then in a state of collapse. '
A legislative committee on public buildings reported in 1840:
"The State was fortunate in procuring the services of a gentle
man so well qualified, and who devoted his unremitting attention
to the duties of his office. . . . Your committee cannot with
hold from him that praise that is due to a public officer who has
discharged his duty with marked industry, integrity and skill."
In the later years of his life Gov. Lynch resided at a plantation
home near Jackson. He died February 9, 1853, aged 70 years.
Lytteh's Administration. The legislature provided an elaborate
ceremonial for the inauguration of Governor Lynch, in the pres
ence of both houses, the judges, and other distinguished individu
als invited. The oath was to be administered by Chief Justice
Sharkey, the governor escorted by Joseph A. McCraven, sergeant-
at-arms for the occasion. "The sergeant-at-arms will then pro
claim at the door of the capitol that Charles Lynch is installed
governor and commander-in-chief of the army, navy and militia
of the State of Mississippi." So it was performed Jan. 7, 1836.
The officers serving with him were B. W. Benson, secretary of
state; James Phillips, treasurer; James H. Mallory, auditor. M.
D. Patton was attorney-general until 1837, succeeded by T. F.
Collins. John A. Quitman, acting governor, said in his message to the
legislature, that the public treasury was in a flourishing condition.
"The revenue of the State is rapidly increasing beyond the amount
required for the necessary expenses of the government." But the
revenue and the financial resources of the State government, as
well as the current money of the people, was mainly in notes of the
Planters and other banks, and the resources of the banks, to make
the notes good, were either money borrowed on State bonds or the
notes and mortgages of planters payable in the notes of the banks.
There was great activity in the sale of lands opened up by the
Choctaw and Chickasaw treaties — in large degree a reckless scram
ble by corrupt and unscrupulous speculators. There was a prev
alent disregard of those principles of faith and honor that make
society possible. The year 1836 is described in the State histories
as "the most prosperous year in the State's history." Yet Auditor
Mallory reported that it was impossible to collect many of the
notes given by purchasers of seminary lands. "The payment of the
whole of the notes is secured by the most responsible sureties,
yet many of the notes have not been paid. Believing that the
defalcation of the purchasers has been caused by the late fall of
the price of cotton, I would respectfully recommend that the leg
islature extend to them an indulgence of another year." The
"prosperity" was mainly fictitious or speculative. Public leaders
had blindly fed the fever with the extravagant issue of State bonds,

154 MISSISSIPPI
and the spirit of speculation was so pervasive pf two continents
that these bonds could be sold at a premium in New York and
London. The bursting of the bubble was now close at hand. At
the same time the State was agitated by the Texas revolution,
(q. v.)
The legislature of 1836 provided for the erection of ten new
counties in the Chickasaw lands, and three more were set apart
from the original counties of the Choctaw region. The building
of a penitentiary was provided for and further appropriation made
for the state bouse. George Poindexter was defeated in his am
bition for reelection as senator, by Robert J. Walker.
The presidential election of 1836 was closely contested by the
Democrats, whose candidate was VanBuren, and the Whigs, who
voted for Hugh L. White, of Tennessee. VanBuren carried the
State by 300 majority. The electors were Hiram G. Runnels,
Thomas Hinds, P. R. R. Pray and Reuben R. Grant.
When the legislature of January, 1837, met, the trouble about
the representation of new counties, which came up in Runnels'
administration, was renewed. Gov. Lynch refused to issue writs
of election to these counties in 1836, for the election of representa
tives. But the "boards of police," as the county boards were
called, called elections, and representatives from the new counties
presented themselves at the extra session of January, 1837, to
which date the legislature had adjourned in 1836, although the
constitution contemplated biennial sessions. In his message the
governor advised the legislature to transact only such business as
was urgent, and provide for a new apportionment in time for the
election in November following.
The legislature- did not do this. The house admitted the claim
ants to seats. No new apportionment was made. Instead, an act
of the most disastrous character was passed, incorporating the
Union bank, also an act incorporating a company to build the
proposed Nashville and New Orleans railroad, west of Pearl
river, called the "Boa Constrictor," and bitterly opposed by
Natchez. In the house Adam L. Bingaman favored the admission
of the new members and Prentiss opposed it in a great speech,
to which Bingaman replied. In the senate George Winchester led
in the opposition. Winchester and five other senators, and nine
teen representatives led by Prentiss issued an address to the peo
ple, declaring that the seating of the representatives was an act
of revolution and anarchy, and contempt of the constitution. A
protest was also spread on the journal of the house, asserting that
the proceeding had disorganized the house and made its acts of
no legal authority. The legislature adjourned January 21.
The people were already experiencing what was called a cur
tailment of currency. In other words, the fantastic operations of
speculators were becoming visible in a true light, and men who
had money were refusing to lend it for such purposes. The United
States government had instructed the land offices to demand coin
in payment for lands. Gov. Lynch was disposed to blame all the

MISSISSIPPI 155
approaching troubles upon this executive act. But the whole
policy of Andrew Jackson, in his bank fight, leading up to the
present situation, had been toward a return to specie payments, —
"hard money." The governor argued that the great issue of paper
money by the banks, added to the specie, had caused a decrease
of value of both paper and specie, as compared with commodities,
and tended to the rapid increase of prosperity and wealth. The
confusion of money and credit in his mind was the same ,as has
appeared in later years. Consequently he could give no advice
of value in the presence of danger, and, with some little hesitation,
he advised the incorporation of the Union bank, involving an enor
mous increase in the debt of the State, and suggested the sale of
the bonds in Europe, because New York capitalists were becoming
cautious. The crisis arrived in March, 1837, and on the 31st, Gov. Lynch
summoned a special session of the legislature to meet April 7,
1837. His reasons were, "Whereas, I have received information
within the last few days, from various parts of the State, indicating
in a serious point of view the pecuniary embarrassment of the
community, growing out of the unparalleled pressure of the times,
which precludes the usual moneyed facilities. And, whereas, a
combination of circumstances calls for and renders necessary the
convocation of the legislature, with a view of averting as far as
may be by the suitable and speedy action of that body, the im
pending ruin that seems to threaten a large portion of our citi
zens." Gen. M. Hunt, "minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordi
nary from the republic of Texas" to the United States, and the
presidents of the banks of the State were invited to seats within
the bar of the house. John L. Irwin, speaker, having resigned,
Mr. Vannerson was elected on the 19th ballot, after 16 ballots had
failed to elect Mr. Brown, or Mr. King. Bills were introduced
asking the "United States bank" of Pennsylvania to establish a
branch in Mississippi, also various propositions to relieve debtors
or hardship. The governor had called the bankers of the State to
the capital to consult with the legislature. In his message he
suggested the issue of post notes, running 13 months, to relieve
the banks, the notes to be accepted by the State treasury as money.
The governor did not credit the objection that such notes would
immediately sink below par and do more harm than good. He
laid the blame of the situation upon the interstate slave trade,
the drain of wealth to New Orleans, and too much paper money.
The State had been "under the grinding, withering and bitter
effects" of high rates of interest, and the almost entire dependence,
in order to raise money on any terms, upon bills drawn on the
commission houses of New Orleans. The late extensive failures
cut off the supply of this sort of credit, and the State was thrown
upon its own resources, when it was discovered that the Missis
sippi banks were creditors of the same houses. The banks were
compelled to suddenly restrict their credit to planters and call in

156 MISSISSIPPI
loans. "We are fully competent to manage all our commercial
operations within our own borders; and so long as we consent to
be tributary to a large, monopolizing and in some respects a for
eign emporium, we may expect to experience the disasters with
which we are at present visited."
One committee reported that if there were no change "the proud,
chivalrous freemen" of Mississippi must become "the vassals of
New Orleans."
But there was suspicion that the governor's anxiety was over
active in behalf of the banks. A committee waited upon him to
ask for the "memorials and petitions" he had alluded to in his
message ,as a cause for calling a special session. He refused to
submit to such an invasion of his prerogative, and hoped if he had
misconceived the true state of affairs the legislature would prevent
any harm coming from the extra session. Subsequently the house
resolved that while there was some difference of opinion on the
subject, all united in the opinion that his excellency was actuated
by none other than motives of the most exalted character, and the
kind, sympathetic and generous feelings that prompted him were
duly commended.
Among the other evils of the time, the law permitted the court
officers to tax the full amount of costs in collection cases against
each surety severally, and the officials continued to reap a rich
harvest, until the law was reformed. Felix H. Walker proposed
that the State issue twenty million in treasury notes, to be loaned
on real estate. When an act of legislature was proposed author
izing the State treasurer to receive a deposit of the surplus money
of the United States treasury, Mr. Walker protested, on the ground
that the surplus had been acquired by constitutional means — the
protective tariff. The deposit was received, however. (See Mc
Nutt's Administration.)
James Phillips reported a resolution asking for a branch of the
"United States bank" of Pennsylvania, as the speediest way to
obtain a circulating medium "equal to gold and silver." Phillips
said "The main and most certain relief of our country rests upon
the resources of the agricultural interests; and nothing but a
sufficient time for their proper development is necessary to reduce
and even extinguish the heavy burthen of debts which at present
exist, restore public confidence and mutual forbearance between
citizen and citizen."
This session of the house admitted 12 members from new coun
ties, and in the opinion of many rendered the acts of the house
of no effect. In protest, George Winchester and others resigned.
The State census of 1837 showed a total white population of
144,351; slaves, 164,393. Acres of land in cultivation, 1,048,530;
number of bales of cotton produced, 317,783. The white popula
tion of the larger towns were, Natchez 3,731, Vicksburg 2,796,
Columbus 1,448, Jackson 529, Clinton 613, Grand Gulf 490. Port
Gibson, Woodville and Grenada were the only other towns hav
ing over 400 whites.

MISSISSIPPI 157
The congressional elections in 1837 were very exciting (see
Prentiss, S. S.) and the campaign for governor equally so. There
were four candidates for governor, Alexander G. McNutt, anti-
bank Democrat; Maj. Benjamin W. Edwards, a Democrat simply;
and two Whigs, Col. John A. Grimball and Dr. Jacob B. Morgan.
Edwards died in the midst of the campaign and the result of the
balloting was : McNutt 12,936 ; Morgan, 9,896 ; Grimball, 4,974.
Lynch, James D., was a native of Virginia, entered the Univer
sity of North Carolina in 1855 ; became a teacher in Franklin
academy, Columbus, Miss., 1860, and at the outbreak of the war
entered the Confederate service as a private. After the battle of
Shiloh he organized a company of which he was captain.
At the close of the war he began the practice of law at Columbus,
but was forced to give it up on account of deafness. The remainder
of his. life was devoted to literary work. His poem, "Columbia
Saluting the Nations," was unanimously adopted by the World's
Columbia commission as the national salutation. The National
Editorial Association afterwards adopted it as the "press poem of
America." He is the author of "The Bench and Bar of Missis
sippi," "The Bench and Bar of Texas," "Kemper County Vindi
cated," and other works.
Lynchburg, a postoffice in the northwestern part of De Soto
county, 14 miles northwest of Hernando, the county seat.
Lynncreek, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Noxubee
county, situated on the creek of the same name, about 15 miles
northwest of Macon, the county seat. Brookville, 8 miles to the
east on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., is the nearest banking and rail
road town. Population in 1900, 57.
Lynwood, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, about 13 miles south
east of Brandon, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking
town. Population in 1900, 46.
Lyon, an incorporated post-town of Coahoma county, on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 2 miles north of Clarksdale, the
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 166 ; population in
1906 is estimated at 300.
Maben, an incorporated post-town in the extreme northwestern
part of Oktibbeha county, on the line of the Southern Ry., about
25 miles west of Westpoint, and 10 miles east of Eupora. A branch
of the Bank of West Point was established here in 1896. The town
also has a large brick plant and a fine cotton gin. Population in
1900, 282.
Mabry, a postoffice in the northern part of Tate county, on Bear
Tail creek, a tributary of the Coldwater river, 10 miles northeast
of Senatobia, and 6 miles from Coldwater, the nearest banking town.
Macedonia, a postoffice of Noxubee county, 8 miles southwest of
Macon, the county seat.
Mack, a postoffice of Marshall county, 6 miles northwest of Holly
Springs, the county seat.
Macksmith, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Lawrence
county, 10 miles southwest of Monticello, the county seat. It is

158 MISSISSIPPI
a station on the Natchez, Columbia & Mobile R. R., a logging road
running east from Norfield, Lincoln county.
Macon, the capital of Noxubee county, is a thriving city located
35 miles south by west of Columbus, and 63 miles north of Meridian.
It lies on the east bank of the Oaknoxubee river, on the main line
of the Mobile & Ohio R. R. The city was named for Gen.
Nathaniel Macon, U. S. senator from North Carolina. Judge T. S.
Sterling held the first county court here in the spring of 1834, in
the log house of Joseph H. Frith. The first brick court house was
erected in 1841, which was replaced just before the War, in 1860,
by a larger building; the present fine commodious court house was
erected in 1900. Macon lies in an agricultural and cotton-growing
district, and is the market and shipping point for a large section of
rich surrounding country. Its two banks, the ¦ Merchants and
Farmers, founded in 1888, and the Bank of Macon, founded in 1899,
are both prosperous institutions. The Beacon is a Democratic
weekly which was established in 1849, and is now under the edi
torial management of D. C. Ferris, a grandson of Henry C. Ferris,
the founder of the paper; the Beacon has always remained in the
Ferris family. Among the industries of Macon are several very
strong mercantile establishments, a cotton compress, cotton seed
oil mill, four cotton gins, a large brick plant, an ice factory, bottling
works, and a large planing mill. Several lumbering plants have
their offices in Macon, and there are two large lumber yards, two
hotels and three livery stables. An excellent electric lighting and
water works system is owned and operated by the city. 'All the
principal religious denominations have churches here, and the city
supports one of the best school systefns in the- State. The Macon
high school building was erected in 1900 at a cost of $30,000.
During the War between the States, when Jackson was occupied
by Federal troops, Macon was the war capital of the State. The
census of 1900 showed a population of 2,057, or 500 more than
in 1890.
Macon Convention, 1839. There was a convention of representa
tives of the Mississippi banks at Vicksburg in November, 1838,
presided over by H. G. Runnels, and a convention of the banks
of Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama was called for December,
by the Union bank, to consider the resumption of specie payments.
The result was an address to the cotton planters, merchants and
bankers of the Southern States, signed by prominent bankers of
the various States, headed by Nathaniel A. Ware, of Mississippi,
proposing a scheme for basing money upon cotton, through a
banking and commercial alliance with the English cotton manu
facturers and the Bank of England. Under this scheme the South
ern banks would make advances on cotton, and through their
British correspondents relieve the planter of all further care re
garding the marketing of their crops. A convention was called at
Macon, Ga., in October, 1839, to further consider this remarkable
proposition. On production of bills of lading the banks would
issue post notes, which would be the currency of the country.

MISSISSIPPI 159
The scheme was presented as a method of protecting the cotton
crop from sacrifice to the profit of speculators and brokers. This
was at a time when the so-called United States bank, of Pennsyl
vania, supplied the good paper money in Mississippi, and South
Carolina and New York were preparing banks for a similar pur
pose. It was the policy of S. S. Prentiss and the Whigs to put the
issue of paper money under the control of the national govern
ment. Mactobys. See Indians.
Madden, a post-village in the eastern part of Leake county, 12
miles southeast of Carthage, the county seat. Philadelphia, 18
miles to the northeast, is the nearest railroad town. Forest is the
nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Popula
tion in 1900, 200.
Maddox, a postoffice in the eastern part of Simpson county, about
16 miles southeast of Mendenhall.
Madison County, in the central part of the State, was established
January 29, 1828, and was named for President James Madison,
fourth President of the United States. The county has a land
surface of 714 square miles. Embraced within the territory ceded
by the Choctaws in 1820, and long known as the "New Purchase,"
it was originally a part of the old county of Hinds. In 1823 Hinds
surrendered a large section of its area to form the county of Yazoo,
and five years later, that portion of Yazoo lying east of the Big Black
river, was taken to form the county of Madison. The act creat
ing the county recites that "So much of the county of Yazoo as
lies east of the Big Black river, beginning on the east bank of said
river, where the Hinds county line strikes the same; thence with
the said line to Pearl river; thence up said river to the Choctaw
boundary line; thence with said boundary line, to where it strikes
the Big Black ; thence down the Big Black river to the beginning."
December 23, 1833, the county was enlarged by adding "the terri
tory south of the line drawn from the western boundary of Leake
county, through the center of township 12 of range 5 east, and ex
tended west to the old Choctaw boundary, and thence west to the
Biig Black river, and west of Leake county." February 22, 1840,
the present boundary line between Madison and Hinds counties
was established as follows: "Beginning at that point on the Big
Black river, which is intersected by the range line No. 2 west,
running thence due south to the present boundary line between the
said counties; thence east with the present line to the basis
meridian ; thence south to township No. 6, north ; thence east to the
present line." It is bounded on the north by the county of Attala,
on the east by Leake county, on the south by Rankin and Hinds
counties, the Pearl river on the southeast forming the boundary
between Madison and Rankin ; on the west by Yazoo county, the
Big Black river on the northwest forming the boundary between it
and Yazoo county. This is one of the richest farming sections of
the whole State and early attracted a large influx of settlers. It had
a population of 3,675 whites and 11,238 slaves as early as 1837, and

160 MISSISSIPPI
had 89,746 acres under cultivation in 1836. Many of the old settle
ments of the region, such as Runnelsville, Williamsburg, Madison-
ville, Livingston and Vernon, (q. v.) are now extinct or moribund.
The first courts of the county were held at Beattie's Bluff, on the Big
Black river, and boats ascended the river to this point. The fol
lowing men were appointed commissioners to select and lay out a
county seat, and contract for the erection of county buildings :
Jonah R. Doak, Robert Carson, Sr., Archibald McGehee, John P.
Thompson and William Wilson. The first permanent county seat
was located at the old town of Livingston, situated about 15 miles
southwest of Canton, and at one time the most important town in
the county. It began to decay when the county seat was changed
to Madisonville. The present county site was finally established at
Canton, near the center of the county. Canton is a thriving town of
5,000 people, on the Illinois Central R. R., has the largest nursery
and floral establishment in the State, and is the center of a locality
where the growing of fruits and vegetables for market has assumed
large proportions. Some of the other important towns in the
county are Madison Station (pop. 323), Ridgeland (pop. 300),
Flora (pop. 304), Sharon and Millville. In the northeast corner of
the county formerly stood the old historic home of Gov. McWillie,
"Kirkwood," long known as one of the most beautiful and hospit
able homes in the South, and a refuge for its war-worn sons during
the Civil War. Gen. Quitman, Governors Matthews, Foote, Pettus,
and McRea, President Davis and many others of note have been
entertained within its hospitable portals.
The main line of the Illinois Central R. R. runs through the
center of the county, and a branch line of the same road runs from
Jackson to Yazoo City and cuts across the southwestern corner.
Besides the two large rivers already mentioned, numerous tribu
tary creeks afford the region ample water power, the power on
Kentuctah and Doak's creeks being especially good. The timber
consists of all kinds of oaks, hickory, pine, gum, poplar, walnut,
beech and cypress. The region is gently undulating and the soil
various in character, with a clay sub-soil ; much of it is very rich,
and, on the river and creek bottoms, of an alluvial quality. In the
southern part, quantities of limestone and marls have been dis
covered. Immense quantities of peaches and strawberries are
grown along the line of the Illinois Central R. R. in this county,
and shipped to the northern markets. Pears, apples, figs and other
fruits are also raised in abundance and do very well. The region is
well adapted to stock raising and sheep husbandry on account of
the excellent pasturage, and in 1900 the value of the live stock in
the county had reached a total of $878,489. It can be made the
banner live stock county of the State. As compared with agri
culture, manufactures have attained small development, though the
last census records a total of 75 manufacturing establishments.
The following statistics, taken from the last United States census
for 1900, and covering farms, manufactures and population, will be
found instructive: Number of farms 4,717, acreage in farms

MISSISSIPPI 161
341,388, acres improved 218,172, value of the land exclusive of the
buildings $2,600,260, value of the buildings $882,420, value of the
live stock $878,489, total value of products not fed $1,860,708.
Number of manufacturing establishments 75, capital invested $179,-
315, wages paid $34,200, cost of materials $102,561, total value of
products $233,732. The population in 1900 consisted of whites
6,574, colored 25,919, a total of 32,493 and 5,172 more than in the
year 1890. The population in 1906 was estimated at 37,000. Farm
lands are rapidly advancing in price and a hill farm near Canton
was recently sold for $20 per acre cash. This farm had been in
cultivation 75 years. Such sales are more or less common. The
total assessed valuation of the real and personal property in Madison
county in 1905 was $4,819,430 and in 1906 it was $5,266,701, showing
an increase during the year of $447,271.
Madison County, Territorial. Gov. Robert Williams wrote to
Secretary Albert Gallatin, Aug. 23, 1808, regarding "the settle
ments on the public lands in the great bend of Tennessee river,
within this territory. It is stated there are at least thirteen hun
dred families already settled on those lands ; that they contain
six or seven hundred militia organized into companies and armed.
There are no laws or officers, civil or military amongst them, and
frequent applications are made to me on this subject. These
settlers being (as I presume) intruders, prevent my taking any
measures respecting them, and such as I should were they not
thus situated." He recommended some action by the government
on the subject adapted to the reputed character of the settlers as
honest and well-disposed people. Being advised by the president
to extend county government to the region, as the Indian title had
been extinguished, by the Cherokee and Chickasaw treaties of
1805-6, Gov. Williams issued his proclamation December 13, 1808,
establishing the county of Madison, choosing the name in compli
ment to the secretary of state. Thomas Freeman was appointed
register of the land office for that region, and commissioned as
justice by the governor, who asked him to recommend the appoint
ment of officers, save that of sheriff, which was to be filled by
Capt. Stephen Neal of Natchez district. President Jefferson par
ticularly advised the governor to appoint no one to office who
claimed land under the Georgia land companies.
In the spring of 1810 Madison county was given a separate Ter
ritorial judge — Obadiah Jones, of Georgia, and the privilege of
suffrage was conferred upon the inhabitants. The county seat was
Twickenham, which name was changed to Huntsville by act of the
Mississippi assembly in 1811. This was the seat of the first legis
lature of Alabama State in 1819, and the meeting place of the
constitutional convention.
Madison Station, an incorporated post-town in the southern part
of Madison county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 12 miles by rail
north of Jackson. The Bank of Madison was established here in
1901, with a capital of $20,000. It has a money order postoffice.
Population in 1900, 323. It is the banner town of the county in the
li—u

162 MISSISSIPPI
volume of truck shipments and large quantities of strawberries,
plums, peaches, peas and beets are shipped in car load lots during
the berry and vegetable season.
Madisonville, an extinct town of Madison county, located about
12 miles from Canton, in the southeastern part. When Madison
county was formed from Yazoo in 1828, this place was made the
county seat. It was incorporated in 1836 ; other acts relating to its
charter were passed in 1837 and 1848. Dr. James Anderson, a phy
sician, and the firm of Joseph Coffman & Co., merchants, were
located at Madisonville in the early days. Major Walker's planta
tion now embraces the site of the old settlement.
Maffit, John Newland, a famous Methodist preacher, made his
home for some time at Natchez, about 1840, and there published
a religious paper. He was also in great demand as a lecturer.
He was a native of Ireland, mainly educated through associa
tion with his fellows, but possessed of a remarkable command of
pure English and a marvelous voice, which in its persuasive tones
was well nigh irresistable. Henry S. Foote said that he never
observed any one else who could produce such effects upon an
audience. Yet he seldom said anything that left behind a useful
or permanent impression. His printed sermons were singularly
cold and unimpressive and without noteworthy thought. But he
was a master of all that appertains to the human voice as an in
strument of persuasion. "His heart was warm and generous and
his admiration genuine of all that is lofty in sentiment or action."
He was prone to be carried away by feeling in his attacks on the
social customs of his day, and was consequently the subject of
much criticism, by the young and gay.
Magdalen, in the southern part of Harrison county, 5 miles north
west of Gulfport, the county seat.
Magee, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Simpson county,
42 miles southeast of Jackson, and 10 miles southeast of Menden
hall. It is a station on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. It has tele
graph, telephone, express and banking facilities. The Magee Bank
was established in 1902. One newspaper is published here, the
Magee Courier, a Democratic weekly, established in 1900, W. H.
Watkins, editor and publisher. Two saw mills, a wood working
plant, a cotton gin, several stores, churches and a good school are
located here. Population in 1900, 100 ; the population in 1906 was
estimated at 1,000.
Magnavista, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Issaquena
county, situated on the Mississippi river, 20 miles south of Mayers
viUe, the county seat. Vicksburg is the nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 50.
Magnolia, the capital of Pike county, is a thriving, incorporated
town on the Illinois Central R. R., 98 miles north of New Orleans.
It is 450 feet above tidewater, and is drained by the Tangipahoa
river on the right and Minnehaha creek on the left, which form the
eastern and western boundary lines of the town. Its first court
house, together with the valuable county records, was destroyed

MISSISSIPPI 163
by a disastrous fire in August, 1882. It has two banks with a tota!
invested capital of $95,000; three hotels, two good schools and a
colored college, seven churches, including all the leading denomina
tions ; a complete system of water works supplying artesian water ;
an electric lighting plant, with a light on every corner, and an excel
lent fire department. Among the manufacturing enterprises now
in the town are an oil mill, ice plant, a $200,000 cotton mill, a com
press, two Munger system cotton gins, and a saw and planing mill.
It is surrounded by a lumber, cotton, fruit and vegetable-growing
section. It has two newspapers — the "Gazette," a Democratic
semi-weekly, established in 1872 and owned and edited by Jos. E.
Norwood; and the "Magnolia News," a Democratic weekly edited
by J. B. Sternberger.
There is a city debt of $24,800 ; the assessed valuation of property
is $637,735 ; the tax rate is 13y2 mills. Population in 1900, l-,038 ;
in 1890, 676 ; present estimated population, 1,500.
The following fraternities have lodges here : Masons, Odd
Fellows, Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the
World, the American Guild, The Knights and Ladies of Honor.
Company L, known as the Magnolia Guards of the 3d regiment of
State troops, is located here. The town has an exceptionally low
death rate and has never had a case of yellow fever since its organ
ization. Magnolia — State Flower. At the request of the school children
of the State, an election was ordered to occur November 28, 1900,
to select the "State Flower." The secretary of state received re
turns from 237 schools, and 23,278 votes were cast, of which the
Magnolia received 12,745, the n,ext highest being the cotton bloom
4,171, Cape jasmine 2,584.
Maharris, a post-hamlet of Copiah county, 11 miles west of Hazle
hurst, the county seat. Population in 1900, 24.
Manned, a postoffice in the central part of Perry county, 2 miles
south of New Augusta, the county seat, and a station on the Mobile,
Jackson & Kansas City R. R. It has several stores, two churches,
a school, and a saw mill.
Mahon, a post-hamlet of Marshall county, on the Kansas City,
Memphis & Birmingham R. R., 4 miles northwest of Holly Springs.
Population in 1900, 41.
Mahrud, a postoffice in the western part of Holmes county, on
the Yazoo river, about 20 miles west of Lexington, the county seat.
Malaria. This vague term is used to name the fevers which are
less serious than yellow fever, but cause perhaps more suffering
than the latter, because of their frequency and constancy in the
summer seasons. It was demonstrated in 1905 that malarial fevers
may be practically prevented by a general campaign against
mosquitoes. The malaria does not proceed directly from decayed
vegetation or filth of any kind, but the disease in man is due to a
microscopic organism that makes its home in the red corpuscles
of the blood. Its regular period of growth and production of
spores (seed or young) and the bursting of the walls of the blood

164 MISSISSIPPI
corpuscles, are the cause of the recurring chills and fevers. The
organism is communicated to human beings by the species of
mosquito known as Anopheles, which has spotted wings, and when
resting, hangs at right angles to the ceiling. The remedies are
good drainage, and the thorough screening of houses.
Malco, a hamlet in the northern part of Scott county, situated on
Taalo Bayou, about 13 miles north of Forest, the county seat. The
postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and it now has rural free
delivery from. Harperville.
Malcum, a post-hamlet of Lincoln county, 10 miles east of Brook
haven, the county seat, and nearest banking and railroad town. It
is a station on the spur line of the Illinois Central R. R., running
east from Brookhaven. Population in 1900, 35.
Malones, a hamlet in the southwestern part of Cbahoma county,
situated on the Mississippi river, about 18 miles west of Clarks
dale, the county seat. The postoffice at this place was recently dis
continued and mail now goes to Hillhouse. Population in 1900, 27.
Malvina, a post-hamlet of Bolivar county, on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R., 6 miles east of Rosedale, the county seat, and
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 52.
Mamie, a postoffice of Madison county.
Mammoth Springs, or Springs Station, a postoffice in the north
western part pf Perry county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 5
miles by rail northwest of Hattiesburg.
Manassas, battle, see Army of Northern Virginia.
.Manila, a postoffice of Prentiss county, 12 miles east of Boone
ville, the county seat.
Mann, a postoffice in the southern part of Tishomingo county,
on Big Bear creek, a tributary of the Tennessee river, 18 miles due
south of luka, the county seat.
Mannassa, a postoffice of Clarke county, 10 miles southeast of
Quitman, the county seat.
Manning, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Pike county,
24 miles from Magnolia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Manning, Van H., was born in Martin county, North Carolina
July 26, 1839. His parents moved to Mississippi when he was two
years of age, and he was educated at Horn Lake academy, in De
Soto county, and at the University of Nashville, where he studied
law and was admitted to the bar. He moved to Arkansas in 1860,
and was colonel of the Third Arkansas infantry in Lee's army.
In 1876 he was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress from the 2nd
Miss. District; was reelected in 1878 and 1880, and served from
1877 to 1833. In 1886-87 he prosecuted to a successful issue the
suit of the State in the court of claims for the five per cent, fund
withheld as an offset to the non-payment of the war tax. He died
in Washington. "The joint canvass of Colonel Manning and
Thomas H. Walton in the summer and autumn of 1876 will long be
remembered for its brilliancy and intensity of feeling. Manning
was a remarkable stump speaker, as fiery as Foote, and mingled
scholary grace and polish with passion and feeling." (Rowland.)

MISSISSIPPI 165
Mannsdale, a postoffice of Madison county, 11 miles southwest of
Canton, the county seat.
Mantachie, an incorporated village in the western part of
Itawamba county, 6 miles northwest of Fulton, the county seat, and
14 miles northeast of Tupelo, the nearest railroad and telegraph
town. Fulton is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 150.
Mantee, a postoffice in the extreme northeastern part of Webster
county, on the new extension of the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas
City R. R., about 15 miles from Walthall, the county seat.
Manufacturing. In 1812 there were 807 spindles and 1,330 looms
at work in the Mississippi territory, including what is now Ala
bama, manufacturing 342,472 yards of cotton cloth, 450 yards of
linen, and 7,898 yards of woolen stuffs. In 1840 the statistics of
the State of Mississippi indicated 53 cotton "factories" with 318
spindles, employing 81 hands and involving a capital of $6,420.
In 1850 a steam power mill was in operation at Woodville, where,
also, the first railroad shop was established. In 1857, it was noted
that there was at Jackson a plow and wagon factory producing
a very good output. The penitentiary at that time and particularly
in 1861-63, was a considerable factory, — at the last a military fac
tory. Beginning in 1865 with the Wesson mills, there were established,
by 1884, 14 cotton and woolen mills in the State, and 13 oil mills,
and there was a large installation of saw mills in the long-leaf
pine region. This growth of industry was particularly rapid dur
ing the years 1880-84.
The Mississippi Mills, at Wesson, was described by a newspaper
correspondent in 1874,' as having a working capital of $400,000,
all supplied by the stockholders ; a main building 50x347 feet,
looms 168, operatives 250, all white and mainly from the class of
non-slaveholders before the war; highest wages paid, $6 a week.
"This is emphatically a domestic institution — President Richard
son, of Jackson, being an old resident, and all the stockholders
of the same class — men who have accepted the situation, and are
making a good thing out of it."
The census of 1870 showed 11 tanneries, 14 machinery factories,
11 factories for agricultural implements, 2 car works, 10 textile
factories. The first fertilizer factory was established at Jackson
in 1881. A factory of the same sort at Meridian is engaged also
in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Good fire brick have been
made at different places in Mississippi, notably at Harriston and
Meridian. There are two potteries, both on a small scale, at Holly
Springs and Biloxi. (Muckenfoos, 1900.) There was once a suc
cessful glass factory at Moss Point. The sands of Pearl river
are said to be well adapted to the manufacture. In 1900 there
were 18 iron factories in the State, using Alabama pig iron. The
first ice factory was established at Jackson in March, 1880. There
were about 17 in the State in 1900, the largest at Vicksburg. The
manufacture of illuminating gas from resin, began at Jackson in

166 MISSISSIPPI
1857. Coal gas is little used, but electric lighting plants are numer
ous. About 1885 the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas railroad (now
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley) shops were located at Vicksburg,
in consideration of a donation of $100,000 by the city, which was
raised by an issue of bonds, and the grant of lands. This is the
principal manufacturing establishment of the State.
The bottling of mineral water is a profitable industry which en
gaged four companies in 1900, the largest at Meridian, and the
oldest at Raymond.
There were 24 turpentine stills in 1900.
The opening up of the lumber region of the State, after 1865,
began on the Pascagoula, attracted by the good natural harbor
with 17 feet of water on the bar, within four miles of the mouth
of the river. Fifteen saw mills of considerable capacity were erec
ted at the mouth of the river by the close of 1872, in which year
there was a shipment to eastern and gulf ports of the United
States, and to Mexico, West Indian and European ports, of 35,-
236,500 feet of lumber. A much smaller amount was shipped from
Pearl river. It was in this year that for the first time after the war,
interest was generally awakened in the development of Mississippi
coast facilities, and the aid of congress was solicited.
(See Centennial Exposition, New Orleans exposition ; Census
of 1900 ; Cotton Seed Oil.)
{Marianna, a postoffice of Marshall county, about 8 miles west,
southwest of Holly Springs, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Marie, a postoffice of Sunflower county.
Marietta, a post-hamlet of Prentiss county, about 32 miles south
of Corinth, and 12 miles southeast of Booneville, the county seat.
Baldwyn, 10 miles to the west, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., is the
nearest railroad, telegraph and express and banking town. It has
a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 100.
Marion. This old town flourished before the War and was the
county seat of Lauderdale county until the close of that struggle.
When the Mobile & Ohio R. R. came through the county, it missed
the town by two miles and the railroad station of the same name
was made the seat of justice and soon absorbed the business of its
namesake. Gen. W. S. Patton was proprietor of the hotel at old
Marion in 1860.
Marion County was established at an early day during the
territorial era, December 9, 1811, and received its name in honor of
General Francis Marion of Revolutionary fame. The county has
a land surface of 1,095 square miles. It is a sparsely settled dis
trict in the south central part of the State next to the Louisiana
border. The counties of Lawrence, Pike, and parts of Covington,
Lincoln and Lamar were originally embraced within its extensive
limits. It was carved from the old counties of Wayne, Franklin,
and Amite, and its original limits were defined as follows: "All
that tract of country . . . beginning on the line of demarca
tion, where the fourth range of townships east of Pearl river inter-

MISSISSIPPI 167
sects the said line, thence west with said line of demarcation, to
the sixty-mile post, east of the Mississippi, being the first range of
townships west of Tansopiho, thence north on said line of townships
to the Choctaw boundary line, thence along said Choctaw boundary
line to the fourth range of townships east of Pearl river, thence
with said range to the beginning." Within the last few years,
several new lines of railroad have been built and the population
has increased rapidly, more than 30 per cent, from 1890 to 1900. A
quarter of a century after its establishment, the county had only
1,940 whites and 1,554 slaves ; in 1890 it had 9,532 inhabitants, and
in 1900 it had 13,501. Two of the prominent early settlers of the
region were Dougal McLaughlin and John Ford, both of whom rep
resented the county in the Constitutional Convention of 1817. The
former was a native of South Carolina, descended from an old High
land Scotch family, and a man distinguished for his probity and
sterling worth. The following is a partial list of the civil officers
of the county for the years 1818-1827 : Charles M. Norton, Ruse
Perkins, William Lott, Benjamin Lee, Isaac Brakefield, Henry
Heninger, Benjamin Youngblood, David Ford, John H. Norton,
John Regan, Ransom, M. Collins, Justices of the Quorum, 1818-
1821; Simeon Duke, Ranger, Assessor and Collector, and Sheriff;
Jepthah Duke, William Mellon, John Alexander, County Treas
urers ; James Phillips, David Ford, William Roach, Hector McNeal,
County Surveyors; Jacob Tomlinson, William Graham, Robert
Stacy, Wm. Phillips, James Rawles, Thos. Collins, Hope H. Lenoir,
Daniel Farnham, Jordan Elder, Wm. H. Cox, Nathan M. Collins,
and Jesse Crawford, Justices of the Peace; Hugh McGowan,
William Spencer, Judges of Probate. Columbia, the county seat,
is located on the east bank of the Pearl river, contains a population
of 2,000, and is a station on the Mendenhall-Maxie branch of the
Gulf & Ship Island R. R. The New Orleans Great Northern R. R.
is building through the county from south to north, beginning at
Slidell, La., and extending up the west bank of the Pearl river. The
Pearl river, and numerous tributary creeks in the western part,
constitute the principal water courses. These streams are exten
sively used for logging operations, as Marion county lies entirely.
within the long leaf pine region of the State and is well timbered.
The surface of the county is gently undulating and the soil is light
and sandy and reasonably productive. On the bottoms, however,
it is fertile and raises excellent crops without the use of fertilizers.
There are also extensive "reed brakes," which, when drained, prove
very productive. In 1899, $18,690 was expended for labor and
$22,110 for fertilizers on the farms of the county. The products
are corn, cotton, oats, sweet and Irish potatoes, peas, rice, peanuts
and sugar-cane. Pasturage is extensive and stock raising has
proved profitable.
The twelfth United States census for 1900 gives the following
data : Number of farms 1,781, acreage of farms 236,333, acres im
proved 54,156, value of land exclusive of buildings $634,450, value
of buildings $293,710, value of live stock, $399,339, total value of

168 MISSISSIPPI
products not fed $612,585. Number of manufacturing establish
ments 43, capital $132,538, wages paid $68,322, cost of materials
$182,004, total value of products $379,178. The population in 1900
consisted of whites 9,178, colored 4,323, a total of 13,501 and 3,969
more than in the year 1890. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property in Marion county in 1905 was $3,856,739 and in
1906 it was $5,330,728, which shows an increase during the year of
$1,473,989. Marion Station, a post-village of Lauderdale county, on the
Mobile & Ohio R. R., 5 miles northeast of Meridian. It has two
churches, a high school, several stores and a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 130.
Marks, a postoffice of Quitman county, on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R., 6 miles southeast of Belen, the county seat.
Marksville, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Holmes
county, on the Yazoo river, about 18 miles from Lexington, the
county seat.
Marquette and Joliet. After the death of Hernando de Soto,
more than a century elapsed before any further attempt was made
to explore the Mississippi. The river seems to have been forgot
ten, although several Spaniards, either by design or by accident,
had reached its shores. It had been explored for at least a thou
sand miles, was known ito have at least two branches equal in size
to the finest rivers in Spain, to be nearly a mile wide and perfectly
navigable, and yet it was laid down on the maps as an insignifi
cant stream, often not distinguished by its name of Espiritu Santo,
and we can only conjecture what petty line was intended for the
great river of the west.
Thus the valley of the Mississippi had been abandoned by the
Spaniards, and a few years after, the French at the north, began to
hear of it through the western missionaries and traders, the two
classes who alone had carried on the discovery of the west for the
French. Among the latter was Joliet, and among the former,
Marquette. Says Bancroft: "The long-expected discovery of the
Mississippi was now at hand, to be accomplished by Joliet of Que
bec, of whom there is scarce a record but this one excursion that
gives him immortality and by Marquette, who, after years of pious
assiduity to the poor wrecks of Hurons, whom he planted near
abundant fisheries, on the cold extremity of Michigan, entered,
with equal humility, upon a career which exposed his life to per
petual danger, and by its results affected the destiny of nations."
In 1672 the French minister wrote to Talon, then Intendant of
Canada: "As after the increase of the colony, there is nothing
more important for the colony than the discovery of a passage to
the south sea, his majesty wishes you to give it your attention."
(Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, Shea.) As Talon
was about to return to France, he recommended Joliet to his suc
cessor Frontenac. "The Chevalier de Grand Fontaine," writes
Frontenac, on November 2, 1672, "has deemed expedient for the
service to send the sieur Jolliet to discover the south sea by the

MISSISSIPPI 169
Maskoutens country, and the great river Mississippi, which is be
lieved to empty into the California sea. He is a man of experience
in this kind of discovery, and has already been near the great river,
of which he promises to see the mouth." Marquette was selected
to accompany him, and the winter was spent in preparation, in
studying what had been learned of the great river, in assembling
around them Indians who had some knowledge of the river, and in
drawing their first rude map of the Mississippi, and the water
courses that led to it. They made careful, cool investigations, and
though the discovery was dangerous, as little as possible was left
to chance. They embarked in May, 1673, and descended as far
as the 33rd degree, where for the first time they were met with
a hostile reception by the excited Metchigameas. By the aid of
the mysterious calumet, they finally made their peace and de
scended thirty miles farther to the village of Akansea, on the
eastern shore. Here they were well received, and learned that the
mouth of the river was but ten days sail from the village. But
they also heard that there were nations there trading with the
Europeans, and that there were wars between the tribes. They
now saw that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico,
between Florida and Tampico, two Spanish points, and feared lest
they might fall into their hands. Consequently, after a night of
consultation, they decided to return, and set out from Akansea
July 17 for the long homeward voyage. Unfortunately, Joliet lost
the journal and map of his voyage, while shooting the rapids above
Montreal, and was forced to draw up a narrative and map from
recollection, which Frontenac transmitted to France in November,
1674. Marquette, whose health had suffered from the long journey,
remained behind at St. Francis to recruit his strength. He also
had drawn up a map and journal of his voyage, and as is known
from his autograph letter, transmitted copies to his superior at his
request prior to October. Doubtless the French government was
possessed of these in 1675, but the court allowed ithe whole affair
to pass unnoticed. The narrative was not even published until
Thevenot obtained a copy in 1681 and published the same. The
fruits of this celebrated voyage would never have been gathered,
except for the courage and enterprise of La Salle, who knew of the
voyage and, perhaps, had even been one of the few that saw the
maps and journal of Joliet, before they were lost, and who finished
what they had begun in 1682 by descending the Mississippi to its
mouth. Marschalk, Andrew, pioneer of printing in Mississippi, who en
tered the United States army from New Jersey, in 1791, for the
Indian wars in Ohio. He was promoted to captain in August,
1794, and retained as lieutenant of artillery and engineers in No
vember, 1796. He was with the troops that followed Guion down
the river in 1797, and was associated with Lieut. Meriweather
Lewis in the garrison at Chickasaw bluffs. (See Military Occupa
tion.) Afterward he was in the garrison at Walnut Hills. Mars
chalk was a printer by trade and personally bore a strong resem-

170 MISSISSIPPI
blance to Benjamin Franklin. In the spring of 1799, on account
of his qualifications as a printer, he was" assigned to command at
the post of Natchez, by command of Gen. Wilkinson, so that he
might print the laws of the new Territory. In July of that year
the governor addressed an earnest remonstrance to Maj. Cushing,
then commanding on the river, against the transfer of Marschalk
to Walnut Hills. It seems that Marschalk's fellow officers ridi
culed him for making himself useful in this way, and Cushing,
something of a martinet, would not allow it unless the lieutenant
would accept a furlough. (Sargent's Journal, p. 203.) At Walnut
Hills he finished the printing of the 25 laws of the Territory, says
the Vose Mss.
A newspaper called the Mississippi Gazette was issued early
in the year 1800, and this must have been the work of the indus
trious lieutenant. He was honorably discharged from the army
June 1, 1802, and thereafter was publisher of newspapers and
shared with Terrall the honors of public printer, as the favors of
politics permitted. In 1814 he was succeeded by P. Isler. Mars
chalk was a "Wayneite" in the army, and in politics a Federalistic
Republican, and supported Governors Williams and Holmes
against the other branch of the party, led by Cato West and
Cowles Mead. He was engaged in a bitter newspaper warfare
as publisher of the Herald, with Terrall, of the Messenger, in Wil
liams' administration. He was prominent in the militia, adjutant
of the First regiment, promoted to major commanding the bat
talion for the expected war in 1809, brigade-major for the Terri
tory in 1810, and adjutant-general and inspector, with the rank of
colonel, December, 1811.
In 1815, when George Poindexter was one of the Territorial
judges, Marschalk, publishing the Washington Republican, made
a ferocious attack upon him, including the story that Poindexter
mounted his horse and rode from the field to New Orleans when
the cannon opened, January 8. Poindexter called Marschalk be
fore him for contempt of court. He refused to answer interroga
tories, and was fined the limit of the Territorial law, $20, with im
prisonment for 24 hours. At the end of that time, when called be
fore the court, he said, "I thank your honor for sentence. I pay
the fine. I meant a contempt." He was then indicted for libel,
and the result of the trial was said by Judge Leake to have vindi
cated the character of Judge Poindexter. After this Poindexter
assaulted the editor in his office, whereupon a warrant was issued,
from which the judge released himself by a writ of habeas corpus.
He was the first public printer of the State, in 1818, and held the
office several times thereafter. His death occurred August 10,
1837. Marshall, a post-hamlet of Sunflower county, 24 miles north of
Indianola, the county seat. Ruleville, 4 miles southeast, on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., is the nearest banking and rail
road town. Population in 1900, 45.

MISSISSIPPI 171
Marshall, Chas. Kimball, was born in Durham, Me., August 29,
1811, of French Huguenot descent. His parents removed to Bos
ton, and gave him the best school advantages for several years,
and then they came to the South. He held a position in New Or
leans for a while, attended Woodward college, Cincinnati, until
his funds became exhausted, when he returned to New Orleans
and went to work in a foundry, where sugar mills were manufac
tured, in order to secure means to continue his college course. He
was soon placed in charge of the foundry, and, while holding this
position he carried on his studies, also held religious services at
the parish prison. In May 1832 he was licensed to preach by the
Methodist conference at New Orleans. He started to college
again, but stopped at Natchez, to supply a pulpit which had just
been vacated. At every service the church was thronged, and he
found himself famous in a day. He was induced by the oldest
ministers to give up his purpose of re-entering college, and he be
came a member of the Mississippi Conference in 1832. The hand
some and eloquent, young man was at once in demand for the best
pulpits. He was wonderfully successful as a pastor in Baton Rouge,
La., Jackson, Miss., Vicksburg, and other places.
Dr. Marshall had all the qualifications of a great orator, and as
such ranked in popular esteem with Prentiss. The two men were
friends, each admiring the splendid genius of the other. He dedi
cated more churches and occupied the pulpit or platform at more
college commencements than any man who ever preached in the
Southwest. His fame as an orator became international. He was
a public spirited citizen and was a leader in every movement to
develop the South's material resources.
In 1836 he married Amanda Vick, daughter of the founder of
Vicksburg, and they made that city their home. But he continued
his ministerial work with zeal and energy to the end of his days.
Much of his life was spent in helping those in distress. He passed
through 13 yellow fever epidemics, ministering night and day
to the sick and dying, and was especially active during the great
epidemic of 1878. Few, if any, have ever shown such heroism and
self sacrifice in times of distress and danger. During the war of
1861-65 he devoted himself with untiring energy to the sick and
wounded in the field. To him the Confederate government was
indebted for its system of depots and hospitals, and for its factory
for making wooden legs, the model of which he drewup. He gave
much attention to the "negro problem." In 1880 he delivered an
address before the board of directors of the American Colonization
society, declaring that colored men were not necessary to Southern
industry, and that the future of the American negro was in the
colonization of Africa. In 1883 he published a pamphlet, "The
Colored Race," being a reply to Rev. J. L. Tucker, of Jackson, in
which he contended that the negro of America was not brought
into the world without capacity for progress. He died at Vicks
burg, Jan. 14, 1891.

172 MISSISSIPPI
Marshall County was established February 9, 1836, the year in
which the Chickasaw cession of 1832 was cut up into counties, and
settlers were rapidly pouring into the new region. The county has
a land surface of 707 square miles. It was named for Chief Justice
John Marshall and formerly included within its area a considerable
portion of Benton, Tate, and several other counties. The act
creating the county defined its limits as follows: "Beginning at
the point where the line of the basis meridian intersects the northern
boundary line of the State, and running thence south with the said
basis meridian line, to the center of township 6 ; thence west through
the center of township 6, according to the sectional lines, to the
center of range 5 west ; thence north through the center of range
5 west, according to the sectional lines, to the northern boundary
line of the State, and thence east with the said boundary line, to
the beginning."
Its original area was about 23 townships or 828 square miles. In
1870 it gave up part of its territory on the east to Benton county,
(q. v.) and in 1873 it gave up another portion of its area to assist
in the formation of Tate county, and received, in lieu of the portion
surrendered to Tate, all that portion of De Soto county lying with
in townships 1 and 2, R. 5 west. Subsequent slight modifications
of its boundaries have resulted in defining its present limits as
follows : "Beginning on the line between the States of Mississippi
and Tennessee at the center of R. 5 west ; thence east on said State
line to the line between ranges 1 and 2 west ; thence south on said
line to the southwest corner of section 6, T. 3, R._ 1 west ; thence
east on section lines to the southeast corner of section 4, T. 3, R. 1
west ; thence due south on section lines to the southwest corner of
section 3, T. 6, R. 1 west ; thence east to the basis meridian ; thence
south by the said meridian to the Tallahatchie river; thence down
said river with its meanderings, to the mouth of Little Spring creek ;
thence up said creek to the center of township 6 ; thence west by
section lines to the line between R's 4 and 5, west ; thence north to
the line between T's 4 and 5 ; thence west to the center of R. 5 west ;
thence due north to the beginning." It is an attractive stretch of
country, located on the extreme northern border of the State next
to Tennessee, and is bounded on the east by Benton county, on the
south by Lafayette county, the Tallahatchie river forming part of
the dividing line in the southeastern corner, and on the west by
Tate and De Soto counties.
The following is a list of its civil officers for the year 1837:
William fl. Bourland, Clerk of Probate; James C. Alderson, Clerk
of Circuit Court; Thomas Lane, Probate Judge; M. J. Blackwell,
Surveyor ; Frederick Wells, Assessor and Collector ; Thomas J.
Oliver, Treasurer; Benj. Daluron, Coroner; T. McCrosky, Sheriff;
G. W. Graham, Ranger ; Dickson Rogers, Henry White, Wm. Hicks,
W. C. Edmundson, E. H. Patts, Board of Police ; John Roaks, T. L.
Treadwell, D. E. Brittonum, Henry Moore, Milton P. Johnson,
Geo. W. Wry, T. M. Yancy, J. C. Randolph, J. B. Cockran, Robert

MISSISSIPPI 173
Carson, Justices of the Peace ; John P. Planes, James Rhodes, Sill-
mane Weaver, John M. Malone, Lewis Johnston, Constables.
Marshall county received its full share of settlers during the early
rush of emigration into the newly opened Chickasaw cession. By
the year 1840, it had a population of about 17,500, and by the year
1850 the population was 29,089. Among these were, many prom
inent families and wealthy planters.
Three of the earliest settlements were at Tallaloosa, located about
8 miles southwest of Holly Springs, on the Pigeon Roost creek;
Waterford, one mile west of the station of the same name on the
Illinois Central R. R., and the place of muster for the militia of that
part of the State ; and Hudsonville, about 4 miles southwest of old
Lamar, on the stage road from Lagrange, Tenn., to Holly Springs,
Miss., and 2 miles southeast of the station of the same name on
the Illinois Central R. R. All three places are now practically
extinct. Its chief town and county seat is Holly Springs, the
"City of Flowers," containing 3,500 inhabitants and located near the
center of the county at the junction of the Illinois Central, and the
Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham railways. Mr. Addison Craft,
one of the pioneers of Marshall county, states that it was named by
the roadsters who traveled from the Chickasaw Bluffs to the land
office at Pontotoc. At this spot they found an extensive ravine
covered with holly, and having some 30 or more clear, cold springs
of water. It was an excellent camping ground and the camp was
called Holly Springs. It is the center of a good dairy and market-
garden region, has several factories and the most extensive pottery
works in the State. It is also the seat of the Mississippi Synodical
College, and the North Mississippi Experiment Station. It was
here that Gen. Van Dorn made his celebrated raid on the Federal
stores left behind by Grant, December 20, 1862. Some of the
other more important settlements are Byhalia (pop. 760), Potts
Camp (pop. 306), Redbanks on the K. C. M. & B. R. R., Waterford
(pop. 128), Hudsonville on the I. C. R. R., and Bethlehem, Corners-
ville, Mount Pleasant and Wallhill away from the railroads. The
region lies in the yellow loam district, its surface is undulating,
level on the river and creek bottoms. The soil on the bottom
lands is fertile, on some of the upland ridges poor and sandy and
on many of the table lands quite productive. It produces good crops
of cotton, corn, small grains, vegetables, and all the large and small
fruits do well. The timber consists of oaks, hickory, walnut, poplar,
gum, beech, maple, cypress, etc. Excellent pasturage is to be had
and the live stock industry is very profitable. In 1900 the live stock
was valued at more than $800,000. Its close proximity to the large
city of Memphis (50 miles), and the two important lines of rail
road which cross its surface, the Illinois Central and the Kansas
City, Memphis & Birmingham, give it a ready outlet for its num
erous products. The more important water courses in the county
are the Tallahatchie river on the south and its tributaries, and the
numerous creeks flowing west, which constitute the headwaters
of the Coldwater river. None of these streams are navigable, how-

174 MISSISSIPPI
ever. A number of lignite beds and some good marls have been
found in the county.
The twelfth census of the United States for the year 1900 gives
the following farm, manufacturing and population statistics for
Marshall county : Number of farms 4,516, acreage in farms 379,098,
acres improved 82,581, value of the land exclusive of the buildings
$1,733,630, value of the buildings $813,720, value of live stock $803,-
901, total value of products not fed $1,751,664. Number of manufac
tures 98, capital invested $151,428, wages paid $39,436, cost of ma
terials $77,589, total value of products $192,903. The popu
lation consisted of whites 8,966, colored 18,708, a total of 27,674, or
1,631 more than in the year 1890. There has since been a steady
increase in the population and in manufactures. Land values are
advancing and good properties are in demand at a good price. The
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Marshall
county in 1905 was $3,031,618.86 and in 1906 it was $3,231,123,
showing an increase of $199,504.14 during the year.
Martin, an incorporated post-village of Claiborne county, on the
Natchez- Jackson branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R.,
8 miles southeast of Port Gibson, the county seat. Hermanville
is its nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, and
express, telegraph and telephone facilities. Population in 1900, 151.
It was named in honor of General W. T. Martin of Natchez.
Martin, Francois Xavier, Territorial judge, was born in Marseil
les, France, March 17, 1764, removed to Martinique at the age of
18 years,- and thence went to the United States, making his home at
New Bern, N. C, in 1786. He learned the printer's trade as a
means of acquiring the English language, with such success that
he became proprietor of a newspaper and publisher of schoolbooks
and almanacs. Studying law and gaining admission to the bar,
he extended his publishing ventures to law treaties of his own
compiling, including a digest of State laws and British statutes
in force, and in 1797, his Notes of a Few Decisions of the superior
courts of North Carolina and the circuit court of the United States,
1778-97. He also collected materials for a history of North Caro
lina, published in the form of annals at New Orleans in 1829. Af
ter 20 years of successful practice as a lawyer he was appointed
judge of the Mississippi territory, March 7, 1809, to succeed the
venerable Judge Bruin, and thence, after a brief service, he was
transferred to the bench of the Territory of Orleans, where his
services gained for him the title of father of the jurisprudence of
Louisiana. He was made attorney-general of the State in 1813,
judge of the supreme court in 1815, and chief justice in 1837, retir
ing from the bench in 1845. His death occurred in December,
1846, at New Orleans. He was the author of a digest and reports
of Louisiana law, and a history of Louisiana from the settlement
until 1814.
Martin, W. T. Mr. Martin opposed the doctrine of secession,
as he said in the convention of 1865, "with all my energy, in 1851 ;
and in 1860 opposed it with such pertinacity that I was accused

MISSISSIPPI 175
of being unfaithful to the South and not fit to be trusted. . . .
The ordinance of secession was an act of revolution. As such
alone, I was willing to fight to sustain it."
In 1860 he was captain of the Adams Troop of cavalry, one of the
ten companies in the State army, which went to Memphis and was
mustered into the service of the Confederate service June 16, 1861.
Going to Virginia with other Mississippi cavalry companies, the
2d Mississippi battalion was formed under the command of Martin
as major. This was the only representation of Mississippi cav
alry in the east. In July, 1861, the battalion was merged with
Love's Alabama battalion, and a Georgia company, to form the
Jeff Davis Legion, of which Martin was the commander. In the
latter part of 1861 he was on scouting duty toward the Potomac,
and was presently promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and colonel.
He was particularly distinguished in J. E. B. Stuart's raid around
McClellan's army, before Richmond, in the summer of 1862, he
and Fitz Lee and W. H. F. Lee leading Stuart's battalions. Pro
moted to brigadier-general December, 1862, he was sent to the
west, whence came an urgent demand for assistance. Subsequently
the legion, under Cols. William G. Conner and J. Fred Waring,
and Majors I. F. Lewis and W. M. Stone, was distinguished in the
battles of Brandy Station and Gettysburg, Trevillion and Ream's
Station, arid made its last fight before Raleigh, N. C, in April,
1865. In Tennessee Gen. Martin, whose reputation was wide
spread as an intrepid cavalry leader, was given command of a divi
sion including the brigades of Roddey and Cosby, with which he
took part in VanDorn's brilliant victory at Thompson's Station,
March 5, 1863, and rendered important service during the Tulla
homa campaign. He was in command of the cavalry in Long-
street's expedition against Knoxville; was promoted to major-
general November, 1863, and commanded a division of Wheeler's
cavalry during the Atlanta campaign, after which he was assigned
to command in northwest Mississippi. After the surrender of the
armies he was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention
of 1865 (q. v.), and was a member of the constitutional convention
of 1890. In 1905 he was appointed postmaster at Natchez.
Martinsville, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Copiah
county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 5 miles south of Hazlehurst,
the county seat. It has express and telegraph offices, two churches,
a school, and lumber mills. Population in 1900, 68.
Marydell, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Leake county,
12 miles from Carthage, the county seat.
Mashulaville, a post-village of Noxubee county, situated on
Harshuqua creek, 10 miles west of Macon, the county seat, and
nearest telegraph, express and banking town. It has three churches,
two stores, and a money order postoffice. A fine saw mill and a gin
are located here. Population in 1900, 125.
Mason and Harp. The Mississippi river had its pirates, and
there is mention of their operations from New Madrid and Chick
asaw Bluffs, in the old chronicles. Emigrants were frequently

176 MISSISSIPPI
waylaid and robbed of their possessions and occasionally lives were
taken. While the Mississippi river had these terrors, the adven
turer from the South Atlantic States had first to pass the dreaded
Mussel Shoals, where the Chickamauga Indians levied tribute upon
lives and property. When the right to travel the trail from Natchez
to Bear Creek was obtained from the Indians, bands of highway
men began to infest that line of travel also. In April, 1802, Gov
ernor Claiborne was informed that a band headed by Samuel Mason
and Wiley Harp, had attempted to board the boat of Col. Joshua
Baker between the Yazoo and Walnut Hills. The same outlaws
had been operating on the trail, and for years had been robbing
travelers and committing murders. Col. Daniel Burnet was
ordered to take 15 or 20 volunteers and pursue the banditti, and
the United States officers at Walnut Hills and Bear Creek were
asked to cooperate. A reward of $2,000 was offered for their cap
ture. Harp seems to have separated from the band about this
period of time and gone up into Kentucky. John L. Swaney, the
old mail rider on the Natchez Trace, claimed to know both Harp
and Mason well. He said there were two brothers, one known as
Big Harp, and the other as Little Harp. According to this au
thority, Big Harp, after a career of crime in Tennessee and Ken
tucky, was hunted down and killed by a company of men, but his
brother, Little Harp, made his escape, and was undoubtedly one
of the men hung at Greenville. Mason and most of his gang made
their escape from the country, if the following testimony of Swaney
is to be credited. He says : "On one of my return trips from
Natchez, I fell in with the wife of young Tom Mason (according to
Swaney, the elder Mason was known as Tom Mason; he had two
sons Tom and John, who, with six or eight other men composed
the band), carrying a baby and a small sack of provisions in her
arms. She was making for the Chickasaw Agency, to go thence to
her friends. She begged me to help her on her way, which I did
by placing her on my horse. I did this for a day, and made up the
lost time by traveling all night. Mrs. Mason told me they were
all safe and out of reach." The usually accepted version of the
death of Mason is as follows: Two of his band, tempted by the
large reward, concerted a plan by which they might obtain it.
An opportunity soon occurred ; and while Mason, in company with
the two .conspirators, was counting out some ill-gotten plunder,
a tomahawk was buried in his brain, or, according to another, he
was shot, and his severed head brought to Greenville, in Jefferson
county, by the two traitors. As Circuit Court was in session at
the time, they went before the Judge to make their affidavit and
get a certificate to the Governor. The head was duly identified
by persons who knew Mason well, but before the certificate was
made out, the two miscreants were recognized by two travelers
whose father they had recently robbed and murdered. They first
recognized the horses of the two bandits at the tavern, where they
had just alighted, and at once repaired to the court house, identified
the men and demanded their arrest, declaring that they had helped

MISSISSIPPI 177
rob and murder their father some two months previously on the
Natchez Trace. The prisoners gave their names as Sutton and
May and were tried, convicted and hung at Greenville, being pros
ecuted by George Poindexter, attorney-general. The leader Mason
was now dead, together with two of his gang; Harp had fled the
State, and the disheartened gang dispersed, with the result that
few robberies were committed thereafter in Mississippi for many
years. The above account of the death of Mason and the dispersal of
his band is substantially corroborated by Thomas Reed, Esq., in
his Centennial history of Jefferson county and by the historian,
Monette. The historian, Claiborne, seems to incline to the belief,
in accordance with the testimony of Swanay, above referred to,
that the head brought to Greenville was not that of Mason at all,
but that Mason and his gang, after the governor's proclamation,
were closely hunted by the whites and Indians, and after a num
ber of narrow escapes, made their escape across the Mississippi,
to somewhere about Lake Providence, in the Spanish Territory.
The account of Capt. W. L. Harper, of Jefferson county, quoted
by Claiborne, is as follows: "Governor Claiborne offered a large
reward for the capture of Mason, the leader of the band that in
fested the road. Mason's family then resided in this county, not
far from old Shankstown, and his wife was generally respected as
an honest and virtuous woman, by all her neighbors, and one of
her sons was a worthy citizen of Warren county not many years
ago. The reward tempted two of his band to kill Mason, or some
one they said was. Mason, and bring in his head to Greenville for
recognition. Many fully identified it by certain marks thereon,
except his wife, who as positively denied it. The Governor had
sent his carriage for her expressly to come down and testify. But
some parties had recognized in the claimants two men who, along
with Mason, had robbed them but a short time before, when they
were arrested, tried and hung, thus getting their reward, but not
exactly in the way they sought. They gave their names as May
and Sutton, and many believed Mason fled the country and died
in his bed in Canada."
January 16, 1804, George Poindexter, attorney-general of the
Territory, informed the acting governor that several persons were
confined in the jail of Jefferson district, charged with capital of
fences in the Choctaw country, these persons being "notoriously
confederates of Mason's junta, who for a length of time have
infested the highway leading from this Territory to the State of
Tennessee." Poindexter advised that a special session of oyer
and terminer be called to dispose of the cases. There is on file
in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History an inter
esting record, in French, of the trial of Samuel Mason for robbery
at New Madrid in January, 1803.
Mastodon, a post-hamlet of Panola county, situated on Indian
creek, 15 miles west of Sardis, one of the seats of justice for the
county. Population in 1900, 45.
12-11

178 MISSISSIPPI
Mate, a postoffice of Lauderdale county.
Matherville, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Wayne
county, 13 miles north of Waynesboro, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 52. The town is growing and has three stores, a
church, a school, a cotton gin, and a saw mill. It lies in the midst
of a prairie belt. Population about 100.
Mathiston, an incorporated post-town of Webster county, on the
Southern, and the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City Ry's, 10 miles
southeast of Walthall, the county seat, and 8 miles east of Eupora.
It has several stores, a saw and planing mill plant, a handle factory,
a Munger system cotton gin, two white churches, and a bank, the
Bank of Mathiston, established in 1905, with $15,000 capital. The
Review is, a Democratic weekly, published and edited by Chas. A.
McClure. The town is comparatively new and is growing rapidly.
It has a good school ; several fine brick business houses have been
erected during the year 1906. It is surrounded by a fine agriculture
district, cotton and corn being the chief staples. Its water supply
is excellent. The population in 1906 was estimated at 600. Three
rural mail routes emanate from Mathiston.
Matthews, a post-hamlet of Pontotoc county, about 16 miles from
Pontotoc, the county seat. Population in 1900, 19.
Matthews, George, Jr., territorial judge, commissioned July 1,
1805, was born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., the son of General and
Governor George Matthews, associated with the history of Mis
sissippi through the Yazoo land schemes. On account of the storm
of protest against these laws, young Matthews was persuaded to
leave his native State, and his appointment in Mississippi seems to
have been only preparatory to making his home in Louisiana,
where he was given a Territorial judgeship, January 19, 1806. In
Louisiana he married a Miss Flower, of East Feliciana. Gov.
Claiborne appointed him chief justice of the State when it was or
ganized and he gained distinction in this office.
Matthews, Joseph W., was born in 1812, near Huntsville, Ala.
He came to the State as a government surveyor, and became a
planter near the extinct town of Salem, living two miles distant, in
Marshall county. In 1840 he was a member of the lower house of
the legislature, and he was in the senate in 1844-48. In the militia
he had the rank of colonel. He was nominated for governor of the
State by the Democrats in 1847, against Maj. A. B. Bradford, a
hero of the war then in progress, and was elected by a large ma
jority. (See Brown's Adm.) His simplicity of life was indicated
by the campaign names attached to him — "Jo Salem," "Jo, the
well-digger." Reuben Davis wrote of him: "He had great prac
tical sense, but was neither brilliant nor oratorical. He was pecu
liar and extremely pleasant. To hear him speak was like listening
to a well-told narrative, and you could almost suppose you were
listening to his personal experience of public events, and observa
tions of men and things. In all this he had the faculty of being
earnest and impressive." He died August 27, 1862, at Palmetto,
Ga., on his way to Richmond, Va.

MISSISSIPPI 179
Matthews' Administration. The inaugural address of Governor
Matthews, January 10, 1848, was mainly devoted to national poli
tics, as influenced by the war with Mexico and the prospect of
gaining new territory from that republic. (See Brown's Adm.)
He said:
"In the constitutional compact between the States, it was ex
pressly stipulated that new States might be admitted into the
Union upon the same footing with the original States. The pro
hibition of slavery was not made a condition of the Union of the
original States, it cannot therefore be made a condition of the ad
mission of new States. So far from the institution of slavery con
stituting an objection to the union of the original States, it is ex
pressly recognized by the constitution, and guarantees for its pro
tection were incorporated into that instrument; for the States
into which fugitives might fly, were bound to deliver them to
their owners, although slavery might be prohibited by the laws of
such States. The institution of slavery is a right reserved by the
States; and if Congress refuses a new State admission into the
Union within its limits, such refusal, in my judgment, will be a
flagrant disregard of the injunctions of the constitution, and an
abandonment of the compact, which, at present, and it may be
fondly hoped shall, to the end of time, bind together the States of
this glorious Union. Our present territory, or that which may be
acquired, is, and will be, the common property of the United
States. To prohibit the citizens of one portion of the Union from
inhabiting such territory, without first submitting to a disfran
chisement of rights secured to them by the constitution would be
a palpable violation of that clause which provides that 'citizens
of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities
of citizens in the several States.' This is a momentous question ;
one on which is suspended the existence of this happy confederacy.
It is useless to evade the question by refusing territorial indem
nity from Mexico. It must be met. We must know whether the
compromise of the constitution are to be respected; whether citi
zens of the- slave States are to be considered as equals with their
northern brethren, and whether slavery is regarded as such a crime
that those who hold this species of property are unworthy of an
association with the inhabitants of the free States. Experience
has proved that no people have ever gained anything by yielding
to invasions of their rights, but, generally, in the end, they lose
everything; and while I believe that we should, in reference to this
momentous and exciting question, exercise moderation ; while I
would appeal to the interest, the patriotism and the justice of our
brethren of the free States, and entreat them to pause and reflect
well, before they take a step which must result in consequences
appalling to the heart of every patriot; yet I would meet any and
all attempts to interfere with or invade our constitutional rights
with a firmness and decision that should be felt and respected.
On this subject they can yield, but we cannot. We have no desire
to interfere with their domestic institutions, nor can we submit to

180 MISSISSIPPI
their interference with ours. We ask not that slavery shall exist
in a State, in order to its admission into the Union, but that the
people of each State shall establish such domestic institutions as
they may deem most conducive to their interests and happiness.
To prevent the extension of slavery territory, would prove the
greatest calamity to that portion of population. If they were lib
erated they could not remain amongst us. They are prohibited
from migrating to most of the free States and denied the right
of citizenship, I believe, in all. What, then, should we do with
them? Soon their natural increase would lead, either to their
extermination, or to the expulsion of the white race."
In his message of January 26 Governor Matthews declared that
his conviction was that "the State is bound by every consideration
of good faith, justice and honor, to pay" the Planters' bank bonds,
which it was proposed to repudiate. He discussed and refuted the
argument that the bonds were illegal because the legislature vio
lated its contract with the old Bank of Mississippi, in chartering
the Planters' bank. He said that a refusal of the State, now, to
pay these bonds "would consign the character of the State to in
famy and indelible disgrace." As a means of payment he proposed
"that we immediately bring into market the 500,000 acres of land
granted by the general government to the State ; and that we shall
receive in payment for the land, gold, silver, auditor's warrants
and bonds of the State issued to take stock in the Planters bank
and the coupons for interest on the same." . . . The amount
for which the bonds would sell would of course be placed to the
debit of the State and to the credit of the internal improvement
fund, bearing interest or not, as the people might choose. . . .
Without increasing our taxes one dollar, we would have the splen
did sum of $175,000 annually at our disposal to improve our rivers,
make railroads, and all such other improvements as the people
might require." Such a law was passed. (See Banking and In
ternal Improvement.) But of its workings the Governor said in
1850 : "The very short crops of our great staple, for the last two
years ; the extremely low price of the same ; the unprecedented
overflow of the Mississippi river, and the prevalence of the cholera,
with the inducements to emigration presented by our immense
territories westward," had conspired to limit the sales of public
lands. The years 1847-50 were a period of great prosperity in Missis
sippi, caused by the jubilant spirit that followed the successful
war with Mexico, carried forward and reinforced by the discovery
of gold in California. "All the prairie and bottom lands of Missis
sippi rose at once to $75 and $80 an acre." The crops were im
mense, great quantities of cattle and horses, were raised, and there
was no pauper in the land. (Reuben Davis.)
Gov. Matthews said in his message of January, 1850, "With the
exception of cholera, which has merely touched the western margin
of our State, an unusual degree of health has been enjoyed. . . .
Although less propitious seasons than usual and low prices for

MISSISSIPPI 181
our staple have diminished the pecuniary rewards of our industry,
yet no extensive embarrassment exists. Our citizens are mostly
free from debt ; our storehouses abound with plenty ; and, under
the benign influence of our institutions and the guidance of a
beneficent providence, our march is onward and upward towards
prosperity and happiness."
His summary of finances showed that the assessments were a
little over $500,000, of which $100,000 was assessed against the
United States bank of Pennsylvania, the Commercial and Rail
road bank of Vicksburg and the Bank of Vicksburg. This $100,-
000 was the subject of litigation and yet uncollected. The receipts
from ordinary sources of revenue in 1849 were $358,617, the ordi
nary current expense $139,957. The balance in the treasury Jan
uary 1, 1849, was $438,667 ; but $183,850 of this was due the Two
and Three per cent, funds, the Seminary and the Sinking funds.
The State officers elected for November, 1848 to November,
1850, were, Samuel Stamps, secretary of state; Richard Griffith,
treasurer; George T. Swann, auditor. John D. Freeman was at
torney-general. Notable events of the administration were the adoption of the
Hutchinson Code or revision of statutes; the building of the. Jack
son and Brandon railroad; the advent of the telegraph; the found
ing of the institute for the blind; the law for leasing the Chicka
saw school lands; the law for sale of internal improvement lands
to pay the Planters bank bonds ; the election of Jefferson Davis
to the United States senate; the Jackson convention. of 1849.
A large part of Governor Matthews last message was devoted
to the same subject as his first State paper, with this difference,
that the State of California had been organized by its inhabitants,
and a constitution adopted prohibiting slavery. The governor said :
"In the event of the adoption of the Wilmot proviso, by Con
gress, or the admission of California into the Union by virtue of
her late pretended constitution, the abolition of slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia, or the prohibition of the commerce in slaves
between the States, I recommend that the Governor be authorized
to order an election of delegates from all the counties in the State,
to a convention to take into consideration the mode and measures
of redress, and to adopt such measures for our future security as
the crisis may demand." (See Convention of 1849.)
At the election of 1849 Gen. John A. Quitman was the Demo
cratic candidate for governor, representing the extreme doctrine
that there was no effective right anywhere to restrict slavery.
He received 33,117 votes to 22,996 for the Whig candidate, Luke
Lea. Mattie, a hamlet of Covington county, 10 miles northeast of Wil
liamsburg, the county seat. The postoffice here has been discon
tinued, and mail now goes to Norfleet.
Mattox, a postoffice of Kemper county, 10 miles southwest of
Dekalb, the county seat.

182 MISSISSIPPI
Mattson, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Coahoma county, at
the junction of two branches of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.
R. It is 10 miles by rail from Clarksdale, and has a money order
postoffice. Maud, a postoffice of Tunica county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R., 10 miles by rail south of Tunica, the county seat.
Maxie, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Perry county,
at the junction of the main line of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. with
its Columbia branch; it is 18 miles southwest of New Augusta,
the county seat, and has a money order postoffice and an express
office. Maxime, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Bolivar county,
on the Riverside division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R.,
12 miles north of Greenville, and 22 miles by rail south of Rosedale,
the county seat. Population in 1900, 42.
Maxwell, a post-hamlet of Benton county, 5 miles northwest of
Ashland, the county seat. Population in 1900, 49.
May, a postoffice of Smith county.
Maybell, a postoffice in the western part of Jones county, situated
on Leaf river, 12 miles from Ellisville, the county seat and nearest
railroad and banking town.
MayersviUe, the capital of Issaquena count)'-, is an incorporated
post-town located on the Mississippi river, about 70 miles north of
Vicksburg. The nearest railroad and banking point is Rolling Fork.
The town was named for David Mayer, an extensive land owner in
the region about MayersviUe. This section was originally settled
in the early forties by Ambrose Gipson, who bought a large body
of land on the river in the northern portion of the county. Mayers
viUe is an important shipping point, and the region about it pro
duces an enormous quantity of cotton annually. It has three
churches, a courthouse, and one newspaper, the Spectator, a Demo
cratic weekly established in 1887, edited by George Robinson. Pop
ulation in 1900, 250.
Mayes, Daniel, was born February 12, 1792, in Didwiddie county,
Va. ; son of Robert Chappell Mayes and Agnes (Locke) Mayes:
His mother was a daughter of Richard Locke of Prince George
county, Va. Robert C. Mayes was a son of Matthew Mayes, who
married Martha Chappell of Prince George county. Matthew
Mayes, a Revolutionary soldier, was a descendant of Rev. William
Mayes, who immigrated to Virginia in 1611. The latter preached
at Kequoghton, near Hampton, and died at Jamestown about 1665.
Robert C. Mayes moved with his family to Fayette county, Ky.,
in 1794, and from that place moved to Christian county, where he
died. Daniel Mayes was educated in private schools, after which
he read law and began the practice in Christian county. From
that place he moved to Lexington, Ky., and continued the practice
of law; removed to Mississippi and engaged in the practice at
Jackson, 1838-50; New Orleans, 1850-52, and at Jackson again in
1852-61. He was a member of the Kentucky legislature in 1826.
His opportunity for political advancement in Mississippi was

MISSISSIPPI 183
small, owing to the fact that he was a Whjg, a minority party in
Mississippi. In 1845 he was a candidate for attorney-general but
was defeated with the party. He was a close, personal friend of
Henry Clay and his ardent supporter. His church connection was
with the Christian Church, and during the latter part of his life he
preached fay sermons. As a lawyer he ranked with the ablest who
have honored the State. He died at Jackson, February 6, 1861.
Mayfield, a hamlet of Montgomery county, 16 miles east of
Winona, the county seat. The postoffice here was recently discon
tinued and it now has rural free delivery from the station of Sibley-
ton, on the Southern Ry.
Mayhew, an incorporated post-town in the northwestern part of
Lowndes county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 89 miles north of
Meridian, and 12 miles west of Columbus. "In 1818," says Clai
borne, "under the auspices of the American Presbyterian Board of
Missions, the Rev. Messrs. Kingsbury, Byington, Gleason, Hooper,
Touse, and Cushman, with their families, and Dr. Pride and Misses
Burnham, Foster and Thacher, established themselves near what is
now Mayhew Station, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R. They gave their
settlement the name of Mayhew." It is also known as Mayhew's
Station. It has a church. Population in 1900, 139.
Mayton, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Rankin county,
about 20 miles from Brandon, the county seat.
McAdams, a post-hamlet of Attala county, on the Aberdeen
branch of the Illinois Central R. R., 8 miles west of Kosciusko, the
county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 15 ; in
1906, it was estimated at 60. It has a gin, a saw mill and a good
general store.
McBride, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Jefferson
county, about 18 miles from Fayette, the county seat. Population
in 1900, 60.
McCain, a postoffice of Webster county, situated on Sobola creek,
an affluent of Yalobusha river, 6 miles northwest of Walthall, the
county seat.
McCall Creek, a post-hamlet of Franklin county, situated in the
eastern part of the county, on the creek of the same name, 14 miles
distant from Meadville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
McCallum, a postoffice of Perry county, situated on the Hast-
chatchee river, and a station on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City
R. R., 8 miles by rail south of Hattiesburg. It has a large saw mill,
a gin and a turpentine distillery.
McCardle, William H., was a native of Kentucky. He came to
Mississippi in the early days; married in Claiborne county; was a
warm friend of Col. A. K. McClung, the noted duelist; edited
papers at Vicksburg and served through the war as a Confederate.
After the war he edited the Vicksburg Times. Colonel McCardle
severely criticised the congressional plan of reconstruction, which
Gen. Ord was endeavoring to put in operation preparatory to the
re-admission of Mississippi as a State of the Union. He was ar
rested by a squad of soldiers, Nov. 13, 1867, on the general charge

184 MISSISSIPPI
of impeding the execution of the reconstruction laws, and tried be
fore a military court on the specific charges of denouncing General.
Ord as an usurper and despot, defaming the character of an agent
of the Freedmen's Bureau, and advising voters to remain away
from the polls. On application, a writ of habeas corpus was issued
by Judge Hill of the United States court, who, upon a hearing,
held that the reconstruction acts were constitutional and sustained
the action of the commanding general. On appealing to the su
preme court of the United States, McCardle was admitted to bail
and released from custody, but before a decision could be reached
congress passed an act depriving the court of jurisdiction in the
case. Col. McCardle was subsequently associated with Gen. Rob
ert Lowry in the authorship of a history of Mississippi.
McCarley, or McAnerney Station, a post-hamlet in the eastern
part of Carroll county, on Big Sandy creek, and a station on the
Southern Ry., 4 miles distant from CarroUton, the county seat and
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 70.
McClung, Alexander Keith, was born in Fauquier county, Va.
His mother was a sister of Chief Justice John Marshall. He was
reared in Kentucky and educated for the navy, in which he served
some time, making several voyages, and fighting several duels.
When he came to Mississippi in 1832 he was an exceedingly hand
some young gentleman of twenty-three years, with aristocratic
tastes, but no great financial resources, it being understood that he
had run through with his patrimony. Soon after his arrival he was
Foote's second in the second Foote-Prentiss duel, and out of this
grew a duel of his own, in which he killed a young man called
General Allen. A subsequent duel terminated fatally to his antag
onist, Menifee. "He was a lawyer by profession, and had doubtless
mastered the legal science," says Foote, "but had never been much
concerned in practice. He was a man of high literary culture and
might be called the ablest and most polished writer among Missis
sippians." One of his peculiarities was a life-long grudge against
Gov. Alcorn because the latter was once quicker than he in re
senting an impertinence to a lady. He belonged to the aristocratic
lineage of Kentucky ; was an athelete, tall and symmetrical ; to his
friends he was kind and generous. During the Harrison campaign
he supported the Whigs with a brilliant newspaper at Jackson,
"The Crisis," and again in 1844 he published a campaign paper,
"The True Issue," and greatly strengthened his reputation. It is
said that Prentiss quoted from him in a speech without giving
credit, and the result was an interview between the two men at
Spengler's, in which serious results were avoided by the tact and
good humor of Prentiss. He delivered the oration before the leg
islature upon the death of Henry Clay, a masterly effort. Upon
the organization of the regiment of Mississippi Rifles at Vicksburg
in 1846 he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and had command of the
regiment until it was joined by Col. Jefferson Davis at New Or
leans. (See Mexican War.) On the return of the regiment after
its one year's service, he was nominated by the Whigs for con-

MISSISSIPPI 185
gressman from the second district. The Democrats nominated W.
S. Featherston, a gallant line officer in the same regiment. "They
were both able stump speakers, fluent, and well-informed upon the
political history of the country ; and each could point to a record of
brilliant service on the battlefield. Col. McClung had been side
by side with Col. Jeff Davis in the splendid charge of the First
Mississippi regiment at Monterey, and had been severely wounded
upon the walls of the fort. This wound had confined him to his
room for six months, and he pointed to the crutches upon which
he leaned as being in themselves sufficient tokens of his claims
upon the popular vote, he feeling himself in no wise inferior to
Featherston in honesty or intellect. It was manifest that a strong
sympathy was everywhere felt for the crippled hero, but this was
overcome by the paramount consideration of individual loyalty
to party, and Featherston was elected. Very possibly it is from
this defeat, which he took much to heart, that we may date the
first symptoms of that deep melancholy which afterward clouded
the noble spirit of McClung, and Which culminated in the awful
tragedy of his self-inflicted death." (Reuben Davis, Recollec
tions.) In the memorable political campaign of 1851 he was conspicuous
as a Unionist. Afterward, in Pierce's administration, when some
frontier regiments were organized, he sought a commission, and
upon being thwarted in this hope, being deeply in debt to his
friends, he ended his life by suicide. (For McClung as an orator
see Rowland, Vol. IV., P. M. H. S. page 376.)
McComb, a city of Pike county, on the Illinois Central R. R.,
and at the junction of the Liberty-White R. R., 8 miles
north of Magnolia, the county seat, 105 miles distant from
New Orleans, and 78 miles south of Jackson. The town was
named for a former owner of the Mississippi Central, now the
Illinois Central R. R. It is in the heart of the pine district,
is possessed of a highly equable climate, adapted to the pro
duction of all the vegetables and fruits of this zone. It has
fine educational and religious advantages, and is an important
shipping, commercial and manufacturing point. Fruits and vege
tables are shipped from here in large quantities to the Chicago and
other northern markets. The Illinois Central R. R. maintains here
the largest and most complete railroad shops within the State, and
employs a large number of men in building and repairing cars and
locomotives. The town is possessed of two banking institutions,
with a total invested capital of $150,000, has three hotels, an excel
lent system of water works, an electric lighting and power plant,
six educational institutions and nine churches. There are three
public schools, a business college, a convent and a female college;
the churches consist of an Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian,
Christian, two Methodist and three Baptist. Among the manufac
turing enterprises now in the city are cotton mills, a saw mill,
planing mill, brick yard, ice factory, bottling works, a steam laundry,
machine shops, car shops, and cotton gins. Two newspapers are

186 MISSISSIPPI
published here, the Enterprise, a Democratic weekly established in
1889, edited by R. B. May, and the McComb City Journal, a Demo
cratic weekly edited and published by R. T. Quin and Ellis Hays.
The total city indebtedness in 1906 was $85,000 ; the assessed val
uation of the real property was $1,265,333 ; personal, $487,919 ; tax
rate, 12 mills. The population in 1900 was recorded at 4,477; in
1890 it was 2,383. The city is growing rapidly and the estimated
population in 1906 was between 6,000 and 7,000.
McCondy, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Chickasaw
county, 10 miles southeast of Houston, the county seat. The nearest
banking town is Houston, 13 miles to the northwest. Population
in 1900, 62.
McCool, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part of
Attala county, is a thriving little station on the Aberdeen division
of the Illinois Central R. R., 18 miles by rail northeast of Kos
ciusko, the county seat, and 14 miles southwest of Ackerman. The
Bank of McCool, a branch of the Grenada Bank, is located here.
The town was named for the Hon. James F. McCool, Chancellor of
the 6th Chancery court district of Mississippi, and former speaker
of the house of representatives in the Mississippi legislature. Pop
ulation in 1900, 317 ; the population in 1906 was estimated at 400.
McCoy, a hamlet of Pearl river county. The postoffice has been
discontinued at this place, and mail now goes to Poplarville.
McCrary, a postoffice in the eastern part of Lowndes county, on
the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 8 miles east of Columbus, the county seat.
McDill, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Scott county, 12
miles distant from Forest, the county seat. Lake is its nearest
railroad and banking town.
McDonalds Mills, a postoffice in the northern part of Perry
county, 14 miles from New Augusta, the county seat. Richton is
the nearest banking town.
McGehee, Edward, was born at Oglethorpe, Ga., November 18,
1786, and reared on his father's plantation in that State. He came
to Mississippi in a flatboat from Wheeling about 1808 ; built a
log house in Wilkinson county ; went to Georgia and married Mar
garet L. Crosby in 1811, and returned to Mississippi on horseback
with his bride. Mr. McGehee pushed to completion the West
Feliciana railroad, which cost $35,000 per mile. It reached Wood
ville about 1837 and was the first road in the State and fifth in
the United States. He became the owner of the road after the
war. He was one of the founders of the Woodville Bank, and of
one of the first cotton factories in the State about 1849 ; purchased
the plant and operated it until it was burned by the Federals dur
ing the war. He founded Bethel church in 1811 ; founded Wood
ville Female Academy, which was burned in 1849; founded the
present college for girls at Woodville ; gave large sums to churches
and colleges in Mississippi and Louisiana. He shunned public of
fice, but was induced to serve a few terms in the legislature. He
declined to accept the position of secretary of the treasury offered
him by President Zachary Taylor ; was the administrator of Pres-

MISSISSIPPI 187
ident Taylor and filled many places of trust. He was very pros
perous as a planter; his fields stretched out as wide as a feudal
estate, while his servants numbered more than a thousand. Plis
residence, Bowling Green, built of brick with niassive pillars in
1825, at great cost, was one of the most attractive in the South.
It contained thousands, of books, but was burned with its contents
by a negro regiment after the war. He was in favor of negro
colonization in Africa, and, before the war, seriously thought of
planting a colony of his own servants in that country. He died
October 1, 1880, aged ninety-four.
McHenry, a post-village of Harrison county, on the Gulf & Ship
Island R. R., 25 miles north of Gulfport. It is situated in the long
leaf yellow pine region, and lumbering and farming are the chief
industries of the locality. It has several good stores and churches,
a splendid school, a bank and a newspaper office. The State Bank
was established here in 1902 with a capital of $15,000 ; the News is
a local weekly, owned and edited by Oscar Grace, established in
1901. It has a large planing mill and brick yard. Population in
1900, 350 ; estimated in 1906 to be 1,200.
Mclvor, a postoffice in the central part of Panola county, and a
station on the Sardis & Delta R. R., 6 miles west of Sardis, one of
the county seats of justice and the nearest banking town.
McKenna, Constantine. One of the Irish priests sent over from
the college of Salamanca in 1787 to convert and hold the English
in West Florida. He began to be "cura parroco" at Mobile, in
December, 1789, and he "is probably the best known of the Spanish
priests." . (Hamilton, Colonial Mobile.) The testimony taken in
proof of the death of Sainneville LeDuc from fever at the home of
John Girault in October, 1788, shows that Constantine McKenna
was the priest who administered the last unction. Gregory White
was also connected with the religious establishment.
McLain, a hamlet on the western border of Greene county, and
a station on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 18 miles
west of Leakesville, the county seat. It has a money order post-
office. McLain, Frank Alexander, of Gloster, the representative of
the Seventh Mississippi district in the Congress of the United
States, was born on a farm near Liberty in Amite county, Miss.,
on January 29, 1852, a son of Enoch Bateman and Nancy (Berryhill)
McLain. His ancestors were originally natives of Scotland, the first
family to leave that country immigrating to Robeson county in
North Carolina in 1776. Subsequently, in 1803, the branch to which
Congressman McLain belongs removed to Tennessee and in 1812
to Amite county, Miss. Enoch Bateman McLain was a member of
Gen. Nathan B. Forrest's cavalry of the Confederate army in the
Civil War, and since the close of that struggle has been engaged in
planting and mercantile business. The subject of this sketch at
tended the public schools of Amite county and for a year was a
student at the Woodlawn institute in the East Feliciana Parish,
La., under the instruction of Rev. Mr. Relyes and Rev. Samuel H.

188 MISSISSIPPI
Hayden. He then matriculated at the University of Mississippi and
was graduated at that institution in 1874 with the degree of Bach
elor of Arts. From 1875 to 1879 he was a teacher in the public
schools of the state, devoting his spare moments of those years to
the study of law. In September, 1879, he was admitted to practice
in the courts of the state and began the practice of his profession at
Liberty. In 1885 he removed to Gloster. In politics Mr. McLain is
a Democrat and as such was elected in 1881 for a term of two
years as the representative of Amite county in the lower house of
the state legislature, and upon the expiration of his term in that
office he was elected district attorney for his judicial district and was
twice re-elected, serving continuously from January, 1884, to Jan
uary, 1896. In the latter year he voluntarily resigned his office to
continue private practice in Gloster. When the Constitutional con
vention of 1890 met he was one of the Floater delegates, having been
elected to represent Amite and Pike counties. He was nominated
by the executive committee to fill out the unexpired term in Con
gress of the late Hon. William Franklin Love and was elected with
out opposition. He has been re-elected at every successive election
since that time. In religious affairs Mr. McLain is a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church and in a fraternal way is identified with
the Knights of Pythias. On March 6, 1879, at Magnolia, Miss., he
was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Ann Tyler, daughter of
William G. and Lindsay (Connally) Tyler, of Tylertown. Mrs.
McLain died at Washington, D. C, March 13, 1900, leaving besides
her husband three children — Mary (McLain) Hines, Enoch Bate
man and William Tyler.
McLaurin, a post-village of Perry county, on the Gulf & Ship
Island R. R., about 12 miles south of Hattiesburg. It was named
for Gen. McLaurin, the first president of the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R. Population in 1900, 300.
McLaurin, Anselm Joseph, United States senator from Mississippi,
ex-governor of the state and one of the distinguished members of
the bar of this commonwealth, has left an indelible impress upon the
annals of his native state in both a public and civic way, while his
influence in the broad field of national legislation has been exerted
with such consummate discrimination and fidelity as to cause addi
tional honor to mark his career and to incidentally touch the state
which has honored him with offices of so distinctive trust and re
sponsibility. Senator McLaurin maintains his home in the attractive
little town of Brandon, Rankin county, and here he was born on
March 26, 1848, being a son of Lauchlin and Ellen Caroline (Tullus)
McLaurin, the former of whom was born in Marlborough district
of South Carolina, where his parents located upon their immigra
tion from Scotland, while his wife was born in Simpson county,
Miss., and was reared on a farm in Smith county. Her
maternal grandfather, John London, was a valiant soldier in
the Continental line during the War of the Revolution. When a
young man Lauchlin McLaurin removed to Smith county, Miss.,
where he became the owner of a large and valuable plantation and

' MISSISSIPPI 189
held precedence as one of the influential citizens of that section of
the state, having represented his county in the state legislature sev
eral terms. The future governor and United States senator was the
eldest in a family of eight sons, and it may be said that all are to
day well known and honored citizens of Mississippi. Anselm J.
received his preliminary educational training in the best schools
of his native county and then continued his studies in Summerville
institute, in Noxubee county, which was at that time one of the
leading educational institutions of the state. Here he was a member
of the junior class of 1867. During the latter portion of his col
legiate course he also prosecuted the study of law under the effective
preceptorship of Professor Puttick, showing marked power of as
similation and thoroughly grounding himself in the minutiae of
the science of jurisprudence, so that he secured admission to the bar
of his native state in 1868 at Raleigh, Smith county. In that place
he engaged in the active practice of his profession, while his energy
and talent were sufficiently potent to make his novitiate of com
paratively brief duration ; he soon built up an excellent practice,
his clientage being of representative order and he came into prom
inence in public and civic affairs in an incidental way. In 1871 he
was elected district attorney for the fifth judicial district, proving an
able prosecutor and serving four years. He then, in 1876, removed
to Brandon, where he has since maintained his home and where
his labors in his profession have brought to him distinction as one
of the leading members of the bar of Mississippi. He has gained
distinctive prestige as a criminal lawyer and has been identified with
some of the most important causes presented in the Federal and
state courts. He is a man of high scholarship and is especially well
versed in the learning of the law, while his powers as a trial lawyer
are of most brilliant order and have been shown in their full strength
in many a sternly contested case, while his services as a public
speaker have been in much demand, especially in the realm of prac
tical politics. In 1879 he was elected to represent Rankin county in
the state legislature, making an excellent record in the connection
and being elected as representative from the state at large in 1880
and presidential elector for state at large in 1888. In 1890 he was a
delegate to the state constitutional convention, and was one of its
most prominent and active members. In February, 1894, he was
elected to the United States senate, but in the following year retired
therefrom, having been honored with election to the office of gov
ernor of Mississippi, in which capacity he served four years, giving
one of the most independent, duly conservative and businesslike
administrations the state has yet had. In January, 1900, there came
to Governor McLaurin the further distinction of being again chosen
to represent his state in the United States senate, and he was re
elected, his present term to expire on March 4, 1913. His able ser
vices in the senate are matters of record and need no special words
of commendation in this connection, while the continuation
of his tenure of office indicates the estimate placed upon
his labors by his fellow citizens. He is one of the leaders

190 MISSISSIPPI
in the ranks of the Mississippi Democracy and the cause of
the party has ever found in him a most loyal and aggressive advo
cate and supporter. In a fraternal way the Senator is -identified
with the Masonic order, the Knights of Honor, the Knights of
Pythias and the United Confederate Veterans. His eligibility for
membership in the last mentioned organization is predicated from
his having served as a member of Company K, Third Mississippi
cavalry, during the last few months of the Civil War, his fealty to
the Confederacy being of the most unequivocal order. Both he and
his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
On Feb. 22, 1870, Senator McLaurin was united in marriage to
Miss Laura Rauch, who was born in South Carolina and reared
in Smith county, Miss., being a daughter of John and Epsilon
(Roberts) Rauch. Senator and Mrs. McLaurin have ten children,
namely: Stella May, Delta Epsilon, Daisy Ellen, Laura Fostina,
Mary Louise, Irene Catherine, Anselm Joseph, Jr., Sallia C, Jean
Wallace and Laura Rauch.
McLaurin's Administration (1896-1900). Governor A. J. Mc
Laurin was inaugurated January 21, 1896. The State officers
elected in 1895 were J. H. Jones, lieutenant-governor; J. L. Power,
secretary of State ; W. D. Holder, auditor ; A. Q. May, treasurer ;
A. A. Kincannon, superintendent of public education; E. W.
Brown, clerk of the supreme court; Wiley N. Nash, attorney-
general ; John M. Simonton, land commissioner ; J. J. Evans, M. M.
Evans, J. D. Mclnnis, railroad commissioners ; Wirt Adams,
State revenue agent.
In his inaugural address Governor McLaurin discussed the
struggle of people in all times to be free from social oppression
and usurpations, as manifested in revolt against tyranny and spe
cial privilege. If there were a live interest in government and
law by every citizen, he said, "We need not give ourselves con
cern about the growth of our wealth or the prospect of our pros
perity. We need not give ourselves alarm about the 'building of
railroads and factories or the developing of the slumbering re
sources of the State. Among the acts of the legislature was a bill
exempting from taxation for ten years all permanent factories and
plants of the sort named therein, that should be established before
January 1, 1906. The sale of bonds for $400,000 and a State tax
levy of 6 mills was considered sufficient provision for the financial
situation of the treasury, which was practically without funds and
carrying a temporary loan of $150,000. But in the last six months
of the same year, the treasury had no funds to pay warrants. The
governor called a meeting of the State officers and presiding
officers of the legislature, and was advised to call a special session
of the legislature. He felt that he had no authority to borrow
money. When the legislature met in January, 1897, he made an
able statement of the financial condition, showing that the re
ceipts of the fiscal year, 1895-96 had been $1,777,586, including the
proceeds of the bonds, and the current expenditures had been
$1,759,759. He added: "The people of the State of Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI 191
have the property, real and personal, upon which to base credit,
and there is no good reason why the credit of the State should not
be' as good as that of the United States." He recommended an
ad valorem tax sufficient to defray the general expenses of the
State government, and a special fund for the common schools,
composed of the ad valorem tax and the privilege taxes, the entire
school appropriation to be distributed in January, to stop the
system of deficit in school resources. The legislature authorized
the governor to obtain a temporary loan of $200,000, raised the
State tax levy half a mill, and became involved with the governor
in a dispute regarding the plans for building a new capitol, that
resulted in, his veto of the bill adopted. (See Capitol, New,)
In 1897 the revenue agent began suit against the Illinois Cen
tral, and Yazoo & Mississippi valley railroad companies for back
taxes of about $750,000 which the companies claimed exemption
from by their charters. In discussing the. subject in his message
of 1898 Governor McLaurin advised the repeal of such exemptions.
"I would not have the State break faith with any one with whom
it deals, whether the most opulent railroad company or the hum
blest and poorest individual. It cannot break faith with any one
and preserve its honor untarnished. While this is so, it is true
that it is the duty of the State — just as sacred — to see that the
rich and powerful bear their lawful and just share of the expenses
of the government, and that they be not permitted to shift the
burden of their taxes on to the poor and weak." The repeal was
made and sustained by the supreme courts of the State and
United States. In 1897 the penitentiary convicts were employed
for a time on the Mississippi levees, in danger from high water.
There was a falling off in the price of cotton in 1897 that reduced
the returns of agriculture about $15,000,000. The condition of
the treasury was much improved in the years 1898-99, and the
administration closed with a large balance in the treasury. (See
Finances.) In 1897, 1898 and 1899 the State was again visited by yellow
fever epidemics, and business was checked by the quarantine reg
ulations, but a recurrence of the disastrous days of 1878 was pre
vented. During this administration both Senators George and
Walthall died while in office. Mississippi sent to the Spanish-
American war in 1898 two regiments, a battalion, and part of the
5th Immune infantry regiment. (See Spanish War.) The Demo
cratic convention in 1899 nominated a ticket headed by A. H.
Longino for governor and the Peoples party nominated a ticket
headed by Dr. R. K. Prewitt. The Republican party made no
nominations. The vote was, Longino, 42,273 ; Prewitt, 6,007. An
amendment to the constitution, making the judges of all the
courts elective, was voted upon at this election, but, as subse
quently decided by the supreme court, did not receive a consti
tutional majority. (See Judiciary.)

192 MISSISSIPPI
McLeod, a post-hamlet of Noxubee county, 8 miles east of Macon,
the county seat, and the nearest railroad and banking town. Pop
ulation in' 1900, 20.
McMurran, John T., an eminent lawyer, was a native of Penn
sylvania, who read law -with his uncle, Judge Thompson, of Chilli-
cothe, Ohio, and came to Natchez with a letter of introduction to
John A. Quitman, about 1828. After the death of W. B. Griffith
be became the law partner of Gen. Quitman, and surpassed the
latter in professional ability. Mr. McMurran married a daughter
of Chief Justice Turner. He never embarked in politics.
McNair, a post-village in the southern part of Jefferson county,
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 4 miles south of Fayette,
the county seat and nearest banking town. This is one of the
oldest settled sections of the State, and was known in the early
history of the county as the Scotch settlement, where Gaelic was
long the prevailing language. Population in 1900, 250.
McNeill, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Pearl River county,
12 miles south of Poplarville, the county seat and nearest banking
town. It is a station on the New O'rleans & North Eastern R. R.,
and has a money order postoffice and an express office. A branch
of the A. & M. College Experiment Station is located here. The
population in 1906 was estimated at 250.
McNutt. This old town was the first county seat of Sunflower
county when that county was created in 1844." It took its name
from the little lake on which it is located, and the lake is said to
have been named in honor of Governor Alexander G. McNutt. The
first public building in the town was a rude log courthouse and
jail. Afterwards a frame building was erected to take its place,
and in 1858, a fine brick courthouse was built. The act which
created the county of Leflore out of part of Sunflower county in
1871, directed that the county records, together with the buildings
and grounds at McNutt, now in Leflore county, should become the
property of the new county of Leflore. Greenwood, 12 miles to the
southeast, became the county seat of Leflore and the county build
ings at McNutt were sold and became private property. The brick
court house was used successively as a school building, a Masonic
hall, and a Methodist church and parsonage. In the year 1901,
it passed into the possession of Mr. C. M. Dixon. The old cemetery,
two churches, and a few other buildings still survive to mark the
site of the old town, and it is still a postoffice. Its population in
1900 was 62.
The pioneers of the town were Randall Bluett, Thomas Randle,
Eli Ethridge, Hezekiah McNabb and Ben Jones, planters. A few
years later, the following men became residents of McNutt : Daniel
Pond, T. G. Ellesberry, J. W. Gleason, farmers ; D. A. Outlaw, H.
S. Smith,  Lightfoot, lawyers; Drs. Rutledge and Lovelady,
physicians. (See Dr. F. L. Riley's Extinct Towns and Villages).
McNutt, Alexander G., governor of Mississippi, 1838-42, was
born in Rockbridge county, Va., in 1801 ; was graduated at old
Washington college; moved to Mississippi in 1824, and settled

MISSISSIPPI , 193
with the intention to practice law at the town of Jackson, just
founded, but soon changed his residence to the equally young and
more promising village of Vicksburg. In this early period he was
slovenly in habit and addicted to the common vice of intemperance
in such a degree that only his genuine force of mind sustained
him in popular esteem. Henry S. Foote, an enemy, writes that he
made his acquaintance in 1831, and learned that he had little suc
cess as a lawyer, but had made considerable money as collector
of accounts for the wealthy retired merchant, Mr. Huff.
With this start he became a partner as a planter with Joel S.
Cameron, whose murder, by his slaves, was a great sensation
about 1833. This fatality was followed in seven months by the
marriage of McNutt to his partner's widow. She was Elizabeth
Lewis, a native of Mississippi, and a lady of notable beauty. Foote
says that in 1831 McNutt, while attending court at Natchez, was
slapped in the face, in the course of argument, by Joseph Smith,
and, in confusion of mind, let it pass without retaliation. This
was a fatal error, according to the social code of that time, but
this seems to have made no difference with McNutt. He was
elected to the state senate in 1835, pledged to support Poindexter
for the United States senate. At the session of 1837 he was elected
president. In the legislature he took an extreme part against the
banks and by reason of this secured a nomination for governor in
1837 by the ultra opponents of the bank privileges. McNutt was
said by his opponents to be a Bentonian, an agrarian, a demo-
gogue, "the Humbug candidate," and accused of sympathy with
the sentiment, "Down with the banks ; Give us gold." Foote en
tered the campaign against him, and indulged in some bitter per
sonalities. There were two Democratic and two Whig candidates
in the field; but one of the Democratic candidates died during the
canvass, and McNutt was elected. In 1839 he was reelected. A
year or two after the close of his term he made a canvass of the
State as a candidate for the United States senate, making about
a hundred speeches, of considerable length, followed in each in
stance by Henry S. Foote, who was his nemesis in behalf of the
banks. The result was that though he obtained 20 votes in the
legislature for senator, a larger number were divided between
Foote, Quitman, Thompson and Brown, and finally Foote was
elected. Mr. McNutt then returned to private life. He was can
vassing the State as a candidate for presidential elector in 1848,
when he died, after an illness of a few days, at Cockrum's Cross
roads, De Soto county, October 22. The striking feature of his
career is his great fight against the corruption, which permeated
the entire fabric of Mississippi banking institutions. He was
charged with causing the failure of the banks by his attacks upon
them; but it is evident that his exposure of their rottenness was
proper and their collapse was inevitable.
His efforts at reform were not confined to banks and public of
ficials. In 1839 he advised the legislature: "A tax fee of one
hundred dollars for each conviction would soon drive the faro
13— II

194 MISSISSIPPI
dealers from the purlieus of the capitol and from the towns and
villages which they have been so long robbing." Reuben Davis
says (Recollections, p. 84), "In some respects he was the most
remarkable man I ever knew. It was not because he could debate
with great force and speak with captivating oratory. Many of
his contemporaries could compete with him on the rostrum, al
though he was admitted to be one of the best speakers of a time
singularly fertile in such talent. Two qualities marked him out
as an individual type entirely distinct from the class of speakers
and thinkers to which he belonged. The first was a matchless
ingenuity in spinning a web of sophistry, more consistent, more
plausible, and more like truth than the honest truth itself. He
could take any question, and so change and mould and adorn it,
that the most subtle intellect should fail to detect the falsehood."
He also had a remarkable power of ignoring the "code of honor"
without suffering in the esteem of his fellows. "He was regarded
as embodied intellect, with no animalism to make him combative."
The last words may be misleading. He was physically a huge
bulk of a man, not particularly refined. He was a hammer, not a
rapier. It may, perhaps, precisely illustrate Davis' thought to quote the
declaration of repudiation from Governor McNutt's last message,
as follows : "I have deemed it my duty to advise the bond-holders
that this State never will pay the $5,000,000 in State bonds deliv
ered to the Mississippi Union bank, or any part of the interest
due or to become due thereon. An appeal has been made to the
sovereign people of the State, on this question; arid their verdict,
from which no appeal can be taken, has triumphantly sustained
the principles for which I have long contended. No power can
compel them to pay a demand which they know to be unjust.
This result has gloriously sustained the sacred truth, that the
toiling millions never should be burthened with taxes to support
the idle few. Our constituents have wisely resolved that the
highest obligations of honor, faith and justice, demand of us a
strict adherence to the constitution and that the laws of the land
cannot be set at defiance. Whenever a different principle shall
prevail, and the doctrine be firmly established, that any agent or
corporation can, in violation of law, burthen unborn generations
with onerous debts — freedom will no longer exist, and our star
will be blotted forever from the constellation of republican States."
He advised a thorough investigation. "The facts . . . will
prove that Mississippi stands fully justified in the stand she has
taken, and that her faith, justice, honor, dignity and glory remain
untarnished." To these words the governor immediately added that $5,000,000
more of the same kind of bonds, executed by him in the fall of
1839 and delivered to the bank to sell, had not been disposed of,
"fortunately." These also, if they had been sold, he would have
repudiated with the same amazing self-righteousness, entirely
oblivious of the fact that when he signed the bonds he abnegated

MISSISSIPPI 195
all his "principles" and made himself a partner in guilt with the
New York and Amsterdam bond "sharks." He and the legisla
ture manufactured the goods, the bankers and sharks sold them,
and the victims among the common people bought them. His
act of repudiation protected the bankers and sharks, ruined thou
sands who were innocent of anything but speculation, and im
paired the credit of the State for many years.
Yet, despite his faults, it must be remembered that McNutt was
the great enemy of the "grafters" of his day in Mississippi.
Furthermore, perhaps an obituary notice of 1848 did not err in
saying that in later life the errors of his early manhood were
cast off, and no man in the State was more respected and beloved.
McNutt's Administration. Alexander G. McNutt was inaugu
rated January 8, 1838. He was elected as an opponent of the dan
gerous privileges of the banks. As president of the senate in lS^
he had signed the bill creating the Union bank, with a capital of
$15,500,000 in mortgages on land, buildings and slaves, and now
as governor in February, 1838, he signed the bill on its second
passage, and a supplementary bill, by which the State subscribed
for 500,000 shares in the bank, to be paid for out of the profits to
accrue to the State under the original bill. This bill made the
State a partner in the scheme, as well as surety. "Union banks,"
which had the peculiarity of slave as well as land security, were
also established in other States, but the Mississippi venture was
the most ambitious and notorious one of all. The bill, as it passed
two sessions of .the legislature, provided for raising the money by
selling bonds, and the faith of the State was pledged for their pay
ment, principal and interest. The bill was passed twice, as re
quired by the constitution to be done, in any case where the faith
of the State was to be pledged for such purposes.
In his message of January, 1839, the governor said the season
had been bad for cotton, but "We have been blessed by the giver
of all good with an abundant harvest of grain and the enjoyment
of better health than usual. Penury is unknown in the land — the
elements of our wealth remain — unwise legislation has brought
upon us a great calamity. For about two years the planter and
merchant have alike suffered. Every indication warrants us in
expecting better times — confidence is nearly restored. Most of
our banks have resumed specie payments, and the residue will be
compelled to follow their example or close their business. The
price of cotton has advanced fully fifty per cent, and the crop of
last year will, no doubt, sell for as much as that of 1837. A sound
currency will greatly diminish the cost of its production. . . .
Our amended constitution has been in operation about six years.
More liberal in its provisions than those of our sister states, it
leaves to 'the people the periodical election of all their officers,
and has realized the expectations of its framers. . . . No code
of laws has yet been enacted to carry out its provisions and many
of its injunctions have been disregarded."
Property qualifications for suffrage and office having been re-

196 MISSISSIPPI
pudiated, common schools were necessary, and the resources of
the State were ample to maintain them. The seminary fund
amounted to $314,000, exclusive of interest and a half section of
land. This arose from the donation of 36 sections. The money
was at loan and generally well secured, but many of the notes
were long under protest.
Of the late auditor, John H. Mallory, the governor said, "It
appears that he is a defaulter to the amount of $54,079, nearly all
on account of town lots and the Three per cent, seminary and
sinking funds. . . . Great looseness appears to have prevailed
in -both the auditor's and treasurer's office during the years 1836
and 1837."
The treasurer, James Phillips, had been authorized to receive
the 'distribution of surplus from the United States treasury. "No
authority was given him to receive of the government of the
United States anything but gold and silver, or the notes of specie
paying banks, yet, in defiance of law, he received payment of the
treasury drafts in such depreciated paper as the Agricultural bank
chose to give him. . . . About $200,000 of this was deposited
in the Planters' bank at Jackson, and that branch has, ever since
the suspension, refused to pay out anything to the public cred
itors except Brandon money." "It is deserving of your serious
consideration whether the embezzlement of the public money
should not be made felony, and punishable by imprisonment in the
State prison."
J. A. VanHoesen was appointed in September, 1838, to suc
ceed Phillips, deceased, as treasurer. Twenty thousand dollars
was held out by the representatives of Phillips for some time, and
then paid in uncurrent money, and VanHoesen reported that he
could not ascertain the true situation of the late treasurer's books.
The secretary of state, 1838-39, was David Dickson ; auditor, A. B.
Saunders, 1837-42. T. F. Collins was attorney-general, 1837-41.
Gen. Silas Brown, who went into office as treasurer in January,
1839, died in June.
-The treasury receipts of 1838 were $196,920; expenditures,
$350,644. The treasurer's report showed $140,000 in the treasury,
but the receipts of the treasury at this time were nearly all in
bank notes that no one else would take, the legislature having
made them all equally good in payment of taxes.
In his statement of the public debt Governor McNutt included
$382,335, deposited by the general government and liable at any
time- to be withdrawn ; also $2,000,000 in bonds sold to take stock
to that amount in the Planters' bank, and $5,000,000 sold to take
stock to that amount in the Mississippi Union bank, "amounting
in all to the sum of $7,382,335, and the annual interest on that
sum, most of it payable in Europe, amounts to the sum of $370,-
000. To preserve the honor of the State unsullied, and her credit
unimpaired, it is of the last importance that the interest should
be punctually paid, at the places designated, and ample funds pro
vided for the redemption of the principal — it is usually much

MISSISSIPPI 1#7
easier to borrow and spend money than to provide for the means
of payment."
In face of all warnings the legislature passed a bill for still
greater privileges to the Union bank, extending the pledge, to
$15,000,000, and permitting post notes at will. Gov. McNutt
vetoed it, saying that if he approved he would feel "guilty of
signing the death warrant of the credit of the state, and of the
Mississippi Union bank." The bill failed to command quite two-
thirds of the senate and so it was killed by the veto.
Adam L. Bingaman, president of the senate, upon adjournment,
in his farewell address, said party spirit had steps of descent from
principles to measures and thence to blind devotion to. men. But
there was a still lower deep, "when principles, measures and men
are all sacrified to mammon ; and lucre and corruption become, the
adamantine chains which connect together in indissoluble bonds
the degraded victims of party spirit." Such had been the history
of all republics, "May the God of nations procrastinate, if he will
not avert, the fatal day when it shall become the history of our
own. The political campaign of 1839 was a memorable one. S. S.
Prentiss canvassed the State as the Whig candidate for United
States senator, to succeed Robert J. Walker.
The Whig, (Henry Clay) ticket, was A. L. Bingaman and Reu*
ben Davis for congress, Edward Turner for governor, Dudley S.
Jennings for secretary of state, Gideon Fitz, for treasurer, .and
John Cruso for Auditor.
The Democratic (VanBuren) ticket, was elected : Albert G.
Brown and Jacob Thompson for congress ; A. G. McNutt for gov
ernor, Thomas B. Woodward, secretary of state ; Thomas Craig,
treasurer; A. B. Saunders, auditor.
Joseph G. Williams succeeded Craig in the office of treasurer,
and it was said at his death at Jackson, February 25, 1841, that
he was the fourth treasurer to die in two years. Joshua S. Curtis
held this office during the remainder of McNutt's administration.
The vote for governor was McNutt, 18,900 ; Turner, 15,886. The
legislature was overwhelmingly Democratic, assuring the defeat
of Prentiss.
Gov. McNutt welcomed the legislature of 1840 in January as
fresh from the people. "We all come here pledged to aid in re
forming abuses which can be tolerated no longer." The senate
on the 44th ballot elected George B. Augustus president, and
Jesse Speight was chosen speaker of the house.
The governor construed the election of 1839 as a condemnation
of the post note policy of the banks, against which he directed
most of his sturdy phillipics. He advised repeal of the bank char
ters. "Our annual export of fifteen millions of dollars will com
mand a sound currency. Money will then become a standard of
value, and not used as an article of traffic. The expense of pro
ducing cotton will be reduced at least fifty per cent. ... A
sound currency will soon restore the character of the State.

198 MISSISSIPPI
Those who produce nothing, who have long lived on the labor of
others, will suffer. The honest planter, the enterprising merchant
and the laborious mechanic will be benefited."
The revenue of the State in 1839 had been $287,000, and war
rants had been issued for $366,000.
There was "a long list of defaulters" among the tax collectors
of the State. The amount in default was at least $100,000.
On this subject the governor said in 1842: "The existing sys
tem relative to the collection of money due by defaulters is
radically defective. Experience has demonstrated that but little
is paid into the State treasury on such claims. Cases . . . are
permitted to slumber on the docket, until the parties to the bond
become insolvent. Many thousand dollars are annually lost to the
State by delays and failures in the prosecution of suits against
defaulters." As for the system of taxation, many of the banks were evading
it. "The dishonest usurer and the fraudulent banker are at pres
ent exonerated and taxes alone collected from the honest laborer.
. . . Not one-third of the landed estate of the country, subject
to taxation, is ever assessed." The banks to which indulgence had
been given by the State had all failed to comply with the condi-
. tions. The whole amount was probably a dead loss. Gen. Silas
Brown, when treasurer, in the absence of the governor,, allowed
the Planters' bank to pay its entire indebtedness in Brandon
money. The literary fund was all invested in the Planters' bank,
the stock of which was below par. Of the banks' refusal to permit
inspection by State commissioners, the governor said : "The
grounds of the various refusals show an utter disregard of the
laws of the land and a thorough contempt of legislative control."
Of this period Reuben Davis wrote: "We had no currency.
The United States bank had gone down before the onslaught of
the indomitable General Jackson. All the state banks were buried
in its ruins. Commerce was suspended. Insolvency was the rule,
and judgments accumulated against nearly all citizens. Such a
time of rage and excitement is rarely seen during a period of peace.
By means of executions, sheriffs were seizing real and personal
estate all over the country, and advertising for immediate sale.
On the days appointed for such sales, the people assembled in
angry mobs, and the feeling was evidently so desperate that sher
iffs were compelled to postpone proceedings. They dared not
invoke the full fury of a storm that, once let loose, would spend
itself in irresistible destruction."
The State was in the grip of the rag-money bank combination,
which apparently defied all effort at regulation. By maintaining
the system the eminent citizens engaged in banking were able to
make profits of about 50% annually out of the unfortunate public.
The revolt of the debtors against the grip of the capitalists upon
the legislature and courts practically paralyzed the administration
of justice. In some cases, when courts were to be held, the sher
iff and coroner of the county would resign to prevent the formal

MISSISSIPPI 199
opening of the session and the entry of judgments. This was the
day when it was said that a common return by sheriffs upon writs
for collection, was "G. T. T." — Gone to Texas. Against this con
dition of things — against the almost incredible insolence and
audacious crime of the banking system, which had at beck and
call the eloquence and wit of Prentiss and Foote and other great
lawyers and orators, McNutt pounded away, blindly and fero
ciously no doubt,, but with a tremendous earnestness that com
mands respect. He was accused of misdemeanor and crime,
ridiculed, insulted and jeered at. He endured it all, calmly refus
ing to permit an appeal to the field of honor, which might give his
antagonists an opportunity to put him out of the way, and thus
gain a triumph over his cause.
He had the advantage of wealth and a happy temperament so
cially, and his political enemies were compelled to yield to his
generous hospitality.
After the adjournment of the legislature, which adopted laws
embodying his views regarding the banks, the governor issued
his famous proclamation announcing that the State would not
pay the Union bank bonds. A public meeting at Natchez, presided
over by Col. Bingaman and addressed by S. S. Prentiss, denounced
the proclamation as a wanton assault upon the credit of the State.
The year 1840 was also memorable for the Harrison campaign
(q. v.), the tornado at Natchez, and the last visit of Andrew Jack
son. In the years 1839 and 1840 the ordinary expenses of the State
government exceeded the receipts into the treasury by the sum
of $54,742, and the treasurer was unable to pay warrants of the
auditor to the amount of $393,500.
The treasurer's statement was $161,000 receipts, including
$63,000 in Mississippi railroad notes that could not be paid out,
and the auditor's report showed warrants issued in the same time
for $491,632, of which $93,000 was for public buildings and $183,000
to pay loans from banks.
The treasury contained over $300,000 of various sorts of bank
paper that was probably worthless. State officials received their
pay in warrants, worth about 35 cents on the dollar. There was a
default of $55,000 by the tax collectors.
Yet in January, 1841, Gov. McNutt said: "We produce annu
ally cotton equal in value to one-third of the whole crop of the
Union; and it yields an amount equal to one-seventh of all the
exports of the United States, of domestic growth. The immense
increase in the growth of corn, oats, wheat and rye, and the large
amount of horses, cattle and swine raised by our planters, have
made us independent of other States for the necessaries of life."
Next came repudiation, with the governor as the foremost
champion. In his message of January, 1841, he said the State was
already in debt $400,000 on auditor's warrants, and to meet the
bank bonds and interest would require another million to be raised
by taxation immediately. "Such an enormous tax can never be

200 ' MISSISSIPPI
collected from the hard earnings of the people of this State. They
will not elect representatives who will impose it, or tax gatherers
who will collect it."
Various legal arguments were made in support of repudiation,
and popular pleas intended to justify the act. One was that the
real seal of the State was not affixed to the Union bank bonds.,
which was specially made for the occasion. But the repudiation,
once begun, extended to the Planters' bank bonds, against which
there was no genuine objection. The fact was, the people had
been victimized by their statesmen and financiers ; the bonds had
been sold to speculators who, if not exactly receivers of stolen
goods, were expectant beneficiaries of an abuse of public trust,
and, under the circumstances,' the people of Mississippi, after
yielding up enormous profits to the combination for a term of
years, decided they could not afford to be bled any longer. There
can be no manner of doubt that some sort of settlement would
have been infinitely better than the course pursued. But so it was
done — the pledge of the State was totally repudiated.
To carry out his part of the work Gov. McNutt passed upon the
constitutionality of laws. The constitution of 1832 authorized the
legislature to regulate the manner in which suits might be brought
against the State, and the legislature of 1838 passed an act au
thorizing suits on claims in the superior court of chancery. Sev
eral suits for large amounts were pending in that court in 1841
and there was a probability of suits oh the bonds of the Planters
and Union banks. The governor gave notice that the act, in re
quiring him to issue warrants on the treasury to pay judgments,
was unconstitutional, because it was provided that no money
should be paid from the treasury except by appropriation by the
legislature. (Message of 1842.)
The State campaign of 1841 was upon the question of honoring
the faith pledge of the bonds. The Whigs proposed to do so, and
nominated Judge David O. Shattuck for governor. The Demo
crats nominated Hanson Alsbury and, upon his removal from the
State, Tilghman M. Tucker. The vote was Tucker, 19,059 ; Shat
tuck, 16,773.
In his last message, January, 1842, Gov. McNutt made a state
ment of the condition of the State government. The legislature
had been meeting twice as often as the constitution provided, and
"the expenses attendant thereon had impoverished the State jtreas-
ury." The published acts of 1841 contained contradictory laws,
which had created great confusion. The State officers, auditor,
treasurer and secretary of state, were in the habit of absenting
themselves from the capital for long periods, leaving their busi
ness in the hands of irresponsible clerks. "Under such circum
stances the public business is often neglected, and the funds of the
State endangered." Auditor Mallory was indebted to the State
in the sum of $54,000. "Suit has been pending on his bond for
near three years. Assistant counsel have been employed by the
State, but no judgment has been recovered. In the meantime his

MISSISSIPPI 201
sureties have become insolvent, and the whole debt may be con
sidered lost." The State laws were such that "the public offices
may be closed, the funds wasted and embezzled, and no power can
remove the culprit until regularly impeached."
For nearly two years the treasurer had been unable to cash the
warrants of the auditor, and to that extent he had ceased to be a
check upon the auditor. "Many thousand dollars are annually
lost to the State by delays and failures in the prosecution of suits
against defaulters" among the tax collectors.
"This State, by its connection with banks, has lost the follow
ing sums, towit: In notes of the Brandon and Grenada banks,
$238,102; Natchez Railroad company, $63,030; Mississippi Union
bank, $1,832 ; Hernando Railroad company, $20 ; Corporation of
the City of Jackson, $3 ; total, $302,988. The taxpayers paid said
sums in funds nearly equivalent to specie. The losses sustained
by the State in the reception of bank paper admonish the legisla
ture of the danger of taking it in payment of the public dues. The
banks of this State have sunk about twenty millions of dollars in
relieving the financiers — they will receive their last relief in the
Bankrupt act."
The great record of McNutt's administration was the creation
of the Union bank and a debt of $5,000,000 and the repudiation
thereof, all within four years. Besides this the governor and legis
lature absolutely threw away the stock in the Planters' bank,
which had previously yielded an annual dividend of $200,000, and
destroyed the sinking fund. On the first day of January, 1838,
there was in the treasury the sum of $279,613 in cash. Four years
later there was 34 cents in specie, a lot of worthless bank notes,
and claims of $8,000,000 debt pressing for adjustment. "This
presents a scene of reckless extravagance and prodigality un
equalled in the administration of any free government which has
ever existed." (Message of Governor Tilghman, 1843.)
McRae, a postoffice of Wayne county, named for one of the
pioneer families of the county.
McRae, John J., was a son of John McRae, who was a merchant
at Sneedsboro, N. O, until his removal to Winchester, Wayne
county, in 1817. There John McRae was prominent as a cotton
buyer, and was the first to send barges down the Pascagoula river,
loaded with cotton for shipment to New Orleans. He finally estab
lished a station and agency at the mouth of the river, whither he
removed for his health in 1826. John J. McRae was born in North
Carolina, January 10, 1815, and was educated at the Frederick
school at Pascagoula, and at Miami university, near Cincinnati,
Ohio, where he was graduated before he was 19. He read law
with Judge Pray, at Pearlington, and while there became engaged
to a widow, Mrs. McGuire, to whom he was married in 1835. He
was occupied for some time, with a brother of President Tyler, in
the removal of Indians to the west, and was very active in making
the campaign to secure popular support along the line of the pro
posed Mobile & Ohio railroad. In early manhood he founded the

202 MISSISSIPPI
newspaper, Eastern Clarion, at Paulding. He was the representa
tive of Clarke county in the legislature in 1848 and 1850, and in
that time of exciting political combat was one of the popular ora
tors of the State Rights party, led by Quitman and Davis. He
was "a bright speaker, gay, humorous and fascinating." He was
speaker of the house in 1850, and in. the fall of 1851, after Senator
Davis had resigned to become a candidate for governor, McRae
was appointed by the acting governor, Whitfield, to fill the vacancy
until the legislature could elect. He took his seat at the opening
of congress in December, and served until March 17, following.
The elections went against his party, and though he received his
party vote in the legislature, Stephen Adams was elected. McRae
was governor, 1854-58. In 1858, upon the death of Gen. Quitman,
McRae was elected to succeed him as representative in congress,
and was reelected to the next congress, serving until he retired
January 12, 1861, upon the secession of the State. He was an ar
dent supporter of secession, and a representative of Mississippi
in the First congress of the Confederate States. After the fall
of the Confederacy, suffering under this calamity, financial losses
and the death of his wife and mother, his health failed rapidly.
His great desire was to meet once more his brother Colin, who
had been in Europe several years as financial agent for the Con
federacy, and was then at Belize, in British Honduras. He sailed
thither from New Orleans in May, 1868, and after a rough voyage^
was so prostrated that he was barely able to recognize his brother.
He died there May 31, 1868, and his brother was buried there be
side him in 1876. (Publ. Miss. Hist. Soc, VI, 270.)
McRae Administration. In his inaugural address, January 10,
1854, Gov. McRae took occasion to speak of that "glory and beauty
of our institutions, that changes of our rulers take place as quietly
as the changes of the seasons. . . . The executive head of
the State is changed today, and the masses of the people are
scarcely aware of the transition." This sentiment was in marked
contrast to the acute personalities of the farewell address of Gov
ernor Foote's administration (q. v.). Gov. McRae based his elec
tion upon popular belief in certain general principles. "First in
importance of these is the nationality of the great doctrine of
State Rights, based upon the individuality and sovereignty of the
several States, as co-equals in the Confederacy. Upon this depends
the perpetuity and safety of the Union. . . . Co-equal rights in
the Union, and the right of the States severally to judge for them
selves of infractions of the Constitution, as well as of the mode
and measure of redress, is the great distinguishing feature of our
republican form of government." To this the governor added:
"To nationalize this great principle is the work of patriotism ; to
sectionalize it is to destroy the best hopes of the Republic."
In his plea for education the governor said: "There are but two
great ideas worthy of life — God and liberty. They embrace all
of value here; all that is important hereafter. But to appreciate
these, man must be intelligent; to be intelligent he must be edu-

MISSISSIPPI 203
cated; to be educated, the means must be provided, and this is
the duty of the State."
His administration was confronted by financial embarrassment.
The new State treasurer, Shields L. Hussey, reported that when
he took office in the preceding December, there was very little
money in tbe treasury except what was due to the Trust funds,
and he had been able to cash but few of the auditor's warrants
since. He suggested that he be permitted to draw on these funds
to meet the ordinary expenses. The secretary of state, elected in
1853, was William H. Muse; the auditor, Madison McAfee. Col.
David C. Glenn was elected attorney-general to succeed John D.
Freeman, who had served since 1841. Muse died January 9, 1855,
and A. B. Dilworth was appointed to the vacancy.
To the legislature of 1854 was presented a petition of ladies,
married and unmarried, for some action regarding "the alarming
evils of intemperance, prevalent to so fearful an extent, not only
in the city of Jackson, but also throughout the State of Missis
sippi." The legislature responded to this and other petitions with
an act regulating license and submitting the question of license to
the sentiment of the majority of the community in which it was
asked to be granted.
The legislature refused to make a legislative apportionment,
against which 21 members of the house filed a solemn protest.
A smaller number protested against the giving of a cash bonus
to the proposed New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern railroad.
In 1854 the State had as railroad outlets the Mobile & Ohio road,
in operation from Lauderdale Springs to Mobile, and the Mem
phis & Charleston road through Corinth. The New Orleans road
had been laid to the State line.
The Deaf and Dumb institute was opened in August, 1854,
through the purchase of the Cleaver Female institute grounds and
buildings with funds from the sales of public lands placed to the
credit of the State by act of congress, 1841.
Gov. McRae was renominated by his party in the spring of 1855.
There was no Whig nomination against him. The "Know Noth
ing" or American party (q. v.) was at the climax of its sudden
and brief career. It promised to be a national party, and there
was need of one. It spread with wonderful rapidity North and
South. It was the issue in 1855, and the candidate of the new
movement, selected, it was said, at a secret meeting at New Or
leans, was Charles D. Fontaine, of Pontotoc, a lawyer of high
standing. The nomination was admitted by all to be a strong
one. Lock E. Houston was one of its candidates for Congress. In
some counties the movement was so strong that Democratic nom
inations went begging. The Whigs went into the movement al
most unanimously. That old party had practically ceased to be,
with the defeat of Scott.
But McRae was reelected by about the same vote as before —
32,666 to 27,579. After this the Democratic party rapidly became

204 MISSISSIPPI
the Southern party, in the South. Events began to combine rap
idly toward a climax of sectional strife.
At the general election in 1855 two amendments to the consti
tution were adopted, numbers Four and Five. The first extended
the terms of all public officers which would expire at the general
elections in 1857, or any subsequent year, to the first Monday of
January following, and provided that the terms of officers elected
in 1857 should begin in January, 1858. The Fifth amendment
changed the general elections to the first Monday of October, and
restricted them to one day; the elections of congressmen, state
officers and legislators to be biennial beginning in 1857 ; the legis
lature to meet on the first Monday of November in 1857, and
thereafter biennially; the governor's term to begin on the third
Monday of November, and the terms of other officers on the first
Monday of January; the elections of county, district and judicial
officers to be held biennially, beginning in October, 1858. These
were inserted in the constitution by act approved February 6,
1856. Within a few months the talk of secession was revived in con
gress, during the great struggle for the election of a speaker, in
which there was a Southern Know Nothing candidate as well as a
Democrat candidate. Then there was heard the voice of the Free
Soil party, taking the old name of Jefferson's party, "Republican,"
and declaring that it would soon have a majority in congress and
would utterly deny the theory of secession and by force prevent
any attempt at secession. To which a Virginian made answer
that whenever the Republicans elected a president, the South
would secede.
Governor McRae submitted to the legislature in January, 1856,
the resolutions of the legislature of Maine, demanding the aboli
tion of slavery in the District of Columbia, the repeal of the Fugi
tive slave law, the prohibition forever of slavery in the Territories
of the United States, and the admission of no new States in which
slave labor was permitted. Against this he set the resolutions of
the Mississippi convention of 1851 (q. v.), which he and his party
had at' the time opposed, seeking not disunion, he said, but a per
manent settlement of all questions. He recommended the legis
lature to reaffirm these resolutions, calmly and firmly, "and our
determination to maintain them at all hazards."
The^legislature of 1856 gave much of its time to considering and
adopting the code prepared by Sharkey, Ellett and Harris, and
being unable to finish that work, completed it at a special session
begun in December, 1856.
Governor McRae's message in 1856 was notable as the first one
for several administrations, devoted mainly to a discussion of
State affairs. It set the pattern for executive messages which,
with some amplification, has ever since prevailed. He said that
with the exception of the pestilence which, within a few years
past, had begun again its annual visitation to the cities of the
State, including Jackson and some of the interior villages, the peo-

MISSISSIPPI 205
pie had been blessed with unusual health and the harvests had
been bountiful, "The burdens of government rest lightly upon
the people, prosperity scatters plenty to them, patriotism subdues
ambition, and we scarcely know or inquire what it is that brings
us the great blessing we so happily and securely enjoy. It is the
shield of the government over us, held by the overruling hands of
Providence, manifesting itself through our institutions, and in the
sentiment of our people which acknowledges it, and for which we
should be ever grateful."
The financial statement showed receipts in the two years 1854
and 1855, of $826,376; disbursements, $905,583; but the receipts
on account of the Internal improvement fund and Swamp land
sales, made an apparent surplus of $83,000.
The administration of Gov. McRae was particularly memorable
for the actual beginning of railroad development. Under an act
of legislature of 1854, the State took $300,000 stock in the main
lines, which gave them a needed impetus. In 1856 there was no
line running through, except the Memphis & Charleston, in the
northeast corner, but some important links were laid down, and
the completion of 800 miles of road in the State was near at hand.
Gov. McRae declared, "The brilliant prosperity which they will
give to our State, the most sanguine has not conceived, and won
der herself will be astonished at the magnificent result." (See
Railroads.) He advised the further investment of $200,000 annu
ally in railroad stock, to be raised by taxation, until the State had
a million and a half invested. No one doubted then that the State
had the power and the brains to protect its own investments.
An achievement of surpassing importance in this period was
the work of building levees (q. v.) supported by the donation of
overflowed lands by congress to the State. J. L. Alcorn, president
of the superior board of levee commissioners, created in 1854, re
ported in 1856 that there had been a wonderful increase in land
values. In fact, lands considered hopelessly unavailable as late
as 1848 were now eagerly sought for, tens of thousands of acres
having been sold since levee protection was assured'. There was a
great area of State lands in the new domain, as well as Chickasaw
school lands. The educational fund, likewise the funds available
for aid to railroads, were being greatly benefited. Concerning the
school lands, "an exciting struggle commences with this session
of the legislature (1856) in permanently fixing the basis for the
distribution of the money to the counties rightfully owning the
same." The old struggle for territory between the opposing interests
of North and South, after a momentary lull, was now
revived. The proposed States of Kansas and Nebraska were
the bone of contention. Gov. McRae said (January, 1856) :
"The difficulties in the territory of Kansas have produced much
excitement in the country, and awakened a feeling of deep interest
among the people of the Southern States. Fully impressed with
the importance of securing that territory to our interests, and for

206 MISSISSIPPI
the extension of our institutions, after the most mature reflection,
I have not been able to see how the State, in her sovereign capacity,
can take measures to effect that result;" but if it were within his
line of duty he would earnestly urge the people to encourage
emigration to that country. He believed that no matter how many
emigrants went there from the Northern States, the Southern emi
grants could control it by "the irresistable energy of their deter
mination and their will. If the territory is lost to the South, it
will be the fault of our own people."
The presidential election of 1856 was one of great interest,
Buchanan and Breckinridge was the Democratic ticket, Fillmore
was nominated for president by the Know Nothings, and Fremont
by the Republicans. At the same time there was actually war in
Kansas between colonizing parties from the Northern and South
ern States, the skirmish line of the Great War near at hand.
The adjourned session of the legislature begun in December,
1856, proposed two more amendments to the constitution, one
prohibiting suits against the State, the other abrogating the
Fourth and Fifth amendments so far as they related to the tenure
of office of members of the legislature.
The Democratic state convention was held in June, 1857, and
that of the American party in July, at Jackson. Both adopted res
olutions censuring Gov. Robert J. Walker (q. v.), of Kansas, for
proposing to submit the state constitution of Kansas to the popu
lar vote, and this censure was extended to President Buchanan.
At the election in October the Democratic nominee for gover
nor, William McWillie, received 27,377 votes. Edward M. Yer
ger, the nominee of the American party, carried Warren and
Hinds counties, but was in a minority in nearly all the others,
particularly in the north of the State, and had a total vote of only
14,095. The legislative tenure of office amendment was adopted; the
other amendment was rejected.
In his final message, November 2, 1857, Gov. McRae entirely
ignored politics, and wrote exclusively of State affairs, treating of
the serious condition resulting from the financial crisis of 1857,
the general suspension of specie payments and the worthlessness
of the paper money in circulation (See Banking) ; the adoption of
the Code of 1857, the railroads, common schools, public institu
tions, etc.
During his administration the State had invested in railroad
companies nearly $1,500,000 from the congressional funds, loaning
$633,000 from the Chickasaw School fund, and paying nearly
$800,000 from the Internal improvement fund, for stock. Only 34
miles of rails remained to be laid between Jackson and New Or
leans ; that road would be completed to Canton by the next March,
and the line north of Canton was making good progress. The
Mobile & Ohio would be in operation north to Okalona by Janu
ary; it was expected that by the first of January, 1860, it would
be completed to Columbus, Ky., to connect with the Central of

MISSISSIPPI 207
Illinois. There would be two lines through Mississippi, from Mo
bile and New Orleans, converging in one line to Chicago.
The total receipts of the State treasury in the ten months of
1857 were $1,015,478; expenditures, $1,054,469, including the large
movements of the trust funds. In regard to the Two per cent,
Three per cent and Sinking Funds, a large discrepancy existed be
tween the books of the treasurer and auditor, a discrepancy of
long standing, and investigated by the legislature of 1847.
A curious complication had arisen, regarding the tenure of of
fices under the amendments. Even the term of governor was
involved. That point was settled by construction, so that Gov.
McRae retired from office on the third Monday of November,
1857, that the Governor elect might be installed on that day. This
was eight weeks before the expiration of McRae's term. Doubts
existed also as to the term of judicial officers.
The same legislature which had recommended the amendment
adopted in October met in regular session November 2, 1857. This
body had been elected in 1855, but it was understood that the term
of office of its members was extended by the amendment to the
first Monday in January, 1858. The "constitution provided that
an amendment after adoption by the people did not become a part
of the constitution until inserted by the next succeeding legisla
ture. The next succeeding legislature, which had been elected in
October, 1857, would not have a regular sessipn until November,
1859. if they were called in special session, their term would be
abridged from January, I860, to October, 1859, and the legislature
elected in 1859 would sit in November, 1859. The governor rec
ommended the call of a convention to revise the Constitution, as
the easiest way to avoid complications and remedy other evils.
This same legislature, however, proceeded to insert the amend
ment in the constitution, and McRae's successor, Gov. McWillie,
signed the bill, therefor, though expressing his opinion that the
legislature was unauthorized to act.
McRaven, a postoffice of Hinds county, on the Natchez-Jackson
branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 8 miles west of
Jackson. McVille, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Attala county, on
the Yockariookany river, 9 miles south of Kosciusko, the county
seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in
1900, 43.
McWillie, William. Governor McWillie was a descendant of
John McWillie, a Scotchman, who, in his youth, was a partisan
of the Stuarts, was captured at Culloden, and finally released on
condition of his entering the British military service. His sword
and several of his commissions are treasured by his descendants
in Mississippi. His son, Adam, after marrying, emigrated to
South Carolina, where his son, who became governor of Missis
sippi, was born in Kershaw district, November 17, 1795. When
the latter was preparing for college the South Carolina regiment,
commanded by his, father in the war of 1812 was ordered on coast

208 MISSISSIPPI
duty, and he accompanied the command as adjutant. Subsequently
he entered the State college at Columbia, where he was graduated
in 1817. In 1818, having been admitted to the bar, he began the
practice at Camden. Such was his distinction he was one of the
attorneys selected by the Union party in South Carolina to argue
the Test oath case, in association with the famous Grimke, before
the supreme court of South Carolina, in the Nullification era. Be
ing elected president of the bank of Camden in 1836 he withdrew
from the profession of law. Subsequently he served four years
in the legislature, 1836-40. He came to Mississippi in October,
1845, to live the life of a planter, bringing many negroes, acquired
many acres of land, and made his home in the northeast corner of
Madison county, where he built the famous plantation home,
called Kirkwood. The house, planned by a New York architect,
was "a colonial pile, with broad halls, large rooms and conserva
tory." Gardens and wide lawns extended on one side to the church
and churchyard, and on the other side of the house stood the rec
tory. Here from time to time, all the distinguished men of Mis
sissippi of that day were entertained. Jefferson Davis first came
in 1850, and was presented with a Highland dirk found on Hobkirk
hill, the site of the McWillie home in South Carolina. On receiv
ing the dirk, Mr. Davis said, "Madam, I will use this only in de
fending Southern rights." Mr. McWillie was twice married. His
second wife, Catherine Anderson, accompanied him to Mississippi.
His eldest son, Adam, was with the First regiment in Mexico,
under Jefferson Davis, and was captain in the Second regiment,
1847, and was also captain of the Camden rifles, 18th regiment, in
1861, until killed at First Manassas. The other sons • were Will
iam, James, Thomas A., and Richard L. There were also four
daughters who married. In 1849 Gov. McWillie began his public
career in Mississippi as a Democratic candidate for congress, and
was elected, the first one of his party to be successful in that dis
trict. In 1851 he was again nominated, but defeated, that being a
Whig year. He was elected governor in October, 1857. (See Mc
Rae Adm.) At the close of his term of office he was a few days
past 65 years of age, and he retired from public life, though active
in support of the Confederacy. He died at Kirkwood, March 3,
1869. McWillie's Administration. Governor McWillie's term began,
under the Fifth amendment to the constitution of 1832, November
16, 1857. In his inaugural address, after exulting in the great
growth of the railroads, levees and charitable and educational in
stitutions of the State, he discussed the sectional questions, as
affected by the Kansas conflict and the Dred Scott decision of the
United States supreme court. He hoped that disruption might
yet be avoided, but disruption was inevitable if things travelled
as they were then tending. An appeal to patriotic and conserva
tive men everywhere to stand fast, and struggle on for Constitu
tion and Union, was, "with thorough preparation on. our part, all
that we can do."

MISSISSIPPI 209
Robert J. Walker, a famous Mississippian, had recently assured
the people of Kansas, of which he' had been appointed Territorial
governor, that their constitution should be submitted to the ap
proval of the bona fide residents, and the majority should rule, in
regard to slavery and every other subject. Mr. Pettus introduced
a joint resolution in the senate declaring "unqualified condemna
tion" of Governor Walker, also that President Buchanan, to whom
Mississippi had lately given her suffrage, was "justly censurable
in the premises, as unfaithful to the principles of the Kansas-
Nebraska bill, and the cherished constitutional, rights of the
Southern States."
The governor called the legislature in special session Novem
ber 1, 1858, partly to re-enact the insertion into the constitution
of the Sixth amendment. (See McRae Adm.) The first business
brought before the senate, however, was a resolution introduced
by I. N. Davis declaring that slavery was recognized by the Con
stitution and the Holy Bible and favoring the reestablishment of
the slave trade with Africa. After a prolonged discussion extend
ing through more than two weeks, the resolutions were referred to
the committee on Federal relations.
In his message, Gov. McWillie urged that the levee system
from Vicksburg to the Tennessee line should be put under one
general management, with power to levy taxes on the lands bene
fited to raise an annual fund of $500,000. He also recommended
a general state tax for aid to the railroads, none of which were
yet completed through the State. The legislature of 1857 had
appointed commissioners to organize a company to build the Gulf
& Ship Island, under the charter of 1854, and subscriptions to
stock were being taken. This proposed road, the National gov
ernment had aided by grants of 500,000 acres of land, and the State
had contributed $733,000 in stock of other roads in the State,
which the State had derived from other National donations of
land. The governor urged that the State encourage this enter
prise also, out of the State funds.
Regarding the railroad investments, he said : "I have no
hesitation in assuring you, that notwithstanding the present diffi
culties with which our roads have to contend, that all the invest
ments heretofore made in their stocks, and all the monies loaned
on the bonds of the companies are amply secured — and, also, that
the interest on those bonds has been regularly paid — and that there
is no doubt of the ultimate payment of the principal as it falls due."
The State had used funds belonging to the State university
amounting to $650,000. The governor urged that this should be
funded at 6%, the interest to be put at the disposal of the Univer
sity for the maintenance of a Normal school. He recommended
the appointment of a "superintendent-in-chief" of the common
schools, uniform text books, and normal schools for the training of
girl teachers. "In my opinion this is asking little in aid of female
education, to which, so far as I am informed, not one dollar has
ever directly been appropriated by the State, though we have
14-11

210 MISSISSIPPI
expended hundreds of thousands of dollars for the benefit of
thieves and murderers in the erection of a penitentiary."
He noted a revival of militia organization, the progress of the
geological survey, and the condition of the State institutions'. The
cotton factory at the penitentiary, burned in 1857, was being re
built. "There had been an entire disorganization of the militia of the
State until the recent election of officers on the first Monday in
October. ... I hope that for the future we will have an ef
ficient military organization. ... I have had several appli
cations for arms for volunteer cavalry companies, and one for a
field piece for an artillery company, but have not been able to
furnish them, as there are now no arms in the State arsenal but
rifles and muskets, and they too will very soon be exhausted, and
as there are now numerous volunteer companies being formed in
the State ; and the amount of arms received from the Federal gov
ernment is entirely inadequate to meet the demand, I would,
therefore, recommend that the sum of $10,000 ... be appro
priated for the purchase of arms."
Considerable interest was excited by an examination of the
books of the auditor and treasurer, from the beginning of the trust
funds created by donations of land by the United States to the
State for internal improvements. Alexander S. Arthur, the State
commissioner for this purpose, reported that the auditor's books
were wrong $26,658 and the treasurer's books wrong over $150,000,
in the Two and Three per cent funds (_q. v.), and there were large
discrepancies in the other trust fund accounts.
The Democratic State convention of 1859 resolved : "That in
the event of the election of a Black Republican candidate to the
Presidency, by the suffrages of one portion of the Union only, to
rule over the whole United States, upon the avowed purpose of
that organization, Mississippi will regard it as a declaration of
hostility; and will hold herself in readiness to cooperate with her
sister States of the South in whatever measures they may deem
necessary for the maintenance of their rights as co-equal members
of the confederacy." John J. Pettus was nominated for gover
nor. He, wrote Reuben Davis, was "a disunion man of the most
unmitigated order."
The opposition put in nomination Harvey W. Walter, who, at
the election in October, carried Tishomingo and Warren county,
and made a good showing in Marshall, Hinds, Panola and a few
others, but received in all only 10,308 votes to 34,559 for Pettus.
It was a remarkable circumstance, however, that with the tre
mendous issue at stake, and despite the increase in population,
the vote of the State was 12,000 less than it was ten years before.
In this year, 1859, "the wealth of the people was increasing
rapidly, and the land seemed to be basking in the full sunshine of
God's benediction. Sectional agitation had reached its height,
and yet no one seemed to realize that it must result in war and all
its calamities. There seemed to, be in every mind some vague

MISSISSIPPI 211
anticipation that, however brightly these fires might blaze and
threaten, they would in some way extinguish themselves in due
time harmlessly." (R. Davis, Recollections.)
On October 17 occurred the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia,
by John Brown, who planned to set up the banner of negro in
surrection. He was soon suppressed by United States troops and
Virginia militia. Brown, an Abolitionist from Ohio, had for sev
eral years been concerned in the Kansas warfare. He regarded
himself as a divinely appointed agent, and hesitated at nothing
as a means to the end of liberation of the blacks. His trial kept
alive the great excitement caused by his raid. He was executed
. December 2, 1860.
In his last message to the legislature of November, 1859, Gov.
McWillie presented at great length his views of the crisis, based
on that point of view which had been inherited from the long-
continued struggles for "balance of power" in Congress. He saw
in the obvious desire of California, Kansas and Nebraska to ex
clude slavery, aggression by the North. The presidency, he said,
was "the last and only department of the government from which
we have any hope of protection." There was no longer any pos
sibility of the South controlling congress, and success of the
Republicans would be a sectional triumph. With an Abolition
president, he said, we would be a conquered people. The Repub
licans he called "Black Republicans," and declared they were
identical with the Abolitionists. He could see nothing ahead but
"degradation," and exhorted the State that if it were willing to
accept such a situation, "all the blood of the Revolution was shed
in vain."
He quoted the resolution of the Democratic state convention,
and recommended that "you, by your legislation, should make it
the duty of the then governor, in the event of the election pf a
Black Republican to the Presidency of the United States in No
vember, 1860, to issue his proclamation ordering an election of
delegates to a State convention, to be holden on the first Monday
of December next thereafter, and that said delegates be appointed
to assemble at the Capitol, in the City of Jackson, on the 3d Mon
day of the said month of December, 1860, for the purpose of
adopting such measures as may meet the exigency of the occasion.
I would further recommend that you should adopt resolutions
inviting the other Southern States to cooperate with the State of
Mississippi," etc.
Governor McWillie's idea of what the convention of Southern
States should do, was, that the States should league to demand a
constitutional amendment that "no law affecting the institution of
slavery, or imposing indirect taxes, should ever be enacted, unless
it should receive a majority of the votes of the Senators from the
slave-holding States." To bring the North to terms on this, he
would have the Southern States levy a tax of 25% on northern
imports. If the North refused these "just demands," the "blame
and the ruin would be at her own door." He thought it better

212 MISSISSIPPI
to "give the Union another chance for life," and said, "Secession
or disunion is death, while a refusal to pay taxes is but a violent
disease, from which the body politic may recover." If it were
objected that this was nullification, he replied that the North had
nullified the fugitive slave laws.
In view of the federal relations the governor urged the arming
of the militia, particularly the volunteer companies. "The mouth
of a cannon and the glitter of steel are arguments of power much
stronger than those of the brain." It was also his duty, he said,
to call out the militia to suppress insurrection or repel invasion.
"Men are much the same in every age and nation, and the univer
sal experience of mankind has been that the coercive power of the
government is often necessary to the preservation of the laws. This
has been recently manifested in the atrocious Abolition outbreak
at Harpers Ferry, which might as readily have occurred in Missis
sippi as in Virginia."
A good deal was said during Governor McWillie's administration
about the facility with which pardons were obtained. He defended
his policy of mercy in his last message, and said that "if you will
visit the Penitentiary, you will there see more convicts than are
creditable to the State." He asked that the legislature require the
governor to report his pardons to the legislature. "It might pre
vent that indiscriminate censure which is now heaped upon him
for nearly every pardon that he may grant."
The New Orleans, Mobile and Memphis railroads were not yet
completed, though nearly so. The completition of the Southern
railroad, east from Jackson, which had been delayed so long, was
now made more promising by the donation of 171,550 acres of land
by the United States government.
The governor again urged the appointment of a superintendent
of the common schools of the State, a bill for which had gone over
from the last session. He urged an increase of salaries for the
judges. He had no faith in penitentiaries, thought they were
schools for vice, and advised that more money be appropriated
for the schools, and less for continual enlargement of the great
institution for thieves and' outlaws at Jackson. The lunatic asylum,
he said, was "the wisest, best and greatest of all our charities."
The financial report for the year 1858-59, showed receipts, includ
ing sales of internal improvement lands, of $624,000, and disburse
ments, $707,000 ; the excess of disbursements being due to pay
ments on account of Two per cent., Three per cent and Sinking
funds, amounting to $150,000.
In a special mesage he urged some provision for the payment
of the Planters' Bank bonds, or a submission of the question again to
the people. "Such has been the greatly increased value and amount'
of taxable property within the State, that I do not believe that any
increase of the present rate of taxation would be necessary."
The department officers, during McWillie's term, were A. B.
Dilworth, secretary of state; T. J. Wharton, attorney-general;
Shields L. Hussey, treasurer; Madison McAfee, auditor.

MISSISSIPPI, - 213
Mead, Cowles. Secretary of Mississippi territory, and acting
governor from June, 1806 to January, 1807, was a Virginian by
birth, reared in Georgia, who was a candidate for congress when
barely of required age. His election was certified by the governor
of Georgia, on partial returns, but when his opponent made a
showing to congress that the missing returns were delayed beyond
the legal limit by the effects of a hurricane, Mead was unseated,
whereupon President Jefferson appointed him secretary of the Mis
sissippi territory. By virtue of his office he assumed the functions
of the Territorial governor, which were rather absolute in govern
ing power, immediately upon his arrival in Mississippi. A state
of war, due to the Spanish menaces on the Louisiana boundary
and af. Mobile, and the Aaron Burr expedition, exalted his powers
in a high degree. It would naturally be expected that upon the
return of Governor Williams from his visit to North Carolina,
Mead would not pass into eclipse and become a mere secretary
without some pangs, and this was the case. In fact, the governor
was compelled to remind him in April, 1807, that he should attend
the seat of government and perform his duties, or at least permit
the governor to have access to the records. Mead thereupon sent
a Mr. Pope as his deputy, to which the governor demurred that
he doubted the authority of the secretary to appoint substitutes,
though he was delighted with Mr. Pope personally. McCaleb
("Aaron Burr Conspiracy"), suggests that Mead's suspicions of
Wilkinson had something to do with his retirement. Because of
his distrust of the general and confidence in the people, "he was
accused of being in sympathy with the conspirators by Wilkinson
and Governor Williams of Mississippi, and dismissed from office.
Nevertheless, he was beyond question the most efficient official
in the West — and therefore could expect no better reward." What
ever may be the authority for this, it is true that Mead and his
friends accused Governor Williams of being in sympathy with
Burr, in hope of defeating the governor for re-appointment.
On February 1, 1807, he fought a duel on the Louisiana shore
with Capt. Robert Sample, of Wilkinson county, and received a
wound in the right thigh which lamed him during the remainder of
life. In the following April he was married to Mary, daughter of
Abner Green. Upon his retirement as secretary in the summer of
1807, he began the practice of law and was elected to the house
of representatives, where he led the fight on the governor. Aaron
Burr in later years called him "a vain man, of very small mind,"
and when told that he never tired of relating the event of his cap
ture, said, "I would have supposed the episode to that affair would
have restrained him from its narration." (Sparks, Memories.)
In his History of Texas, (1841), H. S. Foote wrote,1 preliminary
to quoting Mead's famous war address of 1807 : "The gentleman
who pronounced it is now eight miles distant from the writer, re
joicing equally in the comforts of an ample fortune, and in the
renown of bygone days; and perhaps reciting, at this moment, to

214 MISSISSIPPI
some delighted hearer, the wondrous capture of Aaron Burr, the
Conspirator." J. F. H. Claiborne (p. 276) describes him as a man of such flow
ery speech that his real ability was obscured. When the regiment
of volunteers was organized at Baton Rouge in 1813, he received
a commission as colonel, but he gave it up to make a canvass for
delegate to Congress; a mistake which caused his defeat by Dr.
Lattimore then, and by Christopher Rankin a few years afterward.
He was an active member of the constitutional convention of 1817,
was a skilled parliamentarian, and speaker in the legislature, 1821-
25. His later home, called "Greenwood," was a mile northwest
of Clinton in Hinds county, set in a lawn of fifty acres of Bermuda
grass, which, it was said, he introduced into the United States. He
was an enthusiastic gardener, and often entertained distinguished
guests in a' favorite seat under a cedar in the midst of flower beds.
The sword of Aaron Burr was one of the treasures of this home
until carried to Virginia in 1861 and lost at First Manassas. The
home was destroyed in 1863, by the ravages of war.
In an old neglected graveyard, near Clinton, a prostrate shaft
bears the inscription : "To the memory of Cowles Mead, whose
pure life exemplified the spirit of an honest man. Born, October
18, 1776, died May 17, 1844." Beside him was buried his wife,
Mary Lilly, born in 1797, died in 1834, and his son, Cowles G.,
born in Jefferson county in 1818, died in Yazoo county, 1849.
Mead's Administration. Cowles Mead, a Virginian of Georgia,
was commissioned as secretary of the Mississippi -territory in
March, 1806. He arrived at Natchez May 31, and soon after as
sumed the duties of secretary, and, as Governor Williams was
absent, the powers of the governor also. It was a period of great
historical interest. On account of the Spanish activity in the
Sabine river country, he made an agreement with Governor Clai
borne for military operations, in August, and ordered general
militia muster. (See Sabine Expedition.) Mead was gratified
by the response of the people to his own enthusiastic war spirit.
The troubles with Spanish authorities at Baton Rouge and Mo
bile were quite as urgent as the Louisiana boundary dispute. (See
Florida Acquisition.) Mead wrote to the secretary of war in Sep
tember, 1806 : "It is the general wish and inclination of the people
of this Territory to attack the Floridas ; should one drop of blood
be spilt by the Spaniards on the southern borders of Louisiana it
shall be immediately expiated at Baton Rouge ; unless I receive
counter order from the executive of the United States, with an eye!
to our predatory neighbors of the north and east, and our internal
security, I am disposed to act decisively and promptly; that is,
bring all the forces of the Territory into immediate action and cir
cumscribe our enemy in Mobile and Pensacola." "Sir, can't the
Floridas be taken and then paid for?" he inquired in another letter
to Dearborn. Nothing but the solemn injunction of the general
government withheld his arm. "I burn to deal back in blows upon
the Floridas the insults of Louisiana." Another muster was

MISSISSIPPI 215
ordered in October. The commander of each militia regiment
was ordered to form a mounted company to be ready to move at
a moment's notice. This was by the organization of a battalion
under Maj. Claiborne, which marched to Natchitoches and back
in October. (See Sabine expedition.) The result was great indig
nation against Gen. Wilkinson, though that wonderful man con
tinued to hold the loyalty of many friends. After this Wilkinson
and his confidants were engaged in working up a tremendous ex
citement regarding the advent of Aaron Burr, in which Mead was
effectively employed, though he professed enmity to the general.
He had written to the secretary of war September 7 : "The people of
this Territory are impressed with a conviction in their own minds
that General Wilkinson is a Spanish officer. The old inhabitants
all know some facts which lead to this opinion and seem astonished
when ignorance of his extreme intimacy with several Spanish gov
ernors is acknowledged. ... I do not hesitate to express my
fears of the result of a warfare waged by the United States against
Spain, and General Wilkinson the commandant. Think not sir,
that I am the humble follower of John Randolph. No, I believe
the one as much a Julius Caesar as the other a Cataline." When
he had sent the battalion into Louisiana for the Sabine campaign,
partly unarmed, because Wilkinson gave strict orders that no arms
should be issued from Fort Adams, Mead vowed the people would
never go into a war with Spain under the command of Wilkinson.
In November Mead was asked by Wilkinson to send a battalion
of 300 men to New Orleans, which he refused to do.
December 2, 1806, Secretary Mead addressed the legislature, at
its regular session, and beginning with the words, "Called by for
tuitous circumstances to the performance of the executive func
tions of the Territory," he bestowed upon them such an oratorical
effusion as no general assembly of the Mississippi Territory had
yet been permitted to enjoy. At the same time in a confidential
message he asked assistance in thwarting a plot for the separation
of Mississippi from the United States. This was his first official
recognition of the Burr expedition, which agitated the Territory
for several months afterward, and during December kept the mili
tia in expectancy of a call to arms against the filibusters from the
North. Mead adjourned the legislature from December 12 to the
19, and gave all his attention to hostile preparations. In his mes
sage he said: "I now, gentlemen, bid adieu to my civil character.
Tomorrow I assume the military prerogatives of my office and
shall leave you at this time with the fullest assurance of your
patriotism, and in my revolutions through the Territory I shall
expect to find you at your respective posts performing the duties
which you may be required to execute in the general defence of
our country." Col. Burr was in the hands of the court and re
leased on bail when Governor Williams returned, late in January,
1807, and resumed the duties of his office.
Meadville, the county seat of Franklin county, is situated at the
geographical center of the county on Morgan's Fork, an affluent

216 MISSISSIPPI
of the Homochitto river, and 10 miles east of Roxie, the nearest
railroad station. Gloster is the nearest banking town. The town
became the seat of justice about 1820, the original county seat hav
ing been located at Franklin, about 2y2 miles to the west. It was
named for Cowles Mead, second Secretary of the Territory. It
ships cotton and molasses. The Franklin Advocate, a Demo
cratic weekly, was established here in 1891, and is edited and pub
lished by Butler & Co. Population in 1900, 250.
Mechanicsburg, a, post-hamlet of Yazoo county, 15 miles south
of Yazoo City. Population in 1900, 35 ; population in 1906 is
estimated at 75. It has several general stores.
Meehan Junction, a postoffice of Lauderdale county. It is at the
junction of the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., and the Tallahatta
Railway, running north to Battlefield, in Newton county.
Melba, a postoffice of Covington county.
Melbourne, a postoffice of Panola county, on Long creek, 10 miles
southeast of Batesville. The station of Pope, on the Illinois Central
R. R., lies 3 miles to the west.
Melis, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Pike county, about
24 miles distant from Magnolia, the county seat. Population in
1900, 75.
Melrose, a postoffice of Panola county, 8 miles northwest of
Sardis, the nearest railroad and banking town.
Meltonville, a postoffice of Madison county, 7 miles south of
Canton, the county seat.
Memorial Day. In the spring of 1867 one of the first, if not the
first, decoration day service was held at Columbus, Miss. Some of
the women of the town who desired to scatter flowers on the graves
of their kindred, who had died in 'the Confederate service, pro
posed that the people go in a body and decorate the graves of the
soldiers. Some of the men objected to this, through fear of the in
terference of the United States soldiers stationed at the town. Dr.
G. F. Stainback, who had been the chaplain of Gen. N. B. Forrest,
told the people that they need not fear, that he would head the
procession to the cemetery. They met in the streets, formed a
procession with Dr. Stainback in front, followed by the women,
while the men, most of them old or maimed, brought up the rear.
On account of the demonstration, a detachment of soldiers was
sent to the cemetery, where they formed in line inside the gate,
but made no interference. When the people were gathered at the
graves of the dead Dr. Stainback offered prayer, and instantly
every soldiers' head was bared. He made a talk, appropriate to
the occasion, and then the women scattered flowers on the graves
of their dead. It was a time of sectional hate, when hearts were
inflamed with passion, or filled with sorrow, but the women
strewed flowers alike on the graves of the Confederate and Federal
dead. When Judge Francis M. Finch, of New York, read of this
in the Tribune he was so touched that he wrote his immortal poem,
"The Blue and the Gray."

MISSISSIPPI 217
Memorial of 1792. This memorial of the planters of Natchez
district to Governor Gayoso, dated December 21, 1792, is inter
esting as a description of the condition of the settlements at that
time. It appears that the merchants had laid their accounts before
his excellency, whom the planters humbly approached in the way
of explanation of their "distressed condition." "The king caused
a proclamation to be issued that, for a limited time, he would re
ceive all the tobaccb they could produce at ten silver dollars per
hundred. In going into this culture, we had to provide the nec
essary implements, and the charges thereon were enormous.
Wrought iron implements were charged at the rate of six reals a
pound. Salt, fifteen dollars, often eighteen and twenty dollars a
barrel. Osnaburgs, needful in shaping our tobacco into carrots,
were charged at six reals but more generally at one dollar a yard,
And so with all articles indispensable to the planters. Most of
our lands were uncleared. Few of us possessed much stock. When
our crops fell short many of us had no other resources. The few
that had open and well-stocked farms had this advantage, that
when their tobacco failed they could sell their corn at one dollar
a bushel, pork at ten dollars per hundred, and beef at six dollars
and a quarter. When the king declined taking any more tobacco,
the merchants combined against us, and by agreeing upon a tariff
of low prices, have so reduced the value of all descriptions of pro
duce, that it now takes, exclusive or interest, one hundred per
cent, more of the same produce to pay the same debts that it did
' four years ago. The merchants last year gave notice that they
would take corn at half a dollar per bushel, beef at four dollars
per hundred and cotton at twenty-five dollars per hundred, in pay
ment of debts. The first of these articles the government bought
from them at the same price in cash. The army contractors took
the beef and paid cash; and cotton served as a remittance to Eu
rope and left them a profit of fifteen to twenty-five per cent. On
those who paid them in indigo, they made still greater profits.
We are now informed that while they will not abate their charges
for merchandise, they expect to have their debts paid in silver
dollars. They encourage us to go into the culture of indigo, cotton,
tobacco and corn, and after all the expense of preparation, they
decline to take our produce unless they regulate the price." In
closing, this petition, which Mr. Claiborne says was written by Col.
Hutchins, intimates that equitable prices would revive industry;
otherwise "matters will drift from bad to worse, and the time is
not very far distant when the planter must destroy the merchant,
or the merchant must destroy the farmer."
Memorial of 1800. This petition to Congress was designed to
suspend the extension to the territory of Mississippi of the privi
lege of a general assembly arid delegate in congress, but its pur
pose did not commend it to the majority in Congress. It set out
the apprehensions of the people regarding the Georgia land claims,
attacked the sufficiency of the Committee of 1799, represented that

218 MISSISSIPPI
the people were in straightened financial condition, and that the
population was not generally qualified for self-government.
"To avert from this infant country impending evils of so serious
an aspect, your memorialists now address the sovereign interpos
ing authority of the United States in full confidence that the prayer
of a majority of the citizens of this territory will be received
with condescension and parental indulgence. Therefore your
memorialists earnestly pray that the honourable Congress will
suspend the operation of the supplemental act establishing a sec
ond grade of Territorial government in the Mississippi Territory;
and also enact a law, by which this Territory may enjoy the same
privileges which, your memorialists are informed, have been con
ceded to the Indian territory, viz: That the second grade of gov
ernment should not take effect till it appeared to be the wish of a
majority of the taxable citizens to have it applied." This was
followed by an appeal that the holders of lands should not be com
pelled to seek justice outside the territory, in contesting the claims
of speculators, which may have been the most popular sentiment
in the memorial. The petition was dated December 6, 1800.
Mendenhall is located at the junction of the Columbia branch
with the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 31 miles southeast of Jackson.
It became the county seat after the building of the railroad, and
remained such until November, 1905, when it was removed to
Westville, the original seat of justice, by an order of the Supreme
Court of Mississippi. Considerable lumber is manufactured at this
point, there being a saw mill and one of the best planing mills
between Jackson and Gulfport. There is one newspaper published
here, the Simpson County News, established in 1872, and issued as
a Democratic weekly by H. A. Geiger, the editor and publisher.
The town was named for T. L. Mendenhall, a pioneer of Simpson
county and a prominent attorney of Westville. The town is pros
pering and has several stores, two churches, a good school and a
bank. The Mendenhall Bank was established in 1904 with a paid
up capital of $10,000. The surrounding country is covered with
yellow pine and the various hardwoods, and the soil, with a little
fertilizing, will produce fruits, vegetables, grains and cotton lux
uriantly. Population in 1900, 150 ; the population in 1906 was
estimated at 600 and is rapidly increasing. Under an act of the leg
islature in its session of 1906, a vote was ordered to decide on the
location of a county seat, and at a special election held on July 12,
1906, Mendenhall was selected as the permanent seat of justice of
Simpson county. The town will soon have an electric light system.
Mentorum, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Harrison
county, situated between Bluff and Black creeks, about 35 miles
north of Gulfport, the county seat.
Meridian, the capital of Lauderdale county, is situated 140 miles
east of the Mississippi river, from Vicksburg, and 15 miles west of
the State of Alabama ; being on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, 135
miles above Mobile. It claims a population of 25,000 and is growing
rapidly. The Alabama Great Southern, New Orleans & North-

MISSISSIPPI 219
eastern and Alabama & Vicksburg railroads have their terminals
at this point. Its location, about 18*54, was the result of the pro
posed crossing of the Mobile & Ohio by the Alabama & Vicksburg,
then known as the Vicksburg & Montgomery railroad. Cotton
and corn fields occupied its present site, surrounded by oak and pine
forests over clay hills and bottom lands of the head waters of the
Chickasawhay. Richard McLamose possessed most of the lands and
his plantation home was the only notable residence in the vicinity.
So little did the M. & O. regard the point for a while, that it was
with difficulty persuaded to put in even a switch for a flag station ;
and when it did, called the place "Sowashee Station," from a creek
hard by. L. A. Ragsdale, meanwhile, had bought out R. Mc
Lamose, and John T. Ball had purchased a tract of 80 acres, and
both parties immediately began to lay off town lots. They were the
pioneers. Mr. Ragsdale's plat was for "Ragsdale City;" Mr. Ball's
for "Meridian," he having first secured a postoffice by that name.
The postoffice name was adopted for the charter, secured by L. S.
O. G. Greer from the legislature, January 10, 1860, when the city
of Meridian became a legal corporation. It was several years be
fore the Vicksburg road, then known as the "Southern," made its
junction, being delayed by having to tunnel the Tallahata ridge.
Meanwhile, part of what is now the A. G. S. was finished to
York, Ala., 27 miles. This road made connection with the Selma
branch soon after the declaration of the war, as a military neces
sity. A weekly paper was published by W. L. Spinks. When the
war broke out between the States, 1861, Meridian was a mere vil
lage with three or four stores, two or three hotels and a shingle
machine. There were two churches, Baptist and Methodist, with
a union Sunday school. Near where the Insane Asylum now
stands, a good sized academy had been built, and the school was in
full operation. But things changed. The city became a military
camp and in due time was division headquarters of the Confederate
army. Early in the year 1864, Gen. W. T. Sherman, of the Federal
army, made his raid to Meridian. Gen. Leonidas Polk, who had
been the Episcopal bishop of Louisiana, was in command. Having
too small a force to meet the invaders, he fell back to Demopolis,
leaving the territory around the city to the mercy of the enemy.
Railroads were torn up for miles in every direction and many houses
were burned. All the grist mills were destroyed, and after the
Federal troops departed, women and children were without food
for some days ; but no direct personal injury was inflicted. The
collapse of the Confederacy came in April, 1865, and Meridian be
came a main point for issuing paroles. Everything was done
quietly, but in sadness. No complaints were made until the days
of reconstruction. Notwithstanding the troubles of that period,
however, the city began to grow. Mercantile establishments were
multiplied, a bank was started, and factories began to be built.
But friction came, resulting in the riot of 1871, and the reorganiza
tion of the municipal government. Soon after the riot a census was
taken of the city proper by the board. The population proved to

220 MISSISSIPPI
be only 3,881, which was not made public. Meanwhile, the first
cotton mill was established ; but just as it began to pay, it was
accidentally destroyed by fire, which was a real calamity. Failure
of the A. & C. railroad and the burning of its shops had already
cast a gloom on business, but the sash and blind factory and other
industries soon filled up the gaps. In 1875, the burning of the
Phcenix hotel, the most imposing building in the city at the time,
was a most unfortunate affair. A period of depression was fol
lowed by the fever epidemic of 1878, which almost depopulated the
town ; but the following year was noted for a general advance in
prosperity. The most encouraging feature was the proposed road
to New Orleans, in course of construction, and completed in 1883,
the shops being located in the city. Great credit is due Capt. W.
H. Hardy, then of this city, for the building of the N. O. '& N. E.
railroad, and for the introduction of a second National Bank. He
and Mr. C. W. Robinson were prominent in the work of establishing
industries and improving the city. A little to the northwest the
East Mississippi Insane Asylum was built, now surrounded by
beautiful grounds. In educational matters Meridian has always
taken a lively interest, which has steadily increased. Immediately
after the surrender, a Baptist college for girls was established, and
later a Methodist college, the former closing out some years ago
and the latter changing its control and location. The successful
institution of the present public school system was the prime cause
of changes. There are now in the city seven excellent public school
buildings — one of them for the colored people — and some costly
structures, with two to be added this year, all brick except two.
The high school at its last commencement gave out 41 diplomas
to tenth grade graduates. Besides these, there are two denomina
tional colleges for girls — Methodist Episcopal and Roman Catholic,
and one Independent; also a boy's school under Roman Catholic
control and a commercial college. In the matter of churches,
Meridian is particularly blessed, having seven white, and seven
colored, Baptist; five Methodist, white, and four colored; three
Presbyterian, including the Cumberland, white, and one Congrega
tional, colored ; two Episcopal, both white ; one Disciples, and a very
artistic Jewish synagogue in course of construction. These various
denominations all have houses of worship, many elegant, expensive,
and convenient, and ornaments to the city. Meridian is a city with
out saloons and has been for thirteen years, and though Lauderdale
is legally a "wet county," it has been impossible to secure enough
petitioners to get a saloon in the county. A very destructive fire
occurred in 1882, which swept away quite a number of blocks and
residences, and the Presbyterian house of worship. Two corner
buildings escaped, the old "Jones hotel," and the Masonic hall. A
Masonic lodge was organized in the town in 1865, and another later.
Other secret and benevolent societies followed; the Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias, Knights and Ladies of Honor, Elks, and some
private clubs. Avery successful Railroad Young Men's Christian As
sociation has been in operation several years ; its hall was demolished

MISSISSIPPI 221
by the cyclone of March 3, 1906. The cyclone also destroyed the
fertilizer factory, two or three blocks of stores, many residences,
two white and three colored churches, and killed and injured about
50 persons. One of the first advances of Meridian to city life was
the introduction of mule street cars, and then gas lights. In due
time these were merged into electric lines and electric lights and
power. But the most notable improvements were made during the
administration of Mayor E. H. Dial. These were the adoption and
installation of a fine system of sewerage, the paving of streets and
the laying of sidewalks. He also prepared andtsecured the adoption
of a number of excellent ordinances. Meridian now has ten miles
of electric street railway, and many miles of gas pipes, water pipes,
sewerage, paved streets and paved sidewalks.
It is the metropolis, and the most important . railroad and in
dustrial center of eastern Mississippi. Its rapid growth and
development have taken place since the war, and chiefly
during the past two decades. It is to-day a modern city in every
sense of the word, with its modern improvements, excellent schools,
fine church edifices, varied commercial and industrial enterprises,
and its splendid transportation facilities. The city transacts an
enormous wholesale business, and possesses the largest wholesale
grocery house in the state, while the Meridian . Fertilizer Factory
claims the largest output of any similar plant in the State. Among
its other important industries are the Southern Oil and Fertilizer
Co., cotton, furniture, sash and blind factories, railroad repair shops,
foundry, machine shops, two daily, and four weekly newspapers ; the
Press is a morning daily and the Star is an evening daily. Five
strong banking institutions supply the city's commercial needs. The
Meridian National Bank was established in 1884 ; the First National
Bank, in 1883 ; the Citizens Bank, in 1888 ; the Southern Bank, in
1898, and the Peoples Savings Bank, in 1902 ; the combined banking
capital of the city being in the neighborhood of $1,000,000. In addi
tion to the many beautiful and ornate residences of the city, its
streets are embellished by many fine church buildings and modern
business blocks. Still other noteworthy buildings are the new Union
Depot, and the stately courthouse.
The U. S. census for 1900 yields the following statistics for
Meridian : Number of industries, 119 ; capital, $1,923,590 ; average
number of wage-earners, 1,416 ; total wages, $555,409 ; cost of ma
terials used, $1,700,655; value of products, $2,980,217; population,
14,050. The census ranked it first among the manufacturing cities
of the State, and next to Vicksburg in point of population. Since
1900 its growth in population has been very rapid, and it now claims
the largest number of people of any city in Mississippi.
Meridian Campaign, 1864, see War of 1861-65.
Meridian Riot, 1871. The trouble had been brewing for several
months, said Robert J. Mosely, the sheriff. (Testimony before
legislative committee, Journal appendix, 1871, p. 1129.) Joseph
Williams, a negro member of the county board of supervisors, had
been called out of his house and killed, a negro road supervisor

222 MISSISSIPPI
had been shot from ambush; Burton and Kaiser, negroes, had
been shot by persons in disguise. There were charges of official
misconduct against Williams. No arrests had been made. The
political conditions — offices filled by negroes and Northern men
who affiliated with them, and the disposition of the negro popula
tion to run the town,— bred race hostility that was dangerous.
According to Judge Robert Leachman, there were some men "that
may be called desperadoes," from Alabama or Mississippi, who had
followed the railroads and committed outrages at Lauderdale and
other places. Danier*Price was arrested under the State Ku Klux
law on the charge of taking a band of colored men to the house of
Adam Kennard, and abusing him. Price and Kennard were in a
feud, and Kennard was charged with enticing negroes to Alabama.
When Price was tried an armed party came over from Sumter
county, Ala., where Kennard lived, and was said to be deputy
sheriff, for his protection. This Alabama party of about 50 was
headed by one Renfrau ; they were boisterous, made several as
saults, and carried several colored men away, saying they had es
caped from Sumter county. The Meridian authorities permitted
Price to escape, to avoid trouble. The sheriff desired to arrest
their leaders, but was dissuaded by old citizens. It was doubted
if the Alabamians had a requisition, to authorize their action.
Out of these troubles grew a white movement to have the city
marshal, William Sturgis, removed. A petition was sent to Gov
ernor Ames by the colored people to have Sturgis retained in office.
Representative Aaron Moore returned to Meridian with William
Dennis, who took the petition. Saturday, March 4, there was a
meeting of negro men at the courthouse, addressed by Warren
Tyler, a negro school teacher, William Dennis (alias Clopton),
and Aaron Moore. The report was spread that they advised the
negroes to arm and protect themselves. It is certain that Dennis,
who was a dangerous character, advised violence on the part of the
negroes. The white citizens resolved that William Sturgis, Bill
Dennis and Warren Tyler must leave the town. Trouble began
that night, and armed men were hunting for Dennis, the sheriff
trying to collect a posse to preserve order. The store of Theodore
Sturgis, brother of the mayor, was fired, and the flames did not
stop among the frame buildings until two-thirds of the business
houses of the town were consumed. Some negroes were also out
firing guns, and Dennis was heard to urge them to prepare to fight.
It was a night of terror. Moore preached in his Methodist church
next day, and the sheriff notified him that the negroes must all
disarm. On Monday there was a meeting of white citizens. That
morning Moore and Tyler were arrested, and with Dennis, were
taken before Judge Bramlette, who was a Southerner and a Re
publican. When the second witness, Brantley, was about to leave
the witness stand, Tyler remarked that he would call some wit
nesses to impeach him, whereupon he seized a stick on the judge's
bench, and started toward Tyler. The marshal caught Brantley,
and Tyler made for the sheriff's office. Then the firing began.

MISSISSIPPI 223
There was testimony that Tyler fired at Brantley and killed the
judge, others testified that they saw no weapon in his hands. The
judge was killed, with several wounds in his head and body. Tyler
was followed to the home of Sam Parker and shot to death. Den
nis was badly wounded in the court-room and left under a guard,
who, tired of waiting, threw him into the street from the upstairs
window. Moore escaped, and went to Jackson. He was not seri
ously accused of mischief, but was pursued for some distance when
he escaped. Several negroes were killed in the court room and
others the next day, when Moore's house was burned and the
Baptist church near by, which had been donated by the United
States government for a negro school. This act was blamed upon
the visiting Alabamians, who were also credited with raising money
to replace the church. (W. H. Hardy.) Mayor Sturgis, promising
to never return, was escorted to the train by a guard of citizens,
who accompanied him some distance, until he was out of danger.
Judge Robert Leachman ascribed the trouble largely to his im
prudent policy, as manager of the political machine, and his in
fluence upon Gen. W. S. Patton, the marshal. W. H. Hardy (Miss.
Hist. Soc. Pubis., VII, 206) estimates the number of negroes
killed at 25 or 30. He adds, "When the white people failed, after
every possible appeal to argument, reason, justice, or a sense of
public weal, they brought into play the lesson learned in the Meri
dian riot, and it proved efficient in the campaign of 1875."
Merigold, a post-hamlet of Bolivar county, on the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley R. R., 8 miles north of Cleveland, one of the two
county seats of justice, and the nearest telegraph and banking town.
It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 62 ; population
in 1906 estimated at 400.
Merit, a postoffice of Simpson county, on the Columbia branch
of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 4 miles southwest of Mendenhall.
It has two saw mills, a cotton gin, two stores and a school.
Merrill, a post-village in the southwestern part of Greene county,
situated on the Chickasawhay river, 15 miles southwest of Leakes
ville, the county seat. It is a station on the Mobile, Jackson &
Kansas City R. R., 50 miles by rail from Mobile, the nearest bank
ing town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 300.
Merwin, a post-hamlet of Amite county, 6 miles west of Liberty,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 40.
Mesa, a village in Pike county, on the Fernwood & Gulf
R. R., 15 miles east of Magnolia, the county seat. It has large
lumbering interests and a fine cotton gin.
Methodist Church. Mississippi was first entered by a Methodist
missionary in 1799. Bishop Asbury, while traversing the length
and breadth of the United States in his annual visitations to every
department of his church work, turned his practical eye to the
new Territory of Mississippi, and as soon as the Natchez country
was ceded to the United States he determined to select a volunteer
missionary and send him to that far off frontier. Accordingly,

224 MISSISSIPPI
at the conference which met at Charleston on January 1, 1799, he
selected Rev. Tobias Gibson for this hazardous, but all important
mission. The missionary reached his new field in the spring of that
year. Mr. Gibson had held some of the most important places in
his conference and was in every way qualified for the work before
him. He reached Natchez' by traveling through the wilderness,
a distance of 600 miles to the settlements in East Tennessee and
then taking a canoe and making a solitary and perilous voyage
down the Cumberland and Ohio rivers to the Mississippi, where
he was picked up by a flatboat and carried to his destination, and
he at once with zeal and energy betook himself to his itinerant
work. He soon visited all the settlements of any note. There was
but one pr'otestant church in Mississippi and this was a small one,
built of logs, on Cole's Creek, and known as Salem. Many of
the younger people had never seen a Methodist preacher, but soon
after Mr. Gibson began his work he had a church established at
Washington, the seat of the Territorial government, the only one
of his denomination within 400 miles. Before the end of the year
Mr. Gibson had established six or eight other churches, and the
Natchez circuit was the largest ever known in Mississippi. As
early as 1806 there was another circuit called Wilkinson.
It is more than probable that Mr. Gibson formed a society in
Claiborne county, six or eight miles southeast of Port Gibson.
This neighborhood in a few years became a stronghold of Metho
dism and sent many workers into the field. It also became the
scene of Lorenzo Dow's troubles in connection with a watermill,
and of Peggy Dow's deep affliction over a backslidden sister, re
ferred to with so much sorrowful solicitude in their journals. Mr.
Gibson was continued until 1802 in charge of the Natchez district,
and at the end of that year severed his connection with the confer
ence and adopted the itinerant system as the best means of spread
ing the Gospel in the new country.
The coming of the Revs. Samuel Sellers and Miles Harper from
the Western Conference in the autumn of 1809 was a signal event
in the history of the Methodist church in Mississippi, for they left
a lasting impression on their field of work. Newton Vick was
another noted preacher of the time. He was zealous and public
spirited, and had an interesting family, which was a blessing in
social as well as church life. He was the founder of the city of
Vicksburg. In his house near Spring Hill the first conference was
held in 1813.
John Ford moved from South Carolina and settled on Pearl
River about 1808. He is described as "a model citizen of com
manding and sanctifying influence." Four of his sons became Meth
odist preachers, and, at his home, which was a rallying point for
Methodists, the second conference was held. His son, Thomas
Ford, organized the society and built the first Methodist church
in Jackson.
Among the preachers who did valiant service in the ,early days
were Richmond Nolley, John Shrock, John Ira Ellis Byrd, who

MISSISSIPPI 225
preached in Mississippi 50 years, , and Lewis Hobbs, John Lane
and Thomas Griffin.
The most difficult post of all was held by Griffin — the Ouachita
circuit, but he was an able and zealous man, well fitted for his
work. He had no education and was poor, but he studied by the
camp fire and the forest path, and he mastered the hardy elements
of frontier life. In 1820 he represented Mississippi in the General
Conference and was not pleased with certain expressions of North
ern delegates on slavery, or the defensive attitude of those of the
South. He made a speech which was not lacking in energy of ex
pression. "It appears," he said, "that some of our Northern breth
ren are willing to see us all damned and doubled damned, rammed,
jammed and crammed into a forty-six pounder, and touched off
into eternity." He presided over districts in Mississippi, Alabama
and Louisiana, that are now Annual Conferences.
The fate of Richmond Nolley shows something of the- trials and
the hardships of the pioneer preacher. The Pearl River Conference
of 1814-15 sent him back to Attakapas. He started on his way back
and on a cold, rainy day in November came to a swollen stream.
He was on horseback and tried to ford the stream, but was borne
down by the swift current and thrown from his horse ; he grabbed
the limb of a tree and crawled out, while his horse got out on the
opposite bank — the one from which he started. As it was impos
sible to reach his horse he left the animal in charge of an Indian
and continued his journey on foot. He was thoroughly drenched
and chilled, and soon sank exhausted at the roots of a pine tree,
where he was found next morning dead.
The conference of 1816 was held at Pine Ridge, near Natchez,
at the home of Wm. Foster, and was presided over by Bishop
Roberts. The membership was at that time 1,703 white and 540
/colored. The salary of a preacher was less than $50 per year.
This was the first conference presided over by a bishop, and the
first one to ordain elders.
After the Indian troubles were settled the church increased much
more rapidly, and in a few years separate annual conferences were
set for Alabama and Louisiana, which had been a part of the Mis
sissippi Conference.
Among the great preachers of this period were Charles K. Mar
shall (q. v.) and John Newland Moffet.
After 1830 the church increased very rapidly both in its mem
bership and the number of its ministers, and at the outbreak of
the war there was scarcely a township in the State not occupied
by the Methodist ministry. Methodists and Baptists were the
most numerous in 1835. The Methodists had 53 preachers and
about 10,000 members. The preachers moved every two years,
were paid a salary of $100 a year and expenses, $100 additional
when married, and $16 additional for each child. Members were
forbidden to sell intoxicating liquors, and no slave holder was eli
gible for office in the church if the laws of the State permitted
emancipation. 15-11

226 MISSISSIPPI
About this time J. H. Ingraham wrote (The Southwest) that
the prevailing Christian denomination was the Methodist. "This
denomination embraces all ranks of society, including many of the
affluent and a majority of the merely independent planters, through
out the State. Some of the assemblages here, in the Methodist
churches, would remind the stranger rather of a fashionable New
York audience, than a congregation of plain people, soberly ar
rayed, such as he is accustomed to behold in a Methodist church
in New England."
In 1858 the church had eight colleges; Centenary college with
seven professors, an endowment worth $150,000 and a library of
7,500 volumes; Sharon Female college with a building worth $10,-
000; Feliciana Female institute; Port Gibson Collegiate academy;
Southern Female college; Mount Herman Female institute and
Madison college.
The first Sunday school in the United States south of Philadel
phia was organized in 1827 in the Methodist church at Natchez.
In 1855 the conference established a book and tract society at
Vicksburg, which had a business of about $7,000 at the beginning
of the war, but was destroyed after the fall of that city.
Before the war, where the negroes were numerous, separate
churches were built for them, and ample galleries in almost all
churches for their accommodation. The large plantations were
supplied with missionaries.
When the Methodist church divided at the General Conference
at New York in 1844, the Mississippi Conference allied itself with
the other Southern conferences. This made no change in the
annual conferences, and the church continued to grow and prosper
until rudely interrupted by the tramp of hostile armies.
After the war there was desolation everywhere. Church build
ings had been used as hospitals and sometimes destroyed. But the
Methodists went to work with such zeal and energy that in 1870
it became necessary to divide the Mississippi Conference into two
conferences. The Southern portion retained the name of Missis
sippi Conference, while the northern part took the name of North
Mississippi. The Methodists of Mississippi now have numerous educational
institutions, among which is Millsaps college (q. v.) Besides this
the State has five Methodist schools for girls. Whitworth Female
college, Port Gibson Female college, Meridian Female college,
Grenada Female college, and Edward McGee College for Girls.
The two conferences now have more than 600 preachers, a mem
bership of nearly 80,000 and more than 900 churches. The value
of these church buildings is $905,858.
Mississippi has furnished two bishops for the church: Bishop
Robert Paine, elected and ordained in 1846, and Bishop Charles
B. Galloway, the youngest man ever ordained bishop in the Meth
odist church (1886), and one of the ablest.
Mexican War. While the boundary line between Texas and
Mexico was yet unsettled, Governor Brown addressed the secre-

MISSISSIPPI 227
tary of war in August, 1845, asking a part for Mississippi in "any
fight that might be going on," and was informed that no serious
difficulty was expected, but in case of trouble the first honor was
reserved for Texas, and next would come Louisiana and Alabama.
Later, Gen. Zachary Taylor was ordered to the Rio Grande. The
New Orleans Bulletin said in March, 1846 : "The movement under1
General Taylor is important. The troops under his command,
in 'a delicate service', will take up a position on the Rio Grande,
near to Matamoras, almost within sight of the Mexican forces,
cutting off their communication with the Brazos of Santiago, the
port where goods destined for Matamoras are disembarked. Mata
moras is fortified, though not strongly, and the garrison at the
present moment is too weak to act against the forces of General
Taylor." At the same time President Polk gave out what was
called his war message, asking for an increase of the army and
navy, on account of frontier disputes with Great Britain and Mex
ico. Mexico reinforced her military position on the south side of
the river. She claimed both sides. Taylor began fortifying oppo
site Matamoras, whereupon, on April 23, some Mexican troops
crossed over, below, and cut his communications. A cavalry re-
connoissance, led by Captains Thorton and Hardee, was taken
into camp by the Mexicans, Hardee among the prisoners. So the
war began.
Gen. Taylor on April 28 called on Texas and Louisiana for eight
volunteer regiments, and Gen. Gaines, in command of the Western
department of the army, also called for troops which he received
and organized and sent forward, all on his own authority. Later
the war department repudiated his action and relieved him of com
mand. Many Mississippians joined "Gaines' army," and were
subjected to great hardships because no provision had been made
for them. Gen. Quitman wrote the delegation in congress (May)
that Mississippi was in the highest excitement; all were ready
to volunteer; they fear Mississippi will not have a fair chance.
"We have been ready from the beginning to raise 5,000 men
. . . but the door is closed to them. . . . We were fore
most in the measure of annexation. We regard the present as our
own quarrel. 'We feel strong enough to fight it out ; aye, if need
be, to carry our eagle to the Pacific. We desire no aid from the
Abolitionists. The Northern States question our strength in war.
Then let this war be the test."
Anticipating a call from Taylor, Gov. Brown on May 9 addressed
the militia colonels, advising them to promptly enroll the men with
a view to sending volunteer companies to the front on a day's
notice. It was expected that companies (of 64 to 100 men) would
be allowed to elect their own officers, and regiments of ten com
panies to elect their colonels. Maj.-Gen. John M. Duffield was ap
pointed drill officer to visit the counties and assist in this work.
At the same time the governor settled a contest of seniority be
tween Maj.-Gen. William L. Brandon and Duffield in favor of the

228 MISSISSIPPI
latter. Volunteer companies were drilling on the streets of all the
important Mississippi towns by the middle of May.
Taylor, immediately after the Hardee affair, withdrew his troops
to Point Isabel, his base, leaving a garrison at his fort. The Mex
icans crossed over to separate the two forces, and an artillery at
tack was made on the fort, to which the American artillery, includ
ing Bragg's battery, responded effectively. The next news to
reach Mississippi was of the battle Taylor fought in marching back
to his fortifications, May 8, on the plains, Palo Alto. The Ameri
cans suffered severely, but Taylor ended a council of war by orders
to prepare to advance in thirty minutes, and there followed the
victory called the battle of Resaca de la Palma. There were no
great battles, about 3,000 on a side, but the popular effect was
great. Taylor crossed the river and occupied Matamoras May
18, without opposition.
Cadmus M. Wilcox, a cadet at West Point then, went to Wash
ington with the other cadets, to volunteer, and talked with Gen.
Jesse Speight, senator from Mississippi. "Referring to the war,
the Senator said the President seemed to have been taken by sur
prise when he heard of fighting on the Rio Grande ; but he might
have known, having ordered General Taylor to that river, that
such would be the case. Diplomatic intercourse having been sus
pended, and the two armies confronting each other, separated by
only a narrow river — it could hardly have been possible for them
not to fight^he deplored the heavy expense to be incurred by the
government in carrying on this war." The Whigs were generally
opposed to fhe war, or at least questioned the wisdom and justice
of it, but it ceased to be a party matter after the first shock of
arms, and as the war progressed, it made the great Whig heroes,
Taylor and Scott; and in Mississippi, McClung and Bradford,
while the Democrats gained but one hero of national fame, Col.
Jefferson Davis, son-in-rlaw of Gen. Taylor.
Supposing the requisition on the State would be for at least
2,500 men, Gov. Brown accepted conditionally 28 companies orga
nized under his orders. He also, acting on the advice of Gen.
Gaines, began the organization of a cavalry regiment. But he
carefully held the troops for orders from Taylor or from Washing
ton, because he was at this time in correspondence regarding a
military expenditure made by the State in 1836, for the Seminole
war, on the authority of Gaines, which had not yet been recognized
by the United States authorities. Not understanding, or ignoring
Gaines' eccentricities, the political opponents of the governor
made a great clatter about his refusing to honor the requisitions
of Gaines. When the call for troops arrived from Washington
May 29, the governor replied that no troops had been yet sent from
the State by his order and would not be sent except on regular
authority, but he was greatly disappointed to find that only one
regiment was asked. Later he wrote to Secretary Marcy: "There
is very general dissatisfaction in this State at the smallness of the
requisition. We are all astonished to see three regiments called

MISSISSIPPI 229
from Tennessee, for instance, and one from Mississippi. . . .
Was it because we had waited for orders instead of rushing un
bidden into General Taylor's camp, as did Tennessee? Was it be
cause we had shown any backwardness in this Texas struggle?
. . . The truth is you have not given Mississippi 'a fair shake,'
and she want's to know the reason."
Under the act of congress approved May 13, 1846, "one regiment
of infantry or riflemen" was the quota of the State.
The governor's call for ten companies was published according
ly, June 1. By this time some of the volunteer companies had dis
banded, and hundreds had gone to join the Louisiana troops orga
nized under the requisitions of Taylor and Gaines. The Missis
sippian of June 10 gave the following list of companies tendered
to the governor : Vicksburg Southrons, Capt. Willis ; State Fenci-
bles, Capt. McManus ; Raymond Fencibles, Capt. Downing; Yazoo
Volunteers, Capt. Sharp ; Carroll Volunteers, Capt. Howard ;
Natchez Volunteers, Capt. Poore ; Tombigbee Volunteers, Capt.
McClung; Marshall Volunteers, Capt. A. B. Bradford; Pontotoc
Volunteers, Capt. J. D. Bradford ; Lexington Volunteers, Capt.
Amyx; Grenada Hornets, Capt. Judson; Woodville Volunteers,
Capt. Cooper; DeSoto Volunteers, Capt. Labauve; Vicksburg
Volunteers, Capt. Crump ; Lafayette Guards, Capt. Delay ; Law
rence Volunteers, Capt. Williams ; Quitman Volunteers, Capt.
Parkinson ; Copiah Volunteers, Capt. Daniel ; Tippah Volunteers,
Capt. Jackson; Attala Guards, Capt. McWillie. The first five com
panies had been'mustered in at Vicksburg; but the Woodville com
pany took the place of that from Claiborne, and the Vicksburg
Volunteers the place of the Natchez Fencibles. Four of the com
panies were at the rendezvous at Vicksburg June 7. Citizens of
the State in the absence of any provision on the part of the gov
ernment, put $30,000 at the governor's disposal to pay the ex
pense of transporting and subsisting the volunteers.
The companies of the Rifle regiment were all at Vicksburg by
the middle of June, when officers were elected. (See Miss. Rifles.)
Thence they took boat to New Orleans and were joined by their
colonel, Jefferson Davis. While the regiment ramained at New
Orleans, encamped on low, unhealthy ground, many were taken
sick; some died, and a considerable number were sent home. The
regiment sailed on the steamship Alabama July 26, and landed
at the Brazos, seven miles from Point Isabel, where they encamped
and remained until August 2.
July 1, John A. Quitman was commissioned as one of the briga
dier generals of volunteers, and joined the troops at the mouth of
the Rio Grande. Taylor was preparing for an advance to Monterey,
the nearest Mexican stronghold, and organized two divisions of
volunteers — First, of the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana brigades,
under Gen. William O. Butler, and the Second, of the Illinois and
Missouri brigade, the Tenr/essee brigade, and the Third brigade,
under Gen. Robert Pattison. The Third brigade of the Second
division, included the three regiments from Mississippi, Alabama

230 MISSISSIPPI
and Georgia, and the Baltimore and Washington battalion. Gen.
Quitman was in command of this brigade. Quitman's brigade
brought up the rear in the march out of Camargo, August 19. The
assault upon Monterey (q. v.) began September 21. Quitman's
brigade attacked the work called the Teneria. The enemy's fife
swept away a third of the regular troops that preceded them.
"Quitman's brigade, though suffering most severely, particularly
in the Tennessee regiment, continued to move on, and finally car
ried the work, as well as a strong building in its rear. ... In
this spirited charge Lieut.-Col. A. K. McClung was severely
wounded and the horse of General Quitman was killed." Next
day Quitman occupied the Teneria, supported by Ridgeley's and
Bragg's batteries. On the morning of the 23d Davis attacked a
triangular redoubt near by, and this began a fight from house to
house, in which Quitman's brigade joined, reinforced by Texans.
In five hours the troops had penetrated to within a square of the
grand plaza. Next day the city was surrendered.
. Taylor had made this movement in response to popular clamor,^
and was not prepared to advance any further. His army went into
camp. (See Memoir by Mrs. Davis, I, 293-301.)
Col. Davis returned home for a visit, leaving Maj. A. B. Bradford
in command of the regiment. December 14 the army began the
march to Saltillo. Gen. Scott had arrived in Mexico and ordered
Taylor to cooperate in a campaign from Vera Cruz. The troops
marched 260 miles, to Victoria, under the command of Quitman.
Scott ordered them into his army, allowing Taylor to retain Bragg's
and Washington's batteries, and any one regiment he might choose.
His choice was the Mississippi Rifles. They returned to camp at
Agua Nueva, 18 miles from Saltillo, and were joined by some
new regiments from Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Arkansas,
under Gen. Wool. Santa Anna resolved to crush this force, and ad
vanced with a body of Mexicans largely outnumbering the Ameri
cans. This brought on the battle of Buena Vista (q. v.) February
23, 1847, in which Col. Davis and his regiment were particularly
distinguished. The period of enlistment having expired, the First regiment
returned to the coast, and sailed May 29, 1847, from the Brazos
for New Orleans, where they arrived June 9, in company with a
Kentucky regiment. "When the regiment went to the war its
numbers aggregated, officers and men, 926. It brought back to
New Orleans but 376, showing a loss in battle and from disease
of 550 men." The returning soldiers were welcomed at New
Orleans with great enthusiasm and addressed, on behalf of the city,
by S. S. Prentiss.
The glory of the war was subsequently all with the army of in
vasion under Scott, whose advance was made possible by the vic
tory at Buena Vista. Quitman (q. v.) was conspicuous in Scott's
campaign, and many Mississippians rendered honorable service.
Gov. Brown's proclamation calling for the Second regiment of
infantry, was issued November 27, 1846, and Vicksburg was desig-

MISSISSIPPI 231
nated as the place of rendezvous. The time for which the men
were to enlist was "during the war," and this was discouraging.
December 24, 1846, Gov. Brown wrote to Secretary Marcy: "On
the 12th instant I wrote you expressing fears that we should find
some difficulty in getting up the regiment called from this State.
On the 18th I sent you a printed copy of an order accepting seven
companies then offered and expressing my confidence that the re
maining three companies necessary to complete the regiment
would be ready very soon. It now gives me great pleasure to say
that the regiment is complete, and will be ready to leave Vicks
burg for the seat of war by the 8th or 10th of January. The regi
ment is of the very best material, and will do as good service as
any in the world. It contains judges, generals, legislators, lawyers,
doctors, farmers, mechanics, and gentlemen of every description.
I doubt if the Great Captain, even, ever led a more chivalrous
regiment to battle. Allow me to express an earnest hope that the
regiment may be taken to that point where there is the hardest fight
ing. I risk nothing in saying that it will prove an over match for
any three regiments of infantry in the Mexican army."
The Second regiment was composed of the Lowndes Guards,
Capt. A. K. Blythe; the Marshall Relief Guards, Capt. J. H. Kil-
patrick ; Choctaw Volunteers, Capt. E. Elder ; Monroe Volunteers,
Capt. J. M. Acker ; -Tippah Guards, Capt. A. M. Jackson ; Lauder
dale Volunteers, Capt. W. J. Daniels ; Thomas Hinds Guards
(Jefferson county) , Capt. , Charles Clark, Union Grays, (Attala
county),. Capt. A. McWillie; Panola Boys, Capt. A. A. Overton;
Union Company (Lawrence and Covington counties). They were
ordered to rendezvous at Vicksburg Jan. 1 to 5, 1847. (Vicksburg
Whig.) Reuben Davis was elected colonel, Capt. Fitzpatrick lieu
tenant-colonel and Ezra R. Price major. The staff officers were:
Beverly Matthews, adjutant; William Barksdale, commissary;
Charles M. Price, quartermaster; Thomas N. Love, surgeon; D.
A. Kinchloe, assistant surgeon. (Goodspeed.)
The Second regiment went to New Orleans in January, and after
a stay there in which it suffered much from sickness, sailed for the
Mexican coast. It reached the mouth of the Rio Grande the day
of the battle of Buena Vista, and ascended to Matamoras, where
Col. Davis took command, relieving Col. Drake, of Indiana, who
marched his regiment to the front. A letter from the seat of war
said: "The Second Mississippi riflemen left Matamoras on the
14th (March) for Monterey. This regiment has suffered awfully.
Originally consisting of 850 men, it now numbers 650. They have
lost 135 by death, and 50 are now sick. The rest are eager for a
fight." In June the death list was 167. 134 had been discharged,
38 deserted. Capt. Clark returned to Mississippi in July to enlist
recruits. The Second was advanced later to Saltillo and Buena
Vista, while Scott advanced on the capital. Though the men were
nearly all vaccinated, they suffered from varioloid, and the few un-
vaccinated had the most virulent smallpox. They were also rav
aged by the Mexican diarrhoea. The colonel and lieutenant-col-

232 MISSISSIPPI
onel, when nearly dead, resigned, and Captain Clark was elected
colonel and Lieut. John A. Wilcox lieutenant-colonel. Afterward,
until the close of the war, the regiment was encamped near the
beautiful city of Calderito, near Monterey.
While Clark was calling for 500 recruits, and the yellow fever
was raging frightfully at New Orleans, the third requisition came
from the president, for a battalion of five companies. Accordingly,
the governor called for a battalion of five companies of riflemen,
July 29, 1847. Although several companies had been organized,
partly composed of men from Col. Davis, regiment, disbanded,
only one reported by August 24, to meet the requisition. The
volunteers desired to be mounted, and to have the election of their
own officers. The one company first enrolled was the Chickasaw
Heroes, Capt. W. M. Keyes. October 11, the governor sent out an
urgent appeal for men to come in singly or any way to fill up the
requisition, and urged that Mississippi should not be the first to
refuse to respond to the calls for troops. The battalion did not
start for Mexico until January, 1848. The treaty of peace was
signed February 2. The expense of organizing troops for this
war were paid by the United States, upon the warrants of the
State officials. When the enlistment of the First regiment expired,
the president ordered that their arms and accoutrements remain the
property of the State. After the close of the, war, in the fall of
1848, the United States army was for some time encamped at
East Pascagoula, Miss.
Mhoon Valley, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Clay
county, on the Southern Ry., 6 miles west of AVestpoint, the county
seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Michigan City, an incorporated post-village in the northeastern
part of Benton county, on the line of the Illinois Central R. R.,
about 20 miles northeast of Holly Springs, and 6 miles southwest
of Grand Junction, Tenn., the nearest banking town. It has two
churches, a flour mill, and a lumber mill. Population in 1900, 70.
Mico, a post-village in the extreme northern part of Jones county,
on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 8 miles north of
Laurel, the nearest telegraph, express and banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 150.
Middleton. An old town of Carroll county, situated about 2 miles
west of Winona, in what is now Montgomery county. It originated
in a little log-cabin store, owned by Ireton C. Devane, who supplied
the wants of the Indians and pioneers who passed that way along
the trails that crossed there. The first public road in Carroll
county — from CarroUton, the county seat of Carroll county, to
Greensboro, the old county seat of Choctaw county — ran by way of
Devane's store. Gradually a little settlement grew up about the
store, which was named Middleton from its location, half way be
tween CarroUton and the old settlement of Shongalo, a little west of
the present town of Vaiden. Small & Davidson were managers of
the second business enterprise of the place, and soon after Mike
Hill and Alfred Drake established a store here. At the height of its

MISSISSIPPI 233
prosperity, Middleton had some eight or ten stores, and the prin
cipal merchants, in addition to those mentioned, were  Baker,
 Townsend, Jas. Bryant,  Hemingway, W. H. Witty, J. J.
Gee, and Alexander Ray. Early in the 30's Ephraim Walls was
granted a license "to keep a tavern and to sell vinous and spirituous
liquors at Middleton." His successors were a Mr. Newton, and later
Mrs. Bridges. Its physicians were Drs. Lipscomb, Satterwaite,
W. W. Liddell, Dandridge, J. W. Holman, Allen W. Gary, H. B.
Atkins, B. F. Ward, and Montgomery. Messrs. Gould and Carpen
ter were lawyers here. Rev. A. Newton and Rev.  Holly,
Presbyterian pastors; Morris, Latimer, Echols and Henry Pittman,
Baptists, and Rev. James Waldon, Presiding Elder of the Methodist
church, were the ministers in charge of the three churches at Mid
dleton. Mr. Brown was the first Campbellite or Christian preacher
in this section, but the sect had no church at Middleton. The
town and neighborhood were rapidly settled after the conclusion
of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit in 1830. Some of the earliest
settlers were John Gary, and his sons, Marvel, West, and Allen ;
Warren Wadlington, the Herrings, Samuel Jenkins, William Bar
row, W. Y. Collins, John E. Palmer, the Townsend brothers, Geo.
A. Hogsett, John Huffman,  Harrison,  Yelvington, N.
McFatter,  Scrivner,  Graves, Chas. Davis,  Joyner,
 Campbell,  Reeves, James Jones, Andrew Woods, the
Young brothers, James Pentecost, John and Geo. McLean, the
Whiteheads, James Collins, Jos. Eubanks,  Goza, Harvey Mer-
rett,  Webb, Jack Turner, Hugh and Louis Davis, John P.
Thompson, Mary Baskin, Ned Inman, Mrs. Dubard, the Doyles,
 Culpepper, John Tulord, and W. H. Curtis.
Middleton supported two excellent colleges, one for young women
and one for young men. Miss Murtah taught the first school,
which afterwards became the female college presided over by Dr.
White. The male college was a Baptist institution, of which A. S.
Bailey was the president. A vigorous effort was made to locate
the State University at this point, which was defeated by the bitter
opposition of the two colleges. The business and population of
the old town gradually moved to Winona, two miles distant, after
the building of the Illinois Central railroad through this section.
(See Riley's Extinct Towns and Villages).
Middleton, a postoffice of Clarke county, 11 miles northeast of
Quitman, the county seat.
Midnight, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Yazoo county,
about 20 miles northwest of Yazoo city. t Population in 1900, 55 ;
the population in 1906 is estimated at 100. It has several general
stores, a cotton gin, lumber yard, churches and good schools.
Mileston, a post-hamlet of Holmes county, on the Illinois Central
R. R., 14 miles west of Lexington, the county seat. Population in
1900, 40.
Military Road, Old. See Roads.

234 MISSISSIPPI
Militia, State. After Mississippi became a State in 1817, a more
elaborate militia system Was adopted, which will be indicated by
the following roster from Marschalk's almanac for 1819 :
Commander-in-Chief, the Governor.
Adjutant-general, Josiah H. McComas; quartermaster-general,
John Richards ; aides-de-camp, Lieut.-Cols. Joseph Sessions and
Thomas M. Gildart.
First Division, Maj.-Gen. Thomas Hinds; aides, Majs. James C.
Wilkins and Robert Cocks.
First Brigade, Brig.-Gen. Parmenas Briscoe, Colonels, Willis B.
Vick, Warren county ; Joseph Nicholls, Claiborne ; John A. David
son, Jefferson.
Second Brigade, Brig.-Gen. John Wood; aide, Capt. Bailey E.
Chaney; inspector, John H. Robinson. Colonels, James Foster,
Adams county ; John T. Witherspoon, Franklin ; Eli Garner, Law
rence. Second Division, Maj.-Gen. James Patton; aides, Majs. John B.
Elliott and Albert G. Ruffin.
First Brigade, Brig.-Gen. David Dickson; aide, Capt. John
Lowrey; inspector, James Jones. Colonels, John S. Lewis, Wil
kinson county ; Daniel McGaughey, Amite ; David Cleveland,
Pike. Second Brigade, Brig.-Gen. George H. Nixon; Colonels, James
McGowan, Marion and Hancock counties; Josiah Watts, Wayne;
William Stark, Greene and Jackson.
Gen. Hinds resigned in 1819 after his defeat for governor, and
Samuel L. Winston was elected by the legislature of 1820. Upon
his resignation, in 1832, Arthur Fox was appointed.
John Joor was elected in 1826 to succeed Patton.
Governor Brandon reported to the secretary of war, James Bar
bour, in 1826, that having no inspector-general it was impossible
to ascertain the militia enrollment. The volunteer companies,
numbering about one in twenty of those subject to militia duty,
were much the most efficient. They were given the arms furnished
by the United States,- and were preferred in rank. Commissions
in the militia were not sought after, and the officers were mostly
men unqualified for actual military service. The militia had quar
terly company musters, one battalion and one regimental muster
annually. The militia laws were revised in 1829 by Chancellor John A.
Quitman, and in the same year Scott's infantry tactics were in
troduced. The five major-generals in 1840 were A. P. Cunningham, John A.
Quitman, Hugh W. Dunlap, E. L. Acee and Willis W. Cherry.
As late as 1848 there was no State armory, and Governor Brown
estimated that since the admission of the State nearly $100,000
worth of arms, received from the United States, had been lost or
ruined by neglect.
The militia was showing new life in 1840, especially in a consid
erable number of volunteer companies. Cooper's tactics were in-

MISSISSIPPI 235
troduced. The most famous volunteer companies were at Vicks
burg and Natchez, which were social as well as military in char
acter. John A. Quitman was the famous captain of the Natchez
Fencibles. In 1839 the Vicksburg Volunteers and Southrons were
entertained at Natchez by the Hussars, Fencibles, Guards and
Light Artillery. Col. A. L. Bingaman presided at the banquet.
The first toast was "Our Country — esto perpetua," followed by
Yankee Doodle and three guns.
Then came the Mexican war of 1846-48, which absorbed the mil
itary ambition of the people. After that, in Governor Quitman's
administration, there was an earnest effort to promote the general
organization of volunteer companies, and this was the occasion of
discussion in congress. (See Army of Mississippi.)
After the war of 1861-65, the militia continued to be embarrassed
by political complications, also by racial conflicts.
After the meeting of the constitutional convention of 1865," Gov
ernor Sharkey issued a proclamation calling upon the people to
organize under the militia laws for the suppression of crime, at
least to the extent of one company of cavalry and one of infantry
in each county, and particularly urged the young men who had
been in the Confederate service to respond to this duty. Although
President Johnson had, at an earlier date, verbally authorized Gov
ernor Sharkey to take such action, Gen. Osterhaus, commanding
the Jackson district, prohibited it, and the remonstrance of Carl
Schurz, then visiting the State, persuaded the president to advise
Sharkey to call upon the United States troops to suppress disorder,
and refrain from organizing militia until further progress had been
made in re-establishing the State government. To Schurz the pres
ident expressed his belief that such an organization as Sharkey
proposed would not be dangerous, at least might be safely tried
while the troops were there, as the people must sometime be
trusted and the army withdrawn. Slocum went too far, in this
delicate situation, and without consulting the president, issued
his Order No. 22, prohibiting any militia organization ; declaring
that most of the crimes were against Northern men, army couriers
and negroes, and thereafter, when such crimes were reported a
military force would be sent out sufficient to disarm every inhabi
tant within ten miles of the locality of the disorder. Between
Sharkey, Schurz and Slocum, the president was compelled to coun
termand the general's order, over which there was much jubilation.
"The organization of the militia accordingly proceeded, and was
not interfered with until 1867, when it was disbanded in pursuance
of the reconstruction acts which abolished all militia organizations
in the Southern States." (Garner, "Reconstruction," 99-103.)
The legislature of December, 1865, passed an elaborate act for
the re-organization of the militia, with five divisions and major-
generals, and 10 to 30 brigades and brigadier-generals, and regi
ments and colonels accordingly, also a full staff, headed by the ad
jutant-general. Special provision was made for the duties of

230 MISSISSIPPI
officers in case of insurrection. A State military fund was created.
The uniform of the militia was to be "cadet gray."
The constitution of 1869 put the appointment of all officers, ex
cept "non-com's" into the hands of the governor, and reduced the
general officers to one major-general for the State, and one briga
dier-general for each congressional district, each district to consti
tute a division.
A law creating a State militia was adopted in the code of 1871.
It provided that the tax collector should enroll the names of all
men subject to military duty, and transmit a copy of the same to
the adjutant-general, the rolls to be evidence of the enrollment of
the militia. It provided that the militia should be organized into
companies and regiments, subject to the call of the governor, ac
cording to the army regulations of the United States. Also that
the regiments of each congressional district should be organized
into a division.
In 1872, W. W. Dedrick was adjutant-general. E. Stafford was
major-general and the brigadiers were Milton J. Alcorn, Isaac W.
Randall, Joseph T. Smith, Charles E. Furlong, E." J. Castello.
Rosters appear in the reports of three companies organized of the
First regiment, negro, in Hinds county, and of three volunteer
companies, the Columbus National Guards, Columbus Rifles and
Noxubee Rifles. A tabulated statement showed vplunteer com
panies throughout the State — 171 of infantry, 31 of cavalry and 7
of artillery, with 125,000 men enrolled.
The militia was liberally aided by the United States government,
the appropriations available in 1873 being nearly $45,000. There
were 21 active militia organizations reported in 1873. At the be
ginning of 1874 there were 118,219 militia enrolled, the companies
being distributed over the State, and some were armed with
Springfield rifles. (See Ames Adm.)
After the political revolution in 1875, the Gatling Gun bill was
repealed and the militia was paralyzed by the reduction of the pay
of officers when on duty to five cents a day. But volunteer compa
nies were encouraged.
The Aberdeen Guards, of Aberdeen ; the Autry Rifles, of Holly
Springs ; the DeSoto Blues, of Hernando ; the Prairie Rifles, of
Okolona; the Oktibbeha Rescues, of StarkviUe; the Lee County
Guards, of Baldwin; the Rankin Guards, of Brandon; the Noxu
bee Rifles, of Macon ; Tunica Guards, of Austin ; Lamer Rifles, of
Oxford; Adam's Light infantry, of Natchez; and the Senatobia
Invincibles, of Senatobia, all volunteer companies, were chartered
by the legislature in 1877. The law made them companies of
minute men, subject to the call of the Governor. It provided that
the companies might form battalions and elect officers. Its bene
fits were also extended to the Columbus Riflemen, and Columbus
Light Artillery, previously incorporated. An act March 6, 1880,
chartered the Walthall Guards of Grenada.
Other companies were organized and chartered, but Governor
Stone reported in 1882 that many of them had disbanded or had
become disorganized.

MISSISSIPPI 237
Governor Lowry in 1886 noted a revival of interest in the militia
— -"a number of well equipped and splendidly drilled rifle compa
nies, some of which will enter the competitive drills to be holden
during the year." Enough new companies were formed to ex
haust the appropriations of the United States government for
arms and ammunition, by 1888.
William Henry was appointed adjutant-general in 1886, and re
ported 1,370 men uniformed and active members of the companies,
entitling them to aid of over $8,000 from the United States. In
the spring of 1886 several companies of the National Guard en
camped at Vicksburg and drilled in competition as a feature of the
Vicksburg fair. There was then organized, May 14th, "The Active
and Uniformed Military Association of the State of Mississippi,"
with Maj.-Gen. B. S. Ricks as president, for the encouragement of
a thorough military system. In 1882 congress had appropriated
to each coast State which had a permanent camp ground for an
annual encampment of at least six days, $5,000 each for artillery
instruction. The citizens of Pass Christian donated about 100
acres of land fronting on the beach, earthworks were thrown up
and cannon and mortars mounted. The first annual encampment
was held there August 3-10, 1887, three Mississippi companies at
tending — the Capital Light Guards, Columbus Riflemen and
Natchez Rifles, with two companies of U. S. artillery and four
companies from Louisiana. "Fort Henry," was deeded to the State
on condition that it should revert if not used in any consecutive
three years. On account of the failure of legislative provision for
encampments, the title soon reverted. The Mississippi National
Guard in 1888 included 24 separate companies, 11 attached or bat
talion companies, and two artillery companies. In that year it
was recognized by act of legislature, amended in 1890. Benjamin
S. Ricks was major-general of militia, and the brigadiers were
W. N. Munroe, Columbus ; G. Y. Freeman, Jackson ; E. F. Goddis,
Flora. The National Guard organization was First battalion,
Maj. C. Lee Lincoln, Columbus ; First battalion artillery, Lieut.-
Col. E. W. Morrill, Moss Point; First battalion cadets, Maj. G. W.
McClain, StarkviUe.
The militia committee of the Convention of 1890, W. S. Feather
ston, chairman, reported that it is "necessary to have a military
force at all times to respond to the call of the State," and the
National Guard should be used for this purpose, with a limit of
1,000 privates, and for purposes of drill be called into camp at
least once a year, and an annual appropriation of $10,000 should
be made. The constitution of 1890 declares, "The legislature shall
provide for the organizing, arming, equipping and discipline of the
militia, and for paying the same when called into active service,"
also "The legislature is hereby required to make an annual appro
priation for the efficient support and maintenance of the Missis
sippi National Guard, which shall consist of not less than one hun
dred men for each senator and representative to which this State
may be entitled in the Congress of the United States ; but no part

238 MISSISSIPPI
of such funds shall be used in the payment of said guard except
when in actual service." It is also required that the adjutant-
general shall be given an adequate salary, and that the legislature
shall empower the board of supervisors in each county to aid in
supporting a company or companies of the National Guard, with
its borders. The National Guard had, in 1892, been organized six
years, and kept up by the men, aided by the Congressional allow
ance of $8,500 for arms, ammunition, equipments, uniforms, etc.
In 1892, Adjutant-General Henry asked the legislature for aid,
saying "I believe I am correct in saying that Mississippi is the only
State in the Union which does not provide for its National Guard."
The commanders of the Reserve militia, were, in 1890-92: Wm.
N. Munroe, major-general ; J. H. Brinker, Samuel D. Robins, F.
F. Myles, brigadier-generals.
National Guard: The Governor, commander-in-chief; Brig.-
Gen. Wm. Henry, adjutant-general ; Col. J. E. Halbert, surgeon-
general; Maj. Lee Richardson, aide. James R. Davis, Biloxi,
major-general commanding; J. S. Billups, Columbus, brigadier-
general First brigade. First regiment infantry, R. M. Levy, West
Point, colonel; Second regiment, infantry, C. L. Lincoln, Colum
bus, colonel ; Third regiment, infantry, George S. Green, Jack
son, colonel ; First cadet battalion, A. & M. college ; First artillery
battalion, battery A, Vicksburg;' B, Scranton; C, Bay St. Louis;
D, Biloxi ; F, Pass Christian, Lt.-Col. E. W. Morrell, Biloxi, com
manding; First cavalry battalion, Maj. W. A. Love, Crawford, two
companies. In May, 1893, two companies of the guard were called
out by the governor to protect the jail at Brookhaven from attack
by a company of white-capper sympathizers, who had been re
pulsed in one attempt to release ten men held on the charge of
whitecapping. The Third regiment went into camp at their own expense, at
Cooper's Wells, in August, 1893.
In 1894 an annual appropriation of $3,600 was made, not to be
available, however, except when the guard should be called out to
suppress violation of law. The railroads gave free transportation,
and an annual encampment was held at Meridian — Camp Stephen
D. Lee — in 1894, and another at Columbus in July, 1895, — Camp
John M. Stone. At this time Alabama was appropriating $23,000
annually for encampments.
The encampments were held, as a matter of city enterprise with
railroad cooperation, at Jackson in 1896, and Vicksburg in 1897.
J. S. Billups was then major-general commanding; S. S. Morrow,
colonel First regiment ; C. L. Lincoln, colonel, Second regiment ;
George C. Hoskins, colonel Third regiment ; E. W. Morrill, colonel
First regiment artillery; J. H. Cook, major First cavalry squadron;
R. W. Barnett, major Cadets. The aggregate membership was
1,795. When President McKinley called for two regiments from Mis
sissippi in 1898, the governor invited. the captains of the National
Guard to report how many of their men were willing to enlist.

MISSISSIPPI 239
In response the guard went into camp at Jackson ; seventy-five per
cent, of the officers and men tendered their services ; sixty-five per
cent, passed the examinations and served until the close of hostili
ties. At the beginning of the war of 1898 the regimental com
manders were Col. S. S. Morrow, First infantry; Col. C. L.
Lincoln, Second infantry; Lt.-Col. Devereaux Shields, Third in
fantry; Col. E. W. Morrill, First artillery; Maj. J. H. Cook, First
cavalry. After the war the Guard was reorganized, with the same
number of regiments, and R. M. Levy became colonel of the First,
C. R. Shannon of the Second, and T. H. Shields of the Third infan
t- No encampment was had in 1900, the legislature not providing
therefor. The encampment of 1901, to have been at Greenville,
was abandoned on account of wet weather. The second battalion,
Third regiment, encamped at Natchez. The entire national guard
went into camp at Biloxi in August, 1904. No troops were sent
to the Fall Manoeuvres in Kentucky.
The annual encampment of 1905 was to have been held at Gulf
port, but was prevented by the yellow fever, during the prevalence
of which details from all the regiments were used as quarantine
guards. The National Guard is supported in Mississippi mainly by ap
propriations by the United States congress. The State appropria-:
tion for 1904-05 was $7,500 a year, of which $2,000 is not available
except in case of emergency.
At the beginning of his administration Governor Vardaman
appointed Arthur Fridge adjutant-general, and Maj. S. R. Keesler
major-general. A general inspection was made by Maj. R. W.
Dowdy, U. S. A.
The roster of 1905 was, James K. Vardaman, commander in
chief; staff: Gen. Arthur Fridge, adjutant-general; Colonels R. M.
McGehee, chief of engineers; C. Lee Crum, judge advocate gen
eral ; Walter Weaver, payrhaster general ; R. C. Rachford, com
missary general ; Y. D. Lott, inspector general ; C. C. Wyatt,
inspector general of R. P. ; W. S. Vardaman, quartermaster gen
eral ; Horton Frizell, surgeon general ; W. T. Boiling, chaplain ;
J. D. Money, chief of artillery, and eighteen aide-de-camps. S. R.
Keesler, Greenwood, major-general commanding; Col. S. L. Gwin,
adjutant-general, and full staff; First regiment infantry, Col. Sam
Montgomery, Greenville; Lieut.-Col. John P. Mayo, Columbus —
including First battalion ; Maj. George A. Wilson, Lexington ;
Second battalion, Maj. B. A. Lincoln, Columbus; Third battalion,
Maj. O. M. Lawrence, Booneville. Second regiment infantry,
Col. Sam L. McCants, Meridian ; Lieut.-Col. Virgil Jones, Hat
tiesburg — including First battalion, Maj. J. H. Buschman, Hatties
burg; Second battalion, Maj. Homer Brett, Meridian. Third
regiment infantry, Col. E. B. Baker, Natchez; Lieut.-Col. J. J.
Hayes, Vicksburg — including First battalion, Maj. D. D. Ewing,
Brookhaven; Second battalion, Maj. J. N. Stone, Natchez. First

240 MISSISSIPPI
battalion artillery, Maj. W. H. Brown, Meridian, including Vicks
burg and Meridian batteries.
Militia, Territorial. The first important order issued by Gover
nor Sargent, September 8, 1798, was for the organization of the
militia, to include all free male inhabitants in the Territory be
tween the ages of 16 and 50. For military duty they were to be
divided equally into companies of horse and foot, the companies
to include 64 men, rank and file. The general organization would
be in two legions, under the command of lieutenant-colonels, one
in each district or county, above and below Fairchild's creek.
The first Saturday of each month was fixed as assembly and drill-
day, besides four field days in each year. The following officers
were named in the order: For the Upper district: Cato West,
lieutenant-colonel; Narsworthy Hunter, major of horse; John
Girault, major of foot; Thomas Green, Richard Harrison and
Thomas Calvit, captains of horse ; James Truly, Jesse Harper and
George W. Humphreys, lieutenants of horse ; George Sulzer, Lacy
Rumsey and James Spain, cornets ; Roger Dixon, Tobias Brashear,
and Arthur Carney, captains of foot; John Brooks, James Mcln-
tyre and Gibson Clark, lieutenants ; William Smith, James Daven
port and Eden Brashears, ensigns ; James Mclntyre, adjutant.
For the lower district, the lieutenant-colonel was not named.
Benajah Osman and Sutton Bankes, majors of horse and foot;
Benjamin Farrar, William Moore and David Ferguson, captains
of horse ; William Mcintosh, George Cochran and John Minor,
lieutenants ; John Lintot, Hampton White and Charles Surget,
cornets; John Ellis, Adam Bingaman, and Joseph Calvit, captains
of foot ; Abraham Ellis, Daniel Grafton and Philander Smith,
lieutenants; John Wall, Samuel Hutchins and William Dunbar,
Jr., ensigns ; John Wall, adjutant.
The choice of uniform was left to the officers, and it appears to
have been blue and red in colors, which the governor approved.
Col. West reported in November that several officers had declined
commissions, notable among them, Maj. Narsworthy Hunter, who
became the leader of an opposition to the governor. Consequently
some changes were made in the list. Richard Harrison was given
the rank declined by Hunter; George Salier and John Brooks
were made lieutenants in place of Harper and Humphreys; Will
iam Thomas and Henry Green were made captains of .cavalry, in
place of Thomas Green and Harrison.
The militia laws were revised after the law making body was
organized. The first law enacted in Mississippi Territory by the
governor and judges 'was the militia act of February 28, 1799.
Daniel Clark was then made lieutenant-colonel for Adams county,
Banajah Osmun and John Ellis, majors. Upon the death of Clark,
Osmun became lieutenant-colonel. In Pickering county John
Girault was made lieutenant-colonel, Roger Dixon and Richard
Harrison, majors.
On Governor Claiborne's arrival, 1801, he found that Governor
Sargent, notwithstanding the exercise of great exertions, had

MISSISSIPPI 241
been unable to organize the militia. There were no arms, either
in the hands of citizens or available, and the secretary of state
was asked to send to Natchez about 400 muskets and as many
rifles. "Until the militia of this Territory are well armed and
disciplined, my mind will not be tranquil," wrote the governor.
"Bordering upon the dominion of a foreign power, separated from
the nearest State (Tennessee) by a wilderness of six hundred miles
in extent ; in the neighborhood of. numerous savage tribes and with
a population of negroes nearly equal to the number of whites;
there exists uncertainty for peace, and our best reliance for safety
must depend upon a well armed and well trained militia."
The governor labored earnestly toward organization, but found
the obstacles many. He asked Gen. Wilkinson to put a blockhouse
in the center of the settlements, to be used for an armory to store
such guns as could be spared from the fort.
The militia appointments at the beginning of Governor Clai
borne's administration were as follows: Adams county: Banajah
Osmun, lieutenant-colonel commanding; Abram Ellis and Rich
ard King, majors. Jefferson county: Zachariah Kirkland and
William Thomas, majors. Washington county: John Caller and
Nathaniel Christmas, majors. Claiborne county : Daniel Burnet,
lieutenant-colonel; William Neely, major. Wilkinson county:
John Ellis, lieutenant-colonel; Richard Butler, major. Artillery
in Natchez : Samuel Postlethwait, captain ; Joseph A. Parrott, first
lieutenant ; Joseph Newman, second lieutenant. Israel E. Trask,
brigade major and inspector.
In April, through the order of Wilkinson Capt. Postlethwait was
¦supplied with a brass fieldpiece, 16 flannel cartridges, and 40 stand
of arms, so that Natchez, at least, was equipped for war.
In the fall of 1802, the militia .was pretty well organized, under
the brigade command of Col. Qsmun, whom Claiborne recom
mended for commission by the president as brigadier-general.
In October, Brigade-major Trask was sent to Washington county
to organize the militia on the Tombigbee.
Thirty-three boxes of rifles arrived in December, 1802, and were
distributed, each recipient to pay for his rifle $14 in cotton.
In December, 1802, the governor appointed as his senior aide,
Capt. F. L. Claiborne; junior aide, Capt. William Scott, both
lately of the rank named in the United States service. Scott was
promoted to lieutenant-colonel and aide in 1805. Other aides were
Wm. H. Wooldridge, John F. Carmichael, Joseph Bowman, Nich
olas Perkins, Wm. B. Shields, Joseph Sessions, down to 1812.
Isaac Guion was appointed brigade inspector in 1805, and suc
ceeded by William Scott in 1806. Andrew Marschalk was brigade
major in 1810 ; adjutant and inspector, 1811 ; Joseph P. Kennedy,
brigade major east of Pearl, 1811.
After Governor Claiborne went to New Orleans, the militia con
tinued as before to be one of the main subjects of the governor's
messages, as the danger of foreign war was seldom allayed until
after 1815. There was another danger also, constantly felt.
16-11

242 MISSISSIPPI
Acting-Governor Cato West said in his message of December,
1804, that whatever security was felt because of the cession of
Louisiana, "It is incumbent on us, notwithstanding, to use all
the means in our power in preparing to repel hostile attacks and
suppress insurrections of slaves, for events of the kind we have no
assurance will not happen; to this end a well organized and effec
tive militia is indispensable. The citizens of a free government
ought to take pride in assuming, the character of soldiers when
called to the service of their country, but to be good soldiers in
war, it is necessary to be well trained in peace. I am sorry to
observe that the militia of our Territory has for some time past
been in a declining state."
Governor Williams, on assuming office in 1805, found the mili
tia in a state of disorder, but efforts for reorganization promised
good results. He said : "We have several volunteer companies
of horse, 'composed of the most wealthy and active men amongst
us, who hold themselves in readiness, and I am persuaded would
render services equal to any, if called upon."
There were many changes in the personnel of the officers, and
the number of regiments were increased, to agree with the num
ber of counties.
The first militia battalion to leave Natchez district for service
was that which was called to New Orleans in 1790, by the Spanish
governor to guard against French invasion at Balize. Under the
United States government the first battalion called out was that
which accompanied Governor Claiborne to New Orleans in 1803.
(See Claiborne's administration.) The second, under the com
mand of Col. Ferdinand L. Claiborne, marched to Natchitoches in
1806, expecting to participate in a Sabine river campaign against
the Spanish. Within the Territory there was special service on
the Baton Rouge frontier in 1805 and at times afterward, mainly
under Capt. Joshua Baker, and in the severe midwinter of Janu
ary, 1807, on account of the Aaron Burr expedition, (q. v.) Also
see Mississippi Battalion, 1808, and Washington county.
The life of the service was, of course, the cavalry, in which there
was thorough organization and enthusiastic spirit. , Most famous
of all was the Adams Troop, of Natchez. Governor Williams in
December, 1807, proclaimed the uniform for the field officers of the
regiment of horse to be, "Blue faced with scarlet ; gold laced but
ton holes ; yellow buttons and epaulets ; white under clothes ;
sabers slung with white belts."
Before leaving Virginia, Governor Holmes (1809) asked the
appointment of Col. Ferdinand L. Claiborne as brigadier-general
of militia for the Territory, and again urged this after his arrival
at the town of Washington. The legislature in December, 1809,
joined in this request. But it seems to have passed unheeded, as
,in the case of Col. Osmun. In 1811, however, in prospect of war
with England, Claiborne was appointed brigadier-general. Ben
jamin Farrar, former captain of the Adams troop, was commis-

MISSISSIPPI 243
sioned lieutenant-colonel commanding the Territorial cavalry, in
1811, but declined.
The appointments to lieutenant-colonel commanding after 1804
were William H. Wooldridge, 1805 ; Ferd. L. Claiborne, 1806, vice
Osmun, resigned; Thomas F. Fitzpatrick, 1805, vice Zachariah
Kirkland, resigned; Hugh Davis (Wilkinson) 1807; James Caller,
1808 (Washington), vice John Caller, resigned; William R. Rich
ards, 1809; Nicholas Perkins (Madison) 1809.
The suspension of Col. Claiborne (Adams county) by Governor
Williams in 1807 was an exciting event. Joseph Sessions, ap
pointed his successor, declined. Israel E. Trask accepted, and was
succeeded by Philip Hoggatt, 1809.
Following is the list of lieutenant-colonels commissioned in
January, 1810 :
First regiment, William R. Richards, succeeded by David Nel
son, 1811 ; Second, Hugh Davis ; Third, Philip Hoggatt, (declined,
John Wood) ; Fourth, Thomas Fitzpatrick, in 1812, David Car-
radine; Fifth, William H. Wooldridge; Sixth, James Caller; Sev
enth, Peter Perkins ; Eighth, Joseph Carson ; Ninth, James Patton ;
Tenth, Benjamin Hicks; Eleventh, John J. Jones, succeeded by
Robert Witherspoon. In December, 1811, two more regiments
(or counties) were added, commanded by Josiah Skinner, Twelfth,
and Timothy Terrall, Thirteenth.
These appointments in 1810 were under a new law at the begin
ning of Holmes' administration, with regiments for the new coun
ties of Washington, Baldwin and Madison (Alabama), and those^
in the Choctaw purchase, making eleven regiments. Governor
Holmes, in November, 1810, reported that he had been successful
in the reorganization, but urged some provision for what has since
his time been found to be the only practical basis of militia, vol
unteer companies. In this year, 1810, some of the militia had
active service on account of the Baton Rouge revolution. Details
by volunteering and draft were made in 1811 to form a militia
regiment under Col. F. L. Claiborne, which was sent to Baton
Rouge, where it was the nucleus of the First Mississippi volun
teers, (q. v.) distinguished in the Creek war. In 1813 there were
eighteen militia regiments, nominally, including two in Madison
county. Claiborne resumed the rank of brigadier-general after his return
from the Alabama couritry in 1814, and held it until his death,
when Thomas Hinds was appointed. The law of 1814 provided for
a brigade organization with an adjutant-general at the seat of gov
ernment, upon an annual salary of $300. (See War of 1812, Creek
war, Dragoons, etc.)
An act of Congress in 1816 required the appointment of a colonel
as well as lieutenant-colonel and major for each regiment, and so
the militia regiments began to have colonels of the full rank at
the close of the Territorial period.
Millard, a postoffice of Pearl River county, on the New Orleans
& North Eastern R. R., 8 miles southeast of Poplarville, the county

244 MISSISSIPPI
seat. Lumbering and turpentine plants are located here. It has a
population of about 200.
Millcreek, a postoffice of Winston county, located on Noxuba
creek, 8 miles east of Louisville, the county seat.
Miller, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of De Soto county,
on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R., 14 miles from
Hernando, the county seat, and nearest banking, telegraph and ex
press town. Population in 1900, 100; the population in 1906 was
estimated at 150.
Millican, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Prentiss county,
18 miles from Booneville, the county seat. It has rural free delivery
from New Site.
Millington, John, was a native of England. He was raised in
London ; was the pupil of Farraday, and an associate of McAdam ;
came to the United States after representing an English Company
in the mines of Mexico ; was professor of chemistry and natural
philosophy in William and Mary College, 1835-47 ; resigned to
accept the same chair in the University of Virginia in 1848. He
was profoundly versed in the science of mathematics. He was
connected with the University of Mississippi during the first nine
years of its existence, and then resigned to accept the chair of
chemistry and texocology at the Memphis Medical College. At
the outbreak of the war he went to Philadelphia, and after peace
was declared removed to Richmond, Va., where he died at the
age of eighty-nine years.
Mills, a hamlet in the southern part of Carroll county. It has
rural free delivery from Vaiden, the nearest railroad and banking
town, on the Illinois Central R. R.
Millsaps College. After the removal of Centenary College in
1845 from Brandon Springs, Miss., to Jackson, La., the need was
felt among the Methodists of the State for a college under control
of the Mississippi Conferences and located within the confines of
the State. Several attempts were made to establish higher insti
tutions of learning, but none of the movements were successful
till in December, 1888, the Mississippi Conference and the North
Mississippi Conference, resolved that a "college for the education
of young men and boys" should be established in the State. Three
preachers and three iaymen were appointed from each conference
to take immediate steps in that direction. The joint committee
met in Jackson in January, 1889, and Major R. W. Millsaps (q. v.),
a member of the commission, offered to give $50,000 for endowing
the proposed college if the Methodists of the State would give a
like amount. This proposition was enthusiastically approved, and
Bishop C. B. Galloway was invited to take charge of a campaign
for raising the proposed sum. In December of the same year, Dr.
A. F. Watkins, of the Mississippi conference, was appointed a
special agent to work with Bishop Galloway, and in 1890 $25,000
was collected. This amount was supplemented by $25,000 from
Major Millsaps, making $50,000 for the endowment. In 1893,
$50,000 was received under the same conditions, and the endow-

MISSISSIPPI 245
ment stood at $100,000 until quite recently. In 1890 the Board of
Trustees, under the presidency of Bishop Galloway, secured a
charter from the legislature of Mississippi, naming the college for
its distinguished benefactor. The Board on May 20, 1891, decided
to locate the college at Jackson. Flattering offers were made by
many towns, but the people of Jackson contributed $21,000 for
grounds and buildings, and Major Millsaps added $15,000 to this'
sum. By the spring of 1892, the main building was nearly com
pleted, and the Board of Trustees organized its first faculty. Dr.
W. B. Murrah (q. v.), was elected president. He was at that time
vice-president of Whitworth college. Dr. Murrah has held this
position to the present time, having refused many flattering offers
to go elsewhere. No other member of the original faculty is now
connected with the institution, though Bishop Galloway is still
president of the Board of Trustees. In addition to the president,
Mr. N. A. Patilo was elected professor of Mathematics. Prof.
Patilo at the time of his election was doing graduate work in the
Johns Hopkins university. At the same meeting of the Trustees
Professor W. L. Weber, acting-professor of English in the South
western university, Georgetown, Texas, was elected to the chair
of English. At a later meeting of the Trustees in the summer of
1892, Mr. G. C. Swearengen, a post-graduate student of Vander-
bilt university, and a Ph. D. of Chicago university in 1902, was
elected Professor of Latin and Greek, and Rev. M. M. Black, also
a graduate of Vanderbilt, was chosen as principal of the Prepara
tory Department. With this faculty the first session opened Sep
tember 29, 1892. There were 150 students enrolled the first year,
and the attendance has increased to 300 at present. The first
session was one of marked success. At the commencement in
June, 1893, the department of the Natural Sciences was created,
and Prof. A. M. Muckenfuss was placed in charge of the scientific
work: Prof. Muckenfuss was a graduate student of the Johns
Hopkins university, and received his Ph. D. degree in 1895 from
the Hopkins. In 1894 Professor Patilo resigned the chair of
Mathematics and in his' place was elected Dr. J. A. Moore, profes
sor of Mathematics in Southern University, Greensboro, Alabama.
Dr. Moore has occupied this position till the present time, is sec
retary of the Faculty, and, as the present senior member of the
Faculty, ex-officio vice-president of the college. At the same time
Prof. Black resigned his position in the Preparatory Department,
and Prof. R. S. Ricketts was selected in his place. Prof. Ricketts
had been for over 20 years a professor in Whitworth Female col
lege, and has assisted in educating the mothers of many of his
present pupils. As assistant in the Preparatory Department Prof.
E. L. Bailey was elected. He was at the time principal of the
High School in Jackson. At the commencement in 1896 a Law
Department was added to the College, and Dr. Edward Mayes
was elected Dean. Dr. Mayes had been professor of Law at the
University of Mississippi, and Chancellor of the University for
three years. At the same commencement the department of His-

246 MISSISSIPPI
tory arid Modern Languages was created, and Prof. J. P. Hanner
was put in charge of the work. Prof. Hanner had been acting-
professor of Natural Sciences in 1894-95, in place of Prof. Mucken
fuss absent on leave, and in 1895-96, was acting-professor of
Ancient Languages while . Prof. Swearengen was in Europe on
leave. He was a graduate of Vanderbilt University. The faculty
remained unchanged until the fall of 1899 when Prof. Weber re
signed from the chair of English to accept the same chair in
Emory College. In his place was elected Professor D. H. Bishop,
professor of English and History in Polytechnic College, Fort
Worth, Texas. At the close of the session of 1899-1900, Prof.
Hanner resigned from the Chair of History and Modern Lan
guages, and accepted a position in Emory College. Prof. B. E.
Young resigned the chair of Modern Languages in' the Polytechnic
College, Fort Worth, Texas, and accepted the position made va
cant by Prof. Hanner's resignation. Prof. Bailey also resigned
from the Preparatory Department, and Rev. G. W. Huddleston,
principal of Carthage High School, took his place. Prof. Huddles-
ton is still in this position. At the same time there were added
to the Law Department, Judge A. H. Whitfield, Chief-Justice of
the Supreme Court, and Judge W. R. Harper. These with Judge
Mayes constitute the present Law Faculty. At the commence
ment of June, 1902, Dr. Muckenfuss accepted the chair of Chem
istry in the University of Arkansas, and in 1905 the same chair
in the University of Mississippi. In his place was elected Dr. J.
M. Sullivan, a Ph. D. of Vanderbilt, and professor of Natural Sci
ences in Centenary College. During the session of 1902-03, Prof.
A. H. Shannon acted as professor of Biology and Sociology. In
1904 Prof. Young accepted the chair of Romance Languages in
Vanderbilt University, and the chair of History and Modern Lan
guages was divided. Prof. J. E. Walmsley took charge of the work
in History and Economics. Prof. Walmsley had -been professor
of History and Economics in Kentucky Wesleyan College, and,
during the session of 1903-04, was acting-professor of History and
Modern Languages in the absence of Prof. Young, who was in
Europe. Prof. O. H. Moore, a graduate of Harvard, was elected
to the new chair of Modern Languages. Dr. Swearengen resigned
from the Latin and Greek Department, and the position was filled
by Prof. M. W. Swartz, who had been professor of Greek and
German in the Milwaukee Academy. Prof. Bishop accepted the
chair of English in the University of Mississippi, and Prof. A. A.
Kern was selected in his place. At the time of his election Prof.
Kern was a graduate student of the Johns Hopkins University.
During the session of 1905-06 a movement was organized to in
crease the endowment, and the movement has so far succeeded
that the productive endowment is now near $200,000. Since the
erection of the original main building, there have been added, an
astronomical observatory, the gift of Dan A. James, the Webster
Science Hall, and the Founder's Hall, these last being the gifts
of Major Millsaps. In addition to the large dormitory, known as

MISSISSIPPI , 247
Founder's Hall, there are ten smaller students' homes, and two
fraternity halls. The college is situated in a most attractive part
of Jackson, and its campus will soon be one of the most beautiful
in the South. The College offers three courses leading to degrees,
and its graduates have taken such high rank in the outer' world
that, though the youngest college in the State, it ranks second to
none. Millsaps, Reuben Webster, was born in Copiah County, Miss.,
May 30, 1833. He is a son of Reuben Millsaps and Lavinia
Clowers, who were both Georgians by birth. Major Millsaps was
educated at Hanover college and Asbury (now De Pauw) univer
sity, graduating in 1854. After returning to Mississippi he taught
school for a few years and then entered the law department of
Harvard university, from which he was graduated in 1858. He
began the practice of law in Pine Bluff, Ark., where he resided
till the beginning of the war, when he joined Co. A, 9th Arkansas
infantry. He was wounded once, and held the rank of major at
the close of the war. He engaged in mercantile business in Mis
sissippi till 1880, when he removed to St. Louis, and remained
there for four years. In 1884 he closed out his business in St.
Louis, and, after spending a year in Europe, returned to Missis
sippi, and engaged in banking, first in Hazelhurst, and later in
Jackson, where he now resides. He was president of the Capitol
National bank, in Jackson, from 1888 to 1904, and is a stockholder
and director in many of the banks of the State. He has given
nearly $200,000 to Millsaps college (q. v.), and is interested in
many philanthropic movements, in addition to the official posi
tions which he holds in the Methodist church. In 1869 he was
married to Mrs. Mary F. Younkin, a daughter of Horace Bean,
a banker of New Orleans.
Millview, a postoffice of Harrison county, on the Gulf & Ship
Island R. R., 23 miles by rail north of Gulfport, and 1 mile south of
McHenry Station, the nearest banking town.
Millville, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Madison county,
18 miles from Canton, the county seat and nearest railroad and
banking town. Population in 1900, 63.
Minden, a post-hamlet in the extreme southeastern part of
Kemper county, on Wild Horse creek, about 18 miles from Dekalb,
the county seat. It is 4 miles east of the main line of the Mobile
& Ohio R. R. Population in 1900, 30.
Minerva, a postoffice of Montgomery county, 8 miles northeast
of Winona, the county seat. The town is growing and has a
population of 50.
Mingo, a postoffice of Tishomingo county, 12 miles south of luka,
the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Minieola, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, on Sucarnoochee
creek, 5 miles north of Dekalb, the county seat.
Mining. See Clays, Cement, Fertilizers, Iron and Coal, Ochre.
Minor, Stephen, entitled in the Spanish documents, Don Estevan
Minor, "was a native of Pennsylvania ; he first visited New Orleans

248 MISSISSIPPI
in 1780, to procure military stores for the American posts on the
Ohio and Monongahela [the same errand on which Capt. James
Willing came]. On his return, with a caravan of loaded mules,
not far from the present post of Arkansas, his stores were plun
dered and his men all murdered ; his own escape being due to a
most fortuitous detention by sickness, a few hours behind his
party. He afterwards repaired to New Orleans," where the
American party was headed by Oliver Pollock and Daniel Clark,
and joined in the expedition of Gen. Galvez against Mobile, Gal
vez' war being understood to be in sympathy with the American
revolution. "His remarkable skill with the rifle, and his acts of
gallantry, during the siege, attracted the notice and secured the
favor of the general, by whom his position in the Spanish army
was advanced." (Wailes, Historical Outline.) Minor was sent
to Natchez in 1783, where he had the rank of captain in the Span
ish army, and the position of aide-major or adjutant of the mili
tary post. On the records his function appears, "ayudante del
Fuerte Panmure de Natchez." Throughout the whole Spanish
jurisdiction he was the subordinate officer to the governor, being
in fact the American element in the government, and no doubt
responsible for its adaptation to the customs and habits of the
population. He was, of course, intimately associated with Miro
and Gayoso, both of whom were promoted from the government
of Natchez to the administration of Louisiana and West Florida.
William Dunbar wrote : "This gentleman was aide-major of
the post of Natchez, and attended the governor [Gayoso] officially,
almost perpetually, and was certainly more intimately acquainted
with his motives and actions than any one here, his secretary only
excepted, who is a Spaniard [Joseph Vidal]." "He is said to have
endeared himself to his countrymen, the American settlers, by his
acts of friendliness and protection, and was applied to on all occa
sions, in cases of difficulty." (Wailes.)
His attachment to Natchez district was increased by his mar
riage to a daughter of John Ellis, of White Cliffs. When Gayoso
became governor of Louisiana, after the arrival of Ellicott, Cap't.
Minor acted as commandant at Natchez, and civil, governor until
the evacuation in the spring of 1798. Capt. Guion wrote to Gen.
Wilkinson, May 5, 1798: "Captains Minor and Vidal are still
here. The first is an American (at heart). The latter says he is
a consul. I say he is — perhaps so." Minor served on the boun
dary commission, for running the line between the United States
and the Floridas, in 1798-99, in place of Gov. Gayoso, and was
with the surveying party to the Chattahoochee river.
In 1804-5 he was listed as an officer of the Spanish boundary
commission of Louisiana, as a captain in the Spanish army. He
gave a safe conduct to Walter Burling, sent by Wilkinson to the
governor of Mexico in 1806. Captain Minor then had his home
at Gayoso's old plantation, Concord, and, says Claiborne's history,
"was an opulent planter, extremely hospitable, and lived in elegant
style." But he did not purchase that plantation until sometime

MISSISSIPPI 249
after the evacuation. "A part of the Minor family still resides
near Natchez at a charming home called Oakland, which is a part
of the original grant made to Don Estevan Minor. Oakland is
famous for its avenue of liveoak trees, of which the branches inter
lock though the trunks stand eighty feet apart." (Deupree.) Gov
ernor Minor had a brother, John Minor, who was at Natchez dur
ing the absence- of Stephen Minor on the survey. William J.
Minor, son of the captain, resided at Concord, after the decease of
his father. Minor's second marriage was to Catherine Lintot, and
five children were born to them. Captain Minor died at Concord
in 1815.
Minot, a postoffice in- the northern part of Sunflower county, on
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 35 miles distant from
Indianola, the county seat.
Minter City, a post-village in the northern part of Leflore county,
on the Southern, and the Mississippi Valley railroads, about 18 miles
northwest of Greenwood, the county seat. It has a money order
postoffice, an oil mill, and a brick and tile factory. Population
in 1900, 170.
Miro, Estevan, was a Spanish officer at New Orleans, who
gained promotion to colonel commanding the Creole regiment,
during the conquest of West Florida by Galvez, and succeeding
Galvez as governor of the province, including the Natchez district.
He made the treaty of 1784, at Pensacola and Mobile, with Alex
ander McGillivray and the Southern Indian nations, binding them
to Spain; and engaged the services of James Wilkinson and others
to promote the separation of the Western country from the United
States. He was popular outside of his own domain, as was evi
denced by the naming of the Cumberland river region "Miro dis
trict," in his honor. In October, 1790, he wrote to his home
government, asking a place in the department of the Indies, in
Spain. "I have now had the honor," said he, "of serving the king,
always with distinguished zeal, for thirty years and three months,
of which, twenty-one years and eight months in America." He
was a native of Catalonia; his wife was a Macarty, of New Or
leans. Judge Martin wrote of him that though he was not bril
liant, like Galvez, he had sound judgment, a high sense of honor
and an excellent heart, united suavity of temper with energy, was
remarkable for strict morality, had a fair college education and
was master of several languages. He sailed for Spain in 1791,
"where he continued his military career, and from the rank of
brigadier-general rose to that of mariscal de campo, or lieutenant-
general." Mish, a money order post-hamlet of Covington county, and a
station on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 6 miles north of Williams
burg, the county seat, and 3 miles southeast of Mt. Olive, the
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 21. A large saw mill
is located here and the population in 1906 was estimated at 100.

250 MISSISSIPPI
Missionary, a hamlet of Jasper county, 6 miles north of Paulding,
the county seat. The postoffice here has been discontinued and mail
now goes to Paulding. Population in 1900, 57.
Missions, Early Catholic. With the exception of the chaplains
who are known to have accompanied De Soto in his luckless wan
derings through Mississippi in 1539, Father Marquette was the
first Catholic priest to set foot on Mississippi soil. In 1673, with
Joliet, he explored the great river, termed on his autograph map
the River de la Conception, as far south as the mouth of the Ar
kansas river. His work was one of exploration and preparation,
and he probably held little communication with the Indians. Nine
years later, Father Zenobius Membre, Recollect, accompanied the
expedition of LaSalle as chaplain, to the mouth of the Mississippi.
He has left us an interesting narrative of that celebrated voyage.
On their way down the river, every effort was made to obtain the
friendship of the various Indian tribes. Father Membre calls the
Natchez by the name "Natchie"; says the narrative, "Although
their village lay three leagues inland, the sieur de la Salle did not
hesitate to go there with part of our force. We slept there and
received as' kindly a welcome as we could expect"
Before 1698 the seminary of foreign missions at Paris, France,
had established a branch in Quebec to train missionaries for the
New World. The first Catholic missionaries sent in 1698 by the
Bishop of Quebec into the newly discovered southern field were
priests from this seminary. They were Father Francis Jolliet de
Montigny, superior, who settled among the- Taensas, a nation
closely akin to the Natchez; and afterwards among the Natchez;
Father Anthony Davion, who pursued his missionary labors in
what is now Wilkinson county, and who planted the cross on a
high rock, known by the French as Roche a Davion until 1764,
when it was called Loftus Heights, and subsequently and ever
since as Fort Adams ; the third priest sent at this time was Father
Francis Buisson de Saint Cosme, who began a mission among the
Tamarois, an Illinois tribe above the Ohio; he later took the place
of Father Montigny among the Natchez. When d'lberville came
in 1699 to plant the first French colony on the Mississippi, he
brought with him as chaplains Father Bordenac, who was later
left as chaplain of the garrison at Fort Biloxi, and Father Anas-
tasius Douay, Recollect, who had been with LaSalle's expedition,
from 1684-88, and has left a very full narrative of LaSalle's attempt
to ascend the Mississippi, in 1787. Father Anastasius does not
appear to have remained long in the colony, however. In 1699,
Revs. Berzier Bouteville and Saint Cosme, a younger brother of
the Father Cosme, above mentioned, arrived on the Lower Mis
sissippi from Canada. In Tuly, 1699, Fathers Montigny and Davion,
having learned from the Indians that the French had made a set
tlement at Biloxi, were welcome visitors at that post. October 1,
1702, Father Davion and Father Limoge, a Tesuit priest, went to
Biloxi to inform the French that Father Foucault, his servant,
and two other Frenchmen had been murdered on the Yazoo river

MISSISSIPPI 251
by two Courois Indians, who were serving them as guides on a
trip to Mobile. It would seem that Father Davion abandoned his
mission among the Tonicas for a time, as La Harpe records that
December 21, 1704, "the chiefs of the Tonica nation came to Fort
Mobile to solicit the return of Father Davion to their village,
which he had abandoned since the death of Father Foucault, who
had been killed by the Curois, instigated by the English, and in
concert with the Yasous." In 1706, Father Saint Cosme, the
elder, became sick and started down the Mississippi from Natchez.
January 1, 1707, Rev. Father Berzier, Grand Vicar of Quebec,
arrived at Mobile from his station among the Tamarois, and re
ported that Father Saint Cosme had been cruelly murdered by the
Chitamaches of La Fourche. Bienville thereupon induced the
Biloxis, Bayagoulas arid Natchez to make war on them and they
were nearly exterminated. Father Davion was finally forced to
abandon his mission among the Tonicas on account of the hostility
of the Indians, who were instigated thereto by the English, and
went to Mobile. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Quebec had caused
Father la Vente and four other priests to be sent to the colony from
France. La Vente came as Vicar-General of the colony, and con
temporary records would seem to indicate that he devoted more
time to stirring up trouble against Gov. Bienville than to mission
ary efforts.
When the Company of the West was formed in 1717 under the
auspices of the Duke of Orleans, the charter required the company
"to build at its expense churches at the places where settlements
were formed ; to maintain there the necessary number of approved
ecclesiastics, in order to preach the holy Gospel there, perform
divine service and administer the sacraments under the authority
of the bishop of Quebec, the said colony remaining as heretofore
in his diocese." "In 1722," says the Rev. B. J. Bekkers in his
sketch of the Catholic Church in Mississippi, "the company took
up the matter. The year before, the Jesuit Father Charlevoix
(q. v.) had travelled through the French -colonies in North Amer
ica (he made extended visits at the Yazoo and at Natchez), and
after his return to France had told of the great spiritual destitu
tion of the colony." As a result of this report, it was arranged to
have the Capuchin fathers take charge of the French settlements,
and Jesuit fathers from France were placed in charge of the mis
sions among the Indians. In that portion of the province of
Louisiana embraced in the State of Mississippi, the following as
signments were made : The Capuchin Father Philibert was given
the mission at Natchez. The Jesuit Father Maturin le Petit was
sent to the Choctaws; Father Seoul to the Yazoos; Father Bau-
douin to the Chickasaws. On the recall of Father le Petit to New
Orleans, Father Baudouin took his place, and assisted by Father
Lefevre labored amone the Choctaws for 18 years. We are
indebted to Father le Petit for a very full account of the man
ners and customs of the Natchez tribe, including an account of the
great massacre of 1729. Father Philibert happened to be away

252 MISSISSIPPI
from Natchez and escaped the common fate; the Jesuit father du
Poisson, from the Arkansas post, however, happened to be at Nat
chez at the time and was slain, as was Father Seoul at the Yazoo
on December 11. Father Doutrelou was severely wounded by the
Yazoos at this time also, but managed to escape. Still another
Jesuit met his fate on Mississippi soil in 1736. Father Lenat had
accompanied d'Artaguette from the Illinois post on his disastrous
expedition into the Chickasaw country to assist Bienville. He
perished with the commander and other officers at the stake.
The Jesuit order was finally suppressed in France in 1761 and
all the missionaries in the province of Louisiana were hunted
down and deported to France, their property confiscated and their
churches and chapels destroyed.
As a result of the seven years war between England and France
the latter country lost her possessions in the new world, and, with
the exception of the brief period 1779-98, when the Spaniards were
in control of the province of West Florida, Catholic missionary
effort entirely ceased. Under the Spanish regime, the Bishop of
Salamanca sent four Irish priests to Natchez, about 1790, the
Revs. Wm. Savage, Gregory White, Constantine McKenna and
Michael Lamport. When the province became part of the United
States by the treaty of San Lorenzo, they all returned to Spain
and the territory of Mississippi was without a Catholic priest.
Catholic missionary labors thus cover nearly a century of time.
Despite great individual effort and heroism amid savage condi
tions of life, it is doubtful if many converts to Christianity were
made in Mississippi, or if any lasting impression was made on
the Indian tribes. (See Shea, History of Cath. Church, and Bek-
kers. Miss. Hist. Soc. Publ., VI, 351.)
Missions, Protestant. Before the departure of the Catholic
priests the Protestants had done much missionary work, but in
violation of the laws of the province. The first Protestant to
preach in the new territory was Rev. Richard Curtis, a Baptist,
who settled on Cole's Creek near Natchez, with a numbe/ of emi
grants from North Carolina in 1780. His work was effective, and
the first Protestant church in Mississippi was established by him.
But his preaching aroused the indignation of the Spanish govern
ment, and to escape being sent to the mines in Mexico, he fled
through the wilderness to his old home and did not return until
the United States got possession of the territory. The Baptists
were active in the early missionary work. Soon after Mr. Curtis
began his work Rev. Tobias Gibson, a Methodist missionary, came
to the territory, followed by Moses Floyd, Lanner Blackman and
T. C. N. Barnes, also Methodists, who did effective work. The
pioneer preacher of the Episcopalians was Rev. Adam Cloud, who
came in 1792. He did missionary work until 1795, when he was
sent to New Orleans in irons, and to escape the punishment of
slavery in the mines went into exile in Georgia and South Caro
lina. The Presbyterians came as soon as the Americans gained
possession of the country. They established missions among the

MISSISSIPPI 253
Indians' and did active missionary work among the negroes on the
plantations. Towards the close of the eighteenth century a Congregational-
ist preacher named Bullen came from New York and attempted
to establish a mission near the present site of Pontotoc. He put
up some buildings, but his enterprise was a failure, as a result of
the imprudence of his two deacons.
In 1818 Revs. Kingsbury, Gleason, Touse, Hooper Cushman and
others established a mission called Mayhew in East Mississippi,
but afterwards removed to a place they called Hebron, three miles
from the present site of StarkviUe. In August, 1818, the Elliott
school was established on the Yalobusha in the Choctaw nation, by
the American Board for foreign missions. At these missions the
boys were taught farming, and the girls how to spin, weave, knit
and keep house. Eighty scholars were reported in 1822, when the
board was about to open school at Mayhew.
Mayhew mission school (near Columbus) was established by
Dr. David Wright, who taught and preached to the Indians for
several years. His daughter, Laura, born at Mayhew in 1824, was
educated at Mt. Holyoke, Mass., and taught school in Mississippi
for 40 years.
The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Tennessee established
a school in the Chickasaw nation in October, 1820, which was in
charge of Rev. Robert Bell, previously a resident of Monroe
county, Miss. He taught a school two and a half miles northeast
of Cotton Gin Port, and in 1834 settled near Pontotoc. In October,
1821, the missionary society of the Presbyterian synod of South
Carolina and Georgia, established a mission among the Chickasaws
at Monroe Station, the movement to this end having been begun
in 1819, the region having been visited by Revs. David Humphries
and T. C. Stuart in 1820. Stuart established the mission, aided
by two men as farmer and mechanic. William Colbert, grandson
of the original settler, became an elder in the church they organ
ized. A branch mission was established at "Pigeon Roost," the
station being called Martyn, under Rev. W. C. Blair, of Ohio.
The Six Towns Mission Station was established by a gentleman
by the name of Bardwell in 1825. He was probably from New
England, and the Indians among whom his mission was located
were known as the Six Towns tribe. A comfortable log dwelling
was built, also a log church and school house. The location of
this mission was in Jasper county. The missionaries supplied the
natives with school and church privileges and worked among
them eight years, but their work, though done in a spirit of self
saprifice, did not amount to a great deal.
The later missionary work, aside from church extension work
among the whites, has been among the negro population.
Mississippi. Originally the name of the river. Peter Pitchlynn,
in a letter to the Columbus Whig, in 1861, traced the derivation
of the word to the Choctaw, mish sha sippukni, which he trans
lated "beyond age." Du Pratz sought to explain the name Mecha-

254 ¦ MISSISSIPPI
sepi as a contraction of Meact Chassipi, meaning "the ancient
father of waters." It appears, however, that the Southern Indians
did not give the river such a ¦ name when the earliest explorers
reached the coast. The name given by the gulf coast Indians was
written by the French as Malabouchia.
Meechee Seepee, or something sounding like that, was the name
given the river by the Indians of the Northwest, visited by La
Salle and Marquette. The meeche or "Missi", is the same in
meaning as the Micco of the Creeks and other Muscogees, mean
ing great as an adjective, and chief as a noun. The Michi of
Michigan is the same word, and possibly the Massa of Massachu
setts has a like derivation. Mississippi means great water, or great
river. It would be more accurately spelled Missisippi, the French
orthography, or Misisipi, the Spanish form, both pronounced Mee-
seeseepee, which is probably close in sound to the Indian spoken
words. The river was known to the Spaniards in the 16th and 17th cen
turies chiefly under the name of the Rio del Espiritu Santo, (q. v.)
or the River of tiie Holy Ghost. It was also called by them the
Rio Grande del Florida, the Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo, or
simply the Rio Grande.
By the French it was given the title of La Palisade, on account
of the numerous upright snags and young cotton-wood trees
found on the bar and passes at the mouth. After its exploration
by Marquette and LaSalle, it was called the Colbert in honor of
the great minister of Louis XIV. Subsequent to the founding of
the French colony by Iberville in 1699, it was named the St. Louis,
for the King. But these names all yielded in time to the ancient
Indian name.
Says F. L. Riley (Hist, of Miss., p. 349), Pere Marquette was
the first to introduce the name, as Mitchisipi (pronounced Mee-
cheeSeepee), into geography (1672). Charlevoix, in his publica
tion of 1744, gave the name as Misisipi or Micissippi. Hennepin
(1698) spelled Mechasipi or Mechacebe. Daniel Coxe gave it
Merchacebe. The present spelling is adapted from the French
and Spanish spelling, the consonants being doubled to indicate
the short sound of i.
Mississippi Bankers Association. This organization was formed
in 1889 and its object was to "Promote the general welfare and
usefulness of banks and banking institutions, and to secure uni
formity of action, together with the practical benefit to be derived
from personal acquaintance and from the discussion of subjects of
importance to the banking and commercial interests of the State of
Mississippi, and especially in order to secure the proper considera
tion of questions regarding the financial and commercial usages,
customs and laws, which affect the banking interests of the entire
State, and for the protection against loss by frauds." The associa
tion held its first meeting on May 22, 1889, when the following
were elected as its first officers : Samuel S. Carter, president of the
First National Bank of Jackson, president; W. A. Pollock, presi^

MISSISSIPPI 255
dent of the Bank 'of Greenville, vice-president; B. W. Griffith,
cashier of the Capital State Bank, Jackson, secretary and treasurer.
The names of the organizers, together with the institutions repre
sented, are : F. F. Becker, cashier, Commercial Bank, Brookhaven ;
Lawrence Foote, of Foote & Smith, Canton ; J. C. Smith, president,
Bank of Crystal Springs, Crystal Springs ; V. L. Terrell, vice-presi
dent, Bank of Crystal Springs, Crystal Springs ; H. P. Davis, pres
ident, Bank of Durant, Durant; W. A. Pollock, president, Bank of
Greenville, Greenville ; Thomas Mount, cashier, First National Bank,
Greenville; J. Robertshaw, cashier, Merchants & Planters Bank,
Greenville ; J. W. McLeod, cashier, Merchants Bank, Grenada ; I. N.
Ellis, cashier, Merchants & Planters Bank, Hazelhurst; B. W.
Griffith, cashier, Capital State Bank, Jackson ; R. W. Millsaps,
president, Capital State Bank, Jackson ; S. S. Carter, president,
First National Bank, Jackson ; O. J. Waite, cashier, First National
Bank, Jackson ; C. C. KeUy, Kosciusko ; R. W. Jones, Jr., cashier,
Merchants & Farmers Bank, Macon; H. V. Wall, First National
Bank, Meridian; G. Q. Hall, vice-president, Meridian National
Bank, Meridian; J. H. Wright, cashier, Meridian National Bank,
Meridian; A. G. Campbell, cashier, First National Bank, Natchez;
Bern Price, cashier, Bank of Oxford, Oxford; W. D. Lawson, pres
ident, Bank of Pickens, Pickens ; R. A. Campbell, Bank of Summit,
Summit; J. P. Roach, president, First National Bank, Vicksburg;
W. S. Jones, cashier, Merchants National Bank, Vicksburg; Lee
Richardson, president, Delta Trust & Banking Co., Vicksburg;
G. D. Able, cashier, Bank of Water Valley, Water Valley; T. M.
Moseley, cashier, First National Bank, West Point ; J. C. Purnell,
of Purnell & Hawkins, Winona; Charles Roberts, Bank of Yazoo
City, Yazoo City. The present officers of the association are:
B. L. Roberts, president; J. W. Keyes, vice-president; B. W. Grif
fith, secretary and treasurer. At the annual meetings addresses,
in conformity to the purposes of the association, are delivered,
which are published in the annual reports.
Mississippi Battalion, 1809. December 7, 1808, in obedience to
the order of the president Governor Williams ordered the organ
ization of a picked battalion of 335 officers and men, to be com
posed of infantry and riflemen, chosen out of the brigade by
volunteering or otherwise. High water prevented the rendezvous
planned in January, and it was postponed until February 15.
Maj. Andrew Marschalk was assigned to command by the gov
ernor. February 17 they were ordered to be put in marching
order. July 6, 1809, Governor Holmes, ordered the command to
be disbanded, in pursuance of orders from President Madison, who
expressed his thanks to the corps for their readiness to answer a
call for service.
This was part of the military preparation for war with France
or England, a . state of war on the high seas actually existing.
For earlier battalions, see Militia.
Mississippi Bubble. See Western Company.

256 MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi City, the former capital of Harrison county, was at
one time one of the important Gulf coast towns, on the Louisville
& Nashville R. R., 71 miles east of New Orleans. It has a money
order postoffice, an express office, an excellent hotel, several
churches, and private and public schools. The fine beach here at
tracts many visitors, and the climate is mild and salubrious. Popu
lation in 1900, 534; the population in 1906 was estimated at 800J
The town seems to have a prosperous, future before it and is both
a summer and winter resort of note.
Mississippi College. This fine old institution, one of Missis
sippi's famous seats of learning, had its origin in a charter granted
by the legislature to Hampstead Academy, at Mount Salus, in 1826."
Next to Jefferson College, it ranks as the oldest male college in the
State. In 1827 the legislature changed its name to "The Mississippi
Academy," and, with F. G. Hopkins as its first principal, the school
entered on its long career of usefulness. The founders had a pur
pose in the use of the title "Mississippi," and the legislature gave it
state recognition, donating it for a term of five years, to date from
Feb. 25, 1825, the income from such portions of the 36 sections of
land granted by congress in 1819 for the aid of an institution of
learning, as had then been leased. In 1829 the State loaned to the
academy $5,000. to aid in completing the necessary buildings, and
the following year its name and grade were changed to that of
"Mississippi College." It never attained its ambition, however, to
become a State institution. Mr. Elliot, elected in 1836, was the
first president, while the Rev. Daniel Comfort, an "Old School"
Presbyterian, became the first denominational president of Mis
sissippi College in 1842, at which time the citizens of Clinton ceased
their attempt to manage the college as a private institution, and
placed it under the exclusive control of the Clinton Presbytery.
Augustus M. Foote, Jr., of Jackson, afterwards a well known
lawyer, was its first graduate, and the first to receive a diploma
from a Mississippi college; Robert Campbell was the first to be
given the degree of A. B. in 1846. The institution remained under
Presbyterian control for a period of only eight years. During this
time its success was only partial. There were three changes in the
presidency, and constant changes in the teaching force. The patron
age was disappointing, and in 1850, by resolution, the Presbytery
turned the college over to the citizens of Clinton once more. The
same year the college with all its franchises, free from debt, was
tendered the Baptist State Convention, sitting at Jackson. The
offer was accepted and it has since been under the control of that
denomination. While the college was free from. debt, it was with
out permanent endowment. Mr. I. N. Urner became principal of
the preparatory department, and subsequently president of the col
lege. When the session opened in the fall of 1850 under the new
auspices, there were three teachers and 84 students. The college
prospered until the outbreak of the war between' the States, at
which time it boasted a faculty of six members, and a student body
of over 200. A new college chapel had been erected at a cost of

MISSISSIPPI 257
$30,000, and it enjoyed a fair degree of financial prosperity. An
endowment fund had been subscribed amounting to $102,800, in the
form of scholarship notes of $500 each, and $40,000 had been col
lected on the notes. The institution was only able to maintain the
appearance of an organization during the war, and was so badly
in debt at the close, that it would have been sold under execution,
save for the efficient aid given by the noble Mrs. Adelia M. Hill
man. At her own expense she procured funds in the North suf
ficient to place the college once more on its feet. Dr. Walter Hill
man, President of Central Female Institute, was made president of
the college in 1867 and divided his time for six years between the
two schools. He proved an excellent business administrator, and
when he was succeeded in 1873 by Dr. W. S. Webb, the college
was out of debt. The administration of Dr. Webb covered a period
of eighteen years, filled with "efficient and self-sacrificing effort"
on his part. Since 1877 the faculty of the college "has worked on a
contingent basis and not for guaranteed salaries." Before the
disastrous panic of 1893 came on, a new endowment fund of $60,000
was subscribed; of this sum, $40,000 was collected and is well in
vested, yielding the college a much needed income. President
Webb was succeeded by Dr. R. A. Venable in 1892. Dr. Venable
was an alumnus of the college, and one of the ablest Baptist
preachers in the South. His administration was marred by an
attempt in 1893 to remove the institution to Meridian, and a reso
lution to that end was formally adopted by the Baptist State Con
vention. Legal difficulties fortunately intervened and the attempt
was unsuccessful. On Dr. Venable's resignation in 1896, Dr. J.
W. Provine, professor of natural science, was chosen his suc
cessor, and during his brief incumbency procured the erection of a
fine chemical laboratory, made substantial improvements in the
buildings and grounds, and rendered the college self-supporting.
The epidemic of yellow fever in 1897 seriously reduced the at
tendance of the college and impaired its finances. The appeal for
further financial aid was led by Dr. W.T. Lowrey, an alumnus of the
college, and then president of the Blue Mountain Female College. He
was prevailed upon to accept the presidency on the resignation of
Dr. Provine in 1898. Under Dr. Lowrey's able management the
college has made much material as well as educational progress.
The number of students has increased from 115 — the low water
mark in 1897-98 — to between three and four hundred at the present
time. The standard has been raised and the curriculum broadened
and strengthened; one of the important changes being the estab
lishment of a new school of philosophy, history and economics, in
charge of the scholarly educator and writer, Charles Hillman
Brough. Moreover, many permanent improvements have been
made in the buildings, including a president's home, a preparatory
hall and a minister's cottage. Capt. Ratliff, who was a student in
1852, has been at the head of the . executive board since 1872.
Scores of the most prominent names in Mississippi have been on
the rolls of the college as students or graduates.
17-11

258 MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi, French Claim to. The Memoir signed by Louis
XIV, and his minister Colbert, and sent to Denonville, Governor-
General of New France, is explanatory of the French claims in
North America. Among other things it recites : "The next year,
1672, the river Mississippi and, at the same time, the Illinois,
Chauanons, and other tribes unknown to Europeans, were discov
ered by Sieur Joliet, and the Jesuit Father Marquette, who went
as far as the thirty-second degree, and set up the King's arms,
taking possession in his name of all those recently discovered na
tions. And some years after, Sieur de La Salle extended the
same discovery farther, even unto the sea, taking everywhere pos
session by the King's arms, which he erected there. All the fore
going demonstrates sufficiently the incontestable right the French
have to the Iroquois lands . . . and it demonstrates their
possession of the great river Mississippi, which they have discov
ered as far as the South Sea, on which river also they have divers
establishments, as well as on that of Ohio, Ouabache, etc., which
flow into the said river Mississippi, and of the countries and lands
in the vicinity of said rivers, where they actually carry on trade,
which countries are easily recognized on the general map of
North America."
Mississippi Press Association. The press of Mississippi has ever
been a potent and uplifting influence in the affairs of the common
wealth. Its editors and publishers/have been men of virility, enter
prise and ability, and in the long roll of those honored in the annals
of the State appear many names closely identified with the history-
of the press. In the year 1802, Andrew Marschalk, pioneer soldier-
editor and publisher, established the Natchez Gazette, the first
newspaper published in Mississippi Territory. He was endowed
with energy and enterprise, and had for his equipment a wooden
hand printing press of domestic manufacture. From this humble
beginning, the history of the press shows a steady development in
power and influence, only interrupted by the years of strife and suf
fering marked by the war between the States. With the close of
the conflict came a remarkable revival of journalistic enterprise; a
host of new and ably conducted newspapers sprang into existence,
which strove mightily in the cause of white supremacy and the
restoration of Mississippi to Mississippians. It was at this period
of time that the Mississippi Press association had its origin — in
May, 1865. The expressed object of the association was to promote
the mutual benefit of the members of the newspaper fraternity of
the State. The association held its first meeting in May, 1866. It
has never been chartered. On the rolls of the founders of the
organization are the well known names of Col. J. L. Power, P. K.
Mayers, J S. Hamilton, A. J. Frantz, J. J. Shannon, J. M. Partridge,
B. W. Kinsley, F. T. Cooper and E- M. Yerger. The first meeting
of the association was held at the statehouse in Jackson, and the
following officers were chosen : J. M. Partridge, of the Vicksburg
Herald, president; J. L. Power, of the Jackson Clarion and

MISSISSIPPI 259
Standard, secretary; P. K. Mayers, of the Handsboro Democrat,
treasurer. In addition to the officers, the following gentlemen were
present at this first meeting : J. J. Shannon, Jones S. Hamilton and
B. F. Jones of the Jackson Clarion and Standard; E. M. Yerger, of
the Jackson Mississippian ; A. N. Kimball and H. M. Aikin, of the
Christian Watchman ; A. J. Frantz, of the Brandon Republican ;
Jere Gibson, of the Meridian Tropic; J. M. Swords, of the Vicks
burg Herald; T. B. Manlove, of the Vicksburg Journal; J. D.
Houston, of the Lexington Advertiser; Singleton Garrett, of the
Canton Mail; S. W. Dale, of the Brookhaven Journal; M. S. Ward,
of the Panola Star; J. F.Mead, of the Natchez Democrat, and J.
L. McCullum and F. T. Cooper, of the Mississippi Conservative.
Since 1874 the meetings of the association have been held regularly,
and its transactions have been published under the title, "Proceed
ings of the Mississippi Press Association." The officers of the
association are: J. D. McKie, of the Review, Biloxi, president; J. T.
Senter, of the Vicksburg American, first vice-president ; R. B. May,
of the Enterprise, McComb, second vice-president; P. K. Mayers,
of the Democrat-Star, Scranton, treasurer; J. G. McGuire, of the
Herald, Yazoo City, secretary, and J. L. Power, chaplain.
Mississippi Rifles. This was the popular name of the First reg-
ment Mississippi infantry, in the service of the United States for
the Mexican War (q. v.). Governor Brown called for volunteer
companies for this regiment June 1, 1846.
There was great pressure from companies in all parts of the
State for enrollment, and the governor endeavored to gratify those
that were first completely organized and filled. The list as mus
tered in was as follows :
Company A, Yazoo Volunteers, Capt. J. M. Sharp ; Company B,
Wilkinson Volunteers, Capt. Douglas H. Cooper; Company C,
Warren county, Capt. John Willis ; Company D, Carroll county,
Capt. Bainbridge D. Howard; Company E, Hinds county, Capt.
John L. McManus; Company F,' Lafayette county, Capt. William
DeLay; Company G, Hinds county, Capt. Reuben N. Downing;
Company H, Warren county, Capt. George P. Crump ; Company
I, Marshall Guards, Capt. A. B. Bradford, succeeded by James
H. R. Taylor; Company K, the Tombigbee company, Capt. A. K.
McClung, succeeded by William P. Rogers.
The Hinds county companies were the State Fencibles (of
Jackson) and Raymond Fencibles ; the Vicksburg companies were
the Southrons and Volunteers. A full roster of the regiment is
given in Goodspeed's Memoirs of Miss., I, 140.
At the rendezvous, Camp Brown, near Vicksburg, officers were
elected about the middle of June : Jefferson Davis, colonel ; Alex
ander K. McClung, lieutenant-colonel ; Alexander B. Bradford,
major. McClung commanded the regiment while it remained at
Vicksburg. The staff officers were: Richard Griffith, adjutant;
Seymour Halsey, surgeon; John Thompson, assistant surgeon;
Charles T. Harlan, sergeant-major; S. Warren White, quarter-

260 MISSISSIPPI
master sergeant; Kemp S. Holland, commissary; Stephen Dodds,
principal musician.
About this time young Cadmus M. Wilcox, then a cadet at West
Point, visited Washington and, calling upon Davis, asked
if he would become colonel of the Mississippi regiment.
"He replied it was true he had been elected colonel and
that he would accept if he could have the men armed with rifles.
On being asked why his acceptance should be contingent upon
the weapon with which the regiment might be armed, he remarked
if armed with the ordinary infantry musket it would be but one
of many regiments similarly armed; but if with the rifle, besides
being more effective, there would probably be no other body of
men so armed, and it would be known and referred to as the Mis
sissippi Rifles, and, consequently, would be more conspicuous. It
was armed as he desired ; he accepted the colonelcy and it became
well known and is referred to as the Mississippi Rifles prominently
in the histories of the Mexican war." (Wilcox, History of the
Mexican War.)
"Jefferson Davis was then a member of Congress, but had prom
ised to serve as colonel of a regiment whenever elected. It was
known that he had graduated at West Point, and seen some serv
ice in the West. At the same election that made him colonel of
the First Mississippi regiment, A. K. McClung was made lieuten
ant-colonel, and Alexander Bradford, a major-general of militia,
major. No new troops were better officered, and the regiment
went to the field as gayly as if they had been called to a dance."
(Reuben Davis.) In the ranks were representatives of the best
families of the State. One of the privates was James Z. George.
Davis returned to his home by way of Wheeling, and joined
the regiment near New Orleans, July 21, 1846. At this encamp
ment they received the rifles, shipped from the east. "It may be
interesting to state, said Mr. Davis in 1889, that Gen. Scott en
deavored to persuade me not to take more rifles than enough for
four companies, and objected particularly to percussion arms as
not having been sufficiently tested for the use of troops in the
field. Knowing that the Mississippians would have no confidence
in the old flint-lock muskets, I insisted on their being armed with
the kind of rifle then recently made at New Haven, Conn., the
Whitney rifle. From having been first used by the Mississipians,
those rifles have always been known as the Mississippi rifles."
(Memoir by his Wife.) These rifles had no bayonets, as there had
not been time to have them made. Concerning the service of the
regiment, see Mexican War, Monterey, and Buena Vista.
Mississippi River. The importance of the Mississippi river in
connection with the history and development of the State of Mis
sissippi scarcely needs mention. For upward of 500 miles, follow
ing the sinuosities of the stream, it forms the western boundary
of the State, and on its broad bosom, ascending and descending,
floated the first explorers and settlers, who made possible the be
ginnings of the State. Along its banks and in the vicinity of its

MISSISSIPPI

261

tributary streams occurred the first permanent white settlements.
Before the days of overland travel and even down to the era of
the railroads, it constituted the great liquid highway for the travel
and commerce of the State. It forms the great boundary line be
tween the eastern and western States and gives commercial
entrance to the very heart of the United States. Since 1803 it has
been in the undisputed possession of this country.
Its great length, taken in connection with the number and char?
acter of its tributaries, the total area drained, the immense system
of internal navigation afforded, and the population contiguous to
its banks, renders it one of the most striking topographical feat
ures of the earth. Together with its subordinate basins the Mis--
sissippi Valley comprises an area of 2,455,000 square miles,
extending through 30 degrees of longitude and 23 degrees of lati
tude. (The Mississippi River, J. W. Foster.) Humphreys and
Abbot, "Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi River" give
the following table of data for the area, elevation, drainage, etc.,
of its several subordinate basins :

Distance from
mouth, miles.
Upper Mississippi. .1,330
Missouri  2,908
Ohio  1,265
Arkansas  1,514
Red River  1,200
Yazoo  500
St. Francis  380
Lower Mississippi. .1,286

Height above sea,
feet.
1,680 6,8001,649
10,000 2,450 210
1,150 416

Width at
mouth, feet.
5,000
3,000 3,000 1,500 800 850700
2,470

Down
fall of
rain,
inches. 35.220.941.529.339.0 46.3
41.130.4

Mean dis
charge
per second,
cu. feet.
105,000 120,000158,000 63,000
57,00043,00031,000
675,000

Area of
basin,
square miles.

169,000 518,000214,000 189,000 97,00013,85010,500
1,244,000
The lengths of the different grand tributaries as given by Jen
kins are as follows :
Missouri  2,908 miles — distance from mouth to source.
Upper Mississippi  1,330 miles — distance from mouth to source.
Ohio  1,276 miles — distance from mouth to source.
Arkansas  1,514 miles — distance from mouth to source.
Red  1,212 miles — distance from mouth to source.
Lower Mississippi .... 1,286 miles — distance from mouth to source.
The combined lengths are :
Lower Mississippi and Missouri  4,194 miles.
Lower and upper Mississippi  2,615 miles.
Gulf of Mexico to source of Ohio  2,373 miles.
Gulf of Mexico to source of Arkansas  2,209 miles.
Gulf of Mexico to source of Red  1,520 miles.
The character of the lower Mississippi has thus been described
by an eminent authority : "At the mouth of the Missouri, the Mis
sissippi first assumes its characteristic appearance of a turbid and
boiling torrent, immense in volume and force. From that point, its
waters pursue their devious way for more than 1,309 miles, de-

262 MISSISSIPPI
stroying banks and islands at one locality, reconstructing them
at another, absorbing tributary after tributary, without visible in
crease in size, — until, at length, it is in turn absorbed in the great
volume of the Gulf." (Humphreys and Abbot.)
When in flood, the river, unprotected by levees, extended to a
width of thirty miles, and, the surplus waters found their way to
the ocean through deep forests and almost interminable swamps.
As the waters receded, there was left behind, on the bottom lands,
a sediment as fine and as fertilizing as the Nile mud. As a result
of these long recurring annual overflows, there is a wide belt of
Recent Alluvium bordering the Mississippi from the mouth of the
Ohio to the Gulf. The greatest width of this belt is at Napoleon,
where it is nearly 75 mjles wide; its greatest contraction is at
ISTatchez and Helena, where the width is only 25 miles. The area
of the tract above the delta is 19,450 square miles. Of this area,
6,650 square miles are embraced in the Yazoo basin of Mississippi,
and 278 square miles in the basin of the Homochitto. The allu
vial deposit at Cairo is about 25 feet thick, and about 35 feet in the
Yazoo belt, and this thickness is maintained as far down as Baton
Rouge. Borings at New Orleans indicate a thickness there of 40
feet. A feature of the river, which has been often remarked upon, is,
that its width is not increased by the absorption of any tributary,
however large : thus, at Rock Island, nearly 1,800 miles from its
mouth, it is 5,000 feet wide, while at New Orleans, and where it
enters the Gulf, swollen by the volumes of the Missouri, Ohio, Ar
kansas, Yazoo and Red rivers, it is dwarfed to 2,470 feet. (Hum
phreys and Abbot.) Jenkins is authority for the following data
on the dimensions of the great river: Its breadth from Cairo to
Helena, Ark., is over a mile, or from 5,875 feet to 5,282 feet. From
Helena, Ark., to the mouth of the Red river, it is less than a mile
wide, or from 4,758 feet to 4,030 feet in width. From Red river to
Baton Rouge it is 3,260 feet in width, and from Baton Rouge to
the head of the Passes, it is a little less than half a mile wide, or
from 2,628 feet to 2,605 feet, thus gradually decreasing in width
as it flows to the sea.
While the width of the river decreases as we descend the stream,
the converse is true in relation to the depth, which decreases as we
ascend the stream. The greatest depth is about 117 feet between
Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and 114 and T/2 feet between Red
River and Baton Rouge.
Red river to Natchez, 101 feet;
Natchez to Vicksburg, 92 feet;
Vicksburg to Helena, 84 feet;
Helena to Memphis, 63 feet ; Memphis to Cairo, 72 feet, (ave
rage). Computations show that while there is considerable variation
in the breadth and depth of the river, that is, decreasing in width
and increasing in depth as it flows to the sea, the cross section
varies but slightly, the average cross section, from Cairo to New

MISSISSIPPI 263
Orleans, being a little over 200,000 square feet. (A tabulated state
ment of the dimensions of the river, and the volume of "its discharge
in cubic feet per second, during high and low water, will be found
in Jenkins monograph on the Mississippi River, vol. 6, of the Miss.
Historical Society Publications.) On the Mississippi front of this
State, the river has an average width of 4,712 feet, an average depth
of 51.5 feet and an average cross-section of 198,957 square feet,
a powerful stream which is difficult to control in times of flood.
Moreover, the same authority advances the claim that the great
est force of the flood waters is met with at Helena in the shape of
Crowley's ridge, and that they have a tendency to seek an outlet
on the opposite shore at Montezuma bend or the Yazoo Pass, which
he calls "our weakest point." Here the river is only 27 miles
wide, "practically a gorge, and on account of the deflection which
the flood-waters receive when striking Crowley's ridge, the strength
of the current is thrown against the opposite shore at about the
mouth of the Yazoo Pass, and if allowed to have its own way the
natural course of the river would be down the Yazoo river where it
undoubtedly flowed at one time, between the narrow ridge and the
high lands." Moreover, "the discharge is greatest (at Helena),
being 1,848,000 cubic feet per second and the oscillation, or differ
ence between high and low water, over 50 feet." As a consequence,
the best levee protection is demanded at this point. (See Levees).
The fall of the lower Mississippi is about 32/100 of a foot per
mile. From the Gulf to Red river, a distance of 311 miles, the
elevation of the low water surface above sea level is only 3 feet,
from Red river to Lake Providence, distance 211 miles, the rise is
66.8 feet and from Lake Providence to Memphis, distance 312 miles,
rise 111.9 feet.
The course of the river is in a series of curves, from ten to twelve
miles in diameter, sweeping around with great uniformity, until
it returns to a point very near the one from which it was deflected.
The current continually encroaches on the alluvial banks, until
finally, during high flood, a crevasse occurs, when nearly the whole
volume of water rushes through the newly formed channel, known
as a "cut off." The result of this action is seen in numerous cres
cent-shaped or "ox-bow" lakes which owe their origin to this cause.
Sandbars accumulate at the mouth of the ancient channels, on
which rushes first take root, and subsequently cotton-wood, thus
forming lakes, isolated from the river, except in time* of flood.
This universal tendency of all swift rivers to assume the "serpen
tine" or "S" shape, has been everywhere noted, and is well illus
trated in the lower reaches of the Mississippi, from Cairo to New
Orleans. It is nowhere rock-bound in its lower course, and its soft,
sandy banks yield readily to the excavating power of the swift
current. The main channel, and hence the fastest current, shows
the well known displacement toward the outward bank of the
curve; its closeness to the bank depending upon the strength of
curvature of the particular turn. One of the most perfect mean
ders is at Rowdy Bend, above Greenville, Miss., where the channel

264 MISSISSIPPI
within a few hundred feet of the bank, or about one-eighth of the
width of the stream at that point. As a result of this constant
erosion of the banks, when unprotected by revetments, marked
changes have taken place in the course of the mighty river. Many
now living, have been witnesses to some of these changes. A strik
ing example is seen at Raleigh Landing, about fifteen miles above
Vicksburg, Miss., which in twelve years was forced back over a
mile. Among less marked examples may be mentioned Rivers,
Avalanche, Lee's and Ship Bayou Landings, near Natchez, Miss.,
all of which have been moved back half a mile or more. Fort
Adams, Grand Gulf, St. Joseph, La., are victims of the same pro
cesses. The erosion of one bank is accompanied by filling along
the other, so that the width of the river remains fairly constant.
As we have seen, the stronger the curve, the greater the displace
ment of the swift current, and the more sluggish the water along
the inner bank, and the greater the amount of deposition, resulting
finally in a cut-off, when the river cuts through the neck of a lobe
or spur, and takes a shorter path. The river ends of the old mean
der become silted up and "ox-bow" lakes are formed. One of the
largest cut-off meanders is at Davis's cut-off, Palmyra Lake, just
south of Vicksburg. Other examples may be seen at many points
along the course of the river. "It has been reported recently that
the down valley migration of the curve above Sargent's point, be
low Vicksburg, has allowed the river to cut through the neck and
return to its former course, long known as Lake Palmyra. By this
change several cotton plantations were practically ruined, Davis
Island was restored to the Mississippi mainland, and further growth
of the meander below Davis's cut-off was probably stopped." (Bul
letin 36, p. 598, American Geog. Soc.)
It is probable that the Mississippi river has always been within
a few miles of its present general location. According to Jenkins,
"it may, however, after passing the hills at Memphis, have made
its channel down and through Horn Lakes and Horn Lake creek
into the Yazoo river. Thence skirting the foot-hills to Walnut
Hills, it was deflected by the line of bluffs in a southwesterly direc
tion to the 31st parallel, where it swept around to the southeast, if
it did not find a shorter route to the sea by the way of the Atchafal-
aya, or even empty its muddy waters into the Gulf of Mexico at
that point ; for the Mississippi river from its present mouth to the
mouth of the Red river, is an estuary, or arm, of the sea."
The area of the delta, assuming that it begins where the river
sends off its first branch to the sea — viz., at the head of Bayou
Atchafalaya — is estimated at 12,300 square miles. This would be
at the mouth of Red river, latitude 31 degrees, while the mouth of
the Great River is now in latitude 29 degrees ; thus extending
through two degrees of space. (The Mississippi Valley, Foster.)
The same authority computes the age of the delta at 4,400 years,
on the assumption that the river advances into the Gulf at the rate
of 262 feet per annum — the distance from its present mouth to its
supposed original mouth being given as 220 miles. The same emi-

MISSISSIPPI 265
nent geologist estimates that the Mississippi must have been a delta-
forming river at an earlier period, as is evidenced by the Loess for
mation which occurs along its banks, and which, at Natchez, attains
a thickness of sixty feet.
The amount of sediment held in suspension by the river is enor
mous, and as determined by numerous experiments, is, by weight
nearly as 1 to 1.500; and by bulk, nearly as 1 to 2.900. The mean
annual discharge of water is assumed at 19,500,000,000,000 cubic
feet; hence it follows that 812,500,000,000 pounds of sedimentary
matter — equal to one square mile of deposit, 241 feet in depths-
are yearly transported, in a state of suspension, into the Gulf.
(Humphreys and Abbot, "Physics of the Mississippi.")
Mississippi Sound, Naval Engagements, 1814. Commodore Dan
iel T. Patterson had been in command, from near the beginning of
the war, of what there was of the United States navy on the New
Orleans station. The insignificance of the naval force anywhere
was the main cause of the humiliation of America. In 1812 there
had been begun the building of a flat-bottomed frigate, or gunboat,
in Lake Pontchartrain, to carry forty-two cannon, but the con
struction had been suspended, despite the protests of Patterson and
Claiborne. Patterson had a few gunboats when the time of need ar
rived, a mere shadow of naval strength compared to the British arm
ament. A letter was sent him from Pensacola, December 5,'announc-
iflg the arrival there of a British fleet of sixty sail, men of war and
transports of an army for the capture of New Orleans. Gen. Jackson
was already in the city beginning his preparations for defense.
Patterson, for his part, did what he could to thwart or at least
watch the hostile movements. He sent five gunboats, a tender
and despatch boat, toward "the passes Mariana and Christiana,"
under the command of Thomas Catesby Jones, with orders to make
a last stand at the Rigolets and sink the enemy or be sunk. Lieu
tenant Jones detached two gunboats, under McKeever and Ulrick,
to go as far as Dauphine island) where they espied one or more of
the British advance scouts, the Seahorse, Armide and Sophie.
Vice Admiral Cochrane, commanding the British expedition, re
ported (from the Armide, off Cat island, Dec. 15) that the two gun
boats fired upon the Armide. But they could not have sustained
an action, and turned about and joined the other three gunboats
off Biloxi. As Cochrane intended to anchor at Isle au Vaisseau
(Ship Island), and send the troops in small boats to land at the
Bayone Catalan (or des Pecheurs) at the head of Lake Borgne,
"it became impossible," he said, "that any movement of the troops
could take place till this formidable flotilla was either captured or
destroyed." Rear-admiral Malcolm came up, with the fleet, on the
11th, and anchored between Cat and Ship islands, and Jones retired
"to pass Mariana, and next day, off Bay St. Louis, obeying orders
to avoid being cut off from the Rigolets. Cochrane, on the 12th,
put "the launches, barges and pinnaces of the squadron," under the
command of Captain Lockyer, of the Sophie, aided by Captains
Montressor and Roberts, against Jones, who then determined to

266 MISSISSIPPI
take station near the Malheureux islands. About 2 p. m., on the
13th, the British boats were at Pass Christian. The water was so
low because of westerly wind, that three of the gunboats could
not be got afloat, even by throwing overboard all that could be
spared, until flood tide at 3 :30. Three of the British boats entered
bay St. Louis, to cut off the schooner Seahorse, that Jones had sent
in to remove the stores deposited there. A few shots drove the
barges out of range, but they were reinforced by four others, and
the attack renewed. Sailing-master Johnson, of the Seahorse, was
supported in the fight by a shore battery of two 6-pounders, and
after a sharp action of 30 minutes, the enemy drew off, with one
boat damaged and several men killed or wounded. But it was
necessary, at 7 :30, to blow up the schooner, and burn the public
store house. Eariy in the morning of the 14th Jones was com
pelled by a failure of wind to drop anchor "in the west end of the
Malheureux island passage." At daylight the calm continued, and
the British rowboats, anchored about nine miles distant, prepared
to advance. Jones called his subordinates on board his flagship,
gunboat No. 156, and gave orders. The boats took position in a
close line across the channel, anchored by the stern with springs on
the cable, against the strong curren of ebb tide. "Thus we re
mained," he wrote in his report, "anxiously awaiting an attack
from the advancing foe, whose force I now clearly distinguished to
be 42 heavy launches and gun-barges, with three light gigs, manned
with upwards of one thousand men arid officers." He had, as stated,
five gunboats, with 23 guns and 182 men, under the command of
Lieutenants John D. Ferris, Isaac McKeever, Thomas A. C. Jones,
Robert Spedden and George Ulrick. The sloop Alligator, 1 gun
and 8 men, under Master R. S. Shepperd, was two miles away to
the southwest, held by the calm. This boat was first captured by
a detachment of Lockyer's boats, after which the attacking force
was united. "At 10 :30," says Jones, "the enemy weighed, forming
a line abreast in open order, and steering direct for our line, which
was unfortunately in some degree broken by the force of the cur
rent, driving Nos. 156 and 163 about 100 yards in advance. As soon
as the enemy came within reach of our shot, a deliberate fire from
our long guns was opened upon him, but without much effect, the
objects being of so small a size. At 10 minutes before 11, the
enemy opened a fire from the whole of his line, when the action
became general and destructive on both sides. About 11 :49 the
advance boats of the enemy, three in number, attempted to board
No. 156, but "were repulsed with the loss of nearly every officer killed
and wounded, and two boats sunk. A second attempt to board was
then made by four other boats, which shared almost a similar
fate. At this moment I received a severe wound in my left shoul
der, which compelled me to quit the deck, leaving it in charge or
Mr. George Parker, master's mate, who gallantly defended the
vessel until he was severely wounded, when the enemy, by his
superior numbers, succeeded in gaining possession of the deck
about 10 minutes past 12 o'clock. The enemy immediately turned

MISSISSIPPI 267
the guns of his prize on the other gunboats and fired several
shot previous to striking the American colors. The action contin
ued with unabating severity until 40 minutes past 12 o'clock, when
it terminated with the surrender of No. 23, all the other vessels hav
ing previously fallen into the hands of the enemy." Lieutenants
Spedden and McKeever were also wounded, Spedden losing an
arm, and a considerable number of men were killed and wounded.
The British reports show 45 boats, with 43 cannon, engaged. Capt.
Lockyer reported that on his barge, that fought Jones' boat, he
was severely wounded, and most of his officers and crew were either
killed or wounded. He succeeded only by the aid- of the Tonnant's
boats, under Lieut. Tatnall. The total British loss was 17 killed
and 77 wounded, including the captain and 15 officers. For his
victory Lockyer was promoted to command of the captured flotil
la, and Montressor, in temporary command, at once made use of
it to secure possession of Lake Borgne. (See Latour's Historical
Memoir and appendix.) The advance guard of the infantry was
landed on "Isle aux Pois, a small swampy spot at the mouth of the
* * Pearl river," on December 16, and was joined there by Maj.-Gen.
Keane and Admirals Cochrane and Codrington on the next day.
During the remainder of the campaign Ship Island harbor was
the station of the Brtish fleet, under Vice Admiral Cochrane, whose
flagship was the Tonnant, 80 guns, and Rear Admirals Codrington
and Malcolm, the latter of whom carried his flag on the Royal Oak,
a seventy-four. There were three other "seventy-fours" in this
Mississippi harbor, the Norge, Bedford, Raminies, and Asia; the
Dictator of sixty-four, Diomede of fifty, Gordon of forty-four, and
eleven ships whose guns were in the thirties, besides ten others
of inferior armament. Some of these great men-of-war were then
or afterwards famous in the annals of sea fighting.
Mississippi State Medical Association. This association was
formed in the winter of 1866, and held its first annual meeting on
April 20, 1869. According to Dr. H. H. Haralson, of Vicksburg,
an ex-president and an ex-secretary of the association, the follow
ing gentlemen were among its founders: Drs. W. Y. Gadberry,
of Benton; M. S.. Craft, S. C. Farrar and A. B. Cabaniss, of Jack
son; H. Posey, of Brandon, and C. B. Galloway, of Kosciusko.
There is also evidence to show that the following members of the
profession joined the association in 1866 : Drs. P. T. Baley and
J. F. Harrington, of Jackson ; L. P. Blackburn, of Natchez ; W. B.
Harvey, of Canton, and W. B. Williamson, of Edwards. Its first
officers were : Dr. W. Y. Gadberry, president ; Dr. M. S. Craft, of
Jackson, recording secretary. The object of the organization is,
"To advance knowledge upon all the subjects connected with the
healing art, the elevation of character and the protection of the
proper rights and interests of those engaged in the practice of
medicine, and the study of the means calculated to render the medi
cal profession most useful to the public and subservient to the
greatest interests of humanity."
Said Dr. Wirt Johnson, president of the association, in his ad-

268 MISSISSIPPI
dress to the members assembled at Meridian, in April, 1883 : "The
association together of the members of a learned and liberal pro
fession is not purposeless. The advancement of medical knowledge,
the elevation of the character and standing of the profession and
the enlargement of its sphere of usefulness to the public, and, inci
dentally, the enjoyment of social pleasures, are among the definite
and practical objects in view. I dare say there is not one among us
who does not return to his home after these annual meetings with
a consciousness that something has been learned, with a more
elevated opinion of his profession, and with freshly aroused interest
in the work before him. It is true that by individual effort one
may acquire distinction and wealth, but it is to be expected that
well directed, organized work, alone will result in general and
permanent good to the whole profession. I am proud today to be
able to congratulate you upon the success and standing of this
association. It is strong in numbers and intelligence, and upon its
roll of members are the names of many of the most learned and
eminent of the medical profession in the State. It can be said to be
on a sure and permanent foundation, and it is safe to predict for
it a future of great usefulness. Its scientific papers will compare
favorably with those of kindred organizations, and have received
favorable comment from the medical press of the country. This,
while gratifying, should only serve to stimulate us to greater improve
ment. ... It was through your efforts that a law was enacted by
the last legislature to regulate the practice of medicine in this State.
A law which, if it should continue in operation, and is wisely admin
istered, is sure, in the course of time, to elevate the character of
the profession. It will not only accomplish this, but will also result
in even more good to the people of the State, as by it they will be
protected, in life, from the ignorance of the incompetent, and in
purse, from the cupidity of quacks." The association has steadily
grown in membership and practical influence. Its sessions are held
annually at different points in the State, and its transactions, em
bodying the president's annual address, and a program of prepared
papers on subjects of particular interest to the profession, are pub
lished in annual reports. It is impossible to exaggerate the value
of the long list of papers which have been presented at the annual
meetings of this association, and extending over a long series of
years. They make up a body of literature of lasting benefit to the
profession at large, and of particular value to the profession and
people of Mississippi.
Misterton, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Grenada
county, 15 miles from Grenada, the county seat. Population in
1900, 50. It has a saw mill and a fine Munger system cotton gin.
Mitchell, a postoffice of Tippah county, 6 miles east of Ripley,
the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Mize, a post-hamlet of Smith county, on the Laurel branch of the
Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 10 miles south of Raleigh, the county
seat. Mt. Olive is the nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 25.

MISSISSIPPI 269
Mizpah, a postoffice of Copiah county, situated on Fosters creek,
a tributary of Bayou Pierre, 15 miles west of Hazlehurst, the
county seat.
Mobile, County of. After January, 1811, the gulf coast from Pearl
river to the western shore of Mobile bay, constituted the parishes
of Viloxy and Pascagoula in the Orleans territory, until the region
was annexed to the Mississippi territory under the act of Congress
of May 14, 1812, covering all the coast belt of the present States
of Mississippi and Alabama, from the Pearl to the Perdido, and
south of the 31st parallel. Gov. Holmes issued his proclamation
September 17, 1812, establishing the county of Mobile, to include
all this region, declaring the extension therein of the rights of citi
zens in Mississippi territory, and inviting the inhabitants to be
obedient to the laws,' maintain order and demean themselves ,as
peaceable citizens. Judge Toulmin was entrusted with the distri
bution of commissions and the supervision of the organization of
the county. Theodore Brightwell was appointed sheriff and a day
was set for the election of one representative to the general as
sembly. But the officers of the county were forbidden to exercise
any authority in the town and port of Mobile, which remained in
the possession of the Spanish commandant, Perez, and his garrison
of sixty men at Fort Charlotte.
In October, 1812, Gov. Holmes wrote to Gen. Wilkinson approv
ing his suggestion that "the safety and interest of an important
part of the Territory would be greatly advanced by having posses
sion of Mobile," but he was very clear that he had no authority
to take any steps to that end. A bill to authorize the president to
take possession of both East and West Florida was introduced in
the House in 1812 by congressman Troup, of Georgia, and adopted
by that body in secret session. The senate rejected it, in July.
But the president was authorized under the law of 1811 to take pos
session of both Floridas in certain contingencies.
December 18, 1812, an act of the general assembly divided the
new county on the ridge west of Mobile bay, confining the name
of Mobile county to what lay east of that. The western portion
was divided into the counties of Jackson and Hancock.
Gen. Wilkinson, commanding at New Orleans, was ordered,
February 16; 1813, to take possession of Mobile, whereupon he
prepared an expedition of about 600 men, equipped for a siege,
who were transported through the Mississippi sound. From Pass
Christian the general wrote that he had had a narrow escape from
drowning. From there he sent gunboats to enter Mobile bay to
assist a force from Fort Stoddert under Col. Bowyer, in cutting off
communication with Pensacola. April 12, being encamped near
Mobile, Wilkinson, in pursuance of his orders, informed Perez,
that he had arrived to "relieve the garrison which you command
from the occupancy of a post within the legitimate limits of the
United States," to which Perez replied that he could do no less
than protest and evacuate if furnished transports. The evacuation
occurred April 15, 1813, after which Fort Bowyer was built on

270 MISSISSIPPI
Mobile point, and works constructed by Colonel Carson on the Per
dido river.
"The governor of Pensacola has lately demanded possession of
the town of Mobile and the whole country of Mobile," wrote Gov.
Holmes to Gov. Blount of Tennessee, in July, 1813. Holmes de
pended upon the power and patriotism of Tennessee to hold the
region against Spanish or British. See War of 1812-15.
April 14, 1813, Gov. Holmes wrote the secretary of state that he
had just received information from Gen. Wilkinson at New Orleans,
that he was about to proceed to Mobile to take possession of Fort
Charlotte. The governor had been frequently urged, from respect
able quarters, to sanction such a measure, but had refused to do
so without instructions from the president. Now he rejoiced that
such instructions had been given, and he proposed to start at once
for Fort Stoddert to organize government in the town of Mobile
when it should be occupied.
Captain Perez and his troops had been permitted to remain at
Mobile as an act of courtesy merely, was the statement of Gov.
Holmes to Gov. Zuniga, in a letter complaining of the arrest and
imprisonment by Perez of Capt. Diego McVoy, of the Territorial
militia. The appointment of pilots in Mobile harbor appear in the gover
nor's journal of May, and a recommendation that the laws be
published in the Mobile Gazette.
The governor returned from Mobile May 5, full of confidence
in the future importance of Mobile as a commercial port. He
recommended the immediate appointment of a new Territorial
judge to assist Judge Toulmin. The prospect of extensive smug
gling from Pensacola to Mobile was one of his reasons for this.
Mobile, Kemper Invasion. A movement in eastern Mississippi
territory in sympathy with the Baton Rouge revolution seems to
have begun as early as September 1810, when, upon a report from
Col. Sparks, commanding at Fort Stoddert, Gov. Holmes advised
Colonels Caller, Carson and Patton, of Washington, Wayne and
Baldwin counties, that "the rumor of an illegal combination" by
part of the citizens of Tombigbee to invade Mobile and Pensacola,
continued to excite concern, expressing his sympathy with their
hardships, but saying he would rely upon them to suppress any
armed demonstrations.
But this was followed by the order to organize a battalion for
active service, and the instructions from Gov. Claiborne to Col.
Sparks early in December seemed to open the way to drive out the
Spanish government. Col. Caller said he received suggestions
from Gen. F. L. Claiborne which justified his subsequent conduct.
Reuben Kemper arrived as the agent of the West Florida republic,
and Caller joined with him in the organization of a filibustering ex
pedition. They went down the Tensas in flatboats, were joined
by insurgents below the line, and to their camp at Blakeley a keel-
boat load of provisions was sent from Baton Rouge. A party under
James Hargreaves crossed over to menace Mobile from the west,

MISSISSIPPI 271
but were surprised by the Spanish troops, in November, and sev
eral killed and wounded. Hargreaves, Cyrus Sibley, and nine oth
ers were sent to Moro castle and imprisoned for five years. On
their return to- Mississippi territory Kemper and Caller were ar
rested by Sheriff B. L. Smoot, on authority of Judge Toulmin,
charged with setting on foot a military expedition against Spanish
possessions, and there was a court of inquiry under Judge Toulmin,
in the public building at Fort Stoddert, in which Lemuel Henry
acted as prosecutor. A detachment of United States troops were
sent to Fort Stoddert, under Col. Cushing, and Maj. Gaines with
80 men encamped in the vicinity of the town of Mobile, to preserve
order. Gov. Holmes wrote to Judge Toulmin, December 26, regretting
the unfortunate circumstances below the line. He said the militia.
officers had been ordered by him "to suppress any attempt to arm
and embody for the purpose of committing aggressions in Florida."
In February the governor reported to Washington that under the
instructions of Gov. Claiborne to Col. Sparks, the latter supposed
himself authorized to take Mobile, and called out the militia to as
sist in the campaign. But upon the arrival of Col. Cushing he
ordered the militia to be dismissed. This complication, coupled with
the arrest of certain inhabitants for joining with Kemper for the
purpose of conquest, "occasioned a considerable degree of irrita
tion." Col. Caller denounced Judge Toulmin as a Spanish intriguer and
traitor, secured the signatures of the militia to a petition for his
removal, persuaded a grand jury to make a presentment against
him, and the general assembly of the Territory by petition in
duced an investigation by congress, which resulted in approval
of the judge's conduct.
Mogul, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Pike county, 10
miles southeast of Magnolia, the county seat, and 4 miles east of
Osyka, on the Illinois Central R. R., the nearest railroad and bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 45.
Molino, a post-hamlet of Union county, situated on Wilhite
creek, one of the head-streams of the Tallahatchie river, 10 miles
northeast of New Albany, the county seat. Population in 1900, 22.
_ Money, a post-hamlet of Leflore county, on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R., 10 miles north of Greenwood, the county seat.
Population in 1900, 40.
_ Money. Francis Baily, a young Englishman traveling down the
river in 1797, sold a lot of goods which he brought along to trade
with the Indians, to Joseph Vidal, secretary of the district govern
ment for 680 pesos, the pesos being about equivalent to" a dollar,
and when Baily asked for the money, Vidal offered a certificate.
These certificates, it is stated in Baily's Journal, were a sort of
paper money drawn by the commandants and paid out to soldiers
and workmen, and received as money by the merchants. They
were a kind of bank notes, "received upon the faith of government,
though it must be observed that oftentimes there is no great sum

272 MISSISSIPPI
of money in the treasury, and these certificates are returned unpaid,
so they generally bear a discount ; and this discount is proportioned
to the degree of confidence put in the prospect of getting the
money. It happened that they bore at this time a discount of 12
per cent., and yet this unreasonable rascal wanted me to take them
at their full value." Baily was unable to obtain any relief from this
imposition from Gayoso or Carondelet. Gayoso told him the cer
tificates were legal tender, and he could take them or go to the cal
aboose. A glimpse of the conditions in Territorial times may be gained
from the following extract from the governor's message of 1809:
"In some counties after certain periods, territorial paper has been
refused in payment of taxes. That we might know the proportion
the specie collected for taxes bears to that paid in the treasury, I
called on the respective collectors, and find there have been col
lected from the four counties on the Mississippi (no answer having
been received from 'Bigbee) about twenty-five hundred dollars,
of which sum six dollars, ninety-nine and one quarter cents only
have been paid in the treasury." It also appeared that certain in
dividuals high in public station and confidence were permitted to
have specie at par, from the collectors, and others not so fortunate
were compelled to pay their taxes in paper at a vast discount.
The first currency peculiarly Territorial was the issue of the
Bank of the Mississippi. (See Banking.) With this was associated
the bills of the United States bank, until that concern succumbed
to the campaign of President Jackson for hard money. The cur
rency of the Planters' bank was entirely reliable for a long time,
until the advent of the "flush times," (q. v.) characterized by the
chartering of many wildcat banks, with the power to manufacture
money. The issue of the Brandon bank was typical of the climax,
when the money became worthless and involved thousands in ir
retrievable ruin. The money was not bad because it was issued
by State banks, but because legislatures were too close to the spec
ulators who were exercising banking privileges, and neglected to
require them to obey the rules of safety.
During the period of worthless bank notes, notes were issued
by towns, hotels, blacksmith shops, and sometimes by individuals,
and were known as "shin-plasters." An act of legislature Feb.
18, 1840, prohibited their issue under severe penalty. After 1840
the currency of the State was mainly the notes of banks in adjoin
ing States, and these suffered heavy depreciation and many became
worthless in 1857-60. After the war began the State issued money
(see Pettus Adm.), the most famous sort of which was the cotton
notes, (q. v.) There was also an issue of notes by banks that had
special permission, and by railroad companies, besides the notes of
the Confederate treasury. All paper money of the Confederate
period ultimately became worthless, and possessed very little pur
chasing power before the war closed.
The legislature in 1870 authorized the issue of notes for $1, $2,
$3 and $5 called "certificates of indebtedness," receivable for taxes,

MISSISSIPPI 273
to partly take the place of State warrants, that were selling at a
heavy discount — thirty to forty per cent. This expedient was bor
rowed from Alabama, where it originated with Gov. Patton, after
a consultation with the attorney-general of the United States.
Though political and financial influence was exerted to defeat this
method of curtailing the profits of the money brokers, said Gov.
Alcorn, the railroads agreed to take them at par, thus aiding in
gaining public confidence in the notes, and "The certificates of in
debtedness . . . triumphed over ail the attempts to break them
down." The notes were printed by a bank note company in New
York and were artistic, but depreciated in value before long, though
supported by State bonds. In 1894 there was a similar attempt
at State credit money, called Special Warrants (q. v.), which caused
unpleasant complications, there having been Federal legislation
meanwhile to prohibit the issue of notes bearing a resemblance
to United States currency.
Money, Hernando De Soto, of CarroUton, one of Mississippi's
representatives in the senate of the United States, was born
August 26, 1839, in Holmes county, Miss. He received his collegiate
advantages in the University of Mississippi and after completing his
scholastic work he became a planter and engaged in the practice
of law. When war broke out between the North and South Mr.
Money joined the Confederate army and served until Sept. 26, 1864,
when defective eyesight compelled his retirement from the service.
As the representative of his district he was a member of the Forty-
fourth, Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Fifty-
third and Fifty-fourth Congresses in the House of Representatives.
In January, 1836, he was elected to the United States senate for the
term beginning March 4, 1899. On Oct. 8, 1897, he was appointed
to fill the vacancy in that body caused by the death, on August 14,
1897, of the Honorable J. Z. George ; the legislature elected him to
fill out the unexpired term and in 1899 he was elected for a full
term and re-elected on Jan. 20, 1903. His term expires March 3,
1911. Monroe County was originally embraced within the Chickasaw
Indian territory, and, by the treaty of Chickasaw Council House,
concluded September 20, 1816, that nation ceded to the United
States 408,000 acres on their eastern or Creek frontier. This large
tract lay upon the eastern tributaries of the upper Tombigbee river
and comprised the original "county of Monroe." The Creek claims
to these lands were surrendered by the treaty of Fort Jackson. It
was attached to the State of Alabama until the winter of 1820, when
the boundary was determined by actual survey, and on February
9, 1821, the legislature of Mississippi recognized it as within the
limits of the State and approved a law entitled, "An act to form a
county east of the Tombigby river, and for other purposes," which
defined its limits as follows : "All the tract of country lying on the
east side of the Tombigbee river . . . beginning on the east
side of said river, where the eastern boundary line of the State
crosses the same; thence northwardly with said boundary line, to
18-11

274 ~ MISSISSIPPI
the Chickasaw boundary; thence with said boundary line west
wardly to the Tombigbee river; thence with the meanders of said
river to the beginning." The act of February 9, 1836, which organ
ized the Chickasaw cession of 1832 into counties, extended the
limits of Monroe and defined them as follows : "Beginning at the
point one mile due north of the point where the line between town
ships 11 and 12 intersects the eastern boundary line of the State,
and running thence due west to the line between ranges 5 and 6
east; thence south with the said range line, to the northern boun
dary of Oktibbeha county ; and thence due east to the mouth of the
Buttahatchy river; thence according to the present boundaries be
tween the said county of Monroe and the county of Lowndes, to the
eastern boundary line of the State, and thence along the said eastern
boundary line to the beginning." For the final modification of the
boundary line between Lowndes and Clay, see those counties. The
county has a land surface of 762 square miles. Since that time
Monroe county has formed part of the State of Mississippi, though
it was long separated from the older counties in the southern part,
and from the counties in the western part, erected out of the "New
Purchase," by the remaining territory of the Choctaws. It was
connected with them by a public road through the Chickasaw and
Choctaw nations long known as the Natchez Trace (q. v.). Lowndes
county and a part of Clay county were embraced within the old
county of Monroe. It received its name from President James
Monroe, and as now constituted, is bounded on the north by Lee
and Itawamba counties, on the east by Alabama, on the south by
Clay and Lowndes counties and on the west by Clay and Chicka
saw counties. A list of the civil officers of the county for 1821, the
year of its organization, discloses the names of the following
pioneers: Gideon Lincicum, Chief Justice of the Quorum, and
Wiley Harbin, Ezekiel Nash, Stephen Harman, Frederick Weaver,
Associate Justices; Bartlett Sims, Sheriff; Silas Brown, Assessor
and Collector ; Hezekiah Lincicum, Coroner ; John G. Fauiks, Treas
urer and Ranger; Nathaniel Morgan, George Dilworth, Siias Mc
Bee, Thos. Sampson, Andrew Haynes, John H. Morris, David
Shannon, John Halbot, Robert Earington, Jacob Laughridge,
Justices of the Peace; James Draper, Robert Pickens, James Dil
lingham, Isaac Dyche, John Bibb, John H. Hayes, John Brighton,
Benj. Morgan, William M. Kincaid, Constables ; William S. Moon,
Surveyor ; S- Hawkins, Judge of Probate ; Nathaniel Harbin, Clerk.
Additional county officers for the years 1822-1827 inclusive, and
excluding the names of officers given for the year 1821, are Robert
I. Haden, Thomas Sampson, William Dowsing, George Higgason,
Judges of Probate; John Kirk, Nathan L. Morgan, Associate
Justices; John Dexter, Assessor and Collector; James T. Burdine,
Abram P. Gideon, Samuel B. Morgan, Constables ; Samuel Rags
dale, Sheriff; Matthew Anderson, Geo. Dilworth, Coroners;
Matthew Sims, Ranger; Willis A. Farris, Notary Public; William
Downing, Ovid P. Brown, John H. Hand, Presidents of Columbus ;
William Standifer, James White, Collin McKinney, John Mullin,

MISSISSIPPI 275
Alanson Nash, Wm. Coates, Wm. Cook, John Price, John Thomp
son, Eli Runnels, James Gray, Benjamin Land, Matthew Gibbs,
Jeremiah Riggin, John McKinny, Richard Dilworth, Wm. Dowsing,
Stephen Harman, Richard Halley, Jacob Bruton, Peter R. Mc-
Clanahan, J. S. Cravens, Jesse McKenny, Edmond J. Bailey, George
Good, Reuben Menifee, Stewart Pipkins, Robert D. Haden, John
Fisher, William E. Willis, Robert B.. Pickens, John T. Neal, Justices
of the Peace.
Its early county seat was at Hamilton (q. v.), in the southern
part of the county, one mile east of the Tombigbee river. The pres
ent town of Hamilton lies three miles to the northeast. Later, in
1830, the seat was moved to Athens, a little north of Aberdeen on
the eastern side of the Tombigbee, where it remained until 1849.
-Cotton Giri Port (see separate title), was another old settlement on
the Tombigbee about 13 miles north of Aberdeen. The present
county seat is the thriving town of Aberdeen, which contains about
5,000 inhabitants and is a manufacturing town of considerable im
portance and the center of a thriving trade. It is on the Tombigbee
river and has three railroads, the Mobile & Ohio, the Kansas City,
Memphis & Birmingham, and the Illinois Central. It is adjacent to
the iron and coal of Alabama, has a fine water power and is sur
rounded with forests of valuable wood and should continue to de
velop in many lines. Amory is a growing town of 1,211 (census of
1900) people in the northern part of, the county, on the line of the
K. C. M. & B. R. R., and, next to Aberdeen, is the most important
town. Some of the smaller settlements besides those previously
mentioned, are Gattman, Smithville, Prairie, Rees Store, Quincy
and Sykes. The three railroads above mentioned give the region
excellent transportation facilities in all directions. The attractions
of this favored region pf the State were early recognized, and a
strong tide of emigration set in, composed for the most part of
hardy pioneers of the best stock from the older states. It has long
been regarded as one of the wealthiest and most inviting sections
of the Commonwealth, noted for its fertile farms and thriving man
ufactures. The principal streams in the county are the Tombigbee
river and its numerous tributaries, the most important of which is
the Buttahatchie river on the southeastern border. The region is
partly level and partly undulating with rich black prairie, and fine
black sand soils, and a clay subsoil. Abundant crops of cotton, corn,
wheat, oats, field peas, sorghum and grasses are grown, and all the
fruits, large and small, and vegetables do well. It is an excellent
stock region, and many fine grades of live stock are being bred here.
The county contains forests of poplar, cedar, hickory, ash, cypress,
gum, wild-cherry, maple, walnut, beech, pine and oak, which supply
ample material for its wood-working industries.
The following statistics, farm, manufacturing and population,
from the United States census, 1900, will show the recent develop
ment of the county: Number of farms 4,854, acreage in farms
372,738, acres improved 187,404, value of land exclusive of build
ings $3,013,680, value of buildings $848,950, value of live stock $877,-

276 MISSISSIPPI
675, total value of products not fed $2,009,066. The number of man
ufacturing establishments 91, capital invested $711,161, wages paid
$126,485, cost of materials $322,254, total value of products $665,990.
The population in 1900 was whites 12,555, colored 18,661, a total
of 31,216 and 486 more than in 1890. The estimated population in
1906 was 35,000. Artesian water has been found in various parts
of the county. The public highways are being worked under con
tract. Improved and unimproved lands have doubled in value in
the last five years. The total assessed valuation of real and personal
property in Monroe county in, 1905 was $3,878,271 and in 1906 it
was $4,322,575, which shows an increase during the year of $444,304.
Monterey, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, situated on Richland
creek, a tributary of Pearl river, 7 miles southwest of Brandon, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 36. Florence is its nearest rail
road and banking town.
Monterey, Battle of. In the Mississippi archives is Col. Jeffer
son's Davis' report to Gen. Quitman of this battle, September 21-
23, 1846. After stating the position of the regiment in the advance
of the brigade against the lower fort (Teneria), the report reads:
"T ordered the Mississippi riflemen to advance obliquely by the left
of companies to a line which I established as effectively near to the
enemy, and then ordered the battalion into line ; the companies
being directed when formed to commence firing as in open order.
In a few minutes the fire of the enemy had so far diminished as to
indicate the propriety of a charge, and being without instructions
it was accordingly ordered. Lieut.-Col. McClung sprung before his
old company and called on them to follow him. The call was
promptly answered. In an instant the whole regiment rushed
forward, the flanks converging toward an open embrasure which
lay nearly before our center, and it became a contest of speed who
first should reach the fort. The enemy fled from the rear' sally
ports as we entered the front, leaving behind him his artillery, a
considerable number of muskets, his dead and wounded. Passing
immediately through the fort we found the enemy flying in disor
der, some to a fortified stone building immediately in rear, others
across the stream to the fort which stands beyond it. Our pursuit
was so close that we reached the gate of (the stone building before
it was secured, and, upon forcing it open, the men inside fled be
hind the pilasters of the portico and held up their hands in token
of submission. An officer offered me his sword and announced the
surrender. I received it and retired to select an officer to take
charge of the prisoners and receive their arms. Lieutenant Town-
send of Company K was directed to discharge this duty, and the
pursuit of the enemy was immediately resumed. Leading those
who had come up across the ford, we advanced within rifle range
of the fort beyond the stream, and opened a fire upon such of the
enemy as showed themselves above the wall, the intention being
to storm the fort as soon as a sufficient number of our regiment
came up. . . . In acordance with my instructions and expect
ing to find the main body of my regiment, I passed up the street

MISSISSIPPI 277
to. our right, with the force just withdrawn across the stream. We
soon became mingled with other, troops which we found along the
wall, and after rallying my command for a forward movement, I
found it much reduced. Captain Cooper had kept say twenty of
his company together. With these and about ten others of our
regiment I advanced until we met with Captain Field of the United
States army, who led me to a point where he had discovered a con
siderable body, probably one hundred of the enemy. On our ap
proach they fled beyond a street which was enfiladed by the fire
of a strong party sheltered behind the tete du pont of the principal
bridge. Captain Cooper with the party accompanying us was
posted in an interior building to act as sharp shooters against the
men of the tete du pont, until we should be sufficiently reinforced
for more offensive operations. After a brief period we were joined
by Major Mansfield, of the United States engineers, with a small
party of the First infantry under his command. Whilst the men
were resting we reconnoitred the position and decided on a plan
of attack. At this instant we were joined by General Hamer with
a portion of his brigade and from him we received orders to retire,
as I was afterward informed, to give protection to a battery of ar
tillery threatened by lancers, in the rear. In the meantime a few
individuals, but no organized portion of my regiment, had joined
me, and we followed in rear of ""General Hamer's column. After
having proceeded the half of a mile or more, the enemy's cavalry
appeared on our left, and the troops in front began to close and form
on a chapparal fence in advance of us. The men under my com
mand had undergone such severe fatigue that their movements
were necessarily slow, and some of them fell behind. A party of
lancers dashed forward to attack the rear. I ordered the Rifle
men to face about and return to the relief of our comrades. The
movement was readily executed, and though the files were in loose
order their effective fire soon drove the enemy back, leaving sev
eral dead behind him. Soon after this I was joined by Major Brad
ford with the portion of the regiment which had served under his
orders a great part of the day. . . . We were now on the
ground where for the third time during the day we had been under
the cross fire of the enemy's batteries ; when I learned from you
the position of another portion of my regiment, and received your
orders to join and consolidate it. ... I saw no exhibition of
fear, no want of confidence, but on every side the men who stood
around me were prompt and willing to execute my orders. I cannot
omit to mention the gallant bearing of Lieutenant-Colonel Mc
Clung. At the storming of the fort he first mounted the parapet
and turning to the regiment waved his sword over his head in that
position to cheer the men on to further danger. It was my mis
fortune soon after to lose his services. At the fortified stone build
ing he was dangerously wounded. I must also mention Lieutenant
Patterson who sprung into the open embrasure as Colonel McClung
mounted the parapet, and fired the first American piece within the
work, of the enemy. Captain Downing, in whom is happily com-

278 MISSISSIPPI
bined the qualities of a leader and commander, was severely woun
ded whilst (among the foremost) cheering his company to the
charge, and I felt severely the loss of his services. Corporal
Gresham, of Captain Taylor's company, fell near me, after we had
crossed the stream and were advancing upon the fort beyond it.
He had fired his rifle several times and was advancing firing with
exemplary intrepidity, when he fell forward with two wounds and
died as he had fought, calmly, silently, and with his eye upon the
foe. Lieutenant Calhoun attracted my attention by the gallantry
with which he exposed himself and the efforts he made to shelter
others. ..."
Next day (22d) Quitman's brigade, including the Rifles, occupied
the fort (Teneria) that the Rifles had taken, exposed to the fire of
the citadel, Fort El Diablo and other works, while offensive opera
tions were going on under the direction of Gen. Taylor. On the
morning of the 23d Col. Davis took Company H, Lieutenant Moore,
and Company G, Lieutenant Greaves, and two companies 6f Ten-
nesseeans, out to reconnoitre. Ad. Griffith having been wounded,
Lieut. Cook volunteered to act in his place. "The duty we had to
perform was considered both difficult and perilous." As they ad
vanced into the town, parties of the enemy fled at their approach.
The fort (El Diablo) was found to be evacuated and the artillery
removed, but the interior was swept by the fire from other forts,
and the Mississippians took shelter outside the walls. A safer
position was taken, to the left. At this point Company B, Capt.
Cooper, took the place of Company G, and Company D, Lieut.
Russell, took the place of one of the Tennessee companies. Push
ing on to the left they came to a barricade across the street, and
under the fire of sharpshooters. Two balls narrowly missed the
colonel as he led his men. A little battle followed, the enemy
occupying a massive stone building. Private Tyree, coming up
from the rear to take part in the fight, was killed. "We continued
to advance, and drive the enemy by passing through courts, gardens
and houses, taking every favorable position to fire from the house
tops, which from their style of architecture furnishes a good de
fense against musketry, until near the plaza, where we found all
the streets barricaded and swept by so severe a fire that to advance
from our last position it became necessary to construct a defense
across the street. For this purpose we used the baggage and pack
saddles found in the houses, and though under a fire of artillery as
well as musketry, had more than half finished the work when we
were ordered to retire." The retreat was made in good order,
but Lieut. Howard and others were wounded. Col. Davis specially
mentioned Capt. Cooper, Lieuts. Moore, Russell, Posey, Greaves,
Hampton, and Cook, Surgeons Seymour, Halsey, and Sergeant-
Major Harlan. Two volunteers on the 23d, Maj. E. R. Price of
Natchez, and Capt. I. R. Smith, were conspicuous for gallantry.
The companies of this regiment left in Fort Teneria when Davis
started out, were under the command of Maj. A. B. Bradford.
They moved out about an hour later, when so ordered, (leaving

MISSISSIPPI 279
Capt. Taylor and company to hold the fort), advanced for several
hundred yards under a heavy fire, and found cover of the houses.
Remaining there some time awaiting orders, a number of the men
joined Col. Davis. Orders finally came from Quitman to charge
the town, which was promptly responded to. "We carried the
street here for several hundred yards under a continued shower
of grape and canister shot, accompanied with musketry, and took
a position in the heart of the town and maintained it firmly for sev
eral hours under a most galling fire the whole time, and until we
were ordered by the commanding general to draw off and then re
tired in good order. The officers with me were Captains Willis
and McManus, Lieutenants Patterson, Townsend, Wade, Arthur,
Bradford and Markham, who all behaved with great presence of
mind and courage, as did every soldier who accompanied us."
(Report of Major Bradford.)
Next day Monterey was surrendered to Taylor, Colonel Davis
being one of the three American officers who met the Mexicans to
arrange terms. The official report of casualties of the Mississippi
regiment was 14 killed and 47 wounded.
Montevista, a postoffice of Webster county, located on Shutispear
creek, a tributary of the Yalobusha river, 6 miles north of Walthall,
the county seat.
Montgomery, a post-hamlet of Lincoln county, on the Illinois
Central Railroad, 5 miles north of Brookhaven, the county seat and
nearest banking, express and telegraph town. Population in
1900, 48.
Montgomery, an extinct settlement in Holmes county, situated on
the west bank of Big Black river, at Pickens ferry. It was incor
porated in 1836.
Montgomery, Alexander, said to be the pioneer of that family in
Mississippi, came from the famous Waxhaw settlement of Scotch-
Irish in South Carolina. His journey seems to have been made
after the period of the Revolution. He came down by way of Ten
nessee, without means, to seek the lands being offered by the
Spanish government in the Natchez, and in 1793 was granted 500
arpents on Thompson's creek. It appears from the land reports
that a John Montgomery was in the district in 1790. In 1801 Alex
ander Montgomery was chosen by President Adams, from the
nominations of the representatives, as one of the Territorial council
of five, and he held this office five years, after which he was elected
to the house of representatives. In 1808 he was again appointed
to the council, and being re-appointed in 1809, was chosen president
of that body. His death occurred in November, 1812.
President Montgomery's first wife was a daughter of Maj. Rich
ard King, and his second marriage was to a lady of the Swayze
family. He was the father of a large family, the most distinguished
of whom was Judge Alexander Montgomery. Four of his brothers,
William, Samuel, Robert and Joseph, followed Alexander to Mis
sissippi, and founded- families of importance.

280 MISSISSIPPI
Montgomery, Alexander, son of the foregoing, was a native of
Adams county, and upon his election, by the legislature to the cir
cuit and supreme court in November, 1831, defeating William L.
Sharkey for that honor, became the first native Mississippian upon
the bench. He was a pupil of George Poindexter and Edward
Turner, and a clear-minded and expert counsel. He was noted
rather for a well-balanced equipment for his profession rather than
any especial brilliancy. In the practice of law he was associated
with his partner, Samuel S. Boyd, a native of Maine, and their
firm was for many years one of the leading ones of the State. His
term upon the bench was cut short by the adoption of a new con
stitution and judicial system, which went into effect in 1833. He
lived to be a very old man and died at Vicksburg.
Montgomery County was established late in the history of the
State, May 13, 1871, and was carved from the counties of Carroll
and Choctaw (q. v.). It was named in honor of General Richard
Montgomery, who fell in the assault on Quebec. It is one of the
smaller counties, containing a superficial area of 391 square miles and
lies in the north central part of the State, bounded on the north by
Grenada county, on the east by Webster and Choctaw counties,
on the south by Attala county and on the west by Carroll county.
Its first county officers were W. B. Peery, Eli P. Cartlidge, Thomas
. C. Curry, James Thomas, Supervisors; John C. McKenzie, Sheriff;
Thomas C. Blackmore, Clerk of the Chancery Court ; Henry Harris,
Clerk of the Circuit Court ; T. B. Brown, Assessor ; F. M. Shyrock,
Treasurer ; W. H. Parke, Superintendent of Education. All of these
officers were temporary appointments of Governor Alcorn, at the
time the county was first organized. Its largest town and the county
seat is Winona, which is a growing place of 3,500 people, at the
junction of the Illinois Central and the Southern Railways. The word
"Winona," is an Indian word meaning "first-born daughter." It
has a large number of important industrial enterprises and is located
in the center of a rich farming region. A few of the other towns in
the county are Duck Hill (pop. 300), Kilmichael (pop. 400), Thrail-
kill, Stewart, Eskridge, Lodi, Minerva, Poplar Creek, Fox, Carnegie,
Sawyer and Alva. Good transportation facilities are provided by
the two railroads above mentioned. The Big Black river runs
through the southeastern part; the other streams are Bogue-Hays,
Mulberry, Lewis', Wolf and many other smaller creeks. The gen
eral surface of the land is undulating, a small part is hilly. The
soil is a rich, dark or yellow loam, on the bottoms a dark alluvial.
It produces large crops of cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, sorghum,
field peas, ground peas, potatoes and hay. Fruits and vegetables are
extensively raised for both home consumption and the market. The
timber consists of oaks, ash, poplar, walnut, hickory, chestnut,
maple, gum and cypress. It is an excellent stock region and a good
many horses, especially, are bred iri this section. The climate is
mild and healthful and good school and church privileges are found
throughout the whole county.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth census for 1900,

MISSISSIPPI 281
relating to farms, manufactures and population, will be found in
structive: Number of farms 2,394, acreage in farms 215,967, acres
improved 91,375, value of land exclusive of buildings $933,650, value
of the buildings $380,710, value of live stock $478,328, total value of
products not fed $860,035. Number of manufacturing establish
ments 61, capital invested $183,707, wages paid $57,488, cost of
materials $180,184, total value of products $361,223. The population
in 1900 consisted of whites 7,963, colored 8,573, a total of 16,536 and
an increase over the year 1890 of 2,077. The population in 1906
was estimated at 20,000. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property in the county in 1905 was $2,386,684 and in 1906
it was $2,703,811, which shows an increase of $317,127 during the
year. Mont Helena, a postoffice of Sharkey county, on the Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley R. R., 3 miles north of Rolling Fork, the county
seat. Population in 1906, 40.
Monticello, the capital of Lawrence county, is located on the
west bank of the Pearl river, 50 miles south southeast of Jackson.
It was made the county seat of Lawrence county on March 1, 1815,
and was named for the famous home of President Jefferson, Monti
cello was once an important business point, and a political center
of note. It has given the State two of its governors, Gov. Lynch
and Gov. Runnels; also a secretary of state, a state auditor,
two circuit judges, and one congressman. The vice-chancery
court was held here prior to 1854. S. S. Prentiss was here first
licensed to practice law. The legislature at one time selected Monti
cello for the State capital, but rescinded its action 24 hours later
and located it elsewhere. A branch of the Illinois Central R. R.
extends from Brookhaven to Monticello. There are several stores
and a bank, good churches and schools. The Lawrence County
Press, a local weekly established in 1888, is owned and edited by
Joseph Dale. The town lies in the yellow pine region of the State,
and cotton and corn are grown in considerable quantities in the sur
rounding country. It at one time had steamboat connection with
New Orleans and Jackson. Population in 1900, 155, and in 1906
the population was estimated at 500. There are good prospects
that another railroad will be built through Monticello soon.
MontpeHer, a post-village of Clay county, located on Sand creek,
about 16 miles northwest of Westpoint, the county seat and nearest
banking town. Mantee, on the M. J. & K. C. R. R., 6 miles west, is
the nearest railroad town. It has a money order postoffice. Popu
lation in 1900, 121.
Montrose, a post-hamlet of Jasper county, on Tallahoma creek,
and on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., about 36 miles
southwest of Meridian, and 13 miles from Paulding, the county seat.
It has a money order postoffice, an express office, a bank, several
stores, three churches, a school, a saw mill and a cotton gin. The
Bank of Montose was established in 1905. The Jasper County
Review, a Democratic weekly, is published here, Rev. W. W. Moore

£82

MISSISSIPPI

being its editor. The population in 1906 was estimated at 500, a
gain of 350 over the census returns for 1900.
Moore's Bluff, an extinct town of Lowndes county, was on the
west side of the Tombigbee river, ,5 miles above Nashville, and
was an important shipping place for cotton. It had two com
modious brick warehouses and in its prosperous era shipped thou
sands of bales of cotton annually, some of which came all the way
from the counties of Oktibbeha and Choctaw. The road leading
west from this point followed an air line for eight miles and was
known as the "Cotton Road." "During the shipping season, this
road was thronged with wagons loaded with cotton and plantation
supplies." (Lowndes county sketch, Love.) The chief merchant
and warehouseman of the town was Nelson Goolsby. The final
decay of the town was caused by the building of the Mobile & Ohio
railroad, which largely diverted traffic from the river and created
new trade centers.
Mooretown, a hamlet in the western part of De Soto county, on
Hurricane creek, an affluent of the Coldwater river, 7 miles west
southwest of Hernando, the county seat and nearest railroad and
banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in
1900, 30.
Mooreville, a post-hamlet of Lee county, 9 miles east of Tupelo,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has an
academy, three churches and two lodges, Masons and Woodmen of
the World. Population in 1900, 54.
Moorhead, an incorporated post-town in the eastern part of Sun
flower county, 9 miles east of Indianola, the county seat, at the
junction of the Southern and the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley rail
roads. The town was founded in 1898 by Chester H. Pond, who in
vested largely in the wild lands of the vicinity. It has steadily grown,
and its populationin 1906 was estimated at 700. Among the important
industrial enterprises of the town are a large cotton factory, a
cotton-seed oil mill, a stave and heading plant, and a mill for the
manufacture of persimmon wood into shoe lasts and shuttles.
Moorhead is arranging to install a fine electric light and water
works system, and a large brick and tile^drainage plant is now
(1906), in course of construction. It is provided with express, tele
graph and telephone facilities, has four churches, good schools for
both white and colored, and a negro college supported by northern
people. The Bank of Moorhead was established here in 1904 as a
branch of the Grenada Bank, which institution has a capital and
surplus of $315,000. Wm. E. Stevenson is the local manager at
Moorhead. A large amount of cotton is shipped annually from this
point, and the lands about the town are as fertile as any in the Delta.
They are being rapidly settled by both northern and southern men,
and as a consequence the town has an enviable future
Morancy, Honore P. "The most important person about Walnut
Hills, when the Americans settled there, was Honore P. Morancy,
planter, merchant, postmaster. He and his brother, when small
boys, had been saved when the massacre in St. Domingo' occurred.

MISSISSIPPI 283
They were sent to the United States by Stephen Girard or his
agents, and, having no kindred, were received on their arrival at
Baltimore and educated by Charles Carroll of CarroUton. Honore
came to Louisiana, taught school in Opelousas, settled first at
Walnut Hills, and subsequently became an extensive planter at
Milliken's Bend. His brother, Emilius, settled at Walnut Hills as
a physician, but died long since." (Claiborne's Mississippi, p.
535.) Morgan, James Bright, was born in Lincoln county, Tenn., March
14, 1835, and moved with his parents to DeSoto county, Miss., in
1845. He was admitted to the bar at Hernando in 1857, and was
soon elected probate judge. He entered the Confederate army as
a private, and left the service as a colonel. After the war he was
again elected judge, and was member of the State senate in 1876-
, 78. In 1878 he was appointed Chancellor, and served four years.
In 1884 he was elected to the 49th congress, and served till 1891.
He was murdered on a railway train June 18, 1892, as the outcome
of a difficulty with John Foster, an attorney of Hernando.
Morganton, a hamlet of Itawamba county, 10 miles south of
Fulton, the county seat. The postoffice here was discontinued in
1905, and it now has rural free delivery from Smithville, in Monroe
county. Morriston, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Perry county, 9
miles north northeast of Hattiesburg, the nearest railroad, tele
graph, express and banking town. Population in 1900, 65.
Morrow, a postoffice of Lauderdale county, 9 miles north of
Meridian. Morton, an incorporated post-village in the western part of Scott
county, on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., 34 miles east of
Jackson, and 12 miles west of Forest, the county seat. It was given
the maiden name of the wife of Col. E. W. Taylor. It has two
churches, a high school, a bank, which was established in 1904, a
grist mill and cotton gin combined, ten or fifteen business houses,
and two good hotels. Its population in 1906 was estimated at 500.
Moscos, a post-hamlet of Covington county, on the Gulf &
Ship Island R. R., 6 miles east of Williamsburg, the county seat.
Collins is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 56.
Moscow, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, 10 miles southwest of
Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 30.
Moseley, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, 10 miles east of
Brandon, the county seat. Pelahatchie is its nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 25.
Moselle, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Jones county, on
the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., 10 miles south of Ellis
ville, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population
in 1900, 73.
Moses, a post-hamlet in the north-central part of Kemper county,
5 miles northwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population in
1900, 65.
Moss, a postoffice in the southern part of Jasper county.

284 MISSISSIPPI
Moss Point, an incorporated post-town of Jackson county, at
the mouth of the Escatawpa river, 4 miles north of P'ascagoula, the
county seat. The Pascagoula Street Railway and Power Company,
an interurban electric road, connects it with Scranton and Pasca
goula. It is an important manufacturing point, and has a number
of large steam saw mills, several planing mills, a foundry, lath and
shingle mills, a machine shop, etc. A branch of the Scranton State
Bank was established here in 1892, and a branch of the Merchants
and Marine Bank of the same place in 1899. The town is pros
perous and growing rapidly. Population in 1900 was 1,900, which
has been materially increased since that date, and was estimated
at 3,000 in 1906.
Mott, Christopher H., was born in Livingston county, Ky., June
22, 1826, and reared at Holly Springs, Miss., was educated at St.
Thomas hall, and Transylvania university, Ky., studied law under
Roger Barton, and was a partner of L. Q. C. Lamar in 1850-61,
and represented Marshall county in the legislature of 1850. He
began his military career as first-lieutenant of the Marshall Guards,
Company I of the First regiment, Mississippi rifles, in the war with
Mexico, 1847-48, being then hardly more than a boy. Subse
quently, while probate judge, he was sent on a special mission to
California by the United States government. In 1860 he organized
a company, of which he was captain, in the State army, and was
appointed one of the four brigadier-generals under Maj.-Gen. Jef
ferson Davis in January, 1861. This rank he resigned to accept
election as colonel of the 19th Miss. Inf., which he and Lamar raised
and with which he went on duty in Virginia in the summer of 1861.
In the first important battle of the campaign before Richmond, at
Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, he was shot dead while leading his reg
iment in a charge against the Federal position. He had been pro
moted to brigadier-general, but had not received his commission.
The legislature in 1864 appropriated $600 for his widow, Sallie
Mott, in payment of his services as brigadier-general in 1861.
Mound Bayou, an incorporated town in the eastern part of Boli
var county, is located on the main line of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley railroad, 27 miles south of Clarksdale. It is the only town
in the State, and probably the only one in the United States, in
which all its citizens are negroes. The plan of this settlement
originated with Isaiah T. Montgomery, who was born a slave on
the plantation of Joseph E. Davis, near Vicksburg.
Mound Bayou has thirty-two mercantile establishments, three
blacksmith and wagon shops, a newspaper, three doctors, one law
yer, a photographer, a harness shop, gin and saw mill, three gins,
a restaurant and boarding house, and a bank organized March 8,
1904, with an authorized capital of $10,000, of which over $6,000 is
paid in. The population of Mound Bayou in 1900 was 287, and its
present population is estimated at over 1,000.
Mound City, a post-hamlet of Bolivar county, 10 miles southeast
of Rosedale, the county seat and nearest banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 57.

MISSISSIPPI 285
Mount Carmel, a post-hamlet of Covington county, 12 miles west
of Williamsburg, the county seat. Atwood, 6 miles southwest, on
the Mississippi Central R. R., is the nearest railroad station. It has
a church and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 96.
Mount Nebo, a postoffice of Kemper county, 6 miles south of
Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 45.
Mount Olive, a money order post-town, about 54 miles southeast
of Jackson, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. It has a telegraph
office, an express office, a high school, a local newspaper — the
Tribune, established in 1900, and owned and edited by T. J. Walker.
The Mount Olive Bank was established here in 1901 with a capital
of $18,000. There are also two churches and an academy. Popula
tion in 1900, 246. The population in 1906 was estimated at 1,000.
Mount Pleasant, an incorporated post-town in the northern part
of Marshall county, about 15 miles north of Holly Springs. It has
two churches. Population in 1900, 139.
Mount Ziori, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Simpson
county, 12 miles south of Mendenhall. Population in 1900, 25.
Mudcreek, a postoffice of Pontotoc county, 7 miles west of Pon
totoc, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. It
has a Baptist church and a good school; also a Woodmen of the
World lodge.
Muldon, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Monroe
county, at the junction of the main line of the Mobile & Ohio R. R.,
and a branch of the same line which connects it with Aberdeen, 9
miles northeast. It has a church, a money order postoffice, and is
an important cotton shipping station. Population in 1900, 75.
Muldrow, Henry Lowndes, was a native of Lowndes county,
Miss., and a graduate of the classical and law departments of the
University of Mississippi. He was admitted to the bar in 1859,
entered the Confederate army in 1861, and surrendered at Forsythe,
in 1865, as a colonel of cavalry. He served as district attorney in
the sixth district from 1869 to 1871, and was elected to the State
legislature in 1875. He was elected in 1876 to the 45th congress,
and served from 1877 to 1885. He was first assistant secretary of
the interior under Mr. Lamar, resigned in 1889, and resumed the
'practice of law in StarkviUe. He was a member of the Constitu
tional convention of 1890, and was appointed chancellor of the
first district in 1899. Judge Muldrow died suddenly at his home
in StarkviUe March 3, 1905.
Muldrow Station, a post-hamlet in the extreme northeastern part
of Oktibbeha county, on Line creek, and a station on the Aberdeen
branch of the Illinois Central R. R., 4 miles southwest of West-
point, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 41.
Mullet, a post-hamlet of Greene county, 12 miles south of Leakes
ville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 2Q.
Mullonville, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Madison
county, about 24 miles from 'Canton, the county seat.
Munfordville, Battle of. See Army of Tennessee.

286 MISSISSIPPI
Murel, John A., the "western land-pirate," or negro stealer, was
a native of Tennessee, and in the '30s was a famous character,
much talked of and dreaded in Mississippi. His home was in
Madison county, Tenn., when he became notorious. A pamphlet
was published by Virgil A. Stewart in 1835 purporting to reveal
the secrets of Murel and his confederates, from which it appears
that there was a confederacy of men of great shrewdness, embrac
ing some men of law learning, for the stealing of negroes, and the
harboring of runaways, the shipping of them to Texas or other dis
tant regions, and the sale at a great profit to the gang. So skillful
were the operations of the gang, and so adroit their manipulations
of the law, that slaveholders, when they suspected Murel of the
Joss of their slaves, were disposed to admit their loss as final with
out further effort at recovery. One method was to suggest to a
discontented slave to run away and take refuge at a certain place,
with one of the confederates. This person held him as a runaway,
supposedly ignorant of where the negro came from. Presently an
advertisement appeared describing the runaway, and offering a re
ward. Thereupon the harborer of the negro assumed the status
of a taker-up of the runaway, and in a sense, attorney-in-fact for
the owner. Instead of returning the negro, he would choose to
commit a breach of trust and transport and sell him. There was
no remedy except by suit for the value of the slave, and no prop
erty could be found on which to levy.
In 1834 Murel was arrested for negro harboring, fined several
hundred dollars, and in the absence of property, was sentenced to
slavery for five years. He appealed to the supreme court, and was
about to be set free, when Stewart became associated with him.
Stewart claimed that after he had gained the outlaw's confidence,
the plan was revealed of a general insurrection of slaves to take
place on the night of December 25, 1835, by which time Murel
expected his clan of white men to be 2,000 strong. His purpose was
simply to cause more bloodshed and destroy more property than
any other robber who had ever lived, and he felt confidence in his
success because half of his "grand council" were men of high stand
ing and "many of them in honorable and lucrative offices." This
was the basis of a book that Stewart wrote and proceeded to sell
through the country, creating a great panic and much bloodshed.
The book contained a list of the members of the "Mystic Glan,"
in each of the slaveholding States, also what purported to be a
narration by Murel of various robberies and murders he had been
guilty of, in Mississippi mainly.
Murfreesboro, battle, see Army of Tennessee.
Murphreesboro, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, 6 miles
southeast of Charleston, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Tillatoba is the nearest railroad station. Population in 1900, 56.
Murphy, a postoffice in the southern part of Washington county,
on Big Sunflower river, about 30 miles southeast of Greenville.
Murrah, William Belton, was born at Pickensville, Ala., in 1852.
In 1874 he was graduated from the Southern university, at Greens-

MISSISSIPPI 287
boro, Ala. In 1876 he joined the North Mississippi conference of
the Methodist church, and served the churches at Oxford, Winona,
and Aberdeen. In 1886 he became vice-president of Whitworth
college at Brookhaven, which position he held until 1890. In 1887
the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Centenary college,
La., and in 1897 the degree of LL. D. by Wofford college, S. C.
While Dr. Murrah was connected with Whitworth college, he was
married to Beulah Fitzhugh, daughter of President L. T. Fitzhugh,
of Whitworth college, later president of Belhaven college at Jack
son. When Millsaps college was established at Jackson, Dr. Mur
rah was elected president, which position he still holds, having re
fused several offers to go elsewhere. Dr. Murrah is considered one
of the most successful college presidents in the South, and is a rep
resentative of his church at all the important councils, both in his
country and abroad. In 1898 he declined the position of secretary
of education of the Methodist church.
Murry, a post-hamlet of Tate county, 7 miles northwest of Sena
tobia, the county seat. Coldwater is its nearest banking town. It
has a store, a church, and a cotton gin. Population in 1900, 37. ,
Music, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Smith county, 4
miles north of Mount Olive, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., and
the nearest railroad and banking town.
Mussacunna, a postpffice of De Soto county.
Myles, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Copiah county,
about 22 miles from Hazlehurst, the county seat. It is a station
on the Natchez- Jackson branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
R. R., 9 miles by rail south of Utica, the nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 31.
Myrick, a post-hamlet of Jones county, 13 miles northeast of Ellis
ville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Myrleville, a post-hamlet of Yazoo county, 12 miles southeast of
Yazoo City. The population in 1906 was about 30.
Myrtle (Old). An early settlement in Tippah, now Union county.
It was situated 2 miles south of the station of the same name, on
the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham rail-road. From an incident,
which happened in the year 1857, at which time one Moses Parker
was teaching school at this place, it was long called by the name
of "Candy Hilh" After the War of 1861-1865, it became a post-
town and was given the name of Myrtle. Its business moved to the
new town of Myrtle, after the building of the railroad, and the old
settlement is now known as Avenell, a tiny settlement of about
20 inhabitants, with a postoffice and store. (See Union county.)
Myrtle, an incorporated post-village in the northwestern part of
Union county, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R.,
8 miles northwest of New Albany, the county seat. It was named
because of the abundance of myrtle trees in the vicinity. It has
a money order postoffice, express office, and a bank, the Bank of
Myrtle, established in 1904 with a capital of $10,000. Population
in 1900, 165.

288 MISSISSIPPI
Nabers, Benjamin D., native of Tennessee, moved to Hickory
Flat, Miss., where he held several local offices; was elected to the
32d congress as a Unionist, and served 1851-53 ; was the unsuc
cessful Whig candidate in 1853 ; moved back to Tennessee, where
he was a presidential elector on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860.
Nanachehaw, or Allen Station, a postoffice in the southern part
of Warren county, on the Big Black river, and on the Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley R. R., 18 miles south of Vicksburg. Popula
tion in 1900, 23.
Nancy, a postoffice of Clarke county, 12 miles southwest of
Quitman, the county seat.
Nannye, a post-hamlet in the extreme southwestern part of
Copiah county, 24 miles from Hazlehurst, the county seat. It has
an excellent high school.
Napier, a postoffice of Jones county, 10 miles southwest of Ellis
ville, the county seat.
Napoleon, a hamlet in the southwestern part of Hancock county,
on the Pearl river, 5 miles north of Pearlington, the nearest bank
ing town. The postoffice has been discontinued, and mail now
goes to Huxford.
Narvaez, Panfilo de. The ill-starred expedition of Narvaez in
1527 concerns us inasmuch as it is thought that he may have trav
ersed the Mississippi coast line, and possibly made occasional land
ings thereon, in his efforts to escape from Florida to Mexico. With
the remnants of his little band of 300 men, he reached the coast
at a bay which Narvaez styled Bahia de Cavallos on the 31st of
July, 1528. Here he set to work to build boats in which to escape
from the inhospitable shores. Biedma in his narrative of De Soto's
expedition says : "We recognized the spot on which he had built
his smithy, and saw a great quantity of horses' bones scattered
about." This point is believed to be the site of the present town of
St. Marks on Apalachee bay. Here he embarked the miserable
remnant of his troops, on September 22, 1528, in five frail boats
and coasted west for thirty days, landing occasionally to obtain
food and water, and meeting with fierce opposition from the na
tives of the coast. On October 31 they came to a "broad river
pouring into the Gulf such a volume of water that it freshened the
brine so that they were able to drink it; but the current was too
strong for their clumsy craft. The boat^ commanded by Narvaez
was lost and never heard of." Another boat was wrecked at the
same point and the three others were thrown on the coast of west
ern Louisiana or eastern Texas. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,
the treasurer of the expedition, and three others, were the sole sur
vivors, and finally, after years of wandering, reached the town of
San Miguel in Sinaloa, April, 1536. The broad river of fresh water
is supposedly the Mississippi.
Nashville was an important shipping point for cotton and was
located on the east side of the Tombigbee, a few miles from the
southern line of Lowndes county, on what was formerly known as
Young's bluff. It was named for Abner Nash, an early pioneer

MISSISSIPPI 289
of Eastern Lowndes, whose large and commodious residence near
the place remained long after the merchants of the place had closed
out their stocks and moved elsewhere. . . . The principal
merchants were northern men, who became dissatisfied with the
country, on account of the great overflow of the river in 1847, and
sold out their stocks and moved away. There is now a public
ferry at this point maintained by the county and known as Nash
ville Ferry, but the site of the town and the dwelling of Mr. Nash
is now a cultivated field.
Nashville Convention. The Nashville convention was called by
the Convention of 1849, (q. v.) at Jackson, Miss., to meet on the
first Monday in June, 1850. It was proposed, said Gov. Foote in
his inaugural address of 1852, "for the avowed purpose of con
sulting in a fraternal and patriotic spirit, for the general safety of
the South, and the preservation of the Union from the dangers
with which it was obviously menaced." The delegates chosen to
represent Mississippi were : William L. Sharkey, A. M. Clayton,
H. T. Ellett, G. T. Sturges, Joseph W. Matthews, T. J. Word, T.
N. Waul, J. B. Cobb, H. C. Chambers, E. C. Wilkinson, George
Winchester, D. H. Cooper; alternates, John I. Guion, A. Hutchin
son, W. R. Cannon, J. T. Harrison, H. R. Miller, J. D. Bradford,
Reuben Davis, Charles B. Shepherd, W. R. Hill, Patrick Sharkey,
David Hurst, Henry Mounger.
The convention did not seem to meet with general approval.
It was declared in congress that the efforts to get up meetings in
Virginia to send delegates almost entirely failed. Comparatively
few newspapers freely approved it. In Georgia less than 4,000
people in all took part in choosing delegates. At Nashville, a
county convention refused to elect delegates. Alabama sent mod
erate men.
The convention met June 3, and Judge Sharkey was made presi
dent. The delegates from Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee were
for a declaration in favor of preserving the Union. The minority
from South Carolina, Texas and Mississippi, wanted a declaration
for resistance. Judge Sharkey opposed extreme measures. The
resolutions, drawn up by John A. Campbell, of Alabama, were
moderate. But later an address was adopted which denounced the
compromise, and expressed Calhoun's conviction that no matter
what was compromised, the diversity of interests compelled a con
stitutional amendment or separation.
The Nashville convention was re-assembled in November, 1850 ;
none of the regular Mississippi delegates were present. John J.
McRae and two others represented Mississippi, by appointment
of Gov. Quitman.
It was resolved, "That we earnestly recommend to all parties in
the slaveholding States to refuse to go into or countenance any
National convention, whose object may be to nominate candidates
for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, under
any party denomination whatever, until our constitutional rights
are secured." Also that a congress or convention of the slave-
19-11

290 MISSISSIPPI
holding States should be held, with twice as many delegates as
the regular congressional delegations, "to deliberate and act with
the view and intention of arresting farther aggression, and, if
possible, of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and if
not, to provide for their future safety and independence." But the
elections of 1851 in the South went strongly against the promoters
of this movement. (See Const. Con. 1851.)
Nashville Indian Conference, 1792. Governor Gayoso had the
Choctaws to a treaty at Natchez in 1792, and the chiefs had just
returned home when the agents of Governor Blount, Anthony
Forster and J. R. Robertson, came to invite them to a conference
at Nashville, in August. Nearly all the Chickasaw chiefs, including
"Chenambe, king of the Chickasaws," were present, but only
about 110 Choctaws attended the congress, being dissuaded by
Brassheart, a British trader in that nation. John Pitchlyn ex
plained that he could lead the greater part of the Choctaws against
the Indians of the Northwest or their old enemies, the Creeks,
but they had neither arms nor ammunition and were very poor.
They were compelled by circumstances to maintain an appearance
of friendship with the Spanish, with whom they must trade. This
was corroborated by Ben James, "a man of the first property and
probity in the nation." General Pickens, who accompanied Blount,
praised the two Mississippi nations that since they had taken the
hand of the Americans at Senaca, "it has never been known that
a Chickasaw or Choctaw has spilled the blood of an American.
. . . What makes the President and ourselves unhappy is, that
it is with difficulty trade can be extended by the United States to
your country." He asked that a trading house be permitted at the
mouth of Bear Creek, as granted in the treaty of Hopewell. Pia
mingo, the Chickasaw warrior, was opposed to this on the ground
that it would breed trouble. The boundaries were discussed, and
guns presented to each of Piamingo's soldiers with St. Clair in
1791, and presents distributed. Particularly, the Indians were sol
emnly assured the Americans were not making war north of the
Ohio for land, but to restore order.
Nason, a post-hamlet of Grenada county 7 miles southwest of
Grenada the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
It has a public cotton gin.
Nat, a postoffice of Amite county, 8 miles northwest of Liberty,
the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Natchez. No city in the State can claim such a wealth of his
toric associations and traditions as the famous old city of Natchez.
Its commanding situation, terminating in a high bluff overlooking
for miles the great "Father of Waters," at once attracted the at
tention of the French, the first white settlers on the soil of Missis
sippi. Here, in 1716, Gov. Bienville caused to be erected and gar
risoned old Fort Rosalie, having a two-fold purpose in mind, to
hold in check the warlike nation of Natchez Indians, the primitive
possessors of the soil of Natchez ; and also to make of Rosalie a link
in the chain of river outposts on the Mississippi, which should for-

• CONCORD," RESIDENCE OF THE FIRST SPANISH GOVERNOR.

MISSISSIPPI 291
ever serve to protect France in her claim to the Valley all the way
from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Only brief allusions
can be made in this sketch to the long story of French, English,
Spanish and early American occupancy. This period of time will
be found fully covered by other articles appearing in this work,
such, as Natchez Indians, Fort Rosalie, Natchez Massacre, Natchez
District, Natchez Trace, British West Florida, Fort Panmure,
Early Catholic Missions, Spanish Dominion, Advent of the Flag,
Ellicott and Gayoso, etc. See also articles treating of the French,
English and Spanish governors, and those covering the administra
tions of Governors Sargent, Claiborne, Williams and Holmes. It
is proper to say that the history of Natchez, town and district,
forms the bulk of the colonial and early territorial records of Mis
sissippi. Natchez was the capital and center of life for the old
Natchez District, as well as the first territorial capital ; its fair
fame drew within its influence that first splendid body of English
speaking pioneers, whose names adorn the pages of Mississippi
territorial history. Throughout the period of statehood, if it no
longer dominated affairs as of old, the proud old city has exerted
a powerful influence in shaping the destinies of the Commonwealth.
Some hint will be given in the following of the glories of the old
city during the heydey of flatboat, barge and steamer traffic, when
it was ari important port of entry, and When Natchez-Under-the-
Hill was in its prime ; when it was the commercial depot of the
State and its wharves were crowded with all manner of craft, and
with as motley a collection of sailors and boatmen as any city in
the country could disclose. It will suffice to say here that Natchez
bore her full share of the burden, during the great struggle between
the States. The dark days of Reconstruction which ushered in the
years of carpet-bag thieves and negro domination, was an even
harder trial than war. She rose with her sister cities in 1875 when
the manhood of Mississippi asserted itself and regained for all time
control of the State's machinery of government. From this time on
dates the era of the modern city. Natchez has kept step with the
march of time, and is today a bustling, wide-awake business center,
as well as the home of culture and refinement.
The period of French settlement at Natchez was practically ter
minated by the great massacre of 1729. 'We have the evidence of
William Bartram, the naturalist, who visited Pointe Coupee in
1777, that he met an ancient Frenchman who told him that he with
many families of his countrymen settled at the Cliffs of the Natchez,
under the protection of the fort and garrison, and by cultivating
plantations, had developed there a populous, rich and growing
colony; but through the tyrannical conduct of the military com
mandants towards the Natchez Indians, a conspiracy was formed
and all would have been wiped out had it not been for the favor
of one of the princesses toward the commandant. "However, the
settlement was entirely broken up, most of the inhabitants being
slaughtered in one night, and tfie few who escaped betook them-

292 MISSISSIPPI
selves to their canoes, descending the river until they arrived at
this place, where they established themselves again."
Dumont, in his Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, states that
MM. Hubert, king's commissary of the colony, and La Page, were
the first settlers at Natchez. Le Page had begun to cultivate a
plot in 1717, near the site of New Orleans, but abandoned it that
year and went to the Natchez with M. Hubert. The latter had
made choice of some land on St. Catherine's creek, and here he
built a house, which he called St. Catherine's. M. Penicaut, on the
other hand, states that M. Hubert came to Natchez in 1720. He
had been residing near New Orleans, and moved to Natchez with
all his family and sixty laborers and domestics. He made choice
of some land on St. Catherine's creek, "and erected a large dwelling
house. The land was about a league from Fort Rosalie and ex
tended into the prairies, which he ploughed up, and sowed with
French wheat. He afterward erected a grist-mill, a forge, and
machine shops, to manufacture arms and agricultural implements.
He allowed M. de Montplaisir to locate himself also on land about
a league from his own for the purpose of planting tobacco, which
succeeded admirably after the first year." (Annals of Louisiana,
French Coll. p. 154).
In 1718 M. de la Houssaye, a gentleman of Picardy, France,
with fifteen persons, settled on a concession, "near the great village
of the Natchez, on a little river (St. Catherine's creek), which now
belongs to the author of these annals, who purchased it of them."
(An. of La. By Penicaut, French Coll. p. 141). Claiborne says that
Houssaye was the first planter who settled at Natchez. M. Peni
caut was still living at the Natchez in 1729, as he is doubtless the
same man usually referred to by writers as M. Perricault, spared by
the Natchez on account of his skill as a carpenter and boat builder.
Penicaut also states that MM. Pellerin and Bellecourt arrived at
Dauphin Island in 1719, with a number of persons "to make a
settlement near the village of the Natchez, on the banks of the
little river (St. Catherine's) which falls into the Mississippi."
Hubert strongly urged upon the Council of Louisiana the ad
visability of removing the capital of the colony to Natchez. He
was opposed by Bienville who wanted the capital removed to New
Orleans. It is probable that Hubert's ownership of the St. Cather
ine concession weakened the force of his argument. He resigned
his office under the company and went to France in 1722 in order
to regain his health which had suffered; also to present his argu
ment for the transfer of the capital to Natchez. Before his de
parture, he sold his land to M. Dumanoir, who bought it for M.
Colly (also spelled Koly, Kolys, and Colis), a merchant of St.
Malo, who retained the workmen upon it, on the same terms paid
by M. Hubert. MM. Colly and son had just arrived at Natchez in
1729 to inspect their concession, on which they had spent large
sums, when the great massacre occurred and they met the common
fate. ,
Many French soldiers and workmen, after obtaining their dis-

MISSISSIPPI 293
charge from the company, took up small holdings near Natchez,
attracted by the excellent soil and climate. Most of them bought
their lands from the Indians, who lived about a league from the
river. When Charlevoix was at Natchez in 1721, he spoke of a
large number of particular grants, already productive, and de
scribed at some length the grant of the Maloins, and that of the
Cleracs. (See Charlevoix's Visit). Each of these grants was situ
ated on St. Catherine's, and was four leagues square. The former
was the Hubert concession, afterwards sold to M. Colly and asso
ciates of St. Malo; the latter, after first belonging to the Cleracs,
was ceded to M. Blanc and his associates, who had previously set
tled at the Yazoo. (See Yazoo Grant). M. Blanc's concession at
Natchez was called the "Terre Blanche" concession. Its director
in 1729, Sieur Desnoyers, had only arrived from the Yazoo on the
morning of the massacre, accompanied by M. Codere, commandant
at the Yazoo post and a Jesuit father, Du Poisson. All Were slain
in the general massacre.
'The town was re-established under British dominion, after 1763.
For this period see the articles Natchez District, British West Flor
ida, Lyman Colony, Willing Expedition, Fort Panmure, etc.
A valuable insight into the Spanish period is given in the state
ment of William Dunbar, in his claim of title to the "Green," or
park, that "A tract of land was granted, by patent, to an individual
by the Spanish government ; this land was sold by the first to a sec
ond individual, and considerable improvements made thereon ; the
Spanish government purchased three hundred acres of this tract,
with the view to erect public buildings and establish a town ; a
church was built, and a small town laid off, and on another part
of the land Governor Gayoso caused a large building to be erected
for his own residence, at his private expense ; but before it was
finished it was blown down by a hurricane, and the governor then
found it more convenient to rent a house [of Minor] for the use
of Government, in which he continued afterwards to reside." Be
fore the evacuation Gayoso conveyed to Dunbar, in payment of
public services, 26 acres of this land, and the Natchez corporation
afterward attempted to gain possession, on the theory that the
land was intended as a park. The matter was carried before con
gress. Francis Baily, who visited Natchez in 1797, when the United
States flag was first raised to stay, said there were "two or three
places here which go under the denomination of taverns. I put
up at one of them, at which there was a billiard table kept, and paid
my landlord a dollar a day, which was enormous, considering the
fare; for provisions are not very plenty in this province, at least
if we judge from the prices." He hoped for improvement with
American rule. "Looking forward to this time, we may pronounce
this district to be the most flourishing in the southwest territory;
and the town of Natchez far to excel every other on the banks of
the Mississippi. . . . Land in the country is sold for about
a dollar an acre; a five acre lot close to the town sold for 150 dol-

294 MISSISSIPPI
lars. Dr. Watrous bought a lot of uncleared land near the town
for four dollars per acre, and it was thought cheap." Upon the
whole he thought this an excellent place to settle, if one were
willing to "give up the advantages of refined society; though I
don't know that this remark is more particularly here than in all
young countries: on the contrary, I know several persons here,
both Spanish and English, whose conversation and company have
been interesting and amusing." This was significant appreciation,
from a young Londoner, afterward president of the Royal Astro
nomical Society. "It is situated upon a high hill, which terminates
in a bluff at the river, and consists of about eighty or ninety houses
scattered over a great space of land. The streets are laid out upon
a regular plan; but there is so much ground between most of the
houses, that it appears as if each dwelling was furnished with a
plantation. There is a fort upon an eminence near the river, which
commands both the town and the Mississippi ; but it is in a ruinous
condition, and could not be defended against a regular attack."
. . . "The houses are chiefly framed buildings ; but, though this
Country has been settled so long, there is that inattention to neat
ness, cleanliness, and the comforts attending theron, that there is
in a country just cleared. I have seen houses in this place (and
those possessed by persons assuming a degree of consequence in
the country) scarcely furnished beyond. the first stage of civiliza
tion, when a few boards nailed together have served for a bedstead,
and a mattress covered with a bed, etc." "This to be sure, is not
universally so ; on the contrary, I have seen others fitted up in the
neatest manner possible : but then in the greatest plainness, without
any of those luxuries which decorate even the cottages of our
English farmers." The country homes were log houses on the
plantations, generally of one room. The young Londoner was per
mitted to occupy one of these with his party, and provided with a
supper of mush and milk, and "yet, even for this rough fare, they
had the impudence to charge us a quarter of a dollar apiece."
The city was made the seat of a revenue district, and Dr. John F.
Carmichael was appointed collector in 1799. Natchez was incor
porated in 1803 (Hutchinson's Code, 94), and Gov. Claiborne made
the following appointments in March of the same year: Samuel
Brooks, mayor ; Peter A. VanDorn, marshal ; John Girault, Samuel
Neil and Joseph Newman, aldermen. Paul Martel was appointed
French consul in 1806, but the duties of the office were performed
by Paul Vermonnet until 1810, when Martel finally arrived. In
1808 Jonathan Davis was appointed surveyor of the port. Alexan
der Baillie was collector of the port at Natchez, before 1807, when
suit was brought by Seth Lewis, attorney for the United States,
against him and his bondsmen, William Dunbar and Edward Tur
ner. Mayor Brooks represented to Governor Holmes in March,
1811, that a "banditti of armed rioters" had committed outrages
in Natchez, and Capt. David Becket was ordered to aid the sheriff
with his militia company.
The letters of John A. Quitman. in 1822 give an interesting pic-

MISSISSIPPI 295
ture of life in and about Natchez. "Natchez is a bustling place.
The streets are lined with carriages, drays and wagons. The rush
to the river is incessant. Every hour we hear the roar of the can
non, announcing the arrival and departure of steamers. Hundreds
of arks or flatboats, loaded with the produce of the western States,
even from the interior of Pennsylvania, here line the landing for
half a mile, often lying five tier deep. . . . Under- the hill vice
and infamy are rampant and glaring, and the law almost powerless.
Day and night the orgies of blackguardism and depravity are
enacted without shame and restraint. The Sabbath is there
particularly a day of profanation and debauchery. The gam
bler, the bully, the harlot reign triumphant, and little jurisdic
tion is taken over their atrocities. . . . The planters . . .
live profusely; drink costly port, madeira' and sherry, after the
English fashion, and are exceedingly hospitable. . . . Your
coffee in the morning before sunrise; little stews and sudori-
fics at night, and warm footbaths if you have a cold; bou
quets of fresh flowers and mint juleps sent to your apartment;
a horse and saddle at your disposal ; every thing free and
easy and cheerful and cordial. . . . Clothing is usually made
to order in Philadelphia, of the most expensive materials and
most fashionable cut. Our beaux here mostly patronize Wat
son and his average charge is $100 a suit. . . . We have
few mechanics, except carpenters, masons and gin-wrights. There
is not a shoemaker in Natchez. Our shoes come from the North,
boots from Paris, and cost from $10 to $14. Extravagance and
expense become familiar."
In 1829, the Southern Galaxy, of Natchez, in humorous rejoinder
to the lament of the National Intelligencer, of Washington, D. C,
over the demise of the Natchez Ariel, a remarkable newspaper,
said : "How long it is since the gentlemen of the Federal city made
the discovery that Natchez was in the 'country.' Why, Messieurs,
it is an incorporated city, with its mayor and council — Churches,
as many, too, as there be in said Metropolis — Court House and
Jail — Masonic Hall — Theatre — Circus (locomotive) — Orphan Asy
lum — Societies, learned and unlearned, charitable and uncharitable.
Our commerce, too, almost equals that of the Tiber (unclassically,
Goose Creek). Our exports are more than four millions of dollars;
our imports fall but little short of the same amount. Natchez, too,
is a port' of entry, and Uncle Sam, a whimsical dog, took it into his
head one day to give us a Light House, which, by the bye, his
worthy collector of customs located directly in front of the city."
A stock company held the boards at the Natchez Theatre in the
winter of 1828, and in February the elder Booth and his company
played for nine nights. Booth was followed by Forrest. See
"Powers, Tyrone." The Female orphan asylum, founded in 1816,
was supported by the ladies, who, in 1828, expended nearly a. thou
sand dollars upon its maintenance, in addition to donations of cloth- '
ing- James H. Ingraham thus described his approach to the- city by

296 MISSISSIPPI
boat from New Orleans, in 1835 : "The loud and startling report of
a cannon in the bows of the boat, making her stagger and tremble
through every beam, is the signal that our port is in sight — a pile
of gray and white cliffs with here and there a church steeple, a
roof elevated above its summit, and a light-house hanging on the
verge. At the foot of the bluffs are long, straggling lines of wooden
buildings, principally stores and storehouses ; the levee is fringed
with flatboats and steamers, and above all, tower majestically the
masts of two or three ships. The whole prospect from the deck
presents an interesting scene of commercial life and bustle. But
this is not Natchez. The city proper is built upon the summit
level, the. tops of whose buildings and trees can be seen from the
boat, rising higher than the cliff." He noted that the character
of "Natchez under the Hill," notorious throughout the United
States, "in wretched rhyme and viler story," had been somewhat
improved since the establishment there of respectable mercantile
houses and an excellent hotel. The road up, cut on a gentle incline
along the side of the cliff for a quarter of a mile, afforded a sensa
tion of mountain climbing. "The city proper consists of six streets,
at right angles with ,the river, intersected by seven others of the
same length, parallel with the stream. The front, or first parallel
street, is laid out about 100 yards back from the verge of the bluff,
leaving a noble green esplanade along the front of the city. From
this place the eve commands one of the most extensive prospects
to be found on the Mississippi." From the parade each street was
entered by rude bridges spanning a brick aqueduct of large dimen
sions, which had been constructed along the whole front of the city,
but was then in a neglected condition. Ingraham's entire narra
tion is of interest, (The Southwest, by a Yankee). He declared
there was as much style and fine dressing as in Philadelphia, and
certainly more than in New Orleans. The principal edifices were
the Agricultural bank; the Masonic hall, the first story of which
was used as an academy, the only one in the State ; the theater, at
the edge of the town ; the court house, a fine large square building,
opposite the Presbyterian church with its clock tower; the Episco
pal church in the southeast part of the town, surmounted by a vast
dome ; Parker's hotel, on one of the front squares, a handsome,
costly, three story building, largest in the town; the Mansion
house, less of a family and more of a traveller's hotel.
"Natchez is about 400 miles from the ocean — but about to be
come a great seaport, by the aid of steam vessels ascending the
current of the Mississippi, towing up ships. The State of Missis
sippi now exports about 225,000 bales of cotton." Niles Register,
July, 1833. In the same season 1837-38, 38,000 bales of cotton were
loaded at Natchez on ships for Liverpool, and 3,500 for Boston.
The steamship "Natchez," built at Brooklyn, was completed in
July, 1838, and arrived at Natchez in August, greeted with great
enthusiasm. Let us now glance for a brief space at some of the many stately,
ante-bellum homes within and without the city, evidencing a degree

MISSISSIPPI 297
of luxury and refined taste during the first half of the last century
to be found nowhere else in the South. Some of these old homes
are century old, and most of them are surrounded by broad acres,
embellished with wide, sweeping lawns, drives, gardens and noble
shade trees. A majority of them are characterized by the simple,
yet beautiful lines of colonial architecture, embracing solid walls
of masonry built to withstand the ravages of time, broad verandas
supported by classic columns, and lofty interiors, the envy of mod
ern architects. About two miles east of Natchez, stood Concord,
the fine old residence of three Spanish governors, Gov. Grand
Pre, Gov. Gayoso, and the last representative of the authority of
Spain, Gov. Estevan Minor, whose descendants were long in pos
session of the stately home. Concord was built in 1789, but now
lies in ruins — the work of the fire fiend. The property now belongs
to Dr. Stephen Kelly of New York. Dunbarton, home of the
Dunbar family, was distant ten miles from town on the Liberty
road; it was erected in 1804, and about it cluster many memories
of historic interest. The silver-tongued Seargent S. Prentiss was a
tutor here after his arrival in the State, and it was afterwards the
home of Col. J. F. H. Claiborne, the historian, whose wife was a
Miss Dunbar. When the old home was destroyed by fire in 1884,
an irreparable loss was sustained in the destruction of Col. Clai
borne's second volume of the "History of Mississippi," just ready
for the press. Another old home near Natchez is Somerset, which
has been in the hands of the Chotard family for more than 80
years. The house is approached by a beautiful drive which winds
through a magnificent grove of trees, while the house itself is
adorned with an unusually long and wide gallery. The dignity of
the home is further enhanced by a charming interior, filled with
costly bric-a-brac, china and antiques, and the portraits of three
generations of the family. It is a place to delight the antiquarian.
Just without the town is Richmond, home of the Marshalls, built
by L. R. Marshall early in the last century, and still intact. The
Nutt residence, Longwood, although never entirely finished by its
builder before the war, Mr. Haller Nutt, is a noble conception of
Moorish design, and stands in the midst of a large park. On the
Woodville road about two miles from town stands the lovely villa
of Glenburnie, whose broad expanse of lawn is approached by a
shaded drive. It was formerly the home of Capt. Geo. Ralston and
is now in possession of Mr. Bulkly. Opposite is Elmscourt, the
beautiful Merrill home, very quaint in design and suggesting an
Italian villa. On the same road are Glenwood, formerly the home
of Mr. Albert Dunbar; whilst nearer town is Inglewood, the old
Calhoun home, which has been in the family for generations. In
the same vicinity is old Gloster, enshrouded in trees, the home of
Winthrop Sargent, first territorial governor of Mississippi ; in the '
quiet little graveyard hard by is the final resting-place of Gov.
Sargent and Seargent S. Prentiss. Forest, Sir William Dunbar's
stately mansion, eight miles out in the country, is another victim
of the ruthless fire-fiend. The vine-clad columns remain to attest

298 MISSISSIPPI
the beauty of the architecture. Still other country homes, typical
of the proud old aristocracy of the region, and over whose descrip
tion did space permit one would fain linger, are those of the Metr
calfe's, Gillespies, Jenkins, the Bennetts, the Williams; Cherry
Grove, the home of James Surget; Laurel Hill, once the home of
Doctor Mercer, and now descended to Mr. James Butler, with its
beautiful Gothic chapel built to commemorate "a father's love for
his only daughter;" Auburn, the stately brick and stone mansion
of Mr Stephen Duncan; Woodlands, ample in proportions, and
with wide-spreading galleries, long in the possession of the Turner
family, and now owned by Mr. E. H. Ratcliff; stately Ashburn,
built by Mr. Austin Williams in 1835 and burned in 1874, but re
membered for its fine great hall, beautiful staircase and its perfect
symmetry ; Linden, home of the Connor's, surrounded by over
ninety feet of pillared veranda and set in the midst of handsome
grounds ; The Briars, the unpretentious but comfortable home of
the Howells, now owned by Mrs. Irving ; it was here that Jefferson
Davis wooed and married Miss Varina Howell; Arlington, on the
edge of the town, and approached by a winding avenue of water
oaks, was the former home of Judge S. S. Boyd and famed for its
paintings and fine old library ; it is now owned by' his daughter,
Mrs. Wm. Benneville Rhodes; Llangolan, built by Gen. Dahlgren
and commanding a wide sweep of country; Melrose, the former
home of Mrs. Mary T. McMurran, now owned by Mr. George M.
Kelly; Devereux, the beautiful old home of Mrs. Bayard Shields;
Homewood, owned by the Balfour family, and Landsdowne, the
G. M. Marshall home. Thus the list of stately old country homes
might be extended almost indefinitely. The same is in a measure
true of the many beautiful city homes, numbers of them replete
with historic interest. Only a bare mention of a few of them will
be attempted — these the older ones. Ravenna, the comfortable and
artistic old home of Mr. Oren Metcalfe; the old Fisk mansion,
successively owned by Robert Fisk, Henry Chotard, G. M. Davis,
and1 the grandson of the latter, Mr. George Kelly; now, consider
ably enlarged, it is the seat of the well known Stanton College, a
school for young women ; Stanton Hall, built by Frederick Stanton
in ante-bellum days, and now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs.
Andrew G. Campbell, is a handsome and luxurious home ; Rosalie,
suggesting in its name old Fort Rosalie, is the fine brick home of
Mr. S. E. Rumble, overlooking the bluffs; Magnolia Vale, home
of R. F. Learned, and the only one in Natchez beneath the bluffs,
is unsurpassed by any in the beauty of its lawns and gardens ; the
former home of Dr. F. A. W. Davis, now owned by his daughters,
with its extensive grounds and beautiful garden ; the Towers, well
set back from the road, and very quaint in architecture, is the for-
•mer home of Mr. John Fleming, now owned by Captain and Mrs.
Buck; The Burn, the Walworth home; Dr. Stratton's home, Sun
set-Lodge ; Melmont, the home of Mr. S. McDowell, set in spacious
grounds amid a lovely grove; and the handsome old residence of
Mrs. E. M. Britton constructed of stuccoed brick with Ionic col-

MISSISSIPPI 299
umns reaching to the second story; it was built by Mr. Thomas
Henderson; also Dunleith, one of the handsomest mansions in
Natchez, surrounded by beautiful grounds, and now the residence
of Mr. Joseph N. Carpenter.
Natchez is further embellished with many fine old church edi
fices. The Presbyterian church was erected in 1829 ; its architec
ture is simple, massive and dignified; has a clock in the church
tower, and has a deep gallery running around three sides ; Strat-
ton Chapel, of classic design, is a noteworthy modern addition.
Trinity Episcopal church was built in 1825 ; its style of architecture
is simple in design, but substantial and dignified. The Roman
Catholic Cathedral is of old Gothic architecture and was erected
in 1841. The Methodist church is a large substantial building on
Jefferson street, built of brick. The Baptist congregation, a large
and growing one, will soon have a structure of more ample propor
tions. Another handsome church edifice is the Temple B'Nai
Israel. There are also a number of colored churches. Among the
eleemosynary institutions of Natchez are a well conducted hospi
tal, supported by the State, county and city, and three homes for
orphan children — two Roman Catholic and one Protestant, the lat
ter, as we have recorded, was organized in 1816, and made a state
institution in 1821. The city is amply provided with educational
facilities. In addition to Stanton College, already mentioned,
there are two large Roman Catholic schools, "seven private schools,
and an up-to-date system of public schools. The city has recently
completed a fine brick building for white children at a cost of
$35,000; it also supports a good school for colored children. Nat
chez College is a colored institution. Only six miles from Natchez
is Jefferson Military College (q. v.) combining the dignity of age
and the vigor of youth.
Modern Natchez boasts a first-class opera house, equipped to
accommodate the best of traveling companies ; also three clubs, all
admirably housed — the Elks, Standard, and Prentiss ; the hotel
accommodations of the city are also ample and first-class in every
particular. Generally speaking, the city is possessed of all the
conveniences which go to make up the modern, metropolitan city.
It has two progressive newspapers, The Democrat, a morning
paper, and The Evening Bulletin ; there are two commercial bodies,
the Cotton and Merchant's Exchange, and the Progressive League,
which are active in furthering the commercial interests of the city.
Five large banking institutions with a combined capital of $625,000
minister to the financial needs of the city. Its transportation wants
are amply provided for by three railroads now in operation : The
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, a part of the Illinois Central system ;
The New Orleans & Northwestern R. R., recently purchased by
the Gould system ; The Natchez. Red River & Texas Ry., now in
operation to the Black river. The Gould system is rapidly com
pleting its line along the west shore of the Mississippi, and the
surveys of the proposed Natchez & Gulf R. R. are complete.
These in time will add to the already excellent railroad facilities

300 MISSISSIPPI
of the city. Natchez is the home port of four steamboat lines and
all through boats on the river make the port of Natchez. There
is a good street car service with six miles of track, which is being
rapidly extended. There are also excellent systems of water works
and sewers, with mains 13 miles long and a capacity of 2,500,000
gallons; also three fire companies, furnished with every modern
equipment. Two express companies; two telegraph companies,
and a long distance telephone with an extensive local exchange,
are other modern utilities. The cotton industry of the city is
enormous ; it annually handles 90,000 bales of the staple, and a
proportionate amount of the by-products, utilizing two compresses,
two cotton seed oil mills, two modern gins, and a delinting mill.
There are also two large cotton mills. Other important manufac
turing enterprises, which enter into the industrial makeup of the
city are, an ice plant with a daily capacity of 80 tons ; a modern
saw-mill; two sash, door, and blind factories; a planing miH> two
large, modern brick yards; a gas plant; two electric light plants;
two lumber yards, and a foundry and boiler factory. Natchez has
twenty wholesale houses doing an annual business of over $15,000,-
000; and,, with the exception of Vicksburg, is the largest whole
sale city in the State ; two hundred and twenty-five retail stores
supply every want of its citizens.
The total assessed valuation of property in Natchez is $4,565,-
483; the city tax levy is 16 and y2 mills; the total indebtedness is
$396,034, $320,000 of which is a subscription to the 6 per cent.
bonds of the N. O. & N. W. Ry. The population of Natchez in
1900 was 12,210, and a population of over 15,000 was claimed in
1906. Its lofty elevation and fine natural drainage make Natchez
one of the healthiest cities in the land.
Natchez District, Boundary. As noted elsewhere, the district of
Natchez was one of the two areas to which the British government
acquired title by treaty with the Indians during the West Florida
period. "About the year 1778," according to a manuscript left by
Col. Anthony Hutchins, "the survey of the line of Natchez district
was made. The surveyors commenced running this line, accord
ing to agreement, but arriving at the Stony spring [Rocky spring,
,in Claiborne county], about twelve miles east of the Grindstone
ford on Bayou Pierre, the Indians perceived that the course they
were going would take from them their favorite ball ground on
the bank of the Yazous. They refused to proceed any further.
The surveyors suspended the work, and after both parties made
representations to Governor Chester, he agreed that the Indians
should have their way. They took the surveyors to the Yazous,
and made them set their course from the point they selected, about
six leagues up the river, to strike the former line at the Stony
Spring, where they had left off. The goods to pay for this land
arrived and were delivered to agents who, taking advantage of
the war that broke out between the English and the Spaniards,
gave but a small part to the Indians, who have ever since com
plained."

MISSISSIPPI 301
In 1790 the boundary was the subject of negotiation between the
Indians and Spanish, at the Treaty of Natchez.
At the Fort Adams treaty in December, 1801, the region having
been from 1779 to 1798 under Spanish government, Puck-shum-
ubbee, as his name is given in the report, said that the old line
began "at the Homochitto; thence northwest to Standing Pines
creek; thence, crosses the Bayou Pierre high up, and Big Black;
thence, strikes the Mississippi at the mouth of Tallauhatche
(Yazoo)." He said the land had been sold once before, before the
coming of the American soldiers, but nothing paid, and he sug
gested that it would be just to give them compensation. It was
agreed that the line should be resurveyed, but some disagreement
arose about the starting point on the Yazoo, and General Wilkin
son took up the subject again at the treaty at Fort Confederation,
in October, 1802, when the resurvey of the Mobile district was
arranged for. The general wrote from the latter fort, October 17,
1802, "I experienced little difficulty in removing all obstacles to
the reestablishment of the old boundary on the side of Natchez;
and, to remedy a defect which I have discovered in Purcell's line,
I prevailed on the nation to authorize the chiefs of the Upper
towns to make such alterations as may be found convenient and
necessary." He started back at once, by horse, to the Yazoo, to
begin the survey. Meanwhile the boundary was the subject of
considerable correspondence on the part of Governor Claiborne,
who reported in September, 1802, that the Choctaws were com
plaining that the settlers in the vicinity of Rocky Springs were get
ting on the Indian side of the line. John McKee, the Choctaw
agent, believed there was danger of serious trouble if the settlers
were not promptly removed. Consequently, Col. Daniel Burnet,
of' Jefferson district, was directed to order all settlers to keep at
least one mile within the limits as supposed to be located, until
a resurvey was made.
Not long afterward General Wilkinson began the survey, and
from his camp wrote to Claiborne, November 11, 1802: "The
mouth of the Yazoo, which is called for as the beginning of the
old boundary, has, by a break of the Mississippi made through its
banks, and the consequent desertion of its ancient bed, been shifted
about six miles, which circumstance involves some difficulty with
the Indian commissioners, and to this one more serious is added:
the British surveyor left his east line entirely open, and, it would
seem, five or six miles at the beginning of his south line. The
Choctaws expect to see the old line and nothing less will satisfy
them. It, of consequence, has become necessary for me to proceed
to the Big Black river, in order to exhibit to them the marked
trees, and from thence to retrace the line, back, as far as it can
be discovered, after which I shall propose, on the ground of mu
tual accommodation, (and the proposition will be a fair and sound
one) to continue the line to the first bluff on the Yazoo, above the
inundations of the Mississippi and there to fix our beginning.
Should I succeed, the United States will make a small acquisition,

302 MISSISSIPPI
the Territory will be benefited, and the Indians will not be injured.
In the promotion of this plan, I shall march for the Big Black as
soon as I have closed this letter."
The, general completed the survey at the national line, January
22, 1803, having been "somewhat perplexed to ascertain this boun
dary, which is not more obvious than an ordinary Choctaw trace.
To ascertain my distance from the Mississippi, I shall measure Mr.
Ellicott's traverse until I find some clear testimonial to satisfy me
in this particular, and if not delayed by high waters I will reach
Fort Adams the 27th or 28th."
Wilkinson's expenses, paid by the United States, were $2,155.
He asked the governor to forward to Fort Adams, from the Indian
goods at Natchez, the following as a reward to the Choctaw com
missioners and guides: "Three full trimmed long coats, blue and
buff ; blue capots, red cuffs and capes ; five hats, three white watch-
coats ; six fine white shirts ; four calico shirts ; five pairs scarlet
leggings, five blue flaps."
The district of Natchez, within the boundary line thus defined,
was estimated at 2,031,800 acres. (Wailes, 1829.)
Natchez, District of. The Natchez district was of very great
importance in the history of Mississippi because it was remarkably
adapted to the necessities of the pioneer. The difficulties of open
ing a new country are so enormous that only the most favored
spots can be utilized. Such was the region along the river, from
Bayou Sara to the Yazoo river. It is a high and breezy upland,
close to a great river that elsewhere had no limits put upon its
destructive freaks in floodtime. The Natchez district was in com
parison to the rest of the country, as if it were a fertile abutment
upon the ocean, where ships might anchor and load from the fields
of grain. It contrasted sharply with the region beyond the river,
where interminable swamps were hidden under immense forest
trees, and gigantic vines. Of like forbidding nature, to the pio
neer, was the east shore of the river above the Walnut hills. These
low lands were sometime to be of enormous value, but not until
a great accumulation of wealth could be applied to them.
The Natchez highland was covered with hardwood forests, with
no pine, but occasionally an enormous sassafras, such as was found
nowhere else on the continent. There is no stone, and no running
water except streams having their rise 'in the interior, cutting
through these hills to the river. The soil yields easily to the ero
sion of water, and along the streams is cut into immense gullies
and ravines, with precipitous heights. Abutting the Mississippi
were the famous bluffs known as Walnut hills, Grand, Petit Gulf,
Natchez and St. Catherine hills. "In primitive forest they pre
sented a most imposing appearance." Lofty timber covered them
from base to summit. The river, approaching the hills closely in
a few places, and at an angle always, and deflected at a sharp an
gle, gives the bluffs an outlook over vast stretches of the murky
waste of water. "The scene is sombre, but grand, especially when
lighted by the evening's declining sun." When no foliage hides

MISSISSIPPI 303
the festoons of long gray moss, "the dead gray of the entire scene
in winter is sad and melancholy as a vast cemetery." "These hills
are peculiar. They are drift, thrown upon the primitive formation
by some natural convulsion, and usually extend some twelve or
fifteen miles into the interior. They consist of a rich marly loam,
and when in a state of nature were clothed to their summits with
the wild cane, dense and unusually large, a forest of magnolia,
black walnut, immense oaks, and tulip trees, with gigantic vines
of the wild grape climbing and overtopping the tallest of these
forest monarchs. Here among these picturesque hills and glorious
woods, the emigrants fixed their homes." — (Sparks, Memories.)
Commencing a century before, the French had conquered the
land for them from the Indians ; of the ancient Natchez people only
a scattered remnant existed in distant places. There was no dan
ger from savage jealousy, and in some places the clearings of the
French remained to afford the new comers an easy foothold.
The ruins of Fort Rosalie, abandoned by the French since the
Natchez massacre, were occupied by British troops in the summer
of 1764, under the protection of a war vessel in the river. The
works were repaired and fitted up for a garrison, under the name
of Fort Panmure. Of the French inhabitants, Claiborne says:
"There is no record of any settlement." The English board of
trade represented to the king, in March, 1764, that there was "very
considerable settlements upon the east bank of the Mississippi,"
above the 31st degree of latitude. Pickett, in his history of Ala
bama, says, "The French population, along the east side of the
Mississippi, to the Walnut Hills, was considerable, and, when they
ascertained that British laws had been extended over them, many
retired across the river, south of Manchac. Others, assured that
they would not be disturbed, either in the enjoyment of the Cath
olic faith, or in their rights and property, remained in the country."
But the French historians, noting the records of arrivals of ref
ugees from the Illinois and Alabama counties, do not mention any
from the Natchez, perhaps because of their nearness.
This British military post was outside of the limits then as
signed to the province of West Florida; and within the region
assigned by the royal proclamation for the use of the Indians.
But, in order to open to settlement the beautiful and fertile lands
along the river, the limits of West Florida were extended north
ward to a line running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo river.
As is stated in the article British West Florida, the commissions
to the governors do not show that this was done, under seal, until
17.70. The new line permitted the granting of .land on the Missis
sippi northward to the Yazoo, and on the waters of Mobile, after
the Indian title had been extinguished by treaty.
In response to the efforts of the British to attract immigration,
the attractions of the Natchez highlands became widely known.
Landspyers were soon on the ground from the older colonies, and
adventurers", as colonists were then called, began to arrive at
Pensacola and Mobile from distant parts of the British empire.

304 MISSISSIPPI
In 1765 the North Carolina settlement began below Baton Rouge.
Some of these families, says Wailes, subsequently removed to the
neighborhood of Natchez. But the little stockade, called Fort
Bute, on the Manchac, was not built until December, 1766, to pro
tect the workmen who were clearing the bayou of obstructions to
navigation. Before that, a frigate in the bayou was the fortress
of British power. References to the "tide of immigration" and the
pouring in of settlers, in this period, does not seem to be justified
by the facts. Mentioning the Carolina adventurers, Hamilton says
(The Colonization of the South) : "Others emulating them pressed
over the Alleghanies to the Mississippi country, and, exploring
and hunting, began the trade to New Orleans.' By the irony of
fate, on their overland return the adventurers were by the Choc
taws robbed of all they had made. We find speculators even in
1768 discounting the future and securing warrants of survey for
large tracts of land about Natchez. Thus the Earl of Eglinton
(the Colonel Grant of the South Carolina wars) got twenty thou
sand acres, and Samuel Hannay and associates five thousand.
John Mcintosh obtained five thousand contiguous to Fort Bute,
George Johnstone ten thousand at Baton Rouge, and Daniel Clark,
afterward a famous name, showed his foresight by locating three
thousand at Natchez, one thousand at the head of Lake Maurepas
and five hundred more near Fort Bute."
The statement by Wailes (Historical Outline) is : "In January,
1768, the first grants of which we have any record were made
under the authority of the king's proclamation, grants to retired
military and naval men. They were executed by Montfort Browne,
lieutenant-governor of the province of West Florida at Pensacola,
among the first being two grants of 3,000 and 2,000 acres to Dan
iel Clark, a reduced captain of the Pennsylvania troops, and clerk
of the council under Browne. These grants were situated on the
St. Catherine, about three miles south of Fort Panmure, and em
braced lands that had been in part cleared and improved under
the French government. Similar grants were made to others, by
Lieutenant-Governor Brown, in the following year. Grants dated
in January, and to the 19th of March, 1770, were signed by Elias
Durnford, as lieutenant-governor. . . . No subsequent grants
are known to have been made during this, or the following year.
In 1772, and each of the succeeding years to the 3d of September,
1779, numerous patents, many of them for tracts of large dimen
sions, were granted by Governor Chester."
Spanish relations and other matters of high policy caused re
moval of the troops in 1769. "During the withdrawal of troops,"
says Hamilton, "one John Bradley received possession of Fort
Panmure with the duty of keeping it in order and defensible
. . . the project of settling the Mississippi remained a favorite
idea of the province and in 1770 this began in earnest. It would
seem that some eighteen families of immigrants with negroes set
tled down about Natchez, and Chester promptly applied for troops
to protect them. Gage, of course, opposed it, and expressed

MISSISSIPPI 305
astonishment that avidity for lands should make people scramble
thither through the deserts. The necessity may be shown by a
report to Haldimand in 1772 that the materials of Fort Bute had
been destroyed and the writer turned out by the help of Spanish
officers; but this seems to stand unsupported. The jealousy of the
Spaniards, however, might well be aroused, for Durnford reports
that three hundred persons from Virginia and the Carolinas were
then settled on the Mississippi, and three or four hundred families
were expected before the end of summer. As a result the posts
at Natchez and Bute were ultimately repaired and some sort of
government instituted on the Mississippi."
It is evident that there were little settlements, of a permanent
character, before the commission to Gov. Chester and the Treaty
of 1770, by which John Stuart, superintendent of Indian affairs8
obtained from the Choctaws the title to the area which afterward
became known as the District of Natchez. A boundary line was
run, defining an area of 2,031,800 square miles.
According to Holmes' Annals, before the summer of 1773 had
passed, four hundred families from the Atlantic seaboard advanced
through the wilderness to the Monongahela and Ohio river and de
scended 'in boats for the Natchez country. Durnford made an even
more hopeful report of immigration, but it does not seem to have
greatly affected the Natchez district, according to other observa
tions. The earliest important settlements were made by Northerners,
under grants direct from the king, one dated 1767, known as the
Ogden mandamus, and one of date 1775, known as the Lyman
mandamus. They were orders on the governor to survey for Capt.
Amos Ogden, of New Jersey, 25,000 acres where he might choose,
and for Maj.-Gen. Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut, 20,000 acres
where he might select. These were the foundations of the impor
tant Swayze and Lyman settlements. The Swayzes brought a
Congregational colony from New Jersey, the first Protestant re
ligious movement into the Southwest. They sailed from Perth
Amboy to Pensacola, in 1772, then proceeded by way of Manchac
and the river to where they settled, on the Homochitto. The Ly-
mans organized a considerable colony, that sailed from Connecti
cut and came up the river by way of New Orleans in 1775 to settle
on Bayou Pierre and the Big Black. (See Lyman Colony.)
"We have the testimony of some of the early settlers, who sur
vived to an advanced age, and whose statements have been pre
served," says Wailes, "that in 1776, twelve years after the English
first occupied the fort at Natchez, the town then consisted of only
ten log cabins and two frame houses, all situated under the bluff.
The site of Fort Rosalie was overgrown with forest trees, some
of them more than two feet in diameter ; several old iron guns
were lying about, supposed to have been left by the French. About
seventy-eight families, dispersed in different settlements, consti
tuted the whole population of the district, few of which, accord
ing to these statements, had emigrated to the country previous to
20-11

306 MISSISSIPPI
the year 1772. There were four small mercantile establishments
in the town ; these were owned by Blomart, James Willing, Bar
ber, and the firm of Hanchet & Newman. Blomart was a reduced
British officer, and Hanchet was one of the followers or associates
of Lyman."
The revolution of the Thirteen Colonies against the king began
in 1775, and the people of South Carolina, in the course of that
year, were involved in serious difficulties, with promise of actual
warfare between the revolutionists and the settlers of the back
country, who in considerable measure adhered to the king. In
Georgia, also, there was a large party opposed to revolution, so
large that that State was generally, when not under control of
the British after 1775, in a condition of civil war. The Scotch
Highlands of North Carolina were in arms for the king early in
the war, under Allan McDonald, and. were defeated in battle by
the revolutionists in February, 1776. So it happened that the
great natural attractions of Natchez district were enhanced, after
that date, by the fact that it promised, by its remoteness, a safe
refuge from the horrors of war, to those "whose sense of loyalty
and of duty forbade them to fight against the king; but rather
than stain their hands with kindred blood, renounced home, com
fort, society and position for an asylum in the wilderness." —
(Claiborne.) "The opprobrium attached to the name of Tory
(which was freely given to all who had either avoided the war by
emigration, or who had. remained and taken part against the col
onies, and then, to avoid the disgrace they had earned at home, and
also to escape the penalties of the laws of confiscation, had brought
here their property) induced most families to observe silence
respecting their early history, or the causes which brought
them to the country, and especially to their children. This was
true even as late as forty years ago. There were then in these
counties many families of wealth and polish, whose ancestors were
obnoxious on account of this damaging imputation; and it was
remembered as a tradition carefully handed down by those who
at a later day came to the country from the neighborhoods left by
these families, and in most instances for crimes of a much more
heinous character than obedience to conscientious allegiance to
the government." — (W. H. Sparks, The Memories of Fifty Years,
probably written before 1870.)
Wailes, explaining a later situation, says: "Many of the older
inhabitants had been royalists from principle. Some of them were
British officers and continued to receive their pay and pensions
even after the acquisition of the country by the United States.
Not a few had migrated from the sister States, with strong sus
picions of having fought on the wrong side of King's Mountain.
. With a change of circumstances and of political institu
tions came also a change of views and opinions, and many of these
persons became none the worse citizens, from their antecedents.
The descendants of many of them, grown up with attachments to
American institutions, have earned for themselves positions of

MISSISSIPPI 307
respectability and influence. It would answer no good purpose,
therefore, to annoy the over-sensitive of the present age, by rend
ing the veil which time has spread over the 'bygones' of a past
generation. Let them rest in oblivion."
Without accepting the standpoint of any of these authors, or
admitting that anything in the records of the settlers deserve the
sentence of oblivion, it may be observed that these differences of
attitude toward the revolution can be discussed now without
prejudice, and charitably understood. Historically, it is necessary
to remember the way the people of the United States were divided
in hostile camps during the revolution in order to understand the
events along the Mississippi and properly weigh the opinions ex
pressed then, and by later, but not remote, chroniclers. Elihu
Hall Bay, of South Carolina, one of the refugees called Tories,
served as an official under Gov. Chester during the Revolution,
received a large grant of land in the Natchez district, and became
the owner by purchase of large bodies on the Homochitto and at
Walnut Hills.
In later years he was honored with a position on the bench of
South Carolina. Anthony Hutchins, who had obtained a grant
of about 1,500 acres on Second creek in 1772-73, brought his fam
ily and a large party of loyalists from the Santee Hills of South
Carolina in 1777. They packed their belongings over the moun
tains to the Holston river, built a fleet of flatboats, floated down
the Tennessee river, passed the dangerous Mussel shoals, infested
by Indian pirates (with the loss of only " a few boats, and the
wounding of Hutchins, who was shot in the back), floated on into
the Ohio and Mississippi; stopped at L'anse a la Graisse, after
ward known as New Madrid, where they hurriedly pushed out
in the night for fear of robbery and murder, and so came on down
the great river to Walnut Hills, whence some proceeded to Cole's
Creek and some to St. Catherine. After 1776 also came the rep
resentatives of the Scotch Highlanders of Cape Fear river, whose
"worthy and industrious descendants may be found from Pensa
cola to Natchez." These earliest Scotch immigrants were of the
people that had fought for the Hanovers at Moore's Creek as their
ancestors did for the Stuarts at Culloden.
The Carolinians led by Hutchins followed the river route sev
eral years before a party of daring pioneers of the Holston valley,
including , the future wife of Andrew Jackson, had dared to make
their voyage to settle Nashville, a voyage made memorable also
by the capture at Mussel Shoals of three of their number, who
were tortured to death by the Chickamaugas. Others came with
packhorses on the trail from Georgia through the Creek and
Choctaw country'; the Northerners came by ship to Pensacola and
New Orleans, and thence by boat up the river, or down the Ohio
from Pittsburg. Of the settlers in general from 1765 to 1779, Clai
borne says : "Nine-tenths of them came to cultivate the soil ; they
brought intelligence and capital ; and they embarked at once upon
the production of supplies for home consumption."

308 MISSISSIPPI
In 1773, according to a document in the office of trade, at Lon
don, there were only thirty-three settlements (or plantations)
between Natchez and the present Louisiana line. But a few years
later, in 1778, the "Western parts . . . had so far increased
in its inhabitants . . . that since the last assembly it had been
divided from the district of Mobile or Charlotte county, and
erected into two districts; viz.: The District of Manschalk and
the District of Natches, and contained a greater number of respect
able, wealthy planters and settlers than either of the other Dis
tricts in the Colony." (Letter of Gov. Chester.) In this pro
vincial assembly of West Florida, in 1778, the first one after 1772,
Anthony Hutchins and Isaac Johnston were members for the Dis
trict of Natchez.
It appears that they gave considerable attention to stock rais
ing, for which the open ranges were favorable. Col. Hutchins is
said to have had 1,000 cattle and 500 horses at the time of the
revolt. Indigo was probably cultivated as an export crop, as in
other parts of Florida and on the South Atlantic coast. "Bacon,
beef, butter and poultry were plentiful. Orchards were on a large
scale and the fruit better than at present. It was a common sight
to see one hundred bee hives in a farm yard. Beeswax and honey
were articles of export. The medicinal roots and herbs, rhubarb,
ginger, pimento, saffron, hops, the opium poppy, were grown in
the gardens. Many planters tanned their own leather. Shoes
were almost always made on the plantation, either by a workman
belonging to the place, or by a man hired to do the work. Gen
tlemen and ladies were clad in homespun. Even the bridle-reins,
girths and saddle-cloths were made at home." In brief, it was
that sort of happy, independent and self-reliant existence that is
possible where there is more land than can be utilized. "The land
holders were, for the most part, educated men ; many of them had
held commissions in the British and provincial armies; others had
held civil offices under the crown or the colonies. Such a popu
lation is a guarantee against anarchy or mob rule, and though
remote from the provincial government of Pensacola, and no court
of record nearer, the Natchez district was proverbial for its im
munity from crime and criminals. . . . The intelligent and cul
tivated class predominated, and this gave tone to the community."
There was a darker side, of course, as Mr. Claiborne admits.
"Bad men, outlaws and fugitives from justice came likewise, but
they were outnumbered and restrained by the better class."
There was that spirit of which Wailes gives an intimation in his
account of the revolt of 1781: "Having little else to employ
them, the people ran to arms in a spirit of reckless frolic and
bravado, without duly considering their true situation, and the
great evils to which they exposed themselves." But without
something of this daring, there would never be any pioneer settle
ments of civilization.
Hardly had the "District of Natchez" been formally erected,
when it became evident that Natchez was not to be a secure refuge

MISSISSIPPI 309
from the influence of the Revolution, which was controlling events,
not only as far as the Mississippi river, but throughout the world.
Pensacola had some report of trouble from Natchez as early as
1777, and John McGillivray, the Mobile merchant, was authorized
to raise a force', including Indians, to march to the support of the
settlement. Oliver Pollock was commissioned as agent of Virginia and- the
United States in 1777, to purchase military supplies for the fron
tier troops on the Indian border of the Northwest. This had the
secret sanction of the Spanish authorities, but the purchase and
shipment of supplies up the river was necessarily a matter of as
much secrecy as possible, Spain being a neutral power. American
officers came down to convey the supplies, and, says Monette,
"through the enterprise and discretion of Capt. William Lynn,
Colonel Rodgers, Captain James Willing and Captain Benham,
the American posts on the Ohio and upper Mississippi were re
peatedly supplied during the years 1777, 1778 and 1779 with mili
tary stores and supplies from New Orleans." This was not only
a delicate but a very dangerous service. On the Ohio they were
watched by the savages, under the orders of Gen. Hamilton, of
Detroit. Rodgers and Benham, going up from New Orleans in
1779, were massacred, with their 90 men. Stephen Minor, another
officer in this service, escaped death in 1780, at the Post of Arkan
sas, only by the fact that he was delayed by sickness. All his
men were murdered -and his stores plundered. Captain Willing
came down with 50 men in two keel boats, in the winter and spring
of 1778L Remonstrances had been made to the governor of Lou
isiana regarding this contraband trade, and "Willing deemed it
prudent that he should have some assurance, as he descended to
New Orleans, that the people of the Natchez district would ob
serve a strict neutrality on their part. In order to place this ques
tion beyond doubt, he landed [first at Walnut Hills and then] at
Natchez, where he had formerly resided for several years before
the war, and having obtained an interview with some of the citi
zens, he took the sense of the town in a public meeting, and with
the general approbation entered into a written convention of neu
trality."— (Monette, Hist. Val. Miss.) It will be observed that
this was a sort of treaty under which Willing would refrain from
attack if the colony would refrain from support of his enemies.
There was no garrison of British soldiers at that time. Accord
ing to Monette's account, Willing found it desirable, from infor
mation received, to take Col. Hutchins with him to New Orleans
as a hostage. There, Hutchins was released on parole, whereupon
he returned home and alarmed the settlements by a report that
Willing was preparing to return and plunder the district, as his
men had done about Baton Rouge and Manchac. In these lower
districts there was wholesale pillage of the property of the promi
nent royalists. Hutchins raised a body of armed men, which, , on
the return of Willing up the river, fired upon one of his boats as
it was coming to land, killing several men.

310 MISSISSIPPI
Monette describes this as "the first act of open hostility by the
people of Natchez district against the American troops ... a
wanton attack, made by about twenty-five men in ambuscade."
From the narrative by Claiborne and Wailes it would appear
that the attack on the boat was in self-defense, not as against sol
diers, but against plunderers. (But see Willing Expedition.)
Capt. Phelps wrote in his Journal: "We subsequently held a
consultation upon the unhappy condition of our affairs and the
course it had become necessary to pursue. Under the advice of
Colonel Hutchins, a British subject who resided among us, and
still retained his commission and had not taken with us the oath
of neutrality, we formed ourselves into a military body, and agreed
to turn out as often as needed to protect ourselves and the settle
ments generally from such banditti. Their depradations, so con
trary to the declaration of Willing, had absolved us from the oath
we had taken, and thus the sympathy with and friendship for the
American cause, in these remote settlements, were smothered by
these unprincipled buccaneers." The American influence at New
Orleans was exerted after this event more strongly in favor of
Spain taking possession of the territory held by the British.
Willing went on to Mobile, in the hope of causing an uprising in
favor of the United States, but was made a prisoner of war and
vigorously treated, for which the United States retaliated upon
General Hamilton, who was captured by Gen. George Rogers
Clark. At the time of the Willing expedition, Clark was making
his famous march on KaSkaskia.
"Shortly after the foregoing occurrences," says Wailes, "Gov
ernor Chester sent Colonel Magellan to raise four companies of
militia, and with orders to fit up Fort Panmure. The command
of these troops was given to Lyman, Blomart and Mcintosh, who
were soon ordered to Baton Rouge, in consequence of the prospect
of war with Spain, and a Captain Foster, with a hundred men,
was left in command of Natchez." According to the narrative of
Mr. Claiborne, while Capts. Lyman, Blomart and Mcintosh were
in command at the fort with their volunteers, Capt. Michael Jack
son appeared to take charge under orders from Pensacola, with a
company of royalist refugees. The officer is said to have been
recognized as a refugee for other causes than allegiance to the
king, and his men were described as no better than Willing's. So
much discontent was aroused that there was a revolt of citizens
and volunteers, headed by Anthony Hutchins, who arrested Jack
son and required him to promise to resign his commission and
leave the country. Captain Lyman again took command. But
Jackson collected a party of "deserters and brigands," seized some
military stores and two pieces of artillery, sent out runners for
Choctaw reinforcements, and posted himself under the bluff at
the landing. The Choctaws came in, three hundred strong, but
finding the British flag flying on the fort, declined to aid in sup
pression of the mutiny. The conflict was settled by permitting
Jackson to return to the fort and submit to orders until the com-

MISSISSIPPI 311
mandant at Pensacola could be heard from, but on the third night
he had Lyman under arrest. Some of the soldiers and volunteers
then left the garrison, and when Lieutenants Pentacost and Holmes
were sent to order them back, with loaded muskets, one of the
volunteers, Felt, a Lyman settler, shot Pentacost, fatally wound
ing him, and forced the other officer to disarm. Lyman managed
to gain control again, but finally was put under arrest and in
close confinement by his irrepressible rival. Then Capt. Foster
was sent up from Manchac by Col. Dickson, and Jackson secretly
decamped, says Claiborne, "carrying with him all the portable
property he could lay his hands on. The officers and men who
had acted with Jackson, were sent under guard to Pensacola,
where several were, ordered to be shot." While the district was
in this deplorable condition the Spanish took control. Fort Pan
mure and two small posts on the Amite and Thompson's Creek
were included in the capitulation of Col. Dickson to Gen. Galvez,
at Baton Rouge, September 22, 1779. The entire district of Nat
chez at once passed under the administration of the governor of
Louisiana. When Galvez retired, Col. Carlos de Grand Pre was
left in command at Baton Rouge, with subordinate officers and
garrisons at Panmure and Bute.
Congress, meanwhile, had commissioned James Robinson, a
friend and companion of Willing, to return to Natchez and again
attempt to secure the allegiance of the inhabitants, and hold the
district as territory of the United States. He arrived with 30 or
40 men, after the Spanish had made their occupation. "The expe
dition was broken up and dispersed, and the leader soon afterward
died." The settlers were not disposed, to submit without a struggle to
the easy conquest by the Spanish. To the Eastern colonists it
was particularly intolerable to assume the role of heretics under
the dominion of his Catholic Majesty. The remarkable ability of
Galvez inspired respect, and it was well remembered how, ten
years before, Lafreniere, Noyan, Caresse, Marquis and Milhet,
distinguished citizens of New Orleans, had been put to death for
resisting the power of Spain ; yet, the scattered people of this lit
tle settlement, hundreds of miles from any support, began to pre
pare for war, refusing to believe that Great Britain would permit
them to be overwhelmed and sacrificed. The fall of Mobile iri
1780 was discouraging, but when they learned that an expedition
was on foot against Pensacola, they sent word to Governor Ches
ter and General Campbell, and proposed to drive the Spaniards
out of Natchez if they could have assistance. (See Revolt of
1781.) Natchez District, Spanish. On July 29, 1781, Don Carlos de
Grand Pre, lieutenant-colonel of the Royal regiment of Louisiana,
entered upon his duties as "civil and military commandant of the
post and district of Natchez." His administration was mainly
devoted to the arrest of "rebels" and the confiscation of their
property, an account of which is given under the title, "Revolt of

312 MISSISSIPPI
1781." In September, 1782, Col. Estevan Miro, a Spaniard who
had acted as governor-general at New Orleans in the absence of
General Galvez, was in command at Natchez, and was succeeded
in November by Don Pedro- Piernas, who was promoted to col
onel when Miro was made brigadier-general. The successor of
Piernas, ad interim (June to August 3, 1783) was Capt. Francisco
Collel, who gave way to Lieut.-Col. Phelipe Trevino, both qf the
regiment of Louisiana. Natchez was honored in the assignment
of commandants from the famous Creole regiment. In 1785, Don
Francis Bouligny became "lieutenant-governor" and commandant,
and in March, 1786, Colonel Grand Pre was again assigned. In
July, 1792, Lieut.-Col. Manuel Gayoso de Lemos was put in com
mand. He, a thorough Spaniard, of English .education, remained
until July 26, 1797, when he left to take the office of governor-gen
eral, August 1, 1797, and after that Capt. Stephen Minor, Gayoso's
post major, acted as commandant until the evacuation, the re
appointment of Colonel Grand Pre, in 1797, being protested by
the inhabitants. These commandants or "governors" had the gen
eral duties of a civil administrative officer and military commander,
under the orders of the governor-general of Louisiana. They ap
pointed alcaldes, or justices, in the various districts of the Natchez,
of which there were nine or ten in 1797, and themselves heard
appeals from these justices. They performed the duties of gov
ernor, legislature, mayor, court of appeals, magistrate, chief of
police, town marshals, etc. There could be no auction without
their permission in writing. They granted permission to go to
New Orleans, and sometimes refused it to individuals who had
debts, unless they gave security. Divorces were also within their
jurisdiction. The records show traces of some domestic upheavals
that must have agitated society. Mrs. Rachael Robards came
down from Nashville in 1790, and obtained a Spanish divorce, pre
liminary to her marriage to Andrew Jackson. There was no law
making body. The law at New Orleans was the code of O'Reilly,
and the edicts of the governor-general, the council of the Indies
and his Catholic Majesty. At Natchez law proceeded from the
commandant. Francis Baily (q. v.) in 1797, sought justice from
Gayoso, when Vidal had offered him depreciated post certificates
at face value in payment for a purchase, and asked Gayoso to show
him the law for such an imposition. "I shall never forget the
looks of the man at this (what he called impertinent) question ;
for, wondering at my assurance, and threatening me with the hor
rors of the Callibouse if I any longer disputed his authority, he
laid his hand upon his breast, and told me that he was the law ; and
that as he said the case was to be determined." The essential
difference, under the forms, of two civilizations, is shown in
Baily's comment: "I could not help laughing at the insulting ef
frontery of the man when he made this speech, at which he seemed
more than ever enraged." (Baily's Journal, London, 1856, p. 289.)
Yet there is evidence that the inhabitants had some initiative re
garding local laws. Governor Gayoso proclaimed a set of laws

MISSISSIPPI 313
February 1, 1793, saying that "the inhabitants in a full meeting of
the principal planters" had represented to him the need of pens
and pounds for cattle; their fears of the ravages of "wild beasts of
prey, particularly the tiger and wolf," and their desire to guard
against the natural inconveniences that attend the making of in
digo. He instructed that "pens or pounds" should be constructed
by Isaac Galliard and Abram Ellis, Samuel Hutchins and J. H.
White, D. Williams and I. Lintot, R. Bacon and N. Tomlinson,
R. Swayze and P. Shiltin, D. Grafton and I. Bernard, C. Board-
man and W. Pipes, James Bonner and T. Jordan, A. Bealt and J.
Girault, J. Lum and N. Joy, A. and J. Henderson, J. Calvit and
B. Belk, Jeremiah Coleman and J. Foster, R. King and B. Curtis,
I. Johnson and R. Ford, S. Keady and J. Oglesby, J. Armstreet
and F. Mory, J. Minor and S. Holmes, A. Scanlin and C. King,
P. Presler and J. Carter. (The I's and J's are indistinguishable.)
This was for the region about Natchez. William Murray and John
Smith were ordered to point out the places for pens in the district
of Villa Gayoso ; Col. Peter Bruin and William Brocas on Bayou
Pierre ; Garrett Rapalje and Tobias Brashear on Big Black ; James
Nicholson and Ruffin Gray on the south side of Homochitto;
Charles Percy at Buffalo ; Francis Poussett and H. Hunter on
Bayou Sara. The estray law announced in the same proclamation
required stray cattle to be put in these pounds and notice given.
A lawful fence was also defined as staked and ridered and five
English feet high. A reward of five dollars was offered for wolf
and 'tiger scalps. Makers of indigo were required to burn the weed
as soon as possible after it came out of the steeper, and forbidden
to drain the vats into any creeks used by the inhabitants as a
source of water.
To remedy 'the nuisance of vagrants who lived in the woods
under the pretense of hunting, by which the good and industrious
inhabitants suffered much in regard to stock, it was forbidden to
fire-hunt or set guns, under any pretense, or upon any occasion,
and people were forbidden to hunt on their own lands without per
mission in writing from an alcalde. Ezekiel Freeman was ap
pointed treasurer to receive the proceeds of the sale of stray ani
mals and pay rewards for scalps.
The provincial government entirely ignored the boundary of
the United States as recognized by Great Britain in the treaty of
1783. This matter was taken up between the United States and
Spain, and the negotiations continued for twelve years. The inhab
itants of the district, meanwhile, submitted with such grace as they
could- to the transfer from vassalage to the king of England to
vassalage to the king of Spain. A few had been American citizens
to the extent that citizenship had been imparted by Captain Wil
ling, but that had been promptly renounced for what they consid
ered good reasons. There was, however, a readiness to welcome
the authority of the United States as soon as the terms of the
treaty with Britain became known, and before it was made ap
parent that Spain would ignore the definition of limits.

314 MISSISSIPPI
There is a suggestion of this in the correspondence of William
Dunbar, who lived near Baton Rouge, in June, 1783: "I am sorry
to say that our plantation falls considerable without the American
line, in consequence of which it may not be worth a pinch of snuff
as a salable commodity. ... As Natchez is considerably
above latitude thirty-one degrees, we believe here it must soon be
come a settlement of great consequence, although we have not
learned- the intentions of Congress respecting it. Mrs. Pollock
gives out that her husband (Oliver Pollock) is coming out as gov
ernor." Dunbar, before long, did move near Natchez, believing
the treaty would eventually be carried into effect. Many others,
says Wailes, influenced by similar considerations, removed' to the
district. August 18, 1783, Stephen Miro, temporary governor under the
Count of Galvez, published a proclamation which was counter
signed at Natchez by Commandant Phelipe Trevino. It recited
that "the too great number of strange Famillies, who begin to in
troduce themselves into this Province (Louisiana) and that of
West Florida, under the names of » Irish, American and German
Catholicks, requires the most particular attention of Government,"
therefore his Excellency had "resolved that hereafter there shall
be only admitted such Famillies as shall profess the Cafholick,
Apostolick and Roman Religion, according to what is wisely pro
vided by our Laws in the Recapitulation of the Indias ; on the
¦express condition ; That those Famillies which are admitted shall
employ themselves in the cultivation of lands, and in the mechan
ical arts, and nowise in the exercise of rowing or hunting, or
directly or indirectly to trade with any of the Indian nations of the
province." The reason given was that long and fatal experience
had proved that all the rogueries committed on the river and in
the upper posts of the country were occasioned by "vagabonds
without religion or subordination, principle or the least notion of
the natural rights of the people."
The inclination to assert citizenship in the United States was
also shown in 1785 by the Bourbon county episode (q. v.), which
Governor Miro treated as a sedition or rebellion. This was the
result of immigration from Georgia soon after the suppression of
the revolt — bringing the Virginians headed by Thomas Green.
Throughout the period of waiting, the district was subject to the
tangled intrigues that distracted the people of the western settle
ments, but the people were complimented by Governor Carondelet,
in 1790, for such staunch loyalty that encouraged the French of
New Orleans to remain quietly under Spanish rule despite the
appeals of their countrymen. Meanwhile, as Wailes says, "some
of the English royalists of the Natchez district," the original set
tlers, adhered to that partv which "looked with a distant and
vague hope to the re-establishment of the British rule."
In 1785 a census was taken of Louisiana, which includes the
following, the population being given bv districts : Manchac, 77 ;
Baton Rouge, 270 ; Natchez, 1,550 ; Mobile, 746.

MISSISSIPPI 315
By the same census the population of New Orleans was 4,980 ;
St. Louis, 897; Galveston, 242. The most populous district was
Tchoupitoulas, 7,046.
In his proclamation concerning the "sedition" of 1785, Governor
Miro advised the inhabitants that they must take the oath of al
legiance, which some had refused to do. He told them that those
who attempted to alienate themselves were the more guilty because
the government they were under was "the most easy, without
paying any duties, having the liberty to sell at the city all their pro
duces, even catties, to a great advantage, with the faculty of being
paid in ready cash, for the richest, which is tobacco, that his
majesty paid to them double the price of all other nations."
In the same year Governor Miro granted "some indulgence and
extension of time, in relation to their selling their property, col
lecting their debts and removing away their persons and effects."
This was confirmed by the royal order communicated by the Mar
quis de Sonora, April 5, 1786, to Count de Galvez, captain-general
of the two Floridas. This edict recited that in consequence of a
•letter from Galvez, October 27th last, and an enclosure from Don
Stephen Miro, governor of Louisiana, "concerning the inconven
iences that attend the removal of the English and American fami
lies settled in Baton Rouge, Mobile, Pensacola and Natchez, out
of the said provinces, agreeably, to the late treaty of peace," it had
pleased the king to approve the directions given Miro by Galvez
"for not changing the situation of the aforesaid families. It being
his royal will and pleasure to continue to them the 'permission
of inhabiting their respective settlements upon this indispensable
condition, that they make solemn oath of fidelity and obedience
to his majesty, that they do not go out of the limits in which they
are now settled, and shall not any time hereafter remove to any
other part, without an express license from government. That
those who do not come under these just conditions shall go by
sea to the colonies of North America at their own cost, or if they
be not able, it shall be done at the king's expense and reimbursed
out of their property as, soon as possible. . . . That the
Natchez and other parts of the Floridas where convenient shall be
divided into parishes to be served by Irish clergymen, in order to
bring over the said colonists, their children and their families to
our religion, with that mildness which the religion itself dictates."
Galvez and his subordinate governors were instructed to report
the number of parishes, and in the meantime directions were given
"to the Bishop of Salamanca to provide four of known leal, virtue
and literature from the university or any other." (Spanish Rec
ords of Natchez District, Mississippi Department of Archives and
History.) The statement of William Dunbar is that after the eighteen
months granted in the treaty for British subjects who would take
the oath of allegiance or were absent, to dispose of their property,
the^ Spanish government by proclamation twice prolonged the
period two vears or more, and it was not until after the second

316 MISSISSIPPI
term that the lands were considered as reverted to the crown, and
were granted out to petitioners. The lands of the leaders of the
rebellion were declared forfeited, and sold.
In 1785, also, Governor Miro interposed to relieve the planters
from distress at the hands of the collecting agents of the Jamaica
merchants, permitting the seizure of property only in such cases
as showed fraud or bad faith.
While Governor Miro, in league with General Wilkinson, was
intriguing to promote the acquisition of Kentucky and Tennessee
by Spain, Gardoqui, the Spanish minister to the United States,
worked effectively to encourage immigration to the Natchez.
In 1788, says Gayarre, "Col. Peter Brian Browin (Bruin), among
others, with a number of families, provided with passports from
Gardouqui, had arrived to settle in the district of Natchez." In
1790 the Forman colony came to Natchez, including Capt. Benajah
Osmun, all distinguished Revolutionary characters. It. is not to
be concluded that such immigrants had any sympathy with the
Spanish hope to create a settlement hostile to the United States.
It is even possible to believe that Wilkinson's intrigue was a great
scheme to work the Spaniards, in his private interest, as Miro
frequently suspected.
The conditions of settlement may be inferred from the instruc
tions given to Grand Pre regarding the D'Arges project. The
settlers must pledge themselves by oath on the Holy Evangelists
to be what the officers briefly designated as "good Spaniards" even
against their American brethren, should the latter invade the
Natchez district. They could believe in privacy what they pleased
about religion, but Irish priests were sent from the university of
Salamanca to perform the public rites of worship. (See Religious
Toleration.) There seems to have been some local military appointments,
but according to Governor Sargent, "there was no militia in the
Natchez district. Governor Gayoso once contemplated such es
tablishment, but the Baron Carondelet forbade it."
The census taken in 1788 showed that Natchez district had in
creased in population to 2,679, a more rapid growth than was
shown by New Orleans or St. Louis.
Following this there was considerable settlement from the
western country, in response to the efforts of the Spanish agents,
chiefly, says Wailes, in the Natchez district and Feliciana. "Many
however, under the pretense of settling permanently in the coun
try, took advantage of the permission to make several trips and to
introduce their goods and produce free, and in this manner a market
was gradually opened for the produce of the Ohio."
After 1789, according to Pickett's history of Alabama, the popu
lation was increased by a number of adventurers .who came out
expecting to obtain lands under the Georgia deals with the Caro
lina land companies, but found no land for them unless they could
acquire it from the Indians, which was forbidden by the laws of

MISSISSIPPI ¦ 317
the United States, including Georgia. Their efforts, also, were
considered as inimical to the sovereignty of Spain.
The planters were in a serious financial condition in 1789-90 and
for several years later. They had embarked in the culture of to
bacco, under the royal agreement to take 200,000 pounds annually,
and contracted large debts for negroes and implements. In 1789
untoward circumstances prevented their meeting their obligations,
and in 1790 the royal government dropped its offer for tobacco
to 40,000 pounds. At the same time the concessions made to
Wilkinson brought Kentucky tobacco into the market in such
abundance as to seriously lower the price. For this reason the
culture of indigo was renewed and cotton introduced. Governor
Carondelet presented these facts to the king's minister in 1794,
and said that if the law was permitted to have its course, these peo
ple rather than allow themselves to be utterly ruined, would take
refuge with their negroes on the territory of the Indians and the
Americans. It is to be supposed that the petition was granted,
and the planters were granted a delay of payment until the gather-
*ing-in of the crop of 1800, provided annual payments were made
in the meantime. According to later representations, the district,
at the close of Spanish dominion, was in a condition of financial
prostration, but on the verge of recovery through the culture of
cotton. In 1790, by the treaty of Natchez, the boundaries of the district
were reaffirmed, on the old lines, with a new cession of a site for
Fort Nogales, on Walnut hills.
The official communications indicated no expectation of giving
up the country to the United States. The continual effort, on the
other hand, was to enlarge the dominion of the king, up to the
Ohio river, if possible. Finally, when the treaty of relinquishment
was made in 1795, it was understood as a temporary expedient of
international policy in Europe, resorted to in the confusion of
the Napoleonic era, when royalty of the Bourbori stamp was strug
gling for existence. It does not appear that the governor of Louis
iana or his subordinates expected the treaty to be carried into ef
fect. They had some hope that the inhabitants would remain
loyal to the king. The subject is further presented in "Advent of
the Flag" and other articles.
The first treaties of the United States with the Indians of the
Southwest after the settlement of the question of American suprem
acy over the Indians, which was an essential part of the treaty
with Spain, were those at Chickasaw Bluffs and Loftus Heights,
by General Wilkinson, to secure the right to improve the Natchez
Trace, the famous route for river traders returning northward
from New Orleans. Next came the treaties at Fort Confederation
which provided for the resurvey of the old line of Natchez district,
which had been neglected during the Spanish regime.
Concerning this negotiation with the Choctaws ' President Jef
ferson wrote in his message to congress December 15, 1802 : "The
country to which their title had been extinguished before the Rev-

318 MISSISSIPPI
olution is sufficient to receive a very respectable population, which
Congress will probably see the expediency of encouraging, so soon
as the limits shall be declared. We are to view this position as
an outpost of the United States, surrounded by strong neighbors,
and distant from its support." (Authority, Spanish Records of the
Natchez District on file in the Mississippi Department of Archives
and History. Used for the first time in this work.)
Natchez Fencibles, a famous volunteer military company organ
ized under the leadership of John A. Quitman, April 21, 1824,
with the motto, "Try Us." The stated days of parade were Janu
ary 8, February 22, April 21 and July 4. In 1827 the officers were :
John A. Quitman, captain; John I. Guion, first lieutenant; Duncan
S. Walker, second lieutenant; A. Bingham, third lieutenant; G.
Powell, W. H. Chaille, Daniel C. Miller, Henry Millard, sergeants;
Henry T. Miller, Benjamin Wade, James Ferguson, Eli Mont
gomery, corporals; William C. Grissam, treasurer; David John
ston, inspector. Under this name Company G, 12th regiment, was
mustered in April 5, 1861.
Natchez Hospital. The Natchez hospital was incorporated
January 18, 1805. Governor Holmes addressed the governors of
Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania
and Indiana, iri May, 1818, stating that the hospital had hitherto
received its principal support from the legislature and the donations
of charitable individuals, but as it was intended chiefly for stran
gers, the boatmen of the river, other States were asked to contribute
to its maintenance. "It may however be proper to say that the
best medical assistance is rendered gratuitously, and that the
building, which is situated on a healthy eminence, is well, calcu
lated to answer the purpose for which it was intended." In 1840
the State hospital at Natchez treated 166 patients, $5,000 was an
nually drawn from the State treasury, $500 from special taxes and
$5,697 from relief committees. The hospital is now mainly main
tained by the State, the appropriations of 1904-05 aggregating over
$35,000. Natchez Indians. The Natchez Indians have long since been
extinct as a nation, and they live only in story and tradition, and in
the name of the beautiful old city of. Natchez, built in the heart
of the region they once inhabited. Dim traditions hint that they
were once a powerful people, boasting some sixty villages and
eight hundred suns or princes. Father Charlevoix wrote of them
in 1721 : "About six years ago they reckoned among them four
thousand warriors. It appears that they were more numerous in
the time of M. La Salle, and even when M. d'lberville discovered
the mouth of the Mississippi. At, present the Natchez cannot raise
two thousand fighting men. They attribute this decrease to some
contagious diseases, which in these last years have made a great
ravage among them." Father le Petit declared that the Natchez
were reduced to six little villages and eleven suns, at the. time of
the massacre of the French in 1729. The Taensas Indians, who oc
cupied the present parish of Tensas in Louisiana, were an offshoot

MISSISSIPPI 319
of the Natchez, with the same religion, manners and customs.
The fertility of the Natchez district at once appealed to the French,
and d'lberville took pains to conclude a formal treaty of peace
with the tribe in 1700; and in 1716 Bienville built Fort Rosalie and
established the first French post among them. From this time
on many French settled among them. The first settlers bought
their lands of the Indians, but afterwards little regard was shown
for Indian proprietorship. This steady encroachment of the
French on their domain, combined with ill-treatment and cupidity,
precipitated the fatal massacre of 1729. (q. v.)
Writers have been fond of portraying the Natchez as the most
civilized of all the southern tribes of Indians, but there is little or
nothing to warrant the picture. They occupied a region highly
favored by soil and climate, which may have given them a more
permanent habitat than other tribes. But there was nothing in
their religion, architecture, or mode of life to set them above or
apart from many other Indian tribes. They were sun worship
pers and believed that their hereditary chiefs were descended from
the sun, a belief prevailing among many other tribes — notably
the Choctaws and Hurons. If they relied more on agriculture,
and less on hunting and fishing, for the means of subsistence, the
fertile area occupied by them, will readily account for it. Their
religion was in the highest degree primitive and brutal. Says
Charlevoix: "When this Great Chief, or the Woman Chief dies,
all their Allouez or guards, are obliged to follow them into the
other world; but they are not the only persons who have this
honor; for so it is reckoned among them, and is greatly sought
after. The death of a chief sometimes costs the lives of more than
a hundred persons ; and I have been assured that very few princi
pal persons of the Natchez die, without being escorted to the
country of souls by some of their relations, their friends, or their
servants." The horrible ceremonies attendant on human sacri
fices have been frequently detailed by early writers. Their idea
of a future life was sufficiently crude. The good enjoyed a per
petual feast of green corn, venison and melons, and -the bad were
condemned to a diet of alligators and spoiled fish. The chiefs of
the Natchez bore the name of Suns and the head chief was called
the Great Sun. He was always succeeded by the son of the woman
most nearly related to him. This woman had the title of Woman
Chief, and though she did not meddle with the government, she
was paid great honors. Like the great chief, she also had the
power of life and death. "The government was an absolute
despotism. The supreme chief was master of their labor, their
property and their lives. He never labored and when he needed
provisions he issued invitations for a feast, and all the principal
inhabitants were required to attend, and to bring supplies sufficient
for the entertainment and for the support of the royal family,
until he chose to proclaim another festival." (Claiborne, p. 24.)
The Natchez were divided into two classes, that of the nobility,
and that of the common people, called "Stinkards." While they

320 MISSISSIPPI
understood one another, their dialects were different. When
Charlevoix ,saw the great village of the Natchez, it consisted of
only a few cabins, and he explained its small bize by the statement
that the savages, from whom the great chie'f had the right to take
all they had, got as far from him as they could.
He has left us a vivid picture of the village and its royal dwel
ling and temple. There is certainly no evidence of a higher civi
lization portrayed. The temple is built-of the same crude mate
rials as the other cabins, only larger. Inside, he "Never saw any
thing more slovenly and dirty, nor more in disorder. . . . We
see nothing in their outward appearance that distinguishes them
from the other savages of Canada and Louisiana. They seldom
make war, not placing their glory in destroying men. What dis
tinguishes them more particularly, is the form of their govern
ment, entirely despotic; a great dependence, which extends even
to a kind of slavery, in the subjects; more pride and grandeur in
the chiefs, and their pacific spirit, which, however, they have not
entirely preserved for some years past."
The miserable remnant of the once powerful tribe was finally
defeated and utterly crushed by the French at Natchitoches, in
1732 and their identity became merged in that of the Chickasaws
and other tribes, among whom the few survivors took refuge.
Natchez Massacre, 1729. This unlooked for massacre began on
Monday, the 28th day of November, 1729, about nine o'clock in
the morning. Relations with the warlike and subtle tribe of the
Natchez had been strained ever since the French post had been
established at Natchez in 1716. Preliminary murders by the In
dians, followed by swift retribution on the part of the French,
prevented any lasting peace,. In 1723 had occurred the first gen
eral outbreak of the Indians, which Bienville quelled with charac
teristic severity. The misconduct, cupidity and injustice of some
of the French commanders, particularly Chopart, inflamed the
savages with hatred and a desire for revenge, with the result that
in one day the Natchez massacred most of the settlers among
¦them. In very early times the Natchez were reputed to have been
a very numerous people, counting some sixty villages and eight
hundred suns or princes. At the beginning of the 18th century
they were reduced to six little villages and eleven suns. On the
other hand, the French, at Natchez, were a small and compara
tively helpless band in comparison with the Indians ; their garri
son at Fort Rosalie was small and the planters were living on
isolated farms. In Claiborne's History, p. 236, foot-note, it is
stated : "The French, under concessions granted by the king, had,
at the time of the massacre, several extensive and well improved
plantations around Natchez, particularly on St. Catherine's extend- .
ing from the present Washington road, down said creek, on both
sides, to the Woodville road. There was a plantation, near the
mouth of Cole's creek; one or two on Bayou Pierre, and at Wal
nut Hills, and quite a settlement around Fort St. Peter, on the
Yazoo. Nearly all the occupants perished at the time of the mas-

MISSISSIPPI 321
sacre. The few that escaped, made their way to New Orleans.
And it is remarkable that their claims, which were unquestionably
valid, and would, doubtless, have been recognized by either the
Spanish or British government, were never presented."
The Natchez gained entrance to the fort by a stratagem and
the historic massacre began. It is probable that there was an
agreement between the Natchez and the Chickasaws, Yasous, and
other confederate tribes, to make a joint attack on the French, on
a certain day — all to share in the distribution of the booty. The
design was doubtless hastened by the requirement of Chopart,
commandant of Fort Rosalie, that White Apple Village, on Sec
ond creek about 12 miles from Natchez, should be abandoned, so
that it, with its surrounding fields, might be converted into a
French plantation ; and the Natchez were tempted also to antici
pate the day agreed upon by the arrival of a number of richly laden
boats for the garrison and the colonists. Father le Petit, whose
account of the massacre, is perhaps as reliable as any, in his ac
count of the last Natchez war says "First they divided themselves,
and sent into the fort, into the village, and into the two grants,
as many Indians as there were French in each of these places;
then they feigned that they were going out for a grand hunt and
undertook to trade with the French for guns, powder and ball,
offering to pay them as much, and even more than was customary,
and in truth, as there was no reason to suspect their fidelity, they
made at that time an exchange of their poultry and corn, for some
arms and ammunition which they used advantageously against us.
They had been on their guard against the Tchactas (Choctaws),
but as for the Natchez, they never distrusted them. Having thus
posted themselves in different houses, provided with the arms
obtained from us, they attacked at the same time each his man,
and in less than two hours they massacred more than two hundred
of the French. The best known are Father du Poisson, M. de
Chopart, commander of the post, M. du Codere, commander among
the Yasous, M. des Ursins, Messieurs de Kolly and son, Messieurs
de Longrays, des Noyers, Bailly, etc. . . . These barbarians
spared but two of the French, a tailor and a carpenter, who were
able to serve their wants. They did not treat badly either the
negro slaves, or the Indians who were willing to give themselves
up; but they ripped up the belly of every pregnant woman, and
killed almost all those who were nursing their children, because
they were disturbed by their cries and tears. They did not kill
the other women, but made them their slaves. . . . During
the massacre, the Sun, or the great chief of the Natchez, was seated
quietly under the tobacco shed of the company. His warriors
brought to his feet the head of the commander, about which they
ranged those of the principal French of the post, leaving their
bodies a prey to the dogs, the buzzards, and other carnivorous
birds. The Tchactas, and the other Indians being engaged in the
plot with them, they felt at their ease, and did not at all fear they
would draw on themselves the vengeance which was merited by
21-11

322 MISSISSIPPI
their cruelty and perfidy." On December 11, the Yasous treach
erously murdered the missionary priest, Father Souel; and the
following day the Chevalier des Roches, who commanded the post
among the Yasous in the absence of M. de Codere, and the seven
teen men of the garrison were all massacred by this tribe, the lives
of the few women and children being spared.
On receipt of the news of this great catastrophe to the French,
the governor general, Perrier, at New Orleans, sent Chevalier
Lubois, with a small army to exterminate the Natchez. Perrier
secured the cooperation of the powerful tribe of Choctaws, as
well as the Tonikas and some smaller tribes. The Natchez were
fiercely attacked and besieged in their two forts. A truce resulted
after seven days, and the Natchez surrendered the prisoners in
their hands, in consideration of the withdrawal of seven pieces of
cannon by the French. The Natchez finally fled across the Mis
sissippi and intrenched themselves near Red river; they were
pursued by the French and compelled to surrender in the year
1731. Their children and women were reduced to slavery; some
of the warriors took refuge among the Chickasaws, but the Great
Sun, St. Cosme, with several hundred prisoners, were taken to
New Orleans and, by order of the prime minister, Maurepas, sold
as slaves and shipped to St. Domingo, and the proceeds were
turned into the Colonial treasury to pay the expenses of the war.
Natchez Tornado of 1840. Henry Tooley made an elaborate
report of this disaster, including observations of the barometer
and thermometer during the storm. ' The day, May 7, opened
densely cloudy and very warm, increasing in heat until noon. At
12 :45 the roar of the approaching storm could be heard in the
southwest, with a gale blowing toward it, from the northeast.
The thunder and lightning was incessant. An hour later inky
clouds were sweeping up both sides of the river, the city was soon
enveloped in darkness, terrific thunder shook the earth, the wind
whirled to the southeast, and at 2 o'clock the tornado swept
through the city, followed by a calm. There was about five min
utes while the storm was felt close at hand, a few seconds in which
it accomplished its work. "Every building in the city was more
or less injured, many utterly demolished, and very many unroofed,
with their walls more or less broken or thrown down ; every tree
and fence prostrated, and the streets filled with scattered fragments
of every kind and nearly impassable." The famous district,
"Natchez under the Hill," was swept with "the besom of destruc
tion, overthrowing, crashing and demolishing almost every house,
shop and building, and at one fell swoop reduced that part of the
city into undistinguished ruin. Three steamers break from their
moorings; their upper works are blown as feathers; two of them
capsize and sink and nearly all their crews and passengers perish.
More than sixty flatboats laden with up-country produce break
from their fastenings and with their crews disappear."
The casualties were given as follows : killed in the city, 48 ; per
ished on the river, 269 ; wounded in the city, 74, on the river, 35.

MISSISSIPPI 323
A woman was rescued from the wreck of the Steamboat hotel,
alive but mangled, with her two dead children in her arms. The
most widespread damage was done in Louisiana, in the earlier
path of the tornado, and hundreds were reported killed. The court
house at Vidalia was wrecked, burying Judge Kerton in the ruins.
Natchez was visited by a delegation from New Orleans bringing
a corps of surgeons and several thousand dollars of money for the
relief of the suffering. Mr. Tooley, who was one of the most ac
curate meteorologists of his age, noted those facts regarding the
storm that sustain the modern scientific explanation. Many houses,
where the rooms were closed, were exploded by the surrounding
vacuum created by the funnel of the tornado; the juices of leaves,
and herbs and grass were extracted so that they withered.
Natchez Trace. See Roads.
National Cemeteries. There are three national cemeteries in
Mississippi. One is located at Vicksburg; one at Natchez, and one
at Corinth. The reservation at Vicksburg contains an area of 40
acres and a cemetery roadway which was deeded to the United
States by Alvey H. Jaynes and wife of Ohio, August 27, 1866 ; the
reservation at Natchez embraces an area of 11.07 acres, and was
conveyed to the United States by Margaret Case et al., January
31, 1867, the city of Natchez afterwards conveying rights of way;
the Corinth reservation contains an area of 20 acres which was
deeded to the United States by Calvin V. Vance and wife et al.,
February 1, 1868, a right of way being subsequently obtained from
the city and others. Jurisdiction over these several cemeteries
was ceded to the United States by an act of the legislature, ap
proved February 12, 1875, which declared : "That exclusive juris
diction be, and hereby is, given to the United States to and over
the following tracts of land and appurtenances thereunto belong
ing, to-wit: All of a tract or parcel of land situated near the city
of Natchez, in the county of Adams, inclosed by a brick wall, and
known as the Natchez National Cemetery; also, all of a tract or
parcel of land situated on the banks of the Mississippi river, near
the city of Vicksburg, in the county of Warren; said tract em
braces not only all that is enclosed by a brick wall, but also a strip
lying between the southwest side of said wall and the Mississippi
river, now owned by the United States and occupied for purposes
aforesaid, and known as the Vicksburg National Cemetery; also,
another certain tract of land; situated near the city of Corinth, in
the county of Alcorn, consisting of 20 acres (more or less), and
known as the Corinth National Cemetery; the legal title to said
several parcels of land being now in the United States for purposes
aforesaid." In 1901 Governor Longino appointed a committee representing
each Mississippi command within the Vicksburg lines during the
siege, to ascertain the position of the troops, with a view to having
the same marked by monuments. The committee met at Vicks
burg May 15, 1901; In 1904 he made the report of the committee
a part of his message, and urged that "the subject should be con-

324 MISSISSIPPI
sidered broadly and patriotically, and an appropriation made for
monument and markers." In 1906 an appropriation was finally
made by the legislature in accordance with the above recommen
dation. National Guard. See Militia, State.
Navigation and Limits. The Mississippi river was wholly with
in the territory of the French province of Louisiana until after
the treaty of February, 1763, by which it was "agreed that for
the future, the limits between the possessions of his Most Christian
Majesty and those of his Brittanic Majestic in that part of the
world shall be irrevocably fixed by a line drawn along the middle
of the River Mississippi, from its source to the River Iberville, and
from thence by a line in the middle of that stream and of the
Lakes Maurepas and the Ponchartrain to the sea . . . with the
understanding that the navigation of the Mississippi shall be free
and open to the subjects of his Brittanic Majesty as well as those
of his Most Christian Majesty, in all its length from its source to
the sea, and particularly that part of it which is between said Is
land (of New Orleans, retained by France) and New Orleans
and the right bank of the river, including egress and ingress at its
mouth. It is further stipulated that the ships of both nations shall
not be stopped on the river, visited, or subjected to any duty."
Beforehand, France had given, by secret treaty, all her posses
sions on the Mississippi to Spain, which nation a few years later
took possession of New Orleans. The English rights of naviga
tion were never denied, except as smuggling was prohibited, until
Spain declared war on England as an ally of France, during the
American revolution. When peace was made in 1782, England
agreed to a declaration of American bounds on the Mississippi
identical to those made by the treaty of 1763, as far south as the
original line of British West Florida.
It was also provided that "the navigation of the river Mississippi
from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open
to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United
States." This was more important as a menace to Spain than the
assertion of a boundary on the 31° parallel. Thereafter she under
stood that any concession to the United States meant a concession
to England, her great commercial rival.
In a conference with Lafayette in February, 1783, the Count of
Florida Blanca put in writing "that although it is his majesty's
intention to abide for the present by the limits established by the
treaty of the 30th November, 1782, between, the British and Ameri
cans, the king intends to inform himself particularly whether it
can be in any ways inconvenient to settle that affair amicably with
the United States." To the remonstrance of Lafayette that it was
a fixed principle to abide by the limits fixed by the English and
Americans, Blanca said verbally that only "unimportant details"
were to be considered unadjusted. He would by no means oppose
the general principle. In the presence of Montmorin, the ambas
sador of France, at Lafayette's request, he gave "his word of honor

MISSISSIPPI 325
for it." So Lafayette told, and Blanca said the story was "the
grossest misrepresentation on the part of Lafayette."
The treaty of peace between Spain and England was signed
January 20, 1783. In this England ceded to Spain the two Floridas,
without describing the limits. This treaty was confirmed by a
definitive treaty September 3, 1783, six months after the treaty
between the United States and England had been published in
America. It follows (as Pinckney told Godoy) that Spain was
content with the limit of the 31st parallel, and did not seek to
obtain the definition of other limits, from England, or that she
did so seek and failed. The latter was probably the case.
As to the equal right of navigation on the Mississippi river, the
United States claimed it as the successor of Great Britain, under
the treaty between France and England in 1763 ; also as a natural
right. In December, 1784, congress resolved to send a minister to Spain,
to adjust the differences respecting the navigation of the Missis
sippi, and other matters; but this was made unnecessary, much to
the advantage of Spain by the action of Florida Blanca, who sent
Don Diego de Gardoqui to Philadelphia, as minister, in the spring
of 1785. Congress authorized John Jay, secretary of foreign af
fairs, to negotiate with him. But, at the outset, Gardoqui frankly
stated that the Spanish made a conquest of the country east of the
Mississippi river and proposed to hold it as well as the exclusive
control of the river. How far north the Spanish claim extended,
Jay had been unable to determine in 1786, but it appeared that the
Spanish attached some significance to the capture of the post of
St. Joseph, on Lake Michigan, by Don Eugenio Parre, marching
from St. Louis in January, 1781.
Great Britain was also maintaining military possession of the
northwest, and defending this by charging the United States with
breach of the treaty in other respects. The problem was so difficult
that Jay submitted to congress, August 3, 1786, a plan for a com
mercial treaty with Spain (which was greatly desired), coupled
with the provision that during the life of the treaty, twenty or
twenty-five years, the United States, without relinquishing any
right, would forbear to navigate the Mississippi river below their
territories to the gulf. Seven northern States, mainly interested
in Atlantic trade, supported this proposition, on the understanding
that the right to the Mississippi should not be waived and Spain
should acknowledge the boundary of the 31st parallel. The dis
cussions of congress on this subject leaked out, and as the rumor
reached the Ohio and other frontier settlements it was told that
Jay had surrendered the river. The proposition was, in fact, dic
tated by the commercial sentiment of the Northeast, which took
little account of the importance of the great domain from Biloxi
to Duluth. "The extreme representatives of this northeastern sec
tionalism not only objected to the growth of the west at the time
now under consideration, but even avowed a desire to work it
harm, by shutting the Mississippi, so as to benefit the commerce

326 MISSISSIPPI
of the Atlantic States. . . . These intolerant extremists not
only opposed the admission of the young, western states into the
Union, but at a later date actually announced that the annexation
by the United States of vast territories beyond the Mississippi
offered just cause for the secession of the northeastern states.
Even those who did not take such an advanced ground felt an un
reasonable dread lest the west might grow to overtop the east in
power." (Roosevelt, The Winning of the West.)
The Southern delegates, closer to the pioneer, made it impossi
ble to propose such a treaty, with the result, to be impartially
noted, that the limits were not recognized for twelve years ; the
river was not free until a longer period had elapsed, and the United
States missed all the advantages of a commercial treaty with
Spain. The settlement of Kentucky had vastly increased in 1784-86, and
"the shipment of flour, whiskey and other products to New Orleans
from as far up as Pittsburg, on flatboats and barges, was the com
mercial outlet that promised profitable returns to the producer,
the cost of transportation by wagons over the mountains being
enormous. The settlers on the upper Tennessee and Cumberland
also depended on river communication altogether. Hence congress
and the eastern people began to hear in 1787 that the inhabitants
of the west were highly irritated about the "Jay treaty," that Ken
tucky proposed to secede from Virginia, that the Cumberland peo
ple were talking of an expedition to take possession of Natchez
and New Orleans, and John Sullivan was organizing a similar
movement in Kentucky. Congress, in September, 1788, absolved
the members from secrecy on the subject, and resolved that "the
free navigation of the river Mississippi is a clear and essential
right of the United States, and that the same ought to be consid
ered and supported as such."
Consequently, within the period of the confederation nothing
was done. The proposition was one that required a higher degree
of mutual interest, a closer bond between the States. Gardoqui,
during his stay, busied himself mainly with organizing a secret
service throughout the United States and encouraging emigration
into the region held by Spain. He was doubtless cognizant also
of the Spanish policy to make the navigation of the river as diffi
cult as possible to the Americans without absolute prohibition,
so as to encourage the secession of the west from the Union, but
he carefully left the secession intrigue to Governor Miro and Col
onel James Wilkinson, who had settled in Kentucky in 1786. Later,
when Gardoqui had returned to Spain and was negotiating with
Carmichael and Short, he allowed them to perceive that he fully
understood the dissensions and jealousies in the United States,
and consequently refused to believe that the United States dared
enforce its claims by the sword.
The greater powers of the constitution permitted a revival of
the negotiations. It was one of the main features of that military
and diplomatic conquest of the west that occupied the whole of

MISSISSIPPI 327
Washington's administration. The events in the Southwest dif
fered from those on the Northwest merely in this, that the Ameri
can policy was to keep the Spanish Indians quiet, until the British
Indians could be brought to terms by. an army. The United States
was not prepared to make war at once on both wings of the situ
ation, partly because State jealousy refused the Federal govern
ment the use of more than 5,000 soldiers, and partly because opin
ion was quite gravely divided as to whether it was worth while
to conquer the west. That was a subject on which George Wash
ington never entertained a doubt. His character never was more
grandly displayed than in this long and perplexing and at times
apparently hopeless struggle to subdue the wilderness to allegiance
to the United States.
Washington sent an envoy to Spain to seek a settlement of
navigation and limits in 1790, and the aid of France was solicited,
but the European situation was not favorable. About the close of
1791 Spain gave notice of readiness for negotiation, and in January,
1792, William Carmichael and William Short, charges des affaires
at Madrid and Paris, were commissioned, and given elaborate
instructions by Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson's instructions covered the arguments from the Amer
ican point of view. He also asked a commercial treaty. As a last
resort of argument he suggested that the turmoil of affairs in
Europe must before long present an opportunity for the United
States to resume "an occasion for resuming our territory and nav
igation and of carving for ourselves those conveniences on the
shores which may facilitate and protect the latter effectually and
permanently." But Spain had lately fortified the Walnut Hills, and showed no
signs of yielding. Gardoqui proposed to the commissioners that
American vessels unload cargoes on American soil [possibly
thinking of Cairo] and Spanish vessels carry the cargoes to New
Orleans. He would not dare permit American vessels to enter the
mouth of the river, free, for fear England would claim the same
privilege. He was afraid of smuggling, and attempts to incite the
French to independence. Spain did not need the United States,
commercially, he said, but "the United States, having no mines of
gold or silver, could not do without Spain."
Before these negotiations, however, could be got into train, the
new troubles which had arisen in Europe had produced new com
binations among the powers there. In the meantime the nego
tiations were complicated by the discussion of the restitution of
fugitive slave property, the treatment of fugitives from justice,
and the Indian relations. Washington declared he had the best
reason to believe Spanish agents incited the Indians to hostilities,
and the Spaniards coolly retorted with similar charges. As Wash
ington said: "A claim of patronage and protection of these In
dians was asserted ; a mediation between them and us by that
sovereign assumed; their boundaries with us made a subject of
interference; and at length, at the very moment when these sav-

328 MISSISSIPPI
ages were committing daily inroads upon our frontier, we were
informed by them (the Spanish) that 'the continuation of the
peace, good harmony and perfect friendship of the two nations,
was very problematical for the future, unless the United States
should take more convenient measures and a greater energy than
those adopted for a long time past.' " This meant that if the
United States did not vigorously protect the Creeks and Cherokees
from the Georgians and East Tennesseans, Spain might be com
pelled to. Col. Humphreys was sent to Madrid, then, to ascertain
if Spain proposed to maintain such an Indian policy, and to insist
on "immediate and full enjoyment" of the river navigation, with
a free port to New Orleans or near there, and relinquishment of
all pretensions above 31°, with the suggestion to Spain that the
western people were impatient, and whatever they might do the
United States would never abandon them.
Humphreys discovered that Spain was satisfied to stand by its
Indian policy, without any yielding. Godoy, favorite of the queen,
duke of Alcudia, later entitled "the prince of the peace," was then
in charge of foreign affairs, and in December, 1794, he promised
to proceed with a treaty "with the utmost dispatch."
Upon a suggestion from Madrid, Thomas Pinckney, minister at
London, was sent to take up the negotiations as envoy extraordi
nary. Reaching Madrid about July 1, 1795, he was met with
various pretexts for delay, leading up to a proposition of triple
alliance, including France. He replied that a recognition of our
rights would be the basis of a friendship as valuable as an alliance.
He also refused to promise an alliance for the protection of Louis
iana. Godoy was offended and negotiations stopped. Meanwhile
the duke made peace with France, giving up part of San Domingo,
but refusing the demand for Louisiana. It was also known that
Jay had negotiated a treaty with England, which might be a step
toward invasion of the Spanish possessions. It seems that Monroe,
doing his best at Paris, managed to make it appear that a treaty
between France and the United States was probable. France was
strengthened by alliance with Prussia. Pinckney threatened to
take his departure; Godoy decided to yield, hoping American
friendship would protect Louisiana, and in September submitted
a form of treaty. Pinckney proposed many changes and insisted
on a depot at New Orleans, and a free hand with the Indians
within the limits of the United States.
Finally the treaty was agreed upon and signed at San Lorenzo,
October 27, 1795. Next day Pinckney was informed that the king
had sent orders to the governor of Natchez, who "had advanced
to occupy the post of the Barrancas of Margot (Memphis) compre
hended within our ancient limits," to suspend all hostility with
any forces from Kentucky that might advance against him. But
it was not until three years later that Wayne's veterans of the
Maumee campaign went into camp at Davion's rock.
It will throw some light on the situation to recall that in the
year this treaty was made the United States was unable to borrow

MISSISSIPPI 329
money in Flolland to free the American citizens held as slaves in
Algiers, and Portugal was protecting American shipping from the
Mediterranean pirates.
More than once, during this long negotiation, the government
considered the proposition of admitting the English of Canada to
a port on the upper Mississippi, in consideration of aid against
Spain. But the Washington policy of avoiding entangling alli
ances was held to, despite the periods of doubt. Alexander Ham
ilton, in 1792, when the war between the Chickasaws and Creeks
promised to involve Spain and the United States, proposed to ask
England to become an ally of the United States, and prevent war,
on the promise of admitting her to some navigable part of the
riyer in the Northwest and giving her joint freedom in naviga
tion. Washington replied to this that "the remedy would be worse
than the disease." England, however, was always guaranteed by
the United States the free exercise of her rights of navigation
under the treaty of 1763, and this was definitely renewed in Jay's
treaty with England, in 1794. In the treaty of 1795 with the
United States, Spain asserted the right to exclude any nation but
the United States, to which she yielded equal rights of navigation
and a depot for transfer of goods at New Orleans. Following this,
on demand of England, the United States renewed the guarantee
to England of her old right under the treaty of 1763, against which
Spain protested, made war on England, and blocked the carrying
out of the treaty of 1795. (See Louisiana Relations.)
Navina, a postoffice of Kemper county.
Nearby, a postoffice of Neshoba county, on the Pearl river, 7
miles northwest of Philadelphia, the county seat..
Needmore, a postoffice of Tallahatchie county, 10 miles south
west of Charleston, the county seat.
Neels Ferry, a postoffice of Quitman county, situated on the Cold"
water river, 9 miles north of Belen, the county seat.
Nesbitt, an incorporated post-town of about 200 people in De
Soto county, situated eighteen miles south of Memphis, on the Illi
nois Central railroad, and six miles north of Hernando, the county
seat. By reason of its proximity to Memphis, the country about it
is especially favorable for the introduction of Dairy farming and the
growing of fruits and vegetables for the Memphis market. The
soil, however, needs the application of fertilizers in order to render
it highly productive. It has an academy, 2 churches and a saw
mill. Neshoba County is one of the more sparsely settled counties, a
little east of the central part of the State. The county has a land
surface of 543 square miles. It was formed December 23rd, 1833,
from the territory ceded by the Choctaw Nation three years earlier,
and a desirable class of emigrants from the older States and the
other parts of Mississippi came into the region at an early day.
The name "Neshoba" is an Indian word meaning "grey wolf." The
county is in the form of a square, containing sixteen townships,
and is bounded on the north by Winston county, on the east by

330 MISSISSIPPI
Kemper county, on the south by Newton county and on the west
by Leake county. It originally embraced the townships numbered
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12, of ranges 10, 11, 12 and 13. February
5, 1836, townships 5, 6, 7 and 8 were taken from it to form the pres
ent county of Newton, (q. v.). Its interests are almost exclusively
agricultural. It has one railroad the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas
City, which has recently been completed, and now traverses the
county from north to south. It is a county of farms and small
settlements. The county seat is Philadelphia which is located on
a picturesque site, near the center of the county. It is an incor
porated town of 700 inhabitants. A few of the other villages are
Dixon, Emmet, Centralia, Trussell, Waneta, 'Northbend, Neshoba,
Cushtusa, McDonald, Burnside and Pilgrim. The county is well
watered by the Pearl River and the numerous tributary creeks
which form its head streams. It is an undulating and hilly region
with level reaches along the river and creek bottoms. The soil
varies a good deal in composition ; it is fertile on the bottoms, fairly
good on the rolling lands and sandy and light in the hills, with a
clay subsoil. The timber growth consists of oaks, pine, hickory,
black walnut, beech and cypress. The products are those com
mon to the central parts of Mississippi ; corn, cotton, oats, wheat,
peas, sweet and Irish potatoes, sorghum, and a large quantity of
fruits and vegetables raised for home consumption. Large beds-
of green sand marls have been found in the county and there are
numerous "reed brakes." Considerable attention of late years has
been given to raising live stock and the industry has assumed con
siderable proportions. The value of the live stock in 1900 was con
siderably over $400,000. Since the advent of the new railroad the
county has developed rapidly.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population: —
Number of farms 2,256, acreage of farms 266,491, acres improved
74,470, value of lands exclusive of buildings $702,680, value of
buildings $353,120, value of the live stock $439,445, total value of
products not fed $817,228. Number of manufacturing establish
ments 28, capital invested $31,740, wages paid $3,662, cost of mate
rials $10,674, total value of products $27,573. The population in
1900 consisted of whites 9, 874, colored 2,852, a total of 12,726 and
an increase of 1,580 over the year 1890. The manufactories in the
county have increased fully 50 per cent, since 1900, and real estate
values have increased four-fold during the same period. New set
tlers are rapidly coming in and in 1906 the population of the county
was estimated at 15,000. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property in Neshoba county in 1905 was $1,355,398 and
in 1906 it was $2,767,769, which shows an increase of $1,412,371
during the year.
Nettleton, a thriving station on the St. Louis & San Francisco
R. R., located on the southern line of Lee county, about 13 miles
south of Tupelo. It was named for a former vice-president of the -
above railroad. It is an incorporated post-town and has several

MISSISSIPPI 331
stores, a brick plant, a cotton gin, 2 banks, 4 churches and a fine
graded school. The Bank of Nettleton was established in 1904,
and is a branch of The Bank of Tupelo. The Peoples Bank &
Trust Co. of Tupelo have also a branch bank located here estab
lished in 1904. The population in 1906 was estimated at 600. It is
surrounded by a fine farming district.
Nevada, a hamlet in the northwestern part of Hinds county, near
the left bank of the Big Black river, about 22 miles northwest of
Jackson. Population in 1900, 30.
New, a postoffice of Jasper county.
New Albany, the capital of Union county, is a prosperous incor
porated town, situated on the Tallahatchie river, 34 miles southeast
of Holly Springs, and 79 miles from Memphis. It is at the junction
of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham, and the Mobile, Jack
son & Kansas City Railroads, which provide it with excellent ship
ping facilities in every direction. It is in a good agricultural section
and there is an abundance of fine timber in the surrounding region,
while the Tallahatchie river affords it ample water power for mills
and factories. It is the market town for a large section of the sur
rounding country, and its shipping and -manufacturing interests are
developing at a rapid rate. Among the manufacturing enterprises
now in the town, are the New Albany Clothing Mfg. Co., a cotton
compress, a planing mill, iron works, a cotton-seed oil mill, pressed
brick and tile works, a soft mud brick plant — capacity 32,000 bricks
a day, an ice and cold storage plant, the New Albany Furniture
Mfg. Co., three saw mills, two Munger System gins, an ax-handle
factory, also a spade, shovel and hoe-handle factory, a box factory,
an electric light and water plant owned and operated by the town,
and tombstone and marble works. There are two wholesale grd-
cery houses, three hotels, and one livery barn. It has express,
telegraph and banking facilities, good schools and several churches.
The Bank of New Albany was established in 1896, present capital
$60,000 ; the Merchants & Farmers Bank was established in 1903,
present capital $75,000 ; The Citizens Bank and Trust Co. was
established in 1905, capital $65,000. The Gazette, a Democratic
daily newspaper, was established in 1890; The Vidette, a Demo
cratic weekly, was established in 1904.
The population of New Albany doubled in the decade, 1890-1900,
and continues to increase at a rapid rate ; in 1900 it was 1,033 ; in
1906 it was estimated at 3,000. The following fraternities have
lodges here viz : — Masons, including Blue Lodge, Chapter and
Council ; Odd Fellows ; Knights of Pythias ; Knights of Honor and
Woodmen of the world. The M. J. & K. C. R. R. shops are located
here; also a large canning factory. The total capital invested in
manufacturing here in 1906 amounted to $525,000 which is $435,-
224 more than the total capital invested in the whole county in
1900. New Augusta, county seat of Perry county, two miles south of
Augusta, the old county seat. It is the railroad station for Au
gusta, on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R. It has two

332 MISSISSIPPI
large saw mills, a cotton gin and grist mill combined and a tur
pentine distillery, a bank and a population in 1906 of about 250.
Newbell, or Newmans Station, a hamlet of Warren county, on
the Alabama & Vicksburg, R. R., 8 miles east of Vicksburg. The
postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and mail now goes to
Bovina. Newhebron, an incorporated post-town in the northern part of
Lawrence county, on the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship
Island R. R., one and a half miles west of old Hebron. It has
several stores, and a bank. The Bank of Hebron was established
here in 1904. In the vicinity are several saw mills, and the town
is growing rapidly. The population in 1906 was estimated at 500.
Newit, a postoffice of Lawrence county, 7 miles southwest of
Monticello, the county seat, on Halls creek. Booneville, one mile
south, is the nearest railroad station.
Newman, a post-hamlet in the western part of Hinds county,
situated on the Big Black river, 18 miles west of Raymond, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 67.
New Orleans Exposition, 1885. Major S. A. Jonas was ap
pointed commissioner of the World's Industrial and Cotton expo
sition, for the State by the president of the United States, upon
the nomination of Governor Lowry, and an Exposition board was
appointed under a State law, which made an appropriation. Ram
sey Wharton was acting commissioner in charge of exhibits. Dr.
H. E. McKay was chief of the State department. The expenditure
was about $14,000. Of the exhibit, Governor Lowry said: "The
people from other States were not more surprised at the extent
of Mississippi's exhibit than were her own citizens. The peoples
of the world assembled in the gigantic structures composed of
pine and cypress drawn from the forests of Mississippi. Her corn
was not excelled by any made in the United States; oats, wheat,
barley, rice, were most creditable ; the hay exhibit compared favor
ably with Kentucky and Missouri. The wine exhibit demonstrated
that Mississippi was almost equal to the valley of the Rhine for
pure sparkling wine. Honey, sugar, molasses, fish, fruit, vegetables
and dairy products of superior quality were found; cotton, wool
and tobacco were conspicuous for quantity and quality." The
timber exhibit, particularly that part showing the wealth of the
State in hard woods, was astonishing, and doubtless led to heavy
investments in the State. The same might be said of the hay and
clover exhibit. A similar exhibit was made at the North, South
and Central American exposition at New Orleans in the following
year. The wine exhibit included three or four hundred bottles, rep
resenting twenty counties and thirty-one vineyards, and the scup-
pernong, muscadine, cafawba, concord, and other varieties of
grapes. It was revealed that Winston county had 400 or 500 acres
in vineyards. Twenty-eight counties were represented in the wool
exhibit. It was also revealed that tobacco culture had not been
abandoned altogether for cotton, and that the product would grade

MISSISSIPPI 333
well in any market. The fruit exhibit was the most extensive of
its class at the exhibition. Among the premiums taken in this
class was the great sweepstakes prize and gold medal for the
best collection from any State or country. A peach weighing loY2
ounces was shown. J. H. Odeneal, of Hinds county, won the
sweepstakes premium for the best fifty pounds of butter from the
Southern and Southwestern States.
The Woman's Work exhibit was regarded as the best ever made
at a great exposition. The commissioner acknowledged great in
debtedness to Mrs. Kate S. Minor, of Natchez, in this department.
In 1885 a Colored State fair was held at Jackson, and the ex
hibits, to which Tougaloo university made a creditable contribu
tion, were sent to the exposition.
Newport, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Attala coun
ty, about 15 miles southwest of Kosciusko, the county seat, and
nearest banking, telegraph and express town. Population in 1900,
70. New Prospect, a postoffice of Choctaw county. Population in
'*1900, 18.
New Site, a postoffice of Prentiss county, 12 miles southeast of
Booneville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 21.
Newspapers. Upon his arrival at Natchez in the summer of
1798, Governor Sargent wrote to the Secretary of State : "We have
no printing offices in this country, we are remote from all others,
and under such circumstances I shall find it impracticable to
diffuse a knowledge of the laws and other useful matter without
the aid of government. A small traveling press, sufficient for half
a sheet of post paper, which would give four pages, would be a
blessing to the people of the territory, and I would myself contrive
to manage it if we may through your goodness be indulged." —
(Sargent's Journal.) The settlement was tWenty-five years old,
at least, but had been under Spanish control nearly twenty years.
Only one printing press was allowed at New Orleans and that was
made use of by the government only. No bills were allowed to
be posted in that city without official permit. — (Bailey's Journal,
1797.) Andrew Marschalk, an officer of the United States army, was the
first printer. (See Marschalk and Sargent Adm.) It is told that
Marschalk brought a small press with him in 1797, and printed a
song, as his first work, at Vicksburg; that he used the press at
Natchez in printing the territorial laws, and afterward sold it to
B. M. Stokes, who commenced printing on a foolscap sheet the
first newspaper in Mississippi. This paper was the Mississippi
Gazette, and it was started at - Natchez in 1799. Gov. Sargent
wrote to the Secretary of State February 10, 1800 : "I take leave.
to send you the Mississippi Gazette, and shall so continue to do."
In February, 1802, from Governor Claiborjne's letters, it appears
there was only one printer in the territory, and he a novice, work
ing for high wages in printing the. acts of the general assembly.
For the "want of types and a good press" the work was expected

334 MISSISSIPPI
to occupy several months. James Ferrall was the name of this
public printer. He was specially exhorted by the governor to "all
possible dispatch."
The Mississippi Gazette was a success, but a paper started soon
after by Robert Green was short-lived. Marschalk again entered
the field, and with largely increased facilities, began the publica
tion in 1802 or 1803 at Natchez of the Mississippi Herald. The
Halcyon, Messenger and other papers were soon after started, but
not long continued.
The Natchez Chronicle was established July 6, 1808, by John A.
Winn, a man of education and business energy. In this year there
were four papers in the State, all at Natchez. A year later another
paper was started at Natchez by Peter Isler, and The Natchez soon
after appeared at the same place. The Ariel was established about
1825 ; P. F. Merrick, owner, and James K. Cook editor. It was a
creditable literary publication. Papers were also established in
towns in the adjacent counties. The Woodville Republican, which
still exists, was started about 1812. From the early Natchez
papers one may obtain the details of the Napoleonic wars and pol
itics, and very little local news. Gradually they became champions
of one or the other political parties in the United States, and de
fended or attacked ferociously the local champions of party. Par
tisanship has never been more fierce and intolerant than it was in
the Territorial days.
The Natchez, which was published by James H. Cook, became
a power in the politics of the State, both as an opponent of An
drew Jackson, and representative in this State of the Whig party.
The Statesman, published by Marshall, appeared as the exponent
of the Jackson party. It was edited by distinguished and able
men, among them Col. J. F. H. Claiborne and Robert J. Walker.
Richard C. Langdon, of the Mississippi Republican, was elected
public printer, over Marschalk and Isler, in January, 1820, but he
was called before the House early in February on motion of Mr.
Runnells to answer for a charge of contempt in publishing "two
pieces highly defamatory on the members thereof, and calculated
to disturb the coolness and deliberation of this body." Langdon
was defended in the House by Joseph E. Davis, but his dismissal
from office was voted, 17 to 10.
In 1822 Langdon, in connection with Francis Baker, started the
Mississippian at Natchez. The Southern Galaxy was established
May 22, 1828 by Wm. C. Grissam & Co.
Between 1820 and 1830 a number of papers were -started in the
interior counties, which region was rapidly settled by intelligent
and wealthy people from the older States, especially from Vir
ginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. These
papers were, without exception, political papers. They were in
tensely partisan, either Whig or Democratic.
The Mississippi Free Trader, edited at different times by Clai
borne, Forbes and other able men, was the leading Democratic
paper. It was started August 4, 1835, with L. A. Besancon as ed-

MISSISSIPPI 335
itor. Besancon was' one of the most noted newspaper men of his
day. He was editor of the Natchez Free Trader in 1838, and was
the publisher of an Annual Register. The Courier and Journal
published at the same place was the leading Whig paper. In 1837
this paper was published weekly, tri-weekly and daily. Both of
these papers were powers in politics until about 1860. Among the
bright, influential and forcible editors in Mississippi at the period
of the early conflicts between the Whigs and Democrats were :
Black, Melen, Van Winkle, Baldwin, Risk, Duffield, Prewett and
Hillyer. The Republican, the Advocate, the Mississippian, the Sentinel,
the Register, and the Sun, with such editors as Fall, Hagan, Green,
Jenkins, Jones, Roy, Wood and McCallum, were the Vicksburg
papers of this period that led the Jackson or Democratic forces.
There were a number of able Whig papers published at Vicks
burg at different times. The most influential of these was the
Whig. It was founded by Shannon and Henderson, and was from
1840 to 1860 a daily paper. Among the able men who edited it
at different times were Griffin, Tyler, McCardle, Hammet, A. H.
Arthur, R. Arthur, Carnes, Brooks and Partridge. These names
are among the most brilliant of the Southwest at that time, and the
influence of the paper was very great. The Sentinel and Expositor
was started at Vicksburg December 27, 1836.
In 1828 there were six papers published in Mississippi, and in
1834 there were thirteen. These were the Courier and Journal,
and the American Standard at Natchez; the Correspondent at
Port Gibson ; the Advertiser at Grand Gulf ; the Intelligencer at
Gallatin; the Southern Telegraph at Rodney; the Advocate at
Columbus ; the Register at Vicksburg ; the Republican at Wood
ville; the Bulletin at Pittsburg; the Herald at Manchester. News
papers at that time were projected, if not published, at Canton and
Clinton. The Pittsburg Bulletin was published at the present
site of Grenada by John J. Hamilton in 1835. Grenada's first paper
was the Bowie Knife, published also by Hamilton. This was be
fore the town was given its present name. The Yazoo City Whig,
a strong political paper, was started at Yazoo City about 1835. It
was edited by J. A. Stevens.
Between 1830 and 1840 the Intelligencer, the True Issue, the
Constitutionalist, the Southern and other creditable papers were
published at Vicksburg, with McCreary, Hurst, Miller, Buck and
McCardle and others as editors. The Southwestern Journal was
established in 1837 at Natchez. It was a creditable literary maga
zine and was published semi-monthly by the Jefferson College and
Washington Lyceum.
At Jackson, a short time after the city was founded, in 1823,
the Pearl River Gazette was started by G. B. Crutcher, and the
State Register by Peter Isler. The State Rights Banner and The
Mississippian were later. The Mississippian was first established
at Vicksburg and afterwards moved, first to Clinton, and then to
Jackson. It was at one time edited by Henry S. Foote, assisted

336 MISSISSIPPI
by his brother-in-law, F. H. Catlett. It was one of the strongest
and most influential Democratic papers in the State until the out
break of the war. Among its editors in later years were the How
ards, Price, Fall and Barksdale. The capital city had other strong
political papers before the war. The Southern Flag of the Union
and other papers were edited by A. B. Johnston, Thomas Palmer,
Dr. Pickett, H. V. Barr and Col. Purdom, all supporting the Whig
party. About 1848 Price and Fall brought the first power p-ress to
Jackson. Thomas Palmer, who had been elected State printer,
brought another in 1852, on which he printed the Flag of the
Union. John Marshall was editor of the Reformer. He was a bril
liant man, and his paper stood high in the esteem of both polit
ical parties.
The Eastern Clarion was established at Paulding between 1830
and 1840. > It was edited by John J. McRae, afterwards governor
and congressman. He was succeeded by Simeon B. Adams, who
made the Clarion a power throughout the State. Under its leader
ship East Mississippi began to dominate the politics of the State.
Col. J. J. Shannon bought it in 1862 and moved it to Meridian, and
at the close of the war it was moved to Jackson, where it became
the Clarion and later the Clarion-Ledger.
Marschalk, Mason and Morris were the pioneer editors of Port
Gibson. The first paper at Macon, the Mississippi Star, was established
by Col. A. G. Horn in 1836. Col. Horn afterwards published the
Meridian Mercury, and was one of the ablest newspaper men of
his day.
S. T. King started a paper, The Public Echo, at Raymond before
a house was completed. It was succeeded in 1836 by the Raymond
Times. George W. Harper and S. T. King established the Ray
mond Gazette, which still exists, in 1844. It was edited for forty
years by George D. Harper. He was succeeded by his son, Samuel
D. Harper.
Andrew Harper established the Brandon Republican, which in
1852 became the property of A. J. Frantz.
Before the war newspapers flourished in almost every town and
village. They were full of political matter and intensely partisan.
There was a demand for such papers, but neutral papers found
favor nowhere. But the war brought a time of great trials and -
.difficulties for the newspapers. The first of these was the want of
practical printers. Almost to a man the able bodied printers of
the State answered the call of their country and went to the front.
Their places could be filled to some extent by women and children',
but the South was cut off from its paper supply. No paper could
be brought into the State, and no machinery for its manufacture.
Some papers appeared printed on common brown paper, leaves of
ledgers and wall paper. During the war printing offices were
sometimes burned by invading armies. Sometimes the Union sol
diers would destroy the press, and dump the type into a river or
an old well, or scatter them about the streets, as in the case of

MISSISSIPPI 337
the Jackson Mississippian. The Vicksburg Citizen, the Natchez
Courier and a Corinth paper, after the occupation of those towns,
were continued under the supervision of the Federal officers. At
the beginning of the war there were 50 papers in the State. At
its close, 1865, there were only 14. When peace came new papers
were started, or old ones revived, in all parts of the State. There
was new printing machinery, new type and new editors to take the
place of the old, which had passed away. At Jackson E. W. Yer
ger published the Mississippian ; Shannon the Clarion edited by
Ethelbert Barksdale; Power, Hamilton and Jones the Standard,
which was edited by A. R. Johnston and others. The Her
ald was published at Vicksburg by Swords and Partridge;
The Times by McCardle, Manlove and H. Shannon. At Natchez
there was the Democrat by Botto; the Courier by Hillyer, and
others. Meridian had the Mercury and the Tropic. There were
many creditable papers in other towns.
The Mississippi Press Association was organized in June 1866.
The meeting was held at the capitol at Jackson, and J. M. Part
ridge, of the Vicksburg Herald presided. The membership, limited
to the publishers of papers, was as follows : Jackson Clarion and
Standard — J. J. Shannon, Jones S. Hamilton, B. F. Jones, J. L.
Power. Jackson Mississippian — E. W. Yerger. Christian Watch
man — A. N. Kimball, H. M. Aiken. Brandon Republican — A. J.
Frantz. Meridian Tropic — Jere Gibson. Vicksburg Herald — J.
M. Partridge, J. M. Swords. Vicksburg Journal — T. B. Manlove.
Handsboro Democrat — P. K. Mayers. Lexington Advertiser — J.
D. Houston, Canton Mail — Singleton Garrett. Brookhaven' Jour
nal — S. W. Dale. Panola Star — M. S. Ward. Natchez Democrat
— J. F. Mead. Mississippi Conservative — J. L. McCullum, F. T.
Cooper. By 1870 there was a newspaper in almost every county in the
State. Many of them were defiant, from 1865 to 1876 of the
reconstruction policies, and after the close of the military adminis
tration in 1869, there was no restraint. The public printing, how
ever, was given, lavishly, to a number of Republican newspapers
that were published throughout the State, and supported in that
manner until 1876.
In 1874 the Press Association, organized in 1866, was revived,
and in 1875 its membership, which consisted of editors, publishers
and reporters, was as follows :
Jackson Clarion — E. Barksdale, J. L. Power. Jackson Sunburst
— S. R. Jones. Jackson Vidette— E. G. Wall, D. Denneit, E. Elli
ott. Jackson Banner — Rev. C. B. Galloway. Vicksburg Herald —
W. H. McCardle. Brandon Republican — A. J. Frantz. Yazoo
Herald — J. L. McCullum. Summit Sentinel — H. S. Bonney, N. P.
Bonney. Mississippi Democrat — J. D. Burke. Crystal Springs
Monitor — J. S. Harris, C. N. Harris. Raymond Gazette — George
W. Harper, Samuel D. Harper. Southern Homestead — J. J. Shan
non. Enterprise Courier — W. J. Adams. Forest Register — S.
Davis. Calhoun Democrat — I. T. Blount. Columbus Index — G.
22-ir

338 MISSISSIPPI
C. Tucker. West Point Citizen — D. L. Love. Winona Advocate
— H. D. Money, B. F. Jones. Canton Mail— E. L. Ross. Holly
Springs Reporter — W. J. L. Holland. Holly Springs South — H.
C. Myers. Oxford Falcon — I. M. Howry. Rural Gentleman — J.
M. Davis. Durant Advertiser — J. S. Hoskins. Central Star — R.
Walpole. Newton Ledger — R. H. Henry. Hernando Press — Ira
D. Oglesby. Handsboro Democrat — P. K. Mayers. Tallahatchie
Cartaginian — L. W. Garrett. Panola Star — J. A. Pope. Winona
Pioneer — C. M. Ewing. Water Valley Courier — F. M. Morris.
Senatobia Times — G. D. Shands.
There have been many changes in the Mississippi newspaper
field since that time, but the press of the State is stronger today
than ever before in its history. Among the leading dailies are the
Jackson Clarion Ledger (morning daily), edited and managed by
R. H. Henry ; the Jackson Evening News, edited by Frank L. Bel-
lenger and managed by Walter G. Johnson; the Vicksburg Herald,
edited by J. S. McNeely; the Meridian Evening Star edited and
managed by Chas. P. Dement; the Vicksburg Post edited by J.
G. Cashman ; and the Hattiesburg Progress edited by A. C. Ayles-
worth. The present officers of the Mississippi Press Association are:
Robert Lewis, of Woodville, president ; John G. McGuire, of Yazoo
City, secretary, and P K. Mayers, of Pascagoula, treasurer.
Newton is an incorporated post-town in Newton county, located
atthe crossing of the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R. with the Mobile,
Jackson & Kansas 'City R. R., 64 miles east of Jackson. It is the
most important town between Jackson and Meridian, having tele
graph, telephone, express and banking facilities. It contains many
substantial brick business houses, and a number of fine residences.
The Bank of Newton was established in 1899, with a capital of
$25,000, and the Merchants & Farmers Bank was established in
1905, capital $25,000. The "Newton Record" is a Democratic
weekly, established here in 1901 ; C. E. Cunningham, editor and
proprietor; the "Mississippi Baptist," a church weekly, is also
published here with W. B. Sansing, editor. The Newton Oil and
Manufacturing Co's. plant was established in 1904. It manufac
tures cotton-seed products, fertilizers, ice and electricity for both
its own plant and for the town of Newton. It is capitalized at
$175,000, all paid up, and is a prosperous institution. Its officers
are : J. N. Carpenter, of Natchez, Miss., President ; J. W. McRaven,
Vice-President and Treasurer; W. V. Fant, Secretary. The plant
operates 8 system ginneries, and is located on both the A. & V.
and M. J. & K. C. R. R's. Newton is admirably situated to become
a good manufacturing town as the M. J. & K. C. R. R. has opened
up valuable timber lands both north and south of the town. There
is now located here a wood-working plant, with prospects for other
establishments of a similar nature in the near future. The town has
a good steam laundry, bottling works, 3 hotels excellent schools,
and handles annually more cotton than any other point between
Jackson and Meridian, the number of bales being estimated at 60,-

MISSISSIPPI 339
000. Its population is growing rapidly and in 1906 was estimated
at 2,000. There is a prosperous wholesale grocery firm located
here, and others are contemplating similar establishments owing
to the excellent railway facilities to be had.
Newton County was established February 25th, 1836, and was a
part of the extensive region ceded to the United States by the
Choctaws in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, 1830. The county has
a land surface of 561 square miles. It was named in honor of Sir
Isaac Newton. The county is a square, containing sixteen town
ships, and is bounded on the north by the county of Neshoba, on
the east by Lauderdale county, on the south by Jasper county and
on the west by Scott county. It originally formed the lower half
of Neshoba county, townships numbered 5, 6, 7, and 8, of ranges
numbered 10, 11, 12, and 13, east of the basis meridian, being taken
from that county to form its area. Besancon's Annual Register
for Mississippi (1838) gives the following list of county officers
for that year: N. Bright, Sheriff; Geo. W. Parris, Judge of Pro
bate; Wm. Gregg, Clerk of the Circuit Court; Geo. Armstrong,
Clerk of Probate; Mercer M. Booker, Surveyor; Thos. P. Redwine,
Assessor and Collector; Thos. Maulden, Treasurer; Jessey Henry,
Coroner; Dudley H. Thompson, Ranger; Thos. J. Runnels, Free
man Jones, Benjamin Bright, Roland Williams, Joshua Tatnum,
Members of the Board of Police. A most interesting and instruc
tive account of the antiquities of the county will be found in Vol
ume 6, Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society, by Capt.
A. J. Brown whose valuable "History of Newton County" is also
very instructive and complete. Speaking of the old town of Pink-
ney, he says : "The name Pinkney dates as far back in the history
of Newton county, as any other name in it. It is not known from
what the town derived its name; the probabilities are it was set
tled as early as 1837, probably earlier, and was a place of some im
portance and trade. Lane & Boyd, merchants of that place, are re
ported to have had a stock of goods of $10,000, who issued a frac
tional currency called 'shin-plasters,' and were correspondents of
the Decatur bank, and when the bank failed it naturally carried
the business of Lane & Boyd with it. . . . About twenty
years ago Mr. S. D. Daniel commenced a general merchandise bus
iness and sold a large amount of goods and made money. The
place has a good mill seat. . . . The name of Pinkney gave
way to Stamper," and Stamper has given way to Stratt-on, which
is rapidly growing, owing not only to the fine water power to be
obtained, but also to the excellent farming lands surrounding the
town. This region, long the home of the Choctaw Indians, re
ceived a considerable influx of hardy settlers early in the last cen
tury. By the year 1837, there were in the county 1,506 whites and
426 slaves and during the last decade the region has taken on a new
and more rapid growth, and while it possesses no towns of much
size, it now has a population of about 21,000 souls. The county
seat is the old town of Decatur, located near the center and having
a population of 250. Its two largest towns are Hickory (pop. 626)

340 MISSISSIPPI
and Newton (pop. 2,000), located at the crossing of the Alabama
& Vicksburg Ry. with the M. J. & K. C. R. R. Some of the other
villages are the old settlement of Union in the northern part,
Chunkey's Station, Conehatta and Lawrence. The Alabama &
Vicksburg Ry. runs across the southern part of the county from
east to west and gives it direct communication with Jackson and
Meridian, and the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R. traverses
the county from north to south. This railroad has opened up some
fine timber lands, which afford an excellent opportunity for man
ufacturers at Newton. A short line known as the Tallahatta Ry.
from Meehan Junction on the A. & V. Ry. taps its eastern border.
The county is well watered by numerous creeks, which flow south
from the Chickasawhay River. The timber of the region consists of
pine, oak, sweet and black gum, cedar, magnolia, beech and cypress.
It lies in what is known as the central prairie belt and its surface
is level, undulating and hilly ; the soil varies in character, con
sisting of prairie, pine and bottom lands and "reed brakes." It
produces cotton, corn, oats, sorghum, tobacco, sugar cane, rice,
potatoes, field peas and all kinds of vegetables and fruits suitable
to the latitude. Many fine beds of marl are to be found in the
county and an extensive use of fertilizers is made; in the year
1900 $41,710 was expended in this direction.
The industry of stock raising has proved profitable and this item
is a large one in estimating the resources of the county. The fol
lowing statistics from the twelfth United States census for 1900,
relate to farms, manufactures and population : — Number of farms
3,277, acreage in farms 299,641, acres improved 114,928, value of
land exclusive of buildings $1,135,760, value of buildings $543,230,
value of live stock $605,696, total value of products not fed $1,165,-
741. Number of manufactures 63, capital invested $162,102, wages
paid $44,141, cost of materials $130,085, total value of products
$285,297. The population of the county in 1900 was whites 11,659,
colored 8,049, a total of 19,708 and an increase of 3,083 over the year
1890. The population in 1906 was estimated at 21,000. Artesian
water has been found at Hickory, at Chunkey's Station and along
the eastern border of the county. The total assessed valuation of
real and personal property in Newton county in 1905 was $2,435,291
and in 1906 it was $3,765,433 which shows an increase of $1,330,-
142 during the year.
Newtonia, a postoffice in the southern part of Wilkinson county,
6 miles south of Woodville, the county seat, and nearest banking,
express and telegraph town. Population in 1900, 26.
Newton Landing, a post-hamlet of Warren county, on the Mis
sissippi river, about 16 miles south of Vicksburg. Population in
1900, 24.
Newtonville, a postoffice of Attala county, 13 miles east of Kos
ciusko, the county seat. Population in 1900, 22.
Newzion, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Pike county,
25 miles east of Magnolia, the county seat.

MISSISSIPPI 341
Nicholson, a station on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R.,
34 miles northwest of Bay St. Louis, the county seat of Hancock
county. Picayune is the nearest banking town. A money order
postoffice is maintained here. Population in 1900, 100; in 1906
the population was estimated at 300.
Nicholson, Isaac R., a native of Georgia, was a lawyer in North
ern Alabama before his coming to Mississippi. In 1822 he was
colonel on the staff of the governor. In 1825-27 he represented
Copiah county in the legislature, and was elected speaker in 1827.
Upon the organization of a new judicial circuit in 1828 to include
the Choctaw cession of 1820 and the upper Tombigbee country,
he was elected by the legislature as judge of the circuit and the
fifth member of the supreme court. In this position he served
with notable ability until the change of the judicial system under
the constitution of 1832, when he resumed the practice and contin
ued in it until his death at Natchez.
Nick, or Malone Station, a postoffice of Marshall county, on the
Illinois Central R. R., 14 miles by rail south of Holly Springs.
Nile, a postoffice of Attala county, 10 miles southeast of Kos
ciusko, the county seat.
Nirvana, a postoffice of Panola county.
Nittayuma, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Sharkey
county, on Deer creek and on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.
R., 10 miles north of Rolling Fork, the county seat. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1906, 125.
Nixon, George H., colonel of militia, distinguished in the Creek
war (q. v.) "was born in Virginia, and, living some years in South
Carolina, removed thence in 1809 to the Mississippi territory."
He was lieutenant-colonel commanding the militia of his county,
before the Creek war, when he was selected by Governor Holmes,
in October, 1813, to command a battalion organized for duty in the
field. It is said of him in Pickett's history of Alabama: "During
the Creek war, Colonel Nixon, at the head of a considerable force,
scoured the swamps of the Perdido and other streams, and fre
quently killed and captured Indians. After he had accomplished
all he could, he marched to the head of the Perdido, where he
divided his command, sending Maj. William Peacock, with the
troops of the 39th, (Col. John Williams' regiment) to the Boat
yard, on Lake Tensaw, while he marched the remainder of his
command to Fort Claiborne. He was an excellent officer and
served in the war until its conclusion. [He was a member of the
first state legislature in 1817, and was appointed colonel of the
Seventh regiment, (Marian and Hancock) in the same year.] He
died in Pearlington, Miss., in 1824. He was a large and fine-look
ing man, with fair complexion, and was very popular."
Noah, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Lafayette county,
about 14 .miles from Oxford, the county seat.
Nod, a postoffice of Yazoo county. It has two stores, a church
and school; and a population of about 60.
Noel Amendment— See Judiciary (1870-1905.)

342 MISSISSIPPI
Nola, a postoffice in the western part of Lawrence county, about
10 miles northwest of Monticello, the county seat. It is a station
on the Illinois Central R. R., running from Brookhaven to Monti
cello. Nolan, Philip, was a Kentucky Irishman who became famous
through his association with Gen. Wilkinson. In his ingenious
defense before the court martial of 1811, Wilkinson said of Nolan:
"It is true, this extraordinary character was first my protege, and
afterwards my agent, in Louisiana, and that he took charge of my
affairs in the_years 1789-90 and 1791. To this gallant, meritorious,
unfortunate young man's letters, I appeal with confidence for his
and my own political principles and attachments. . . . Not
withstanding all my management and influence Mr. Nolan had
cause to be jealous of the Spaniards and considered Governor
Gayoso his mortal enemy."
When Wilkinson, abandoning his monopoly of trade to New
Orleans, in 1791, received a commission in the army of the United
States, Nolan made a trip down the river, from which he did not
return for several years. Then he wrote to Wilkinson, from Frank
fort, June 10, 1796 : that he had been suspected for a spy by the
Mexicans, and even by Gayoso and he dared not write. "A letter
from a trader in horses, to a general of the Federal armies, would
have confirmed suspicions that were nearly fatal to me." Miro's
passport in Mexico, on his last trip, had not protected him from
suspicion as a spy, and he was cheated out of all his goods, and re
duced to poverty. Disappointed and distressed, he went among
the Indians, that wandered between the Illinois and San Antonio.
"I was a favorite with the Tawayes and Cammanches, successful
in the chase, victorious in little feats of activity, but I could not
altogether Indianfy my heart." A sense of obligation drew him
back ; he turned hunter, sold skins,, caught wild horses and made
his way to Louisiana with fifty head. "At Orleans I was received
as a person risen from the dead — protected by the Baron. Re
turned again to San Antonio and caught 250 head. I lost a great
part of these by the yellow water; sold the best at Natchez, and
arrived here yesterday with 42 head."
It was, perhaps, in this wild period of his life, that Nolan became
associated with St. Gertrude, the wife of Anthony Leal, the record
of whose depositions and denials, made in her dungeon, was
among the Spanish archives of San Antonio.
After his return to Kentucky Nolan resumed his relations with
Wilkinson. It was alleged' that he received from Thomas Power,
agent of Governor Carondelet, the $9,640 sent up to New Madrid
for the general. In the winter of 1796 he started down the river
with some boats loaded with Kentucky produce, and a. cipher let
ter from General Wilkinson to Gayoso, at Natchez, with the fol
lowing recommendation :
"This will be delivered to you by Nolan, whom you know is a
-child of my own raising, true to his profession and firm in his

MISSISSIPPI 343
attachments to Spain. I consider him a powerful instrument in
our hands, should occasion offer."
Near the mouth of the Ohio river he fell in with Ellicott, on his
way to survey the Spanish boundary. It is a curious fact that
Ellicott depended upon him for advice as to his conduct, and re
ceived confidential information about the Spanish-American sit
uation, in .ignorance that, to Gayoso, the governor at Natchez,
Nolan was the agent of General Wilkinson. How much this had
to do with the subsequent complications, or how much of accident
there was in the meeting of Ellicott and Nolan, is an interesting
subject of conjecture. Precisely what Gayoso thought of Wilkin
son it is difficult to conclude. But before this time the Spanish
officials were disposed to believe that Wilkinson was utterly false,
and it appears that they finally visited their vengeance upon the
unfortunate agent of the chief intriguer. During the subsequent
complications at Natchez Gayoso wrote to Carondelet to keep
Nolan at New Orleans, because he feared his influence. Ellicott
wrote in his journal: "A few days after we had encamped at the
confluence of the rivers (Mississippi and Ohio), Mr. Philip Nolan,
so well-known for his athletic exertions, and dexterity in taking
wild horses, stopped at our camp on his way from New Madrid
to fort Massac, having two boats at the latter place shut up in
the ice. From him I obtained much useful information relative
to the situations, and characters, of the principal inhabitants of
Natchez; which at that time was a matter of mere curiosity, but
which eventually I found extremely useful. Being pleased with
his conversation, and finding that he had a very extensive knowl
edge of the country, particularly- Louisiana, I requested the pleas
ure of his company down the river, as we were unacquainted with
the navigation of it, to which he agreed. . . . While in our
camp he observed a number of Indians, who were from the west
side of the Mississippi, and spoke to them in the several languages
with which he was acquainted, but they could not understand him ;
he then addressed them by signs, to which they immediately re
plied, and conversed for some time with apparent ease, and satis
faction. This was the first time I had ever seen, or heard of this
curious language, and being led by curiosity to speak to Mr.
Nolan upon the subject, he informed me that it was used by many
nations on the west side of the Mississippi, who could only be
understood by each other in that way, and that it was commonly
made use of in transacting their national congress concerns." A
vocabulary of part of this curious language has been sent on to
the American Philosophical Society by William Dunbar, Esq.
When Francis Baily, afterward famous as an English scientist,
visited New Orleans in 1797, he met Nolan at table, and learned
that he was preparing for a trading expedition up Red river, on
his way to Mexico. "He told me it was a life of extreme fatigue,
and very difficult to be procured, as the Spanish governors were
very jealous whom they admitted to this privilege ; and it would
be impossible to carry it on without their permission. His mode

344 MISSISSIPPI
of carrying such articles as he takes out is in little barrels, which
are placed upon packhorses, three barrels upon a horse; and in
this manner he will travel for hundreds — I may say thousands, of
miles through the woods, bartering with the Indians as he goes
along, and receiving in return skins and furs, or wild horses.
These horses (of which there are plenty in the Apelousa country,
and in the province of Mexico) are caught in a most curious man
ner, and which can only be effected with success by those who
have been used to the practice," i. e., the now familiar method
of lassoing. In a letter from New Orleans, April, 1797, Nolan
tells a story of one Newman, "an unprincipled villain," ruined and
imprisoned, who had threatened to make some exposure regarding
Wilkinson. Nolan was about to start from Natchez for San An
tonio, with a party of ten riflemen. "I have got such a passport,
that I apprehend neither risk nor detention; I have instruments
to enable me to make a more correct map than the one you have ;
Ellicott assisted me in acquiring a more perfect knowledge of
astronomy and glasses, and Gayoso himself has made me a present
of a portable sextant. My time piece is good. I shall pay every
attention, and take an assistant with me, who is a tolerable
mathematician." Writing from Natchez, July 21, he declared he
would set out next day, having waited for assurance of peace. He
would take $7,000 worth of merchandise, and every necessary
credential from the Baron. Gayoso had been appointed governor
of Louisiana at last, and Grand Pre governor of Natchez. Of
Gayoso Nolan said: "He is a vile man and my implacable enemy;
yet he treats me with attention. . . . The Baron knows him,
and has done all in his power to secure me from his vengeance.
I have, however, my fears ; and I may yet be obliged to shoot the
monster with a poisoned arrow. What do you think of Ellicott?
He professes great friendship for me. Will we have a war? At
all events, I can cut my way back, and you may calculate on me."
Edward Everett Hale quotes Nolan as writing: "I look for
ward to the conquest of Mexico by the United States and I expect
my friend and patron the General (Wilkinson), will, in such event,
give me a conspicuous command." Mr. Hale adds: He expected
the command in the expedition which John Adams and Hamilton
were preparing at Cincinnati in the "new army", as it was called.
This army was to be commanded by Hamilton, and a considerable
part of it gathered at Cincinnati. It is likely, however, that
Nolan's main ambition was in regard to a conquest of Mexico,
such as afterward engaged the attention of Aaron Burr.
In the spring of 1800 Nolan appeared at Natchez on his way to
Kentucky, and acting as an agent for Major Minor's brother, took
away a slave Caesar, who had served as Indian interpreter for
Minor and Sargent.
In October, Gov. Sargent was notified by Capt. Vidal, com
manding at the Spanish post of Concord, opposite Natchez, that
Nolan was preparing to enter Spanish territory "in a manner to
disturb the amity between Spain and the United States," and the

MISSISSIPPI 345
subject was referred to Judges Lewis and Bruin, who called Nolan
before them; but there being no evidence against him, and as he
had a passport from the Spanish governor, he was dismissed.
Papers bearing on this episode were found in the office of the
secretary of state of Mississippi and read by a Federal officer, in
1863, and by him related to Edward Everett Hale, who had made
the name of Philip Nolan familiar by his story of "A Man without
a Country," taking the name from the references to Nolan in the
memoirs of General Wilkinson. Nolan had by this time, October,
1800, married Fanny Lintot, who was related to the Minors of
Concord mansion, and a son, Philip, was born after his father
ventured again into Spanish territory, never to return. Nolan
had with him, in this expedition, it appears, a small body of armed
men, and the Spanish authorities suspected him of organizing a
rebellion. On March 26, 1801, he was shot down and killed at the head of
his men, by Spanish troops. "His companions were all taken pris
oners and made to work in the Spanish mines. From time to time,
rumors or messages would come back from them. On the 11th
of November, 1807, Ephraim Blackburn, one of their number, was
hanged. Observe, they had all been acquitted by the court which
tried them. They were to be decimated. But there were but
nine of them left, from the twenty companions of Nolan. A drum,
a glass tumbler, and two dice were brought. The prisoners knelt
and were blindfolded. Ephraim took the glass first and threw the
dice. He threw three and one. This was the lowest throw and
so he was hanged." (E. E. Hale, "Philip Nolan," edition of 1898,
introduction.) Mr. Hale regarded the killing of Nolan and im
prisonment of his companions as one of the causes for the bitter
hatred of the Spaniards in the Mississippi valley.
Nolen, a postoffice in the north-central part of Yalobusha county,
6 miles west of Watervalley, one of the county seats of justice, and
the nearest railroad and banking town.
Nome, a postoffice of Pike county, 20 miles east, northeast of
Magnolia, the county seat.
Norfield, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of Lin
coln county, on the Illinois Central R. R., about 12 miles south of
Brookhaven, the county seat. The Natchez, Columbia & Mobile,
a standard guage railroad, doing a general business, but operated
primarily as a logging road, extends east from Norfield for about
20 miles and taps a rich pine country. It is a prosperous lumbering
town, located in the heart of the long-leaf yellow pine region.
Many northerners have settled here. The important business in
terests of the town, including lumber yard, saw mill and logging
road, are in the hands of one of these families, the Butterfields. It
has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 347 ; in 1906
it was estimated at 700. The town is furnished with electric light
and water by the Butterfield Lumber Co.
Norfleet, a postoffice of Covington county.

346 MISSISSIPPI
Norfolk, a postoffice in the northwestern part of De Soto county
located on the Mississippi river, 6' miles west of Walls Station, on
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. Population in 1900, 21.
Norrell, a postoffice of Hinds county, on the Alabama & Vicks
burg R. R., 14 miles west of Jackson.
Norris, a postoffice of Scott county, 4 miles southeast of Forrest,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 21.
Northbend, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 6 miles northeast
of Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 40.
Northcarrollton, an incorporated post-town of Carroll county, on
the Southern Railway, less than a mile north of CarroUton, the
county seat. It has a money order postoffice, telegraph and express
facilities, a cotton seed oil mill, a brick factory, and is supplied with
electric light from CarroUton. The town has 4 churches. The
Peoples Bank was organized in 1901 with a capital of $25,000, which
has since been increased to $45,000. Its population in 1900 was
189 ; the estimated population in 1906 was 400.
Noxapater, a postoffice of Winston county, located 9 miles south
of Louisville, the county seat, on the Noxapater creek, and on the
Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R. It has several good general
stores, the largest saw milling plant in the county, cotton gins,
2 churches, a good school and a bank — The Bank of Noxapater, a
branch of the Grenada Bank, established in 1905.
, Noxubee County was established December 23rd, 1833, its name
being taken from an Indian word meaning "stinking water." It is
a fertile prairie region, lying on the northeastern border of the
State and is bounded on the north by Oktibbeha and Lowndes
counties, on the east by the State of Alabama, on the south by
Kemper county and on the west by Winston county. It is one of
the sixteen counties formed from the Choctaw cession of 1830 and
its original boundaries were as follows : "Beginning on the Tom-
• beckbee river, at the point at which the line between townships 16
and 17 strikes the said Tombeckbee river, and from thence west
with said line between townships 16 and 17, to the line between
ranges 14 and 15 east ; and from thence south with said line between
ranges 14 and 15 east, to the line between townships 12 and 13 ;
from thence east, with said line between townships 12 and 13, to
the line between the State of Alabama and the State of Mississippi,
and from thence a northern direction with said line . . to
the Tombeckbee river ; and from thence up said river to the place
of beginning." The original limits as thus defined have not been
changed. The total area of the county is about 18 townships, or
659 square miles. Two of the early settlements were at Bounds-
town, so-called from its first settler Mr. Jesse Bounds, and the town
of Brooklyn. Boundstown never got beyond the rough country
village stage, and was soon absorbed by the neighboring town of
Brooklyn, situated on the Noxubee river, eight miles east of Shu
qualak. Loomis Bros, and Hinzy Walker were early merchants
here. The river never proved to be navigable for steamboats, and

MISSISSIPPI 347
by the outbreak of the War the town was dead. It was in this
county, between the two prongs of Dancing Rabbit creek, that the
famous treaty of Dancing Rabbit was made and signed, September
27th, 1830, whereby the Choctaw Indians relinquished to the United
States all their remaining lands east of the Mississippi. The com
missioners for the United States were Major John H. Eaton and
Colonel John Coffee. Some six thousand Indians, men, women
and children, from first to last were encamped on the creek, and
participated in the discussions leading up to the treaty through
their Mingoes, chiefs, captains and warriors, chief among whom
were the celebrated Colonel Leflore, Mu-shu-la-tub-bee, Nittakechi
and Little Leader. This famous spot, so well known to the Choc
taw Nation, is now owned by a local citizen, and is entirely un
marked. Eye-witnesses to the signing of the treaty were two
pioneer settlers of the county, Mr. Hilcar Burwell and Mr. G. W.
Campbell. Other early emigrants to the region were William Dar-
roh, Thompson Allen, J. L. Higginbotham, Isham Harrison, Wm.
Colbert, W. C. H. Finley, Thomas Ellington, Felix H. Walker, J.
T. Harrison, C. W. Allen, Thomas H. Dixon, Hezikiah W. Foote,
John Bartlett, William Woodward, Cyrus Lovelady, John Culbert-
son, Edward Freeman, Shelton Standifer and H. L. Jarnagin. The
first court in the county was held in the log house of Joseph H.
Frith, on the present site of Macon. The county seat is Macon,
pleasantly situated in a beautiful valley, on the east bank of the
Noxubee river, at the center of the county. Here, in the late 30;s, a
two storied brick court house, with porticoes and marble columns
was built and used until a more commodious building costing $60,-
000 was erected just before the war. The present fine court house
was erected in 1900. Macon is now a thriving place of over 2,000 peor
pie, with several prosperous manufactures and the center of a large
trade from the rich farming country about it. The Mobile & Ohio
R. R. gives it excellent shipping facilities. Brooksville (pop. 1,-
000), Shuqualak, (pop. 800), Cooksville, Mashulaville and Clifton-
ville, are the more important towns. The Mobile & Ohio R. R.
runs north and south through the center of the county. The Nox
ubee river runs a very crooked course through the center of the
county from the northwest to the southeast, and, with its numerous
tributary streams, provides the region with ample water. The
eastern two-thirds of the county lies in the black prairie belt and
possesses a rich, black soil, underlaid by rotten blue and white
limestone. The western third is rolling, timbered lands, with a
rather light sandy soil, and not so productive, but well adapted to
the raising of fruits and vegetables. The county produces cotton,
corn, small grains, potatoes, and fruits and vegetables of all de
scriptions, suitable to the latitude. The stock raising industry is
extensive and has become very profitable ; many northerners have
gone into the horse business, breeding working horses as a spec
ialty, and there are probably as many fine cattle and hogs in Nox
ubee as any county in the State. Manufacturing industries have
not attained much prominence as yet, but the region offers a fair

348 MISSISSIPPI
field for them with good shipping facilities and an abundance of
natural resources, combined with its proximity to the coal and iron
of Alabama.
The following statistics from the twelfth United States census
for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population: — Number
of farms 4,412, acreage in farms 318,205, acres improved 193,390,
value' of land exclusive of buildings $2,265,590, value of buildings
$735,720, value of live stock $893,056, total value of products not
fed $1,581,046. Number of. manufacturing establishments 78, cap
ital invested $122,898, wages paid $24,044, cost of materials $61,-
833, total value of products $133,820. The population in 1900 con
sisted of whites 4,699, colored 26,147, a total of 30,846 and an in
crease of 3,508 over the year 1890. The population is steadily in
creasing and was estimated at 33,000 in 1906. The total assessed
valuation of real and personal property in Noxubee county in 1905
was $4,295,362 and in 1906 it was $4,579,586 which shows an in
crease of $284,224 during the year. Fine artesian water has
been found in various parts of the county, especially at Macon
and the eastern part of the county. The schools of the county are
in a flourishing condition and the rural schools average about 7
months term a year. The town schools which constitutes separate
school districts, such as Macon, Brooksville, and Shuqualak, have
9 months' terms. The largest and finest specimen of quarter-sawed
oak on exhibition at the World's Fair at St. Louis, was furnished
by the Macon Lumber Co. from Noxubee courity timber. Noxubee
county has bred and marketed the largest hog and the largest ox the
world has ever produced. They were raised by Simeon Orr near
Brooksville. The hog weighed 1,604 pounds and the ox over 3,000
pounds. Nugent, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Harrison coun
ty, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 8 miles by rail north of Gulf
port, the county seat. Two sawmills are located here. Population
in 1900, 75 ; estimated at 300 in 1906.
Oakforest, a postoffice in the north-central part of Benton county,
12 miles north of Ashland, the county seat.
Oakgrove, a postoffice of Kemper county, 8 miles southeast of
Dekalb, the county seat.
Oakland, a town in the northwestern part of Yalobusha county.
It is on the Illinois Central railroad and is surrounded by a good
farming country, which will produce excellent crops of cotton and
corn, and is also well adapted to stock raising and the growing of
fruits and vegetables. It is claimed that Oakland pears rival those
of California.
The census of 1900 gave the town a population of 209 ; the popu
lation in 1906 was estimated at 350. The principal shipment is cot
ton, of which about 5,500 bales are shipped annually, valued at $275,-
000. Ten miles west of the town is the eastern edge of the great
Mississippi Delta region.
The town was first settled about 1836, one half a mile east
of the station. When the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad was

MISSISSIPPI 349
built the business portion was removed to its present site. Some
of the early settlers were G. W. S. Davidson, G. D. Moore, Rev.
William A. Bryan, an early missionary of the Cumberland Pres
byterian church, Dr. W. B. Rowland, Johnson Burtin, Ervin M.
Sayle, Wm. B. Craig, D. G. Sayle, and Wm. Black. Among the lead
ing citizens in 1906, may be mentioned James Moore, Dr. T. H.
Gordon, W. H. Bell, J. H. Bailey, R. K. Marders, Dr. J. A. Sayle,
son of Ervin M. Sayle the pioneer, W. K. Black, A. P. Herron, and
W. S. Sayle, also a son of E. M. Sayle the pioneer mentioned above.
The town is prosperous and is one of the best business towns of
its size in the State. The Bank of Oakland, a branch of Grenada
Bank, is a prosperous institution. The town has excellent schools
and two churches, a fine cotton gin with the Munger system, and
many prosperous merchants. The assessed valuation of taxable
property in Oakland, both personal and real, is about $120,000, and
the town rate of taxation is 4% mills.
Oakland College, was located in Claiborne county, five miles
.east of the Mississipi river, near Rodney landing. Rev. Jeremiah
Chamberlain, one of the pioneer Presbyterian preachers of the
Southwest, conceived the idea of establishing a college which
should be under the care and supervision of his church. He sub
mitted a plan to the presbytery which met at Baton Rouge, La.,
April, 1829. This body took the matter up and a meeting of the
friends of education assembled at Bethel church, two miles from
the subsequent location of the college, Jan. 14, 1830. This meet
ing was composed of men from three" parishes of Louisiana and
eight counties of Mississippi. Rev. Benjamin Chase, chairman of
the committee on resolutions, introduced a resolution declaring
that it was "expedient to establish and endow an institution of
learning within our bounds which should embrace the usual
branches of science and literature, together with a preparatory
grammar school and theological professorship." After three days'
deliberation the resolution was unanimously adopted, and a sub
scription was immediately opened to secure the necessary funds.
At that time no scholar had ever graduated Southwest of Ten
nessee, and no educated native of Mississippi had ever entered the
ministry. There was no institution of learning prepared to give
a collegiate course in Mississippi, Louisiana, or Arkansas, with a
combined population of more than 300,000 people and embracing
the growing city of New Orleans.
The presbytery of Mississippi, embracing all the Presbyterian
"ministers in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, took charge of
the movement, located the college, opened the school with three
pupils May 14, 1830, and began the clearing occupied by the
buildings July 2, the first tree being cut by Dr. Jeremiah Cham
berlain, who had been chosen president of the institution. The
first session closed with sixty-five pupils. The college was char
tered in 1831, and in 1833 had its first commencement, the first in
the history of Mississippi. James M. Smiley, afterward a vice-
chancellor of the State, received the degree of A. B. Dr. Cham-

350 ' MISSISSIPPI
berlain was assisted as instructor by John Chamberlain, afterward
professor of chemistry and natural philosophy. An unknown
donor contributed $25,000 to endow a theological professorship.
Rev. Zebulon Butler, D. D., was elected temporary professor in
1837, and soon after Rev. Jones, of New Jersey, was chosen to
fill the position. This professorship continued until 1841 and edu
cated many young men, not only Presbyterians, but of other
denominations, for the ministry. From 1839 to 1871 the college
was under the management of the Synod of Mississippi. In 1840
it had 250 acres of land donated by Robert Cochran, subscriptions
to above $100,000 for an endowment fund, a president's house, a
professor's house, a steward's house and 15 cottages for students.
The first story of the main building was raised. No attempts had
been made to collect a library, but about 1,000 volumes had been
contributed, and about 3,000 volumes belonged to the literary so
cieties belonging to the college. The college consisted of an Eng
lish school, a classical school and a college proper. Six young
men had been licensed to preach, and others were preparing for
the ministry in the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches,
but the great mass of the students were preparing to be planters,
physicians and lawyers.
In 1852 the college had aided in the education of nearly 1,000
native youth. It had besides the main building and residences of
president and professors, 30 cottages for students ; two handsome
halls for the literary societies, with libraries attached; a college
library of more than 4,000 volumes, and apparatus costing nearly
$4,000. September 5, 1851, Dr. Chamberlain was stabbed and
killed by a resident of the community.
In 1852 the faculty of the college was : Rev. R. L. Stanton, pres
ident and professor of moral sciences ; Rev. J. R. Hutchinson, prq-
fessor of Latin, Greek and Hebrew; T. Newton Wilson, professor
of mathematics; W. LeRoy Brown, .professor of chemistry and
natural philosophy; H. B. Underhill, principal of the preparatory
department. President Stanton was succeeded by Rev. James
Perviance. Rev. Wm. Breckinridge became president in 1860, but the out
break of the war made his service a short one. The institution
was closed during the conflict, from which it suffered much. Its
endowment was lost, and many of its patrons impoverished.
Later, an attempt was made to revive the school ; Rev. Joseph
Calvin was elected president, but he soon died, and the institution
virtually closed its doors. In 1871, under the pressure of debt, the
synod resolved to sell the college, and it was sold to the State, as
the site of Alcorn university. The funds, after all debts were paid,
were used in the building of Chamberlain-Hunt academy.
Among the founders of Oakland college, who gave to the insti
tution $5,000 and upwards, were: Alvarez Fish, Dr. Stephen Dun
can, Dr. John Ker, Dr. Metcalf, John Routh, Thomas Henderson,
Alex Henderson, Francis Serget, Alexander Ross, Mrs. Precilla
McGill. Dr. John Ker gave $20,000 with' the understanding that

MISSISSIPPI 351
his name should not be divulged. After his death the secret was
given out. Oakland College was situated in a historic part of the
State. Near it was the plantation of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Gen.
U. S. Grant crossed the Mississippi river three miles north of its
nearest landing, Rodney. Here was the scene of incidents in the
lives of Andrew Jackson, Lorenzo Dow, and Aaron Burr.
Oakley, a station on the Natchez-Jackson branch of the Yazoo
& Mlississippi Valley R. R., 6 miles southwest of Raymond, one of
the seats of justice for Hinds county. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 80.
Oakohay, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Covington
county on the Leaf river, about 15 miles from Williamsburg, the
county seat. Mt. Olive is the nearest banking town, on the Gulf
& Ship Island R. R. Population in 1900, 63.
Oakridge, a post-hamlet of Warren county, about 20 miles north
east of Vicksburg. Population in 1900, 43.
Oaks, a postoffice of Madison county, about 14 miles north of
t Canton, the county seat.
Oakvale, a postoffice of Lawrence county, 12 miles southeast of
Monticello, the county seat. Silver creek at present is the nearest
banking town, but a bank has been organized at Oakvale and will
soon be in operation. Population in 1900, 33, and in 1906 was esti
mated at 200. The town is located on the Columbia branch of the
Gulf & Ship Island R. R.
Obadiah, a postoffice of Lauderdale county, 12 miles north of
Meridian. Obed, a postoffice of Pike county, 15 miles due east of Magnolia,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Occupation by U. S., 1797-98. The correspondence between
Wayne and Carondelet is mentioned in "Advent of the Flag," the
movements of Captain Pope, with 25 men, in support of Ellicott's
escort, in "Ellicott and Gayoso." May 20, 1797, Gen. Wilkinson,
the successor of Wayne, notified Capt. Isaac Guion that he had
selected him to take possession of the military posts on the Mis
sissippi, theretofore held by the Spanish. He was to embark at
Fort Washington (Cincinnati) May 26, with the party assigned
him, and proceed to Fort Massac, near the mouth of the Tennes
see river, where he would be given more men and supplies by Capt.
Zebulon Pike. Full instructions were given regarding the possi
bilities of the trip from there. He was to sail with the flag con
spicuously displayed, notify any Spanish post of his approach, and
offer to exchange salute for salute, but stop for nothing but an
official order or menace, in which case he was to deliver a protest
and either return or take a position within the limits of the United
States and defend it to the last extremity. At Chickasaw Bluffs
he was to halt and distribute goods to the Chickasaws ; then pro
ceed to Walnut Hills and take possession if the' Spanish had gone,
or demand possession if they had not evacuated. Leaving one
company there, with a detachment of artillery, he was then to
proceed to Natchez, where he would exercise diplomatic as well

352 MISSISSIPPI
as military functions. (See Permanent Committee). It was some
time after he had written these instructions that Wilkinson was
informed by Carondelet that the Spanish proposed to hold the
forts until the diplomats should determine whether they should
be left intact or demolished, out of tender regard for the Indian
treaties by which Spain had acquired the land to build upon; also
of the other pretext for delay, rumors of .British invasion from
Canada; also for fear of expeditions "against the Indians, the an
cient allies of Spain ;" also until a "sufficient force, commanded
by an officer of rank" should be sent, to guard against these dan
gers. Guion was not an officer of rank and his force was less than
200 strong, but the war department let it go at that. The military
dispositions were sufficient to hold the Natchez people from mak
ing an imaginary war on the Indians and the imaginary Canadians
from taking New Orleans.
Guion left Fort Massac with two companies, under Captains
Demler and Heth. At New Madrid the Spanish commandant,
De Lassus, formally protested against his proceeding down the
river. This was made a matter of negotiation by the war depart
ment, which did not approve the course Guion took, of giving his
parole to the7 Spanish commandant that he would go no further
than the Chickasaw bluffs, until informed that "existing difficul
ties" between the two governments had been removed. Until
relieved from this parole he could do nothing to perform his
military mission, but would be in position to deliver the first gov
ernment annuity to the Chickasaws, which he brought with him
in goods. He reached Chickasaw Bluffs (q. v.) July 20. Next
day Augustin Grande, commandant at Hopefield, across the river,
notified Guion that he had no orders from his superior to permit
him to pass, to which Guion replied, "This I doubt not, nor that
you have any orders to the contrary, as they would be extraordi
nary indeed." In the spring, when the Spanish authorities in
tended to carry out the treaty of limits, the stockade here had
been burned, and the garrison transferred across the river. Now,
Guion believed it was the intention, before his arrival, to reoc-
cupy it.
Guion built a stockade, called Fort Adams, and later Fort Pick
ering. August 19 Governor Gayoso sent a despatch, releasing
him from his parole not to proceed beyond Chickasaw Bluffs. In
November, he sailed down the river to Fort Nogales, (December
1st) and finding Captain Beauregard in command, politely asked
if he were ready to give possession and was politely informed
that he was not. The expedition arrived December 6 at Natchez,
where there was a Spanish garrison of forty men, under Capt.
Stephen Minor, commandant and governor of the district. There
seems to have been no protest against his landing, and he "en
camped on a hill just a thousand yards from the Spanish fort,
and the flags of two* nations waved over the same district." (Let
ter of Guion, quoted by Claiborne, p. 184.) The small commands

MISSISSIPPI 353
of Lieutenants Pope and McClary, already there, became a part
of Guion's battalion.
There was no change in the situation for two or three months.
¦ Wilkinson wrote Guion from Pittsburg, January 2, 1798, "Your
building a fort at the lower Chickasaw bluff, though not in your
orders, was, under the circumstances, very judicious, and conforms
with my views exactly. The minister of war now approves what
he would not allow in the spring. Capt. John Pierce has been sent
by the secretary himself, to command at the bluff, with a select
corps of incomparable rascals, under Lewis, Marschalk and Steele.
The party you left there have been ordered to report to you at
Natchez." This was brought to Guion by the Marquis de Mount-
joy, in attendance upon the refugee prince later known as King
Louis Phillippe.
While under parole at Chickasaw Bluffs, far from the scene of
trouble at Natchez, the captain, upon complaints from Governor
Gayoso had advised Lieut. Pope that "if there has been any just
cause of dissatisfaction on the part of Governor Gayoso, it will
¦ no longer continue, and that you will remove it by a change of
conduct." But his own conduct was not essentially different. In
October he wrote the "courtly Gayoso" in rather plain terms that
it was becoming to soldiers to tell the truth. After reaching Nat
chez Guion ordered his men to make fascines for fortification.
Minor protested, saying he knew of no danger, and Guion sharply
responded: "That you are entirely ignorant of being in any dan
ger, I doubt not, seeing that you are snug in garrison; but I am
not so certain that my camp is in perfect security, or that hostility
to it is not meditated." When Minor continued to write, Captain
Guion said he hoped his excellency would put an end to a cor
respondence already too voluminous by telling him when he would
evacuate Natchez and Walnut Hills. His redoubt was built and
camp established on the spot where Ellicott had his tent, and this
little field work, he told the secretary of war, had contributed
much to the "Spanish evacuation.
Governor Gayoso gave notice that the evacuation was ordered
January 10, his letter reaching Natchez on the 18. It was not
definitely stated in this communication, it seems, whether the forts
would be demolished or not, a matter which had been left entirely
to Spain to choose, when she raised the point. At a later date
Gayoso gave orders to the officers at Natchez and Walnut Hills
"to leave the fortifications in the state they were in, without de
molishing any part of them, and as to the buildings that otherwise
might be sold to the public, to offer the preference to the com
manding officer of the United States troops at Natchez." (Letter
to Wilkinson, Claiborne, p. 191-94.) He gave every other instruc
tion, he said, to prove the friendship of the nations, and the com
mandants at Natchez appointed appraisers for the buildings and
arranged for a settlement through the courts.
January and February passed, however, without any change in
the situation.
23-11

354 MISSISSIPPI
"At length, on the 23d of March, when Captain Guion had al
most determined to take the forts by assault, Fort Nogales was
evacuated, and the garrison descended the river to Natchez.
Here it retired into Fort Panmure, and remained for six days
longer, previous to its final evacuation. During this time, the
commander studiously concealed the time of his intended depart
ure, while Captain Guion looked with impatience to the near ap
proach of the first day of April, which he declared should not
witness the Spanish garrison in the fort. At length, on the 29th
of March, about midnight, the Spanish drums began to sound the
note of preparation; and at four o'clock next morning, having
previously sent the artillery, stores and baggage on board their
boats and galleys, the troops marched out of the fort to the river
bank. Before the morning light they had embarked, and were
several miles below Natchez, on their voyage to New Orleans."
(Monette, I, 531.)
Commissioner Ellicott, who had been waiting for a year and a
month, was notified in the night, so that he arose at four,' walked
to the fort, found the rear guard departing, and, as the gate was
left open, went in "and enjoyed from the parapet the pleasing
prospect of the galleys and boats leaving the shore and getting
under way." The Natchez fort was occupied by Captain Demler.
The Nogales fort was occupied later by Major Wm. Kersey, and
a battalion under Captains Rickard and Wade and Lieutenants
Marshall and Davidson. These commands were parts of the First
and Third regiments, United States army, and detachments from
the artillery. August 20, 1798, there was a reinforcement under
Lieut.-Col. John F. Hamtramck, who had been a captain in the
Continental army, and commanded the left wing of Wayne's army
(Wilkinson the right) in the decisive battle of the Maumee in
1794. Wilkinson arrived at Natchez August 26. A day or two
later he consulted Gov. Sargent about "the propriety of remain
ing at Natchez or descending the river," and was advised "to take
post at or near some heights, elevated three hundred feet above
the Mississippi, commanding the river and called Loftus Cliffs.
They are almost seven miles above the line; and I suppose the
troops will descend on the morrow," wrote Sargent September 29.
Gen. Wilkinson moved his troops to this spot at once, leaving a
garrison at old Fort Panmure, thereafter called Fort Sargent. At
Loftus heights Fort Adams was built in 1799.
His little army embraced four hundred men in all, Morales
heard at New Orleans. The troops "were quartered in canton
ments in the vicinity of Washington, and near the Halfway Hill,
on the road to Second creek, until the following year, when a mili
tary post was erected at the first highland point on the Mississippi,
a few miles above the Spanish line of demarcation." (Monette.)
Lieut. McClary, with a small body of men, marched from Natchez
May 5, 1799, to take possession of Fort Stephens, on the Tombig
bee, which was evacuated by the Spaniards on his arrival. In
July Capt. Schaumberg, of the Second regiment, marched from

MISSISSIPPI 355
Natchez, with two companies, to the first bluff below the conflu
ence of the Tombigbee and Alabama, and built the stockade after
ward known as Fort Stoddert. (Pickett's Alabama.)
General Wilkinson departed for the seat of government May
27, 1799, and left Major Cushing in command on the Mississippi.
Ocean Springs, an incorporated post-town of Jackson county, sit
uated on the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Biloxi, five miles east
of the city of Biloxi. It is an important station on the Louisville
& Nashville R. R., 84 miles from New Orleans and 56- miles from
Mobile. It is a popular pleasure resort, both winter and summer,
and is widely famed for its mineral springs, its salubrious climate,
fine sea bathing, and beautiful drives. It is well provided with
churches, hotels and schools, and has telegraph, telephone, express
and banking facilities. Truck-farming and sheep raising are exten
sively carried on in the vicinity. It is an extensive wool market,
and a large turpentine industry is established here. In addition
to. the Ocean Springs State Bank, the Scranton State Bank, and the
Merchants and Marine of Scranton also maintain branches here.
The Ocean Springs, a Democratic weekly newspaper, established
in 1897, is edited and published by A. E. Lee. Population in 1900,
1,255. Ochre. Yellow ochre is of common occurrence in the Orange
sand formation throughout the State, but not in large quantities.
One of the main deposits, near White Cliffs, was evidently in
ancient use. It is not impossible that large beds may be found.
Red ochre is also common, used for paint in some localities, and
furnishing extremely beautiful tints. Aluminous brown iron ore
and brown hematite are very extensively diffused through the
Orange Sand, but not, under present condition, commercially val
uable. Octavia, a hamlet in the extreme southern part of Yazoo county,
about 21 miles south of Yazoo City. It has a money order post-
office. The population in 1906 was about 30.
Odd Fellows. The grand lodge of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows of Mississippi was instituted by Thomas Wildey,
past grand sire, at Natchez, May 6, 1838. There were then only
two lodges in the State — Mississippi, No. 1, and Washington, No.
2 — both at Natchez, which had been chartered by the grand lodge
of the United States, now the sovereign grand lodge.- Washing
ton, No. 2, after a record of more than fifty years, ceased work in
1888, and the grand secretary has its original charter from the
grand lodge of the United States, dated February 22, 1838. War
ren, No. 3, at Vicksburg, was organized May 14, 1838, eight days
after the organization of the grand lodge.
Says an official report: "It is a notable fact that the yellow
fever, in every epidemic in the State, has carried off scores of our
brethren; but this is not remarkable when we recollect that all
ranks of society fill our lodges — especially the laboring classes.
At each of these visitations of Providence the treasuries of lodges
have been emptied in the service of humanity. In the past sixty-

356 MISSISSIPPI
six years the lodges have passed through many vicissitudes. At
least one-third of them have been burned out, outside of those
destroyed during the war. From total destruction during the war
only some half-dozen lodges escaped. Twenty-two lodges never
revived after the war, and as many more, by the undying love of
Odd Fellowship, were only kept alive a few years longer. Odd
Fellowship in Mississippi has had many 'ups and downs,' but has
gloriously survived them all."
There are now about 110 subordinate lodges in the State. The
receipts of the order in Mississippi in the last year reported were
$27,051, expenditures $21,906 ; investments and lodge property,
$111,117. The grand lodge of 1906 is expected to make provision
for the building of an Orphans' Home.
Following is the succession of grand masters, and year of elec
tion :
M. Ruffner, 1838; Wm. Doyle, 1839; Benj. Walker, 1840; E. P.
Pollard, 1841; S. Halsey, 1811; Geo. Dicks, 1842; Richard Grif
fith, 1842; S. B. Newman, 1844; J. R. Stockman, 1845; W. H
Brown, 1846; Thomas Reed, 1847; D. N. Barrows, 1848; C. H
Stone, 1849 ; W: Cruther, 1850 ; A. M. Foute, 1851 ; N. G. Bryson
1852; J. K. Connelly, 1852; W. A. Strong, 1853; A. H. Arthur,
1854; L. K. Barber, 1855 ; John L. Milton, 1856; H. L. Bailey, 1857
Wm. Wyman, 1858; A. E. Love, 1859; J. P. Hawks, 1860; R. B
Mayes, D. G. M., 1861; C. Parish, 1865; N. T. Keeler, 1866; L. K
Barber, 1867; S. C. Cochran, 1868; George Torrey, 1869; G. K
Birchett, 1870; Ira J. Carter, 1871; Isaac T. Hart, 1872; J. S. Cain
1873; H. S. Van Eaton, 1874; D. P. Black, 1875; R. L. Saunders
1876 ; A. B. Wagner, 1877 ; J. H. McKenzie, 1878 ; Joseph Hirsh
1879; T. J. Hanes, 1880; W. J. Bradshaw, 1881; J. L. Power, 1882
G. W. Trimble, 1883; I. D. Blumenthal, 1884; H. C. Roberts, 1885
James C. Lamkin, 1886; Wm. Strickland, 1887; Amos Burnett
1888 ; R. C. Patty, 1889 ; Wiley N. Nash, 1890 ; Emile Bonelli, 1892
Monroe McClurg, 1893; Ellis T. Hart, 1894; C. L. Lincoln, 1895
Simon Fried, 1896; L. F. Chiles, 1897; J. W. Stewart, 1898; O. L,
Kimbrough,' 1899 ; O. L. McKay, 1900 ; Wm. Hemingway, 1901
John L. Buckley, 1902 ; James McClure, 1903 ; W. O. Menger, 1904
J. J. Coman, 1905.
Odile, a postoffice of Marion county.
Ofahoma, a post-village of Leake county, situated on the Yoka
hockany river, 10 miles west of Carthage, the county seat, and 24
miles east of Canton, the nearest railroad and banking town. It
has a church and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900,
106. Ofogoulas, see Indians.
O. K., a post-hamlet and landing of Tunica county, on the Mis
sissippi river, 6 miles from Tunica, the county seat, and nearest
railroad and banking town, and 70 miles below Memphis. Much
cotton is shipped from here. Population in 1900, 65.
Okolona, an incorporated post-town of Chickasaw county, and
one of the two seats of justice for the county. It is an important

MISSISSIPPI 357
station on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., and is also connected with
Houston by a spur line of the Southern Railway. It is 68 miles
south of Corinth, and about 45 miles northwest of Columbus. The
name Okolona is an Indian word meaning "much bent." It has
telegraph, express and banking facilities, and lies in a cotton, corn
and hay producing district. It is a shipping point of importance
and the market town for a large area of country. The Okolona
Banking Company Was established here in 1888, present capital
$60,000; the Merchants & Farmers Bank was established in 1897,
capital $25,000. It supports two weekly newspapers; the Messen
ger, an Independent paper founded in 1872, and the Sun, a Demo
cratic paper published in 1892 ; Race Pride (colored) is a semi
monthly Republican paper. There are a number of manufacturing
enterprises here, among which are a large cotton-seed oil mill, a
cotton compress, an ice factory, bottling works, and a handle
factory. The Mobile & Ohio round house and machine shops are
maintained here. The town owns and operates electric lighting and
water works systems, and is rapidly improving its streets and side
walks. A male academy, a female institute, and the principal relig
ious denominations are represented by churches. Population in
1900, 2,177 ; in 1906 it was estimated at 2,500.
Okolona, battle. Gen. Wm. Sooy Smith, of the Union army,
left Memphis in February, with 6,500 cavalry, to attempt to join
General Sherman at Meridian (see War of 1861-65). At New Al
bany he crossed the Tallahatchie, behind which river Gen. Forrest
lay with his cavalry, and advanced toward Pontotoc and Houston.
At the latter place and in the Houlka swamp he was given battle
by Gen. S. J. Gholson, commanding State troops, and Smith turned
toward Okolona, and sent detachments toward Columbus and
West Point. Forrest moved rapidly in pursuit, reaching Stark
viUe February 18, and disposed his brigades to guard the threat
ened towns. West Point seemed most in danger and there was a
concentration of both Smith's and Forrest's troops on the road
there; but Forrest was waiting for reinforcements, and fell back
to a position on Sakatonchee creek, three miles south of West
Point. Disposing his other troops to guard other ways of ap
proach and support him, he awaited Smith with Chalmers' division,
behind a breastwork of rails and logs, fighting his men as infantry.
Smith was repulsed after a two hours' fight, February 21, and the
retreat was so hotly pursued that the Federals became demoral
ized. At Okolona, on the 22d, Bell's brigade charged and captured
a battery of five guns. Five miles- beyond Okolona there was a
fierce engagement, in which Col. Jefferson E. Forrest, brother of
the general, and Col. James A. Barksdale, of the 5th Miss, cav
alry, were killed. Five miles further in the retreat, there was
another stubborn fight, with which the pursuit ceased. The Con
federate loss was 97 killed, besides the wounded, among whom
were Colonels McCullock and Barteau. The Federals had 47
killed and 152 wounded. Forrest had probably about half as many
men in battle as his opponents.

358 MISSISSIPPI
Oktibbeha, a postoffice of Kemper county, 14 miles southwest
of Dekalb, the county seat.
Oktibbeha County was established December 23rd, 1833. It was
one of the numerous counties formed at this time from Choctaw
territory ceded by the treaty of Dancing Rabbit in 1830, and is
situated in the northeastern part of the State. "Oktibbeha" is an
Indian word meaning "ice there in creek," or, according to another
authority "bloody water," because of the battles fought here be
tween the Chickasaws and Choctaws in an early day. The orig
inal act defined its boundaries as follows : "Beginning at the point
at which the line between ranges 15 and 16 east, leaves the line be
tween townships 16 and 17, and running from thence north with
said line, between ranges 15 and 16 east, to a point directly west of
the junction of the Buttahatchy river, with the Tombigbee river;
from thence west to the line between ranges 11 and 12 east; from
thence south, with said line between ranges 11 and 12 east, to the
line between townships 16 and 17, and from thence east, with said
line between townships 16 and 17, to the place of beginning." A
part of its northern area was taken in 1871 to assist in forming the
new county of Clay, (q. v.) Clay county lies to the north, Lowndes
county on the east, Winston and Noxubee counties on the south
and Choctaw county on the west. The old "Robinson Road" ran
through the southern part of the county and in the southeastern
part was the old Choctaw Indian agency. Numerous mounds and
the many Indian names of streams and towns are constant re-'
minders of the old Choctaw occupancy. The county has a land
surface of 435 square miles.
A list of the civil officials of the county for 1838, soon after its
organization, is as follows : David Ames, Judge of the Probate
court; Joseph Yates, Clerk of the Circuit court; Charles Debrells,
Clerk of the Probate court ; John Moore, Sheriff ; Richard S. Graves,
Surveyor; John Wiseman, Assessor and Collector; Thomas A.
Forbut, Treasurer; Richard Drummond, Coroner; John R. Todd,
Ranger; James Copeland, S. Clark, Samuel Harper, John Quin,
Nicholas H. Simmons, members of the Board of Police.
The first Probate Judge was David Reese; the first Sheriff was
J. W. Eastland, the first county Treasurer was Robert Bell, the
first Clerks of the Circuit and Probate Courts were Yates and De-
brell above mentioned. R. A. Lampkin was the first postmaster
and Horatio Bardwell, a Presbyterian divine, was probably the first
minister to hold services in the county, about 1835. The "Stark
viUe Whig," established in 1847 by Dr. J. T. Freeman, was the
first paper published. This became the "Broad Ax" a little later
and continued under that name down to the time of the War.
StarkviUe has been the county seat from the first and is a place
of 2,100 people, at the junction of the Illinois Central and Mobile
& Ohio railroads. The country adjoining is an excellent stock
country and the city has a thriving local and shipping trade, has
several factories, and possesses exceptional social and educational
advantages. The State Agricultural and Mechanical College and

MISSISSIPPI 359
U. S. Experiment Station are situated one mile east of StarkviUe
on the railroad. This institution is doing a splendid work for the
industrial education of the youth of the State and is constantly
widening its field of usefulness. Other towns in the county are
Sturgis (pop. 350), Maben, Hickory Grove, Double Springs, Long-
view, Osborn and Bradley. The eastern part of the county is for
the most part rich prairie soil with a timber growth of white oak,
red oak, poplar, black walnut, hickory and gum. A few miles west
of StarkviUe is a four to ten mile strip of the Flatwoods belt, hav
ing a stiff clay soil and a timber growth of white and post oak.
West of the Flatwoods are the Sandy Hills, extending to Web
ster county and having a . timber growth of oak, hickory, pine,
blackjack, and chestnut. The county produces cotton, corn,
oats, wheat, rye, barley, sweet and Irish potatoes, all kinds
of grasses, and fruits and vegetables of every description. There
is no better stock country in the State, and Colonel W. B.
Montgomery of Oktibbeha has gone extensively into the busi
ness of breeding fine cattle, and is recognized as an authority
* throughout the South. Many northerners have also embarked
in the stock business on a large scale, the fine grasses of the
prairie section making the industry particularly attractive. The
Illinois Central R. R. crosses the county from east to west,
a branch of the Mobile & Ohio R. R. runs from Columbus to
StarkviUe, and the Southern R. R. crosses the northwestern
corner of the county. The Noxubee river runs through the south
ern part of the county, and with its tributaries, Chincahoma, Talk
ing Warrior, Sand and Wolf creeks water this section. In the east
and north are Red Bull, Trim Cane, Self, Biba Wila, Line and many
other creeks.
The following statistics, from the. twelfth United States census
for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : — Number
of farms 3,163, acreage in farms 207,895, acres improved 119,809,
value of land exclusive of buildings $1,505,580, value of buildings
$474,130, total value of products not fed $1,075,512, and total value
of live stock $618,648. Number of manufacturing establishments
59, capital invested $162,025, wages paid $21,477, cost of materials
$68,808, total value of products $149,677. The population in 1900
consisted of whites 6,363, colored 13,820, a total of 20,183 and an
increase of 2,489 over the year 1890.
The value of real estate has advanced fully 100 per cent in the
last 5 years. The public highways are being worked by contract.
Great advancement has been made in the schools of the county.
Owing to the emigration of the negroes the population on the
whole has not increased much since the last census. The total
assessed valuation of real and personal property in Oktibbeha
county in 1905 was $1,819,537 and in 1906 it was $2,085,863 which
shows an increase of $266,326 during the year.
Oktoc, a postoffice of Oktibbeha county, situated on Folsom
creek, 10 miles south of StarkviUe, the county seat.

360 MISSISSIPPI
Oldenburg, a postoffice of Franklin county, about 8 miles north
west of Meadville, the county seat. Hamburg is the nearest rail
road station, 5 miles west on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
R. R.
Old Salem, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Carroll
county, 12 miles west of Vaiden, and 20 miles south of CarroUton,
the county seat. Vaiden is the nearest railroad and banking town.
It contains several stores, and has 2 churches and a good school.
Population in 1900, 35.
Oldtown, a postoffice of Calhoun county, located on the Schoona
river, 3 miles northeast of Pittsboro, the county seat.
Olio, a postoffice of Amite county, about 14 miles southwest of
Liberty, the county seat.
Olive, a postoffice of Holmes county, 4 miles due north of Lex
ington, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Olive Branch, an incorporated village in the northeastern part
of De Soto county, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham
R. R., 18 miles southeast of Memphis. It has two churches, an
academy, a steam mill, and several good stores. Population in 1900,
198 ; the population in 1906 was estimated at 300.
Oliver, a postoffice of Coahoma county, about 12 miles south of
Clarksdale, the county seat.
Olney, a hamlet in the northwestern part of Neshoba county, 12
miles from Philadelphia, the county seat. It has rural free delivery
from the town of Edinburg.
Oloh, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Lamar county,
about 15 miles from Purvis, the county seat. There are 2 churches
a good school and a turpentine plant located here.
O'Neil; a postoffice of Amite county, about 12 miles northwest
of Liberty, the county seat.
Ophelia, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, about 22 miles north
east of Brandon, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Ora, a post-hamlet in the central part of Covington county, on
the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 3 miles northeast of Williamsburg,
the county seat. Collins is the nearest banking town. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 68. There is a large
saw mill located here and the population of Ora in 1906 was esti
mated at 300.
Orange, a post-hamlet in the western part of Clarke county,
on Souenlovie creek, about 15 miles northwest of Quitman, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 26.
Orangegrove, a station on the Louisville & Nashville R. R., in
the southeastern part of Jackson county, 8 miles northeast of Pas
cagoula, the county seat, and nearest banking town. It received its
name from the groves of orange trees about it. It has a church,
a money order postoffice, a steam saw mill and extensive trucking
interests. Population in 1900, 30.
Orangeville, a postoffice in the northern part of Hinds county,
about 20_ miles northwest of Jackson.

MISSISSIPPI 361
Order of '76. This secret political society was organized in
1870, according to popular impression, at Somerville, Noxubee
county, by Thomas S. Gathright, founder and proprietor of Somer
ville institute. Its purpose was to counteract the Loyal League.
At the election in 1869 the Democrats, including nearly all the
whites, tried to secure part of the negro vote, which was largely
in the majority, partly owing to the disfranchisement of those
white men, generally of high position, who were not included in
the amnesty. "Neither force, fraud nor intimidation were resorted
to." But it was found that the secret methods of the Loyal League
made the negroes practically solid in opposition to the Democrats.
Even the most ignorant negroes were enabled to select their Re
publican tickets by the flag printed in colors on the back. Hence
the Order of '76, the name being suggested by the old grievance
of the fathers — taxation without representation. The purposes of
the club were : "To secure concert of action among the white voters
of the State in overthrowing the Republican party in the State ;
to shield, protect and defend each other by money, or by force if
" necessary, from wrong and oppression, and likewise'to protect and
defend our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters from insult and
injury; to punish lawless negroes and their white allies who were
protected by the military authorities ; to ostracise every native
white man and his family who allied himself with the negroes ;
and to attend every election and vote only for true and tried men,
and use every lawful means to defeat the 'black and tan' ticket,
and to re-establish white supremacy in the State." The lodges
were known among the members as "Robinson clubs," and the
challenge was "Do you know Robinson?" to which the initiated
answered "What Robinson?" to which the reply was "Squire Rob
inson." There were clubs in all the eastern counties. The trial
of L. D. Belk, of Meridian, in 1872, was thought by members of
the order to be a "fishing expedition" to obtain information about
the order. T. M. Scanlan, of Newton, was called as a witness, and
on his refusal to answer questions he was sent to jail for contempt
and held two months, until yellow fever broke out, and he was
released by order of Judge Hill. No witnesses could be found to
reveal the secrets of the order. (W. H. Hardy, in Miss. Hist.
Publ. VII, 208).
Ordinance of 1784. This act of the congress of the Confederation
was the first attempt to provide a plan of government for the
country at that time in the hands of the Indians. It was reported
in congress, in March, 1784, by a committee, consisting of Thomas
Jefferson of Virginia, Chase of Maryland, and Howell of Rhode
Island. The original draft of the ordinance, in the handwriting of
Jefferson, provides for the laying off of States from the 31° parallel
northward, and for the prohibition of slavery in all the region after
the year 1800. On April 19, the report was taken up for consider
ation, and Mr. Spaight, of North Carolina, moved to strike out the
clause relating to slavery. On the question, "Shall the words
stand?" six States voted yes, seven being required to adopt any

362 MISSISSIPPI
proposition. "South Carolina, Maryland and Virginia voted
against it," wrote Mr. Jefferson, "North Carolina was divided, as
would have been Virginia, had not one of its delegates been sick
in bed." If one of the New Jersey delegates had not been absent,
the clause would have been adopted by the vote of seven States.
Georgia was not present. Another very important change made
was that the laying off of States should begin on the 45th parallel
and proceed southward. As adopted, the ordinance provided:
That, when authorized by congress, the free males in any one of
the territorial divisions to be laid off should meet to establish a
temporary government, "to adopt the constitution and laws of any
one of the original States," subject to alteration by their legisla
ture, and to establish counties and districts for the election of a
legislature. When there should be 20,000 free inhabitants, "upon
proof of the same to congress, a convention should be held to
establish a permanent constitution and government for them
selves." Both the temporary and permanent governments were
to be "established on these principles as their basis :" "That they
shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States
of America;" that they should be subject to the articles of confed
eration and the acts of congress, in the same measure as the older
States were, also to the payment of the Federal debts contracted
and to be contracted; that they should in no case interfere with the
primary disposal and control of the soil by the United States in
congress assembled, or impose taxes on the land of the United
States ; "That their respective governments shall be republican ;"
that there should be no discrimination in taxation against non-res
ident proprietors. These States, thus formed, could have a dele
gate in congress, with privilege of speaking but not voting, but
for a long time they would not be advanced to that condition that,
since this ordinance, has 'been called "admission to the Union."
Whenever any one "of the said States shall have of free inhab
itants as many as shall then be in any one of the least numerous
of the thirteen original States, such State shall be admitted by
its delegates into the congress of the United States, on an equal
footing with the original States," provided the requisite number
of the original States should consent, and thereupon it should be
proposed to the legislatures of the States, the original parties to
the articles of confederation, to require the assent of two-thirds
of the United States in congress assembled to adapt the articles
of confederation to the increased number of States.
Ordinance of 1787. This ordinance for the government of the
territory of the United States northwest of the river Ohio, adopted
July 13, 1787, taking the place of the ordinance of 1784, was made
the fundamental ordinance of Mississippi territory, and conse
quently of the State, by act of Congress providing for a govern-'
ment of this Territory, in 1798. The Ordinance, in the first place,
provides for the abolition of primogeniture and the establishment of
such a system of inheritance and transfer of property as now pre
vails in the United States. In regard to the government of the

MISSISSIPPI 363
territory, there is an adaptation to two stages of population. Con
gress was to appoint a governor, to serve three years, a secretary
to serve four years, and a court of three judges, of common law
jurisdiction. During the first stage of the territory, when the pop
ulation was less than "five thousand free male inhabitants of full
age," "the governor and judges, or a majority of them, shall adopt
and publish in the district such laws of the original States, criminal
and civil, as may be necessary and best suited to the circumstances
of the district, and report them to Congress from time to time;"
the governor also should appoint all magistrates and civil officers
at his pleasure, and lay out counties and townships in the country
freed from Indian title. The governor, as commander-in-chief of
the militia, was empowered to commission all officers under the
rank of general officers, which appointment Congress reserved.
When the voting population named had been attained and proof
of the same submitted to the governor, his proclamation should
issue for an election of representatives; the apportionment to be
one representative for every 500 free male inhabitants, the term
to be two years. A freehold of fifty acres of land was required as
a qualification for a voter and of 200 acres for membership in the
assembly. These representatives would form the popular repre
sentation in the General Assembly, to be composed of the gover
nor, legislative council and house of representatives. As soon as
the house should meet, it should nominate ten residents, each pos
sessed of a freehold in 500 acres of land, and return these names to
Congress, out of which list Congress should select five to consti
tute the council, vacancies to be filled in like manner.
The general assembly, thus constituted, had "authority to make
laws in all cases for the good government of the district, not re
pugnant to the principles and articles in this ordinance established
and declared." But the governor had the power of absolute veto,
could convene, prorogue and dissolve the assembly whenever in
his opinion it was expedient, and it was the duty of the secretary
to report acts of the legislature and all proceedings of the govern
ment to Congress every six months.
There was no representation in Congress until the general as
sembly was organized, whereupon the council and house assembled
in one room shall have authority by joint ballot to elect a delegate
to Congress, with a right of debating but not of voting.
So far the ordinance was worked out, modifying Jefferson's ordi
nance to meet what Carrington, of Virginia, considered the need
of strict control of these "districts," until they should be populous
enough to be recognized as States, having self government. What
follows is the joint product of Virginia and Massachusetts states
manship in providing for the wider future:
"And, for extending the fundamental principles of civil and re
ligious liberty, which form the basis whereon these republics, their
laws and constitutions are erected ; to fix and establish those prin
ciples as the basis of all laws, constitutions and governments,
which forever hereafter shall be formed in the said territory; to

364 MISSISSIPPI
provide also for the establishment of States and permanent govern
ment therein, and for their admission to a share in the federal
councils on an equal footing with the original States, at as early
periods as may be consistent with the general interest;
"It is hereby ordained and declared by the authority aforesaid,
That the following articles shall be considered as articles of com
pact between the original States and the people and States in the
said territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common
consent, to wit :
Art. 1st. No person, demeaning himself in a peaceable and
orderly manner, shall ever be molested on account of his mode of
worship or religious sentiments, in the said territory.
Art. 2d. The inhabitants of the said territory shall always be
entitled to the benefits of the writ of habeas corpus, and of the
trial by jury; of a proportionate representation of the people in the
legislature ; and of judicial proceedings according to the course
of the common law. All persons shall be bailable, unless for cap
ital offences, where the proof shall be evident or the presumption
great. All fines shall be moderate; and no cruel or unusual pun
ishments shall be inflicted. No man shall be deprived of his liberty
or property, but by the judgment of his peers or the law of the
land; and, should the public exigencies make it necessary, for the
common preservation, to take any person's property, or to demand
his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the
same. And, in the just preservation of rights and property, it is
understood and declared, that no law ought ever to be made, or
have force in the said territory that shall, in any manner whatever
interfere with or effect private contracts or engagements, bona fide,
and without fraud, previously formed.
Art. 3d. Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary
to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the
means of education shall forever be encouraged. The utmost
good faith shall be observed toward the Indians; their lands and
property shall never be taken from them without their consent;
and in their property, rights and liberty, they shall never be in
vaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorized by
Congress; but laws founded in justice and humanity shall, from
time to time, be made for preventing wrongs being done them,
and for preserving peace and friendship with them.
Art. 4th. The said territory, and the States which may be
formed therein, shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of
the United States of America, subject to the articles of Confedera
tion, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally
made; and to all the acts and ordinances of the United States in
Congress assembled and conformable thereto. (The remainder
of this article related to taxation and public lands.)
Art. 5th. (Provided for division of Northwest territory into
States, ea,ch to be admitted on an equal footing with the original
States when it had 60,000 free inhabitants, and to "be at liberty
to form a permanent constitution and State government," these

MISSISSIPPI 365
restrictions being modified by proviso so that the only requirement
regarding population was the "general interest of the confederacy.")
To the above was added the following:
Art. 6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servi
tude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of
crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted ; Provided
always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor
or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States,
such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the per
son claiming his or her labor or services.
The motive power behind the adoption of the ordinance was an
association of New England Revolutionary soldiers, who wanted
to buy land and start a colony on the Ohio. They desired the pro
hibition of slavery, and it was acceded to, apparently as part of a
general compromise under the original proposition of Thomas
Jefferson. (See Ordinance of 1784.) This ordinance was amended
after the constitution was adopted, so that the powers reposed in
congress were exercised by the president with the consent of the
sfenate. The ordinance was extended to the "territory South of
and River Ohio" [Tennessee], and to "the Mississippi territory,"
with the exception in each case of the prohibition of slavery, to
which the representatives of Georgia and the Carolinas objected,
the question being a matter of serious discussion in congress. But
the importation of slaves into Mississippi territory from foreign
lands was prohibited.
It is said of the Ordinance by Edward Mayes (Goodspeed's
Memoirs) "It contained a summary of many of the propositions
which subsequently found their way into the bill of rights of the
State constitution and into the fundamental conditions. Such was
the short and simple code of laws under which the infant common
wealth was inaugurated. Whether the Spanish occupation had in
fact displaced the common law, as asserted by our supreme court;
or not, as maintained by Robert J. Walker and Judge Clayton;
certain it is that, on the organization of the Territorial government,
that admirable system, by the very terms of the two acts just re
cited (the Territorial act and the Ordinance) became the basis
of all the jurisprudence of Mississippi. Not so unconditionally,.
however, as to defeat the highest end of all law — the welfare and
happiness of the people. In numerous cases our Supreme court
has decided that the common law of England is the law of this
State only so far as it is adapted to our institutions and the circum
stances of our people ; that it may be repealed by statutes, or
varied by usages which by long custom have superseded it."
O'Reilly, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Bolivar county,
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 5 miles south of Cleve
land, one of the seats of justice, and the nearest banking town.
Orion, an extinct village in Scott county, located in the south
western part of the county, not far from the present railroad town
of Morton. We are told that a lively business was carried on at

366 MISSISSIPPI
the place in the early days, but it was abandoned before the War
1861-1865. Orion, a post-hamlet of Marshall county, 12 miles southwest of
Holly Springs, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Orizaba, a hamlet of Tippah county, 7 miles south of Ripley,
the county seat. It has rural free delivery from Blue Mountain, the
nearest railroad station, 4 miles northwest. It has 2 churches and
3 stores. Population in 1900, 79.
Orizaba, Old, an extinct town in Tippah county situated seven
-miles south of Ripley, the county seat. See Tippah county. The
old settlement grew up around a Cumberland presbyterian church
which was established at that place in 1837. A wealthy and pros
perous body of people occupied the surrounding region. The town
attained a growth of about one hundred and fifty inhabitants by
the middle of the last century. Says Mr. Joel A. Hearne, of Rip
ley, Miss., "the last business that was done there was to burn all
its stores and outbuildings in 1882."
Orphan's Home. Governor Humphreys, in his message of Oc
tober, 1866, recommended to the care of the legislature "the Or
phan's Home for the children of the State, many of whom are
children of deceased Confederate soldiers, established at Lauder
dale Springs," and acknowledged the receipt of $9,000 from "the
noble ladies of Baltimore through the harids of their treasurer,
Mrs. Charlotte Latrobe, a loved daughter of Mississippi," a fund
which had been increased from the same source to $18,000.
Orvilla, a postoffice of Wilkinson county, situated on Buffalo
Bayou, 7 miles east of Woodville, the county seat.
Orvisburg, an incorporated post-town of Pearl River county,
on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., about four miles north
of Poplarville, the county seat, and the nearest banking town. The
chief industry is lumber. Population in 1900, 435.
Orwood, a post-hamlet of Lafayette county, 12 miles southwest
of Oxford, the county seat and the nearest banking town. Taylor,
8 miles east, is the nearest railroad station. Orwood Academy is
located here, J. D. Stormant, principal. Population in 1900, 106.
Osborn, a post-hamlet of Oktibbeha county, on the Aberdeen
branch of the Illinois Central R. R., 7 miles by rail northeast of
StarkviUe, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 100.
Osmun, Benajah. A veteran officer of the American revolution,
who came to Natchez district in 1790, accompanying the Forman
party. He had previously been overseer of the plantation of Gen
eral Forman in New Jersey. In the Revolution he enlisted as a
private, which was his condition when captured at the battle of
Long Island. He was again a prisoner of war in 1780, was made a
lieutenant in 1781, and retired at the close of the war with the
brevet rank of captain. He was one of the first militia officers
under Gov. Sargent, and, December 1, 1800, was commissioned
lieutenant-colonel commanding the militia of Adams county, until
he resigned December, 1806. He continued in the same command,

MISSISSIPPI 367
and contributed materially to the success of the organization, then
a matter of great anxiety. Claiborne wrote of him, in September,
1802, that "from his military experience and great zeal for the good
of the service, I have already received from him much assistance
in organizing the militia." He reported that the territorial brigade
was under Osmun's command, and he recommended to the secre
tary of war, General Dearborn, that Osmun be commissioned as
brigadier-general. "Colonel Osmun settled a plantation at the foot of Halfway
hill, near Natchez, became wealthy, and there died, a bachelor,
at a good old age." (Forman's Narrative.) His nearest neighbor
and intimate friend, at Halfway hill, was Major Guion, and a
memorable event of their lives was the entertainment of their
old comrade, Aaron Burr, in 1807. Osmun was one of his two
bondsmen when the former vice president was arrested. Colonel
Osmun's death was in 1816.
Osyka, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of Pike
#county, near the Louisiana border. It is an important station on
the Illinois Central R. R., and ships a considerable amount of cot
ton. The Big Tangipahoa river flows through the town. It has
four or five churches and a good school. The Bank of Osyka was
established here in 1902 with a capital of $23,000. It has large
lumbering interests and three large brick yards. Its population in
1906 was 900.
Otoe, a postoffice of Jasper county, situated on Rahomo creek,
an affluent of Leaf river, about 18 miles southwest of Paulding, the
county seat.
Otto, a postoffice of Washington county, situated on the right
bank of the Sunflower river, about 22 miles southeast of Green
ville. Ouda, a post-hamlet of Smith county, about 12 miles southeast
of Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 46.
Overbey, a postoffice of Simpson county, 10 miles northeast of
Mendenhall. Overpark, a hamlet in the extreme northeastern part of De
Soto county, about 18 miles from Hernando, the county seat. The
postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905, and it now has
rural free delivery from Olive Branch, the nearest railroad sta
tion. ,
Overton, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Alcorn county,
near the west bank of the Hatchie river, 16 miles west of Corinth.
Ovett, a money order post-town, in the southeastern part of
Jones county, on the Big Bogue Homo, about 15 miles southeast
of Ellisville, the county seat. It is on the Mobile, Jackson & Kan
sas City R. R., and is a prosperous town.
Owens, a post-hamlet of Holmes county, on the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley R. R., 6 miles east of Lexington, the county seat
and nearest banking town, and 7 miles west of Durant. Popula
tion in 1900, 48; population in 1906 estimated at 75. There is a

368 MISSISSIPPI
very popular mineral well located in the town and the place is
quite a resort during the summer season.
Oxberry, a post-hamlet of Grenada county, about 13 miles west
of Grenada, the county seat. Halcomb is its nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 45. It has a saw mill and a fine cotton gin.
Oxford. The little city of Oxford, the county seat of Lafayette
county is located on a beautiful ridge of land, and is a wide-awake
prosperous town. It is the seat of the University of Mississippi, the
State's highest institution, of learning. It was also the seat of the
Union Female College, an institution which maintained a contin
uous existence since its first incorporation in 1838, under the name
of the Oxford Female Academy until 1904. Iri 1854, the Academy
was placed under denominational control, that of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church, and reincorporated by the name of "The
Union Female Colleges." The institution has been recently made
a training school for boys and an important feeder for the State
University. This fine old academy was the second institution of
learning to be established in the Chickasaw cession of 1832, the
Hernando Academy being the first.
The main line of the Illinois Central railroad "runs through Ox
ford and gives it ready communication with the outside world. The
first settler on the present site of Oxford was Dr. Thomas D.
Isom, an honored resident of the town up to the time of his death
a few years ago, who rose to eminence in his profession and was
afterwards a member of .the Constitutional Convention of 1890.
He built a log cabin here and opened a store and soon a small
settlement grew up at this point, which was incorporated by the
Legislature in 1837. Besancon writing of the town in 1838 tells
us that it was "located near the center, (of the county) on sections
twenty-one and twenty-eight, range three, township eight. . . .
It is only one year and a half since Oxford was laid out into town
lots, and yet it now numbers four hundred inhabitants. It is
healthy, finely watered, and one of the most pleasant towns in all
that region. Its public buildings are a courthouse, erected, by do
nation, and tax on the proprietors of the soil, at an expense of
twenty-three thousand four hundred dollars — a jail at the expense
of three thousand nine hundred dollars, raised in the same manner
—both of brick. There are as yet no churches, but arrangements
are made for the erection of two. Oxford has two hotels, six stores,
and two seminaries of education, one conducted by Zadock Cottrell
and lady, the other by W. W. McMahon." The' competition over
the selection of a site for the State University was a spirited one,
and Oxford was selected by the Legislature in joint session on the
sixth ballot, thereby defeating the other contestants, Mississippi
City, Brandon, Monroe Missionary Station, Louisville, Kosciusko
and Middleton. The choice was made on the 26th day of January,
1841, and in conformity to a previous act of the Legislature, a fine
section of land, adjoining the town, had been bought and condition
ally donated to the university by the citizens of Oxford and Lafay
ette county. The institution was finally chartered in February,

MISSISSIPPI 369
1844. In the fall of 1848 the actual work of the university was
started. The population of Oxford in 1900 was 1,825, an increase of nearly
300 inhabitants in one decade and was estimated at 2,000 in 1906 ;
the people are cultured and liberal-minded. A region well adapted
to general farming lies about the town, and large tracts of valuable
hardwood timber will eventually result in the establishment of
profitable wood-working industries.
The Bank of Oxford and the Merchants and Farmers Bank are
two splendid financial institutions. The Oxford Eagle, a weekly
Democratic publication is the only paper published in Oxford.
The Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Cumberland
Presbyterian and Primitive Baptist denominations are all repre
sented by churches here.
The industries of the town are a splendid electric light and
water plant, a cotton seed oil mill, an ice factory, a large Munger
System cotton gin, planing mill, a fine brick and tile factory, a
sand and cement block m'f'g. plant, three lumber yards and a pri
vate electric light plant. There are three first-class hotels, a fine
brick court house and jail and one of the best government buildings
in the State. Oxford has probably the best educational advantages
of any town of its size in the State.
Oyster Commissioners. Laws of 1896 and 1898 put the regula
tion of oyster fishing and protection of the oyster beds on the coast
under the control of the coast counties. The act of February 3,
1902, repealed these laws, and provided for a Board of Oyster
commissioners of five members to be appointed by the governor,
to meet monthly during the oyster canning season and have actual
supervision of the industry. Any owner of oyster craft of over one
ton burden is required to have a license, for which the charge is
$2.50 to $15, vessels are to be conspicuously numbered, and a chief
inspector is appointed by the board to patrol the reefs and prevent
unauthorized fishing. A tax is levied upon packed oysters, and an
Oyster fund is created in the State treasury, from which an ex
penditure of not exceeding $5,000 a year is authorized for cultiva
ting, the oyster beds. The first appointments of the board, August
30, 1J9Q2, were, O. T. Cassibry, J. D. Minor, Frank J. Ladner, Frank
Patenotte and J. A. Hattiestad, all residents of the coast and famil
iar wMi the industry. The board was organized at Gulfport in Sep
tember following, with J. A. Hattiestad as president and F. S.
Hewes, Jr., was chosen secretary, and R. L. Mosley chief inspector.
The receipts of the first year paid the expenses, about $12,000, and
$2,000 surplus was paid into the State treasury. Upon the resig
nation of Mr. Hattiestad J. B. Chinn was made president. The
members in 1905 were, K. L. Thornton, J. B. Chinn, O. T. Cassibry,
J. D. Minor, Richard Mendes. A patrol boat was purchased in
1904. Four hundred oyster boats were licensed in the last year.
Mississippi has an area of about 450 square miles of salt water,
after yielding the claims of Louisiana. "Of this an area of about
180 square miles has oyster beds scattered over it, covering about
24-11

370 MISSISSIPPI
one-fourth this area, or 45 square miles. In some places they are
too thick, in others they are too thin, yet people fish where they
are too thin, because the oysters are large, while beds of millions
of barrels remain on reefs where they are too thick to grow large
enough for use. Instead of 45 square miles of area being oyster
beds, the entire square miles with proper handling can easily be
converted into one solid mass of marketable oysters, thereby be
coming a veritable mine of wealth to the State." (W. A. White,
author of oyster statute of 1896.) The senate committee of 1904
reported that half a million dollars was invested in the business at
Biloxi alone, shipping $1,000,000 worth of oysters annually, the
business employing four shippers and five large canning factories.
"The oyster catch for this year will amount to 800,000 barrels,
and the shrimp business amounts, at Biloxi, to 1,500 barrels, which
are worth $60,000 in their raw state, and $200,000 in their finished
state." The business along the whole coast was estimated to
exceed $1,500,000 a year, 300 boats and 1,200 men being employed
in the fishing and 1,000 men in the canneries. This volume of bus
iness depended largely on the right to fish in the waters claimed by
Louisiana. There are canneries (1906) at Biloxi, Pass Christian,
Bay St. Louis, Gulfport and Scrantan.
Pachuta, an incorporated post-town in the western part of Clarke
county, on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., 10 miles south
west of Enterprise. The name is a Choctaw Indian word mean
ing "possum creek," from the creek of the same name on which
it is situated. Population in 1900, 131; in 1906, 250. The town
has several good stores, two churches, a good school, cotton gin
and a bank, — the Bank of Pachuta — established in 1905, capital
$10,000. Palestine, a hamlet of Hinds county, 5 miles south of Raymond,
the county seat and nearest railroad town. The postoffice here was
recently discontinued, and it now has rural free delivery from Ray
mond. Population in 1900, 36.
Palmer, a postoffice of Perry county, on the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R., 4 miles south of Hattiesburg, the nearest banking town.
Palmetto Home, a village in the northwestern part of Yazoo
county, on the Yazoo river, and a station on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R., 20 miles north of Yazoo City, the county seat,
and nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Pop
ulation in 1900, 156.
Palmyra. This old settlement is a post-hamlet in the south
western part of Warren county, 25 miles below Vicksburg, and was
settled early in the last century. Though now but a place of about
sixty people, it has. had a long and varied history as a river town.
An early traveller, who journeyed down the Mississippi in 1807
has described the town as he found it then. He says "It is about
seven years since several families from New England commenced
this beautiful settlement. The situation is almost a peninsula,
formed by a continued bend in the river for an extent of four
miles, the whole of which is cultivated in front, but the clearing

MISSISSIPPI 371
extends back only one hundred and fifty rods, where is a lake, and.
some swampy land, always inundated during the summer freshets_
There are sixteen families, who occupy each a front of only forty-
rods, so that the settlement has the appearance of a straggling vil
lage." After stating that the soil produced "17,000 pounds of cot
ton in seed from nine acres, which, allowing it to lose about three
, quarters in cleaning, left 500 pounds of clean cotton to the acre,"
he continues : "Palmyra is one of the most beautiful settlements
in the Mississippi Territory, the inhabitants having used all the
neatness and industry so habitual to the New Englanders. I think:
the lake and swamp behind Palmyra must render it unhealthy,.
and the pale sallow countenances of the settlers, with their con
fession that they are usually subject to fevers and agues, when the
river begins to subside, confirms me in my opinion. (Cuming's
Tour.) Palo Alto. An extinct village in Chickasaw, now Clay county,
which flourished before the War between the States. After the
organization of Clay county in 1871, it was absorbed by the new
town of Abbott.
Palona, a post-hamlet of Leake county, 10 miles north of Carth
age, the county seat. Population in 1900, 35.
Pandora, a postoffice of Chickasaw county, 10 miles north of
Houston, the county seat.
Panic of 1813. Throughout the summer of 1813 there was great
fear in western Mississippi that the hostilities of the Creek nation.
would involve the Choctaws, or a part of them, and bring upon the:
ancient Natchez district the horrors of an Indian war, from which
it had been exempt for over eighty years. This fear was particu
larly felt after the Fort Mims Massacre, and in Jefferson and Clai
borne counties, bordering on the Choctaw lands. In September,..
when the troops were being enrolled to go to the Tombigby, the
apprehensions of the timid regarding being left alone, joined to-
the rumors of Choctaw sympathy with the hostile Creeks, started
a panic, that swept over the two counties with startling effects-
It was declared that the red men, in war paint, had been seen at
Rocky Springs, or at Grindstone ford ; smoke of burning homes.
could be seen by the more imaginative. Women and children and
movable effects were loaded in wagons and sent to Washington.
Port Gibson was practically deserted. The men capable of bearing-
arms gathered to meet the foe. There was a recovery before many
of the domestic caravans reached Washington, and most of them;
were turned back short of the destination. To restore confidence,,
it was determined to organize for defense.
Col. Daniel Burnet presided over a meeting at Port Gibson, on-
the 13th, at which a committee, composed of Maj. Clarke, Harmon
Blennerhassett, H. Harmon, Col. Ragan, Capt. P. Briscoe, Wm..
Briscoe and Thomas Barnes, reported that the alarm was ground-
Jess, but three stockades should be built and one strong fort at a
central point. A frontier committee was appointed, and a central

372 MISSISSIPPI
committee, which latter included Samuel Gibson, Harmon Blen
nerhassett, Daniel Burnet, Thomas Farar and Judge Leake.
According to a reminiscent article by John A. Watkins, the for
tification consisted of four blockhouses, protected by strong pali
sades, called Fort Shaw. The Tennessee troops bivouacked there
one night, in 1815. Later, one of the blockhouses was used for a
school house.
Panic of 1835. The South was much excited in 1832 and later
by the reports of the Southampton negro insurrection, in Virginia,
or plot for insurrection, which was followed by many hasty trials
and executions. There was such a panic also, in earlier days, in
New York city. In both cases there were those who denied the
seriousness of the alarm, and claimed that confessions and exe
cutions alike were part of a strange and uncontrollable panic. On
the other hand the records afford evidence of some fire behind
the smoke. The Mississippi panic was in 1835, following the vis
its of Virgil A. Stewart, who travelled extensively through Mis
sissippi and several adjoining States, selling a pamphlet which pur
ported to be a revelation of a scheme for a general insurrection
originated by John Murel, of Tennessee, negro stealer and horse-
thief, and participated in by the noted outlaw Alonzo Phelps
and the whole body of "Thompsonian" or "steam doctors." There
had been in the same year as the Virginia panic, a bloody insur
rection of slaves in Jamaica, and the era was revolutionary every
where, both in Europe and America. Stewart found complete
credence for his revelations, was given public honors in some
places and hailed as a public savior. The result is thus described
by Henry S. Foote, in his Reminiscenses, (pp. 251-62.) "Never
was there an instance of more extravagant and even maddening
excitement amid a refined, intelligent and virtue-loving people than
that which I had the pain to witness in the counties of Central Mis
sissippi in the summer of 1835. Vigilance committees were orga
nized in some ten or a dozen counties where the negro population
was most numerous, and where, of consequence, the slaveholding
class was more sensitive to the cries of alarm which at this time
literally rang through the whole community. . . . The impres
sion prevailed that the insurrectionary movement was to com
mence in the interior counties of Holmes, Yazoo and Madison ;"
that the slaves were to rise simultaneously, murder the whites,
burn the towns, sieze all firearms and spread war over all the
cotton country. At Clinton, night after night, the women and
children were assembled at a central place, while the male popula
tion patrolled the surrounding country. The committees of safety
sat daily, and some persons suspected of abetting the alleged in
surrection were brought before it, while others, "whose guilt
seemed to be fully established, were hung without ceremony along
the roadsides or in front of their own dwellings by those who
had apprehended them. "A number of the poor Thompsonian em
pirics were taken up and either hung or severely whipped" ac
cording to the seeming force of the evidence. In Madison county

MISSISSIPPI 373
a young trader from Kentucky was taken and hung, and the pub
lication of his letters to his wife, iater, proved that there was not
the slightest cause for the outrage." Foote made a desperate but
vain attempt to save the life of a mulatto boy who had been the.
sole support of his master's widow and child. Patrick L. Sharkey,
a kinsman of the chief justice, and himself a magistrate, was at
tacked by a mob because he discharged an intended victim, and
was badly wounded, but fled from Madison county, and obtained
the protection of the Hinds county committee. Such is Foote's
version of the episode.
In the Mississippi Archives is a phamplet printed at Jackson in
1835, being a narrative prepared by Thomas Shackleford in behalf
of the committee of citizens of Madison county, at Livingston.
It appears that a rumor was afloat in that county in June, that an
insurrection was meditated, which was found to emanate from a
lady who had overheard her colored girls talking rebelliously. Her
son told one of them she had been overheard and must confess,
and thereupon she told a story a black man told her, that there
was to be a rising soon to kill all the whites. Consequently there
was a meeting of the citizens, presided over by Col. H. D. Runnels,
and hints were collected which led to the severe whipping of a
number of negroes by their masters, and additional confessions.
From this the excitement grew until five negroes were examined
and hung at Beattie's Bluff, after accounts of the proposed insur
rection on July 4 were elicited from them. On July 3 there was a
great meeting at Livingston and a committee was appointed, which
proceeded to try all persons accused. The list of white men exe
cuted on confession, or negro testimony, or circumstantial evidence,
were Joshua Cotton, a steam doctor from Tennessee, who made
a confession that he was one of the grand council of Murel's gang,
and that the statements of Stewart's book were correct; William
Saunders, also of Tennessee,' a friend of Cotton's ; Albe Dean, a
Mississippian of two years' residence from Connecticut, who was
hung on the word of Cotton and Saunders ; A. L. Donovan, of
Maysville, Ky., who was apparently a contraband trader with the
negroes, and was accused of being an abolitionist ; Ruel Blake,
implicated by Cotton; Lee Smith of Hinds county, from Tennes
see, implicated by Cotton; William Benson, who had worked for
Blake; William Earle, of Warren county, being taken committed
suicide ; John Earle, who made a confession was turned over to
the committee at Vicksburg. A visitor from Natchez wrote home
July 14 that five white men and twelve negroes had been hung in
Madison county. Such was the panic that his letter was opened
by the postmaster and he was put under surveillance as a spy
or accomplice of the gang. There is no doubt that the State at
this time was overrun with highway robbers, negro-stealers, and
Black legs, of which organization Murel was a member; that
some abnormal people were impelled to foment insurrection by the
doctrines of abolition, as others have from time to time been im
pelled to assassination by political and religious doctrines. The

\

374 MISSISSIPPI
combination of circumstances and the general agitation of the
period all over the world, serve to explain this Mississippi phe
nomenon, that Foote's account hardly does justice. But the
license of the regulators brought evils in its train.
The Jackson Freetrader said in August 1836 : "Another, bloody
affray, is a sound which often greets our ears. The affair at Vicks
burg, the affair at Manchester, the affair at Rodney, other places,
and lastly a most horrid affair at Fayette, have followed each
other in quick succession, as to make every friend to law and
order shudder, lest an entire destruction of rational liberty should
be the consequence of these repeated violations of law." The
same paper declared that a man paraded the streets of Jackson
two days early in December, 1835, armed with a fowling piece,
sundry pistols and a bowie knife, threatening to assassinate Gov
ernor Runnels, without molestation.
/ The Natchez Courier and Journal, March 3, 1837, complained :
i ""The papers in the city of NeW York seem to delight in nothing
better than when any little fracas happens in any of the Southern
I States, to announce in glorious capitals, "More Riots in Missis
sippi," "More Lynching at the South."
I Pannell, a postoffice of Pontotoc county, 8 miles southwest of
Pontotoc, the county seat.
Panola, an extinct town of Panola county, situated on the south
side of the Tallahatchie river about a mile from the present town
of Batesville. It was long engaged in a spirited contest with the
rival town of Belmont (q. v.) over the location of the county seat,
and finally won. It was a flourishing town during the 40's, but
when the Mississippi & Tennessee railroad (now the Illinois Cen
tral) was built and avoided the town, its buildings were nearly all
placed on rollers and moved to Batesville, about a mile distant, on
the railroad. The historic old courthouse building and the jail
were left behind. The courthouse was a brick structure and has
been transformed into a fine modern residence. Panola was incor
porated by the Legislature in 1839.
Panola County was established February 9, 1836, and is one of the
twelve large northern counties created in that year out of the lands
ceded by the Chickasaws, in the treaty of Pontotoc, Oct. 20, 1832.
The county has a land surface of 699 square miles. The original
act defined its limits as follows : "Beginning at the point where
the line between ranges 9 and 10 strikes the center of section 6,
and running thence south with the said range line, and from its
termination in a direct line to the northern boundary of Talla
hatchie county, and thence along the northern boundary of Talla
hatchie and Yalobusha counties, to the center of range 5 west ;
thence north through the center of range 5 west, according to th'e
sectional lines, to the center of township six ; thence west through '
the center of township six, according to the sectional lines, to the
beginning." Its original area was 21 townships, or 756 square
miles. February 1, 1877, when Quitman county was created, it
surrendered a small fraction of its southwestern area to assist in

MISSISSIPPI 375
forming that county (See Quitman.) Besancon's Register for
1838, gives the list of county officers as follows: Aaron Botts,
Judge of Probate ; David Boyd, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Garland
G. Nelson, Probate Clerk, Geo. P. Anderson, Sheriff; J. T. Bate
man, Surveyor; Jas. M. Rayburn, Assessor and Collector; Jas.
Keith, Treasurer; Wm. Boyles, Ranger; Harry Osteen, Coroner;
John Allison, Vincent Adams, Thomas H. Williams, Geo. W.
Redman, Wm. Robertson, Members of the Board of Police. John
Rayburn, Thos. B. Hill, David McKinney, R. M. Childress and
Anthony B. Foster were early members of the Legislature from the
county. The name "Panola" is an Indian word signifying "cot
ton" and the fertile valleys of this region are indeed as productive
of that staple crop as any part of the State. Situated in the north
western part of Mississippi, the county is bounded on the north
by Tate county, on the east by Lafayette county, on the south by
Yalobusha and Tallahatchie counties and on the west by Quitman
county. The old boundary line between the Choctaw and Chicka
saw cessions cuts the southwestern corner. It is a healthful, fer-
i tile, well watered and prosperous region and has attracted a large
number of settlers from other states, especially during the last
decade. Two of the oldest settlements in the county were at Bel
mont and Panola, a few miles apart, and on opposite sides of the
Tallahatchie river. For several years there was a spirited contest
between these two towns over the location of the court house of
Panola county. With the advent of the Mississippi and Tennessee
(now the Illinois Central R. R.) Belmont was absorbed by Sardis,
and Panola was absorbed by Batesville. One result of the above
contest is found in the two judicial districts of the county, Sardis
being the seat of justice for the first judicial district, and Bates
ville for the second judicial district into which the county is now
, divided. Sardis is a thriving town of 2,000 people on the I. C. R. R.,
possessing several small manufacturing establishments and is the
center of a good trade from the rich agricultural section surround
ing it. Batesville is also on the railroad a few miles south and has
a population of 750, is the market town for a considerable region
about it and has important shipping and manufacturing interests.
Como Depot is in the northern part of the county on the line of the
railroad, has 650 inhabitants and is a rapidly growing and prosper
ous town. Crenshaw, Pope Depot, and Courtland are a few of
the other towns of importance. Besides the I. C. R. R., which runs
north and south through the center of the county, there is a short
branch road from Sardis extending 22 miles west, and known as
the Sardis & Delta R. R. The region is well supplied with water
by the Tallahatchie and Yocona rivers and their tributary creeks,
and the water power in the eastern part is especially good. The
valleys comprise about one-half the county and are very fertile,
with a soil of rich, dark loam. The balance of the county is undu
lating uplands, interspersed with rich creek bottoms. On the
western side occurs a line of bluffs, a continuation of the lower
bluff formation of Mississippi. The soil produces abundant crops

376 MISSISSIPPI
of cotton, corn, small grains of all kinds, sorghum, millet, potatoes
and a great variety of the fruits and vegetables common to the
latitude. The timber is quite extensive and consists of all kinds of
oaks, ash, beech, hickory, poplar, gum, walnut, cherry, locust and
cypress. The live stock industry is very large and in a thriving
condition, being valued at nearly $1,000,000 by the last census re
turns. The following statistics, taken from the twelfth census for 1900,
relate to farms, manufactures and population. Number of farms
4,744, acreage in farms 333,015, acres improved 187,182, value of
the land exclusive of buildings $2,244,980, value of the buildings
$744,170, value of live stock $955,150, total value of products not
fed $1,794,735. Number of manufacturing establishments 85, cap
ital invested $129,970, wages paid $16,891, cost of materials $49,-
086, total value of products $118,165. The population in 1900 was
whites 9,661, colored 19,366, total 29,027, increase in last decade
3,050. The total population in 1906 was estimated at 31,000. Among
the pioneers of the county were Col. W. B. Johnson, Joshua S.
Fletcher, Dr. Mosley, Dr. Freeman Irbey, N. R. Sledge, Monroe
Pointer, Anthony Foster, J. F. Lavender, Capt. E. S. Walton, Rus
sell A. Jones one of the first white settlers in Panola county, and
Daniel B. Killebrew, who taught the first school in Sardis. The
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Panola
county in 1905 was $4,324,914.51 and in 1906 it was $5,453,139.83
which shows an increase of $1,128,225.32 during the year.
Pansy, a postoffice of Attala county, 16 miles east of Kosciusko,
the county seat.
Panther Burn, a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.
R., in the northwestern part of Sharkey county, about 12 miles
north of Rolling Fork, the county seat and nearest banking town.
It has a money order postoffice, and one large mercantile establish
ment. Panton, William, was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, emi
grated to America, and before the Revolution acquired property
in South Carolina and Georgia. When the war cut off the Indian
trade of Savannah and Charleston, and drove the sympathizers
with England to the Floridas, Panton established himself at Pensa
cola, where the British were in possession until 1781. He became
the particular friend and agent of Col. Brown, who succeeded Col.
Stuart as British superintendent of the Four nations, and the
presents of the British government passed through his hands,
giving him the opportunity to supply the Indians with such other
goods as they desired. He was also agent for the officers of
Brown's regiment of Florida rangers, of whom several, as high
in rank as captain, were Cherokee half breeds. He established a
business house at Pensacola, with John Forbes and John Leslie
as his partners. After the Spanish conquest, he adapted himself
to the situation, and through a compact with Alexander McGilli
vray, chief of the Creek nation, and with the Spanish authorities,
Panton, Leslie & Co. became the agents of Spain in dealing with

MISSISSIPPI 377
not only the Creeks, but the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees.
They moved both the Indians and the Spanish governors in the
interests of their business and were the most important feature
of the Spanish dominion. Their prices for skins and goods were
fixed to meet American competition from Charleston and Savan
nah. Their packhorses carried goods and their traders influenced
the red men from the Ohio river to the gulf. The first cessions
of land by the Choctaws and Chickasaws were made in order to
pay their debts to Panton, Leslie & Co.
The main business depot was at Pensacola, with branches at
Mobile, Chickasaw Bluffs, St. Marks and other points in East
Florida. The Mobile house exerted great influence over the In
dians of the region now Mississippi state. William Panton died
at Pensacola in 1804, and after that the business went into the
hands of John and James Innerarity, mainly. But the business
went down after the United States took possession of the Missis
sippi territory.
Parchman, a postoffice of Sunflower county, on the Yazoo & Mis-
' sissippi Valley R. R., about 35 miles north of Indianola, the county
seat. Ruleville station, 14 miles to the south, is the nearest bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 23.
Pardue, a postoffice in the eastern part of Prentiss county, about
15 miles from Booneville, the county seat, and the nearest rail
road and banking town.
Paris, an incorporated post-hamlet in the southern part of La
fayette county, 11 miles east of Water Valley, the nearest rail
road and banking town. It has two churches and a tannery. Pop
ulation in 1900, 105.
Parkersburg, a hamlet of Chickasaw county, 5 miles northeast
of Houston, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20. It has rural
mail service from Houston.
Parks, a hamlet of Union county, 7 miles east of New Albany,
the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 58.
Parksplace, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Panola
county, about 10 miles from Sardis, one of the seats of justice.
Como is the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in
1900, 75.
Pascagoula, which name recently was given to an incorporation
including Scranton, is now the capital of Jackson county. It is a
port of entry and a manufacturing and lumbering city on the L. &
N. Ry., 40 miles southwest of Mobile, and is situated on the Gulf.
The word Pascagoula means "bread nation", and was the name
of the tribe of Indians that originally inhabited this region. Says
the old narrative of M. Penicaut, who formed one of the original
French colony in 1699 at Old Biloxi, "coasting along in an east
erly direction (from Biloxi), we found a wide bay, called the Bay
of the Pascagoulas ; because, within this bay, there flows a river,
upon the borders of which the Pascagoulas are established, at a
distance of about twenty leagues inland, and it is from that na-

378 MISSISSIPPI
tion the bay and river take -their name." The city has telegraph,
express, telephone, and banking facilities, electric light, an ice
plant, street railway and waterworks. The Scranton State Bank
was established here in 1892, and has a capital of $50,000; the
Merchants & Marine Bank was established in 1899, capital $25,000.
Two weekly newspapers are published here ; the Pascagoula
Democrat-Star, an influential Democratic paper, established in
1850, owned and edited by P. K. Mayers ; the Chronicle, another
influential paper established in 1897, which is edited and pub
lished by J. J. Tomasich. Pascagoula is one of the eleven impor
tant manufacturing cities of the State, for which a special agent ,
was appointed to collect the statistics when the 12th U. S. census
was being taken. The census returns of 1900, give the following
data for the city; number of manufacturing establishments, 15;
capital, $372,655 ; average number of wage earners employed, 167 ;
wages paid, $66,045 ; cost of materials used $173,319 ; value of prod
ucts, $326,114. An important part of the iumber industry of the
State is carried on along the Pascagoula river, and many large lum
ber mills are located at and near Pascagoula which is connected with
Moss Point by a street railway; at the latter place more lumber
is manufactured than in any one place in the State. Here are also
grist mills, and ship yards, and the town exports an enormous
quantity of lumber products annually. There are several churches
and good schools, both public, private and denominational. The
town supports several good hotels. The population is increasing
rapidly; there were 1,353 people in 1890, 2,025 in 1900, and 4,000
in 1906.
Pascagoula, Parish of, see Gulf Coast Occupation.
Pascagoulas, see Indians.
Pass Christian, a noted watering place in Harrison county, lo
cated on Mississippi Sound (Gulf of Mexico), on the Louisville &
Nashville R. R., 58 miles from New Orleans, and 82 miles from
Mobile. It has telegraph, telephone, express and banking facili
ties. The surrounding country is devoted to sheep and cattle rais
ing, and truck-farming. The "scuppernong grape" is extensively
grown at this point, and both still and sparkling wines are made.
The canning of oysters and shrimps is a profitable industry. Pass
Christian College, a Catholic institution, is located here. A branch
of the Hancock county Bank at Bay St. Louis was established
here in 1902, and the Home Bank was established in 1905. The
Coast Beacon, an influential, Democratic weekly, was established
here in 1881, and is now owned and edited by E. J. Adam.
The city has a number of fine hotels, and the place is filled with vis
itors both winter and summer. The climate is mild and healthful,
and there is a fine sea beach, affording excellent sea bathing. Pop
ulation in 1900, 2,028 ; estimated at 2,500 in 1906.
Pat, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, 8 miles south of Brandon,
the county seat and nearest banking town. There is one store and
a large cotton gin located here. Population in 1900, 21.

MISSISSIPPI 379
Patmos, a post-hamlet of Sharkey county, located on the Sun
flower river, 10 miles southeast of Rolling Fork, the county seat,
and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1906, 20.
Patrick, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, situated on Campbells
creek, about 10 miles southeast of Brandon, the county seat, and
nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 67.
Patrol. The patrol was a function of the State military made
necessary by slavery from the1 earliest times. According to the
law of 1809 every owner of slaves, and all other persons subject to
militia duty,, under the rank of captain, was subject to be called
out for patrol duty, every two weeks or oftener. Detachments
were made out regularly, of three men beside the leader or officer,
in each captain's district or beat. It was the duty of the patrol
to visit all negro quarters or places suspected of entertaining
unauthorized assemblages of slaves or other disorderly persons,
and take such persons before • a justice, or administer lashes not
exceeding fifteen upon slaves so found, and to take up slaves sus--
pected of being runaway. By the law of 1812 default in this duty
' was punishable by fine.
Occasionally there were rumors of slave insurrection in Terri
torial days, and the patrol was exhorted to extra vigilance. This
law survived the change to statehood and was reenacted in the
Poindexter code of 1822,' and the statutes of 1848.
"Soon after the ~ Southhampton tragedy, during the Christmas
holidays, the public mind was agitated by a vague rumor that this
drama was to be reacted here, as it was known that some of the
negroes, supposed to be engaged in it, had been brought out and
sold in this State. During this excitement the patrols were very
vigilant. On the high roads they were increased to one hundred
armed and mounted men. But this alarm was groundless and very
soon subsided." (J. H. Ingraham.)
Pattison, a postoffice of Tallahatchie county, situated on the
Middle Fork of Tillatoba creek, an affluent of the Yazoo river, 5
miles east of Charleston, the county seat.
Patton, James, of Winchester, a member of the constitutional
convention of 1817, was one of the leading men of his time, when
the town of Winchester was, by reason of his influence, a center
of political influence. Senators Powhatan Ellis and John Black
began public life under his auspices. He was a general of militia,
and was elected lieutenant-governor on the ticket with George
Poindexter, and but for his untimely death would doubtless have
attained higher honors.
Paulding, the capital of Jasper county, is a post-village 33 miles
southwest of Meridian. Vosburg, on the New Orleans & North
Eastern R. R., is the nearest station, and Heidelberg is the nearest
banking town. The town was named for John Paulding, who as
sisted in the capture of Major Andre. It has two churches, two
stores, a cotton gin and grist mill combined, and a good school.
Population in 1900, 229.

380 MISSISSIPPI
Paulette, a post-hamlet of Noxubee county, about 10 miles south
east of Macon, the county seat. Shuqualak is the nearest railroad
and banking town. Population in 1900, 72.
Pawticfaw, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, about 8 miles
south, southwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population in
1900, 50.
Paynes, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, situated on Ascal-
more creek, 6 miles south of Charleston, the county seat. Charles
ton is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 65.
Pearce, a post-hamlet of Yazoo county, 10 miles east of Yazoo
City, the county seat. Population was about 30 in 1906.
Pearidge, a postoffice of Kemper county, 9 miles west of Dekalb,
the county seat.
Pearl, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Simpson county,
on the Pearl river, 20 miles west of Mendenhall. Crystalsprings is
the nearest railroad and banking town, located 10 miles west, on
the Illinois Central R. R. Population in 1900, 33.
Pearlhaven, a hamlet of Lincoln county. The postoffice here has
been discontinued, and mail now goes to Brookhaven, the county
seat. Pearlington, a post-town in the southwestern part of Hancock
county, on the Pearl river 10 miles from its mouth, and 40 miles
northeast of New Orleans. It takes its name from the river. It
has several churches, a good school, and large saw mills. Lum
bering is the chief industry. A branch of the Hancock County
Bank of Bay St. Louis was established here in 1902. Population
in 1900, 850.
Pearl River. The Pearl river, as Ellicott found it in 1798-99,
"is navigable for small craft many miles north of the boundary.
It is remarkably crooked, and full of logs and lodged trees. Its
banks for some distance above the boundary (31°), and almost the
whole of them below, are annually innundated. The banks, with a
considerable extent of country become very low below the Indian
house, over the whole of which the water passes when the river
is high ; and here it begins to divide into a number of branches ;
some of them maintain an open channel until they unite again with
the main branch, and others are lost in the swamp. Those branches
appear so nearly of the same size that a person not acquainted with
the river will be as likely to take a wrong as a right one. . . .
In consequence of the water extending over such a considerable
space, it never acquires a sufficient head to force away the lodged
timber, which in two places extend across the river. The upper
raft is of considerable magnitude, and covered with grass and
other herbage, with some bushes. . . . The tide ebbs and flows
a few miles above latitude 30° 21' 30", where there was formerly
a trading house, and to where any vessel that can cross a bar into
the lake (Pontchartrain), may ascend with ease. The river has
several communications with the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pont
chartrain, but they are all too shoal for vessels drawing more than
six of seven feet of water, and therefore only fit for the coasting

MISSISSIPPI 381
trade. The coasting vessels which visit New Orleans from the
eastward pass by the mouth of Pearl river into Lake Pontchartrain,
thence through the west end of the lake and up the Bayou St.
Johns to the canal executed by the Baron de Carondelet, thence to
the end of the canal which terminates at the walls of the city."
Pearl River County was formerly a part of Hancock and Marion
counties and was established quite recently, February 22nd, 1890.
It is located in the extreme southern part of the State and takes its
name from the river which forms its western boundary. The
county has a land surface of 663 square miles. It is bounded on
the north by Marion and Lamar counties, on the east by Perry
and Harrison counties, on the south by Hancock county and on the
west by Washington county, Louisiana, the Pearl river forming
the dividing line. In 1904 a part of its territory was taken to assist
in forming the new county of Lamar, (q. v.) Pearl River county,
situated in the long leaf pine region of the State, is just now enjoy
ing a very rapid and prosperous development. The population
more than doubled between 1890 and 1900, the value of its manufac-
»• tured products, chiefly lumber, approximates a million dollars and
its cattle, sheep and dairy interests are growing rapidly. The lum
bering industry of the county will continue to be the most impor
tant for years to come, on account of its extensive forests of valu
able long leaf or yellow pine, and the ease with which its lumber
products can be brought to market. The soil is a light sandy loam,
easily worked, but not fertile or retentive. It produces, however,
luxuriant forage grasses on which stock thrive the year around.
The county seat is Poplarville, near the center of the county, and
the largest town in the county. It has a population of 1,500, is
located on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., which runs
through the county from north to south, and is growing rapidly.
Orvisburg (pop. 435), Millard, Tyler and Hillsdale are some of the
other more important towfts. The Pearl river, Hobolo Chitto and
Wolf rivers, and their tributary creeks, water the county.
The following statistics from the twelfth United States census
for 1900 relate to Farms, Manufactures and Population: — Number
of farms 491, acreage in farms 81,793, acres improved 9,241, value
of land exclusive of buildings $192,260, value of buildings $106,010,
value of live stock $213,380, total value of products not fed $160,-
182. Number of manufactures 32, capital invested $1,040,015,
wages paid $200,646, cost of materials $432,527, total value of, prod
ucts $874,579. The population in 1900 was whites 4,904, colored
1,793, total 6,697, increase over the year 1890, 3,050. The popula
tion in 1906 was estimated at 10,000. The total assessed valuation
of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $2,523,828
and in 1906 it was $5,099,256, which shows an increase of $2,575,428
during the year. '
Pearl River Settlements. Outside of the Natchez district, as
late as 1830, the most populous settlement was upon Pearl River;
"but those eastern settlements were constituted of a different
people ; most of them were from the poorer districts of Georgia and

382 MISSISSIPPI
the Carolinas. True to the instincts of the people from whom they
were descended, they sought as nearly as possible just such a
country as that from which they came, and were really refugees
from a growing civilization consequent upon a denser population
and its necessities. They were not agriculturists in a proper sense
of the term; true, they cultivated in some degree the soil, but it
was not the prime pursuit of these people, nor was the location
so'ught for this purpose. They desired an open, poor, pine country,
which forbade a numerous population. Here they reared immense
herds of cattle, which subsisted exclusively upon the coarse grass
and reeds which grew abundantly among the tall, long-leafed pine,
and along the small creeks and branches numerous in this section.
Through these almost interminable pine forests the deer were
abundant, and the canebrakes full of bears. They combined the
pursuits of hunting and stock-minding, and derived support and
revenue almost exclusively from these. They were illiterate and
careless of the comforts of a better reared, better educated and
more intelligent people. They were unable to employ for each
family a teacher, and the population was too sparce to collect the
children in a neighborhood school. These ran wild, unwashed and
uncombed, hatless and bonnetless through the woods and grass,
followed by packs of lean and hungry curs, hallooing and yelping
in pursuit of rabbits and opossums, and were as wild as the In
dians they had supplanted, and whose pinebark camps were yet
here and there to be seen, where temporarily stayed a few strolling,
degraded families of the Choctaws. Some of these pioneers had
been in the country many years, were surrounded with descendants,
men and women, the growth of the country, rude, illiterate and in
dependent. Along the margins of the streams they found small
strips of land of better quality than the pine forests afforded. .Here
they grew sufficient corn for bread and a few of the coarser vege
tables, and in blissful ignorance enjoyed life after the manner they
loved. The country gave character to the people; both were wild
and poor ; both were sui generis in appearance and production,
and both seeming to fall away from the richer soil arid better peo
ple of the western portion of the State. Between them and the
inhabitants of the river counties there was little communication
and less sympathy; and I fancy no country on earth of the same
extent presented a wider difference in soil and population, espec
ially one speaking the same language and professing the same re-
ligiqn. Time, and the pushing of a railroad through this eastern
portion of the State, have effected a vast change for the better, and
among those quaintly called piney-woods people now are families
of wealth and cultivation." ("The Memories of Fifty Years," by
W. H. Sparks, 1870.)
Pearson, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, on the Alabama &
Vicksburg R. R., 5 miles southeast of Jackson. Population in
1900, 23.
Pease, Henry R., "the first reconstruction State superintendent
of education, was a northern man, an ex-Union soldier, and an

MISSISSIPPI 383
agent of the Freedman's bureau. In 1865, he became superinten
dent of education in Louisiana by military order. Later, he was
appointed superintendent of the educational department of the
Freedmen's bureau in Mississippi, and upon the readmission of the
State to the Union, was elected superintendent under the new
constitution. It devolved upon him to organize the system of free
schools. His competency was never questioned, but the demand
of the colored race for office, in 1873, caused him to be set aside
for a negro named Cordoza, who, at the time of his election, was
under indictment for malfeasance as circuit clerk of Warren coun
ty." (Garner's Reconstruction).
Pecan, a postoffice of Jackson county, on the L. & N. R. R., 12
miles west of Pascagoula, the county seat. Population in 1906
was estimated at 100
Peden, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, 8 miles northwest of
Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 43.
Peelers, a postoffice of Warren county, situated on Eagle Lake,
near the Mississippi river, about 12 miles above Vicksburg.
Peete, a post-hamlet of Grenada county, on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R., about 14 miles west of Grenada, the county seat.
Holcomb is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 50.
Peetsville, a postoffice in the southern part of Copiah county,
10 miles due west of Wesson, the nearest railroad and banking
town, on the Illinois Central R. R.
Pegram, a post-hamlet of Benton county, 12 miles northeast of
Ashland, the county seat.
Pelahatchie, an incorporated post-town of Rankin county, on
Pelahatchie creek, a tributary of the Pearl, and on the Alabama &
Vicksburg R. R., 25 miles east of Jackson. Brandon is 10 miles
west. It lies in a cotton growing section, and has two churches
and a school. The Pelahatchie Bank was established in 1904 with
a capital of $10,000. Population in 1900, 325.
Pemberton, John Clifford, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., August
10, 1817, and graduated at West Point in 1837, after which he went
on duty in the Seminole war in Florida. As an officer of artillery
he served under both Taylor and Scott in Mexico, in 1846-47, in all
the battles, winning the brevets of captain and major. He contin
ued on active duty in the army until secession, when he refused
advancement in the Union army, became an officer in the Virgin
ia service and organized the artillery and cavalry troops of that
State. He was promoted to brigadier-general in the Confederate
service in 1861 and to major-general in January, 1862. He suc
ceeded Gen. Robert E. Lee in command of the department of
South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida, in March, 1862, and in
October was promoted to lieutenant-general and transferred to
/ command of the department, of Mississippi and East Louisiana.
His task was, under the general command of J. E. Johnston, to-
meet the combinations of Gen. U. S. Grant and retain Confederate
control of the Mississippi river. See War of 1861-65, and Vicks
burg campaigns and siege. After his exchange Gen. Pemberton

384 MISSISSIPPI
resigned his commission and was assigned to duty with the artil
lery about Richmond, where he served with the rank of lieutenant-
colonel until the end of the war. He removed from Virginia to
Pennsylvania in 1875, and died at Pen Llyn, Pa., July 13, 1881.
Penantly, a postoffice of Jasper county, 9 miies north of Pauld
ing, the county seat.
Penicaut, Jean, author of the Annals of Louisiana, from 1698
to 1722, was born at La Rochelle, France, about 1682, and accom
panied the first expedition of d'lberville to the Mississippi in 1698
as a ship's-carpenter on one of the vessels of the squadron. He was
employed in various capacities in the colony until the year 1720,
when he purchased the concession of M. de la Houssaye, on St.
Catherine's, at Natchez. He himself states that he sailed for
France on the 6th of October, 1721, at the advice of Bienville, in
order to secure medical treatment for an affection of the eyes. He
evidently returned again to Natchez, however, as there is frequent
mention of him under the name of M. Perricault, as one of the few
Frenchmen who escaped at the time of the Natchez massacre in
1729. He left behind in manuscript the "Annals of Louisiana,"
from 1798 to 1722, which found its way into the King's library at
Paris, and is an important record of what took place in the country
for more than twenty years after the arrival of the first expedition
of d'lberville. Charlevoix referred to it as a work of merit in his
travels in New France, and said it afforded him important infor
mation which he could not obtain elsewhere.
Penitentiary. After 1817 the first recommendation of a peniten
tiary was made by Gov. Holmes, (see his administration). The
next official voice on the subject was the utterance of Gov. Bran
don in January, 1827 : "It may be the policy of the legislature at
as early a period as our resources will justify, to establish a peni
tentiary. Punishments through a spirit of revenge, for the infrac
tion of penal laws, are or ought to be unknown to a civilized com
munity. The object, then, can be no other than to reform the
offender, and at the same time to protect society from a repetition
of the offence — these can be effectually accomplished only through
the medium of a penitentiary. To inflict ignominious punishment
on the offender and then turn him back upon society, so far from
producing reformation, only prepares him for the commission of
the worst of crimes. To protect society, then, it becomes necessary
to resort to capital punishments, not commensurate with the of
fense, the infliction of which is attended with uncertainty." He
suggested that the labor of prisoners would not only be self-sup
porting, "but, in the course of time, productive of a revenue."
A. L. Bingaman reported a resolution in 1833 that the commis
sioners appointed under the resolution of December, 1832, be con
tinued to make further report, as the finances did not permit expen
diture at that time for a penitentiary. Action was recommended
by Gov. Quitman in January, 1836. But it was not until 1840 that
the brick work of the keeper's house and of the east wing of the
prison was completed, and most of the carpenter's work. "The

MISSISSIPPI 385
east prison contains 150 cells on three stories conformable to the
Auburn system of prison discipline," which was hard labor during
the day and solitary confinement at night.
The first prisoners were admitted April 15, 1840. The first
keeper, elected by the legislature in the same year, was Charles
M. Hart. In 1847, 220 convicts had been received since the open
ing, and about 85 was the average number of inmates. One pris
oner when committed was 106 years old, 13 were held for negro
stealing. The institution gradually grew into a great industrial
establishment. It occupied the site of the present Capitol, and
was surrounded by a lofty brick wall. In 1860-61 and later the
penitentiary was mainly used for the repairing and remodelling of
rifles, the mounting of cannon, manufacture of munitions of war,
etc., and when Jackson was occupied by Sherman in July, 1863,
it was destroyed as a factory. Before that, the inmates had been
released or sent to Alabama. See War of 1861-65.
In the constitutional convention of 1865 it was proposed to
punish the crimes of grand larceny, robbery, rape, arson and bur
glary, by hanging, because there was no punishment except con
finement in the penitentiary and there was no such institution in
existence. Mr. Hudson, of Yazoo, declared that the country was
terrorized by bands of outlaws, even cotton was stolen on the way
to market. But the majority of the convention approved the at
titude of Amos R. Johnston, that such bloody legislation would
not remedy the condition. The legislature of 1865 appropriated
$30,000 for repairing the penitentiary. Capt. A. J. Herod, State
architect, reported in October, 1866, that the building was suffi
ciently repaired for comfortable use. There were then 131 inmates,
who were being worked in a brickyard, and in the rebuilding.
It was estimated that $65,000 more was needed for complete re
pairs. Gov. Humphreys, in his message of October, 1865, noting the in
creasing number of inmates of the penitentiary,, inability to find
all employment in confinement, and the increasing expenses of
supporting them, said, "Some relief may be found by re-adjusting
the criminal laws so as to limit the punishment in the penitentiary
to certain classes of crimes and authorizing punitive labor for
minor offences within the limits of the respective counties." Jan
uary 24, 1867, he reported : "The penitentiary has been leased,
under an act of the legislature, to Messrs. J. W. Young & Co.,
for a term of fourteen years. They have executed a penal bond in
the sum of $100,000, for the faithful performance of the stipula
tions of the contract. . . . The State is bound to deliver the
convicts at the penitentiary. Some legislation is now needed to en
able the superintendent to comply with the stipulation, as the
law defraying the expenses of their transportation was repealed
at your last session."
A resolution approved by Gov. Humphreys in February, 1867,
authorized the lessees of the penitentiary to work such convicts as
were without mechanical skill, and were not sentenced for certain
25-11

386 MISSISSIPPI
heinous crimes, "at any work, public or private, upon railroads
or levees, or dirt roads or other works, where the labor used does
not require the possession of mechanical skill . . . and does
not conflict with the mechanical skill and labor of the State." It
was provided that this working out should be under rules ap
proved by the State superintendent and governor, and no convict
should be so worked without his first giving his consent in writing,
or employed in any work that might impair health. This arrange
ment was to be in force for three years, and (it appears, in consid
eration therefor) the lessees were required to pay the expenses of
removing all convicts to the penitentiary.
Gen. Gillem, while commanding the military district, in 1868,
leased the penitentiary to Edmund Richardson. Gov. Alcorn said
in his message of March, 1870: "I object to the principle <jf that
contract for the reason that it virtually supersedes the State's con
trol over its convicts ; and, while tending to degrade agricultural
labor, abolishes, in effect, the infamy and the penalty attaching
in well-ordered society, to crime." Hence he took pleasure in ob
serving that the military lease to Richardson, though it ran to
November 1, 1870, could not survive the restoration to civil gov
ernment. He declared that convicts should not be worked outside
the walls of the penitentiary. "The shocking spectacle of a group
of men followed by keepers with loaded rifles, ready to shoot them
as though they were dogs, lowers that sentiment of well-ordered
society which surrounds human life with sanctity." But "if we
must employ our convicts outside of the penitentiary," the senten
ces for a certain class of crimes should be to labor on public works.
The Richardson lease continued, was extended by Alcorn, and the
extension confirmed by the legislature until March 1, 1872.
Governor Powers, in 1872, noting this extension said: "The
policy of leasing for a period of years the convicts sentenced to
confinement in the penitentiary, to be paraded throughout the
State and placed in competition with free labor, is calculated, in my
judgment, to corrupt public morals, degrade industry, pervert
justice and thwart the true objects of punishment." The number
of convicts then on hand was 234. Upon his recommendation the
legislature provided for the purchase of a farm of 500 acres, and the
building of a new penitentiary thereon. Meanwhile, the contrac
ting of prisoners within the old penitentiary was authorized, and
employment outside was limited to public works.
Under the Richardson lease the State paid $18,000 a year to the
lessee for feeding, clothing and working the convicts, besides
bearing the expense of bringing the convicts to the penitentiary,
which was about $12,000 a year.
The board of inspectors under the law of 1872, was B. B. Eggles
ton, R. J. Alcorn and George Charles. The Richardson lease
having terminated, they made a contract May 10, 1872, with W. P.
Dunnovant & Co., for employment of convicts ; lessee to assume
all expense connected with the prison, arid to pay the State $8,000
per annum for the use of the convicts and machinery. The work

MISSISSIPPI 387
outside was to be only on public works. The board selected a site
for the new penitentiary, 500 acres about four miles north of Jack
son, in January, 1873, and asked an appropriation to begin work.
The site was donated by the city, in competition with a donation
by Canton. In 1872 a large number of the convicts were employed
outside on public works. Gov. Powers was gratified by the pros
pect of a new penitentiary, on completion of which "the leasing
system of working convicts outside the walls will end."
But the panic of 1873 and political opposition stopped this pro
ject. The building of a cotton factory was begun in 1874, with an
appropriation by the legislature, in order that employment might
be furnished all convicts within the old institution. But the pris
on was so crowded that cell room was lacking ; the financial depres
sion made further building inadvisable, and Gov. Ames recom
mended working short term convicts on the roads.
An act of 1875 provided that pending the building of the new
penitentiary, the management of the penitentiary might contract
for the feeding, clothing, guarding and maintenance of the convicts-
or any number thereof, and for the labor of the same, and for the
use inside the walls of the penitentiary, of the machinery of the
penitentiary, the contract to relieve the State of all expense of main
tenance, clothing and guarding, and to continue until January 1,
1880, with permission to work the convicts outside the penitentiary,
no restriction being made as to the kind of work. Bond was re
quired of the contractor, and the governor was authorized to cause
inspections of the food, clothing and treatment.
At the same time an appropriation of $27,500 was made for en
larging the old penitentiary. In 1875 200 convicts were kept within
the walls and 373 leased out.
An act of 1875 also authorized the supervisors of 46 counties-
to put prisoners and convicts upon public works of the counties..
reviving what is known as the "chain-gang," which has existed
from the earliest days ; also to lease the prisoners to contractors
on public works. This was recommended by the Tax-payers con
vention. After the political revolution of 1875 the plan of a new peniten
tiary was abandoned, and the leasing system was continued under
the act of April 15, 1876, under which the penitentiary inspectors.
leased the convicts, buildings and property, June 9, to J. S. Ham
ilton and J. L. Hebron, the lessees to pay the State $1.10 for each
convict over 400 in number, and bear all expenses except the salary
of the State superintendent of the penitentiary. The new lessees
made arrangements with the old sub-lessees under the act of 1875,,
French & Forbes, and obtained control of the convicts. "From
1876 to 1884 some changes were made in the management of the
penitentiary but not in the interest of the convicts. Commissioners-
were appointed to offer the entire penitentiary plant, including con
victs, for lease to the highest bidder for cash or on credit, and it
was provided that the leasing of convicts to private persons should
continue. . . . From the beginning of this infamous system to

388 MISSISSIPPI
1884, these wretched prisoners seem not to have had one cham
pion, who, for humanity's sake, would lift a voice of protest in their
behalf." (J. H. Woods.) In 1880, when the leases authorized
in 1875 expired, a board of public works was created, with a mem
ber from each congressional district, the rent value of convicts
was put at $50 a year besides his keep, and there was provision
for operating a bagging factory and a wagon factory by the board
of public works. The board of public works leased the penitentiary
and all property pertaining thereto, for six years from January 1,
1881, for $39,420 a year, to Jones S. Hamilton, R. H. Allen and J.
A. Hoskins. The laws against mistreatment were made more
stringent and the superintendent was required to give greater at
tention to the care of the prisoners. The barbarism of the system
continued to arouse public resentment, which culminated in the
winter of 1884 when the legislature was in session. A squad of 18
convicts were shipped through Vicksburg from a delta plantation,
on their way to the prison hospital at Jackson. Their half-naked
bodies showed signs of cruel goaders and tortures, their fingers
and toes were frost-bitten and they were hardly able to walk. The
city authorities compelled the guard to take them through the city
in covered wagons, but a newspaper dared to publish the facts.
A committee of the house of representatives of which Jeff Nelson
was chairman, investigated the working of convicts on farms and
railroads, and showed the brutalities and cruel commercialism of
the system. A few newspapers had the courage to print the report
before it was stolen from the files. Capt. Frank Johnston, later
attorney-general, began a relentless war on the system, for which
he was honored in 1890, by privilege of the floor of the constitu
tional convention. In 1886 the convicts were leased to the Gulf
& Ship Island railroad, which had already held them under an
assigned lease. The legislature of that year seriously considered
the problem. There were 800 to 1,000 convicts and the prison at
Jackson could not accommodate them. The large number was
due to a law defining the stealing of certain domestic animals as
felony, regardless of value. The legislature created a Board of
Control (q. v.) composed of the railroad commissioners, empowered
to protect the convicts, and the superintendent of the penitentiary
was required to visit the places where the convicts were worked
once every month. But the public was not satisfied with these
measures, and the legislature of 1888 was compelled to order an
investigation. It appeared that there had been much improvement,
but there remained the same tendency to brutal treatment. The
only remedy provided was the greater concentration of the con
victs under the management of the Gulf & Ship Island railroad
company. A campaign was made before the constitutional con
vention of 1890. Statistics were produced showing that the aver
age terms of imprisonment in western penitentiaries were 3 to
4 years, in Mississippi over 4% years, including boys sentenced
for life. The highest death rate in six western prisons was 2%,
the others all being below 1% per cent. The death rate in Missis-

MISSISSIPPI 389
sippi was 10 to 15 per cent. The average death rate of white
convicts was 5 per cent, of negroes 11 per cent. The convention
of 1890 submitted the convict question to a committee composed
of R. A. Dean, W. S. Featherston, George G. Dillard, J. H. Jones,
W. F. Love, J. Alcorn and J. S. Sexton. They reported: "Be it
ordained by the people of the State of Mississippi in convention
assembled that from and after the 1st day of January, 1895, the
system commonly known as the convict or leasing system shall
be unlawful, and from and after that date the hiring of State con
victs to individuals or corporations shall cease."
"The leasing system was common to all the Southern States,
except Kentucky and probably Virginia. It is difficult to under
stand how a system so barbarous could have been tolerated in
any Christian community. It was evidently the product of human
rapacity grafted upon the conditions that a defunct slavery had
left behind it." (J. H. Jones, M. H. S. Publ. VI, 111.) Under the
constitution of 1890 the State Farm system has taken the place of
the old penitentiary. See Board of Control and Penitentiary Farms.
Pursuant to an act of 1900 the buildings and brick wall of the old
penitentiary were torn down to make way for the new capitol.
Penitentiary Farms. The constitution of 1890 requires that
"No penitentiary convict shall ever be leased or hired to any per
son or persons, or corporation, private or public or quasi public,
or board, after December the 31st, A. D., 1894, save as authorized
in the next section, nor shall any previous lease or hiring of con
victs ^extend beyond that date ; and the Legislature shall abandon
the system of such leasing or hiring as much sooner than the date
mentioned as may be consistent with the economic safety of the
State. "Sec. 224. The Legislature may authorize the employment
under State supervision and the proper officers and employes of
the State, of convicts on public roads or other public works, or by
any levee board on any public levees, under such provisions and
restrictions as it may from time to time see fit to impose ; but said
convicts shall not be let or hired to any contractors under said
board, nor shall the working of convicts on the public roads, or
public works, or by any levee board ever interfere with the prepar
ation for or the cultivation of any crop which it may be intended
shall be cultivated by the said convicts, nor interfere with the good
management of the State farm, nor put the State to any expense.
"Sec. 225. The Legislature may place the convicts on a State
farm or farms and have them worked thereon under State supervi
sion exclusively, in tilling the soil or manufacturing, or both, and
may buy farms for that purpose." See Board of Control.
The convention adopted an ordinance requiring the governor to
appoint a commission to report on the subject of a convict farm.
This commission, Ira G. Holloway, of Lafayette county, M. L.
Jenkins, general manager of the penitentiary, R. B. Clark of Lee,
W. F. Love of Amite and D. A. Love of Washington, in 1891 rec
ommended the establishment of a farm as the best solution of the

390 MISSISSIPPI
penitentiary problem, and reported as to the desirability of sites.
Gov. Stone advised the purchase of a tract in Rankin county.
The legislature did not act until 1894, when a commission was
created to purchase not less than 4,000 nor more than 8,000 acres
for a penitentiary farm or farms, and $125,000 was appropriated.
The commission selected 3,200 acres in Rankin county at $5.50
per acre, and 4,800 in Yazoo county, at $15, which latter price the
governor disapproved ; whereupon 2,700 acres (Oakley place)
were purchased in Hinds county for $20,000, and 2,000 acres on
Honey island in Holmes county, (Belmont place), for $27,000.
Gov. Stone regarded the farms as poorly adapted to the purpose,
though worth the money, and advised the sale of two of them and
the purchase of one large area in the delta, for negro prisoners,
and the enlargement of the Rankin farms for whites. The farms
were first worked in the year 1895, and there was net profit of $60,-
000, though the year was unfortunate agriculturally. A prison was
built on the Rankin farm for the convicts not put to work, and
after the old penitentiary was torn down (1900-01), buildings
were used at the Oakley farm for the imprisonment of such con
victs. Such convicts as could not be provided for on the farms
were worked on private plantations, with sharing contracts.
An act of 1900 required the establishment of a > penitentiary
farm or farms in addition to those already owned by the State,
and the board of control was directed to make a purchase, $80,000
being appropriated. The board bought 13,789 acres in Sunflower
county, at $5.78 per acre, very nearly the amount of the appropria
tion, and in 1901, four stockades were built and 2,000 acres cleared.
According to the report of 1902 the convict labor had been used
in cultivating the four plantations of the State, known as the
Rankin, Oakley, Belmont and Sunflower farms, and the board had
also rented the Sandy Bayou plantation in Sharkey county and the
Weathersby plantation in Coahoma, also cultivating nine planta
tions on the share system.
On the Sunflower farm in 1904, several stockades, or convict
quarters, had been built, a well-equipped hospital, residences for
sergeants and officers, barns, etc., four artesian wells bored, pro
ducing a better water supply than on any other of the farms. The
farm, which had been bought for $80,000 was then appraised at
$400,000. Gov. Longino said the policy of the board was not to
hastily abandon all leases, but to gradually work away from them
as the delta farm was prepared for cultivation. Up to January
1904, 3,500 acres of leased land had been abandoned. Again in the
winter and spring of 1902-03 the convicts were put upon the levees
to protect them from a great river flood.
Gov. Vardaman in his inaugural address, 1904, urged that the
board of control should be abolished, and management of peniten
tiary affairs intrusted to one man, on the groun'd that the members
of the board had other and ample official duties, and responsibility
was so divided that efficient management was difficult. In his mes
sage of 1906 he renewed this recommendation, and severely criti-

MISSISSIPPI 391
cised the action of the board in "contracting with a member of the
legislature to work his plantation on shares," when there were
8,000 acres of land to be cleared on the Sunflower farm of timber
which had been deadened and was ready to be put on the market.
There were cleared lands, available for farming — 5,000 acres on the
Sunflower farm, 1,200 on the Belmont place, 600 or 800 on the
Rankin farm and 1,500 on the Oakley place ; most of the latter was
rented out to small farmers. "If the State can make money work
ing a private individual's land and giving that private individual
half the products of the convict's toil, I cannot understand why
it cannot make more money working its own land and keeping
the entire products of the convict's toil." In December, 1904,
the board of control discarded the use of all plantations belonging
to private persons except Sandy Bayou, belonging to State Senator
H. J. McLaurin. At the December meeting, 1905, the board pro
posed to enter into another contract to work the Sandy Bayou
farm, and Gov. Vardaman obtained a temporary injunction against
such action, but this was afterward dissolved by the supreme
' "court, and the board was sustained. A law was passed by the legis
lature of 1906, while this question was still being argued, forbid
ding the working of convicts on lands other than that owned by
the State of Mississippi in fee simple, with the exception of work
on levees, public works and public roads. A committee of the
house investigated the management of the Oakley farm, at which
is maintained the general hospital of the farm system, and made
serious charges. The hospital was declared to be a "huge shack,
- absolutely unfitted" for its purpose ; it had many windows open to
the winter weather, and enormous quantities of whiskey were re
ceived. The committee urged the sale of the Oakley farm, concen
tration of all able-bodied negro convicts at the Sunflower farm,
transfer of the sick from the delta to the hill farm, in Rankin, and
that penitentiary affairs be divorced from politics, and civil ser
vice ru les ' adopted .
The governor further said in his 1906 message : "Partisan poli
tics should be absolutely eliminated from the penitentiary manage
ment. ... I say it with profound regret, but without fear of
successful contradiction, that for many years the penitentiary has
been the one festering sore upon the body politic — poisoned by the
virus of private personal cupidity — the most corrupt and corrupt
ing influence in State politics." The governor estimated the pen
itentiary property as representing a capital invested of nearly $2,-
000,000. "The penitentiary farms should be the model farms of the
State. They should be used to demonstrate upon a large scale the
advantages to the farmers of experiments made at the Agricultural
and Mechanical college on a small scale. Scientific agriculture,
tile draining, fertilization of soil, growth of plants, should be the
lessons taught upon the State's plantations. Intelligent direction,
with the absolute control of the labor, would make that easy of
accomplishment, and at the same time pecuniarily profitable to

392 MISSISSIPPI
the State, also instructive to the convict, which lessons would be
of use to him in after life."
W. W. Simonton, for the revenue agent, reported in 1906, after
a thorough investigation of the penitentiary management, that the
State had expended on the Sunflower farm, $335,073; that $256,-
308 had been received from the farm in cash, and the property
was inventoried at $420,335, real estate, and $112,074 personalty.
Another report of 1906 showed the total value of prison property
to be $871,669.
The realty used by the Board of Control as State farms is sum
marized as follows:
Oakley place, 2,700 acres, valued at $36,900.
Rankin place, 3,200 acres, valued at $48,900.
Belmont place, 2,000 acres, valued at $67,125.
Sunflower place, 13,739 acres, valued at $477,224.
The total acreage of the four convict farms is 21,689 acres, val
ued at $630,549.
The total personalty valuation is $241,120 and the personalty is
divided as follows: Oakley, $17,740; Rankin, $43,227; Belmont,
$20,743; Sunflower, $158,038; Sandy Bayou, $1,830; office of Board
of Control, $487 ; total, $241,120.
Penn, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Lowndes county,
on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, about 15 miles from Columbus, the
county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 100.
Pensacola campaign, 1861. The famous "Castor and Pollux"
regiments, the 9th, Col. J. R. Chalmers and 10th, Col. S. M. Phil
lips, were organized at Pensacola in April, 1861. They partici
pated in the night attack on Pensacola and Santa Rosa island, Oc
tober 8, 1861, and served in Fort McRae during the bombardment
in November. At Pensacola also served the Quitman light artil
lery, Capt. W. S. Lovell. Other Mississippi regiments were sent
to this place in 1861— the 5th, Col. A. E. Fant, 8th, Col. C. G.
Flynt; 27th, Col. T. M. Jones. Col. Jones was in command when
the evacuation was ordered. The regiments were then transferred
to Corinth, and most of them were brigaded as Chalmers' brigade.
Pensions. An act of the legislature of 1888 made the first pro
vision for the disabled soldiers of the Confederate armies in the
war of 1861-65. There had been pensioners in the State from an
early date, comprising soldiers of the United States in the war of
the Revolution, the war of 1812, and the war with Mexico; after
1865, for the war of 1861-65 ; and since 1898 there have been pen
sioners of the Spanish war. The act of 1888 provided an annual
pension of $30 to soldiers or sailors of the Confederacy who had
lost an arm or leg, or were incapacitated by wounds, and had no
adequate support, their servants who had lost an arm or leg, and
widows of those who died in the service. The appropriation was
limited to $21,000. If there were over 700 applicants the allowance
was to be a less amount individually. In 1890 the limit was in
creased to $30,000.
The constitution of 1890 (section 272) required legislature to

MISSISSIPPI 393
provide pensions for "indigent soldiers and sailors who enlisted
and honorably served in the Confederate army and navy in the late
civil war, who are now resident in this State and are not able to
earn a support by their own labor," also to indigent widows of sol
diers and sailors. Under this provision the legislature authorized
an expenditure of not more than $64,200 per annum, on the esti
mate that such an appropriation would give $50 annually to each
one entitled to a pension under the laws. In consequence of a large
increase in the number, only $32.25 was paid to each pensioner
in 1892, and afterward less. Governor Stone said in 1894 that
many were receiving pensions who, under a proper administration
of the law, would not be entitled to them. Under the law the au
ditor of state was pension commissioner, with almost arbitrary
powers, but he reported in 1895 that unworthy influences had "led
to raiding this fund by the unworthy, to the injury of the strictly
deserving." The number of beneficiaries were then about 3,000,
and the annual allowance a little over $20. He urged the abolition
of the pension system and the maintenance of a soldiers' home.
The list increased and additional appropriations were madev In
1896 the appropriation was $75,000. Pensioners were classified,
33 receiving $100 a year, 176, $50; and 1,909, $25. The balance,
about 2,000 white and 114 negroes, shared equally what remained.
The law of 1904 provides for two grades of disability, pensions
of $75 and $125 a year, and requires equal division of what remains
of the fund among the others who are qualified. The pensions
paid in 1905 amounted to $250,000.
Pentecost, a post-hamlet of Sunflower county, on the Sunflower
river, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about
10 miles northeast of Indianola, the county seat. Population in
1900, 23.
Penton, a hamlet in the western part of DeSoto county, on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., near the Mississippi river, 16
miles distant from Hernando, the county seat. It has a money or
der postoffice. Population in 1900, 65.
Peoria, a postoffice of Amite county, on the Liberty-White R. R.
A large brick plant and ginnery are located here.
Perch, a postoffice in the eastern part of Lincoln county, 12
miles southeast of Brookhaven, the county seat.
Percy, a hamlet in the southern part of Washington county, on
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, and the Southern Railroads. Roll
ing Fork is the nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 100.
Percy, W. A., was a native of Huntsville, Ala., but lived in
Washington county, Miss., from boyhood until the time of his
death. He was a grandson of Capt. Percy, of the British navy,
who settled in the Natchez province in colonial days. He was
graduated at Princeton, and took a law course in the University
of Virginia, but before he began practice the war came on. He was
an uncompromising union man, but when the State seceded, led
to battle the first company of soldiers that left his county. He rose

394 MISSISSIPPI
to the rank of colonel and served through the war. When the
war was over he moved from his plantation home to Greenville,
where he began the practice of law, was successful and attained
high rank. He was the acknowledged leader against negro rule
in the delta counties during reconstruction; served in the legisla
ture and was speaker of the house ; was a great champion of levee
interests. He was one of the famous committee of seven which in
1875 issued a call for the reorganization of the Democratic party.
His untimely death in 1888, cut short a brilliant career.
Perier, Governor. Boisbriant had administered the affairs of the
colony less than a year when M. de Perier arrived in the colony
in the autumn of 1726 to succeed Bienville as governor-general.
The new governor was a naval officer of distinction and a knight
of St. Louis. Bienville's downfall had been the result of bitter
opposition on the part of the other officers of the colony. The
Council of the India company believed that much of the wrangling
in the colony was due to the Le Moynes, and it was deemed only
fair to the new appointee to oust Bienville's relatives and friends
from office. His brother Chateaugue was deposed *as royal lieu
tenant, and his two nephews, Captain and Ensign Noyan, were ex
cluded from the service. Perier found things in a more or less
chaotic condition on his arrival, and at once set to work to estab
lish the colony on a more prosperous basis. He gave every en
couragement to agriculture, and the officers vied with the other
colonists in opening up new plantations. More slaves were sent
by the company, who were distributed by Perier among the various
plantations with the greatest impartiality. Settlers who had never
been able to work their plantations before, on account of the ab
sence of the necessary labor, now received some of the negroes
and began to prosper. A decree was issued that those who had
not properly improved their concessions should surrender them to
the company. A tax was levied for the building of churches and
hospitals. The expenses of the colony for the year 1728 were
$89,919. "The settlements," says Dumont, "formed at Natchez,
though a hundred leagues from the residence of the new com
mandant, prospered more and more every day, by the care he took
to supply the post with all that could render it solid and flourish-
ing." Such was the state of affairs when the greatest disaster that
had yet overtaken the colony occurred. Perier, on his arrival, had
found the attitude of the Indian tribes anything but satisfactory.
They were discontented and threatening, and he was forced to ex
act stern reprisals for several acts of hostility, and to recommend
stronger garrisons at the posts. Bienville had always kept clear
of any serious trouble with the Indians, who feared and respected
him. They had not yet been taught to fear Perier, who had no
great tact in his dealings with them. In December, 1729, the
Natchez suddenly arose and massacred nearly all the French in
their midst, and utterly destroyed the prosperous settlements. The
Yazoos followed their example at that post. The most alarming

MISSISSIPPI 395
rumors were now current and the French feared for the existence
of the colony. Fortunately none of the other tribes arose. Perier
acted with commendable promptness, enlisted the powerful tribe
of Choctaws in his behalf, and that of the Tonicas, and sent a
strong expedition to attack the Natchez in their strongholds. The
French women and children held captives by the Natchez were
rescued or surrendered, and the Natchez were driven across the
Mississippi, pursued by the Choctaw allies of the French. Inces
sant war was waged against the Natchez by Perier, until the once
powerful tribe was practically exterminated, in the vicinity of the
present town of Trinity, Catahoula Parish, La., in 1732.
The long wars with the Indians had proved very expensive, and
the Royal India Company was now bankrupt. It petitioned the
Crown for the right to surrender its charter, given it in 1717 for
25 years, which was granted. The opportunity was now taken to
reorganize the affairs of the colony. The superior council was
placed on a new basis by patent dated May 7, 1732. The author
ities of Canada, or New France, had always claimed jurisdiction
'over the lower Mississippi. The province of Louisiana was now
definitely detached, and to it was annexed the Illinois country.
M. de Perier was reappointed governor, Salmon, intendant, d'Ar
taguette and Loubois, lieutenant-governor, and Fleuriau, attorney-
general. A vicar-general, resident in New Orleans, the Capital,
was also decreed. In the effort to revive commerce, all duty was
removed from merchandise exported from France into the colony,
and on exports from the colony to France. This at last was a
step in the right direction, and met an immediate response from
the colonists and from the merchants of France. The colonists
began to prosper and trade at once expanded. Perier, however,
served but one year under the new order, and was recalled to
France upon the request of the colonists, who demanded that
Bienville be returned to the colony.
Perkinston, a village in the north-central part of Harrison
county, one mile south of Red river, and a station on the Gulf &
Ship Island R. R., 30 miles by rail north of Gulfport. It has a
money order postoffice, an express office and a turpentine distil
lery. Population in 1900, 165 ; estimated at 200 in 1906.
Perkinsville, a post-hamlet of Winston county, about 13 miles
east of Louisville, the county seat, and 19 miles west of Macon.
It has a church and a good school. Population in 1900, 44.
Permanent Committee. As noted in the article "Revolution of
1797," a committee, headed by Anthony Hutchins, made terms
with Governor Gayoso, June 22, 1797. Col. Daniel Clark, in a let
ter describing the events of this period, written, just before his
death, to W. C. C. Claiborne, said that "the malcontents, notwith
standing the convention agreed upon, still continued in an ill
humour, and consisted of two parties ; the first respectable and
wealthy, the other poor and without fixed principles. The first
were those who complained that Governor Gayoso had, at various
times, insulted, wronged, and refused to grant land to them : These

396 MISSISSIPPI
consisted of Colonel Hutchins, Colonel Green, their families and
numerous connexions, who had no other object in contemplation
than to avenge themselves of the tyrant Gayoso, as they generally
styled him, for the supposed injuries he had done them. The
second party was in general composed of low characters, inured
to the practice of murdering and plundering, during the revolu
tionary war, in the Southern States of the Union, and after, or
about the time of peace, sought for, and obtained the Spanish gov
ernment in this country." The latter, said Clark, had arranged
a scheme of plunder and murder of the wealthier planters, as soon
a condition of anarchy could be established. "Partitions of the
slaves and property of the most affluent were actually agreed
upon. Two miscreants fell into dispute, fought, and wounded
each other, respecting the possession of a slave of one of the pro
scribed." (Sargent Papers, p. 29.) "A list of those devoted vic
tims had been formed and agreed on, but fortunately was
discovered. This excited vigor in the threatened planters, and
checked the horrid design from being carried into execution. It
was believed by Governor Gayoso, as well as by Messrs. Ellicott
and Pope, and indeed by every orderly and well meaning inhabi
tant of the country, that the above evils must necessarily ensue,
if some measures were not adopted to prevent them. A second
committee was more regularly chosen, by precepts issued by Gov
ernor Gayoso, directed to each of the nine townships into which
the government was formed, and ordered to attend at Natchez to
cooperate with the governor in preserving good order and the
general peace of the country, and to watch that no infraction of
the convention should be adopted. This was styled the Perma
nent Committee." Several prominent inhabitants visited Gayoso
during his confinement to discuss the situation, Clark among them.
As the governor returned from the fort to his home on the 23d he
had an interview with Ellicott, who urged him to authorize the
election of a permanent body "to aid in preserving good order and
the peace of the country." This was in the line of Ellicott's policy
to promote some sort of peaceful organization independent of the
Spanish, that would be a center for action in case of necessity
to oppose the Spanish intrigues. At the same time, it established,
to some extent, American government in the district. Gayoso, by
proclamation next day, called an election, which took place about
the first of July. The committee of nine that was chosen was as
follows :
Joseph Bernard, Peter B. Bruin, Daniel Clark, Gabriel Benoist,
Philander Smith, Isaac Gaillard, Roger Dixon, William Ratliff and
Frederick Kimball. These men were all strongly attached to the
United States, unless Kimball was in some doubt on account of
his residence below the line. Bernard was chosen chairman of
the committee, and held that office until his death, September 20.
His successor was Gabriel Benoist, who died in the following sum
mer. Daniel Clark was a member later. The regular meeting

MISSISSIPPI 397
place of the committee was in the -house at Natchez rented by
Ellicott as his headquarters.
It will be noted that Bernard, Ratliff, Benoist and Gaillard, of
the first committee, were reelected, and Hutchins, West and Lin
tot not. In regard to Hutchins, Claiborne says that, being over
eighty years of age, he declined serving on account of infirmities.
Ellicott gives the same reason, and says this was contrary to the
expectations of a number of gentlemen who were anxious to have
him elected.
A political division began here. Like all the politics of that
period, it involved the prejudices of the "late war," in which
Hutchins had been loyal to the king, had suffered from Continental
soldiers, had led an attack on them, had been a leader in the revolt
against Spain and had fled to England for safety.
The committee adopted the policy of, "first, the securing of the
country to the United States, and, secondly, the preservation of
peace and good order in the settlement." On which Ellicott com
ments, "the first was contrary1 to the wishes of the officers of his
Catholic majesty, and the second to those attached to the British
interest, to which may be added another class, who had nothing
to lose, but hoped to gain by the tumult and disorder." Col.
Hutchins attended the first meeting of the committee as a specta
tor, but soon became hostile.
July 26 Gayoso received his appointment as governor-general
of Louisiana and West Florida, to succeed Carondelet, and de
parted for New Orleans on the 30th, leaving Capt. Stephen Minor
as acting commandant.
The efforts of the party led by Hutchins, and supported, Mr.
Ellicott admits, by "several who held commissions under our gov
ernment," resulted in a meeting of a number of inhabitants at
Natchez August 8, at which, evidently, it was resolved to depose
the permanent committee and elect a new one that should, through
an agent at the seat of government, be in communication with the
United States congress. It seems likely that a manuscript peti
tion found in the Claiborne MSS., originated in this meeting. The
petition is otherwise unexplained. It reads:
"We are only a few of the neutral inhabitants of the country of
the Natchez, who are disposed to attend here with respect & es
teem towards you, and with no less Regard to our own rights &
privileges. And as you were elected to be useful in promoting
peace & good order so you have the sole & entire credit of your
merits. Your circular letter we greatly approve of, as the apology
therein fully attones for the supererogatory part of your well-
intended conduct; and as we are willing to coincide with you in
your numerous Salvas of impeaching the feeble head instead of
the heart ; hence we, with a View of Salutary purposes, assure you
it is our will to make known the intention of the generality of the
people that we with you do name & fix upon a day whereon a
man may be elected and chosen to represent us as Agent or Com
missioner to address and lay before Congress (should occasion re-

398 MISSISSIPPI
quire) such matters and things as from time to time he shall be
advised & instructed by a Committee to be elected and chosen on
the same prefixed day which agent and committee we wish to con
tinue during the will and pleasure of their constituents & no
longer." The petition went on to specify the particulars of the
proposed election, leaving names and dates blank. (Pub. Miss.
Hist. Soc, III, 283.)
The narration on pages 140-41 of Ellicott's Journal is appar
ently his description of the proceedings before the permanent
committee in regard to this petition. "A few days after the gov
ernor's departure for New Orleans, Mr. Hutchins came to the
house I occupied, and requested my aid in dissolving the perma
nent committee, which was then in session, and to let the principal
power be lodged in his hands and that of another committee, which
he would have elected." Ellicott declined to do this and at a later
date went to considerable pains to justify this action by finding
proof that Hutchins was in receipt of a British pension. Hutchins
then went into the hall of the house where the committee was in
session, and according to Ellicott there was a stormy interview.
"After a few preliminary observations," the Colonel told the mem
bers "they were no committee, that they were dissolved and he
would direct the election of another," etc., and Judge Bruin made
a spirited response, in which he brought up the Colonel's war rec
ord. Daniel Clark's description is that Hutchins took .the posi
tion that the committee "were irregularly called together, that
their proceedings were vicious, and that he alone was possessed
of the power of the people; and, as their organ, came into the
room where the committee was in session, stamped on the floor,
Cromwell like, and pronounced . . . 'that they were dis
solved, and they were accordingly dissolved.' " All this followed,
two committees, and their rivalries, Clark wrote in 1800, "as it
only sprung from an ebullition of ill humor on both sides, I
thought its effects were long since laughed away." (Letter to W.
C. C. Claiborne.)
"Immediately after this," says Ellicott, "Mr. Hutchins applied
to Captain Minor, and obtained permission to have another com
mittee elected." As completed, the petition asked for an election
September 2, and a list of election officers was given, for each of
ten beats or districts, as follows : Andrew Beall, St. Catherines ;
Thomas Burling, Second Creek lower ; Joseph Howard, Second
Creek upper and Sandy Creek ; Landon Davis, Homochitto ; John
Collins, Buffalo ; Elisha Hunter, Bayou Sara ; Charles Boardman,
Pine ridge and Fairchild's ; Parker Carradine, Villa Gayoso ; John
Burnet, Bayou Pierre and Big Black, David Ferguson, Natchez.
The returns were to be counted by A. Ellicott, Adam Bingaman
and John Girault, "or an two of them."
Captain Minor ordered the election accordingly, after a week's
consideration. Yellow fever was prevalent in July, and Ellicott, after losing
one of his assistants and several of his men, moved with his sick

MISSISSIPPI 399
to a famous spring on St. Catherine's, where he made the survey
and plat of the town of Washington. There he remained until the
latter part of September.
Col. Hutchins sent out an address to the "Planters, Mechanics
and Laborers," August 18, urging the election of a new commit
tee, and professing it was not intended to interfere with the per
manent committee, which he claimed "was intended only to pro
mote the peace of the country." The permanent committee passed
some resolutions in regard to the election August 28, which
Hutchins answered in a circular letter next day, saying the com
mittee was playing the tyrant. He characterized the permanent
committee as implicated in some sort of "infernal plaris" against
the "common privileges"; that the inhabitants were in danger of
being enslaved. "They will soon protest away your property,
your privileges and your lives also." Contractor Cochran appears
to have written a letter to Col. Bruin, for use in the campaign, that
particularly enraged Hutchins.
Six of the districts protested against the election, because it "in-
> volved the seeds of anarchy," and contempt of the regular perma
nent committee; because by the terms of the election many
citizens were made ineligible to election ; because persons of
eighteen years of age were permitted to vote, etc. From four dis
tricts Hutchins received returns, which he and the four members-
elect opened as a returning board. Mr. Claiborne says "there was
a very general turnout in the various beats, notwithstanding the
active opposition of Ellicott, who declared he would consider all
persons who took part in it as enemies of the United States."
Lieutenant Pope, it appears, sent a circular by an orderly to the
Homochitto district deprecating an opposition to the permanent
committee, and saying "This can't be permitted." Ellicott says
that by subsequent informal election and petition three more mem
bers were added. Claiborne, who names neither of the previous
committees in full, gives the following membership : Thomas
Green, James Stuart, Chester Ashley, Anthony Hoggatt (the four
first elected), Landon Davis, Justice King, Abner Green (mak
ing the seven), John Shaw and Daniel Burnet.
This matter of the election, etc., is discussed in Claiborne's his
tory, pp. 173-77, and in Ellicott's Journal, pp. 141-48, wherein is
presented Ellicott's theory that Hutchins was acting in associa
tion with the "Blount conspiracy," of which Ellicott and the per
manent committee were not advised by the government until
September. This was the origin of the "Committee of Safety and Corre
spondence." No agent was elected by the people, and this com
mittee selected Col. Hutchins.
The committee of safety prepared a "petition and memorial" to
congress in duplicate, written by Hutchins, to which 425 signa
tures were obtained. In the same period, Chairman Bernard
appealed to Ellicott for protection against a body of forty armed
men, said to be approaching from Bayou Pierre, at the same time

400 MISSISSIPPI
stating that the inhabitants of Cole's creek were in ill humor and
threatening to arm.
A copy of the memorial which had been forwarded to the Span
ish minister at Philadelphia by way of New Orleans, Ellicott
says, was intercepted and brought to Ellicott and Benoist, who
made a copy and sent it by special messenger to the secretary of
state also forwarding the intercepted packet to its destination.
The other copy was entrusted to Daniel Burnet, who was paid
$300 by Hutchins to carry the document to congress. November
20, according to his affidavit before Alcalde Vousdan, when he
was on the road near the house of Thomas Calvit, James Truly
and Silas S. Payne compelled him to give up the papers. Com
plaints were formally made to the governor by Burnet, Hutchins
and Ebenezer Dayton, but Minor refused to interfere. Ellicott
protests that this proceeding was against his orders, and as he
had already seen the document he returned the package unopened
to Mr. Hutchins and his committee, "who, to the best of my
knowledge never met afterward." Burnet carried the memorial
to Philadelphia.
Colonel Hutchins, in his communications to the secretary of
state, refers to documents being sent by James Stuart and Dr.
Thomas Hutchins. The colonel's health would not permit his
making the journey. When it was thought he would- go, his
horses were taken at Cole's creek.
Accompanying the memorial was a letter from Colonel Hutchins
expressing dire apprehensions, making various accusations against
Ellicott, Daniel Clark, William Dunbar, and Benoist, and giving
a report that Governor Matthews and Judge Miller, agents of the
Yazoo company, lately arrived, were to be made governor and
judge of the territory. He called the permanent committee, "the
Committee for Peace and Cooperation with the Spanish govern
ment. The secretary of state actually did receive the memorial from
Ellicot's messenger, and reported the fact to the president, before
the messenger of the Hutchins committee arrived. "One object
of the memorial," he said, "seems to be to criminate the conduct
of the American commissioner, Mr. Ellicott, and the commander
of the troops, Captain Pope. But proofs accompany Mr. Ellicott's
communications that this part of the long memorial was concealed
from many who subscribed it, and other testimonies in vindica
tion of these officers. The exhibition of these documents, I have
thought, might also be suspended until the 'petition and me
morial' were presented to congress. It may, however, be proper
to remark that the memorial, as well as the proceedings of the
regularly appointed permanent committee, view the actual estab
lishment of a government at the Natchez, under the authority of
the United States, as to take place only when its present neutral
ity shall cease ; that is, when the Spanish jurisdiction shall be
withdrawn." Therefore the secretary urged that congress should,
before adjournment, provide a form of government.

MISSISSIPPI 401
Thus this political skirmish aided in calling the attention of
the government to the urgent necessities of the situation, as well
as laid the foundations of the politics of the Territory soon to be.
Those who supported Hutchins found favor with the party in
opposition to the Adams administration, and came into full power
in the great political revolution of 1801, when Thomas Jefferson
became president.
Meanwhile, to return to Natchez, the permanent committee took
some action, apparently, about communicating with congress Au
gust 29, which they rescinded September 13, and requested Elli
cott "to present our present situation" to the president, and "like
wise all measures which he shall deem conducive to the future
welfare of this country." He prepared a memorial asking for an
extension to the country by congress, when the United States
should take possession, of a government similar to that provided
for the Northwest territory, with evidently, in his own mind at
least, such considerations as influenced the eminent Virginians
who were mainly responsible for that territorial charter. One ex
ception he recommended, that slavery should not be prohibited.
Congress was also asked to protect settlers on the old British
grants against loss of their homes and lands. It was recommended
that vacant lands be sold in tracts to accommodate actual settlers.
This document, with the approval of the permanent committee,
was transmitted to the general government.
Extracts from the two memorials, by Ellicott and Hutchins,
approved by the two committees, are presented in parallel in the
monograph, "Transition from Spanish to American Rule," (Miss.
Hist. Soc, III) and the conclusion is correct that the two docu
ments "differ very slightly in their recommendations upon the
four questions which were of vital importance to the people.
. . . The fact is, Ellicott had greatly the advantage of Colonel
Hutchins, his antagonist, in literary ability and in official prestige,
as well as having an intimate personal acquaintance with many of
the officials at the seat of government." The comment by Mr.
Claiborne (Mississippi, p. 176), says Mr. Riley, would apply with
equal if not greater force to the report of the permanent commit
tee. Col. Hutchins made a political issue of opposition to a govern
ment like that of the Northwest territory, which he represented to
bis friends as a condition of slavery. Both recommended that
slavery be not prohibited, as in the Northwest territory; both
urged that the lands be disposed of in small tracts to actual set
tlers, but Ellicott recommended that it be "freely given" and
Hutchins that it be sold at a "moderate price ;" both agreed re
garding the land titles.
Commandant Minor, on September 16, recognized the Perma
nent committee as "the true and sole representatives of the inhabi
tants of this government," but both committees seem to have
met from time to time, until the Spanish evacuation, the perma
nent committee in town and the Committee of Safety at Bealk's.
26-H

402 MISSISSIPPI
Hutchins continued to ask his fellow citizens, "For Heaven's sake
will you tell me who made that gentleman a ruler or a judge
amongst you; how came he to be your oracle?" and to urge the
great danger in which the community was found. The exchange
of diplomacy between the Spanish minister and secretary of state
went on without interruption, and the Ellicott survey party
waited, the astronomer being confined to his home with fever
from September until January, 1798.
The policy of the United States government, menaced by a sit
uation which culminated next year in the proclamation of a day
of national fasting and prayer and the calling of George Wash
ington to take command of the armies of the United States in
a threatened war with Napoleort and the nations he controlled,
including Spain, was revealed in the expressions of the message
of President Adams, November, 1797: "Indulging the hope that
the answers which have been given will remove the objections
offered by the Spanish officers to the immediate execution of the
treaty, I have judged it proper we should continue in readiness to
receive the posts and to run the line of limits."
In November formal notice was received that his Catholic Ma
jesty had appointed Col. Charles de Grand Pre, well remembered
as the commandant after the revolt of 1-781, as governor of the
Natchez district. This was utterly beyond the patience of the
inhabitants, and the permanent committee justified its being by
adopting resolutions declaring that Grand Pre would not be re
ceived in such a capacity. Captain Pope prepared to maintain this
declaration of independence. Gayoso was admonished that to
carry the order into effect would be a breach of neutrality. Ac
cordingly Grand Pre remained at New Orleans, and Capt. Minor
continued to discharge the duties of commandant. "One of the
letters from Col. Grandprie (Grand Pre) to Mr. Hutchins passed
through my hands," says Ellicott. A letter of Colonel Hutchins
to Governor Gayoso (July 21, 1798) describes the protest against'
Grand Pre as the work of "vagabonds, swaggering about with
guns, threatening death and destruction to Governor Grand Pre
should he presume to land here to take charge of the post, bel
lowing at large that the voice of the inhabitants were against him,
when to the contrary all except Minor & Ellicott's horrid party
rejoiced to hear that he was on his way to supersede the grand
impostor [Minor] you left here on your departure."
It was about this time (Ellicott says in the beginning of De
cember) that Capt. Isaac Guion arrived from Fort Massac and
Chickasaw Bluffs, with a detachment of troops, after the same
sort of delays that had met Ellicott and Pope. It is proper to
note that the comments by Mr. Claiborne upon his instructions
are erroneous so far as they are construed as reflecting upon the
commissioner of limits. The documents quoted by Mr. Claiborne
were based upon Ellicott's despatches of the early part of April,
which reached the seat of government in June, and the informa
tion contained in those despatches were confirmed from all parts

MISSISSIPPI 403
of the west. The department did not need what Mr. Claiborne
calls "Ellicott's false and mischievous statements," to "apprehend
a rupture with Spain." But the instructions of the secretary of
war to Gen. Wilkinson were of course (July 25, 1797, Claiborne,
p. 188) to go ahead as if no reason were known for checking the
survey, and throw the onus of hostility on the Spanish." In the
meantime it is our duty to guard against surprise and intrigues,
and do nothing that would justify any nation in bringing war on
this country." The secretary of war knew nothing about the rev
olution in Natchez when he wrote this. ' Nobody knew better
how to guard against intrigues than Wilkinson, and he understood
perfectly what intrigues were meant, those of the Spanish, Brit
ish and French.
Captain Guion's instructions from Wilkinson, dated May 20,
when the events following Ellicott's arrival were unknown to the
general, were that Guion would find at Natchez "an extensive,
opulent and polished community, agitated by a variety, of politi
cal interests and opinions. It will be your duty to conciliate all
parties to the government of our country by every means in your
power, avoiding at the same time any just cause of offense to the
Spaniards. The occasion will call for the exertion of all your fac
ulties, for this unfortunate people, who have no option in choos
ing or changing masters. The moment the Spanish dominion.
terminates they will find themselves without laws or magistrates,.
and the bonds of society being dissolved, more or less irregular
ities may ensue. The doubtful tenure by which they hold their
lands may become a dangersous element of agitation in the hands
- of the enemies of our country, and may be possibly employed to
persuade them to a usurpation of the right of self-government.
. . . You may safely promise fair and profess much, to gain
time and avert excess. ... It will be your duty to abstract
yourself from all personal feuds and animosities, but you are to
give unequivocal protection to the friends of our government and
as unequivocally to discountenance those who oppose its interest."
The general's reference to self-government, it may be imagined,
means such self-government, in independence of the United States,
that he had, a few years before, been intriguing for in Kentucky,
under the direction of the Spanish governor.
As Guion found the district, though there were personal fueds
and animosities, its loyalty to the United States was assured and
anarchy was prevented by the wise organization of the, perma
nent committee, supported by Capt. Pope. The important work
covered by his instructions had been well done, and even the hos
tile elements had worked to the common end of self-government
under the American flag and congress.
Benoist congratulated Guion on his arrival, and asked of him
the same cooperation as Pope had given, saying "that the Perma
nent Committee may be considered the guardians whose duty
it is to watch over and preserve the advantages gained by the
convention." But Guion took an attitude of hostility to what

404 MISSISSIPPI
had, been accomplished. Writing from Chickasaw Bluffs, August
24, before his arrival at Natchez, he censured Captain Pope for
giving "displeasure to the Spanish authorities," and advised Gay
oso that he had done so. After his arrival he ignored Ellicott and
treated the permanent committee with contempt. Visiting their
place of meeting, he demanded of Gaillard by what authority they
met, declared that their meetings were improper and seditious,
that they should consider themselves dissolved, that he was not
to be made a cipher of, and he would rule the district with a rod
of iron. He and Gaillard seem to have had a warm moment to
gether (Ellicott's Journal, 162-63). Ellicott says that Narsworthy
Hunter, and Col. George .Matthews, of Georgia, were prominent
supporters of a movement to introduce a military government,
under Captain Guion. Matthews had in 1795 been governor of
Georgia and signed the legislative bills of sale of all this region,
known as the "Yazoo Fraud." He came down to the Natchez by
the Tennessee river in September, and introduced a new element
of uncertainty by claiming the country for one of the organizations
based on the fraudulent transaction that his State had repudiated.
But he kindly proposed to leave those inhabitants undisturbed who
could show good title from the Spanish government.
Mr. Claiborne's comment regarding the close of this period, is :
"As soon as Gayoso ascertained that the United States had sent
an officer of rank and character to Natchez, with a sufficient force
to repress any invasion of Louisiana, or any outbreak of or inter
ference with the Indians, he gave notice that- immediate measures
would be taken for the evacuation, and that he would do all in
his power to facilitate the operations on the line of demarkation."
Gayarre, on the other hand, says: "Guion's liberality and the
amiableness of his deportment towards the Spaniards did not seem
to accelerate their movements and to procure their desired removal
from the forts Panmure and Nogales, ... so that Guion him
self, becoming impatient, declared that he would not wait further
than the 1st of April, 1799 [undoubtedly 1798 is meant] and
would then attack the forts." (History of La., Ill, 391.)
It is possible that Gayoso may have made the same explanation
of the evacuation as appears in Mr. Claiborne's history. The real
reason, of course, is to be found in the European situation. While
Yrujo and Pickering were still exchanging notes in January, 1798,
the Spaniard complaining bitterly against the bad faith of the
United States in regard to British navigation of the Mississippi,
and the "scandalous" and "insulting" conduct of Ellicott and Pope,
and the secretary of state defending the honor of his country and
its representatives, Governor Gayoso, at New Orleans, received
orders from court, January 10, to evacuate the forts at Natchez
and Nogales, and permit the survey of the line. This information
reached Natchez January 18, when, for the first time, the inhabi
tants were absolutely assured that without a war their homes fell
within the territory of the United States. But the forts were not

MISSISSIPPI , 405
evacuated until the latter part of March, and the Spanish were
not ready for the survey until April.
In the latter part of January, 1798,- Thomas M. Green, chair
man of the Committee of Safety, on the ground of general cor
roboration of "his own serious apprehensions respecting the pros
pect of sedition, insurrections and robberies after the fort shall
be evacuated," called a meeting of his committee February 5, at
Belk's. February 1, the Permanent Committee addressed Guion, saying
that "as the purposes for which this Committee was chosen will,
we trust, be soon accomplished, by the removal of the Spanish
jurisdiction, we have nothing now to hope, but that our executive
will make an early provision for our future government, yet, as
it is possible, some interval may happen, between the recess of
the former and the establishment of the latter, we wish to know
from you, sir, if in that case you are authorized to exercise civil
authority among us. Such a power must reside somewhere, and
should you not be invested with it by your instructions, we shall
feel it a duty attached to our situation, to recommend some meas
ures to our constituents (by our final dissolution) which we think
calculated to preserve the peace and happiness of the inhabitants."
They requested and hoped that he would support whatever form
of temporary government should be adopted.
The Committee of Safety (Thomas M. Green, Abner Green,
Hugh Davis, James Stuart and Anthony Hoggat) met on the date
above -assigned. Their resolutions, drawn by Col. Hu-tchins, were
that the state of neutrality continued until Natchez was evacuated;
that the inhabitants had maintained neutrality notwithstanding
the provocations by "the coalition and conspiracy between the
titular governor [Minor], the comrnittee formed to cooperate with
the Spanish officer [Permanent committee], Mr. Ellicott the com
missioner, and a few other designing persons." They protested
against the establishment of a government under the ordinance
of 1787 as against the will of the inhabitants, accused Capt. Minor
of unwarrantable conduct, repudiated any agreement that Elli
cott might have made with the Georgia agents, and recommended
the inhabitants, to prevent feuds and felonies and anarchy, to
meet at Belk's February 26, to elect another committee. The
people were particularly exhorted regarding "the absurdity of the
claims of Georgia to the lands of this government," and the dan
ger of their assertion as opening the way to British claims.
But, during these interesting periods of transition, the powers
of civil government were exercised neither by the Permanent com
mittee, the Committee of Safety, nor by Capt. Isaac Guion ; but
"El Capitan Don Estevan Minor, exerciendo funcciones de Gober-
nador y subdelegado de real Hacienda en la Plaza de Natchez,"
continued, up to the evacuation, to hear lawsuits, render judg
ments, and administer the civil jurisdiction, under the direction
of Don Juan Ventura Morales, intendant of Louisiana and West
Florida. The Spanish records of the Natchez District show the

406 MISSISSIPPI
apparently uncontested exercise of Minor's authority in many cases
as late as March, 1798, also a vigorous protest made in February,
by Ebenezer Dayton, the tanner, against the lawful jurisdiction of
the Spanish commandant, on the ground that Spanish authority
had ceased upon ratification of the treaty of 1795. For this rea
son, said Dayton, he had for a long time been unable to sue his
debtors and he conceived it would be a hardship to be oppressed
by his creditors by authority of this "usurped jurisdiction." But
it does not appear that this protest interfered with the operations
of the trustees appointed to adjust Mr. Dayton's affairs.
The committee of a Natchez meeting, David Ferguson and
others, communicated with Capt. Guion, May 1, 1798, suggesting
the need of a temporary government, saying that "we the inhabi
tants of this town have entered into a resolution to use our exer
tions towards effecting the erection of a Temporary Government
until that duly authorized by Congress shall arrive," for "the
mending of roads, removing public nuisances, establishing of a
town patrol, suppressing riots and punishing riotous persons,"
preventing sale of intoxicants to Indians and regulating the col
lection of debts. Guion, in response, said he would support any
regulations that the freeholders would agree upon and subscribe
to, and made a similar diplomatic response to William Vousdan,
when the latter wrote, May 9, that a convention was proposed at
Belk's tavern.
About this time (May 5) Col. Hutchins, writing to the secre
tary of state, ended his letter: "And on finishing this scrawl an
account arrived that this country was really organized without
any regard to the Memorial the people greatly lament the slight
and many will leave the Country & are preparing to remove among
the Spaniards which I am heartily sorry for."
It is asserted in Ellicott's Journal that Colonel Hutchins actu
ally did ask permision to move into the Spanish territory, and
that it was refused. He remained, at any rate, to be equally active
under other circumstance, and lead the dominant party of the
new Territory, notwithstanding his great age.
Perrin du Lac's Visit. Francois Marie Perrin du Lac was a
French colonial administrator who traveled through the United
States and explored the southern and western States, visiting
Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania,
during the years 1801-1803. He published a volume on his travels
in these regions and below will be found a few extracts which bear
more particularly on the region embraced in the present State of
Mississippi : "I rejoined my boat, which I had left at the mouth
of the river (Arkansas) and proceeded on my voyage down the
Mississippi. From thence to Natchez, the navigation offers noth
ing either agreeeble or interesting. Immense forests border the
river, and the banks, but little elevated, are inundated at least
once every year.
"Natchez is the only important place possessed by the United
States on the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Ohio. It con-

MISSISSIPPI 407
tains twelve or fifteen thousand inhabitants, freemen and slaves.
Most of the proprietors are enriched by the culture of cotton, for
which the lands are extremely well suited. The town, which is
built on high ground at the distance of one mile from the river,
contains fine houses and rich shops. It is the staple of all
kinds of merchandise for the southern colonies. Almost all the
proprietors of this little state, being emigrants from the southern
provinces, have brought with them the political principles there
professed. They are Federalists, consequently not favorers of the
present president. (Jefferson.) Natchez is cultivated in an extent
of fifty miles in length, and twenty in breadth. The air is healthy,
the climate agreeable, and it may be presumed, that it will shortly
be one of the most powerful and populous provinces of the United
States." "The last post of the United States on the Mississippi, is Roche
a Davion, where the Americans have built a fort, called by the
name of one of their generals, Wilkinson. Here the headquarters
of their small army are established. There are also some armed
vessels for the defence of the place. All the vessels that descend
the river are obliged to stop here, and declare to what nation they
belong, and the nature of their cargoes. Those that ascend pay
here the, duties on their merchandize, if destined for the American
part. Some miles below Roche a Davion, are the limits marked
out by Spain and the United States, in 1798. It is a road thirty
feet wide, and its direction exactly from east to west: it crosses
the lands belonging to the Chickasaws, and divides the two Floridas
from the States of Georgia and South Carolina."
In a subsequent passage, our author thus characterizes the Mis
sissippi :
"The Mississippi, navigable to an extent of eight hundred
leagues, is indisputably one of the finest rivers in North America.
The numerous rivers which flow into it, render its proprietor the
sole possessor of all the commerce of the North-West part of this
continent. By means of the Ohio, the inhabitants receive the
products of the western provinces of the United States; by the
Illinois they proceed to Canada; and by the Missouri, there is no
doubt but that they may penetrate as far as the countries near
the Pacific Ocean.
"It is difficult to describe the rapidity with which the Missis
sippi flows, when swelled by rain, or the melting of the snow. It
is then so great, that boats have often descended from Upper
Louisiana as far as New Orleans in six days, which is a distance
of 1,300 leagues. Its banks are covered by the trunks of trees
which being -concealed by the water, present continual danger to
navigators. For this reason, captains are obliged to keep an at
tentive eye, in order to prevent accidents, which notwithstanding
their vigilance often occur."
His reference to the obstructions placed on the free navigation
of the Mississippi' after the treaty of San Lorenzo are interesting:
"By the treaty of 1796 (1795) with the United States, the King of

408 MISSISSIPPI
Spain engaged to give them a depot at New Orleans for the mer
chandize destined to ascend the Mississippi, and for the overplus
of the products of the Western States. This depot, which was
granted to them for three years, was to have been (if his Catho
lic Majesty was unwilling to continue it) replaced by some
other, equally advantageous to both governments. Without re
spect to this part of the treaty, the president of the United States
was informed some time before my arrival, that not only the port
remained shut; but that also a depot was forbidden to the Amer
ican merchants. This breach of faith could not fail to exasperate
the Western States which have no other channel for disposing
of the overplus of their productions. It has since appeared, that
this measure was not authorized by the Spanish government, but
was the result of the desire of injuring, and of hatred to the
French." Perry County was established quite early in the history of the
State, February 3, 1820, and originally formed the western part of
the large county of Greene, (q. v.) The act creating the county
defined its boundaries as follows : "Beginning on the line of de
marcation where the line that divides the thirteenth and fourteenth
ranges intersects the said line of demarcation ; thence with said
range line to where the fifth parallel township line crosses the
same; thence east with the said township line, to where the line
that divides the eighth and ninth ranges crosses the same ; thence
with the line of demarcation ; thence west to the beginning." The
county has been since enlarged by adding townships 1, in ranges
9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, south of the 31st parallel, and township 5, in
range 14, north of the 31st parallel, so that it now embraces a total
area of thirty-one townships. Its population has always been
small in proportion to its acres. Within recent years its valuable
timber resources have been partially exploited and it has taken on
a new and permanent growth ; from a total of 6,456 inhabitants in
1890, it increased to 14,682 in 1900, a rate of increase considerably
in excess of one hundred per cent. It received its name in honor
of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, and was settled by a large
number of hardy pioneers along its watercourses during the first
years of the last century. Its civil officers during the first year of
its existence were Jacob H. Morris, Chief Justice of the Quorum,
and John Jenkins, John Green, Jacob Carter, Craven P. Moffitt,
Associate Justices; Alex. McKenzie, Eli Moffitt, Benj. H. G. Hart
field, William Hudson, John Moffitt, Seth Granberry, Lewis W.
Ball, Henry Easterling, Wm. Reynolds, Justices of the Peace;
John McDonald, Assessor and Collector; Geo. Harrison, Ranger;
Joel Lewis, Surveyor; John Barlow, Constable; Wm. Tisdale, Cor
oner; J. J. H. Morris, Notary Public; Martin Chadwick, Sheriff.
Some of the other county officers, 1821-1827, were Griffin Hollo-
raon, J. J. H. Morris, John F. Mapp, Abner Carter, Judges of Pro
bate; Lewis Rhodes, Sheriff; Anthony Pitts, Adam Ulrrier, Jona
than Taylor, Geo. B. Dameron, Sterling Brinson, John Deace.
Daniel Miley, James Simmons, Sherod Byrd, Isham H. Clayton,

MISSISSIPPI 409
James Overstreet, Uriah Millsapp, Justices of the Peace ; Hugh
McDonald, Treasurer ; Farr Proctor, Geo. Harrison, Lewis Rhodes,
Assessors and Collectors. It is located in the southeastern part of
the State, in the long-leaf pine belt, and is bounded on the north by
Jones and Wayne counties, on the east by Greene county, on the
south by Harrison county and on the west by Lamar and Pearl
River counties, and has an area of twenty-six townships, or 936
square miles. The county seat, until recently, was the old town
of Augusta, near the center of the county on the east bank of the
Leaf river. Though it is nearly a century in age, it has not kept
step with the march of time and remains a small village today
with 125 inhabitants, a result which is largely due to the fact that
the railways have never quite come to it. New Augusta, two miles
south of old Augusta, on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R.,
has lately been made the county seat of Perry county. Hatties
burg which was formerly in the northwestern part of the county.
and until recently one of the two county seats of the county, is a
.flourishing city which has grown up within the last few' years and
is now the capital of the new county of Forrest. It has a popula
tion of about 21,000, has become a railroad center of importance
and is surrounded by a region covered with some of the best timber
in the South. It is on the Leaf river and the following railroads
enter it: New Orleans & North Eastern, Gulf & Ship Island,
Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City and the Mississippi Central giving
it excellent shipping facilities to New Orleans, Mobile and Gulfport,
as well as to northern, eastern and western points. A few of the
other towns in the county are McLaurin, Brooklyn, McDonald's
Mills, Morriston and Heckla. The principal streams are Leaf river,
which flows through the center of the county from the northwest
to the southeast with its numerous tributaries, and Black creek and
its tributaries in the southern part. The general surface of the
county is undulating — level on the creek and river bottoms. The
prevailing timber is the long leaf pine, but on the rivers and creeks,
oaks, hickory, poplar, magnolia, gums, cypress, etc., are found. The
soil on the bottoms is fertile, but generally speaking, is .poor. It
produces excellent forage grasses for stock, however, and the raising
of live stock has proved profitable.
The following statistics are taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, and show in a striking manner the extent to which
the lumber and allied industries outrank the agricultural. Number
of farms in the county 1,148, acreage in farms 195,034, acres im
proved 24,872, value of land exclusfve of buildings $557,390, value
of buildings $298,020, value of live stock $367,169, total value of
products $420,19-5. Total number of manufacturing establish
ments 50, capital invested $986,922, wages paid $228,154, cost of
materials $679,351, total value of products $1,185,860. The popu
lation in 1900 was whites 9,808, colored 4,874, total 14,682, increase
over 1890, 8,188. The population in 1906 was estimated at 20,000.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Perry

410 MISSISSIPPI
county in 1905 was $6,203,091 and in 1906 it was $10,854,794, which
shows an increase of $4,651,703 during the year.
Perrytown, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Wilkinson
county, on the Homochitto river, about 18 miles from Woodville,
the county seat. Rosetta, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
R. R., is the nearest railroad station, and Gloster is the nearest
banking town. Population in 1900, 42.
Petersburg, siege of, see Army of Northern Virginia.
Perth, a hamlet of Jefferson county, 7 miles east of Fayette, the
county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 33.
Perthshire, a post-hamlet of Bolivar county, on the Riverside
Division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 10 miles
northeast of Rosedale, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 61.
Petal, a postoffice of Perry county, 2 miles north of Hattiesburg,
on the N. O. & N. E. R. R. It has three stores, two churches, a
good school, two large saw mills, a cotton gin, and a population
of 300.
Pettit, a post-hamlet of Washington county, on the Riverside
division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 15 miles south
of Greenville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 100.
Pettus, John Jones, was born in Wilson county, Tenn., October
9, 1813. A younger brother, Edmund Winston Pettus, was born
in Limestone county, Ala., in 1821, and was elected United States
senator in 1896. In his youth John J. Pettus became a resident of
Kemper county, where he soon attained prominence. He repre
sented Kemper in the lower house of the legislature in 1846-48.
In 1848-58 he was in the State senate from his district. He was
elected president of the senate in 1854, and when Gov. Foote re
signed, he was acting governor January 5 to 10, 1854. Elected
again by unanimous vote in 1856 he held over as president at the
called session of 1857. In the course of his farewell address at
adjournment he said : "Fourteen years have elapsed since I en
tered these halls as a member of the Legislature. Through all
that time continued expressions of friendship and esteem have
made pleasant my path. The accumulation of long years of kind
ness crowd on my memory as I stand before you tonight, and
thrill my heart with emotions of deep and abiding gratitude."
He was elected governor in October, 1859, as a representative
of the movement for Southern independence. See (McWillie
Adm.) His administration is described in a separate article. After
the fall of the Confederate States government he removed to Ar
kansas, where he lived the life of a recluse and died January 25,
1867. Pettus' Administration. Governor Pettus was inaugurated No
vember 21. 1859, with a procession from the mansion to the
capitol, including volunteer military companies, under the com
mand of Gen. Richard Griffith, marshal of the day. •
It was inevitable that the governor should give much attention

MISSISSIPPI 411
in his inaugural address to the "irrepressible conflict" that over
shadowed everything else. "The scene at Harper's Ferry is not
the end, but in my opinion only the beginning of the end of this
conflict," he said. The anti-slavery party had obtained control
of nearly every State in the North and West, and the fugitive slave
law was made of no effect. "The Southern citizen, left to this
unequal contest for his property with societies, churches and
States, must abandon his right for want of an adequate remedy,
unless the Southern States make the cause of the citizen the cause
of the State, and enforce his constitutional right by retaliating on
the citizens of those States that have passed laws to defeat the
rendition of fugitive slaves." He declared his belief that the move
ment contemplated the abolition of slavery and the "probable en
forcement here of the same policy in relation to the social
equality of the races which has disgraced the statute book of
Massachusetts and degraded her people to a level with the Afri
cans." The remedy he proposed was the "moral influence of a
United South . . . preparing to resent further insults and
•unyielding resist further aggressions." He would raise the ban
ner of a national party with the motto, "Superiority and Suprem
acy of the White Race," and he believed it would rally a million.
of free white men in the North, and the cry of "save this glorious
Union" would be raised even in the "Black Republican camp."
He believed the only effective counter-movement was to endanger
the unrestricted commercial intercourse of the North with the
South. In conclusion he said that if the Republican party elected
the president in 1860, "I shall regard the institution of slavery so
seriously threatened as to justify Mississippi in asking for a Con
vention of all the States interested in its perpetuation. . . .
To this council Mississippi will send her truest and best men, and
when a line of policy shall be marked out . . . she will be
found willing and ready to maintain her inalienable right of self-
government, even if compelled to defend it by a war as long as
that by which it was purchased. To nerve and sustain her in
such a conflict the South has a better cause, double the population
and twenty times the resources of the Thirteen colonies, and if
we have only half their courage we may yet remain free."
As his staff, the governor appointed in December, Walter L.
Sykes, adjutant-general ; Nathaniel F. Barksdale, quartermaster-
general; C. G. Armstead, Henry Muldrow, V. T. Terrell, G. M.-
Fowler, aides; F. Labauve, W. A. Barbour, John C. Russell, Sam
uel H. Terral, assistant quartermaster-general. Col. B. B. Webb,
secretary of state, died January 16, 1860, and an election was or
dered for April 2, at which C. A. Brougher was elected. The other
officials of 1860-61 were T. J. Wharton, attorney-general ; E. R.
Burt, auditor ; M. D. Haynes, treasurer.
The proposition to pay the bonded debt of the State on account
of the Planters bank was revived seriously in the legislature of
1859, but the majority declared it was impolitic to take it up when
it was necessary to have public sentiment united on the sectional

412 MISSISSIPPI
questions. William C. Smedes wrote into the records that nobody
assumed to deny that these bonds were just and legal. "And yet
the great State of Mississippi," he said, "proud of her achieve
ments on the battle-field, jealous of her constitutional rights, and
boastful of her sovereignty, allows herself to be dishonored and
discredited in the face of the world by failing to pay a just and
admitted debt; an honest and undisputed obligation, which for
years has been due, and in the hands of her injured and long suf
fering creditors, many of whom are citizens of the United States,
of distinction and character, others widows and orphans, and still
others citizens of foreign governments, all of whom cannot but
look upon the State as faithless and discredited." An intelligent
patriotic minority had always contended for the payment of all
the just obligations of the State.
The legislature appropriated $150,000 to arm the State troops, •
and in the spring of 1860 Gov. Pettus sent Adj.-Gen. Sykes to
visit the Northern armories, arsenals and factories, and obtain
several thousand stands of the Mississippi rifles with bayonets at
tached. A convention of militia generals was called May 29, also
a convention of the captains of volunteer companies, that were
being rapidly organized. Carnot Posey, Richard Griffith and
Erasmus Burt were conspicuous in this movement. (See Army
of Miss.)
Jan. 23, 1860, Gov. Pettus sent to the legislature, yet in session,
resolutions of the South Carolina legislature, declaring that South
Carolina had in 1852 affirmed her right to secede, and forebore
action "from considerations of expediency only," and urging now
"that the slaveholding States should immediately meet together
and concert measures for United action," which was approved by
Governor Pettus. He suggested that while preparing for such a
meeting, revenue laws should be enacted by Mississippi "to make
her commerce less profitable to those who make war on her
rights." He recommended a tax of ten per cent, on all goods and
manufactures imported from without the State, and to discour
age Northern literature the requirement of a license in each county
for book agents.
The political campaign of 1860, which resulted in the election
of President Lincoln, was one of extraordinary excitement. As
soon as the result was known in November, Gov. Pettus called
the legislature in session to provide for a Constitutional conven
tion. (See Secession.)
December 31 was a day of fasting and prayer, by proclamation
of the governor. On January 3, 1861, he called the legislature to
meet again January 15th. The Constitutional convention (q. v.)
met on the 7th.
The military activity of the State may be judged by the record
at Natchez, one of the centers of opposition to secession. In De
cember, 1860, there had been organized the Adams troop of cav
alry under Capt. William T. Martin, the Adams Light Guard, the
Natchez Guards, the Natchez Fencibles (reorganized), and the

MISSISSIPPI 413
Quitman Artillery, nnder Capt. W. S. Lovell. By February, the
Light Guard had grown to a battalion, including two companies
of adults and two of boys ; the Home Guards and Silver Grays
were organized among the old men, and in all over 600 were en
rolled in these companies, most of whom were armed and drilled.
While the convention was in session it exercised the powers
of amending- the constitution and making ordinances. A Council
of Three was appointed, Composed of Warren P. Anderson, Madi
son McAfee and T. C. Tupper, to advise the governor until the
State should enter a confederacy. A military system was framed,
and military control given to a board composed of the governor
and five general officers : Jefferson Davis, major-general, Earl
VanDorn, Charles Clark, J. L. Alcorn and C. H. Mott, brigadiers.
Thus the governor's prerogative was considerably curtailed.
As for the legislature, it adjourned after a week's session.
Under the ordinances of the Convention the State declared her
self an independent republic. The United States marshals were
requested to complete their work on the census, and otherwise
cease their relations to the Federal government ; postmasters and
mail clerks were authorized to continue their work and a post
master-general was provided for, but none was appointed ; light
houses, marine hospitals and custom houses, and the military
property on Ship Island, were declared the property of the State ;
also the arms received from the United States, the lands donated
by the United States in trust for education and internal improve
ments, the Two per cent, fund, the Three per cent, fund, the Sem
inary fund, the Internal Improvement fund, etc., were assumed
without question.
In his message of January 18 Gov. Pettus related the military
operations in which the State was already involved — mainly the
sending of seven companies to aid in the siege of Fort Pickens,
Pensacola harbor. "From the facts stated," he said, "the legis
lature will perceive that a state of hostilities already exists be
tween the seceding States and the government at Washington,
which may be soon followed by open war. It is yet possible that
this may be averted. Justice and prudence on the part of the
Southern people, in my opinion, may possibly avert it; and if not,
will certainly mitigate its evils. But whether peace or war be
the destiny of the State, a due observance of law and obedience
to the constituted authorities are the only guarantees of a people
for success, safety or civilization. We have embarked upon a
stormy sea, and much "of the peril which attends our voyage is to
be apprehended from the thoughtlessness and passions of our own
crew. Law and order must prevail, or there is no safety for the
ship. ... I further recommend that the most prompt and
efficient measures be adopted to make known to the people of the
Northwestern States that peaceful commerce on the Mississippi
river will be neither interrupted or annoyed by the authorities or
people of Mississippi."
The music of fife and drum filled the air, yet much of the cir-

414 MISSISSIPPI
cumstances of peace remained. Adelina Patti sang at Natchez
January 31, seats $1.00. Dan Rice's circus and Christie's minstrels
made their usual tour. March 29, 1861, the State, by ordinance of
the Convention, adopted the constitution of a new federal govern
ment, the Confederate States of America, of which Jefferson Davis
had been elected president.
The call for troops to enter the military service of the new gov
ernment began. Two regiments were ordered to Pensacola, eight
more in April, and five more in July. In addition the Military
board called the Army of the State (q. v.), 8,000 strong, to go
into camp in August.
July 12 the governor proclaimed a special session of the legisla
ture to convene July 25. On the 22d came news of the great vic
tory at Manassas. His message began : "It affords me pleasure
to announce to you that the revolution which you inaugurated last
fall has so far been prosperous and successful. The people of this
State have united in approving your action and sustaining the
Confederate government with a unariimity which surpasses the
expectations of the most sanguine. The call to arms has been re
sponded to in a manner unknown in modern times, and the call for
means to support our volunteers is now being answered with such
liberal devotion to the cause as to gratify the heart of the patriot."
To provide money for the war, the Convention in January au
thorized the issue of treasury paper to the amount of $1,000,000.
Bonds were issued to the amount of about $55,000 and Treasury
notes for the balance. These notes were in about equal numbers
of $10, $20, $50, and $100. From the start it was impossible to
exchange any considerable amount of the notes for gold or silver,
and consequently they were paid out as money in the disburse
ments for military purposes. There were no banks in the State
authorized to issue money. The banks outside had generally sus
pended, and their notes were depreciated before hostilities began.
The railroads were empowered to issue script as money, to the
amount of $1,250,000. In view of the great financial embarrass
ment, the governor asked the postponement of all legal sales on
judgments, as early in the war period as the first famous battle.
His advice was followed, and all actions for debt or the enforce
ment of contracts, and all sales of property under judgment, were
suspended until twelve months after the close of the war. The
effect of this was to suspend all the courts of the State.
The governor also said : "Private donations to the volunteer
companies in uniforming, arming and subsisting them, have in the
last few months amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars;
but these contributions, from the more liberal and patriotic citi
zens, cannot, and in justice ought not to be relied on to carry on
the war." He urged an increased taxation pf slaves and land of
one fourth of one per cent.
There was serious opposition for a time, to the reelection of
Governor Pettus, largely on account of the August encampment.
August 26, by proclamation, the governor asked that provisions

MISSISSIPPI 415
for the sick and wounded at the battle of Manassas be collected
by the probate clerks to be forwarded to Virginia.
At the regular election in October, Gov. Pettus was reelected
with very little opposition. He received 30,169 votes, Jacob
Thompson 3,556, Madison McAfee 234, scattering 662. C. A.
Brougher was reelected secretary of state ; T. J. Wharton, attorney-
general; M. D. Haynes, treasurer; E. R. Burt, auditor. Col. Burt
fell in battle in Virginia a few days later ; A. B. Dilworth was ap
pointed in his place, and A. J. Gillespie was elected at a special
election February 10, 1862.
The governor's message, at the opening of the regular session
of the legislature in November, was mainly devoted to the war.
On the first day of the session the legislature adjourned to attend
the funeral of Col. Erasmus R. Burt. The adjutant-general's re
port indicated that 35,000 men of Mississippi were then enlisted
for military duty, "which is probably a larger proportion of the
adult male population than any State or nation has sent forth to
war in modern times ; and when it is remembered that not one of
all these thousands has been required by law to enter the service,
or constrained by any force save the patriotic desire to stand be
tween the State and her enemies, Mississippi may well feel proud
of her volunteer defenders." In concluding his message he said,
"I cannot close without paying a heartfelt tribute to the patriotic,
self-sacrificing devotion exhibited by the women of Mississippi.
If our brave defenders are supplied with clothing sufficient to keep
the field in the winter campaign, the country will be indebted for
it to the patient toil of the daughters of the South." The State
was without any manufactories, it was without money and with
out credit ; the blockade had closed its market, the military enroll
ment ordinarily to be expected of its population was already ex
hausted. Yet, somehow, the war was maintained for more than
three years longer, even after the river and coast, and northern
border were in the possession of the Union troops. Extraordinary
efforts were required to obtain so common a necessity as salt.
(q. v.)
The financial situation received the attention of the Mississippi
legislature. Some way to get cash for the cotton was of course
the main point. The select committee of five of the House, be
lieved the 'condition was not yet hopeless; that the North also
suffered, and that a balance sheet would show a larger amount of
real money in the Confederacy than in the Union. They believed
the only effective procedure was to unite all resources, banks,
credit and cotton, "in getting up a sufficient number of gunboats-
and war vessels to break up the blockade." They expressed a.
misconception common in those days, that a cutting off of the cot
ton supply from the cotton mills of the North would produce gen
eral ruin in that region. The people were urged to listen to no
overtures of peace and restoration of the Union. If the shipment
of cotton to the North could be prevented, the North must admit
Southern independence.

416 MISSISSIPPI
Gov. Pettus himself urged that there be legislation to restrict
the next crop of cotton, and turn agriculture into the production
of grain and provisions.
The legislature authorized an issue of treasury notes to the
amount of $5,000,000 to be advanced on cotton, and chartered the
Bank of Jackson and other banks, permitting them to issue cur
rency notes, on condition that they received the treasury notes at
par. The bank notes were to be receivable for taxes. Near the
close of the session the legislature passed an act incorporating
other banks of issue, without any requirement to protect the
Treasury notes, which was vetoed by Governor Pettus.
An issue of treasury notes to the amount of $2,500,000 was also
authorized, for a military fund. Under this act, treasury notes
were issued to the amount of $1,610,375, including 65,000 each of
$5's and $10's. This included $500,000 appropriated to the relief
of destitute families.
The Cotton notes were issued to the full $5,000,000. Any owner
of cotton could obtain them to the amount of the value of his cot
ton at 5 cents a pound, on promising to deliver his cotton when
the governor called for it. These Cotton notes became the prin
cipal currency of the State.
Early in 1862 Mississippi began to be the theatre of war. Ship
Island was occupied and the coast was harassed. The great bat
tle of Shiloh, almost on the margin of the State, was followed by
the evacuation of Corinth and a fierce battle there. New Orleans
and Memphis fell, and the river was occupied by the United States
navy. Vicksburg was the key to the situation, and the world was
watching the great campaign begun for its possession. When
the legislature met iri -special session December 17, 1862, Gen.
Grant was marching south on the line of the Memphis railroad
and Sherman was seeking to gain a foothold at the mouth of the
Yazoo. In his message, December 20, Gov. Pettus recommended that
"the entire white male population of the State, from sixteen to sixty
years of age, be enrolled in the militia, and that such as are deemed
able to go into active service be called at once to the defense of the
State," the remainder to be organized for local defense and patrol
service. Sheriffs, magistrates and constables should be required
to aid the military "to enroll, and if necessary arrest conscripts and
send them to the proper camps, and to arrest and send to their
commands all who owe service to the country and either neglect
or refuse to perform it."
Particularly he urged provision for the dependent families of
soldiers, the action already taken having proved to be altogether
inadequate. "Owing to the drought of the past season, which ex
tended over a large portion of the State, and the necessity of call
ing more men into the field, the number of destitute families will
be greatly increased, and thereby add largely to the wants of our
people, who are even now in some districts suffering for bread."
"The exorbitant prices asked for every article of food by, those

MISSISSIPPI 417
who are engaged in buying and selling for profit, and many who
produce them, is putting the means of living beyond the reach of
many of our poor citizens. If permitted to go unchecked it will
transfer the property of the country to the hands of the worst and
least patriotic of our population." (Governor's Message, 1862.)
Treasury notes to the full amount authorized by the legislature
had been advanced on cotton, furnishing a circulating medium that
was so far satisfactory.
Forty-six regiments were then in the Confederate service, be
sides cavalry and artillery, and various battalions and companies
of which there was no State record. There were also minute men
on duty in the State. The State armory, moved from Panola to
Brandon, was doing its best to supply and repair arms.
President Davis and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston arrived at Jack
son two days after the legislature met, and a few days later visited
Vicksburg and its defenses. Returning to Jackson on the 26th,
they addressed the legislature and a large audience of citizens.
As if their presence brought good fortune, the defeat of Sherman
and retreat of Grant immediately followed. In the same month
of December great victories in Tennessee and Virginia created a
revival of confidence in the South.
The cotton of many planters had been burned or destroyed by
order of the military authorities of the Confederate States to pre
vent its falling into the hands of the enemy. Senator Yerger in
troduced a resolution that it should be paid for by the State by a
tax on cotton that had not been destroyed, but the same was ruled
out of order.
The Senate did, however, adopt a resolution in favor of paying
owners of slaves the damages resulting to slaves from their im
pressment in the service of the State or Confederate States, and
for losses of slaves by killing, wounding or capture by the enemy
while in such service.
The legislature responded to the governor's appeals by various
acts, among. them one regarding the military fund, under which
the governor- issued $1,115,000 Treasury notes, and a militia law,
declaring that all white males between the ages of 18 and 50 were
liable to militia service to the State, and that all such persons
between the ages of 18 and 40, or such others as might be con
scripted by the Confederate government, be placed in camps of in
struction. It was made the- duty of all military officers to arrest
deserters and deliver them to the nearest provost marshal. The
Confederate conscript or draft law was already onerous. The
militia law was not very popular, and was denounced by part of
the newspapers of the State. Afterward the governor said : "Had
the efforts which have been made to organize the State troops re
ceived that support which, in view of the great danger threatening
us, I had a right to expect, there is much reason to believe that
the condition of Mississippi would now be much better than it is.
A few thousand additional troops at Jackson in May might have
held that place until reinforcements to General Johnston, then
27-n

418 MISSISSIPPI
arriving, could have overwhelmed the invading army and main
tained our position at Vicksburg."
The condition of the people was indicated by prices, reckoned
in this State or Confederate States money. In December, 1862,
flour was selling at $50 to $75 a barrel in North Mississippi. It was
$200 about Jackson next year. Men's boots sold at $30 to $50 a
pair, calico $2 a yard. Watermelons brought $10 to $25 apiece.
Envelopes were 5 cents each, matches of the poorest quality 25
a box.April 30 Grant landed 20,000 men at Bruinsburg, a place famous
in the old days of Aaron Burr. May 3 the governor issued a proc
lamation to the people of Mississippi, calling for a supreme united
effort. "The chivalry of her people, the glory of her daring deeds
upon foreign fields should not be tarnished and her streaming
battle-flag dragged to the dust by barbarian hordes on her own
soil. Awake then — arouse, Mississippi !" On the same day he
called for 500 negroes to work on fortifications about Jackson.
May 5 the State officers were instructed to prepare for removal
on a half hour's notice the records and material necessary to carry
on business.
May 12 there was a bloody battle at Raymond. The Federal
columns pushed on to Jackson, and the capital was evacuated by
Gen. Johnston and the State government May 14. Sherman took
possession, with orders to destroy railroad and manufacturing
property, after which he marched to rejoin Grant on the movement
to Vicksburg. The State government was removed temporarily
to Enterprise. From Meridian, June 27, the governor issued the
proclamation calling the October elections. From Jackson, July
7, he called for 7,000 volunteers to serve six months from August
1, under authority of the war department. Two days later, Sher
man was before the fortifications of Jackson, with an army that
compelled Johnston to retreat to Meridian on the 17th. August
11, Gov. Pettus proclaimed the removal of the seat of government
from Meridian to Macon, Noxubee county. From there, October
4, he called the legislature to meet at Columbus. James Coates
was appointed, October 9, librarian and keeper of the capitol and
public grounds. On the first approach of Grant's army twenty-
five convicts in the penitentiary, said to be unfriendly to the Con
federacy, were transferred to the prison at Wetumpka, Ala. ; oth
ers were pardoned and mustered into, the Confederate army, and
the remainder were turned loose. The penitentiary, really a great
manufactory, mainly military, making the State a profit of $60,-
000 a year, was entirely destroyed on Sherman's first visit. The
Lunatic asylum did not suffer except in the damage to fencing
and outbuildings during the siege in July. The Deaf and Dumb,
and the Blind institution buildings were taken by the Confederate
authorities as hospitals, and the furniture appropriated. The
buildings of the first suffered considerably during the siege. The
Blind institute was removed to Monticello and kept in operation,
but only three of the deaf and dumb were held together.

MISSISSIPPI 419
The State armory, which had been brought from Panola to
Brandon earlier in the war, was moved to Meridian, where tem
porary buildings were erected for the reception of the machinery,
unfinished guns and guns out of repair, and ordnance stores on
hand. But the effectiveness of the armory was practically de
stroyed. The supreme court was authorized to meet wherever
convenient, but it was in fact, practically suspended from 1861 to
1865. The funds of the State treasury were taken first to Enterprise,-
thence to the Bank of Mobile, and from there, after the fall' of
Vicksburg, to the Central bank at Montgomery.
At the election in October votes were cast for Gen. Charles
Clark, Gen. A. M. West, and Gen. Reuben Davis, for governor.
No returns reached the legislature from Adams, Claiborne, Harri
son, Issaquena, Tunica, Warren and Washington. Some of the
returns were unsealed. Of the sealed votes counted, Clark re
ceived 11,876, West 3,302, Davis 1,469. The unsealed votes were
in about the same proportion.
There was in the treasury at the close of the Pettus administra
tion $408,000 subject to the payment of general warrants. By
the issue of treasury notes a debt of about $8,000,000 had been in
curred, but $600,000 of the Cotton notes had been paid back into
the treasury. •
In his message of November, 1863, Gov. Pettus wrote: "There
have been a flood of rumors as to the disloyalty of particular dis
tricts and localities of the State, but I have received no reliable
information of any considerable disaffection in any quarter. It is
perhaps true that some individuals, taking counsel of their fears,
have taken the oath of allegiance to, and sought the protection of
the government of the United States. But the great heart of the
people of Mississippi remains as true to the cause, and their deter
mination to succeed in the great struggle in which we are en
gaged, and is as hopeful and bouyant as when the contest first be
gan." Peyton, a postoffice of Claiborne county, about 12 miles south
east of Port Gibson, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Peyton, Ephraim Geoffrey, was born near Elizabethtown, Ky.,
Oct. 29, 1802. When 17 he emigrated, with an older brother, to
Mississippi, and worked in a printing office in Natchez for a short
time. Later he taught school and read law in Wilkinson county,
near Woodville, until the winter of 1824-25, when he was ex
amined at Natchez and admitted to the bar. He began his practice
at Gallatin, then the county-seat of Copiah county, and soon estab
lished a mercantile business at Grand Gulf on the Mississippi
in addition to his law practice. About 1830 he married Artemisia
Patton, of Claiborne county. In 1839 he was elected district at
torney of what was then the 4th judicial district, and was reelected
several times, finally resigning to return to his general practice.
As he was a pronounced Whig, his election in this strongly Demo
cratic district was a well merited compliment to his ability and his

420 MISSISSIPPI
reputation for integrity. He bitterly opposed secession, and after
the war became a Republican. In 1867 he was appointed to the
Supreme Court (then the High Court of Errors and Appeals) by
the military authorities ; and, on the reorganization of the judiciary
by the Constitution of 1869, he was commissioned, May 10, 1870,
as chief justice, and reappointed in 1873 for nine years, but re
signed, May 1, 1876, and died at Jackson, Sept. 5, 1876. (See
Supreme Court.) "His opinions as a judge are of the finest type,"
says Edward Mayes. He was such a close student that A. G.
Brown said that for fifty years he studied law each day as if he ex
pected to be examined for the bar the next day. In his message
of January, 1877, Governor Stone mentioned his death, "in justice
to the worth and memory of one who was for many years an hon
ored and conscientious public servant," and added, "An eminent
jurist and a man of incorruptible integrity, he discharged the
duties of the exalted and responsible position with honor to him
self and the State."
E. G. Peyton, son of the foregoing, was born in Copiah county
March 16, 1846 ; was a soldier in the Twelfth Mississippi regiment
until captured at Fort Gregg, April 2, 1865 ; was admitted to the
bar in 1867, and district attorney 1869-70; chancellor 1870-88; died
June 19, 1889. He was an able chancellor and a great lawyer.
Pharsalia, an abandoned town in the northeastern part of Talla
hatchie county (q. v.), located on the south bank of the Yacona
river. The town started about the time the county was organ
ized, and after weathering a severe small-pox epidemic and the
great financial panic of 1837, it died out in 1842. Its prominent
settlers were Dr. Broome, Dr. Shegog, J. Hunter, Augustus B.
Saunders (Auditor of Public Accounts of Mississippi, 1837-1842),
Goode and Keeland, Methodist ministers, James McClain and Eu
gene Stevens, school teachers, Col. Thos. B. Hill and Charles
Bowen. Politics were rife here in the early days, and we are told
that it "was the scene of many memorable political debates."
Dr. F. L. Riley, in his sketch of the old town relates the following
incident concerning one of these debates between John A. Quit
man and Henry S. Foote : "Quitman, being the first speaker, fin
ished his address and left. Foote then arose and alluded to
Quitman's action in the following words : 'This reminds me of
the days of old, when Caesar stood on the plains of Pharsalia and
viewed the retreating Pompey. I, like Caesar, am left victorious
at Pharsalia.' This created great enthusiasm for Foote."
Pheba, an incorporated post-village in Clay county, on the South
ern Ry., 18 miles west of West Point, the nearest banking town.
The village was named for Mrs. Pheba Robinson. It is located in
a fine agricultural and stock raising country. Population in 1900,
300. Phelan, James, was born at Huntsville, Ala., November 20, 1820,
and was a descendant of an ancient family in Ireland. At the age
of 14 he became an apprentice in the office of the Huntsville Dem
ocrat, but he had mental qualities of a high order and soon at-

MISSISSIPPI 421
tracted attention as an editorial writer; was called by the Demo
cratic managers to take charge of their organ, the Flag of the
Union, at Tuscaloosa; wielded a powerful influence, and in 1843
was elected State printer. He studied law and was admitted to
the bar of Alabama in 1846 ; began practice in Huntsville, where
he married Eliza Moore, and in 1849 removed to Aberdeen, Mis
sissippi, and rose to eminence as a lawyer. He espoused the cause
of secession; was elected to the State Senate in 1860, and was a
senator in the first Confederate Congress ; earnestly supported the
administration of Jefferson Davis, and after his term in the senate
expired he held the position of military judge until the close of
the war. He found himself impoverished at the close of the war,
but President Johnson permitted him to resume the practice of
law, and he removed to Memphis in 1867, where he practiced with
marked distinction until his death, May 17, 1873.
Phelps, Alonzo, the "Rob Roy" of Mississippi, was a native of
New England, who, according to his own story, fled to the Mis
sissippi valley after killing a rival in love. Roaming along the
* great river, he became a wild man, seldom entering a house as a
friend, living on wild game, and committing crimes without appar
ent compunction. He committed numerous mu/rders and robberies,
and though often caught, a dozen times broke jail ; his crimes were
often committed under circumstances more ludicrous than tragic
He was nearly six feet in height, with keen "gray eyes and blood-
red hair that stood up stiffly on his cranium. When finally cap
tured in 1832 and tried, he was defended by Henry S. Foote and
prosecuted by Seargent S. Prentiss, Foote being at the time on
crutches from his last duel with Prentiss. Judge Montgomery
presided; John Gilbert, of Woodville, and Pelton, of Natchez, as
sisted Foote, and Gen. Felix Huston and others were associated
with Prentiss. It was one of the most famous trials in Missis
sippi history, and the occasion of one of Prentiss' masterpieces
of oratory. The outlaw was found guilty, but while in his cell,
after sending for a minister, and having finished the writing of his
autobiography, and despite his manacles, he made a slingshot of
his leaden inkstand and a stocking, struck down the jailer when the
minister was ushered in. He escaped from the jail but was shot
and killed as he fled.
Phelps, Matthew, of Harwington, Conn., between the years
1773 and 1780, made two voyages to the Mississippi river; first,
in search of health, and with a possible view of purchasing land
and settling in that distant region. He invested in a tract of land
on the Big Black river and returned east to get his family. After
some delays incident to the breaking out of the struggle between
the Colonies and Great Britain, he returned to Mississippi in 1776.
His impressions of the region are set out in a book entitled Memoirs
and Adventures of Captain Matthew Phelps, compiled by Anthony
Haswell, from the original journal and minutes kept by Mr. Phelps,
and published in 1802. His comments on the expedition of Capt.
Willing to the Natchez District in the spring of 1778 are inter-

422 MISSISSIPPI
esting. He says: "On the seventh of March, 1778, the distresses
of the Revolutionary war began to afflict our remote settlements,
and on a sudden put a stop to the efforts of honest industry, and
agricultural, enterprise among us. The first introduction of this
distressing calamity, was communicated to us by the arrival of one
James Willing, formerly of Philadelphia, with a small body of
American soldiers in our quarter. His friends had, through the
influence of Mr. Robert Morris, as it was believed, furnished him
with a commission in the army, at once to rid themselves of an
incumbrance which they deemed too heavy for them longer to
sustain, and to oblige the country to contribute to the support of
a spendthrift, of whose too profligate manners they had become
heartily tired. Willing having thus obtained a commission, and
being entrusted with the command of a few men, was ordered into
our remote regions, to concilitate the affections of the settlers,
and check the progress of the British trade, which was then flour
ishing in that quarter. As soon as Willing came into our vicinity
he began to sound the disposition of the inhabitants, and to en
deavor to engage the men for the American service. He had blank
commissions with him for subordinate officers, which he filled up
as occasion required, and our settlers being well disposed to the
American cause, almost universally, he met with so great success
in recruiting, that in the settlements of our vicinity he enlisted
about eighty hunters. ... In the addresses of Willing to the
settlers, he plead the cause of America with such persuasive elo
quence, and represented the justness of their warfare, the bravery
of their soldiers, and the moral certainty of their ultimate success,
in so engaging a point of view; that backing his persuasive rhet
oric with the most solemn assurances that five thousand American
troops were on their way to this quarter, to establish a territorial
boundary and protect the settlers against the Indians, Britons and
Spaniards, or any of them, should they dare to make any intru
sions, he prevailed on the settlers very generally, to take an oath
of strict neutrality, they being as before observed, with very few
exceptions, friendly to the cause of liberty. Willing having en
listed about an hundred men in our vicinity, and commissioned
officers to command them, proceeded to Manchac. At this place,
by a stratagem, he made himself master of an English armed ship,
which he took down to New Orleans, and there sold to the Span
iards ; and (as it was reported and believed among us) soon wasted
the whole avails, or at least all that he could retain to himself, in
a series of extravagance and debauchery. At length running short
of the means to support himself in his wild career, he began to
display the real vileness of his character, by the execution of a
most detestable business. This was no other than going to Man
chac, with two subalterns, and about 35 or 40 men, of his original
party, where they plundered the honest settlers without distinc
tion ; thus by proving themselves no better than a banditti of rob
bers, they did incalculable injury to the American cause." He
then details what he claims was an attack on the settlers at the

MISSISSIPPI 423
Natchez by a portion of Willing's force under one Harrison, and
the successful resistance of the settlers, organized as "an armed
association of about 500 men." As a result of "this most detes
table business, we resolved that we would form ourselves into
a garrison, acknowledge ourselves British subjects, and turn out
as universally as necessary to protect ourselves and the settle
ment: the proceeding of the banditti under Willing and Harrison
having absolved us from the obligations, under which we had
formerly lain. . . . The first military operation of consequence
which we performed, was fixing up an old fort at the Natches,
called ~iort Panmure, where we entered on regular garrison duty,
and on the first of April we raised a corps of volunteers, and
marched to the relief of the inhabitants of Manchac, or Manshac,
who were still oppressed by the marauding of Willing and the
residue of his gang, who fled at our approach. Here we repaired
another old fort, which we left well garrisoned in a few days after
by a party of associated settlers. Thus were the Americans dives
ted of the friendship of the settlers on this" important frontier,
by the villainy of this unprincipled little band of wretches." After
a long account of the dissensions in the British garrison at Fort
Panmure in the winter of 1778-9 and the spring. of 1779, he thus
speaks of a journey to fort Panmure from New Orleans, just prior
to the surrender of that fortress to the Spaniards: "I sat out on
my return to the Natches the last day of July (1779), and on the
eighteenth of August arrived there safe, in tolerable health and
spirits, my barge being the last boat the Spaniards permitted to
pass, as the war between them and the British was formally de
clared at New Orleans in a few days after we left it, and on the
eighth of September following the Spaniards invested the English
forts in these quarters, but allowed the garrisons, in every instance
to capitulate and surrender on honorable terms ; permitting the
soldiers to retire with the honors of war, and without molestation,
to any British post they may chuse, and allowing the settlers eight
months to dispose of their property, in case they did not incline
to reside there and become Spanish subjects."
"Some time after I left the Mississippi, I met with my old friend
Capf. Lyman, from whom I received information, that soon after
the surrender of Fort Panmure by the British troops, to the Span
iards, himself and a number of Americans determined to return
home if possible, or at least to put the fort into the possession of
American troops, which lay at a small distance up the river, if
practicable, in order probably to reap the emoluments from the
public property in the garrison. To effect this design they artful
ly fomented uneasiness, and secretly planted the seeds of disaf
fection which by careful culture they matured to the growth of
a general insurrection of the inhabitants, and a revolt from the
newly established Spanish government, in the neighborhood of
Fort Panmure. To protect themselves against the Spanish sol
diery, and carry their project into effect, the more securely, they
conveyed intelligence of their procedure to the American com-

424 MISSISSIPPI
mander, with whom they concerted a plan to take Fort Panmure
from the Spaniards by stratagem, in which if they succeeded they
would immediately hoist the British standard, and then he should
come down, and make a vigorous sham attack upon the fort, after
which they would surrender the fort to him, and the garrison
should be allowed to retire with their effects, &c to such place
as they may chuse." Lyman having succeeded in his plan and
gained possession of the fort by stratagem, "raised the British
standard, and looked with impatience for the arrival of the Ameri
can party, but unfortunately for the revolters the Americans did
not come down, according to agreement, but for what reason their
deserted expectants never knew. The consequences of this fail
ure, were peculiarly fatal to the party, as the depth of their strat
agems were soon fathomed, their weakness discovered, and the
Spaniards and Indians combined for their destruction, were pre
paring to come down against them in great force. Thus circum
stanced, the unfortunate Lyman and his party, conceived they had
but one course to take ; they prepared what provision they con
veniently could, and with a number of pack-horses, made their
escape into the cane forests, and accompanied, many of them by
their wives, children and negroes, determined to explore their
way, if possible, to Georgia, through wilds of tedious length, and
dangerous passage ; and over many a region till then untrodden by
the foot of man. The undertaking of this journey was indeed an
act of desperation. Its distance in a direct line, was many hun
dreds of miles, but it was rendered additionally tedious, by the
existing necessity of avoiding the country of several inimical tribes
of Indians, whose territory intercepted their direct course. The
circumstances of this distressful tour were affecting beyond con
ception. Persons yet living in Springfield and its vicinity, who
endured the perils of the journey, could fill an interesting volume,
with the account of their extraordinary perils, sufferings, and es
capes, during their progress thro' the desert, in the course of which
almost all the women, children, and negroes died."
"Among those concerned in the revolt and capture of Fort Pan
mure, there was one Col. Hutchins, who acted a conspicuous part,
and was perhaps more influential than any other person in effec
ting the business. This man was supposed to be a confidential
friend by the Spanish commandant, was admitted into his privy
council at times, when he would get undiscovered to the fort, and
by that means promoted its capture. . . . But finding that the
Americans had failed to take the fort, and that to conceal his treach
ery was impossible, he followed the example of Lyman and his
party, by escaping into the cane forests with a number of pack
horses, and about twenty men. Receiving information, however,
that the Indians were in the canes in search of them, stimulated
by the Spanish proclamation offering a handsome reward for their
scalps, they took the track of Lyman and his party, aiming to
make their way through the woods to Georgia, leaving their fami
lies and the residue of their effects behind them. Hutchins in par-

MISSISSIPPI 425
ticular left an excellent plantation under good improvement, and
tilled by twenty slaves, with nearly seventeen hundred head of
neat cattle, and abundance of other stock. This great possession
was confiscated except sufficient barely to support his wife, and the
unfortunate party on the first or second night after they quitted
the canes, was overtaken by the Indians, and all but two killed.
Hutchins and only one more escaped under favor of the night,
each of them with a gun, and who, when they reached Georgia,
had not so much as the collar of a shirt hanging on them, and
whatever became of him afterwards Captain Lyman could not
inform." (See Anthony Hutchins.)
Philadelphia, the county seat of Neshoba county, is an incor
porated town of 700 people on the new line of the Mobile, Jackson
& Kansas City R. R.,- 34 miles north of Newton. Twelve miles
north of the town is the site of Nanih Waiya, (q. v.) the celebrated
sacred mound of the Choctaw nation, and the greatest of the pre
historic monuments of the State. On the site of the town formerly
stood the Indian town of Lune-bu-osh-ah, or "burnt frog." There
is much to indicate that the country about Philadelphia was once
the gathering center of the great Choctaw nation of Indians. Many
evidences of their former occupancy of the region abound.
Philadelphia has two churches, several mercantile establish
ments, two saw milling plants, a large cotton compress, a cotton
gin, and a bank, The Bank of Philadelphia, organized in 1904. The
Neshoha Democrat is a weekly paper, edited by W. T. Quinn.
The town supports an excellent high school. The Masons, Odd
Fellows and Woodmen of the World have lodges. There are 4
rural mail routes leading from Philadelphia.
Philipp, a hamlet in the southwestern part of Tallahatchie county,
on the Yazoo River, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R., about 18 miles north of Greenwood. It has a money
order postoffice. Population in 1900; 110.
Phillips, James, was born August 5, 1789, -came to Mississippi
about 1813, and was elected state treasurer, in 1828, and reelected.
'He resigned in January, 1835, saying of himself in his annual re
port, "Twenty-two years mark the length of my residence in Mis
sissippi — twenty years of which have, in some station or other been
devoted to public life." He believed he saw the State just begin
ning to develop, under the influence of internal improvements,
into commercial wealth and political supremacy. His parting ad
vice was, "that by extending legislative patronage, not to any par
ticular, local or sectional interest, but to the increasing and enter
prising industry of the great body of the people throughout the
State, thereby stimulating them to put in requisition the whole of
their moral and physical energies, the time will ere long arrive
when the onerous system of direct taxes may with perfect safety
be stricken from the pages of our statute book." He was represen
tative of Hinds county in the legislature, 1837. He died August
11, 1838.

426 MISSISSIPPI
Phoenix, a hamlet in the southwestern part of Yazoo county, 20
miles from Yazoo City, the county seat. It has a money order
postoffice. Population in 1906 was about 100. It has several good
stores, two churches, and an excellent public school.
Pickayune, a station on the New Orleans & North Eastern R.
R., in the western part of Hancock county, about 25 miles north
west of Bay St. Louis, the county seat. The Little Hobolo Chitto
flows near the town. It has a money order postoffice, a telegraph
and express office. The Bank of Pickayune was established here
in 1904 with a capital of $50,000. Population in 1906 was estimated
at 500.
Pickens, an incorporated post-town in Holmes county, on the Illi
nois Central R. R., about 15 miles southwest of Durant, and 18
miles south of Lexington, the county seat. The town was named for
James Pickens, a land owner. It is situated in a fine cotton and
grazing district. A considerable amount of cotton is shipped from
here annually. The Bank of Pickens was established in 1888, cap
ital $20,000. Population in 1900, 504. It has a cotton-seed oil
mill and a Munger system cotton gin.
Pickering, a station on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., in the south
eastern part of Covington county, about 12 miles from Williams
burg, the county seat. The postoffice was recently discontinued,
and mail now goes to Sanford.
Picket, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Marshall county, 18
miles from Holly Springs, the county seat. It has a money order
postoffice. Pickwick, a post-hamlet of Marion county, 12 miles south of
Columbia, the county seat, and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 50.
Piera, a postoffice in the extreme northwestern part of Lafayette
county. Pigott, a postoffice of Marion county.
Pike County was created by act of December 9, 1815, out of a
part of the county of Marion, and its name perpetuates the memory
of General Zebulon M. Pike, the explorer. Its limits were defined
as follows : — "Beginning on the line of demarcation at the south
east corner of Amite county, running from thence east along said
line thirty miles; thence a line to run due north to its intersection
with the summit of the dividing ridge between the waters of Bogue
Chitto and Pearl river, after the same shall cross the waters of
M'Gee's Creek, thence along the said ridge until it intersects the
southern boundary of Lawrence county; and all that tract of ter
ritory lying west and north of the lines thus described, shall form
a new county ... by the name of Pike." The southern, west
ern and eastern lines have not been changed, but southern half of,
the northern tier of townships have been added to the counties of
Lawrence and Lincoln, so that the present northern line of the
county is from a point at the northwest corner of T. 4, R. 7 east;
thence east on the township line to the summit of the dividing ridge
between the waters of Bogue Chitto and Pearl rivers; thence in a

MISSISSIPPI 427
southeasterly direction with the summit of said ridge until it in
tersects the eastern boundary line between ranges 11 and 12 east.
Its present area is about 20 townships. It is located on the south
ern frontier of the State next to the Louisiana border, and is
bounded on the north by Lincoln and Lawrence counties, on the
east by Marion county, on the south by Louisiana and on the west
by Amite county. It has a land surface of 697 square miles. Be
fore the county was organized, a few permanent settlers were to be
found along its rivers and creeks, chiefly in the valley of the Bogue
Chitto river. The following is a list of the civil officers of the
county for the year 1818 : James Y. McNabb, Richardson Bow
man, Peter Quinn, Jr., Benjamin Bagley, Nathan Morris, Justices
of the Quorum ; Ralph Stovall, James Baggett, Wm. Carter,
Mathew McCune, Nathan'l Wells, Nathan Sims, Thos. Arthur,
Benj. Morris, Henry Quinn, Nathan Morris, Justices of the Peace ;
Laban Bascot, Assessor and Collector; Wyley P. Harris, Ranger;
Jas. C. Dickson, Surveyor and Notary Public; Peter Quinn, Treas
urer; other county officers, 1819-1827 were Peter Felder, Sr., Math
ew, McEwen, Eleazer Bell, Justices of the Quorum; Leonard Var-
nade, John Wilson, Richard Quinn, Benj. Thomas, Sr., David
Cleveland, Thos. Rule, Jesse King, Nelson Higginbotham, Daniel
Felder, Jas. Roberts, Leroy Tatum, James Hope, David Bullock,
Jacob Coon, Michael Prescott, John Felder, Davis Barren, Stephen
Ellis, Jas. Chamberlain, Justices of the Peace; Vincent Gamen,
Barnabas Allen, Wm. Wilson, Wm. Dickson, Associate Justices;
David Cleveland, Robert Love, Judges of Probate; Felix Allen, A.
M. Perryman, Treasurers ; Laban Bascot, Sheriff, and Assessor and
Collector; Gordon D. Boyd, Wm. W. Pearson, Surveyors. County
courts were first held at the residence of Gabriel Allen, on the
Bogue Chitto, and finally in 1816, a commission was appointed,
consisting of Benjamin Bagley, Peter Felder, Sr., Obed Kirkland,
William Bullock, and David McGraw, Sr., to locate a permanent
seat of justice within three miles of the center of the county. They
selected a site in the valley of the, Bogue Chitto, at the foot of a
high range of hills, and called it by the name of Holmesville in hon
or of Major Andrew Hunter Holmes, a brother of Gov. David
Holmes. The following were some of the prominent citizens of
this old town: David Quinn, the first settler at the place, James
Y. McNabb, clerk of the Superior court and delegate to the con
stitutional convention of 1817, David Cleveland, Probate Judge,
sheriff and member of the Legislature, Laban Bascot, sheriff 1819-
1826, Henry Quinn, clerk of the courts, Anthony Perryman, the
first merchant, John Black, William Gage, Buckner, Harris, Dil
lingham, Hagen and Wm. A. Stone, lawyers. When the railroad
from New Orleans went through the county in 1857, Holmesville
was left to the east of it about nine miles and soon began to decline
in competition with the new towns which sprang up along the line
of the railway, Osyka, Summit and Magnolia. Not long after this,
the courts and county records were by vote removed to Magnolia,
the present county site, and the past glory of the old town could

428 MISSISSIPPI
not prevent its decay. Magnolia is now a thriving place of about
1,500 people and is growing rapidly. A few miles north of Magno
lia on the railroad is McComb, the largest town in the county, hav
ing over 6,000 inhabitants, extensive manufacturing and shipping
interests, and the largest and most complete railroad shops in the
State. A little farther north on the railroad is Summit, so called
because of its altitude, 420 feet above tide water. Other railroad
towns are Bartlett, Chatawa, Fernwood, and a few of the interior
villages are Tylertown, Walkers Bridge, Topisaw, Manning and
Trim. The Illinois Central R. R. affords an outlet for the products
of the county and has been a potent agency in developing its re
sources. The Bogue Chitto river flows through the county from
northwest to southeast, and with its numerous tributary creeks,
supplies the region with its water and affords power for its numer
ous mills. There is a considerable growth of long-leaf pine in this
region and some large tracts of hardwood timber, such as white
oak, red oak, black oak, walnut, hickory, beech, maple, etc. The
soil varies considerably; it is a rich loam on the river and creek
bottoms, not so good on the hammock and higher lands. It has
a clay subsoil which will retain fertilizers, large quantities of which
are used annually. The crops are the usual staples of the region
and the yield is fairly good. Large quantities of early fruits and
vegetables are grown, especially along the line of the railway, and
are shipped to New Orleans and the northern markets. Many
have also gone into the business of stock raising and have pros
pered. The pasturage is good the year through. Many settlers,
farmers, mechanics and fruit growers have come to the region
within recent years, and the county is rapidly increasing in popula
tion. The following statistics from the twelfth census for 1900 relate
to farms, manufactures and population: — Number of farms 2,550,
acreage in farms 276,739, acres improved 96,570, value of the land
exclusive of buildings $985,630, value of the buildings $573,220,
value of live stock $514,273, value of products not fed to stock
$1,130,446. Number of manufacturing establishments 78, capital
invested $1,795,482, wages paid $483,555, cost of materials $783,-
692, total value of products $1,553,442. The population in 1900
was whites 13,829, colored 13,716, total 27,545, increase of 6,342
over the year 1890. The population in 1906 was estimated at 32,-
000. The public highways of the county are worked by contract
and are in good shape. Most of the county schools are in excellent
condition. The total assessed valuation of real and personal prop
erty in Pike county in 1905 was $5,023,808.89 and in 1906 it was
$6,520,171.45, which shows an increase of $1,496,362.56 during the
year. Pikeville. An extinct town of Chickasaw county, situated in the
southeastern part of the county, on the east bank of the Chuqua-
tonchee, creek, and on the main road leading from Houston to
Aberdeen. It originated about 1842, and became quite a trade cen
ter for the early pioneers west of Aberdeen, in what is now known

MISSISSIPPI 429
as Egypt Prairie. For many years it had no rival in that section of
the county, and offered excellent inducements for the establishment
of business enterprises. A noteworthy business venture was the
Pikesville tannery and shoe factory, established by R. G. Steel, a
shrewd Alabamian. About the year 1857, Buena Vista, on the west.
and Egypt Station, on the Mobile & Ohio railroad, about two
miles to the northeast, began to absorb its trade. There is now no
trace of the once prosperous town, though its name is perpetuated
in the postoffice one mile east.
Pinckneyville, a little village in the extreme southern part of
Wilkinson 'county, on the Louisiana border. The nearest railroad
and banking town is Woodville. The town was named for the cel
ebrated Pinckney family of South Carolina. It was the county seat
of justice for a number of years during the early history of the
county, and some of the first English speaking settlers in the
Natchez District entered lands in the vicinity of Pinckneyville.
The Pinckneyville Academy was incorporated here in 1815, and
was a flourishing school of the early days. The railroad never
came to the settlement, and it is now a little village of only 23 in
habitants. Pinebluff, a postoffice in the western part of Clay county, on
Chewah creek, about 24 miles from Westpoint, the county seat.
It has two stores.
Pinebur, a postoffice of Marion county, 12 miles southeast of
Columbia, the county seat.
Pinegrove, a post-hamlet of Benton county, 10 miles south of
Ashland, the cOunty seat. Ripley is the nearest banking town.
, Population in 1900, 55.
Pineridge, a post-hamlet of Adams county, 5 miles northeast of
Natchez. Population in 1900, 37.
Pine Valley, a hamlet in the eastern part of Yalobusha county,
on Turkey creek, 7 miles southeast of Watervalley, the nearest
banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in
1900, 75.
Pineville, a post-hamlet of Smith county, situated on Hatchushe
creek, 10 miles northeast of Raleigh, the county seat. Population
in 1900, 33.
Pink, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Rankin county. The
postoffice at this place has been discontinued, and mail now goes to
Pisgah. Pinkney, an early settlement, datmg back perhaps to 1837, or
even earlier, and situated in the northwestern part of Newton coun
ty. In the early days the place was a trade center of some import
ance. Its name was changed to Stamper, and Stamper to Stratton.
It has an excellent mill site.
Pinnellville, a post-hamlet of Jones county, situated on Rahomo
creek, an affluent of the Leaf river, about 10 miles northwest of
Ellisville, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 34.

430 MISSISSIPPI
Pinola, a station on the Columbia branch, Gulf & Ship Island
R. R., 8 miles southwest of Mendenhall in Simpson county. It has
a money order postoffice, two saw milling plants near the town,
a cotton gin, several stores, two churches, a school and a .bank.
The Pinola Bank, a branch of The Newhebron Bank, was estab
lished here in 1904. The population is about 300.
Pisgah, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, 16 miles north of Bran
don, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Pop
ulation in 1900, 30.
Pitchlyn, John. Major John Pitchlyn was born on the Island
of St. Thomas in 1765. Little is known of his early boyhood be
yond the fact that he was reared among the Choctaw Indians,
and obtained the rudiments of an English education. His father,
an English officer, died in the Choctaw Nation, while he was on
his way from South Carolina to the Natchez District, and left the
boy alone among the Indians. Reared among these primitive con
ditions, the boy seems to have developed a sturdy and trustworthy
character, as is well evidenced by his praiseworthy qualities in
after life, and his life-long services to the United States.
The first official record of his name in connection with Missis
sippi history is that of a witness to the Hopewell Treaty of the
Choctaws, Jan. 3, 1786. In this, the first treaty between the United
States and the Choctaws, he was appointed interpreter for the
Choctaw nation, and acted under this appointment until 1792,
when he was re-appointed "by Gov. William Blount. His claim for
$300 a year for his services was before congress. He also ap
pears as "Sworn Interpreter" in the Choctaw treaties of 1802,
1803, 1816 and 1830. Governor Claiborne wrote of him in 1802:
"Pitchlyn is a very useful man among the Choctaws, very faithful
to the American interests."
In 1806, when the Spanish were intriguing with the Choctaw
Six Towns, Secretary Mead wrote to the secretary of war:
"Pitchlyn the interpreter has ever been and still is constant in his
observation of their conduct. His son is now in the Six towns
for the purpose of prying into the effect of their late visit to Mobile.
This man deserves well of the United States. He is worthy of
your particular favor." When Tecumseh's prophet, Seekaboo,
was trying to bring about an uprising among the Choctaws against
the United States, we are told by the authority on Indian affairs,
Dr. Gideon Lincecum, that Pitchlyn, "with Bible in hand, con
fronted Seekaboo with divine proof that the day of prophecy had
passed." His influence over the Choctaws was always remarkable, but
was undoubtedly due to his strength of character, and his long
intimate association with that people. There is nothing to show
that he was ever made a chief or high captain of the tribe. More
over, his position as official U. S. interpreter would have clashed
with that of a Choctaw chieftain.
He was twice married and had five sons and five daughters. He
once lived at Plymouth, but by the provisions of the treaty of

MISSISSIPPI 431
Dancing Rabbit Creek he was given two sections of land on the
Robinson Road, four miles west of Columbus. It is also worthy
of mention that by the supplementary Articles of this treaty, his
sons Silas and Thomas were each given one section of land ad
joining that of their father, while two other sons, Peter Perkins
and John Pitchlyn Jr., were each given two sections. Thus the
family received a total of 5,120 acres of the best lands in Lowndes
county. After the above grant was made him, Major Pitchlyn
built a fine home, and is said to have owned in 1831 fifty slaves
and to have had two hundred acres of land under cultivation. He
was also interested with Robert Jemison, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., in
a stage line to Jackson, over the Robinson Road, and personally
supervised the Columbus-Jackson branch of the same.
Mr. William A. Love of Lowndes county thus sketches the end
of his career: "In 1834 he sold his lands on the Robinson Road
and at the date of his death in 1835 was Hying at Waverly, now
in Clay county, where he was buried. . . . Sometime after
the burial of Major Pitchlyn, his grave was desecrated by unknown
¦persons in search of treasure, and this coming to the ears of his
sons then in the west, one of them came and removed, his remains
to the Indian Territory."
Pitchlyn, John, Jr. John Pitchlyn, Jr., was a son of Major John
Pitchlyn by his first wife. There is nothing to record of his early
life, and it is reasonable to conclude that his early career did not
materially differ from that of the average half-breed Choctaw of
the period. The first official mention of his name is as a first lieu
tenant and quartermaster of a battalion of Choctaw warriors in
the service of the United States, from March 1, to May 29, 1814.
He was commonly known as Jack Pitchyln or simply "Jack,"
and after the War of 1812, he lived on the Robinson Road, a few
miles west of Columbus, and pursued the avocations of merchant,
farmer, and stock raiser. He married a daughter of one of the
Colbert's, prominent in the Chickasaw Nation, near Pontotoc. He
appears to have borne an excellent reputation when sober, but
intoxicated, was a dangerous citizen. Many crimes are laid at
his door when under the influence of liquor, and he seems to have
finally met a tragic end as a result of one of these drunken frenzies.
While drunk he killed his half-brother Silas, a crime certain to be
avenged by the Indians. After a short interval, he emerged from
a period of hiding, and appeared openly in the Chickasaw nation,
in the vicinity of Cotton Gin Port. Here his Indian enemies found
him one night after supper while strolling in the suburbs of the
village, and promptly shot him before he could draw his weapon
in self defense.
Pitchlyn, Peter Perkins. Peter Perkins Pitchlyn, son of Major
John Pitchlyn, was born in 1806 on Hashuqua creek in what is now
Noxubee county. He received a good schooling at Nashville,
Tenn., and on his return home he married a daughter of David
Folsom and afterwards lived a few miles south of the present
town of Artesia on the western edge of a beautiful prairie. He

432 MISSISSIPPI
was a farmer and stock raiser by profession, and was an esteemed
member of the community in which he lived. He" seems to have
had ample means and was the owner of ten slaves. When the
Choctaws moved west of the Mississippi, he sold out all his inter
ests and went west with his nation, where he was prominent for
many years in the councils of his people. (Lowndes County,
Pioneer Settlers, Wm. A. Love).
"At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 Pitchlyn was in
Washington attending to public business for his tribe, and as
sured Mr. Lincoln that he hoped to keep his people neutral; but
he could not prevent three of his own children and many others
from joining the Confederates. He himself remained a Union
man to the end of the war, notwithstanding that the Confederates
raided his plantation of 600 acres and captured all his cattle, while
the emancipation proclamation freed his one hundred slaves. He
was a natural orator as his speeches and addresses abundantly
prove. According to Charles Dickens, who met him while on his
visit to this country, Pitchlyn was a handsome man, with black
hair, aquiline nose, broad cheek bones, sunburned complexion, and
bright, keen, dark and piercing eyes. His death occurred at Wash
ington, D. C, in 1881, and he was buried in the congressional cem
etery there, with Masonic honors, the poet, Albert Pike, delivering
a eulogy over his remains. (Appleton's Cyclopedia of American
Biography.) Pittman, a postoffice of Marion county, 10 miles southwest of
Columbia, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Pitts, a post-hamlet of Calhoun county, about 14 miles northeast
of Pittsboro, the county seat. Population in 1900, 26.
Pittsboro, the county seat of Calhoun county, is an incorporated
post-town, 30 miles east, northeast of Grenada. Coffeeville, on the
Illinois Central R. R., is the nearest railroad and banking town.
The land on which the county seat was located in 1852 was do
nated to the county by Ebenezer Gaston, and the first name of
the settlement, Orrsville, was changed to Pittsboro at a meeting
of the board of supervisors, July 26, 1852. The county board held
its first recorded meeting at Pittsboro, February 13, 1853 ; the
court house here was completed in 1856, at a cost of about $10,000.
The town received its name for an early settler. Several large mills
are located here, also three churches and a male and female acade
my. There are two newspapers — the Calhoun Monitor, a Demo
cratic weekly established in 1900, T. M. Murphree and J. B. Going,
editors and publishers ; The Calhoun News, a Democratic weekly
established in 1901, G. L. Martin, editor and publisher. Population
in 1900, 254.
Plain, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, on the Gulf & Ship Is
land R. R., 6 miles south of Jackson. Population in 1900, 82. Flor
ence is its nearest banking town.
Plantation Life. "The towns and villages of Mississippi, as in
European States," wrote J. H. Ingraham in 1835, "are located per
fectly independent of each other, isolated among its forests, and

MISSISSIPPI 433
often many leagues apart, leaving in the intervals large tracts of
country covered with plantations, and claiming no minuter sub
division than that of county. Natchez, for instance, is a corpora
tion one mile square, but from the boundaries of the city to Wood
ville, the next incorporated town south, there is an interval of
thirty-eight miles. It is necessary for the planters who reside be
tween towns so far asunder, to have some more particular address
than the indefinite one arising from their vicinity to one or other
of these towns. Hence, has originated the. pleasing custom of
naming estates, as in England. These names are generally selec
ted with taste, such as Monmouth, Laurel Hill, Grange, Mag
nolia Grove, The Forest, Cottage, Briars, Fatherland, and An
chorage — the last given by a retired navy officer to his plantation.
The name is sometimes adopted with reference to some character
istic of the domain, as The Oaks, China Grove, New Forest, etc.,
but more frequently it is a mere matter of fancy. . . . Each
town is the center of a circle which extends many miles around it
. into the country, and daily attracts all within its influence. The
, ladies come in carriages to shop, the gentlemen on horseback to
do business with their commission merchants, visit the banks,
hear the news, dine together at the hotels, and ride back in the
evening. The Southern town is properly the Exchange for the
neighboring planters, and the Broadway for their wives and daugh
ters. . . . Showy carriages and saddle horses are the peculiar
characteristics of the moving spectacle in the streets of south
western toWns. . . . During the season of gayety, in the win
ter months, the public assemblies and private coteries of Natchez
are unsurpassed by those of any city, in the elegance, refinement,
or loveliness of the individuals who compose them. . . . But
fashion and refinement are not confined to Natchez. In nearly
every county reside opulent planters, whose children enjoy pre
cisely the same advantages as are afforded in the city. Drawn from
the seclusion of their plantations, their daughters are sent to the
north, whence they return in the course of time with improved
minds and elegant manners. . . . Elegant women may be
found blooming in the depths of forests far in the interior."
"Many of the stately and beautiful plantation homes of the old
Mississippi aristocracy still stand to bring forth pleasant memo
ries of the past," writes Dunbar Rowland (M. H. S. Publ. Ill,
91). "They are to be seen here and there as loving reminders of
all that was true, noble and gentle in the lives of their princely
owners. How beautiful they seem as they stand in the solitude
of a brilliant and stormy past. They were looked upon by the
lordly masters of the Old South as blessed and favored homes in
a land where intellect, wealth, happiness and good breeding reigned
supreme. How stately and grand they look, massive, graceful and
enduring, they seem to be grim sentinels to remind a new gener
ation of a noble and heroic past. There is a sorrow and pathos
about them that tenderly appeals to the new life and new impulses
that everywhere surrounds them. As one of our most brilliant
28-11

434 MISSISSIPPI
writers has said : 'The sorrow that is common makes tender the
bitterness of the fierce, cruel past, and the kisses that rained on the
faces of the dead turn into caresses of consolation for the living.' "
One of these homes was Anandale, home of the Johnstons. Near
old Livingston also, was Cottage Place, home of John Robinson.
Many such homes are mentioned in biographical sketches in this
work. Mrs. Deupree has preserved descriptions of some of the
most famous in her contributions to the Historical society.
"The Mississippi cotton planter had a genius for hospitality;
his home was constantly crowded with guests, and they were made
to feel that theif coming was a pleasure and their departure a sor
row. . . . The coming of Christmas was the most important
event in a Mississippi plantation home. . . . Large' house
parties were always features of the holiday season. . . . For
weeks the lordly and hospitable planters would keep open house.
. . . A grand ball room was a common feature of the Missis
sippi home. Card playing was indulged in by all, and a game of
whist was always called for in- the evening after supper."
J. H. Ingraham, in describing a ride out from Natchez, about
1825, wrote: "A huge colonnaded structure, crowning an abrupt
eminence near the road, struck our eyes with an imposing effect.
It was the abode of one of the wealthiest planters of this State;
who, like the majority of those whose families now roll in their
splendid equipages, has been the maker of his fortune. The grounds
about this edifice were neglected ; horses were grazing around the
piazzas, over which were strewed saddles, whips, horseblankets,
and the motley paraphernalia with which planters love to lumber
their galleries. On nearly every piazza in Mississippi may be found
a washstand, bowl, pitcher, towel and water bucket, for general
accomodation. But the southern gallery is not constructed, like
those at the north, for ornament or ostentation, but for use. Here
they wash, lounge, often sleep and take their meals." Calling at
the home of another wealthy planter, he was found "sitting upon
the gallery, divested of coat, vest and shoes, with his feet on the
railing, playing in high glee with a little dark-eyed boy and two
young negroes, who were chasing each other under the bridge
formed by his extended limbs. Three or four noble dogs, which'
his voice and the presence of his servant, who accompanied me to
the house, kept submisive, were "crouching like leopards around
his chair. ... A hammock contained a youth of fourteen,
fast locked in the embrace of Morpheus, whose aide-de-camp, in
the shape of a strapping negress, stood by the hammock, waving
over the sleeper a long plume of gorgeous feathers of the pea
fowl. . . . There are many private residences, in the vicinity
of Natchez, whose elegant interiors, contrasted with the neglected
grounds about them, suggest the idea of a handsome city residence
accidentally dropped into the midst of a partially cleared forest."
Usually the tract about the residence was used as a pasture lot
for horses.
The most magnificent homes in the vicinity of Natchez were

MISSISSIPPI 435
built in what was called in 1835 the "great cotton era." "Perhaps
no State, not even Virginia herself, which Mississippi claims as
her mother country, could present a more hospitable, chivalrous,
and highminded class of men, or more cultivated females than
this, during the first few years subsequent to its accession to the
Union." The planter, wrote Mr. Ingraham, works on his plantation a cer
tain number of slaves, say thirty. Each slave ought to average
from seven to eight bales of cotton during the season, especially
on the new lands. An acre will generally average from one to
two bales. Each bale averages four hundred pounds, at from
twelve to fifteen cents a pound. This may not be an exact estimate,
but is not far from the true one. Deducting $2,500 for the expenses
of the plantation, there will remain a net income of $11,000. Now
suppose this plantation and slaves to have been purchased on a
credit, paying at the rate of $600 a piece for his negroes, the planter
would be able to pay for nearly two-thirds of them the first year.
. . . In the way above alluded to, numerous plantations in this
m State have been commenced, and thus the wealth of a great num
ber of the opulent planters of this region has originated. Incomes
of $20,000 are common here. Several individuals possess incomes
from $40,000 to $50,000 and live in a style commensurate with their
wealth. . . . To sell cotton in order to buy more negroes — to
make more cotton to buy more negroes, ad infinitum, is the aim
and direct tendency of all the operations of the thorough-going
cotton planter ; his whole soul is wrapped up in the pursuit. There
are some who work three or four hundred negroes ; though the
average number is from 30 to 100. . . . Many of the planters
are northerners. When they have conquered their prejudices,
they are thorough-driving planters, generally giving themselves
up to the pursuit more devotedly than the regular planter. Their
treatment of their slaves is also far more rigid. Northerners are
entirely unaccustomed to their habits, which are perfectly under
stood and appreciated by southerners, who have been familiar with
Africans from childhood ; whom they have had for their nurses,
playfellows and 'bearers,' and between whom and themselves a
reciprocal and very natural attachment exists, which, on the gen
tleman's part, involuntarily extends to the whole dingy race, ex
hibited in a kindly feeling and condescending familiarity, for which
he receives gratitude in return. On the part of the slave, this at
tachment is manifested by an affection and faithfulness which
only ceases with life. Of this state of feeling which a southern life
and education can only give, the northerner knows nothing. In
experience leads him to hold the reins over his novel subjects with
an unsparing severity, which the native ruler of these domestic
colonies finds wholly unnecessary."
"We regarded slavery in a patriarchal sense," wrote Mrs. V. V.
Clayton. "We were all one family, and as master and mistress.
heads of this family, we were responsible to the God we worshipped

436 MISSISSIPPI
for these creatures to a great extent, and we felt our responsibility
and cared, for their souls and bodies."
"The prevailing type of the Mississippi planter in those days
was proud, big-hearted, broad, liberal and brave. The men of that
time enjoyed the good things of life, their lives were worth living,
and good cheer, brightness and good humor came with their com
ing. . . . The Mississippi planter was magnificent in every
thing; great in his strength, great in his weakness. There was
nothing small, cowardly, or weak about him. When he joined in the
morning prayers of his church, it was with a reverential, devout
and penitent spirit. He looked upon every true woman of his
acquaintance as a God-sent ministering angel, and no one was
allowed in his presence to even intimate that a woman was not
everything that *was true, pure and lovely. He was the. ablest ex
pounder of a constitutional democracy, and yet he belonged to an
aristocracy the most exclusive that America has ever seen. Was
he a bundle of contradictions? His character was well rounded
and consistent throughout. First of all he loved his wife and
children and ancestors. His home and friends had the next place
in his heart. He loved his State with an eastern devotion. That
he loved his country is attested by the blood that he shed in the
land of the Montezumas in defense of its flag. ... In con
ducting the details of business he was not a success. He took a
small part in the actual management of his farming operations.
He was generally lord of all he surveyed as he stood and gazed on
his beautiful cotton fields whitening in the morning li|fht. He
lived near to nature and his soul was in harmony with the peaceful
rest and joy of a God-favored land. He associated labor and
slavery together ; hence he looked upon physical toil as a degrada
tion and beneath the dignity of a gentleman. He modeled his life
after that of the Virginia planter of the old school, and religiously
followed the teachings of the old feudal aristocracy of England.
. . . He had a passionate fondness for statecraft oratory and
politics. He knew the letters of Madison and Hamilton in the Fed
eralist as few men have since known them. He delighted in the
orations of Demosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, Burke, Henry and Hayne.
He took his opinions of public policy from Jefferson, Jackson,
Clay or Calhoun. . . . He was much given to political discus
sion ; he was always right, sir, and his adversary was always
wrong. What was his was the best the world afforded ; what be
longed to others was theirs without envy on his part. He was
high strung, passionate and quick to take offense. He was a man
of superb courage, unwavering integrity and unsullied honor."
(Rowland.) Plantersville, an incorporated post-town in Lee county, on the
St Louis and San Francisco R. R., three miles southeast of Tupelo
the county seat and the nearest banking town. The town lies in
an artesian basin, and there are a number of wells here, affording
a supply of soft, pure water, obtained at a depth of from 300 to 400
feet. It has a money order postoffice, an express office, 3 stores, a

MISSISSIPPI 437
saw mill, a cotton gin, a church and a school. The population in
1900 was 187.
Plattsburg, a village in the southwestern part of Winston county,
about 15 miles from Louisville, the county seat, and about 25
miles southeast of Kosciusko. Noxapater is the nearest banking
town. It has a money order postoffice, several stores, 2 churches,
a good school and a cotton gin and grist-mill. The population in
1900 was 151 and has not materially increased since then.
Pleasant, a postoffice of Attala county, on the Aberdeen branch
of the Illinois Central R. R., 4 miles southwest of Kosciusko, the
county seat.
Pleasantgrove, a post-hamlet of Panola county, 8 miles west of
Sardis, one of the county seats and the nearest railroad and bank
ing town. It has 2 churches and several stores. Population in
1900, 62.
Pleasanthill, an incorporated post-town in the northern part of
De Soto county, on Camp creek, an affluent of Coldwater river,
1 24 miles southeast of Memphis. Miller, on the K. C. M. & B.
R. R. is the nearest railroad station, and Hernando, on the I. C.
R. R. is the nearest banking town. It has several stores, two
churches and a Masonic Institute. Population in 1900, 230 ; the
population in 1906 was estimated at 300. ,
Plummer, Franklin E., Was a native of Massachusetts. He
worked his way to New Orleans before he was twenty-one years
old, became a school teacher in Copiah county, Miss.; began the
practice of law at Westville a year or two later, without any prep
aration, and with a library consisting of Poindexter's Revised Code,
a copy of the acts of the last session of the legislature and a vol
ume of Blackstone ; was remarkably successful; went to the legis
lature as often as he chose, and became a power in that body.
In 1829 he announced himself for congress, which was regarded
as a piece of impertinence by the older politicians, but he was
elected, defeating Wm. L. Sharkey and others ; was reelected as
often as he presented himself, beating the most popular men in
the State. His platform was : "Plummer for the people, and the
people for Plummer." He and Gov. Runnels were bitter enemies.
Each was a founder of a town within the present limits of
Grenada. Plummer's town was Pittsburg, Runnel's was Tulla
homa, and the rivalry between the two towns was similar to that
between their founders.
In 1835 Plummer was invited to Natchez by the men who had
been his political opponents. The banks were thrown open to him,
and he made out his political slate with his name at the head for
United States Senator. In a stylish barouche, with a servant in
livery, he started on his canvass. He was then in the height of his
popularity and power, but his alliance with capitalists was fatal.
He was no longer one of the people, but had formed "aristocratic
habits" and was defeated. This caused him to lose courage. He
neglected or abandoned his profession, became a sot, lurking in

438 MISSISSIPPI
mean places with low associates. He died at Jackson in an obscure
cabin in 1847.
Plumpoint, a post-hamlet in the northern part of De Soto county,
near the northern boundary line of the State, 12 miles distant from
Hernando, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Pluto, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Holmes county,
on the Yazoo River, 15 miles north of Yazoo City, the nearest
banking town. Population in 1900, 25.
Plymouth, an extinct town of Lowndes county situated seven
miles above Columbus on the Tombigbee river, at the mouth of
Tibbee creek. County tradition claims that DeSoto camped here
on his journey of exploration to the Mississippi. Other local tra
dition recites that Bienville erected fortifications at this point and
made it his base while campaigning against the Chickasaws, and
not Cotton Gin Port, as commonly stated in the books. Still others
assert that the remains of the old cedar fort, which was taken down
by the present owners of the site of old Plymouth, the Canfields,
were the remains of a fort built by General Jackson while operating
against the Creeks. Says Dr. Lipscomb, in his History of Colum
bus and Lowndes County: "After the settlement of the Choctaw
lands began Old Plymouth became a site of considerable importance
on account of its facilities for crossing the river at a shallow ford
nearby, and as a place for the storage and shipment of cotton. It
was also considered a beautiful spot, with its prodigious growth of
large cedars, for the location of the homes of the neighboring set
tlers. James Prowell, Sr., Orlando Canfield, Sr., John Morgan, '
Sr., and John Cox, Sr., built residences there. The Irbys, Billing-
tons and Mullens erected warehouses and stores. Richard Evans,
Esq., and his brother, Dr. Evans, and Mr. L. N. Hatch, also settled
there, and in 1836, the town was incorporated, and laid off into
squares, and streets, and was the prospective rival of West Port
just below, and of Columbus, across the river. It became a trading
point of importance ; a great number of bales of cotton were shipped
from there, but the place proved so unhealthy and the death rate
so great that it was abandoned. The planters moved to their plan
tations and the merchants and lawyers to Columbus."
Plymouth, a postoffice of Pontotoc county, situated on Pontotoc
creek, 7 miles southeast of Pontotoc, the county seat. It has a
cotton gin.
Pocahontas, a village in the northern part of Hinds county, on
the Illinois Central R. R., 12 miles northwest of Jackson. It has
a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 100.
Poindexter, George, was born in the county of Louisa, Va., in
1779. His ancestors were French Protestants, who left France for
England to avoid the persecutions of Louis XIV, and emigrated
soon afterward to Virginia. His parents were possessed of con
siderable wealth before the Revolution, but suffered great losses
thereby, and when George Poindexter was left an orphan at an
early age, he had only a small patrimony with which to procure an
education. This gave out before be had carried as far as he wished

MISSISSIPPI 439
his study of law at Richmond, and he was obliged to begin the
practice at that city. A year or. two later he came to the Missis
sippi territory, then under the governorship of Winthrop Sargent.
At the age of twenty-three years he opened a law office at Natchez,
and devoted himself industriously to the work of his profession,
immediately attracting attention by his remarkable force of char
acter. Into the field of politics he also entered, with principles
derived from the "Virginia school" of 1798-99, and an unwavering
loyalty to Thomas Jefferson. When Claiborne became governor
he appointed Poindexter attorney-general. In 1805 he was elected
to the general assembly, and in January, 1807, delegate to congress,
where he took his seat in December. He met Aaron Burr in Jan
uary, 1807, and arranged for his meeting with Mead. This, epi
sode he fully appreciated. H. S. Foote, in his history of Texas and
the Texans, mentions that Poindexter "on the occasion of the cap
ture at Cole's Creek, officiated as a sort of diplomatic agent be
tween Governor Mead and the great Conspirator, and was after-
awards professionally connected with the trial in Washington. I
have heard from the lips of Mr. Poindexter a full account of both
affairs; than which nothing can be imagined more ludicrous."
Poindexter served in three Congresses as Territorial delegate.
In January, 1811, when Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts, debating
the bill for the admission of Orleans territory as the State of Lou
isiana, said, "I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opin
ion that if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually
dissolved; that the States which compose it are free from their
moral obligations; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it
will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation —
amicably if they can, violently if they must," he was called to
order by Mr. Poindexter, delegate from Mississippi territory. Mr.
Quincy reduced his words to writing, and Poindexter demanded
that the speaker decide if such language could be permitted in
debate. The speaker sustained the gentleman from Mississippi,
but the House, by a vote of 56 to 53 refused to sustain the speaker.
When Qunicy concluded, Poindexter replied, and in the course of
his remarks said that Aaron Burr did not go the length that the
gentleman from Massachusetts had gone. "Had such expressions
been established by the evidence on his trial, I hazard an opinion
that it would have produced a very different result. Perhaps, sir,
instead of exile, he would have been consigned to a gibbet."
"He was the friend of the general course of measures adopted
under the administrations of Jefferson and Madison, and frequently
took a conspicuous part in debates in defence of their measures.
His speech made in defence of President Madison for dismissing
Francis James Jackson, minister from Great Britain, who super
seded Mr. Erskine, after Mr. Canning disavowed the act of the
minister in suspending the Orders in Council, has been published
and it attracted much attention at the time : this speech was con
sidered to be the best defence that was then made of that measure
of Mr. Madison." As a delegate in 1812 he could not vote for war,

440 MISSISSIPPI
but moved to insert in the journal of congress the approval of
that policy and his constituents. He served one session thereafter,
and then was appointed one of the Territorial judges, by President
Madison. After the British fleet arrived in Mississippi sound and troops
were landed below New Orleans, Judge Poindexter went to that
city, arriving December 29, 1814, and became one of the military
family of Gen. Carroll, of Tennessee, performing duty day and
night as a volunteer aide-de-camp, and witnessed two attempts by
the British to break the American line. The last, the famous battle
of January 8, 1815, was an assault delivered against the American
earthworks, stretching across a neck of land between river and
morass, and covered by the American gunboats. The American
troops were in the trenches, and all took to cover when the British
artillery fire opened in the morning. Poindexter appears to have
been injured by a cannon ball that struck his quarters, and having
no duty to perform, he rode out of the line of fire, but later re
turned and was in the works until attack ceased. Soon afterward
it was published by Poindexter's political opponents, in Marschalk's
paper, that in the moment of danger he rode back to New Or
leans. It was remarked in his defence that there was no collision
of troops, no battle except of artillery, and "the poor creatures"
who made up this story "might have been fully justified in certi
fying that /they saw the regiment of cavalry, commanded by the
gallant and intrepid Hinds, repair to the forests to be out of the
range of the shot of the enemy." He was followed by the story
all through his political career. Another incident of his New Or
leans experience is that he was the authority for the story that the
British had a countersign, "Beauty or Booty," which many de
clared at the time, and probably with justice, to be an invention.
He remained upon the bench until October, 1817, and in this as
in other positions gained the approval of a majority of the people.
"As a judge he was able, prompt, impartial, unrivaled in talent,
and, at the same time, unsurpassed by any lawyer in the State in
legal learning." (Sparks.) He administered sternly and without
favor to malefactors the punishments of the day, hanging, brand
ing, whipping and the pillory, though he considered these punish
ments barbarous and when governor, earnestly advocated the es
tablishment of a penitentiary.
The whole bar, with one exception, signed an address, when he
left the bench, in which it was said : "You have introduced a sys
tem of practice into our courts, and preserved an order and decor
um in the despatch of business, the beneficial effects of which have
been felt in all classes of society." In 1817 also, he was the lead
ing member of the constitutional convention, chairman of the com
mittee of Twenty-one, and the constitution "may, without injus
tice to others, be said to have been shaped almost entirely by the
hand of Mr. Poindexter." The instrument is remarkable for sim
plicity, clearness, brevity, and proper scope, -viz : the statement
of fundamental principles and institutions, leaving details to leg-

MISSISSIPPI 441
islation. In the same year Mr. Poindexter was elected by the peo
ple without opposition, as their first representative in congress
with a vote as well as a voice. At the session of 1818-19 the ex
citing topic of discussion was the proposition to censure Gen. An
drew Jackson for his recent capture of the Spanish forts at St.
Marks and Pensacola, and the execution of English traders. Poin
dexter warmly sustained his friend Jackson in a speech of great
length, that was warmly applauded, and considered the authorita
tive defense of the general. Declining reelection to congress in
1819, he was elected governor of Mississippi over Gen. Hinds, by
a large majority, though Hinds was the Mississippi hero of New
Orleans, and his friends made the story of Poindexter's alleged
flight from the field an important issue. While he was yet gover
nor, in February, 1821, he was intrusted by the legislature with the
revision and amendment of the statutes of the State, which he had
strongly urged should be done. His work includes a complete cod
ification of existing laws and the preparation of new ones,i the
organization of the judiciary system, etc. He included and put
through the legislature by sheer force of intellect, laws that he
had determined upon, particularly the one creating a State school
fund, called the "literary fund," in which he took more pride ap
parently, than any other. The legislature met in special session
in June, 1822, to pass upon the code, and adopted it with some
amendments. There was particular discussion of the propositions
to make void runaway matches with girls under fourteen ; to
make the truth no justification of libel unless the publication was
with good intent; to punish a white man found in an assemblage
of slaves with a fine of $20 or twenty lashes on the bare back,
without a right of jury. The printing of the book of 745 pages
was not completed by Francis Baker, at Natchez, until 1824. In
this work Gov. Poindexter was assisted by his private secretary,
William Burns, who was paid by the State after the governor's
term expired. The governor himself was allowed $1,200, which
was drawn by Burns, and the governor contended that he received
no compensation. The legislature presented him with a copy of
Rees' Encyclopedia, in recognition of his services. Of this code
Gov. A. G. Brown said in 1847 that it was the best the State "has
ever had, and equal to that of any State in the Union."
His term as governor had expired in January, 1822, and he
sought and obtained election to the house of representatives that
passed upon his code, that he might explain and defend it. But
then misfortune laid its hand upon him. Before the session was
well under way, he had news of the illness of his year-old son, who
died before he could reach home. He announced himself for con
gress, but was bitterly opposed by David Dickson and others. The
tavern law and libel law were argued against him ; Rankin was
credited with securing a postponement of payments for public
land, and just before election the story was sprung that the new
code prohibited slaves from attending divine worship. At the elec
tion in August he received only 2,633 votes to 4,837 for Rankin.

442 MISSISSIPPI
September 10 his young wife, twenty-four years of age, passed
away. For a time he gave no more attention to politics, but bus
ied himself with the practice of law. "While thus engaged," says
his authorized biography, "he became afflicted with severe indis
position, occasioned by the unskillful administration of medicine
by his family physician. He lost the use of his limbs, and for five
or six years he was unable to attend to business, public or private."
General Jackson recommended his appointment as United States
judge to succeed Shields in 1823 ; he was tendered and declined
appointment by the governor to the United States senate ; while
under medical treatment in Philadelphia was appointed chancellor
in 1828, which he declined ; in 1829, having returned to the State,
he wrote the speaker of the house of representatives of Missis
sippi declining election to the United State senate, but received a
large vote. In 1830 he left Mississippi, with little hope of recovery,
but found unexpected relief while at Louisville, and the news of
this in Mississippi caused the governor to tender him appointment
as senator, upon the death of Robert H. Adams. After much hes
itation he accepted, and appeared in the senate chamber at Wash
ington, in December, 1830, being carried to his seat in the arms of
his servant. The legislature, meeting about this time, confirmed
the governor's appointment by an almost unanimous election.
John 'A. Quitman met him at Charlottesville in 1831, and wrote
to J. F. H. Claiborne: "He is a man of extraordinary intellectual
powers. You knew him from your childhood, and I do not now
wonder at your risking your popularity to support him. He has
fascinated me. How is it that his private character is so bad.
Why do we hear so much said against him in Adams county?
His intemperance, his gambling, his libertinism, and his dishon
esty? ' He gives no indications of these defects, and he is here,
where he once resided, taken by the hand by the first people and
followed by the crowd."
His message as governor, in the exciting period of the Missouri
discussion, had shown his views on "state rights." In 1821 he said:
"A confederacy of States, each independent within its sphere of
action, united by the strong cords of interest and safety, and by
solemn compact pledged to each other for the common defence
and general welfare of the whole ; with a constitution deriving its
origin from these considerations and limited, by the written will
of those from whom it emanated, to purposes in which all are
alike interested, and conferring powers sufficiently comprehensive
to enforce and maintain domestic order and tranquility and a due
respect for our rights among the nations of the earth — a union
thus constructed, having for its support the affections and con
fidence of a free people, cannot be severed by the jarrings of dis
cordant factions, or the combined efforts of all tyrants who wield
with despotic sway the physical strength of Europe."
In 1819 he had said: "I too, am a conservator of the Constitu
tion ; I venerate that stupendous fabric of human wisdom. . . .
I admonish gentlemen, who manifest such ardent zeal to fortify

MISSISSIPPI _ 443
the powers of this house against military usurpations, that they
do not suffer that zeal to precipitate them into an error equally
repugnant to a sound construction of the Constitution." He cited
the action of Washington in drawing money from the treasury
without authority of law to suppress the insurrection of 1794, and
denied the power of congress to censure Jackson, who was subject
only to the orders of the president, as commander-in-chief of the
army. He declared that these gentlemen who assailed the general
were the same who had opposed the renewal of the charter of the
old Bank of the United States, as unconstitutional, and later aided
in establishing "the mammoth bank, which threatens to sweep with
the besom of destruction every other moneyed institution in the
nation into the gulf of ruin and bankruptcy."
But at the time of Poindexter's coming to the senate, there was
a new alignment, created by the subtle genius of John C. Calhoun.
Trouble began between Jackson and Calhoun on account of the
revelation that the South Carolinian had been a secret enemy in
« . < i »the day when Poindexter was a friend. ' But the new alignment
made Poindexter desert Jackson for Calhoun at this juncture.
Always a fighter, the great Mississippian's nature was intensified
by the torture, of illness and heart-breaking misfortune. Now he
chose no mean antagonist, but entered the list against the foremost
man of America.
His trouble with Jackson began over the federal appointments.
There was- no such portentous assumption of senatorial "patron
age" as now flourishes. Poindexter simply asked that Mississip
pians be appointed to the offices within the State. In 1831 Major
Dowsing and Hanson Alsbury asked appointment to the office
of surveyor-general. Jackson appointed his nephew, S. D. Hays,
of Tennessee, whereupon Poindexter secured the defeat of the
nomination by the senate. The president arranged it by promoting
Fitz from the land office and appointing Hays to the latter vacancy.
There was great irritation among the politicians over the neglect
of Mississippians in the appointments in connection with the In
dian treaties and removals. But the great fight was over the ap
pointment of Samuel Gwin, of Tennessee, to a -land office in Mis
sissippi. Poindexter said he tried to conciliate Jackson, at the
same time insisting that the office should go to a Mississippian,
but the president insisted. Gwin was rejected and then all inter
course between the president and senator ceased, Poindexter com
plaining that Jackson was extremely intemperate in his language
and grossly vituperative. The purpose of Jackson to make Van
Buren his successor, closing the door in the faces of some eminent
Southern statesman, was the heart of the fight. When the Clem
ents letter was sprung in the senate, to defeat the nomination of
VanBuren as minister to England, Poindexter and Gabriel Moore
were accused of having bought it of an intriguer.
In 1831 it was talked in the State that he had "deserted the
Jackson cause." In a letter to Gen. Dickson he said that he must
be loyal to principle and the rights of his constituents. "I cannot

444 MISSISSIPPI
consent to worship men ; I bow only at the shrine of principles ;
and when these are departed from by any man in power, be he
Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, or any one else, I depart from him, so far
as his actions conflict with the good of the country and the rights
of my constituents."
He opposed protection of domestic manufactures as being at the
expense of the Southern system of industry; supported the bill
for the distribution of proceeds of all sales of public. lands among
all the States; advocated the extreme doctrine of State sovereignty;
supported John C. Calhoun and nullification against President
Jackson, and opposed the power of national coercion, which he had
supported in President Madison's case when New England was the
seat of proposed nullification. One of his very ablest speeches was
in opposition to the bill empowering the execution of the laws of the
United States in this emergency, called the Force bill. "It was
widely circulated, in connection with the speeches of Mr. Calhoun
and Mr. Webster, throughout the Union, and was regarded as a
vigorous and powerful defence of the rights reserved to the separ
ate States of the confederacy at the adoption of the federal consti
tution." He took an important part in the debates on the United States
bank, in opposition to President Jackson, and was the first to
apply the name of "Kitchen cabinet" to the group of Jackson's
friends and intimate advisers. Because of this the personal charges
made against the senator in Mississippi were widely spread by his
political opponents. They may be found amply stated in the his
tory of Mississippi, by J. F. H. Claiborne. Poindexter believed
that the New Orleans story was revived at the instigation of the
president himself. Subsequently, when the president sent to the
senate a protest against its assumption of right to declare. his acts
unconstitutional, Poindexter sprang to his feet and moved that the
paper be not received. Near the close of this session (1834) Poin
dexter was honored with election as president pro tem. of the sen
ate. In 1832, when Calhoun retired from the chair, he had received
22 votes for the same honor, when it was considered probable that
the casualty expected would cause the person chosen to become
vice president of the United States.
Poindexter now stood for the great "vested rights," a reversal
of his position when he had bitterly assailed the Bank of Missis
sippi as a monopoly. He now defended the United States bank,
and its "besom of destruction."
The political issue of 1832 in Mississippi was mainly Poindexter
and anti-Poindexter. Meetings were held under those titles. An
anti-Poindexter meeting in Jefferson county, in March, presided
over by Gen. Hinds, appointed delegates to a Jackson convention
to be held at Monticello, and named J. C. Wilkins, Powhatan Ellis,
D. W. Wright and Joshua Child as anti-Poindexter delegates to
the Baltimore national convention.
Poindexter's view of the situation was giyen in his letter to
Felix Huston, March 9, 1834:

MISSISSIPPI 445
"The prospect before us is in the highest degree appalling and
portentous. . . . To sum up in a few words, all that I can tell
you of this subjectryou may set down the following postulata as
certain. 1st. The deposits will not be restored to the Bank of
the U. S. 2d. The bank will not be rechartered, or substituted
by another chartered bank, during the existence of this adminis
tration. 3d. The State banks will receive a distributive share of
the public revenue, in such proportions, and under such selections
as may best contribute to the election of Martin VanBuren as the
successor to the presidential chair. 4th. If the plan is successful
the same policy will in future be preserved ; combining the purse
and the sword in the same hand, with the patronage of office and
the veto power ; the whole government will at once be concentrated
and wielded by the executive will, which, if submitted to by the
people,. must result in the overthrow of the checks. and balances
provided for in the constitution ; and thus the ^office of president
will, from time to time, descend on any favorite who may be
designated by the incumbent. The question now fairly submitted
"to the American people is an issue between Power and Liberty.
The people must decide it for themselves, and if they do not in
terpose to save themselves, usurpation will move on with giant
strides to the climax of Ambition, Avarice and Despotism. At
a very early period, after I took my seat in the senate, I saw
indications which were satisfactory to my mind of the advances
to arbitrary power ; I resisted them, at the hazard of incurring the
displeasure of my constituents, who were blinded by their en
thusiastic devotion to General Jackson. I have faithfully warned
them. ... I have been led to believe that these warnings
have had but little effect upon the public mind in Mississippi.
. . . Now that ruin must be the inevitable result of the recent
measures of the executive on the great planting and commercial
interests of Mississippi, I indulge the hope that their eyes will at
length be opened, and that my course will be properly appreciated.
. . . I seek no popular favor, having nearly already exhausted
myself in the public service, but I think it is due to candor and
justice that my conduct here should be understood by the people
whom I represent. ... I am decidedly in favor of Mr. Clay
as the next president, altho' I may differ with him on some points
of National policy."
The Washington Globe, in the fall of 1832, made a publication
on which Niles' Register commented : "Two senators, Mr. John
ston, of Louisiana, and Mr. Poindexter, of Mississippi, have the
offense of corruption imputed, because that, at one time or an
other, the sum of $46,000 had been borrowed by them [of the
United States bank, by Mr. P., $10,000] a small comparative
amount, being less than the annual product of the crops raised
by these gentlemen and perfectly within their means of repay
ment." After the attempt of Lawrence to assassinate President Jack
son, in 1835, a plot was laid to involve Senator Poindexter. Affi-

446 MISSISSIPPI
davits were made by Foy and Stewart charging him with guilty
knowledge or encouragement of the deed. Gen. Jackson was
convinced that there was some truth in the charge. It is beyond
belief that Poindexter was guilty of any direct implication; but
he had said and written some imprudently bitter things that
might have suggested the deed to a man of unbalanced mind. In
so far as he stooped to malevolence in his public utterances, he
was continually sowing the seeds of tragedy. When Senator
Poindexter was reported dead in 1837, the Washington corre
spondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote : "As a man of talent,
he had but few equals in the United States. His education was
finished and classical ; his reading was extensive and varied ; there
was not a subject in the sciences, literature, history or politics,
with which he was not. familiar. In his private intercourse with
his friends he was distinguished for the kindness and blandness
of his deportment; toward those whom he esteemed his enemies
he was implacable and unappeasable. . . . He pursued his
foes to the margin of their graves ; was ever ready in seeking re
venge, and whilst in pursuit of it scorned all compromises and set
concessions at defiance. As a statesman he would have held a
place in the affairs of the country second to that enjoyed by no
man, but for the irascibility and impetuosity of his temperament.
As a public speaker he was not distinguished for the elegance of
his elocution; but his sarcasm and invective were never sur
passed. His forte lay in these qualities, and in that wild and de
liberate torrent of denunciation which withers and blasts all
before it." At public dinners given him, he was hailed as "Old
Ironsides of Mississippi." Some of his constituents greeted him
as having "A fame not inferior to that of Calhoun and Leigh, and
a name equalled only by those of Webster and Preston, of Clay
and Tyler, your great compeers in the senate." He desired re
election to the senate, and the issue was between him and Robert
J. Walker in 1835, for the election of a legislature. After a mem
orable campaign he was defeated. In November, 1836, he was
severely injured by falling from the second floor of the Mansion
house, at Natchez, to the pavement outside.
In April, 1838, Mr. Poindexter left Mississippi. He was ten
dered a public dinner at Natchez by a number of prominent citi
zens, headed by George Winchester, and in accepting he said he
had no regrets for the battle he had fought. He had appealed to
the people, and found that "the overwhelming influence of the
popular idol of the day . . , . could not be overcome by the
stone and the sling, the simple weapons of patriotism and of
truth." Hence he felt himself blameless for "withdrawing to a
higher latitude" and taking up his residence "among a people
who have not forgotten that the price of liberty is eternal vigil
ance over the acts of their public servants." He removed to
Louisville; but he was too advanced in years for a successful
change of surroundings, with that commanding position that he
had grown to expect. After an appointment by President Tyler

MISSI3SIPPI 447
to investigate the frauds in the New York custom house, he re
turned to Mississippi, and participated in the political campaign
of 1841, in support of the Whig ticket on the issue of maintaining
the financial faith of the State. In this he was again defeated.
In February, 1847, Mr. Poindexter tendered Gov. Brown for
the State a portrait of himself, painted some years earlier, which
now hangs in the Mississippi Hall of Fame. In this he was "actu
ated by no sentiment of personal vanity, nor by any feeling of
ambition or political aspiration, all of which I have outlived, and
merged in the single desire for the prosperity and glory of my
country." In accepting the gift Gov. Brown wrote : "If it be a
source of pleasure to a retired statesman to know that his past
services are not forgotten, no man has more cause to be pleased
than yourself. Mississippi will long cherish your memory. Your
genius gave stability to her laws, and your eloquence commanded
the respect and admiration of her sister States ; and in accepting
the portrait you have been pleased to offer, I should withhold
the expression of an honest opinion, and do injustice, I think, to
a grateful people, if I did not say, that the real man will continue
to live in the hearts of his countrymen long after this canvass rep
resentation shall have passed away."
His latter years were spent in the practice of law at Jackson.
He died there, September 5, 1855, and his grave is there, marked
by a modest but peculiarly beautiful monument. When governor
his home was the plantation, "Ashwood," near Woodville.
Poindexter was a man of about six feet in height, of slender
frame and strongly marked features, his eyes keen and penetrat
ing. "He was with the people in a log cabin, with nothing but
whisky-grog to drink, and cornbread and bacon to eat, the same
as he was in a decorated parlor, with Madeira wine and plum pud
ding," said Cook, editor of "The Natchez." His temper was
thought by many to be severe and intolerant; others regarded
him as mild and courteous; he was, in fact, moody and variable,
a characteristic greatly intensified by domestic trouble and illness.
In 1804 he married Lydia, daughter of Maj. Jesse Carter, of
Adams county, but they parted after a son was born, for whom
he provided an education, but apparently without affection. In
1816 he married Agathea B. Chinn, whose death has been men
tioned. Early in his career he fought a duel which became widely
notorious, that in which he killed Abijah Hunt. Once he refused
to accept a challenge, on the ground that he was governor of the
State. Life during his time was impulsive, touch and go. We
dare not say it was bad. But it was different from the present.
His early life in the Territory was wild, his quarrels many, but
his disputes were generally settled peaceably. Like many others
of his time he enjoyed intoxication, the race track and gaming
table, and the facilities at Natchez for this sort of entertainment
were unsurpassed. Such were his frailties. They were promi
nent enough to suggest a comparison with Mirabeau, and in all
respects the simile is not strained.

448 MISSISSIPPI
J. F. H. Claiborne, a bitter critic, called him "the ablest man
who ever lived in the State." James D. Lynch wrote of him:
"Above all, was his lofty spirit of patriotism. He was proud of
his country, and loved his adopted State with an ardor that aroused
his genius and kindled the fires of his soul." (Biographical
Sketch, Washington, D. C, 1835; a campaign document. Clai
borne's Mississippi, 361-414, a very remarkable invective. Lynch's
Bench and Bar, valuable mainly because it contains his great
speech of 1819. Public Documents and newspaper files. Rowland
in Political and Parliamentary Orators and Oratory in Vol. V,
Pub. M. H. S.)
Poindexter's Administration. In his inaugural address before
the general assembly, January 5, 1820, Governor Poindexter spoke
with eloquence and impressiveness upon the usual topics of judi
cial system, education and militia. His sympathy with Henry
Clay was manifested by a recommendation of "internal improve
ments,'' advising the legislature to petition congress for the im
provement of the navigable streams, in the hope that some of the
public lands might be granted for that purpose. He expressed
hope that the Chocktaws might soon be persuaded to move west
of the river. In closing, he urged toleration and forbearance.
"Let us act for the whole people whose best interests are con
fided to us, as one family, having equal claims to a participation
in the benefits, and bound to bear an equal portion of the burden,
resulting from the administration of the government."
Later in the month the governor sent in a special message, rec
ommending "a general revision and consolidation of the statutes,"
by a commission of three of the most learned and distinguished
citizens, also the establishment of a high court of chancery, as
the judges of the supreme court at this time requested.
The legislature unanimously reelected Daniel Williams secre
tary of state, and Peter P. Schuyler treasurer. For auditor, Rob
ert L. Throckmorton received 16 votes and John Richards 21.
The great events of 1820 were the Choctaw treaty at Doak's
stand (q. v.), the survey of the Alabama line and the United
States census, which showed that the population had increased in
ten years, in round numbers, from 30,000 to 75,000.
In his message of January, 1821, the governor said, "The finger
of want points not to the door of the humblest cottage in our
country. The miserable mendicant who implores a scanty sub-
sistance from the hand of charity is seldom seen among us, and
if at all he is the itinerant stranger who seeks the aid of our mu-
nificance and hospitality." He made a vigorous appeal for some
provision for public education, declaring that the almost total
absence of schools and colleges was calculated to mortify the pride
•of Mississippi. The exciting political theme of the day was
shown by his reference to the struggle over the admission of Mis
souri, in which it was proposed to forbid the admission of slavery.
He said, "The advocates of this novel and dangerous interpola
tion on the constitution want but the aid of precedent to proceed

MISSISSIPPI 449
on their march to more alarming extremities." The sensational
part of his message, however, was the attack on the Bank of Missis
sippi (see Banking) . Noting the completion of the survey of the Ala
bama line, he said: "It appears that a considerable population on
the waters of the Tombigby, formerly attached to Alabama, fall
within the limits of this State. They are at present unrepre
sented in our legislature, and have no officers, civil or military,
appointed among them. Their remote situation from the settled
parts of the State, renders it necessary that, after forming pf
them a new county, a special judge of the superior court should
be appointed, to reside in the county." Accordingly the legisla
ture created the county of Monroe, (q. v.)
The governor renewed his recommendation for a codification of
the laws, and the legislature responded by an act authorizing him
to do the work. This blending of the duties of executive and law
maker did not pass without objection. A "solemn protest" was
spread on the records of the senate, signed by Charles B. Green,
Cowles Mead, David Dickson and Thomas Torrence.
» The legislature of January, 1821, took up the question of loca
tion of the seat of government away from Natchez. In the sen
ate, Charles B. Green proposed that the people be permitted to
vote on three places, Natchez, Columbia and Monticello, but it
was not agreed to. Holmesville was also proposed. Green,
Cowles Mead and Joseph Sessions stood for Natchez, and _the vote
of Lieut.-Gov. Patton was required to make the selection of Co
lumbia as the capital. (Act of February 7, 1821.) In the same
session an act was passed appointing a commission to select a site
for the seat of government, near the center of the State, within
the recent Choctaw purchase. (See Jackson.)
At the election in August, 1821, Walter Leake received 4,730
votes, Charles B. Green 1,269, for governor; for lieutenant-gover
nor, the vote was, David Dickson 2,984, Daniel Burnet 1,559, H.
W. Runnels 794, Joseph Johnson 476, Gerard Brandon 483, Ben
jamin Lee 5.
The governor's message to the next session of the legislature,
which met at Columbia in November, 1821, was largely on the
subject of the code he was preparing. He said, "the work has
occupied my undivided attention since it was commenced ; it has
progressed to a considerable extent, but it is not yet fully com
pleted. The numerous statutes, enacted at different periods, hav
ing relation to the same subject and detached in single sections,
throughout several volumes, often mingled with provisions totally
discordant in their nature and object ; the entire absence of ar
rangement in existing laws and their imperfect phraseology, have
all contributed to increase the difficulties which I had to encoun
ter in the execution of the revision, with the accuracy necessary
to render it of permanent utility." He added that it would be
waste of time to go further until the legislature acted on his rec
ommendation of a court of chancery and a "literary" or school
fund. "The unavailing efforts which I have made, since I was
29-11

450 MISSISSIPPI
called to the executive chair, to impress on successive legislatures
the high obligation of affording to literary institutions within the
State the means by which they may be cherished and become the
depositories of literature and science, impel me again to invite
your particular attention to this important duty." The legislature
responded by enacting laws evidently written by the governor.
(See Education and Judiciary.) He particularly urged the adop
tion of a better road law, and a new militia law on the only basis
that has been found of practical value, the organization of volun
teer companies. The; financial condition of the State was as fol
lows: On hand January 1, 1821, $14,241; receipts since that time,
$35,491 ; total credits, $49,733, of which there had been expended
$38,010. Of the loan from the bank only $5,000 had been repaid,
leaving $15,000 at six per cent, interest.
He had taken no action to organize a new county in the recent
Choctaw session, because the white population was inconsider
able, but the survey of the region by the United States authority
was rapidly progressing, and it was expected that the sales of
land would be begun in a few months.
The general assembly, at the close of the session, expressed
their "lively sense of the dignity, impartiality and great ability"
with which Mr. Poindexter filled the office of chief magistrate,
and his response may be taken to indicate the subjects he es
teemed as ,most important: "With you, I have been associated
in the arduous task of providing for the people whose interests
we represent, a code of statute law, comprehending all that is es
sential to the protection and preservation of civil, political and
religious liberty; with you, I have acted in giving the first impulse
to the spirit of our republican constitution, and in affording the
means by which the offspring of the poor may learn to estimate
the blessings of freedom and the sacred duties and obligations of
the Christian religion."
His term as governor expired January 7, 1822.
Point, a post-hamlet in the western part of Lauderdale county,
on Chunkey creek, and a station on the Alabama & Vicksburg R.
R., 15 miles by rail west of Meridian. Population in 1900, 27.
Point Leflore. An extinct village in what is now Leflore county,
which was built during the 30's by Col. Greenwood Leflore, two
and one-half miles above the present city of Greenwood. We are
told that he expended not less than $75,000 all told in the construc
tion of a turnpike and some twelve or fourteen bridges, in order
to make the town readily accessible. Flatboats and barges came
through the Yazoo Pass and aided materially in maintaining the
business life of the place. Besides the large steam sawmill built
by Col. Leflore, it had a church, a hotel and a number of other
buildings. Leflore & Godfrey, Milton & Company, and S. P. La
cock were merchants at Leflore during its prosperous days. After
Col. Leflore built his beautiful home, Malmaison, in the hills, just
before the Civil War, his interest in his town largely ceased, and
the village rapidly decayed. He willed it to some of his heirs, and

MISSISSIPPI 451
it was finally allowed to be sold for taxes. A cotton field now cov
ers the old site.
Pokal, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Simpson county,
one mile from the Pearl river, and about 18 miles southwest of
Mendenhall. Newhebron is the nearest banking town. Popuation
in 1900, 54.
Political Parties. See Administrations for discussion of politi
cal events of that date, also Know Nothing party and Agricultural
Organizations. Polkville, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Smith county,
15 miles from Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 45.
Pollock, Oliver, was attached to a great mercantile house at
Havana in 1763, mastered the Spanish language and became ac
quainted with General ' O'Reilly. Afterward he lived at New
Orleans, establishing his family there, but made trading voyages.
In 1769, after O'Reilly had taken possession of New Orleans,
Pollock arrived there in the brig Royal Charlotte, with a cargo
of flour, the colony being so destitute of that food that it sold at
»$30 a barrel. Pollock asked only $15 a barrel of the governor, and
O'Reilly thereupon promised that he should have free trade in
the port as long as he lived.
Before Galvez became governor, Unzaga gave Pollock powder
privately to deliver to Colonel Gibson.
Galvez declared that if Spain took sides against England, Pol
lock was the one American he could confide in. He accompanied
Galvez in his expedition against Manchac and Baton Rouge in
1779. During the Revolution he received $74,000 from the Span
ish treasury, "as very secret service money; it was for the use
of the United States ; I received it as their agent, but chiefly on
my own credit, and I received it generally at night, and generally
at the hands of John Morales, Don Galvez's private secretary."
(Evidence in Wilkinson court martial.) When he heard in 1787
that Wilkinson had been granted a monopoly pf the Kentucky
tobacco trade, Pollock, "wishing to have that exclusive privilege
myself," inquired of Governor Miro, and was assured that the con
cession had been made to pacify the Kentuckians and prevent a
rupture between Spain and America.
Polygamous Teaching, Law Against. Missionary efforts in the
State by representatives of the Mormon church caused much ex
citement and induced the legislature in 1886 to pass an act "to
define and punish the crime of teaching polygamous doctrines and
principles, and of persuading persons to adopt or embrace the
same." The activity of these missionaries was the subject of criti
cism by Governor McLaurin in his message of 1890.
Pond, a post-hamlet of Wilkinson county, 4 miles east of Fort
Adams, and 12 miles west of Woodville, the county seat, and near
est railroad and. banking town. Population in 1900, 36.
Ponta, a hamlet of Lauderdale county, about 14 miles north of
Meridian. It has rural free delivery from Lauderdale, 6 miles east
on the M. & O. R. R. Population in 1900, 36.

452 MISSISSIPPI
Pontotoc, the county seat of Pontotoc county, is located near the
center of the county on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R.,
50 miles southeast of Holly Springs, and 18 miles south of New
Albany. It was incorporated in 1837, and the United States land
office was located here for a number of years, as was also the
Chickasaw Land Bank; and the United States District Court sat
here for some years. A few miles to the east of Pontotoc were lo
cated the principal settlements of the Chickasaws. Pontotoc was
named for a Chickasaw Indian chief, the word meaning "weed
prairie." It has telegraph, express and banking facilities, a female
seminary, (The Chickasaw Female College) five churches and two
newspapers. The Bank of Pontotoc was established in 1889 and
now has a capital of $40,000 ; the Merchants & Farmers Bank
was established in 1900 with a capital of $25,100 which has since
been increased to $30,000. The Sentinel is a Democratic weekly
established in 1893, and owned and edited by A. F. Herman ; the
Advance is an Independent weekly paper established in 1900, E.
T. Winston being the editor and publisher. Pontotoc lies in a good
agricultural region and is a trading center of importance. Popula
tion in 1900, 1,010, an increase of nearly 100% in the preceeding
ten years ; while in 1906 the population was estimated at 1,600.
The following religious denominations have churches here— Meth
odist, Presbyterian and Baptist ; and the following fraternities have
lodges — Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, The Woodmen
of the World and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. The town has
a large cotton seed oil mill and ginnery; also a grist-mill, a large
brick mfg. plant, a planing mill, an electric light plant, 3 hotels,
a livery and sales barn, and a splendid graded high school.
Pontotoc Battle, 1541. De Soto went into winter quarters
1540-1 at the town of Chicaca, a village of the Chickasaws. Here
says the narrative of Elvas, "The country was very well peopled,
and the houses scattered like those of Mavilla, fat and plentiful
of maize, and the most part of it was fielding." The Spaniards
were able to secure plentiful supplies of food and remained here
from December to the following March. According to one ac
count, Chicaca was a small town of 20 houses, while another
reports it to be a town of 200 fires, situated on a hill leading north
and south, which was watered by many little brooks. Competent
authorities have located Chicaca about one mile northwest of Red-
land, in Pontotoc county. De Soto having decided to continue
his march in search of some wealthy province, he demanded
porters and guides of the cacique Miculasa ('Mingo lusa', Black
chief) by March 4th, but, the crafty chief put him off with prom
ises for several days, and then suddenly attacked and surprised
the town at a very early hour in the morning. They attacked from
four sides, dashing into the place and setting fire to the houses.
The Spaniards were unable to arm themselves or mount their
horses, by reason of the surprise, and the Indiansnot only killed
and wounded many of them, but completely destroyed the town
and escaped with the loss of only one of their number, said to

MISSISSIPPI 453
have been killed by the lance of Soto himself. Says Elvas : "There
died in this hurly burly eleven Christians, and fifty horses; and
there remained a hundred hogs, and four hundred were burned.
If any perchance had saved any clothes from the fire of Mavilla,
here they were burned, and many were clad in skins, for they had
no leisure to take their coats. The Christians were so spoiled, and
in such want of saddles and weapons which were burned, that if
the Indians had come the second night, they had overcome them
with little labor."
Pontotoc County was established February 9, 1836, and is one of
the twelve large counties created at this time out of the Chicka
saw cession of 1832. The county has a land surface of 496 square
miles. It originally embraced parts of the present counties of Lee
and Union. The act creating the county defined its limits as fol
lows: — "The territory within the townships, seven, eight, nine,
ten, and eleven, of ranges one, two, three, four, and five, east of the
basis meridian." Oct. 26, 1866, it contributed from its eastern ter
ritory townships eleven, ten, nine, and eight and part of seven,
in range five, to assist in forming the county of Lee; and July 7,
1870, it was shorn of township seven and the upper half plus 6
sections of township eight, in ranges one, two, three, four, together
with fractional parts of townships seven and eight," in range five,
to assist in the formation of Union county. Its present area is
about fourteen townships. The name Pontotoc is an Indian word,
signifying "weed prairie" and was the name of a Chickasaw chief.
The county is located in the northeastern part of the State and is
bounded on the north by Union county, on the east by Lee county,
on the south by Chickasaw and Calhoun counties and on the west
by Calhoun and Lafayette counties. It was in the southeastern part
of this county, near the little creek Chowappa, that the treaty of
Pontotoc was concluded, whereby the Chickasaws relinquished all
their remaining lands in the State. In the year 1834, T. C. Mc-
Mackin, the celebrated hotel keeper, who had kept a hotel at the
original location of the Pontotoc land office, came into possession
of the present site of Pontotoc town. He laid off the town and
was of sufficient influence to move the old town of Pontotoc to the
present site. Emigrants from Tennessee, north Alabama and Geor
gia, as well as from the older parts of Mississippi, rapidly poured
intothe region, attracted by the cheap and fertile lands of the new
cession. Pontotoc is the county seat and was incorporated in 1837.
It had in 1900 1,010 inhabitants, an increase of 475 in one decade.
The U. S. land office was located here and the town obtained a
prosperous start. It is on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R.
R. running from Mobile to Middleton, Tenn. and is the center of
a thriving trade from the rich country about it. Other settlements
of importance are Ecru, Sherman, Algoma, Troy, Toccopola, Ran
dolph and Thaxton. The region has few manufactures of impor
tance, but has many natural resources and is a good farming coun
try. Two-thirds of its area is well timbered with different kinds
of oak, hickory, elm, beech, walnut, poplar, ash, gum and pine.

454 MISSISSIPPI
The surface is undulating, broken and level. The soil is sandy
yellow loam, with considerable black prairie and hammock iand.
In the eastern part is the limestone formation. It produces good
crops of cotton, corn, oats, wheat, sorghum, potatoes, melons, field
peas and all kinds of vegetables arid fruits suitable to the latitude.
Pasturage, especially in the western part of the county, is good
and considerable attention is being given to the live stock industry
during the last few years, and the industry has proved to be
profitable. The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population: —
Number of farms 3,368, acreage in farms 240,326, acres improved
85,333, value of the land exclusive of the buildings $1,172,560, value
of the buildings $407,530, value of live stock $573,898, total value
of products not fed $1,097,450. Number of manufacturing estab
lishments 55, capital invested $69,132, wages paid $7,357, cost of
riiaterials $26,947, total value of products $62,608. The population
in 1900 consisted of whites 13,477, colored 4,827, total 18,274, in
crease over 1890, 6,342 ; in 1906 the population was estimated at
20,000. Land values have increased in the last 5 years fully 100
per cent. Manufactures have also increased in a like ratio. The
county is being rapidly settled up. The total assessed valuation
of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $1,726,-
530 and in 1906 it was $2,248,848, which shows an increase of
$522,318 during the year.
Poolville,,a hamlet of Union county, 6 miles west of New Albany,
the county seat. Its postoffice has been recently discontinued, and
it now has rural free delivery from the county seat.
Pope, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of Panola
county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 66 miles south of Memphis.
It received its name in honor of B. H. Pope. It has two churches,
a good school, a grist mill, a saw mill and a cotton gin with the
Munger system. It ships annually some 2,000 bales of cotton.
Population in 1900, 172; estimated at 300 in 1906. The Bank of
Pope, a branch of the Bank of Batesville, was established in 1904.
The assessed valuation of town property, both personal and real,
is about $50,000, and the tax rate is 3 mills. The town was estab
lished in 1858 on the land of B. H. Pope. The first merchants
were Broome & Betts ; the Methodists built the first church ; Dr.
L. S. Gartrell was the first practicing physician; the first school
was taught by Mrs. Bethel about 1866. Among the pioneers of
Pope were B. H. Pope, C. F. Chapman, Thos. Pugh, Benj. Bynum,
Sanford Sparks, Dr. L. S. Gartrell, Maj. D. B. Arnold, Dr. J. J.
Houston, Frank Pugh, and Wm. Hawkins.
Pope's Visit. In the year 1791, John Pope of Virginia, jour
neyed down the Mississippi, and his observations of the region
are published in a book entitled "A Tour Through the Southern
and Western Territories of the United States of America, the
Spanish Dominions, Floridas, Creek Nations and many Uninhab
ited Parts." Following are brief quotations from his work: "At

MISSISSIPPI 455
break of day espied the Walnut Hills about ten miles below the
Yasous River, which his Catholic Majesty limits as his boundary,
and below which, his vicegerents say, that citizens of the United
States shall not inhabit, unless, they throw themselves under the
Laws, Banners, and Protection of the King of Spain. At ten
o'qlock espied a single roofed house, occupied by a family of New-
Yorkers. Near this spot the Governor of the Natchez hath fixed
upon an eminence for the erection of a Fort. The family informed,
that the intended garrison were at the Natchez taking in military
stores and provision."
Of the soil about Natchez he says "The soil of this District is
better adapted to the growing of corn, rice and indigo, than of
tobacco, the cultivation of which is gradually falling into disuse;
as an admittance of it into the King's store is now positively re
fused, from some political motives, which the governor thinks
himself under no obligation to communicate; though the present
crop was raised under a confidence reposed in his promise, to
..receive and allow eight dollars per hundred for it."
Of the Spanish governor, Gayoso, he says "This gentleman has
a majestic deportment, softened by manners the most engaging
and polite."
Poplar Creek, a hamlet of Montgomery county, about 16 miles
southeast of Winona, the county seat. Kilmichael is the nearest
banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in
1906, 75.
Poplar Springs, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern
part of Union county, 16 miles northwest of Tupelo, the nearest
banking town. Bluesprings, on the K. C, M. & B. R. R., is the
nearest railroad station. It has two churches, two stores and a
steam grist mill. Population in 1900, 89.
Poplarville, the county seat of Pearl River county, located on the
New Orleans and North Eastern R. R. 71 miles northeast of New
Orleans, was named for Poplar creek which heads at or near the
center of the town. It has a telegraph office, an express office,
a newspaper office and 2 banks. The Free Press, a Democratic
weekly was estiablished in 1890, and is edited and published by J.
R. Oliphant. The Bank of Poplarville was established in 1899
with a capital of $11,600; The Citizens Bank was established in
1905 with a paid up capital of $35,200. The town lies in a poultry,
truck and fruit-farming, grazing and lumbering district. Among
its industries are a cotton gin, grist mill, 2 saw-mills, a sugar mill,
a canning factory, a coal plant, 2 turpentine stills and a lumber
yard. It has two public markets, several stores and 2 livery stables.
It has increased very rapidly in population within recent years.
Its population in 1900 was 990, in 1890, 232, and in 1906 the popu
lation was estimated at 1,500. There are 5 churches located here,
3 white churches and 2 colored. Its high school is one of the
best in the State. Poplarville is the seat of Poplarville College.
There are lqcated here lodges of Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of

456 MISSISSIPPI
Pythias, Woodmen of the World, and the Knights and Ladies of
Honor. The town is supplied with an electric lighting system.
Porterville, a station on the Mobile & Ohio R. R. in the east-
central part of Kemper county, about 12 miles from Dekalb, the
county seat. It has a money order postoffice, and an express office.
It has several stores, a church and a school. In 1906 it had a pop
ulation of 200.
Port Gibson, the county seat of Claiborne county, is a city
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 29 miles south of
Vicksburg and 40 miles northeast of Natchez. It is 20 miles
from the mouth of Bayou Pierre, at a point where the old
Natchez Trace crossed that stream. Robert and George Cochran
kept a store here in the early days, and when Claiborne county was
created in 1802, the residence of Mr. Gibson stood about three-
quarters of a mile from the river, in what is now the upper part of
the town. Grand Gulf, distant ten or twelve miles to the north
west on the Mississippi river, was for many years the shipping
point for Port Gibson, and to facilitate communication between the
two towns, the Grand Gulf & Port Gibson Railroad was built at
an early date. A substantial courthouse of brick and stone was
erected in 1839 at a cost of about $26,000, by William H. Faulkner
and George Stockdill. In 1905 the court house was remodeled
and a new jail built at a cost of $55,000. Each building is now
equipped with all the modern improvements. A fertile cotton
growing district surrounds the town, and among its manufacturing
enterprises is a cotton seed oil mill, a large compress, a brick fac
tory and an ice plant. It has three banking institutions, the Port
Gibson Bank, the Mississippi National Bank, and the Mississippi
Savings Bank & Loan Company, the capital invested in banking
being— capital stock, $125,000 ; surplus, $40,000. It has two hotels,
two public schools, one endowed boys' academy, and one girls'
college. There are five white churches; Presbyterian, Methodist,
P. E. Baptist, Campbellite (or Christian) and Roman Catholic. The
city has a complete system of water works and electricity, and an
efficient fire company. It has the reputation of being one of the
healthiest cities in the State. It is regularly laid out with wide,
well shaded streets, lined with substantial residences and business
blocks. Three of its noteworthy structures are the courthouse, jail,
and the fine Masonic hall. Two publications are issued here; the
"Reveille," a Democratic weekly, established in 1876, owned and
published by H. H. Crisler ; the "Vidette," a local monthly, edited and
published by Thomas Richardson. There is a city debt of $20,000 ;
the assessed valuation of property is $1,000,000; the tax rate for the
city is 11 mills ; for the State and county, 14 mills ; population in
1900, 2,113 ; estimated population in 1906 was 2,500.
Port Gibson, battle, see Vicksburg, campaign of 1863.
Port Hudson, siege of. This fortified post on the Mississippi
was besieged May 24 by the United States army, and was sur
rendered by Gen. Franklin Gardner July 8, after the fall of Vicks
burg. The Mississippi troops at Baton Rouge wefe the 39th in-

MISSISSIPPI 457
fantry, Col. W. B. Shelby; Battery B, Capt. A. J. Herod; Battery
F, Capt. J. L. Bradford; Battery K, Capt. George F. Abbey, of
Withers' First Artillery regiment; and the batteries of Capts.
Calvit Roberts and R. T. English.
Port Royal. This old landing place on the Mississippi river
was one of the early county seats of Coahoma county, prior to
1848-. In that year, what is known as the horseshoe "cut off" took
place, the river forsook its old channel and left Port Royal stranded
on the old river bank. The seat of justice was at once*transferred
to Friar's Point, five miles up the river, which had long coveted
it. It was then customary to locate county seats for the Missis
sippi river counties on the bank of that stream, and Friar's Point
had not been affected by the cut off. Port Royal was unable to
weather these misfortunes and rapidly decayed. The present site
of the old town is owned by Wm. H. Stovall & Son. It is related
that the extensive plantations of Col. W. L. Oldham and David
Gilehoist, located a few miles below Port Royal, were ruined by
#the same "cut off," and are now covered by a cottonwood growth
resembling a virgin forest.
Posey, Carnot. In 1846 he aided in the organization of a com
pany for the Mexican war, which became Company B of the First
regiment, Mississippi Rifles. He had the rank of first lieutenant,
and was wounded and distinguished for gallantry at Buena Vista.
In 1860 he raised a company known as the Wilkinson Rifles,
which formed part of the 16th regiment, at the organization of
which he was elected colonel, and commissioned June 4, 1861. He
was in battle with Stonewall Jackson, in the Shenandoah valley,
early in 1862, and was wounded at Cross Keys. In Featherston's
brigade he took part in Lee's campaign before Richmond, and the
battles of Kelly's Ford, Second Manassas, and at Sharpsburg won
special mention by Longstreet for his efficiency as commander of
the brigade. After the transfer of Featherston to the West, he
was promoted to brigadier-general. He won new honors at Chan
cellorsville and Gettysburg. After the return to Virginia, he led
his brigade in the battle of Bristoe Station, October 14, 1863, at
which he was severely wounded in the left thigh by a fragment of
shell. He was carried to Charlottesville, Va., where he died No
vember 13.
Possumneck, a hamlet of Attala county, located on Shakeys
creek, 10 miles northwest of Kosciusko, the county seat. The post-
office here has been discontinued, and it now has rural free delivery
from the station of West, on the Illinois Central R. R. Population
in 1900, 48. It has one of the largest saw mills and ginneries in the
county. A. R. Weeks is the leading citizen of the community.
Post, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Lauderdale coun
ty, about 18 miles from Meridian. Battlefield is the nearest rail
road station. Population in 1900, 30.
Post Routes, First. The first mail route in Mississippi Terri
tory was established during the administration of Governor Sar
gent. February 20, 1800, the Governor requested the agents of

458 MISSISSIPPI
the United States in the Chickasaw nation to protect and assist
the post riders of Mr. Abijah Hunt (who has contracted to carry
the mail from Natchez to Knoxville). The United States mail
service in 1806 included a weekly mail between Nashville and
Walnut Hills, the trip one way occupying a week; from Walnut
Hills by Grindstone Ford, Port Gibson, Greenville, Washington,
Natchez, Fort Adams, Pinckneyville, Thompson's Creek, Buller's
Plains, Baton Rouge, etc., to New Orleans, once a week, leaving
Walnut Hills Friday and reaching New Orleans, Thursday, and
returning in similar time; from Natchez via Fort St. Stephens to
Fort Stoddert, leaving on the first Monday of each month, arriv
ing at Stoddert the next Sunday, and starting back the next day;
from Natchez by Caddy's Ferry, to Natchitoches, once a month.
Assembly of 1809 requested a post road from Fort Stephens to
town of Liberty in Amite county.
Potter, a postoffice of Sunflower county, situated in the north
western part, on the Sunflower river, about 30 miles north of In
dianola, the county seat.
Potts Camp, in the southeastern part of Marshall county, is an
incorporated post-town, on the -line of the Kansas City, Memphis
& Birmingham R. R., about 13 miles southeast of Holly Springs,
the nearest banking town. It was named in honor of Col. E. F.
Potts. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 306.
Powell, a postoffice of Covington county, 7 miles northwest of
Williamsburg, the county seat.
Power, John Logan, was born in Tipperary county, Ireland,
March 1, 1834. Left an orphan when a small child, he passed
through many trying ordeals of poverty. He came to America in
1850; began work in the office of the Lockport (N.'Y.) Journal;
went to New Orleans in 1854; located in Jackson, April, 1855;
married Jane Wilkinson, December, 1857. In Jackson he was a
printer in the office of the Flag of Our Union, published by
Thomas Palmer, was also with the True Witness, a Presbyterian
paper, later manager of the Baptist, and after that manager of the
Mississippian, edited by Ethelbert Barksdale. In January, 1860,
he began the publication of the Jackson Daily News. He was
official reporter of the Secession convention of 1861, and published
its proceedings, with a roll of members and sketches of Davis and
Stephens. His military service was as sergeant of a battery and
later adjutant of Withers' First regiment light artillery. He was
with his command at the battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Champion's
Hill, Big Black, and through the siege of Vicksburg. In 1864 he
was appointed superintendent of army records for Mississippi,
with the rank of colonel, a work that took him to Virginia during
the closing years of the Confederacy. On his return he was sec
retary of the constitutional convention of 1865, and with the sal
ary received he started the Mississippi Standard, which was
merged into the Clarion in 1866, which he published in association
with Ethelbert Barksdale. He was elected State printer in 1875,
in association with Barksdale, and five times reelected. For

MISSISSIPPI 459
many years he was superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday
school at Jackson. He was for years the main reliance of the Orphan
asylum at Natchez, which would have been compelled to close sev
eral times but for his assistance. "He was secretary of conventions
innumerable." During the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 he was en
trusted with $100,000 of the relief fund to distribute at his own dis
cretion. "All through that awful fall, when death held high
carnival, he sat up day and night, acknowledging every cent con
tributed, besides carrying much of it to the stricken communities
and selecting those who should disburse it." His work in 1878
deserves lasting commemoration. In his political career he was
clerk of the house of representatives in 1864 and 1867, and secre
tary of nearly all the Democratic conventions after the war; was
chairman of the first board of Vicksburg Park commissioners of
Mississippi, which selected the places at which monuments should
be erected to commemorate the services of Mississippi commands;
was elected secretary of state in 1895 and reelected in 1899.
While secretary of State he collected and published many facts
regarding the history of the State. He gathered together official
publications, scattered about the old capitol, and called the atten
tion of the legislature to the fact that there 'were stored away in
the capitol and the penitentiary many valuable books and docu
ments, that should be sifted out. While yet in the office of
secretary he died, September 24, 1901. At that time he was grand'
secretary of the grand lodge of Masons and of the grand chapter,
and grand recorder of the grand council and grand commandery,
offices he had filled continuously since 1869 and 1871. He was
also treasurer of the grand lodge of Odd Fellows, and prominent
in other fraternal orders. Upon his death, the grand lodge of the
State was convened, and the grand commandery escorted his body
to the capitol, where it lay in state and was visited by thousands
of school children, and loving friends from every part of Missis
sippi. Power, Thomas. See Carondelet Intrigue.
Powers, Ridgley Ceylon, was born in Ohio, the grandson of a
Pennsylvanian who married a Virginian and reared a family in
the Mahoning valley of Ohio. He was a student at the University
of Michigan when the war began. Enlisting in the Union army,
he was a captain in 1865, after which he became a planter in Noxu
bee county, and under the military government was appointed
sheriff by Gen. Ames. In 1869 he was elected lieutenant-governor
with Gov. Alcorn, and November 30, 1871, he became governor
upon the resignation of Alcorn. "Few of the 'carpet baggers,' "
says Garner, "won the respect and confidence of the native whites
to such an extent as did Governor Powers." After the return of
the Democratic party to control of the State, Gov. Powers re
moved from the State and went to the West. His cousin, H. C.
Powers, settling in Oktibbeha county in 1865, was prominent in
politics, and became a banker at StarkviUe.

460 MISSISSIPPI
Powers' Administration. Ridgley C. Powers began his admin
istration as governor upon the resignation of Gov. Alcorn, No
vember 30, 1871, though he yielded the chair in the senate to' the
president pro tem. in the previous January, when Alcorn accepted
an election to the U. S. senate. The legislature met as usual in
January, 1872, and remained in session three months. The legis
lation regarding railroads (q. v.) was particularly abundant and
reckless. The year was the culmination of the general extrava
gance and wild speculation throughout the United States that
brought on the collapse of 1873. The electoral vote of the State
was cast for the reelection of President Grant. One Democratic
congressman — Lucius' Q. C. Lamar — was elected.
Gov. Powers stated in his message of 1872 that quiet reigned
throughout the State, that "a new era of good feeling has sprung
up," and that Mississippi was entitled to recognition as "an ex
ample of reconstruction based upon reconciliation." He made
similar congratulatory comments in his message of January, 1874.
There had been evils of special legislation, and he hoped the en
tire system of special legislation could be swept away, as had
lately been measurably accomplished in Illinois and Pennsylvania.
He illustrated the dangers of the system by the attempt at the
last regular session of the legislature in 1873 to exempt all rail
roads from taxation for ten years by smuggling a clause to that
effect into a special railroad charter.
In addition to the local government by the negro majority in
many counties, led by recent white and black immigrants, many
of whom were accused of corruption, the public generally com
plained of extravagance and corruption in the State administra
tion, though Gov. Powers was excepted from censure. Senator
Alcorn openly denounced two prominent leaders, Gibbs and Staf
ford, in his campaign. According to Gov. Powers over one-fourth
the annual expenditure from the State treasury was to bring its
transactions to a currency basis. The system of paying court ex
penses out of the State treasury, including jurors and witness
fees and many attorneys' fees in State cases, furniture and sta
tionery for clerks, etc., a system that extended even to justice
courts in criminal cases, was greatly abused.
Treasurer Vasser said the high expenditures were due to pro
tracted sessions of the legislature, changes in the judicial system,
costly allowances to outfit chancery and circuit clerks, investments
in crude maps of the State for school purposes, employing counsel
to shield evil doers from punishment, and the forcing of State
paper as a makeshift for a circulating medium, at a ruinous dis
count to the State, . . . benefiting alone the countless horde
of sub-treasurers (tax collectors and others who belong to the
ring of shavers) to the multiple of from thirty to forty per cent."
(Report of 1873.)
During the four, years of the Alcorn-Powers administration, the
total amount of warrants issued by the auditor was $5,837,755;
cancelled by treasurer, $4,965,808; leaving $871,947 outstanding.

MISSISSIPPI 461
The State treasury had borrowed the Chickasaw school fund re
ceipts, to the amount of $814,743, the common school funds to the
amount of $615,963, and these together with $218,000 in State
bonds for the benefit of the agricultural departments of the two
universities, were held as trust funds, on which the State paid in
terest. Warrants had been taken up with State bonds to the
amount of $634,650, and with currency certificates of indebtedness
to the amount of $294,150.
The State indebtedness at the beginning was $1,178,175 (See
Alcorn Adm.). January 1, 1874, it was $3,443,189. Of this indebt
edness, $1,648,856 was owing to the school funds and agricultural
schools, and the State was expected to keep up the interest only.
The remainder of the debt was in State bonds, $416,500 ; currency
certificates of indebtedness, $294,150 ; insurance company deposits
of warrants, $280,000; warrants outstanding, $803,682; total debt
demanding payment, $1,704,332. The governor thought this
scarcely amounted to the dignity of a State debt, but urged that
its annual increase should be stopped. The government expendi
tures had been reduced $132,000 in 1872, and $146,000 in 1873.
He adhered to his former recommendations of an issue of cur
rency to redeem the auditor's warrants. The expiration within
the year of the- exemption of railroads from taxation, promised
some relief of individuals from the burdens.
In parting, the governor said: "Slumbering resources surround
us on every side. With good natural facilities for both, we are
without either manufactories or commerce, and with a wealth of
soil unequalled by that of any State, we pay a self-imposed tribute
to the granaries of the Northwest. Home production, home in
dustry and home enterprise need encouragement — such encourage
ment as good government, economically administered, alone can
give." But the State had to look outside for capital, and the blow of
1873, falling upon Mississippi's modest share of the general ex
uberance of development that followed 1865, had a crushing effect
for many years.
James Lynch, secretary of state, died in 1872, and was suc
ceeded by H. R. Revels, who resigned in September, 1873, and
was succeeded by H. C. Carter. For eight years this office was
filled by negroes.
In 1873 the people of the State were in distress because of con
tinued short crops of cotton, combined with low prices on account
of the great financial panic. There was yellow fever also, almost
annually. In such circumstances the gubernatorial election came on.
The two United States senators, Ames and Alcorn, contested
the Republican nomination for governor. Alcorn had declared in
the senate in the previous year that Ames was not a citizen of
Mississippi, did not even have a technical residence. At the Re
publican State convention Ames had the negro support, and a
majority of about five to one. He was nominated for governor,

462 MISSISSIPPI
and negroes named for three of the State offices, including super
intendent of education, upon the demand of the negroes, who
brought the color line into prominence by declaring that the
scheme of whites holding office, while the colored men voted, was
"played out." Alcorn's adherents bolted the convention, and
nominated him for governor, with one negro man on the ticket.
This was the beginning of the end. The Democrats refrained
from nomination, and though Ames was elected in November,
the vote was divided 69,870 to 50,490. It is likely that he received,
mainly, the Whig vote. It was said at the time that if the white
people had stood by Alcorn more generally, he could easily have
been elected.
There was a dispute whether an election in 1873 was legal un
der the constitution. (See Alcorn's Adm.) Attorney-General
Morris gave an opinion that the general election, biennially, was
not due until 1874, and that the governor and other state officers
would hold over. In a correspondence between Gov. Alcorn and
Messrs. Yerger, Harris and Johnston, November 13, 1871, the lat
ter had contended that the election law of 1871 was in part uncon
stitutional, and that all regular terms must begin on the first of
January, 1871. >
September 30, Gov. Powers called a special session of the legis
lature, to provide for a general election in 1874. In his message,
October 20, he said the question of date of election put in abeyance
even the financial crisis, the prevailing epidemic, and the rivalry
of parties. He argued that the constitution fixed the political
year of the State, reorganized, as beginning' January 1st. If the
first election had ratified the constitution, the first political year
might have begun January 1, 1869. But as it was not ratified
until November, 1869, Congress did not admit the State until Feb
ruary 23, 1870, and the officers elected for four years would begin
their, regular terms January 1, 1871. It was evident, however, that
the State had, as nearly as possible, begun its political year with
1870, by the convening of the legislature in January, at which
Powers was sworn in. The legislature did not take the action
requested by the governor, but made a few enactments, including
a fee and salary bill, extended the time for payment of taxes, on
account of the hard times, and adjourned in November. This con
stitutional dispute was carried so far in some places as to threaten
bloodshed. "It was settled, however, early in 1874, by the supreme
court of the State in a case from Hinds county, involving the
legal right to the county treasurer's office, in favor of Ames and
other State and county officers, elected in November, 1873, to be
installed in January, 1874." (Bowman, Recon. in Yazoo County.)
Powers, Tyrone. His "Impressions of America" contain some
interesting pictures of Mississippi in the '30's. He was the guest
of Col. James Wilkins and also visited "Natchy-under-the-Hill,"
saw the races, called upon Mrs. Minor at Concord, and gave some
Cavendish to her aged negro, 120 years of age, who had been the
servant of Stephen Minor, when he was major of the Spanish fort-

MISSISSIPPI 463
ress, possibly the Caesar who was Indian interpreter. He de
scribes the gathering of an audience at the theatre, which was
outside the town, the long line of pedestrians, many in carriages,
and a host on horseback. Of the latter he said : "A finer set of
men I have rarely looked upon ; the general effect of their cos
tume, too, was picturesque and border-like. They were mostly
clad in a sort of tunic or frock, made of white or of grass-green
blanketing, the broad dark blue selvage serving as a binding, the
coat being furnished with collar, shoulder-pieces and cuffs of the
same color, and having a broad belt, either of leather or of the like
selvage; broad-leafed white Spanish hats of beaver were evi
dently the mode, together with high leather leggings or cavalry
boots and heavy spurs. The appointments of the horses were in
perfect keeping with those of these cavaliers ; they bore demi-
pique saddles, with small massive brass or plated stirrups, gener
ally shabracs of bear or deerskin, and in many instances had saddle
clothes of scarlet or light blue, bound with broad gold or silver
lace. . . . These were the planters of the neighboring coun
try, many of whom came nightly to enjoy the theatre, forming
such an audience as cannot be seen elsewhere; indeed, to look on
so many fine horses with their antique caparisons, piquetted
about the theatre, recalled the palmy days of the Globe and the
Beargarden." Prairie, a village of western Monroe county, on the Mobile &
Ohio Railroad, 8 miles west of Aberdeen, the county seat, and
nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Popula
tion in 1900, 122.
Prairie Mount. An extinct town of Chickasaw county, which
was located in the northeastern part, about five miles north ¦ of
Okalona, on the public road from that place to Pontotoc. It was
founded in 1836 by Littleberry Gilliam, a farmer from Franklin
county, Alabama, and was incorporated in 1852. Gilliam's resi
dence was a wayside inn, where he found profit in catering to the
wants of the early land investors, who poured into the Tombigbee
section of the Chicasaw cession, below Pontotoc. There grew up
about his place quite a prosperous little village, containing two
small dry goods stores, a saloon, a blacksmith shop, and a wagon
repair shop. It was afterward absorbed by the new town of Oko
lona, which sprang up on the Mobile & Ohio railroad, and estab
lished a more convenient trade center. Its former site is now em
braced within a farm.
Prairie Point, a post-hamlet of Noxubee county, 10 miles east
of Macon, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 75.
Pray, P. Rutilius R., a native of the State of Maine, college-
educated and with some experience as a teacher in Winchester
county, N. Y., came to Mississippi in the early days of the State,
and made his horne at Pearlington, near the seaboard, where he
engaged in the practice of law.- He served in the legislature as
representative of Hancock county, in 1827-29, and was honored

464 MISSISSIPPI
with a place on the judiciary committee with Sharkey and Quit
man. In 1832 he was president of the constitutional convention,
and by the following legislature he was selected to make a digest
of the laws of the State. Influenced by the Napoleonic code of
Louisiana he endeavored to work into his code of Mississippi, in
conformity with the revolutionary spirit of that day, some inde
pendence of the traditions of the "common law" inherited from
old England.
He reported to the January session, 1835, that he had relied
much on the aid he had expected "to derive from the dissertations
of those distinguished jurists, who have introduced such magnifi
cent improvements into recent legislation, and to whom justice
seems fully to have unveiled her mysteries ;" but he would not be
ready to report until a year later. His work was submitted to the
session of January, 1836.
The senate committee reported on the code in 1838 that "it has
some circumstances attached to it calculated to recommend it
favorably." The laws were written in "a concise and comprehen
sive style which evinces great clearness of perception and legal
acquirement in its author." The principal innovations proposed
by the code were its chief recommendation to the committee;
namely, the abolishment of some old forms of pleading that be
longed to a bygone and barbarous age. The session of 1838 was
partly given to the consideration of the code.
In January, 1839, the Pray code had not yet been adopted, and
it never was. Gov. McNutt vigorously observed that many ob
jections were made to it by people who had never read it. "Some
are so wedded to black letter books and the unwritten or common
law as to be unable to believe that any improvement can be made.
We live in an age which contradicts all such assumptions.
. . . It has been too long the custom to look for the law in
the opinions of jurists. The legislative will, expressed in accord
ance with the constitution, is the only law recognized in a free
government. The present is a most auspicious time for the adop
tion of an entire new code of laws. Fully one half of our popu
lation have recently emigrated to the State. . . . The spirit
of the age is opposed to hanging, branding, cropping, whipping
and the pillory. . . . The revisor has wisely recommended
that murder and arson, in the first degree, and treason, alone,
should be capitally punished, and that executions should take
place in the prison or prison yard, in the presence of certain offi
cers." In November, 1837, Pray was elected to the High court, as the
supreme court of the State was then called, and he held this office
until his death, at the age of 45 years, at Bay St. Louis, Dec. 11,
1839. Prentiss. The town of Prentiss was laid off in 1856, and was lo
cated in Bolivar county, opposite the town of Napoleon in ArkanJ
sas. As it was burned early in 1863 by the Federal forces, it was
in existence for only about seven years. The town was designed

MISSISSIPPI 465
to be the county site of Bolivar county, and a large brick court
house and jail were built at once, and it grew to be a place of
about two hundred inhabitants, with a good hotel and a newspaper,
the "Bolivar Times." The great river has long since absorbed the
site of the town.
Prentiss, a post-town, formely of Lawrence county, situated in
the east-central part, on the Mississippi Central R. R., about 15
miles from Monticello, the county seat. It is a thriving town and
has been selected as the county seat of the recently organized coun
ty of Jefferson Davis. There are several stores located here, also
a bank, the Bank of Blountville, established in 1902.
Prentiss County was created at the same time as Alcorn county,
April 15, 1870, during the administration of Governor Alcorn, and
received its name in honor of Sargent Smith Prentiss, the gifted
statesman, jurist and silver tongued orator of Mississippi. The
county has a land surface of 420 square miles. Its territory was
principally taken from that of old Tishomingo county, one of the
numerous counties formed in 1836 from the Chickasaw cession of
* 1832 (q. v.). This county lies in the so called rotten limestone
or black prairie belt, well up in the northeastern corner of the
State, and is bounded on the north by Alcorn county, on the east
by Tishomingo county, on the south by Itawamba and Lee coun
ties and on the west by Union and Tippah counties. In compliance
with the act which created the new county, Governor Alcorn ap
pointed the following county officers : Board of Supervisors, John
R. Moore, President, J. M. Moore, Alonzo Bowdry, Joseph Rodg
ers, M. L. Martin; Henry C. Fields, Sheriff; W. H. Walton, clerk
of the Chancery Court and of the Board of Supervisors. J. M.
Stone became the first State Senator for the county, and Hugh M.
Street, elected Speaker of the House, (1873-1874) was the first
Representative in the lower House of the Legislature. By the
year 1850 the region comprising this county had become thickly
settled with an excellent class of emigrants from Virginia, Georgia,
and northern Alabama. The old village of Carrollville, (q. v.)
founded in 1834, in what was then Tishomingo county, was once
a thriving trade center for southeastern Tishomingo county. When
the Mobile & Ohio R. R. was completed to Baldwyn, two miles
away, the latter town absorbed its business and population. Hon.
Wm. M. Cox now lives on the old site of Carrollville. During the
early days before the railroad, all shipments were made to and
from Memphis over 100 miles away by wagon, and later, to and
from Eastport on the Tennessee river. With the railroad has come
a shifting of trade centers, as well as increased population and
wealth. The act creating the county established the county seat
at Booneville (pop. 1,250), near the center of the county. It is on
the Mobile & Ohio R. R., and is the largest town in the county
and the center of the most important vegetable and fruit growing
region in this part of the State. The county about is rich and
fertile and the town is growing at a rapid rate. It contains a box
factory, 2 brick & tile factories, a wood working plant, 2 gins, 2
30-11

466 MISSISSIPPI
grist-mills, an electric light plant, a bottling works, a carding fac
tory and some other small enterprises. It is located on the highest
point on the M. & O. R. R., 513 feet above tidewater and has a
mild and salubrious climate. A courthouse was built in 1872 at
a cost of about $15,000, but was condemned in 1904 and the contract
let for a $35,000 up-to-date building which is still in course of con
struction. There are no other large towns in the county, the more
important being Marietta in the southeastern part (pop. 100),
Manila, Altitude, Daltonville, Burtons, Antioch, Elma, all off the
railroad, and Thrasher, Wheeler, and Racket on the railroad. The
only railroad in the county is the Mobile & Ohio, which runs
through the center from north to south. The region is watered by
the numerous creeks which form the head waters of the Tom
bigbee, flowing south, and by the branches of the Tuscumbia river,
flowing north. In 1900 there were 74,436 acres of improved lands,
or about one-third of its area ; the remaining two-thirds is well
timbered with oaks of various kinds, hickory, elm, beech, walnut,
poplar, ash, gum and pine. The surface of the county is level,
undulating and hilly, and the soil is rich and fertile on the bottoms,
good on the uplands and poor on the steep hills. It produces corn,
cotton, oats, wheat, sorghum, peas, potatoes and an abundance of
vegetables and fruits, both large and small. Some limestone is
found and large beds of marl have also been discovered and used
for fertilizing purposes. The prairie region forms a good stock
country and the industry has assumed large proportions during the
last few years. Manufactures are still in their infancy, but the
proximity of the county to the coal and iron of Alabama, should
ultimately render it an important manufacturing region.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population: —
Number of farms 2,591, acreage in farms 222,236, acres improved
74,436, value of land exclusive of buildings $929,970, value of build
ings $321,270, value of live stock $477,040, total value of products
not fed to stock $863,305. Number of manufacturing establish
ments 50, capital invested $94,570, wages paid $23,830, cost of ma
terials $80,435, total value of products $178,602. The population
in 1900 was whites 12,657, colored 3,131, total 15,788, increase of
2,109 over the year 1890. As there has been a steady increase in
population it was estimated at 18,000 in 1906. Land values have
increased at a rapid rate and farm lands have more than doubled
in the last 5 years. Artisian water has been found in various parts
of the county, and the region is one of the healthiest in the State.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Pren
tiss county in 1905 was $1,961,805 and in 1906 it was $2,610,330,
which shows an increase of $648,525 during the year.
Prentiss, Seargent Smith, was born at Portland, Maine, Sep
tember 30, 1808. His father, William Prentiss, was a prosperous
ship-master, a man of energy, intelligence and adventure, who
had braved perils of - sea-storm, shipwreck, pirates and the
British enemy. The grandfather, Samuel Prentiss, a native of

MISSISSIPPI 467
Massachusetts, was a graduate of Harvard college. The father of
Samuel was Rev. Joshua Prentiss, a minister at Holliston, Mass.
The pioneer of the family in America was Henry Prentice, a grave
Puritan, who came over from England some time before 1640.
His eldest daughter, Mary, married the great-grandfather of John
Hancock. When Seargent was an infant he was attacked by an almost
fatal illness, followed by paralysis. This was mainly cured by
massage and plunges in cold water, daily, for several years, by
the devoted mother, but one limb she was unable to save from
withering, and throughout life he was a cripple, requiring the
help of a cane to walk about or stand before an audience. With
this one exception he was physically perfect, though short of
stature. The beauty of his face, the vigor of his body, enhanced
the charm and power of his words. In speaking he lisped slightly,
but this was not considered a defect.
Captain Prentiss was ruined by Jefferson's embargo and the
war of 1812-15. He removed his family to the town of Gorham,
and became a farmer. There, the boy came under the influence
of his mother's father, Maj. George Lewis, Hon. George Thacher,
a cousin of the latter, and other old school Federalists, and im
bibed the intense national spirit and something of "lordliness"
characteristic of that school of politics. Seargent was compelled
to live in and about the house as a child, photographing in his
wonderful mind nearly every word of the Bible and the Pilgrim's
Progress, books which are, to the unpoisoned spirit of a boy, full
of the spirit of the noblest chivalry. On crutches, or drawn in a
little cart or sled by an elder brother, he attended village school.
He had a great passion for shooting and fishing, and loved to
loiter along the brook and through the forests. Determining to
go to college, he prepared at Gorham academy, and there read
the Arabian Nights and Don Quixote. He was then twelve or
thirteen years, fearless, impulsive and daring. He shirked the
weekly declamation as long as possible, and then convulsed the
master and school with a witty improvised poem. In the fall of
1824, at the age of fifteen years, he entered Bowdoin college, in
the second year class. As a student he was brilliant; he read om-
niverously and rapidly, apparently not stopping to turn the leaves,
and was constantly resorting to Walter Scott and Shakespeare.
A year after he entered college his father died, and as soon as his
college course was completed, Seargent began the study of law
with Josiah Pierce, of Gorham.
It was very common in his day for young men of New England
to go to the South and Southwest, though their first impulse was
to the Ohio. "Searge," as his mother called him, started out to
make his fortune in these new worlds in 1827; going to Buffalo,
thence by boat to Sandusky, and by stage across Ohio to Cincin
nati. Bellamy Storer took him in charge and found him a place
in the office of Judge Wright. He sought to open a school and
support himself while he continued his reading of law, but being

468 MISSISSIPPI
advised that he would find a more open field, and perhaps secure
the more desirable situation of tutor at some great plantation, at
the Natchez, he suddenly decided to go South. One of his new
friends advanced him the necessary money, two gentlemen and
their families, from Natchez, urged him to accompany them, and
he went down the river with letters of introduction to the great
people at the famous Mississippi port. He came with the inten
tion of returning North in a year or two, and for some time con
tinued in that intention. He reached Natchez November 2, 1827,
was greeted cordially, and within two or three weeks was engaged
as tutor of the five children of the widow of William B. Shields,
in whose plantation home was one of the best law libraries of the
State, which she put at his service. In July, 1828, he had paid his
debts, and had $15 left, and sorrowfully left the Shields home to
take charge of a school about eight miles from Natchez. But
teaching disgusted him, he could not easily adapt himself to the
conditions created by slavery, and was often on the verge of start
ing back to Maine. Yet the prospect of financial success was too
alluring. He gave up his school in February, 1829, and, having
money enough to support himself a few months, entered the law
office of Robert J. Walker at Natchez, who promised to back him
in this venture into a career as a lawyer. He was admitted to the
bar at Monticello in June, and became the law partner of Gen.
Felix Huston. Then his financial safety was assured. He began
the practice and soon had opportunity to make speeches in the
presence of brilliant lawyers, that they had never heard equalled
in vigor of argument, brilliancy of expression and flowing humor.
Though a young man he already showed that stoutness of build
that was a characteristic, though his height was only five feet
six. Stout as he was, his head was large for the body. His fore
head was wide, high and almost semi-circular in outline, as in the
portraits of Shakespeare.
While at Natchez, he continued unsettled in mind about where
he should make his home, wavering between the opportunities of
New Orleans and the memories that drew him back to Maine.
But in January, 1832, he decided to remain for a time in Missis
sippi and to make his home in the town of Vicksburg, then a rap
idly growing place. He had already been there, in the midst of a
small-pox epidemic, and by a two hours' argument secured the
repeal of an oppressive quarantine regulation. This scourge was
followed by the cholera and his first year's experience was under
great difficulties. But he busied himself by a campaign against
Jackson's reelection, and enjoyed a visit in November with Wash
ington Irving. Early in 1833 he was at Washington, D. C, to
argue a case in the supreme court, and met Jackson, whom he
considered "about as fit to be president of the United States as I
am." (Letter to his sister.) He was too poor financially to make
a visit home, and "could have sat down and cried about it." Re
turning to Natchez, he formed a partnership with John I. Guion,
his life-long, and devoted friend.

MISSISSIPPI 469
The temptations to which such a man as Prentiss was exposed,
coming as he did, and whence he did, were like those experienced
now by a visitor to the tropics. Not that the people he left were
any better, but there was a great change of conditions, and power
ful restraints were withdrawn. Intoxication, -gambling, duelling,
frivolous skepticism of anything truer than "today we drink and
tomorrow we die," were so prevalent as to obscure the solid ele
ments of society that were building the State. Prentiss yielded,
very largely, to reckless habits, though he kept his purity of
thought and expression, and throughout his life was religious in
the highest sense.
October 5, 1833, he fought a duel with Henry S. Foote, on thfe
Louisiana shore, at sunrise, at ten steps distance. Not long after
ward a second duel took place. In both Foote was slightly
wounded. Bailie Peyton told the story that in the second duel,
when Prentiss' pistol had snapped, and Foote's bullet had whistled
over his head, the crowd being so dense that there was barely
room for the passage of the balls, Prentiss called to a small boy
climbing a sapling for a better view, "My son, you had better take
care; General Foote is shooting rather wild." These two duels
were his only ones in a land where duels were "as plenty as black
berries." Afterward, in his last visit to Cincinnati, a would-be
friend alluded to Foote as a "dog," whereupon Prentiss instantly
retorted: "If he is a dog, sir, he is our dog, and you shall not
abuse him in my presence." In 1835 when he heard that Gen.
Felix Huston was sick with small-pox, he went to him at once,
and remained with him, despite the loathsome virulence of the
disease, until the general was out of danger. A boyhood vaccina
tion saved him from anything worse than a slight attack.
At the beginning of the year 1834 he was in the full tide of
success as a lawyer. He had little time now for those letters to
his mother, sisters and brothers, in which his nature is revealed.
He was confident in 1834 that he could make at least $3,000 a
year, and he had been solicited to become a candidate for con
gress. In August he was chosen to deliver an oration at the State
capitol in memory of Gen. Lafayette. In the summer of 1835,
he sailed from New York with a party of Mississippians. On the
voyage he was in his element, overwhelming his friends with
eloquent observations and reciting poem after poem on every
topic that came up, from the masters of English verse, whose
words were printed in his memory. After a visit to his old home,
he returned to Vicksburg, where in his absence, had occurred the
famous uprising against the Blacklegs. He was a member of the
legislature in December, 1835, and, with his Whig colleagues,
endeavored to reelect Poindexter to the senate. With very dif
ferent weapons he fought the great prestige of Jackson as ear
nestly as Poindexter did. It was related by Judge Wilkinson that
at one of Prentiss' meetings, a man invaded the audience bearing
a banner inscribed "Hurrah for Jackson." Prentiss, without a
pause in his indictment of Democracy, went on to say, "In short,

470 MISSISSIPPI
fellow citizens, you have now before you the sum and substance
of all the arguments of the party, 'Hurrah for Jackson.' "
He favored locating the New Orleans & Nashville road east of
Pearl river, and showed an interest in the development of the
whole State that was not agreeable to some of his friends at Vicks
burg. Another great Whig, A. L. Bingaman, suffered for the
same reason at Natchez. Prentiss was tired of lawmaking at the
close of the session, also of law, and asked his younger brother
to come on and succeed him in the practice. He was then -28 years
of age. In the spring of 1836 he visited Cincinnati and various
Kentucky points. In the same year he joined with others in the
purchase of an interest in the "Commons" of Vicksburg, lending
his legal ability to the effort to dispossess the city. He expected
to become wealthy from the speculation. It was a time of the
wildest speculation all over the United States and Vicksburg was
a focus of greatest intensity. In the following year the collapse
came. A general panic and failure of credit pervaded the coun
try and laid its hand on the markets in Europe. Mississippi cot
ton that sold for 19 cents in December, 1836, brought, only 9% in
the following April. In the legislature of 1837 he denounced the
spirit of the argument of Adam L. Bingaman, on the question of
seating the alleged representatives from new counties. "It is, a
fearful monster, which has, for the last two or three years, trav
ersed the United States with the stride of a drunken and in
furiated giant, trampling down constitutions and laws and setting
governments at defiance. In the city of Baltimore, in its frantic
mood, it demolished the edifices of the citizens. In Charleston,
a convent fell a prey to its wayward humor. It is no stranger
within our own State — and maddened by a southern sun, its foot
steps have been marked with blood. It is the principle of moboc-
racy, the incarnate fiend of anarchy." In this speech he fearlessly
challenged the Whig leadership of Bingaman. The speech, of
three hours, established his reputation throughout the State. De
spite his declaration that the course he opposed would "infuse into
the legislation of the State a poison which no medicine can cure,"
his opposition was ineffectual. On the refusal of the senate to
recognize the house after this, the legislature adjourned, and Pren
tiss resigned. In the following summer, while on another visit
to Maine, he was nominated for congress by the Whigs of Mis
sissippi, and he returned and went into' a campaign declaring for
the reorganization of a United States bank. This campaign made
him "the pride, the delight, and the chosen standard bearer of his
party in the State."
No one attempted to meet him but McNutt, who dared to allude
to Prentiss' dissipated habits. Prentiss retorted that the gover
nor could not make any sober accusation against him, for he had
been drunk ten years, not upon the rich wines of the Rhine, the
Rhone, the Saone or the Guadalquiver ; not with his friends around
the genial and generous board, but in the secret seclusion of a
dirty little backroom and on corn whiskey. "Why, fellow citi-

MISSISSIPPI 471
zens, as the governor of the State, he refused to sign the gallon
law until he had tested, by experiment, that a gallon would do
him all day." He continued in a brilliant, rollicking tirade of
ridicule that drove his opponent from the stand. There were two
elections in 1837, in the last of which, supposed to be for the regu
lar term, he was elected. The seat was contested on the claim that
congress had recognized the first election as for the full term.
His contest was the contest of two great national parties for
control. In defense of his title he spoke for two days and part of
a third, in the presence of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Dan
iel Webster, Preston, White, and Crittenden, and when the young
orator noted the mystic signs of approval passing between such
hearers he was intoxicated with delight, and at the sime time as
tonished; for the greatest charm of this speech, as of all his great
efforts, was his unfeigned sincerity and absolute surrender to the
effort to convince. Webster said "Nobody could equal it." George
Winchester wrote from Natchez, "I feel a glow of triumph; it
runs warm through my veins and animates and enlivens me like
a shout of victory." Only a skeleton of this great effort is pre
served; the professional reporters could not follow it. He made
a second speech on the same subject, replying to the courtly
Legare, of South Carolina. This effort surpassed the first and
had an audience even more brilliant. Hardly a vestige of it is pre
served. The final vote of the house, for partisan reasons, was a
tie, and Speaker Polk cast his vote against Prentiss. Henry Clay
laughingly pointed his finger at the latter, saying, "Now go home,
d — n you, where you ought to be," a jest that was afterward dis
torted into an insult to the, Speaker. Before he went home Pren
tiss was entertained at dinner by Webster, Clay and other Whigs
in congress, at which the godlike Webster, late at night, was in
spired to the most wonderful utterances ever heard by his friends.
Prentiss issued an address to the people and made another cam
paign. His first address was at Vicksburg, the meeting presided
over by William L. Sharkey ; next at Natchez. He declared, "All
is lost save honor," denied that the coming election was valid,
promised that if reelected he would take his seat under the pre
vious election, a promise that was kept. This campaign was the
most dramatic event of his career. Old Democrats heard him,
with tears running down their cheeks. Many who had never bolted
their ticket voted for him, and Prentiss and Word were triumph
antly elected. In congress he did not find much opportunity for
distinction except in helping defeat the sub-treasury measure of
the administration. After adjournment in 1838, he went to Port
land, Me., and was invited to speak at Faneuil Hall, Boston, at a
reception to Daniel Webster. He followed Edward Everett, Dan
iel Webster, and several others, and spoke late in the night. Ever
ett wrote — "He took possession of the audience from the first
sentence and carried them along with unabated interest, I think for
above an hour. . . . Sitting by Mr. Webster, I asked him if
he ever heard anything like it; he answered, 'Never, except from

472 MISSISSIPPI
Mr. Prentiss himself.' " He responded to the toast, "Mississippi
and her distinguished representative in Congress." During the
first part of his speech he had difficulty in finding moments of
silence in which to proceed, until the audience realized that it must
be quiet to hear, after which the nervous strain was so intense as
to be painful. At one part of this speech he said:
"Though politicians actuated solely by a selfish and parricidal
ambition, seek to rend asunder what God has himself joined in
everlasting bonds, there is a hand that will arrest the impious de
sign ; a hand they despise, but which they will find too strong for
them. I mean the hand of the mechanical laborer. (Great cheer
ing.) Yes, sir, that mighty hand — and long may it be mighty in
this free and equal land — that mighty hand will link these States
together with hooks of steel. The laboring population of this
country mean to live together as one people, and who shall dis
annul their purpose? See how they are conquering both time and
space ! See the thousand steamboats that traverse our lakes and
rivers ; aye, and that, leviathan-like, begin to make the ocean itself
to boii like a pot! Look at their railroad cars, glancing like fiery
meteors from one end of the land to the other, blazing centaurs
with untiring nerves, with unwasting strength, and who seem to
go, too, on the grand temperance principle, laboring all day on
water alone. (Laughter and loud cheers.) Think you the Amer
ican people will suffer their cars to stop, their railroads to be
broken in twain, and their majestic rivers severed or changed in
their courses, because politicians choose to draw a dividing line
between a Northern and a Southern empire? Never, sir, never!
Proceeding on those great national principles of Union, which have
been so luminously expounded and so nobly vindicated by your
illustrious Guest (cheers) they will teach these politicians who
is master. Let us but hang together for fifty years longer, and
we may defy the world even to separate us. (Shouts and repeated
cheers.) . . . We are one people, for weal or for woe. When
I cannot come from Mississippi, and call the men of Boston my
fellow-citizens, my kindred, my brethren, I desire no longer to be
a citizen of the Republic. (Cheers, long and loud.) Yes, we are
embarked on one bottom; and whether we sink or swim, we will
swim or we will sink together. (Here the hall rang with tumultu
ous uproar, handkerchiefs waved, and the band of music joined
in the applause.)" It must be recalled that the speaker was a
young man of twenty-nine years. He was dissatisfied with his
effort, saying, "I was so awed and overwhelmed by the Spirit of
the Place, that I could not speak." He was compelled to decline
a public dinner at New York, but addressed a tremendous rally in
Masonic Hall, at that city, whence he took boat for New Orleans,
seeking to avoid further adulation. At New Orleans he was re
ceived with the national salute of twenty-one guns, and compelled
to make another speech, after which he was escorted to his Vicks
burg boat by an escort of horsemen and an immense procession
of citizens.

MISSISSIPPI 473
He perceived, when he was again in close touch with his Mis
sissippi environment, that his enemies had successfully used
against him the political cry of "abolitionist." At the public din
ner tendered him, he said: "I have been most bitterly abused for
responding to these courtesies; for daring to break bread and eat
salt with our Northern brethren ; and especially for so far violating
Southern policy as to have wickedly visited the cradle of liberty,
and most sacrilegiously entered Old Faneuil Hall. ... I
could pity these foolish men, whose patriotism consists in hating
everything beyond the limited horizon of their own narrow minds;
but contempt and scorn will not allow of the more amiable senti
ment. ... I do not accuse those who differ with me of a de
sire to dissolve the Union . . ,. but I do most seriously be
lieve that the Union cannot long survive such kind of argument
and feeling, as that to which I have alluded. ... As a private
citizen, I trust ever to retain your confidence and regard, though
as a public man, I shall never again seek them. . . For the
short remainder of the present congress I shall continue to per
form my duty as your representative, but decline being consid
ered a candidate for reelection."
His determination was warmly opposed by the Whigs, but he
persisted in it. In the next session of congress he made a scath
ing attack upon the conditions of the public service, the defalca
tions of Swartwout and others, and accused the~president and his
secretary of the treasury of knowledge and tolerance of corruption.
Returning from Washington, by way of Kentucky, he. took part
in the defence of his friend, Judge Wilkinson, on the charge of
murder. In his great speech, on this occasion, he had to defend
Mississippi gentlemen in general, from the imputation of contempt
for craftsmen and laborers. He won the case. After this he expected
to confine his work to his profession, but in the summer of that
year, 1839, there was a Whig movement for his candidacy for the
United States senate, that could not be resisted. He accepted, and
made a canvass of the State, but his party failed to secure the leg
islature. Mr. Prentiss went counter to the predominant sentiment
regarding the banks. He urged a national banking system and
pleaded that banks were necessary, and must not be denounced
as an evil because some of them were bad. In the midst of the
canvass he wrote to his sister Abby that he had a good chance
to be beaten, and though he would do his best, he would be grati
fied by defeat. He was "disgusted with politics and annoyed by
notoriety." Then came the year 1840, first of the great presidential campaigns
such as have been familiar to Americans since that time. It was
a year of unprecedented enthusiasm, a campaign of education.
Prentiss was emplored to speak in every State of the Union. He
responded with earnest efforts in all the chief cities of the United
States, from St. Louis and Chicago east, impressing the most
competent observers with the depth and wisdom of his views, as
well as entrancing the multitude. Throughout he was confident

474 MISSISSIPPI
of the success that followed. He was chosen by Mississippi as
one of the Harrison electors.
Early in 1841 he fell in love. He wrote his sister: "I laugh at
those who look upon the uncertain, slight and changeable regards
of the multitude, as worthy even of comparisons with the true af
fection of one warm heart ; and I would sacrifice more, do more and
dare more, to win the love of a woman whom I loved than I would
to wield the sceptre of Napoleon." But he was in the darkest depths
of despair. Yellow fever broke out in Vicksburg, and he spent
two months caring for his friends, hoping he might take the fever
and die. His sister Anna came to his help. After she departed for the
east, he wrote to thank her for the "priceless jewel of sweet Mary's
love." He was married March 2, 1842, to Mary, daughter of James
C. Williams, of Natchez. From their wedding trip to the east they
returned hastily, for ruin had laid its hand upon Mississippi. He
had been rich; it was now impossible to say how poor he was.
There was no money for the payment of debts, no money to collect.
Property had no salable value, all were poor alike. But he im
proved and refitted a home at Vicksburg, known as "Belmont."
Here he entertained Henry Clay in 1843. Here "little Jeanie" was
born, and as he traveled through the State he turned from the law
to write love letters to his wife and child.
In 1840-43 he made a gallant fight against repudiation of the
State bonds, hand in hand with Adam L. Bingaman, George Poin
dexter, and William L. Sharkey.
During the excitement about the Choctaw land frauds he was
accused in a newspaper publication of complicity, on the authority
of a member of the government commission. Accompanied by
Peyton and Forrester he went to Hillsboro, in the Indian country,
where the commission sat, and exposed the author of the calumny,
making a terrific indictment of the man. His colleagues on the
commission voted to expel the member and refused to longer sit
with him. (See Claiborne J. F. H.)
On Washington's birthday, 1844, he addressed a great Whig
meeting at New Orleans. He had suffered much from the great
strain of his life, financial misfortune, and the exhaustive efforts he
had made in politics ; but yet he had something of the resilience of a
Damascus blade, and appeared the picture of buoyant health. He
took a conspicuous part in the campaign for Clay that year,
throughout the East and in the South, fighting always the poison
of "repudiation," which was manifested by Dorr's rebellion in
Rhode Island as well as in other quarters. He particularly urged
that no people possessed such sovereignty as to disregard justice
and the obligations of constitutions and contracts ; that freedom
was limited by self-restraint, and liberty did not tend to equality
but the greatest possible inequality; in brief, his theme was unity
and independence of all classes and communities in the nation.
He declined many invitations from various States in order to make
one great effort at the Nashville convention in 1844, to which he
was invited by a committee of five hundred ladies as well as by the

MISSISSIPPI 475
politicians. There were similar invitations from the women of
several cities, among them from Natchez and Holly Springs. Of
his speech at Nashville, it was written by Gov. Jones, "He en
tranced the immense crowd, that was estimated by acres, for about
two and a half hours. The applause was terrific." In the midst
of it he was taken with stricture of the chest, to which he had
become subject, and the cry came up like a storm, "Sit down and
rest, don't quit, we will wait !" His speech at Natchez in the same
campaign is described as marvellous. "At times the whole vast
assembly were convulsed with emotion. Some wept, some laughed
hysterically, some were pallid with fear." His farewell address
was at the grand two days mass meeting at Jackson in October,
which is characterized as hardly describable. All this will pass the
reader without understanding if he does not realize that even then
there rested upon the people the approaching shadow of the ter
rible War, and Prentiss, thrilled with the prescience of a spirit,
was pleading for Union, Tolerance and Peace. The defeat of Clay
left half the nation in tears.
• In January, 1845, the supreme court of the United States decided
against him regarding the title to the Vicksburg commons. It was
a speculation that reflects more severely on his character than
drinking or gambling, but all three of these things were part of
his times. On the contested property he had built a block of stores,
a hotel and other improvements, at a cost of $150,000. He was
"entirely used up ; did not expect his property to liquidate his
debts." For a year he had determined to leave Vicksburg for New Or
leans, and this change of residence was made in 1845. His suc
cess at this time in passing from a practice under the common law
to one based upon the code of Napoleon, without losing prestige,
is one of the most wonderful things in his career. Before him,
many brilliant lawyers had gone to New Orleans> and into eclipse
because of the difficulties of the transition. Said the editor of the
Delta: "He soon achieved a position at the bar of New Orleans
as prominent as that he occupied in Mississippi." During the
four remaining years of his life he actively opposed the war with
Mexico, but eloquently welcomed the returning troops. He made
a famous appeal for relief of the Irish sufferers from famine.
A sensational event of his life at New Orleans was the suit
against James Irwin, involving the honor of that. gentleman, who
was a son-in-law of Henry Clay. Prentiss had for his opponent
John R. Grimes. "The trial attracted a vast assemblage, and the
public curiosity was intensely aroused. Two such combatants had
never before met upon that arena." In his semi-delirium Prentiss
made such a furious tirade against Irwin, that Henry Clay Irwin
challenged him, which challenge he reluctantly accepted, but de
manded delay. General Huston was sent for and mutual apologies
were arranged, much to the delight of Henry Clay.
In this period Prentiss opposed the Wilmot proviso, and wanted

476 MISSISSIPPI
his old friends in Mississippi to have the right of taking their ne
groes with them into new territories.
When the cholera invaded New Orleans in 1848 he was sick near
to death, and this, joined to the exhaustion of his political cam
paign for General Taylor, weakened him beyond his power of re
covery. He made one more visit to Maine, and his mother saw his
hair thickset with gray, and his face lined with sorrow and disease.
There was a last visit to Webster and Clay, and then returning, he
spent much of the spring of 1850 in a cottage at Pass Christian,
with his wife and the four children. John C. Calhoun died at this
time, and he pronounced a warm eulogy on his character. With
revived spirit, he hoped he could soon pay all his debts. Sending
his family back to "Longwood," he plunged into work with an
almost insane energy, and no sign of decay of intellectual power.
About the middle of June he appeared before Judge McCaleb in
behalf of Lopez, the revolutionist, and on concluding fell in a
faint. The end had come, and his friend Hammet, of Vicksburg,
could do no more than obey the dying man's request, "Take me
home." Back at Natchez, he begged for roses, and they heaped a
great pile of them at his side, and he lay and toid them about them.
His last word was "Mary." He died Monday evening, July 1, 1850.
His body is buried in the old family ground of the Sargents.
Foote considered his masterpieces at the bar, his speeches in
prosecution of Alonzo Phelps, the outlaw, and of Mercer Byrd, ac
cused of complicity in the murder of Cameron ; his greatest polit
ical efforts the speeches at Nashville in 1840 and before congress
in defense of his claim to a seat.
Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, peculiarly capable of appreciating
him, wrote : "His eye was deep in his head — large, clear, full of
animation and of hidden fires. It had a look deeper than its set;
when looked into, it returned a glance, which, like that of Lara,
'dared you to forget.' But there was a buoyancy in his presence
which seemed as if it would leap from battle to play, from play
to battle ; and a goodness, which said to me at least, 'Let's you and
I be friends.' Spirit responded to spirit at the first sight without
a word. . . . His head, I saw, was two stories high, with a
large attic on top, above which was his bump of comparison and
veneration. Of the latter he had a vast deal. He actually admired,
and reverenced often, gifts and genius far inferior to his own.
. . . He was at that time (1840) excessively convivial. The
moment he arrived [in Congress] a set of roisterers challenged
him at once to a continued round of revelry, and I said to myself
and others : 'This Mississippi wonder will cease, if he does not
take heed.'
"Every trait of his noble nature was in excess ; his very virtues
leaned to faults, and his faults themselves to virtues. The like of
him I shall never see again, so compounded was he of all sorts of
contradictions, without a single element in him to disgust — with
out one characteristic which did not attract and charm. . . .
He was a natural spendthrift, and yet despised debt and depen-

MISSISSIPPI 477
dence. He was heedless of all consequences, yet of the soundest
judgment in council and discretion in movement. He was almost
the only man I ever saw whom I never heard utter a scandal, and
he had the least charity of any man I ever saw for all kinds of base
ness or meanness. He was continually without ceasing quoting
classic lore, and not the least of a pedant. He wa's brave to fool-
hardiness, and wouldn't hurt Uncle Toby's fly." (Bibliography:
Memoir, two volumes, edited by his brother; Life and Times, by
Joseph D. Shields; Fulkerson's Recollections, Reuben Davis' Rec
ollections, Foote's Bench and Bar, Rowland's study of Prentiss as
an orator in Pub. of M. H. S. Vol. IV.)
Presbyterian Church. Many of the emigrants to the Natchez
district were Scotch-Irish from the Carolinas, who were very tenac
ious of their Presbyterian traditions and usages. The first at
tempt at organization was made in 1801 by three pioneer preachers :
Rev. William Montgomery, Rev. James Hall and Rev. James Bow
man, who had been sent to their new field by the synod of Carolina.
They came through the wilderness on horseback, and spent part
3f the year in Mississippi, preaching and gathering the Presbyte
rians into congregations. They were followed in 1803 by Rev.
Joseph Rullen, who had been sent by the New York Missionary
society to establish a mission among the Indians in the northern
part of Mississippi. Mr. Bullen spent four years in this work and
then removed with his family and settled near Natchez, where he
engaged in farming, teaching school and preaching to the people
of the settlements. In 1804 he established Bethel church, at Union-
town which was the first Presbyterian church in Mississippi con
stituted in regular form. Mr. Bullen continued his work of orga
nization, assisted by the missionaries who came into the country,
and in 1812, the number of churches reached eight. Four ministers
supplied these churches: Joseph Bullen, James Smylie, Jacob
Rickhow and William Montgomery. In 1815 these churches were
-constituted by the synod of Kentucky an independent presbytery,
to be known as the Mississippi Presbytery. The first meeting of
this presbytery was at Salem church, on Pine Ridge, Adams county,
March 6, 1816. The territory assigned to the Mississippi presbytery
was of vast extent, embracing part of Alabama, Louisiana, Ar
kansas and Texas, besides the whole of Mississippi. The territory
rapidly increased in population, and Presbyterian churches and
communities were multiplied in proportion. The Mississippi pres
bytery, as a result of this, soon found itself one among a number
of presbyteries that had been carved out of its original territory.
This period was one of great activity in the Presbyterian church.
Besides the building of churches there was much work carried on
among the Indians and slaves. Special attention was also given to
educational work. In 1829 the Mississippi presbytery decided to
establish an institution of learning of the highest order then exis
ting in the country, and in 1830 inaugurated* Oakland college (q.
v.) the successor of which is Chamberlain-Hunt Academy at Port
Gibson, an institution of high order. In 1835 the present synod

478 MISSISSIPPI
of Mississippi was formed by act of the general assembly of the
Presbyterian church in the United States of America. From 1835
to 1861 the church continued to expand and was distinguished for
zeal and activity in every department of work. At the , beginning
of the war the Presbyterians of the seceded states separated from
those of the North and founded "the Presbyterian church in the
Confederate States of America." This was done by a general as
sembly which met at Augusta, Ga., December 4, 1861. This was
the first general assembly of the Southern Church, and its mem
bership was made up of representatives from ten synods, embrac
ing forty-seven presbyteries, most of those in Mississippi being
represented. The new church at once adopted a vigorous home and foreign
missionary policy. It took charge of the missionary work in the
Indian Territory among those tribes which had thrown in their lot
with the Confederate States, largely through the efforts of Gen.
Albert Pike. The church dispensed with "boards," and placed its
work in charge of executive committees, who had less discretionary
power and were more directly responsible to the synodical bodies.
In 1863 it received the Independent Presbyterian Church, a body
of 13 churches and four ministers, all in South Carolina. In 1864
a union was formed with the United Synod (N. S.) The close of
the war made necessary a change in the style of the Southern
Church, which substituted "United States" for "Confederate
States," and left out the words "of America." It is now known as
the "Presbyterian Church in the United States" (South).
Despite its great losses in men and means from the devastations
of war, and during the years of depression that followed, it took
up the Work of rebuilding with spirit and energy, and it is today
strong and prosperous throughout the State. Moreover, the gen
eral body was soon reinforced by accessions of presbyteries from
the border States like Kentucky, while several Associate Reformed
presbyteries in the Southern states entered its communion.
Presidential Elections. The first in which Mississippi partici
pated was in 1820, when three electors were chosen, one of whom
died before the day of election, so that only two votes were cast
by Mississippi for James Monroe.
The law of 1824 provided that the election of three electors
should be made by the qualified voters of the State, on the first
Monday of November, the electors to meet at Jackson on, the first
Wednesday in December, and be empowered to fill any vacancy
from death or disability. Thereafter the electoral vote was cast
without mishap, according to the popular vote, which has been as
follows : Votes of Mississippi.
1824.
Andrew Jackson, Tennessee, Democrat  3,234
John Quincy Adams,* Massachusetts  ,  1,694
Wm. H. Crawford, Georgia  119
Henry Clay, Kentucky  21

MISSISSIPPI 479
1828.
Andrew Jackson, Tennessee, Democrat  6,714
John "Quincy Adams, Massachusetts, N. R  1,674
1832.
Andrew Jackson with Martin Van Buren of New York,
Democrat  6,110
Henry Clay, Kentucky, N. R  791
1836.
Martin Van Buren, New York, Democrat,  9,979
Hugh L. White, Tennessee, Whig  9,688
1840.
Wm. Henry Harrison, Ohio, Whig  19,518
Martin Van Buren, New York, Dem  16,975
1844.
James K. Polk, Tennessee, Dem  25,126
Henry Clay, Kentucky, Whig  19,206
1848.
Zachary Taylor, Louisiana, Whig  25,922
Lewis Cass, Michigan, Dem  26,537
1852.
Franklin Pierce, N. H., Dem  26,876
Winfield Scott, N. J., Whig  , . .17,548
1856.
James Buchanan, Pa., Dem  35,446
Millard Fillmore, N. Y., Whig & Amer  24,195
1860.
Stephen A. Douglass, III, Dem  3,283
John C. Breckinridge, Ken., Dem  40,797
John Bell, Tenn, Cons. Un  25,040
1864.
Civil War period.
1868.
Reconstruction period.
1872.
Ulysses S. Grant, 111, Rep  82,175
Horace Greeley, N. Y, Dem. & Lib., Rep  .47,288
Charles O'Connor, N. Y, Dem  207

480 MISSISSIPPI 1876.
Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio,, Rep  52,605
Samuel J. Tilden, N. Y, Dem  112,173
1880.
James A. Garfield, Ohio, Rep  34,854
Winfield S. Hancock, Penn, Dem  75,750
James B. Weaver, Iowa, Green  5,797
1884.
Grover Cleveland, N. Y, Dem  76,510
James G. Blaine, Me, Rep  43,509
1888.
Benjamin Harrison, Ind, Rep  30,096
Grover Cleveland, N. Y, Dem  85,471
Clinton B. Fisk, N. J, Pro  218
Andrew J. Streeter, 111, Un. La  222
1892.
Grover Cleveland, N. Y, Dem  40,237
Benjamin Harrison, Ind., Rep  1,406
James B. Weaver, Iowa, Peo  10,256
John Bidwell, Pro  910
1896.
William McKinley, Ohio, Rep  5,123
Bryan and Sewell, S. Dem  46,283
Bryan and Watson, Pop.. .  7,517
John M. Palmer, 111, Nat. P  1,017
Joshua Levering, Md, Pro  485
1900.
William McKinley, Ohio, Rep  5,753
William J. Bryan, Neb, Dem  51,706
Wharton Parker, Pa, Peo  1,644
1904.
Theodore Roosevelt, N. Y, Rep  3,189
Alton B. Parker, N. Y, Dem  53,379
Socialist  393
Populist  .'  1,425
Press, a post-hamlet of Marion county.
Preston. This is one of the extinct towns of Yalobusha county.
It was located about fourteen miles north of Grenada near the pres
ent town of Scobey, in the western part of the county. Its career
covers the period from 1835 to 1867. See Yalobusha county.

MISSISSIPPI 481
Preston, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Kemper
county, 14 miles northwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population
in 1900, 35.
Preston, James Rhea, was born in Washington county, Va,
"January 22, 1853, the son of Col. James T. Preston and Fannie
Rhea. Col. Preston was a member of an old Virginia family, and
served in the army of Virginia, C. S. A. J. R. Preston was edu
cated at Georgetown university and Emory and Henry college,
and after teaching one year each in Tennessee and in Indiana, re
moved to Mississippi in 1875, and taught at Okolona for three years,
during which time he was admitted to the bar. After teaching at
Center Point three years, and at Water Valley four and a half
years, he was elected State superintendent of education in 1885,
reelected in 1889, and served till 1896. His administration of the
office was distinguished by many reforms in methods and a general
increase in interest in educational work. Upon returning to private
life he studied at Edinburgh, Scotland, and then organized Stanton
college at Natchez for young ladies. This has been a prosperous
'•college, and in 1904, on the death of President Fitzhugh, Professor
Preston bought Belhaven college at Jackson. He is now president
of both Stanton and Belhaven colleges and makes his home in
Jackson. Pretoria, a postoffice located in the northeastern prairie region
of Noxubee county, 10 miles east of Brookville, the nearest rail
road and banking station. Population in 1900, 16.
Prichard, a postoffice of Tunica county, located on the Cold-
water river, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R,
10 miles east of Tunica, the county seat.
Primary Election Law. In his inaugural address (1900) Gover
nor Longino urged the enactment of a "uniform compulsory pri
mary election law," declaring that the supremacy of intelligence
in the government of the State was of obvious importance, and it
"must depend on white political supremacy." But people were
growing impatient with "the dubious and devious methods of the
party nominating machinery," and if "we would perpetuate white
political union," the time was opportune for effective action. A
bill passed the house that year, but was prevented from reaching
a vote in the senate. In his message of 1902 the governor quoted
the clause of the constitution of 1890, "The legislature shall enact
laws to secure fairness in party primary elections, conventions
and other methods of nominating party candidates," and added,
"I beg to call the attention of the legislature to the fact that the
existing statutes on the subject do not meet the constitutional
requirement or amount even to a respectable makeshift."
The existing statutes were embraced in the code of 1892. The
legislature of 1902 repealed the same except two sections, and
adopted senate bill No. 1, now known as the primary election law,
amended in 1904. It requires that "all nominations for State, dis
trict, county and county district officers made by the different
parties of the State shall hereafter be made by primary elections,"
31-11

482 MISSISSIPPI
which shall be governed by the election law in force at the time of
such primary elections, with some exceptions provided. The
county executive committees at such primaries shall discharge the
functions imposed upon county election commissioners," and ap
point the primary election officers, all acting under the same rules
and penalties as in general elections. The county executive com
mittee shall consist of 15 members, three from each supervisor's
district. The organization of district party committees are also
provided for. The State executive committee shall consist of three
delegates from each congressional district. A State convention
shall be held by each political party in 1904 and every four years
thereafter, to select a State executive committee, delegates to the
national convention, and to nominate presidential electors, each
county to have a representation in the convention equal to twice
its represetation in the house of representatives, the delegates to
be selected by county delegate conventions in each county, the
representation in which is also regulated. These county conven
tions choose a county executive committee, to hold four years.
The first general primary is to be held between the 1st and 10th
of August, and the second, if one is necessary, three weeks later.
Any candidate who receives the majority of the popular vote cast
for the office for which he is a candidate, in the first primary,
shall be the nominee of his party for such office. If for any offices
there is no majority nomination, then a second primary is ordered,
in which, for any office, the two candidates that received the
highest vote in the first primary are voted for. But, for the legis
lative and county nominations, candidates may agree to a plurality
choice. Various other regulations are provided. "No persons
shall be eligible to participate in primary elections unless they are
qualified electors, intend to support the nominations in which they
participate, have participated with the political party holding the
primary within the two years preceding, and are not excluded from
such primary by regulations of the party State executive commit
tee." The expenses of this system is borne by the party holding
the primary, and the cost of ballots and booths is apportioned
among the candidates, the charging of other expenses to candidates
being forbidden. The name of no candidate is placed upon the
official ballot in any general or special election, as a party nominee,
who is not nominated in pursuance of the provisions of this act,
and the election of any party nominee nominated otherwise shall -
be void. No political party is entitled to recognition in the ap
pointment of election officers unles it has made nominations ac
cording to this system. Nominations for United States senator
are made at the primary elections under the same regulations gov
erning nominations of State officers. (See Longino and Vardaman
Adms.) Prince, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, 15 miles northwest of
Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Princeton. This was an old Mississippi river settlement and was
located about ten miles above the present southern boundary of

MISSISSIPPI 483
Washington county. It flourished during the early part of the last
century, when it was an important shipping point, with over six
hundred inhabitants, and was the original county seat of Washing
ton county. (See Washington county.) The county site was
later moved to Greenville, when the old town began to decline. It
is now quite extinct. It is said that "S. B. Lawson was one of the
last merchants in the place," and that "in 1868 he sold the town
site and remaining buildings to a colored man for $125." (See
Goodspeed's Memoirs of Miss, Vol. I, p, 213.)
Priscilla, a postoffice of Washington county.
Prismatic, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Kemper county,
16 miles north of Meridian. Population in 1900, 40.
Proctor, a postoffice of Tippah county, 3 miles west of the Mo
bile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R, and 18 miles due north of Rip
ley, the county seat.
Prohibition. The later prohibitiori movement began in 1874,
when the Temperance Banner was started by H. H. Hines at Jack
son. A law was secured that required applications for license to
retail intoxicants to present a petition signed by a majority of the
female citizens in the town or district. The Southern Prohibitionist
was published at Columbus in 1881, with Revs. S. A. Steel and
C. B. Galloway as editors. In the spring of the same year there
was a public meeting at Jackson in the interest of prohibition,
addressed by Col. W. L. Nugent and C. B. Galloway. Forty-four
counties were represented in a State convention at Jackson, July
20, over which J. W. C. Watson presided. "There was a large
and intelligent representation of colored citizens, as in every suc
ceeding annual convention." The organization was declared to
be non-partisan. Col. Nugent wasi put at the head of the move
ment. In the following winter Francis E. Willard visited the
State, and delivered an address at Jackson during the session of the
legislature. Her efforts introduced the Women's Christian Tem
perance Union. (Handbook Of Prohibition, Charles B. Galloway,
1886. See Liquor Laws and Const. Con. 1890.)
Prospect, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Newton coun
ty. Population in 1900, 20.
Puckett, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Rankin county,
one mile west of Strong river.
Pulaski, a post-village in the southwestern part of Scott county,
10 miles southwest of Forest, the county seat. Morton is the
nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 200.
Purvis, the county seat of the newly created county of Laniar,
is a thriving station on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R,
situated about half way between Hattiesburg and Lumberton. It
was named for the former owner of the depot site. Lumbering and
farming are the chief industries of the locality. Two newspapers
are published in Purvis — the Lamar County Record established in
1894, edited and published by J. R. Holcomb; The Echo, estab
lished in 1900, and owned and edited by Duck Wall. Both are
Democratic weeklies. The Larriar County Bank was established

484 MISSISSIPPI
in 1904 and has a capital of $30,000. Purvis has a money order
postoffice, an express office, nine general stores, three churches,
and an excellent school. A new court house was built in 1905 at
a cost of $60,000. A large saw milling plant and turpentine still
are located here. At least 8 saw milling plants ship from Purvis.
Considerable cotton is also shipped from this point. The popu
lation in 1906 was estimated at 1,500.
Pushmataha, a postoffice of Coahoma county, located in the south
western part, on the Mississippi river, about 22 miles west of
Clarksdale. Quincy, a post-hamlet of Monroe county, on the Kansas City,
Memphis & Birmingham R. R, about 14 miles northeast of Aber
deen. It has a church and a money order postoffice. Population
in 1900, 32.
Quinn, a hamlet of Pike county, situated on Bogue Chitto, 6
miles east of Summit, the nearest railroad and banking town. It
has rural free delivery from Summit. Population in 1900, 40.
Quitman, the capital of Clarke county, is an incorporated town
and important station on the Mobile & Ohio and the Mississippi
Eastern railroad, 25 miles south of Meridian, on the Chickasawhay
river. The county seat was given the name of the second Chancel
lor of the State, John A. Quitman, as the county Was named in
honor of the State's first Chancellor, Joshua G. Clarke. The county
seat was originally located in 1833 at the geographical center of the
county, but was soon removed for some cause to Quitman, where
it has since remained. The site for the court house was donated
by John Watts, who died in the early seventies. It has two
churches, a good school, an express office, a telegraph office, a
newspaper office, a bank, eleven stores, and a large saw mill. The
first newspaper in the county was established at Quitman about
1851, and was called the Quitman Intelligencer, A. C. Horn beinpr
the editor and J. T. Ballance, the publisher. "The Quitman Globe,"
a Democratic weekly, was established in 1902. It is published by
The Quitman Printing Co. (Inc.) with S. H. Terral, pres, J. K.
Kirkland, vice-pres, and Sam A. Leming, editor and manager.
The Mississippi Lumber Co. located its extensive plant here in
1900, with a capital of $100,000. It is one of the largest lumber
plants in the State, with a capacity of about 25,000,000 feet of lum
ber annually. It planes and manufactures all its lumber ready for
the builder. The plant also has large holdings of timber lands
and enough timber in sight to keep it running 25 years, employs
about 300 men and has about 13 miles of standard gauge railroad.
The Bank of Quitman was established in 1902 with a capital of
$12,500. The town is surrounded by a good farming district and
ships about 1,000 bales of cotton annually. The population was
about 1,000 in 1906.
Quitman County was established late in the history of the State,
February 1st, 1877, during the administration of Gov. John M.
Stone, and was named in honor of Gov. John A. Quitman. The
county has a land surface of 409 square miles. It was carved from

MISSISSIPPI 485
the counties of Tunica, Coahoma, Tallahatchie and Panola. Its
limits are defined as follows : "Beginning at the northeast corner,
of Coahoma county, and running thence south with the boundary
of Coahoma county to the northeast corner of section 33, T. 28,
R. 2 west; thence west on section lines to the range line between
ranges 2 and 3 west; thence south on the range line to the south
west corner of T. 26, R. 2, west ; thence east on the township line
to the range line between ranges 1 and 2 east ; thence north on said
line to the boundary line between the Chickasaw and Choctaw ces
sions ; thence northwest with the said line to the point at which it
touches the western boundary of Panola county ; thence north with
the said boundary to the northeast corner of T. 7, R. 10, west of
the Chickasaw survey, thence west with the northern line of said
township to the township line between townships 7 and 8 ; thence
west with said tonship line to the beginning." The act creating the
county directed that the county site be located by the Board of
Supervisors at a point on the west side of Coldwater river, and
that it be called Belen. The old boundary line between the Choc-
*taw and the Chickasaw cessions cuts across its northeast corner
and forms the northeastern boundary for a short distance. It lies
entirely within the Mississippi and Yazoo Delta Region, in the
northwestern part of the State, is a narrow, irregular shaped body
of land, bounded on the north by Tunica county, on the east by
Panola and Tallahatchie counties, on the south by Tallahatchie
county and on the west by Coahoma county. It is the most
sparsely settled county in the State, has no towns or villages of any
size, but possesses a soil of immense fertility with ample shipping
facilities for its products. Settlers have begun to come in rapidly
during the last few years. The white population is still very small
indeed, numbering in 1900 only 1,258 souls. Belen, the county seat,
is a small village of 177 people (census, 1900) in the western part,
off the railroad, and was named for the battle ground where Gen.
Quitman fought during the Mexican War. Other towns in the
county are Sabino, VanBuren, Yarbrough, Darling and Sledge. The
Yazoo & Miss. Valley R. R. traverses the county from north to
south, branching at Yarbrough to run to Yazoo City and Durant.
The Coldwater river flows from the north in a winding course
through the center and unites near the southern border with the
Tallahatchie and Yocona rivers to form the sluggish Yazoo. These
streams, together with Cassidy's Bayou and Opossum Bayou, afford
it good water facilities. There are 23,360 acres of cleared lands in
the county according to the census of 1900. On the balance of the
land is a considerable timber growth of very large white oak and
cypress, red and sweet gum, poplar,' black walnut and hickory. The
soil is all alluvial, bottom land, and will produce from one to two
bales of cotton per acre and from thirty to sixty bushels of corn.
These are the principal crops, but oats, wheat, sorghum, millet and
tobacco are also grown and do well when properly cultivated. Vege
tables and fruits also do well while Bermuda, Orchard, Herds,
Johnson and other grasses, and red clover, grow luxuriantly. Pas-

486 MISSISSIPPI
turage for stock is good the year through, grasses in summer and
Cane-brakes in winter. In common with most of the Delta Region,
the healthfulness of Quitman county is now radically improved
by tapping the artesian basin underlying it for pure cold water.
The school and church privileges to be found here are fairly good
considering the sparsely settled condition of the county.
The following statistics' were taken from the twelfth U. S. cen
sus for 1900 and relate to farms, manufactures and population : —
Number of farms 1,031, acreage in farms 56,813, acres improved
23,363, value of land exclusive of buildings $703,290, value of build
ings $125,360, value of live stock $190,900, total value of products
not fed to stock $536,930. Number of manufactures 13, capital
invested $66,653, wages paid $3,874, cost of materials $10,911, total
value of products $30,604. The population in 1900 consisted of
whites 1,258, colored 4,177, total 5,435, increase of 2,149 over the
year 1890. The total assessed valuation of real and personal prop
erty in Quitman county in 1905 was $1,385,016 and in 1906 it was
$1,483,457.50, which shows an increase of $98,441.50 during the
year. Quitman, John A, was born at Rhinebeck, N. Y, September
1, 1798. He was the grandson of a Prussian of some distinction,
who resided near the city of Cleves, on a small island in the river
Rhine. .His son, Frederick Henry Quitman, born there, was edu
cated at the University of Halle, and was sent, as a missionary,
to the Dutch island of Curagoa, where he married the daughter of
the governor. Removing thence to New York State, he was a
Lutheran pastor of distinction and president of the general synod
of that church in the United States. John Anthony Quitman, the
youngest of three sons, was educated at Schoharie and Chadwick,
and before he was twenty-one was an instructor at Mount Airy
college, near Philadelphia. His father had directed his education
toward the ministry, and he was trained in modern and ancient
languages, including the Hebrew, but his own taste was for the
law. In 1820 he went west, to Chillicothe, Ohio, to teach and study,
and passed the year's residence required for admission to the bar
as clerk in the land office at Delaware, Ohio. But on his voyage
to Ohio he had made the acquaintance of the wife and daughter
of Judge Griffith, of New Jersey, and the advice of Mrs. Griffith
that he should go to Mississippi, had great influence with him.
In 1821 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Ohio militia,
made a master mason, and licensed to practice by the supreme
court, October 22. Then he started out to ride horseback to
Natchez, but was swindled in a horse-trade, and having no money
to better himself, took steamer from Louisville. Arriving at
Natchez, he presented William B. Griffith, then a famous lawyer,
a letter of introduction from his mother, and was given a place in
his office. In the course of a year he became a partner. December
24, 1824, he married Eliza, daughter of Henry Turner, of Wood
lands, near Natchez, a brother of Judge Turner, whose daughter
was the wife of Mr. Griffith. In 1827 Griffith died, and Quitman

MISSISSIPPI 487
took as a partner John T. McMurran, a young man lately from
Ohio. It was a time of great extravagance, fees were large, litiga
tion abundant, and the firm rapidly gained wealth and importance.
Quitman established here his home of "Monmouth." He was a
man of stalwart frame, with powerful fists that he occasionally
used aggressively. The wealth he acquired he dispensed royally.
In 1827 he became a candidate for the legislature, independent
of politics, against the redoubtable Adam L. Bingaman, and won
the honor by his feats of wrestling, boxing, running and shooting
as well as by other abilities. He revised the militia code, and in
1828 was unanimously elected chancellor of the State. "He was
the youngest man that had ever been raised to a judicial office of
such dignity in any part of the Republic. He sustained himself
well in this very responsible position, and ... to the entire
satisfaction of all parties." (H. S. Foote.)
He seems to have first plunged into national politics in 1831-32,
when he declared for ultra State sovereignty, joining Poindexter
in opposition to Jackson. He was a candidate for the constitutional
convention in 1832, and elected. He framed those sections of the
constitution of 1832 relating to the judiciary; he was also the
author of the original draft of the section, modified before adoption,
which restricted the pledging of the faith of the State in support of
banking enterprises, etc. This section was appealed to in 1841 to
relieve the State of the incubus of Union bank bonds. After the
convention he was elected by popular vote as chancellor of the
State. In 1833 the cholera invaded the State and . two of his children
died. In 1834 he resigned the chancellorship. His biographer says
"those who disputed his decisions never doubted his conscientious
ness and integrity." Sparks wrote, (Memories, 346) : "His admin
istration was weak and wild ; a vast number of his decisions or
awards in chancery were overruled, and in disgust or from a con
sciousness that a chancery judgeship was not his specialty, he re
signed." He was known as a leader of the small party of Nulli-
fiers; when they met in convention at Jackson, May 21, 1834, he
wrote their address to the people. He had a very slight following
in that respect in Adams county, but he was so personally popular
that in December, 1834, he was elected to the State senate. In
1835, when Gov. Runnels refused to serve more than two years,
exactly, the senate was called in special session to elect a president,
who should be acting governor, and Quitman was chosen. As
acting-governor he served until the governor-elect was inaugurated
in January following. He sent a message to the legislature, taking
advantage of the opportunity in a way unique among the1 messages
of the governors of Mississippi in that period, dwelling at some
length on the subject of "federal relations," "Centralism," and slav
ery. He further declared that the Five per cent, fund from the sales
of public land of the United States was not "a gift or donation."
He suggested a doubt if congress had any right to impose condi
tions regarding the public lands when the State was admitted to

488 MISSISSIPPI
the Union. In regard to the omission in the Chickasaw treaty to
reserve the school sections, he advised that the State declare the
"contract" with the United States violated, and levy taxes on the
land in disregard of the agreement that new settlers should have
five years of grace. He urged with great force establishment of
common schools (see Education), the encouragement of railroads
of manufacturing, and an increase of banking capital.
He declined appointment to the supreme court, and became pres
ident of a company organized to build a railroad from Natchez
to Jackson. He wrote his brother that he was president of
the State Rights association, of the Anti-Abolition society, of
the Anti-Gambling society, of the Mississippi Cotton company,
of the Anti-Duelling society, of the Railroad company, director
of the Planters bank, grand master mason, captain of the Natchez
Fencibles, trustee of Jefferson college and Natchez academy, be
sides having charge of a cotton and a sugar plantation and 150
negroes. Quitman was a great expansionist — a devout believer in "mani
fest destiny." After his service as acting governor his main
thought was of the war in Texas, in which he was anxious to take
part. His darling passion was the military. April 21, 1824, he had
organized the famous Natchez Fencibles, of which he was yet the
captain. When the news reached Natchez, in March, 1836, that
Sam Houston was retreating before Santa Anna in Texas, Capt.
Quitman organized a company of volunteers and set out for Texas,
reaching San Jacinto in time to join the jubilation over the defeat
of the Mexican troops. To avoid the neutrality laws of the United
States, he and Felix Huston published a statement that they were
going to travel up the Red river, but there was no secrecy about
their intentions. This adventure cost him $10,000, but the expen
diture was cheerfully made. Later in the year he was a candidate
for congress, but was defeated by the Administration candidate,
"Gholson, the vote being 9,676 to 8,897. A canvass for congress at
that time cost about $10,000.
In 1837 he was elected major-general of militia, over William
M. Gwin. In 1839, in company with Judge Thatcher, he visited
Europe to sell bonds of the Planters bank and the Mississippi rail
road company. After his return he was deeply embarrassed finan
cially, but a few years of practice as a partner of McMurran served
to restore his prosperity. January 8, 1840, he was commissioned
justice of the High court, to succeed P. R. R. Pray, but he declined
the honor. Next came on the repudiation question. He had op
posed the chartering of the Union bank, and he now argued that
the State, having sold the bonds and taken the money, was morally
bound to redeem the bonds. He opposed McNutt in 1843 and de
nounced the unseating of Prentiss.
He expected to be elected to the United States senate as a result
of Foote's campaign against McNutt in 1845, but Foote was the
choice of the legislature. Quitman "was deeply stung with what
he considered ingratitude, and had good reason to consider treach-

MISSISSIPPI 489
ery, and for a period he expressed himself with bitterness." (Clai
borne.) On the other hand Foote had a complaint of ingratitude
and treachery against Quitman in 1850. (Reminiscences, p. 352.)
The military movements on the Rio Grande now absorbed attention,
and as major-general of militia he tendered his services to the gov
ernor, in preparing for war. Gov. Brown responded, "It will be
your right to have the first command in case of a call, and that right
will be respected so far as I have anything to do with the matter."
When congress authorized the general call for troops, May 13, 1846,
Quitman was mourning the death of children. But he tendered
his services to President Polk on the 21st, and started to Wash
ington. Polk was chilly, but the pressure of friends secured Quit
man a commission as brigadier-general July 1, He was back at
Natchez July 28 and visited his desolate home. In his diary he
wrote: "I was saddened and depressed, and should have felt alone
in the world, but the mild spirits of my lost children came to fill
my heart. The little group of angels, John, Edward, Mary and
Sarah, seemed to gather visibly about me, and my mind was
? soothed with gentle and tranquil visions." Reaching the Rio
Grande in August, he was soon assigned to brigade command.
(See Mexican War.) He and Worth led the two columns into
Monterey that compelled its surrender. Quitman's horse was
shot, and he received a contusion from a fragment of shell. He did
not admire General Taylor, and disapproved the terms of capitu
lation, writing to that effect to Robert J. Walker, secretary of the
treasury, when the administration was condemning Taylor, who
was defended by Col. Jefferson Davis. Quitman was there for
a war of conquest and subjugation and annexation of the entire
republic of Mexico. For gallant and meritorious service at the
battle of Monterey he was commissioned brevet major-general,
September 23, 1846. In January, 1847, he was ordered, with almost
all of Taylor's army, to report to Gen. Scott. He took part in the
siege of Vera Cruz ; was associated with Commodore Perry in the
Alvarado campaign, spring of 1847, and secured "two fine Mexican
guns of the calibre of 18 pounds," which he presented to the State
in the spring of 1848. In March, 1847, congress voted him a sword
"in testimony of the high sense entertained by congress of his
gallantry and good conduct in storming Monterey," and April 14,
1847, he was commissioned in the full rank of major-general,
United States army. While marching to the front of the column
that was pushing toward the capital city, he received this commis
sion. Brevet Maj.-Gen. Worth continued in command of the ad
vance, however, and Gen. Quitman, who considered himself the
officer next in rank to Gen. Scott, asked for command accordingly.
Scott replied that he would have the new volunteer regiments,
when they arrived, to fill up his division. He submitted to this sit
uation, though his command was only part of a brigade. During
the battles ending with Churubusco, he was in command of the
depot at San Augustin. In the attack upon the castle of Chapulte-
pec he commanded the column that advanced along the Tacubaya

490 MISSISSIPPI
causeway. Successful in this bloody assault, he ordered his col
umn against the Belen gate of the Mexican capital, and was among
the first to reach the guns of the enemy's battery. Next morning
he led his brigade to the grand plaza, and saluted the American
flag on the dome of the capitol at 7 a. m. Scott, upon joining him,
immediately gave him command of the city as civil and military
governor. After restoring order, he applied for command of a full
division, and not being gratified, obtained orders to report at
Washington. He was given a grand reception at New Orleans
and Natchez. The toast of Felix Huston was: "General Quitman:
Second to none; six hours before any other chieftian, he fought
his way into the heart of Monterey; eight hours before any other
leader, he stormed the Garita and entered the city of Mexico ; the
first to plant the stars and stripes, over the Halls of the Monte-
zumas !"
On reaching Washington he presented plans for the permanent
occupation of Mexico, and when the President offered him any po
sition to which his rank entitled him, asked for command of Gen.
Taylor's district. This was promised but the arrival of the
treaty of peace ended his hope of further military service. He was
honorably discharged July 20, 1848.
He received a considerable support in the Democratic convention
at Baltimore in 1848 for nomination to the vice presidency, and in
the same year he was one of the presidential electors of his State.
In 1849 he was nominated by spontaneous meetings and after
ward by the State convention as Democratic candidate for gover
nor, though some of his best friends were averse to it. He was
elected by a majority of about 10,000. (See his administration.)
When he resigned and submitted to service of the writ from the
United States court he was cheered by letters from all over the
South. On reaching New Orleans he was serenaded and riiuch
lionized. He gave bond and awaited the trial of Gen. Henderson,
which resulted in the failure of the jury to agree. Thereupon the
indictment was dismissed in March, 1851. His relations to the
Lopez movement may be indicated by the following extract from
a letter to him from Gen. Henderson, after the trial: "With un
abated zeal, I present the project to your consideration for further
pecuniary assistance, if you can devise the means to render it that
assistance." He was also, apparently, expecting, while governor,
to take command of the army of liberation as soon as the political
issue at home was settled.
The collapse of his effort to lead Mississippi in rejecting the
Compromise of 1850 of his gubernatorial campaign was a severe
blow. So decided was the opposition that he abandoned his can
didacy in the midst of the campaign. (See Guion Adm.) Upon
the meeting of the constitutional convention (q. v.) that he had
called, it rebuked him in the most emphatic terms. Naturally, for
a time he was out of politics, saying that nothing in his life had so
mortified him as the backing-out of the Democratic leaders. "By
sternly standing by our principles, a time may come for us to

MISSISSIPPI ' 491
strike with effect. We may succeed in securing an equality in the
Union, or our independence out of it, or at least fall gloriously."
He continued to take a sectional view of the Union. He refused
to take any part in the campaign of 1852, but wrote a letter in
favor of Pierce, that was widely circulated. The Alabama South
ern Rights party nominated as a national ticket, Troup and Quit
man. In 1853 he entered into a written agreement with the Cuban
junta to accept command of the Cuban revolution with the powers
of a dictator. The junta also voluntarily promised him one million
dollars in case of success. He went to New Orleans after that
and was actively engaged in organizing an invasion. The move
ment for a time promised success. Soule, Buchanan and Madison,
diplomatic representatives of the United States, issued the Ostend
Manifesto, October 18, 1854, arguing that Spain should cede the
island to the United States, because there was danger of a revolu
tion establishing an independent black government in Cuba, which
would be a menace to the safety of slavery in the South. But,
>Marcy, the secretary of state, refused to pursue this policy, which
would have led to intervention, as in 1898. In June, 1854, Quitman
and others were summoned before the grand jury of the United
States court at New Orleans, and he refused to testify. He was re
quired to show cause why he should not give bond to observe the
laws of the United States regarding neutrality, and after a hearing
was ordered under arrest, when he gave bond. In April, 1855,
he resigned his commission from the junta, on account of disagree
ments. In 1855, he was elected to congress from the Fifth district. Two
years later he was reelected. When he took his seat he was made
chairman of the committee on military affairs, a post he held until
the termination of his public service. In April, 1856, he made a
speech for the repeal of the neutrality laws, which was widely
circulated. In this speech he plainly stated that he meant aid to
the expedition of William Walker, then in Nicaragua, in order that
that region might be added to the United States. He continued
in the same general policy he had followed for years, looking toward
separation of the South. In congress he carried his defense of
slavery to the degree of denying the power of congress to prohibit
the slave trade. He expected to be nominated for vice president at
the Cincinnati convention of 1856, and did receive the highest
vote on the first ballot, but was put aside for the nomination of
Buchanan and Breckinridge. In 1857-58 he and Bonham of South'
Carolina stood out alone against the Kansas compromise bill; de
siring the direct issue to be met. '
His last session of congress was that bitter one that culminated
in the encounter between Grow of Pennsylvania and Keitt of
South Carolina. Reuben Davis recorded in his Recollections that
to his query as a new member, "Have you any definite policy,"
Quitman replied, "We have, and its aim and end is disunion."
Quitman, with a martial spirit, hailed the Albert Sidney Johnston

492 MISSISSIPPI
expedition against Utah as a forerunner of war, for the indepen
dence of the South.
His health became greatly impaired during that winter. With
others he had suffered the mysterious sickness that followed the
National Hotel banquet to President Buchanan, in the spring of
1857. In May, 1858, he addressed the Palmetto regiment of the Mexi
can war at Columbia, S. C, and was received with great enthusi
asm. After his return to Washington he rapidly failed, and almost
continually slept. Friends tenderly escorted him to Natchez,
where he died at 5 :30 p. m, July 17, 1858, aged fifty-nine years.
The legislature and the bar of the State, and congress of the
United States, and the Masonic order at large, paid every honor to
his memory. His biographer, Mr. Claiborne, denies that he made
Mr. Calhoun his model ; declares that Calhoun was inconsistent and
never fully trusted, lacking the heroic elements that Quitman
possessed. "He had just lived long enough to have his principles
fairly understood, and even those who differed with him confided
in his unquailing courage and firmness. He was personally, the
most popular man in America at the period of his death; and for
six years previous to his death, could the machinery of parties
have been dispensed with, the popularity he brought from Mexico,
and his grand ideas of American progress, would have carried him
to the head of affairs." Gen. Foote wrote : "He was truthful, hon
est, brave, of a slow and plodding intellect, but, in regard to ordi
nary matters, sound and practical in his views. He was over
ambitious, fond of taking the lead in all things, somewhat given
to selfishness, and was altogether the dullest and most prosy
speaker I have ever known who could speak at all." (Remin
iscences, 356.) "He died too soon to take part in the great strug
gle on which his heart was set," wrote Reuben Davis. "A more
ambitious man never lived. He desired office for its power and
distinction. He was greedy of military fame. His nature was
essentially military, and he 'was fond of the pomp and clash of
arms. . . . His courage amounted to indifference to danger.
He was no actor. Naked heroism in battle, stripped of every thing
like sham, sat upon him as gracefully as gentleness and goodness
in private life." (Life and Cor. of John A. Quitman, by J. F. H.
Claiborne.) Quitman's Administration. Governor Quitman's inauguration,
January 10, 1850, was made as splendid as possible, "and all that
military pomp could do to add grandeur to the occasion was added.
Governor Quitman was dressed in the uniform he had worn in
Mexico, and mounted upon a white war-horse, with gorgeous trap
pings. Maidens dressed in white strewed flowers before him, and
sang 'Hail to the chief who in triumph advances.' " The executive
officers were: Secretary of state, Joseph Bell, December. 1850, to
January, 1852 ; auditor, George T. Swarm ; treasurer, Richard
Griffith; attorney-general, John D. Freeman. (See Matthew's
Adm.)

MISSISSIPPI 493
In his inaugural address, he took occasion to assert his opposi
tion to the "American system" and "internal improvements" of
Henry Clay. He denied the right of the Federal government "to
supervise the manufactures or the agriculture of the country, or
to take under its charge and control the highways and the harbors
of our broad land." He was "opposed to the establishment of a
United States bank," or any similar use of the national treasury.
He regarded slavery as responsible for the rapid progress of the
country in prosperity, greatness and wealth. Far from being an
evil, it was essential to happiness and political existence. "We
have a right to it above and under the constitution of the United
States. We will not yield it. . . . The South has long sub
mitted to grievous wrongs. Dishonor, degradation and ruin await
her, if she submits further. The people of Mississippi have taken
their stand, and I doubt not their representatives will maintain it,
by providing means to meet every probable contingency. I here
pledge myself to execute their will to the full extent of my con
stitutional powers."
* In February he received and transmitted to the legislature a let
ter from Senators Davis and Foote and the representatives in con
gress, announcing that they believed California would be admitted
as a free State. "We regard the proposition to admit California
as a State under the circumstances of her application, as an at
tempt to adopt the Wilmot proviso in another form." They desired
to know the opinion of the people and the legislature regarding the
admission of California. The situation, under the resolutions of
the Convention of 1849 (q. v.), was, that a constitutional conven
tion1 was to be called if the Wilmot proviso were adopted. By a
popular vote of 12,000 to 800, California had adopted a constitution
excluding slavery. The governor recommended the legislature to
make "a firm remonstrance against the present admission of Cali
fornia with the restriction against slavery," and, otherwise, recom
mended waiting for the action of the Nashville convention. He
was adjured to action by enthusiasts of other States besides his
own. "Hundreds of influential citizens, whose letters now lie under
inspection (some of the most distinguished of whom in Mississippi
afterward made open war upon him, or timidly recoiled from their
positions), reminded Governor Quitman that palliatives and remon
strances would no longer answer and called for the adoption of
decisive measures." (Claiborne's Life of Q.)
What caused the letter from Davis and Foote was the introduc
tion into congress, in January, 1850, of the famous compromise
resolutions by Henry Clay, for the admission of California, the es
tablishment of territorial governments in New Mexico with silence
regarding slavery, rejection as inexpedient of the proposition to
abolish slavery in the District, a more stringent fugitive slave law,
and a declaration that congress had no right to obstruct interstate
commerce in slaves. In the debate that followed, Calhoun heard
read his last great speech, a voice of hopeless remonstrance; Dan
iel Webster came to the support of Clay, reproving abolition agi-

494 MISSISSIPPI
tation, and, "with distress and anguish" rebuking the talk of seces
sion. "Secession ! Peaceable secession ! Sir, your eyes or mine
are never destined to see that miracle. ... It must produce
war, and such a war as I will not describe." Webster, Calhoun
and Clay were soon to pass away. New Champions in the arena — •
Toombs and Davis ; Seward and Chase.
Mississippi was not a unit, by any means. There was not unan
imity in the election of Jefferson Davis for a full term, by the leg
islature in February, 1850. He lacked one vote on the first ballot,
but gained a small margin on the second. Roger Barton (q. v.)
was his principal opponent, but the opposition could not unite.
Calhoun died in March. The Nashville convention (q. v.) called.
by the Mississippi Resisters, at Calhoun's suggestion, met in June,
while the congressional battle was at its height. A few weeks later
President Zachary Taylor died from exposure to the sun while
hearing the Fourth of July oration by Senator Foote, of Missis
sippi. He had been unrelenting in opposing the Southern policy
of Calhoun and Davis, even the Clay compromise, and proposed
to meet the claims of Texas in New Mexico with the United States
army, which Texan policy his successor, Fillmore, adhered to, but
otherwise was more compromising. Congress began the adoption
of a series of acts which yielded one more point to the anti-slavery
party, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
California was admitted as a free State in September. On the other
hand, those who had instigated the Jackson and Nashville conven
tions felt that the compromise conceded the points essential to
their honor. They felt that there was disdain in Webster's lordly
dictum regarding yielding them the deserts of New Mexico ; "I
would not take pains uselessly to reaffirm an ordinance of Nature,
nor to re-enact the will of God." Meanwhile, many newspapers in
the State declared for secession.
"Upon the adjournment of congress the delegation from Missis
sippi returned to the State to give an account of their cause, and,
with the exception of Foote, to urge resistance to the action of
congress. Albert Gallatin Brown said, in a speech at Jackson,
'So help me God, I am for resistance ; and my advice to you is that
of Cromwell to his colleagues, "pray to God and keep your powder
dry." ' Davis, McWillie, Featherston and Thompson spoke in a
similar strain, while Foote bestirred himself to vindicate his course
before the people. The legislature had already passed resolutions
of censure against him, declaring that the interests of the State
were not safe in his hands. He then stumped the State, making
in all forty or fifty speeches, and urged the people to send delegates
to a convention he had presumed to call." (Garner, Reconstruc
tion, p. 2).
The movement had its main leadership in South Carolina, but as
Gov. Seabrook, of that State, wrote to Gov. Quitman in September,
1850, "there are satisfactory reasons why South Carolina should
move cautiously in the matter." Seabrook reminded Quitman that
Georgia had promised to call a State convention, urged him to act

MISSISSIPPI 495
in Mississippi, and promised that as soon as the governors of two
more States called their legislatures in special session, he would
do the same, in order to "arrest the career- of an interested and
despotic majority." Alabama and Florida were counted on.
Quitman responded by calling the legislature to convene No
vember 18, and wrote Seabrook that he would recommend a con
vention with "full powers to annul the federal compact and estab
lish new relations with other States." Having no hope in separa
tion, "my views of State action will look to secession." Seabrook
replied that South Carolina was "ready and anxious for an im
mediate separation," and hoped that Mississippi would "begin the
patriotic work." (Claiborne's Life of Quitman.)
Pickens, of South Carolina, wrote, discussing a Confederacy,
and proposing Quitman or Davis as suitable for the presidency.
Quitman's call for a special session was expressedly for the pur
pose "that the State may be placed in an attitude to assert her
sovereignty." He wrote J. J. McRae that he desired a convention
fully empowered to secede and asked his advice. "I shall ask, in
like manner the free opinion of Col. Davis, Thompson, Brown,
Barton, Stewart and other friends." He wished to be in harmony
with the Nashville convention, but did not believe Judge Sharkey
would give notice of its reassembling; "he is opposed to it."
Gov. Foote said (in his message of 1854) that when the legisla
ture assembled in November, "All my colleagues, save one (Mr.
Thompson), were in attendance. A vast multitude of our citizens
rushed to the theatre of action to find out what was likely to be the
result of the extraordinary movements rumored to be in progress.
The- governor's special message was sent in to the two houses of
the legislature; not though before it had been shown to many
of his prominent political friends and their approval of its contents
obtained." After the delivery of the message popular ¦ meetings
were held at the capitol and addressed by Gen. Felix Huston, Sen
ator Davis, Representative Featherston and others, in support of
Quitman's policy. In his message Gov. Quitman declared that the
anti-slavery party "now controls the entire government." The
ties of party and of church had yielded before it. If the great and
vital interest of slavery longer remained subject to the United
States government, "it must perish." He asked for a convention
to take into consideration federal relations, and suggested that such
a^ convention would have absolute power, regardless of instruc
tions. He was willing to compromise on an extension of the line
of 36° 30' to the Pacific coast, and constitutional amendments to
protect the rights of the slaveholding States ; otherwise did not
hesitate to express his decided opinion that the only effectual rem
edy was "in the prompt and peaceable secession of the aggrieved
States." In another message he recommended the organization
of volunteer companies for a State army, officers and men to be
sworn for a service of five years.
_ On the day that the legislature met Foote convened his conven
tion of 1,500 members, which he addressed from a window of the

496 MISSISSIPPI
city hall in Jackson. The meeting organized the Union party and
adopted resolutions sustaining Foote, and censuring the Quitman-
Davis party. When they had been printed, Foote demanded a
hearing from the house of representatives. The body adjourned
and yielded him the hall, and he spoke two hours "explaining to
those assembled the dangers of the hour."
The legislature reaffirmed the resolutions of the Jackson conven
tion, elected twelve delegates to the Nashville convention, censured
President Taylor and Senator Foote, approved Senator Davis,
ordered the election of delegates to a Constitutional convention,
(q. v.) ; but left the mode of action to the decision of the Nashville
convention. Mississippi having thus declined to take the lead, alone, the South
Carolina legislature, in December, recommended a convention of
Southern States at Montgomery in February, 1852, and appropri
ated $350,000 for military expenses.
Meanwhile Quitman was in the focus of another exciting affair
of national notoriety. He was an enthusiast in the revival of the
old dream of annexation of the domain of Spain. This had just
had a great realization through the Mexican war, in which he was
the one conspicuous general who was inspired by more than pro
fessional duty. He fought for the realization of the old ambition
of expansion — the creation of a great empire in which slave labor
should be the basis of wealth — not necessarily separate from the
United States, but really making the United States a federation of
two empires, one with expansion northwestward, the other south
ward. He looked towards Cuba, now that Mexico had been shorn,
with the same impulse that Jefferson had felt. It was manifest
destiny that it should be a part of the United States. It could at
once be made a State, under the Southern system. The movement
for conquest of Cuba began (after the rejection of a purchase
price) with the Round Island affair (q. v.) in Mississippi, in 1849.
In the spring of 1850 Lopez made a private visit to Gov. Quitman
at Jackson, eloquently presented Cuba's yearnings for liberation
from Spain, and offered the governor the leadership of the revolu
tion and supreme command if it should succeed. "Quitman long
and anxiously reflected. No one disturbed the silence. Lopez
slowly paced the apartment, like a sentinel on guard. The few
confidential friends who had been specially invited to the inter
view felt the sorcery of his presence. All hoped that the gover
nor would accept the offer and embark in a career so just and so
prodigal of glory." (Claiborne.) He declined, in view of the
political crisis. "It is possible, however, [he wrote,] that after
a short period these obligations, which my sense of duty now im
poses on me, will cease to exist. In that event, should circumstan
ces be favorable, I should be disposed to accept your proposals."
(Quitman to Lopez and Gonzales, Jackson, March 18, 1850.)
Soon afterward Lopez sailed from New Orleans with a party of
volunteers "led by O'Hara, Hawkins, Pickett, Bell, Wheat, and
other chivalric spirits, chiefly from Kentucky." They landed at

MISSISSIPPI 497
Cardenas, found no revolution there, and seeking another port,
were chased by a Spanish man-of-war under the American guns at
Key West, where Lopez was put under arrest, but presently re
leased. He returned to New Orleans, and set about raising another
expedition, and was received in Mississippi with enthusiasm. The
handful of revolutionists in the Cuban mountains were expecting
Quitman to head the expedition, and the same impression prevailed
in the United States. President Fillmore issued two proclamations
forbidding the breach of neutrality. In June, 1850, the grand jury
of the United States court at New Orleans found a bill of indict
ment against John A. Quitman, John Henderson and others, for
violating the neutrality law.
Quitman construed this as an attempt on the part of the United
States government to try its strength upon him, an open advocate
of secession. He asked the advice of Jacob Thompson, who replied
that the governor was the sole representative of the sovereignty of
Mississippi, and the very idea of sovereignty carried with it the
sequence of impunity in action and conduct. The power to arrest
•him would annihilate State sovereignty. He could not believe
that a warrant would be issued for his arrest ; but if it were, "you
owe it to yourself to refuse submission to the mandate. . . .
The times are out of joint. . . . The first effort to degrade the
State will be made in your person, and, by all the powers above,
I would resist it."
No action was immediately taken on the indictment, except that
the attorney-general asked Gov. Quitman to decide what course
he preferred. The governor asked delay until his term expired,
in January, 1852. This was refused. But action was not hurried
upon him. After six months he decided that between war with
the United States and arrest of the governor of Mississippi, "there
remained a somewhat middle course for me to pursue consistently
with my sense of propriety; that was, to lay down my official
character before submitting to arrest." (Letter to Barnwell
Rhett.) He issued a proclamation February 3, 1851, saying, "Iri
the middle of my term of office, and in the active discharge of its
duties, I am today arrested by the United States marshal of the
Southern district of Mississippi . . . for an alleged violation
of the neutrality law of 1818, by beginning, setting on foot and
furnishing the means for a military expedition against the island
of Cuba. Under these charges, the marshal is directed to arrest
me and remove my person to the city of New Orleans, there to be
tried for these alleged offenses. Unconscious of having, in any re
spect, violated the laws of the country, ready at all times to meet
any charge that might be exhibited against me, I have only been
anxious, in this extraordinary emergency, to follow the path of
duty. As a citizen, it was plain and clear that I must yield to the
law, however oppressive and unjust in my case ; but as chief magis
trate of a sovereign State, I had also in charge her dignity, her
honor and her sovereignty, which I could not permit to be violated
in my person. Resistance by the organized force of the State,
32-11

498 MISSISSIPPI
while the Federal administration is in the hands of men who ap
pear to seek some occasion to test the strength of that government,
would result in violent contests, much to be dreaded in the present
critical condition of the country. The whole South, patient as she
is under encroachment, might look with some jealousy upon the
employment of military force to remove a Southern governor from
the jurisdiction of his State, when it had been withheld from her
citizens seeking to reclaim a- fugitive slave in Massachusetts."
On the other hand, the detention of the governor without the
State would cause, Governor Quitman declared, the entire suspen
sion of her executive functions of government. [The constitution
then in force provided that "Whenever the office of governor shall
become vacant by death, resignation, removal from office, or other
wise, the president of the Senate shall exercise the office of gover
nor until another governor shall be duly qualified," also, "The gov
ernor shall reside at the seat of government."] "The Constitution
has not contemplated such an event as the forcible abduction of the
governor. It has not provided for the performance of his duties
by another officer except in the case of a vacancy. Such vacancy
cannot happen while there is a governor, though he be a prisoner
to a foreign power. Although he may be absent, and incapable
of performing his duties, he is still governor, and no other person
can execute his office." Hence, (on this construction of the consti
tution) "there is but one remedy. That remedy is my resignation.
I therefore, fellow citizens, now resign the high trust confided to
my hands, with no feeling of personal regret except that I could
not serve you better ; with no feeling of shame, for I am innocent
of the causes which have induced the necessity of 'this step. . . .
I have but to add that, during my short but exciting period of ser
vice, I have in all things striven to be' faithful and true to the
rights, the interests and the honor of the State." (Claiborne's
Life of Quitman, Vol. II.)
The receipts of the State treasury in 1850 were $424,034, in 1851
were $221,200; disbursements in the two years, $594,570, leaving
in the treasury a balance of $525,940. Under the act of 1850 $200,-
000 was distributed among the different counties for education.
The Lunatic asylum was not yet ready to be occupied. An asylum
for the deaf and dumb was earnestly recommended. The insti
tute for the blind was in successful operation.
A very important event of this period was the act of congress,
September 28, 1850, granting the State all the swamp and over
flowed lands, for the purpose of defraying the expense of draining
and protecting the same by levees. It was believed that it would
require but a limited sale of these lands to provide enough money
to reclaim large tracts of great value. The great importance of
this enactment induced Gov. Quitman to appoint John Rayburn
to locate the lands, and await the approval of the legislature. Two
weeks later Gov. Guion appointed P. Bryan on the same conditions,
and these two made the first locations of lands coming under the
operation of the congressional act. (See Foote's Adm.)

MISSISSIPPI 499
Internal improvements by the State were earnestly recom
mended. The Mobile & Ohio and New Orleans & Nashville rail
roads were then in the stage of survey and promotion.
Raburnville, a hamlet in the central part of Itawamba county,
4 miles north of Fulton, the county seat. The postoffice was re
cently discontinued at this place, and it now has rural free delivery
from Fulton. Population in 1900, 20.
Railroad Commission. Agitation for legislative supervision of
the railroads resulted in the passage of the Barry railroad bill in
the latter part of the session of 1878, which declared all railroads
to be public highways and the companies common carriers, pro
hibited the consolidating of parallel lines and discriminations, and
fixed maximum rates for the transportation of cotton. Governor
Stone did not return the bill, which act was called a "pocket
veto," and at the next session he sent in a veto, on the ground that
the act was in violation of that clause of the United States con
stitution forbidding laws to impair the obligation of contracts.
In this legislature, (1880) > a bill was introduced in the senate by
W. W. Humphreys, known as the "Humphreys bill," which pro
vided for a railroad commissioner to be elected by the legislature,
to see to the enforcement of the requirements of the bill against
discrifnination and extortion in rates. The bill was debated at
great length in both houses, passed the senate, but failed on the
last day of the session to reach final vote in the house. The legis
lature adopted a memorial to congress appealing to that body to
regulate freight rates on interstate railroads.
In his message of 1884 Governor Lowry said: "The right of
the State to supervise railroads within constitutional limits, so as
to restrain them from unjust discriminations and exorbitant
charges for the transportation of persons and property, has been
asserted at various times by the people of Mississippi. Other
States of the American Union have exercised, and are now exer
cising this attribute of sovereignty with results somewhat varied,
but in the main satisfactory. ... I do not doubt the jurisdic
tion of the State to protect her citizens from abuses committed
by railroads, with reference to domestic or internal commerce, but
whether it is competent for the State to regulate interstate com
merce or such parts thereof as may directly affect her people, to
the extent of fixing or limiting the amount of charges for fare and
freight thereon, even when congress has failed to assert its ac
knowledged jurisdiction over the subject, I regard as unsettled
and doubtful. ... I apprehend that evils might be so great
as to justify the enactment of laws of doubtful constitutionality,
in order to have them tested by the proper tribunals, for the pur
pose of obtaining relief by this means, if possible, where there is
no other remedy, but when this course is adopted, there should
be no doubt of or uncertainty as to the existence or gravity of
the evils." He suggested "a just and liberal policy," and called
attention to reductions in charges made by some of the roads.
A bill for railroad supervision passed both houses early in the

500 MISSISSIPPI
session thus addressed by the governor, and he returned the same
with a veto. The bill was then modified according to the gover
nor's objections, and became a law March 11, 1884, under the
title, "An act to provide for the regulation of freight and passen
ger-rates on railroads in this State, and to create a commission
to supervise the same, and for other purposes." It provided for a
railroad commission of three, representing the three supreme court
districts. Roads that discriminate in freight or passenger rates
shall be guilty of extortion, and liable, either for damages to the
injured party, or a fine of not less than ten or more than five hun
dred dollars. It requires the railroads to submit their tariff charges
for transportation to the commissioners, whose duty it is to revise
said tariff charges. It requires the railroads to post their freight
rates at their depot doors and makes the giving of rebates a mis
demeanor, punishable by a fine. It is also the duty of the com
mission to inspect depots and see that suitable ones are provided.
The Governor appointed as the first commission : John M. Stone,
W. B. Augustus and William McWillie. The legislature elected
William McWillie, J. F. Sessions and John C. Kyle in 1886 ; Wal
ter McLaurin, Sessions and Kyle in 1888, and McLaurin, Sessions
and J. H. Askew in 1890.
The constitution of 1890 provided for election by the people of
' the three districts, the first election being fixed by ordinance of
the convention in November, 1891, the board elect to serve until
January, 1896, thereafter the board, chosen at general elections,
to serve four years. McLaurin, Sessions and Askew were reelected
for 1891-96; John D. Mclnnis, M. M. Evans and J. J. Evans for
1896-1900. In 1896 the salary was reduced to $2,000 a year.
J. J. Evans, president of the board, died November 19, 1899. He
had had a distinguished official career in the Confederate military
service, as chancery clerk of Monroe county and eight years treas
urer of State. J. C. Kincannon, who had been elected in Novem
ber, was appointed by the governor. The board in 1900-04, was
John D. Mclnnis, Albert Q. May and J. C. Kincannon; in 1904 to
the present, S. D. McNair, president, J. C. Kincannon, and R. L.
Bradley, and T. R. Maxwell, secretary.
Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, the Illinois Cen
tral railroad brought suit to test the constitutionality of the law,
asking an injunction against the commissioners "commanding
that they absolutely abstain from all acts of interference," etc,
and a preliminary injunction was granted by Judge Hill of the
United States court on the grounds of violation of contract with
the corporation and regulation of interstate commerce. The com
mission appealed to the United States supreme court. Suits in the
State courts were decided against the commission, which appealed
to the State supreme court, where it was held that the State had
power originally to prescribe for a railroad company, created by
it, the rates of compensation, and that any exercise of this power,
which does not hinder or burden interstate commerce, is not an
infringement of the constitutional duty of congress to regulate

MISSISSIPPI 501
commerce among the States. But the court held that when the
State had granted a company the right to fix its rates within maxi
mum limits, it could not interfere with charges so long as the com
pany kept within those limits. Only one company had no maxi
mum prescribed by its charter, and this one, the Natchez & Jack
son, appealed to the supreme court of the United States. The
supreme court of the United States, on appeal from Judge Hill,
in 1885 reversed the lower court, and upheld the constitutionality
of the supervision law in all particulars.
In 1888 the board was required to revise the railroad assess
ments, and the duties of a Board of Control of the penitentiary
were added, which became onerous after the cancellation of the
lease to the Gulf & Ship Island railroad.
The board reported at the close of 1889 that the results of rail
road supervision had been to secure an uniform rate of three cents
a mile for passengers, except on one narrow guage line. This was
not secured without much tedious negotiation. They , formulated
the "Mississippi Classification" of freight rates in 1886, and on this
basis, also on the basis of the Mississippi Valley and the Southern
Association classifications, endeavored to secure uniformity- in ''the
classification of freight. The Southern Association classification
was adopted throughout the State in 1888, except by the Illinois
Central road, operating one-fourth of the mileage in the State,
against which suits were begun, and withdrawn when the road sub
mitted under protest. The Illinois Central was operating a num
ber of roads, and deriving the profit therefrom, but prior to 1889,
freight passing from one of the lines to another took the local rate
of each line. The company was required in 1889 to establish a
straight tariff. In a variety of ways, and in various cases, the com
missioners secured similar arrangements for the benefit of the
public. On September 19, 1900, the board issued an order fixing the rates
on cotton seed. Injunctions were obtained in the United States
court by the Illinois Central system against the enforcement of
the rates, but subsequently the suits were dismissed, and the rates
adopted, which it was estimated would save $60,000 annually fo
shippers. A case was brought against the Gulf & Ship Island road,
to test the power of the board adversely to its charter, but the
chancellor and the supreme court sustained the latter, "the effect
of which is to guarantee the road its charter privileges." (Atty.
Gen. report.)
The commission in its report of 1900 complimented Mr. Fish of
the Illinois Central, and Mr. Russell, of the Mobile & Ohio, upon
their success in developing their properties and advancing the in
terests of the country. Yet, said the board, the present adjustment
of rates is not fair, and if a readjustment were denied, the public
weapon of taxation must be resorted to.
By the law of 1890 it was made unlawful for a railroad to dis
use a depot without the consent of the coriimission, and the board

502 MISSISSIPPI
was given jurisdiction of the adequacy of passenger car service,
and condition of road way and bridges.
The commission reported in 1906, "we have made a great many
improvements for the public convenience in the matter of depot
and passenger facilities. We have materially increased the as
sessed valuation of railroads and telephones, arid telegraph compa
nies doing business in this State, the total increase in valuations
amounting to $2,814,794. . . . We have adopted such modifica
tions and reductions in freight rates and regulations as seemed
proper, and made many orders of great importance, involving dif
ferences in freight charges of many thousand dollars." An order
that Illinois Central fast trains should stop at Magnolia had been
resisted, and appeal taken by the road from Judge Niles to the
United States supreme court. The Alabama & Vicksburg railroad
had appealed from the State supreme court to the United States
supreme court in opposition to the fixing of a grain rate from
Vicksburg to Meridian. The State supreme court had sustained
the board in the Pontotoc depot order, and there were other cases
of important litigation.
Railroads. (Also See Internal Improvements.) In 1830 a rail
road was completed for several miles out of Charleston, S. C, on
which was operated a wonderful steam car, running 15 miles an
hour. In April, 1831, a railroad four and a half miles long, from
New Orleans to Lake- Ponchartrain was opened. In the same
year the Mississippi legislature chartered a railroad company to
build from Woodville, Miss, to St. Francisville, La. The subscrip
tion to the stock was nearly completed in 1832, when also, a route
had been surveyed from Vicksburg to Warren, 55 miles, and a
large part of the stock taken. A railroad meeting was held at Nat
chez, October 10, 1834, presided over by James C. Wilkins, and
addressed by John T. Griffith, Felix Huston and Adam L. Binga
man, to promote the building of a railroad to Jackson, with future
extension to the Tennessee River. Delegates were chosen to a
convention which met at Gallatin in December, the object being
to open up the interior of the State. Surveys were made, and be
fore January, 1836, seven and a half miles of the road was put
under contract, upon individual responsibility, in anticipation of
an act of incorporation. This was "The Mississippi Railroad."
According to Acting Governor Quitman's message of 1836, the
Vicksburg Commercial Railroad & Banking Company, the Grand
Gulf & Port Gibson, and the Woodville & St. Francisville Com
pany had received favorable charters (1835), and were proceeding
"with energy to the construction of their several useful works of
internal improvements." The Commercial Company was to build
a railroad from Vicksburg to Jackson, with a bank attached for
the manufacture of capital ; the other two were of the same nature :
and in 1836 the Mississippi & Alabama Company was chartered
to build the road from Jackson east, with a bank at Brandon that
soon became notorious, its downfall causing the suicide of the
president; also the Mississippi Company, at Natchez, of which

MISSISSIPPI 503
John A. Quitman was president, which established a bank, at Nat
chez and started the railroad from Natchez northeastward. The
proposed Lake Washington & Deer Creek road also had its bank;
there was another at Columbus, and the Benton & Manchester
project was similarly provided.
A complete statement of the railroad situation was printed by
the Woodville Republican in January, 1837, from which it appears
that about 700 men were then employed constructing the Wood
ville & St. Francisville road, to be 29 miles long. A line from New
Orleans to Liberty was projected. On the Natchez-Jackson rail
road several hundred hands were at work, out from Natchez, and
bets had been made that cars would be running to Washington,
six miles, by July 4th. It was hoped that the public spirit that
supported this enterprise would not abate until "the traveler might
in the same day, drink from the Tennessee in Tishomingo and the
Mississippi at Natchez." A locomotive and train was running on
the road in May, 1837, when the financial crash came. Several
hundred hands were also at work on the Grand Gulf & Port Gib
son road, 7% miles long. A line was projected from Grand Gulf
via Raymond to Jackson. About 800 hands were at work between
Vicksburg and the Big Black on the Vicksburg & Jackson line.
Other chartered roads, not yet so far along as actual work, were
the Manchester & Bentony Pontotoc & Aberdeen, Narkeeta, Jack
son & Brandon, Jackson & Mobile, and the Noxubee. Most of
these would be mere feeders of the river traffic. The proposed
New Orleans & Nashville line, which threatened competition with
the river, was bitterly opposed. Governor McNutt, in January,
1839, said the Vicksburg & Jackson road would be completed in
1839 and rapid progress was being made with the Mississippi rail
road. Little had been done by the railroad-banking concerns
toward building the Grand Gulf & Port Gibson, St. Francisville &
Woodville and the Mississippi & Alabama (the Brandon bank),
and the various other railroad-banking companies had confined
their operations mainly to the issue of paper money. (See Bank
ing.) The Mississippi railroad company (Natchez & Jackson)
owned 78 slaves. It laid iron on 24% miles of track, before the
collapse of the bank. A tornado in 1840 destroyed some of its
extensive buildings. Its locomotive, the, first in Mississippi, was
exhibited at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. The Vicksburg &
Jackson had been built 28 miles out from Vicksburg in January,
1840, at a cost of nearly $2,000,000. The Woodville and St. Francis
ville road was intended to connect on the south with the proposed
Bayou Sara Railroad, to extend 101 miles from- New Orleans along
the left bank of the Mississippi, to St. Francisville, and on the
north with a road to run from Woodville to Natchez and ulti
mately to Vicksburg. It is a curious fact that Woodville still re
mains the northern terminus of this line of road, which now
constitutes the Bayou Sara Branch of the Y. & M. V. railroad.
The Vicksburg road to Clinton was the first 54 miles constructed
of the present Alabama & Vicksburg. A grand barbecue was given

504 MISSISSIPPI
followed by a ball at the Gait House in Clinton, on the date of the
arrival of the first train from Vicksburg. "But the festivities were
interrupted by a terrific tornado which in the afternoon swept the
country and tore up the- rails for miles. Carriages and wagons
were conscripted to carry the visitors from Vicksburg back to the
city, and soon order was brought out of chaos." (M. H. S, Vol.
7, p. 291.)
By the year 1840, 83 miles of railroad had been built in Mis
sissippi, composed of the railroads above mentioned; with an ag
gregate mileage of 61.75 ; Jackson & Brandon, 14 miles, and the
Grand Gulf & Port Gibson, 7a/4 miles. The interests of the Vicks
burg and Brandon companies were transferred to the Southern
Railroad Company which, in 1854, was granted an extension of
time to March 8, 1858, to build the road from Brandon to the
State line. It was aided by a land grant. The Mobile & Ohio was
incorporated in Mississippi February 4, 1848, and completed April
22, 1861.
In 1850 the cost of construction and equipment of railroads in
Mississippi aggregated $7,998,298, and in 1855 there were 226
miles of railroad in operation according to the annual report of
the Railroad Journal, N. Y. The New Orleans road in January,
1856, was graded north as far as Brookhaven and cars were run
ning to Osyka. From Jackson northward, the road was con
structed and in operation early in 1856 as far as Canton. The
total mileage is given as 862 in 1860. De Bow's Review, Vol. 28,
gives the following figures for that year : Grand Gulf & Port Gib
son, miles operated, 8 ; Memphis & Charleston, 27 in State ; Mis
sissippi & Tennessee, 80 ; Mississippi Central, 187 ; Mobile &
Ohio, 169 in State, and Columbus Branch, 14; New Orleans, Jack
son & Great Northern, 118 in State ; Raymond road, 7 ; Southern,
83; West Feliciana (Woodville road), 7 in state. The New Or
leans, Jackson & Great Northern was complete with single track,
and necessary side-tracks, depot buildings and water stations,
from New Orleans to Canton, a distance of 206 miles, and its con
struction is said to have equalled that of any railroad in the United
States. North from Canton, the Mississippi Central extended the
line to Jackson, Tenn, and formed a link in the great through
route between New Orleans and Chicago, while the Mississippi &
Tennessee connected Grenada with Memphis. In April, 1861, the
Mobile & Ohio was completed to the Tennessee line, and was in
running order from Mobile to Columbus, Ky. The Vicksburg &
Jackson, and Brandon (Mississippi & Alabama) lines, united un
der the name of the Southern (A. & V.), were completed as part
of a through line June 3, 1861. These, and the Memphis & Charles
ton, through Corinth, were the railroads fought over during the
war. The railroads built before the war were aided by loans from
the State, as well as by land grants from the United States. (See
Internal Improvements and Chickasaw School Fund.) After 'the
war began the railroads came largely under the control of the
Confederate military authorities. When the Union Armies en-

MISSISSIPPI 505
tered the State they destroyed the roads, rolling stock and depots,
to impair the Confederate means of communication, and in cases
where the Union troops rebuilt the roads for their own use, they
were destroyed by Confederate troops.
The State government favored the railroads by permitting them
to pay an indebtedness to the State of about one million dollars
in depreciated State and Confederate money, in 1863 and later.
But after the war this act was held to be unconstitutional and the
roads were required to pay in sound money. The companies were
also authorized to issue scrip to circulate as money. "The Mo
bile & Ohio was empowered to issue $300,000, the Mississippi Cen
tral $300,000, the Mississippi & Tennessee $125,000, the Southern
$150,000, the West Feliciana $50,000, the New Orleans, Jackson
& Great Northern $300,000." (Garner's Reconstruction.)
The railroads were finally all seized and operated by the Mili
tary Railroad department of the United States army, and $45,000,-
000 was expended by the United States in the entire South in
repair and equipment, which was a debt against the roads when
•restored to the companies. Practically none of the railroads were
able to pay the debt, and it went by the board. The debt of the
Mississippi railroads on this account was over $1,000,000. In Gar
ner's Reconstruction, pp. 142-45, is given an account of the mis
fortunes of several roads in war times. The Memphis & Charles
ton was fought for and in turn damaged by both armies. From
Pocahontas to Decatur, 114 miles, it was in 1865 almost entirely
destroyed. The Memphis & Tennessee, from Grenada to Mem
phis, had also been almost continuously raided. The first train,
after 1862, went through on January 3, 1866. The Mississippi
Central, from Canton to Jackson, Tenn, was a wreck and the
company carried a debt of $1,500,000. In the summer of 1865
hand cars were used between Oxford and Holly Springs and pas
sengers were ferried across the Yalobusha River at Grenada. The
N. O, J. & G. N, New Orleans to Canton, which had been com
pleted at a cost of $7,000,000 and was said to be the best equipped
road in the South, was seized by General Lovell, on behalf of
the Confederacy, in 1862, but later restored, and was in operation
as far north as Ponchatoula, the more northern part having been
wrecked as a continuous line by the raids of Sherman and Grier
son. In 1865 Gen. Beauregard was elected president, 78 bridges
were rebuilt, rails laid, and equipment supplied, and trains began
to run regularly between New Orleans and Canton October 3,
1865, for the first time since May, 1863. The last rail of the Mo
bile & Ohio, built mainly by English capital, was laid just before
the firing on Fort Sumter. At the end of the war the company lost
what was due it from the Confederate government, $5,000,000. All
the bridges and trestles were destroyed north of Okolona, and the
road was generally wrecked in the vicinity of Meridian. None of
these suffered more than the Southern (Vicksburg to Meridian),
during the war one of the most important military lines of the
South. To put it out of condition was the first step in the siege

506 MISSISSIPPI
of Vicksburg in 1863, and it was afterward destroyed as far east
as Meridian by Sherman.
In 1866 the railroads memorialized the legislature for the repeal
of a tax of one-half cent a mile on each passenger carried, in which
they said that their whole property had been heavily mortgaged
before the war to pay for construction. The creditors in the
North and Europe were urging the payment of six years interest,
delinquent during the war. Owing to the ravages of war the com
panies had been for 18 months struggling for life. They had suc
ceeded beyond their most sanguine hopes, but the stockholders
had never received a dollar since the roads were built, and divi
dends could not soon be expected. This was signed by Gen. Beau
regard, president of the New Orleans road, A. M. West, president
of the Central, F. M. White, president of the M. & T, Sam Tate,
president of the M. & C, M. Emanuel, president of the Southern,
M. B. Pritchard, superintendent of the Selma & Meridian, and
Abram Murdoch, for the M. & O. This was without avail. In
January following the governor reported that the Southern had
agreed to an arrangement and was collecting the tax, but the
others had done nothing. He asked for a law authorizing com
pulsion. The legislature of October, 1865, appointed a joint com
mittee on Internal Improvements to investigate the conduct of the
railroads which had received charters, to ascertain whether they
had faithfully discharged their duties to the State and people, ac
cording to the spirit and lefter of their charters, or had violated
them and worked a forfeiture of the charters. The constitutional
conventions of 1865 and 1868 refused to recognize the validity of
the settlements of 1863, and subsequently the courts held that the
State could recover the full amount of the loans. When the N.
O, J. & G. N. was about to go into the hands of a receiver in
bankruptcy, in 1870, Governor Alcorn, in a message to the legis
lature, declared the company had broken faith with the State in
every instance of their mutual contracts, defaulting in payments
of loans and interest, and neglecting to build the Aberdeen Branch
as required in the charter. He urged the enforcement of the pen
alties of forfeiture of charter, and the seizure of the property. A
compromise act was passed in April, 1872, and the debt of the New
Orleans road was paid, $213,000 in auditor's warrants, and $81,000
in warrants issued as a subsidy to the Ripley railroad. Treasurer
Wasser refused to accept the latter, and later, Governor Powers
executed an act of the legislature in aid of the Ship Island road,
by transferring to it $110,000 of the auditor's warrants in exchange
for first mortgage bonds of the road last named. Eleven miles
of the Mississippi Valley & Ship Island road were completed in
1873, in order to draw from the State this subsidy of $110,000, after
which the road subsided.
The period following the war was one of renewed enthusiasm
in railroad projects. The constitution of 1869, the State being
again in a speculative period similar to that of 1835-45, required
the legislature to provide for the organization of a Board of Pub-

MISSISSIPPI 507
lie Works. But a clause was adopted prohibiting the loan of the
credit of the State, and the taking of stock in improvement enter
prises. The rebuilding of the levees involved some heavy finan
cial transactions. (See Levees.) Many companies were chartered
by the legislatures, particularly in 1870 and 1871. In the latter
year a general railroad act offered $4,000 from the State treasury,
for every 25 miles of road constructed by September 1, 1875, by
any company that had finished no construction in May. The New
Orleans road was authorized to issue bonds to the amount of
$3,500,000, and all forfeitures to the State were released on condi
tion that the line should be built from Canton to Kosciusko by
January 1, 1872, and to Aberdeen within five years, as required
in the original charter. It was also pledged that on such comple
tion, the governor should transfer to the N. O, J. & G. N. com
pany "all the stock owned by said State in any and every railroad
company whose road is in whole or in part within this State."
Subscriptions to stock by counties and towns, and donations of
land were also authorized for various proposed roads. The sub
sidies granted the Vicksburg & Nashville and Mississippi Valley
& Ship Island roads amounted to about $1,000,000. Counties and
towns were embarrassed by the resulting taxation. Governor
Ames urged, in 1875, the revocation of the charters.
A large number of railroad lines were surveyed in 1872 and
grading was begun on the following: Memphis & Selma, Mobile
& Northwestern, Vicksburg & Ship Island, Vicksburg & Nash
ville,, Prentiss & Bogue Phalia, Natchez, Jackson & Columbus.
These projects were dependent almost exclusively on private aid
and county subscriptions, some counties voting extravagant sub
sidies. The Ripley railroad was the only one to qualify for the
State subsidy, and received from the treasury, in warrants, $81,-
968. On the advice of the attorney-general the State treasurer
gave notice that he would not receive these warrants in payment
of dues to the State, but Governor Powers promised that they
would be received for face value on the debt due from the N. O,
J. & G. N. company, and thus prevented their repudiation. In
1873 the legislature voted to give the Vicksburg & Nashville rail
road, on certain conditions, the trust funds known as the Three
per cent, and the Agricultural land scrip, amounting to $320,000,
and receive the note of the company secured by first mortgage
bonds. Iri the opinion of Governor Ames it was a pure steal of
the trust funds. The company had not completed any of its road
in February, 1874, when Ames recommended the repeal of the
donation. Under the old laws the railroads were exempt from taxation
until 1874. In the legislature of 1873 there was an attempt to
prolong this exemption ten years by smuggling a provision to
that effect into an act regarding the Liberty & Woodville rail
road. "Aside from having been exempt from taxation," said Gov
ernor Powers in 1874, "these companies, with one exception, are
now indebted to the State for moneys loaned (Chickasaw and In-

508 MISSISSIPPI
ternal Improvement funds) on which they have for the past eight
years been paying no interest." Suit was pending against _the
Mobile & Ohio. In the summer of 1873 most of the railroads
agreed to pay taxes upon a valuation of $5,000 per mile; but the
N. O. & M. and M. & O. would not agree to this. No taxes had
been paid, early in 1875. The railroads paid taxes in 1875, to the
amount of $12,383, which was distributed to the counties. The
legislature of 1875 levied a tax of $75 per mile which most of the
roads paid, the Mobile & Ohio and a few others, contending for
charter exemption. One of the most glaring forms of "graft" of
that period must have been with the connivance of the railroad
companies, i. e, the payment of commissions to tax collectors on
railroad taxes they did not collect. In one case $23,400 commis
sions for levying and collecting a tax of $600,000 were paid, though
not a dollar of revenue reached the State. (Powers' message,
1873.) The legislature of 1872 and 1873 made provision for sell
ing large areas of forfeited lands along their right of way, fo the
Vicksburg, Pensacola & Ship Island railroad, later known as M. V.
& S. I. and the Memphis & Vicksburg, at two cents an acre, as
aid to those enterprises. Many other railroads were similarly
favored. The two companies above named made a demand for
deeds in 1881, but they were refused by Governor Stone on the
ground that the companies had failed to meet the conditions of the
laws, and the lands had been disposed of by the abatement laws
of 1874 and 1875. In March, 1876, the supreme court affirmed a
judgment in favor of the State against the Mobile & Ohio for
$397,866 ; but there was an appeal to the United States supreme
court. In the same year there was a similar judgment and appeal
in the case brought under the law of 1867 to compel the New Or
leans, Mobile & Texas railroad to maintain a drawbridge over
Pearl River. The latter was finally decided in favor of the State.
Under an act of legislature in 1877, the State settled with the
Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans railroad company, the indebt
edness of the Mississippi Central, which was merged in the new
company. The company gave its notes for $136,158. An act of
1878 permitted the Mobile & Ohio to compromise its indebtedness
to the State and counties, on account of taxes, by the payment of
$25,000. The 990 miles of railroad in the State in 1870 were but
slightly increased by 1880 (to 1,127) and much of the increase was
in narrow gauge roads, notably the Natchez, Jackson & Colum
bus from Natchez to Martin City, and the Ship Island, Ripley &
Kentucky from Middleton, Tenn, to Ripley.
After 1880, mainly in the first five years, there was a great
growth of railroads. A statement of the railroad work in 1881-82
noted the purchase of the old Southern road by the Erlanger syn
dicate, who were building a road from Meridian to New Orleans;
the road from Natchez to Jackson was completed; the Chicago,
St. Louis & New Orleans had begun a branch to Yazoo City from
Jackson ; R. T. Wilson, of New York, had begun the building of
the line from New Orleans to Memphis, paralleling the river; the

MISSISSIPPI 509
old Memphis & Selma had been revived and put under contract.
The legislature had extended aid to new roads by exemption from
taxation for ten years. There rapidly followed the building of
what is now the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley system, and the
Aberdeen branch of the New Orleans-Ohio river system, which at
this time came under the control of the Illinois Central. Six hun
dred miles were built in 1882-84. The change in conditions was
shown by the paralleling of the river as closely as possible to its
banks, whereas 25 years before there had been fierce political bat
tles whether the New Orleans-Chicago line should be permitted
west of the Pearl. After years of inanition the once proud "Mis
sissippi Railroad" that was to have joined Natchez and Nashville,
managed to revive as a narrow-gauge line. The Grand Gulf &
Port Gibson was torn up and abandoned after 1883. The total
mileage in the State in 1885 was 1,878, and in 1889, the Georgia
Pacific being the main addition, the mileage was 2,366. In more
recent years the main addition aside from branches of old lines,
has been the Gulf & Ship Island and the Mobile, Jackson & Kan-
«sas City, the former providing that outlet to a Mississippi port
that was so long sought, and the latter giving the State a fourth
north-south system tributary to outside ports.
The mileage reported by the State commission in 1905 is 3,503
miles, an increase over 1903 of 361 miles. The railroad commis
sioners reported for 1892 that the railroads were assessed at $26,-
925,000 for taxation, paying a state tax of $134,622. In addition
they paid a privilege tax of $20 a mile for first class roads, $15 for
second and $10 for third class, and county, municipal and levee
taxes also were levied on the valuation assessed. "It will be seen
that the railroads now pay a fair proportion of the taxes required
for the support of the government." The valuation of railroads
for taxation in 1905 were $36,316,800, and of express, telegraph
and sleeping car companies $725,000 more. The State tax thereon
was $222,000. The privilege tax is $65,000 additional. (See Rail
road Commission.) "Section 3560 of the Code of 1892 is intended
to prevent the combination of competing lines of railroads. As it
stands it is debatable whether it prohibits the purchase of one
competing road by another company, if indeed, one company can
purchase another road than its own. But one thing is not debat
able, that the section does not impose any penalty upon the com
pany that manages, regulates or controls the other company."
(Message of Gov. McLaurin, 1898.)
Illinois Central. The New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern,
Mississippi & Tennessee, and Mississippi Central were bought
about 1871 by a syndicate headed by Col. H. S. McComb, of Wil
mington, Del, who was made president of the Chicago, St. Louis
and New Orleans Railroad Company. In association "with Col.
H. S. Edgar, vice-president of the combined lines from New Or
leans to Cairo ; Gen. A. M. West, president of the Mississippi Cen
tral railroad; Thomas A. Scott and J. Edgar Thompson, they
organized the Mississippi Valley Company, which invested in

510 MISSISSIPPI
land and built the town of McComb City, where the shops of the
line were located. "The Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans rail
road company was formed by consolidation of the New Orleans,
Jackson & Great Northern, and Mississippi Central railroad com
panies, under act of February 27, 1878." A few years after the
consolidation of 1878, the system was leased to the Illinois Cen
tral, the outlet from Cairo to Chicago. The Canton, Aberdeen &
Nashville road, making the branch to Aberdeen that the old char
ter required, was completed in 1884, also the Kosciusko branch.
The C. St. L. & N. O, was leased to the Illinois Central to pay
$400,000 rent, taxes, and interest on bonds not exceeding $18,000,-
000. The Miss. & Tenn. was merged into the C. St. L. & N. O.
and leased in 1889, on similar terms, the bonds being $3,500,000.
Mileage in State, 1889, 636. The president of the Illinois Central
is Stuyvesant Fish, New York, general manager, W. J. Harahan.
The latest statement of mileage is : main line, 301 ; Memphis divi
sion, 88 ; Aberdeen division, 88 ; Kosciusko branch, 18 ; M. B. &
N. Division, 8; iMonticello branch, 24; double track, 55 miles;
total 583 miles.
The Illinois Central also controls the Yazoo & Mississippi Val
ley System, with a mileage of 1,024 miles, making a grand total
of 1,606 miles in the State, nearly half the total trackage. The
abandoned Meridian, Brookhaven & Natchez road was brought
by the Illinois Central indirectly, in 1891, and rebuilt a few miles
out of Brookhaven.
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley. In 1882 R. T. Wilson, of New
York, had begun the building of a railroad paralleling the river,
from Memphis to New Orleans. The Natchez Jackson & Colum
bus, from Martin to Jackson, was completed October 6, 1882, nar
row gauge, the road having been built to Martin in 1876-77, as a
revival of the old "Mississippi railroad." The Mississippi Valley,
from New 'Orleans north, via Vicksburg, was completed in 1884;
the Durant-Lexington line was built in 1882-83 ; to Tehula in
1885 ; the Yazoo City-Jackson line was completed, 43 miles, in the
same period ; the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas was completed
January 1, 1885, main line 456 miles, with several branches, to
Eagle Nest, Arkansas City branch, Lake Washington branch,
Bolivar branch, Bayou Sara branch, Clinton & Port Hudson
leased. The consolidation of the Memphis & Vicksburg and the
Mississippi Valley and Ship Island was authorized in 1882, and
they were merged in the L, N. O. & T. R. R, a system which be
came the second in mileage and importance in the State, the main
line and branches in 1889 aggregating 585 miles, including the
main line, the Greenville, Lake Washington and Huntington
branches, the Bolivar loop, the narrow gauge Mobile & Northwest
ern, froni Glendale to Eagle Nest, the West Feliciana from Wood
ville to Bayou Sara, lately extended to Slaughter, near Baton
Rouge, on the main line, the Natchez-Jackson & Columbus, which
was changed to standard gauge from Harriston to Jackson in
1889. (Report of 1889.) The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley rail-

MISSISSIPPI 511
road company Was organized February 17, 1882, under the laws of
Mississippi, act approved Feb. 2, 1882. It is a consolidation of the
following constituent companies: Yazoo & Miss. Val, incorpor
ated Feb. 17, 1882; West & East, incorporated April 15, 1873,
absorbed by and consolidated with the Y. & M. V, Nov. 30, 1886 ;
Louisville, New Orleans &' Texas, incorporated August 12, 1884,
and consolidated with the Y. & M. V. Oct. 24, 1892. (See Back
Tax Cases.)
The Yazoo & Mississippi mileage in 1905 was as follows : main
line, 315; Riverside division, 156; Natchez & Jackson division, 98;
Yazoo branch, including Lake Cormorant, 394 ; Helena branch, 20 ;
Boyle & Sunflower branch, 32; Bayou Sara Branch (the old West
Feliciana), 8 miles. Total, 1,024.
Southern Railway. The Georgia Pacific, Atlanta to Greenville,
was partly built in 1883, but was not completed and put in opera
tion until 1889, with 202 miles in the State, and was then a part
of the Richmond & Danville System, i Branches were in construc
tion or in contemplation in 1889. The line was bought at fore
closure August 31, 1894, by the Southern Railway company and
made part of that great system which has also acquired control
of the Mobile & Ohio. This line has a mileage in Mississippi of
237, composed of State line to Greenville, 179 ; Itabena to Webb,
35; Stoneville to Percy, 23. The Georgia Pacific is now a part of
the Southern railroad. The same stockholders own the majority
of stock in the Mobile & Ohio. A legal consolidation of the two
roads was authorized by a bill which passed the legislature on the
last day of the session of 1904, but it was not given the approval
of the governor. Samuel Spencer, New York, is president of the
Southern, the Mobile & Ohio, the Memphis & Charleston and the
Alabama Great Southern, together constituting a system of about
600 miles in Mississippi, and allied to the Schiff roads with ter
minals at Vicksburg and New Orleans and a mileage of about 300.
Memphis & Charleston. The Memphis & (Charleston Ry. Co.
was organized under the laws of Mississippi (Code of 1892) by
certain of the purchasers of the, property of the old Memphis &
Charleston company at foreclosure sale, to take title to and oper
ate that portion of the property which lies in the State of Mis
sissippi. The old company was organized under an act of
Tennessee approved Feb. 2, 1846, and was first authorized to con
struct a line in Mississippi by act approved March 1, 1854. There
are 34 miles of line in Mississippi now generally known as "The
Southern railroad."
Mobile & Ohio. The project of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad was
prominently urged by M. J. D. Baldwyn, a citizen of Mobile. He
showed the importance of a railway connection between the Ohio
and Mississippi Valley and the Gulf of Mexico, and the favorable
location of Mobile for its southern terminus. The birth of the
enterprise is said to date with the public meeting at Mobile, Jan.
11, 1847. Alabama passed an act incorporating the company,
February 3, 1848, capital $10,000,000 ; on Feb. 17, of the same year,

512 MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi granted a right of way through its borders and an
extension of all the chartered privileges appertaining to the com
pany under their act of incorporation in Alabama. Kentucky and
Tennessee promptly conceded the same rights through their bor
ders. In May, 1848, the books were opened in Mobile for sub
scription to the capital stock, and in 20 days the sum of $650,000
was subscribed in that city. Hunt's Magazine for December, 1848,
declared "This will be the longest railroad in the United States
under a single charter" and gave its proposed route as follows:
"Commencing at Mobile up the mouth of the Chickasaw-bogue
until it strikes the dividing ridge between the Tombigbee and
Escatawba rivers — follows this ridge to the head of the Esca-
tawba — from thence, continuing its general northerly direction,
and passing near the towns of Marion, Macon, and Aberdeen, Mis
sissippi, to the Tennessee River in the State of Tennessee, below
the Big Bend Shoals, a distance of 340 miles from Mobile. From
thence through the towns of Jackson and Trenton in Tenn. and
Moscow in Ky, to its terminus on the Mississippi river, at the
town of Columbus, Ky, 16 miles below the mouth of the Ohio
river, and 470 miles from Mobile." It is remarkable how closely
this original route was adhered to as the line was gradually built.
Official reports declared it to have been organized June 7, 1848,
under the laws of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky,
approved February, 1848, also act of Mississippi, March 5, 1880.
Debt of the road was readjusted in 1879 without foreclosure and
it is still operated under its original name and charter, operating
the St. Louis & Cairo under 45 year lease from 1886. General
office, Mobile, also operating office: president, Samuel Spencer,
N. Y. ; operates the following lines in Mississippi : main line, 272
miles ; Branches — Artesia to Columbus, 14 miles ; Artesia to
Aberdeen, 11 miles; Aberdeen Branch, 9 miles; Montgomery Divi
sion, main line, 9 miles ; total in Mississippi, 315 miles.
In February, 1901, the reported sale of the Mobile & Ohio rail
road to the Southern system caused much excitement, and the
railroad commission made an investigation, but abandoned pro
posed action upon assurance that the alleged consolidation was
a purchase of the majority of stock of the Mobile & Ohio by the
individual stockholders of the Southern railroad company.
Alabama Great Southern. The Alabama Great Southern was
organized Nov. 30, 1877, under the laws of the State of Alabama.
The original corporation was the Alabama & Chattanooga, char
tered in Alabama, 1853, and in Mississippi in 1871. It operates 19
miles of road in Mississippi from the Alabama-Mississippi State
Line to Meridian, under a contract with the Southern Ry. Co. for
joint use of track between York, Ala, and Meridian, Miss, paying
5% on valuation of $326,400, divided on wheelage basis-contract
dated Nov. 3, 1895. Also has contract with N. O. & N. E. and A &
V. for joint use of track and terminal facilities at Meridian, for the
space of 50 years from July 1, 1890.

MISSISSIPPI 513
The East Tenn, Va, & Ga. seven miles in State, uses M. & O.
tracks into Meridian from Lauderdale. (Alabama Central.)
Alabama & Vicksburg. The Vicksburg & Jackson and the
Brandon Companies were merged in the Southern railroad com
pany before the war, and the line now known as the Alabama &
Vicksburg was completed in the summer of 1861. After the war
it was known as the Vicksburg & Meridian. The Queen &
Crescent operating system was formed in the late '80's, with a
total mileage in the State of 315 miles, embracing the V. & M,
name changed to A. & V, and the Alabama Great Southern, main
line 295 miles, 19 miles in Mississippi, which was completed May 17,
1871; also the New Orleans & Northeastern, completed Novem
ber 1, 1883, 153 miles in Mississippi. C. C. Harvey, New Orleans, is
president, and Charles Schiff, London, is vice-president, of both
the A. & V. and N. O. & N. E. The Alabama Great Southern is
now a parfof the Southern system. The main line of the Alabama
& Vicksburg to Meridian is 141 miles.
New Orleans & North Eastern. The New Orleans & North
'Eastern railroad company was organized under the laws of Lou
isiana, Oct. 14, 1868. (See above.) The total mileage of the
road is 196, and it operates 153 miles in Mississippi, from Meridian
to Pearl river. Hattiesburg is the division terminus between New
Orleans and Meridian.
Louisville & Nashville. The New Orleans, Mobile & Chatta
nooga railroad, New Orleans to Mobile, was built under an act
of the Alabama legislature, approved Nov. 24, 1866, and its char
ter was approved by act of the Mississippi legislature, Feb. 7, 1867. Jt
was sold at decretal sale and by declaration of incorporation un
der, Alabama statutes dated April 29, 1880, it was reorganized as the
New Orleans, Mobile & Texas. Its property was deeded to the
Louisiana & Nashville R. R. Co, Oct. 5, 1881. There are 73^4
miles in Mississippi, part of a great system connecting the Ohio
river and Chicago with Jacksonville, Pensacola, Mobile & New
Orleans. Gulf & Ship Island. The Gulf & Ship Island railroad company
was first chartered in 1855, liberally, with exemption from taxa
tion. A grant of land was made by the United States, and a com
pany was organized, but the land grant lapsed because of failure
to meet the conditions. (See Internal Improvements.) In March,
1871, the Mississippi Valley & Ship Island company was chartered,
• to lay a line from Vicksburg to a point near Mississippi City, and
the legislature petitioned congress to renew the grant of land.
In 1872 interest in the development of the Gulf Coast was renewed,
and Governor Powers recommended a general State tax to aid in
the building of a railroad from Mississippi City inland. The pro
ject was paralyzed by the panic of 1873. A new Gulf & Ship Isl
and company, with a majority of directors at Chicago, was char
tered March 4, 1882, W. H. Hardy, president, and a few miles of
track were built in 1887-89, with state convict labor, which was
withdrawn in the latter year. The railroad commissioners se-
38-11

514 - MISSISSIPPI
cured $40,000 first mortgage bonds in payment of two years' lease
of the penitentiary. In 1896 the chief of engineers of the army
reported Ship Island harbor not worthy of improvement, consid
ering that the government had improved the Mobile and New
Orleans harbors at great expense. He praised the harbor at Ship
Island, but estimated the cost of a channel dredged to the shore
at over $800,000. Governor McLaurin and the congressional dele
gation joined in representations of the advisability of that expen
diture, considering that the government was expending $3,000,000
at Sabine Pass, where there was less export, and the governor
recommended aid to the Gulf & Ship Island road extension. "As
soon as it reaches the Alabama & Vicksburg railroad all opposi
tion to appropriations for improvement of the harbor must of neces
sity cease."
The G. & S. I. in 1892 had only 20 miles of track laid, on the
south end, and 70 miles graded, and work had ceased. Subse
quently the road was completed from Gulfport to Hattiesburg, a
distance of 70 miles, but continued in serious financial straits,
until, in the course of court proceedings, Capt. J. T. Jones, a capi
talist of Pennsylvania, who had considerable money involved in
the enterprise, assumed the ownership, and individually under
took the completion of the road, the opening up of the great tim
ber region and the development of an ocean port for Mississippi.
In this he has been eminently successful. The mileage of the road
was extended to 125 miles by 1900 and to 248 by 1901, since when
additional lines have raised the total to 277. A deep water chan
nel was dredged to afford access to a great pier 5,900 feet long and
300 feet wide, and the first ocean going vessel tied up here, along
side of the freight cars of the Gulf & Ship Island road, in 1902.
The completion of this road marks one of the most important eras
in the history of the State. J. T. Jones, Gulfport, is president of
the road, J. A. Jones, of Buffalo, N. Y, vice-president; mileage
Gulfport to Jackson, 160; Maxie to Columbia, 49; Saratoga to
Laurel, 42; Mendenhall to Bush, 10; total, 277.
Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City. One. of the projects to aid the
proposed port on the coast, in the first railroad building period
after the war, was the Ship Island, Ripley & Kentucky, W. C.
Falkner, president, which built a narrow gauge road from the
Memphis & Charleston at Middleton, Tenn, to Ripley in 1872-77.
Thirty-eight miles leased from the GulL& Ship Island, was con
solidated with this in 1889 under the name of the Gulf & Chi
cago. The line was finally diverted to Mobile by consolidation
with part of a proposed Jackson-Mobile line. In 1888, Mississippi
chartered the Mobile, Hattiesburg & Jackson company and Feb.
22, 1890, chartered the consolidated Mobile, Hattiesburg & Jack
son companies of Alabama and Mississippi, under the name of the
Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City. F. B. Merrill, Mobile, was presi
dent. There were 21 miles of road in Mississippi in 1902 and 68 in
1903, completing the line to Hattiesburg. July 8, 1903, the Gulf &
Chicago companies in Mississippi and Tennessee were consolidated

MISSISSIPPI 515
with the M. J. & K. C. B. M. Robinson, New York, is president;
Geo. W. Crary, secretary and treasurer, Mobile. The company
operates 368% miles in Mississippi, Mobile to Middleton and a
branch to Hattiesburg.
Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham. This was begun as the
Memphis, Hoily Springs & Selma which was partly constructed
in 1877 and nearly all graded in 1882. The Kansas City, Memphis
& Birmingham company was incorporated under an act of Feb
ruary 18, 1886, in Mississippi. The main line, 253 miles, was com
pleted in 1887 and the Aberdeen branch. 12 miles, was built in
1888. The president is A. G. Davidson, St. Louis. This road has
been leased to the St. Louis & San Francisco from Dec. 17, 1903,
to Dec. 31, 2002. The latter road is the operating carrier and
agrees to pay all taxes, organization expenses, interest on borids
and outstanding obligations. There are 131% miles of main track
in Mississippi and 12 miles, branch to Aberdeen, a total of 143
miles. Mississippi Central. This company, bearing the name of one of
|( the old companies, was organized Dec. 21, 1897, the name being
changed from Pearl & Leaf River to Mississippi Central Railroad
Co. This line was first operated in January, 1903, between Brook
haven and Silver Creek. Its charter has been amended changing
its western terminus to Natchez and its eastern terminus to Scran
ton, to which points it is projected. The mileage in 1905 was 55.
Operating office, Hattiesburg; president, F. S. Teck of Scran
ton, Pa.
The Sardis & Delta was organized Dec. 20, 1900 ; president, R.
M. Carrier. It operates 13 miles of road from Sardis to Carrier,
Pandla county.
The Natchez, Columbia & Mobile is a logging road running
from Norfield, Lincoln county, into Lawrence county, 20% miles.
The company was organized June 24, 1892 ; president, J. S. But-
terfield. The Natches & Southern Railway Co. was organized Dec. 19,
1902. It was formerly the New Orleans & Northwestern, a con
solidated corporation organized under the laws of Mississippi and
Louisiana. President, E. G. Merriam, St. Louis ; general office,
Natchez ; operating office, St. Louis ; operates 2.29 miles of road
from Natchez (depot) to Mississippi river.
The Fernwood & Gulf railroad is a line of 20 miles eastward
from the I. C. main line in Pike county.
The Mississippi Eastern is a line of 11 miles eastward from
Quitman, on the M. & O.
The Liberty-White railroad connects the town of Liberty with
the Illinois Central.
The Alabama & Mississippi is an outlet of Greene county to the
M. & O.
In 1900 there were four electric car lines in the State. Since
then the development has been rapid and an interurban line is in

516 MISSISSIPPI
construction along the gulf coast, with others projected in the
interior. Raleigh, the capital of Smith county, is a post-village, about 48
miles southeast of Jackson. The station of Abel on the Gulf & Ship
Island R. R. is the nearest railroad town, and Taylorsville is the
nearest banking town. It was named for Sir Walter Raleigh. It
has two churches, a school and a courthouse. The surrounding
country is well timbered, chiefly with the long leaf, yellow pine.
Population in 1900, 200. The Smith county Reformer, a Demo
cratic weekly newspaper is published here, established in 1892,
and owned and edited by J. T. Watkins.
Ralston, a post-hamlet of Perry county, on the Gulf & Ship Is
land R. R, 6 miles south of Hattiesburg. Population in 1900, 20.
Ramsay, a post-hamlet in the east-central part of Harrison
county, on Cabawfa creek, about 22 miles northeast of Gulfport,
the county seat. It has 2 stores and a turpentine still. Its popula
tion in 1900 was 36 ; estimated at 100 in 1906.
Randall's Bluff, a hamlet of Winston county, about 10 miles
southeast of Louisville, the county seat. The postoffice was dis
continued in 1905, and it now has rural free delivery from Fearns
Springs. Randolph, an incorporated post-town of Pontotoc county, situ
ated, about 10 miles southwest of Pontotoc, the county seat, and the
nearest railroad, banking, telegraph and express town. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 162. It has two
church organizations and a fine school.
Rands, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Lee county. Net
tleton, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R, is the
nearest railroad station.
Rankin, an old town of Holmes county, now extinct, which was
located on the Tchula and Yazoo City road, about five miles from
Tchula. (See Holmes county.)
Rankin, a postoffice of Rankin county, and a station on the Ala
bama &., Vicksburg R. R, 5 miles by rail east of Brandon, the
county seat and nearest banking town.
Rankin, Christopher, was a native of Washington county, Penn,
and was educated at Cannonsburg, the home of Col. George Mor
gan. Going to Georgia to teach school, he read law, and to practice
his profession removed to the border town of Liberty in Amite
county, in 1809, about the time the first Choctaw purchase was
opened up. He was elected to the legislature from Amite in 1813.
In 1816 he changed his residence to Natchez, and became the part
ner, and, later, the successor of Charles B. Green, an eminnent
lawyer of that day. He was the last attorney-general west of Pearl
river, a member of the constitutional convention of 1817, and of the
committee that made the first draft of the constitution. At the
meeting of the first legislature in October of that year he was a
candidate for United States senator, but was unsuccessful. In
1819 he was elected to congress, and was reelected in 1821 over
Poindexter, because of popular prejudice against Poindexter's code.

MISSISSIPPI 517
Rankin proved to be an able congressman and was again twice
elected, serving from December 6, 1819 until his death at Wash
ington, D. C, March 14, 1826. J. F. H. Claiborne wrote of him that
he was "very careful in the preparation of his cases, strictly moral
and temperate, mild and persuasive in his manners. ... a
prudent, practical, sensible and industrious man, of unexceptional
character." Rankin County was erected February 4th, 1828, from all that
portion of Hinds county lying east of the Pearl river, and was
named in honor of Christopher Rankin, Congressman from Missis
sippi. The county has a land surface of 777 square miles. It
forms a large, triangular area of land near the center of the State
and is bounded on the north by Madison county, on the east by
Scott and Smith counties, on the south by Simpson county and on
the west by Hinds and Madison counties. The Pearl river forms
its entire western and northern boundary and divides it from the
counties of Madison and Hinds. It formed a part of the New Pur
chase of 1820, and the Choctaw Boundary line, defining that pur
chase, makes part of the present eastern boundary line. It has
an area of about twenty townships.
As early as 1837 it had a population of 3,255 free whites and 1,-
956 slaves. One of the oldest settlements in the county was lo
cated at Richmond, on the east side of Pearl river, about five miles
from Jackson. It had in the time of its greatest prosperity a popu
lation of about three hundred. Its prominent citizens were John
Long, Henry White, James Howard, William Howard, and Simp
son Cooper. The old town has disappeared and the site is now
under cultivation. (See Riley's extinct Towns of Miss. Pub.
Miss. His. Soc. Vol. 5, p. 367.) Much of the region is rich and
productive and it ranks as one of the best counties in the middle
section of the State. The county seat is at Brandon, (named for
Gov. Gerard C. Brandon), a town of 775 people in 1900. and esti
mated at 1,000 in 1906. It is located twelve miles east of Jackson
on the line of the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R. Situated on high
ground and for several years the terminus of the Vicksburg & Meri
dian R. R, and surrounded by a rich country, Brandon was at one
time the most important trading point in this section of the State
The old Brandon Male and Female Academy, reorganized in 1849,
as Brandon College by the well known educator Dr. Thornton,
and the later Brandon Female College, have been potent influences
in raising the general standard of culture throughout this vicinity.
Miss Frank Johnson was the principal of this famous school from
the time of its founding until 1897 when her noble life and career
was ended in death. There are no very large towns or villages ir.
the county. Among others may be mentioned Cleary, Florence,
Thomasville, Star, Pearson, Rankin, Pelahatchee, Clarksburg,
Cato, Greenfield and Fannin.
Two lines of railway traverse the county, the Alabama & Vicks
burg from east to west, and the Gulf & Ship Island from northwest
to southeast arid give to Rankin excellent transportation facilities.

518 MISSISSIPPI
The Pearl river on its northwestern boundary and its numerous
tributaries provide it with good water power. It lies in the Central
Prairie region of the State and the general surface of the land is
level and undulating for the most part, with some broken sections.
The total farm acreage according to the census of 1900 was 330,-
501, 310,356 acres of which were improved lands. The timber con
sists of long-leaf or yellow pine, white and red oak, hickory, beech,
poplar, ash, gum, walnut and cypress. Beds of rich marl and large
lime-stone quarries have been found in various parts of the county,
and a fine quality of the best building stone is to be found in the
southern part. The soil is for the most part fertile, particularly on
the bottoms and uplands. It produces good crops of cotton, corn,
peas, potatoes, rice, millet and sugar cane, and fruits and vegetables
in abundance. Its rolling prairies and fertile bottoms give excel
lent pasturage for stock and the live stock industry has assumed
large proportions. Manufactures have not assumed any great im
portance in this county as yet. Churches and schools abound
throughout the county and the climate is mild and healthful.
The following statistics are taken from the twelfth U. S. census
for 1900 and relate to farms, manufactures and population: — Num
ber of farms 3,398, acreage in farms 330,501, acres improved 310,-
356, value of land exclusive of buildings $1,252,800, value of build
ings, $466,750, value of live stock $669,996, total value of products
not fed to stock $1,106,997. Number of manufacturing establish
ments 44, capital invested $85,686, wages paid $13,782, cost of
materials $44,418, total value of products $103,652. The popula
tion for 1900 was whites 8,679, colored 12,276, total 20,95o, increase
over 1890, 3,033. The population in 1906 was estimated at 22,000.
The slight increase being due to the negroes leaving the county.
In almost every part of the county are mineral wells which, in some
instances, have waters regarded as highly beneficial to health. The
total number of white schoois in tne county is 64, and there are 55
colored schools. The average term of school is 6 months. The
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Rankin
county in 1905 was $2,692,456 and in 1906 it was $4,858,465, which
shows an increase of $2,166,009 during the year.
Rapalji, George. The name is also spelled, more phonetically
in English, Rapalye ; but is given here as his signature, bold and
handsome one, appears on the Natchez records. The names of Gar
rett, Isaac and James Rapalji also appear among the land claims
in 1805. George was granted, in association with Lewis Charbena,
1,100 acres on the Mississippi in 1786, by the Spanish government.
He was granted 231 acres near Natchez in 1788, and his wife, Jane,
1,000 on the Homochitto in 1789. George Rapalji was in Natchez
district long before, however, as he was one of the original West
Florida colonists, was a loyalist, one of the leaders of the revolt
of 1781 and was captured and imprisoned at New Orleans, by the
Spanish. His property at that time doubtless was confiscated, and
the first grants above show a restoration or grant of new lands
upon his being restored to favor by the government. In the time

MISSISSIPPI 519
of Ellicott, the commissioner suspected him of sympathy with the
British movement known as Blount's conspiracy, and mentioned
him as a man of influence.
He was indicted for the murder of John Cotty in 1800, but on
trial, in the supreme court, was acquitted of that and found guilty
of manslaughter. When on bail awaiting sentence, he left the ter
ritory. A strong petition for his pardon was presented to Gov
ernor Claiborne in February, 1802, and refused at first, but granted
in June, on condition that Rapalji be bound over to keep the peace.
Rara Avis, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Itawamba county,
13 miles east of Fulton, the county seat, and about 30 miles east
of Tupelo, the nearest railroad town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 100. Fulton is the nearest banking
town. Ras, a postoffice in the central part of Jasper county, situated on
Altahomak creek, 6 miles west of Paulding, the county seat,
Ratliff, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Itawamba
county, about 12 miles from Fulton, the county seat. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 61.
Ravine, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Noxubee county,
about 14 miies distant from Macon, the county seat and nearest
railroad and banking, town.
Raworth, a postoffice of Scott county, on the Alabama & Vicks
burg R. R, 6 miles by rail west of Forest, the county seat.
Rayborn, a post-hamlet of Pike county, situated in the north-
central part, on Carters creek, 12 miles east of Summit, the near
est railroad and banking town, and 16 miles from Magnolia, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 61.
Raymond, one of the seats of justice of Hinds county, is an in
corporated post-town near the center of the county, on the line of
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 15 miles southwest of Jack
son. It was made the county seat January 17, 1829. It is an im
portant cotton shipping point, and two cotton gins and a saw
mill are located here. A good water works system will soon be in
operation. Raymond has a good academy, seven churches, a bank
and a newspaper. The Merchants & Planters Bank was established
here in 1906 ; the Gazette is a Democratic weekly, established in
1844, now owned and published by Whitney & Bell. The cele
brated Cooper's Well is located about four miles southeast of Ray
mond, and is widely known for the curative properties of its water.
Thousands of people come here annually to drink of the water.
A large and commodious hotel is maintained at the well for the ac
commodation of guests. The population of Raymond in 1900 was
483 and is rapidly increasing.
Raymond, battle of, see Vicksburg, campaign of 1863.
Recluse, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Harrison county.
Reconstruction. President Lincoln's policy was: "Let us all
join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical
relations between those States and the Union, and each forever
after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the

520 MISSISSIPPI
acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only
gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it."
The constitutional question which agitated congress as well as
the Mississippi convention of 1865, he called, as a matter of dis
pute at that time, "good for nothing at all — a mere pernicious ab
straction," in which opinion he was sustained by such men as
Sharkey and Yerger in Mississippi. (See Const. Conv. of 1865.)
It has been said that Mr. Lincoln had no fixed theory, "whether
the seceding States, so-called, are in the Union or out of it." He
said he had "purposely forborne any public expression" upon the
question. As a beginning, with the war not yet entirely ended, Mr. Lin
coln was willing to readmit Louisiana to representation in con
gress, "some 12,000 voters in that State having sworn allegiance
to the United States, held elections, organized a State government,
adopted a free State constitution, giving the benefit of public
schools equally to black and white, and empowering the legislature
to confer the elective franchise upon the colored man." The legis
lature had ratified the Thirteenth amendment, and Mr. Lincoln
was in favor of reorganizing the State government though it had
not yet extended franchise to the freedmen. But many of his
friends contended for more stringent guarantees.
This was Mr. Lincoln's attitude April 11, 1865. On April 14
he was assassinated. After that, several policies of "reconstruc
tion" agitated the Republic.
First announced in the articles of capitulation agreed upon by
Sherman and Johnston in North Carolina, and immediately re
jected by the United States government, was what might be called
the Davis plan, as the president of the Confederacy suggested the
stipulations made by Johnston. Under this plan the Union would
be restored as it was, simply by oaths of allegiance by State offi
cials and the election of senators and representatives in congress,
and the State and its congressional delegation would be free to
act at will regarding the legislative settlement of the questions
that had been fought about for four years.
President Johnson's plan which was the Lincoln plan, may be
inferred from his advice quoted in the article, Const. Conv. of 1865.
It was involved, from the first, with a desire to make a political
alliance with the Southern leaders in opposition to the radical wing
of his own party.
The Charles Sumner theory was that the seceding States had de
stroyed themselves, and congress had power to govern them in
definitely by military, subject to the bill of rights of the consti
tution and the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and
form new States, if desirable.
The theory of Thaddeus Stevens, from the beginning of the war,
was that secession was effective, broke the constitutional bonds,
and liberated congress from dealing with the people otherwise
than as people of conquered provinces, as in a war with a foreign
power. In accord with this was the language of the Mississippi

MISSISSIPPI 521
legislature, in an enactment of 1864 — "The war between the Con
federate States and United States of America."
The theory of the Mississippi legislature (1866) was "that the
moment the military and forcible combination against the laws and
authority of [the United States] was overcome, and the Federal
supremacy was reinstated, and law and civil tribunals were re
placed, then the work of preserving the Union was accomplished,
and the States at once resumed their proper places and relations
in it." (Simrall report.) "It must be conceded on all hands,"
said Wiley P. Harris in his report of the judiciary committee to
the Convention of 1890, "that the State had either severed her con
nection with the Union, and had placed herself outside of it, or
that her acts, in concert with other States, in like circumstances,
had so far interrupted and displaced Federal authority that she
had lost her Federal relations as a State in the Union. Congress
accepted the latter view. The Reconstruction acts, and indeed,
the series of measures, cognate therewith, culminating in the re-
admission act of 1870, are predicated on the idea that the State had
lost a republican form of government, in the sense of the guarantee
of the Constitution on that subject, and that it was the duty of con
gress in the exercise of its political powers to assure to her such
government." After the surrender of the army of Lieut-Gen. Richard Taylor,
at Meridian, May 4, 1865, Mississippi was under the administra
tion of President Johnson as commander-in-chief of the United
States army.
May 10 he proclaimed that "armed resistance to the authority
of the government in the insurrectionary States may be regarded
as at an end." Declining to call congress in special session and ar
rive at some agreed plan of reestablishing self-government in the
South, within the Union, Mr. Johnson went ahead alone, upon
the policy of William H. Seward, which was, that "the wisest plan
of reconstruction was the one which would be speediest; that for
the sake of impressing the world with the strength and the mar
velous power of self-government, with its Law, its Order, its
Peace, we should at the earliest possible moment have every State
restored to its normal relations with the Union." Meanwhile,
Governor Clark had called a special session of the legislature which
had adjourned in March, to meet May 18, for the purpose, as ap
pears from its proceedings, to arrange with President Johnson for
restoration "to harmonious relations with the Federal government."
But the legislature was required to disperse, the governor was de
posed and put under arrest. These measures put an end to the
attempt of the State to resume the old status in the same manner
as it had seceded, without change of organization. (See Clark
Adm.) On May 29, a few days after the dispersal of the Missis
sippi legislature, the president issued his proclamation of amnesty
and pardon, a modification of the proclamation of President Lin
coln, December 8, 1863, requiring an oath to support the Consti
tution and Union and "abide by and faithfully support" the proc-

522 MISSISSIPPI
lamations and laws regarding emancipation ; excepting several
classes of those engaged in the Confederate civil or military service
for special pardon when applied for. On the same day he pre
scribed by proclamation a plan for the reorganization of North Car
olina, appointing W. W. Holden provisional governor. It was this
plan that Sharkey and Yerger accepted on behalf of Mississippi,
following which Judge Sharkey was appointed provisional gover
nor of Mississippi, by proclamation June 13. The reorganization
of the other gulf coast States followed, all on the North Carolina
plan, by July 13.
The events in Mississippi under the reconstruction policy of
President Johnson are noted in the articles Sharkey's Adm, Hum
phreys' Adm, and Const. Conv. of 1865. These events were
potent in influencing the subsequent policy. According to Gover
nor Sharkey there was a general disposition to do justice to the
freedmen, and to accept other results of the war, such as repudia
tion of obligations incurred by the State government during the
war. Chief-Justice Campbell thought the feeling "of an over
whelming majority of our people was one of readiness to be faith
ful to the government."
In 1865 Gen. U. S. Grant made a tour of inspection of the lately
insurrectionary region, including Mississippi, and Carl Schurz
made an investigation by direct commission of President Johnson.
General Grant said as a result of his visit, that four years of war
had left the Southern people "possibly in a. condition not to yield
that ready obedience to civil authority the American people have
generally been in the habit of yielding. This would render the
presence of small garrisons throughout those States necessary
until such time as labor returns to its proper channel and civil
authority is fully restored." He said he had met no one who
thought it practical to withdraw the military; white and black alike
demanded the protection ; but white troops alone should be used in
the interior ; the black troops "demoralized labor," and they might
be attacked by the ignorant white element. "My observations lead
me to the conclusion that the citizens of the Southern States are
anxious to return to self-government, within the Union, as soon as
possible ; that whilst reconstructing they want and require protec
tion from the government ; that they are in earnest in wishing to
do what they think is required by the government, not humil
iating to them as citizens, and that if such a course were pointed
out they would pursue it in good faith."
The expressions of Sharkey, Yerger, and the like, were the opin
ions of the party in the State that had opposed secession in its in
ception. But there were, of course, many events and expressions
of opinion, there having been from the year 1797 two great parties
in Mississippi on national questions, that were used by politicians
to support the theory that Mississippi did not accept the results
of the war in good faith. The election of Governor Humphreys
over Judge Fisher and the record of the legislature, were used

MISSISSIPPI 523
in this direction, though General Humphreys was a Union man
in 1860.
The Thirteenth amendment, prohibiting slavery, and empower
ing congress to enforce this prohibition, had been adopted by con
gress in January, 1865, and submitted to the States for ratification.
The legislature of Mississippi, of 1865, convened under President
Johnson's policy, followed the advice of its joint committee on fed
eral relations : that the amendment to the State constitution covered
the same subject; "had been adopted in perfect good faith," and
further action was unnecessary. The committee feared the pro
posed national amendment involved "a dangerous grant of power"
to congress, and that it would revive the irritating questions of
the past. They asserted that "vexed questions connected with the
negro race were all merged and settled in liberation." They were
not opposed to the first section, prohibiting slavery, but recom
mended the rejection of the second section, "that congress shall
have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
Nevertheless, the amendment was adopted by a constitutional ma
jority of the States, including most of the Southern States, and
accordingly was proclaimed as the supreme law, December, 1865.
When congress met in December, 1865, the majority, regarding
the president's policy as having failed to .secure sufficient guar
antees from the States, preliminary to their readmission to partic
ipation in the national government, appointed a Joint Committee
on Reconstruction, which was dominated by Thaddeus Stevens,
of Pennsylvania, and pending its deliberations, the delegation
elected by Mississippi under the President's policy was not recog
nized. The committee made an investigation, George S. Bout
well, of Massachusetts, being in charge for Mississippi. The tes
timony of Judge Sharkey and Judge Hill was taken, but mainly the
opinions of a number of Union army officers and visitors to the
State were asked.
The most serious question connected .with reconstruction, ac
cording to the preliminary report of the committee, was the rep
resentation in congress. The constitution provided for representa
tion on the basis of population, counting all the free persons and
three-fifths of all other persons. To continue under this rule,
"the inevitable effect of the rebellion would be to increase the po
litical power of the insurrectionary States." The committee said,
"Doubts were entertained whether congress had power, even under
the amended constitution (Thirteenth amendment), to prescribe
the qualifications of voters in a State," and they recommended
amendment of the constitution to the effect that "political power
should be possessed in all the States exactly in proportion as the
right of suffrage should be granted, without distinction of color or
race." This recommendation was not satisfactory to the senate,
because it would abandon the freedmen to entire exclusion from
suffrage at the price of State representation, and because disfran
chisement might be accomplished on other grounds than those
named to the same effect. The committee reported February 20,

524 MISSISSIPPI
1866, "That in order to close agitation upon a question which seems
likely to disturb the action of the government, as well as to quiet
the uncertainty which is agitating the minds of the people of the
eleven States which have been declared to be in insurrection, no
senator or representative shall be admitted into either branch of
congress until congress shall have declared such State entitled to
such representation." And again in June, 1866, that their admis
sion to participation in the government of the United States would
not be justified without certain guarantees of the civil rights of
all citizens, a just equality of representation, protection against
claims founded in rebellion, and discrimination in the restoration
of suffrage to the white citizens.
Governor Humphreys had declared in an official message, that
the ex-slaves, though freemen, were not citizens. The legislature
had raised the question of the power of congress to legislate to
enforce the constitution, the "Black Code," adopted by the legisla
ture, denied to a material degree the right of testimony in court,
and property rights. Congress, in March, 1866, adopted the Civii
Rights bill, (and supplemental acts later) declaring "that all per
sons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign
power, excluding Indians not taxed, are . . . citizens of the
United States," and asserting their equal rights to "make and en
force contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence," etc. ; giving
the United States courts jurisdiction of cases of violation of the
law, and authorizing the use of the United States army by the
president for the enforcement of the law. This was passed over
the veto of President Johnson. To permanently meet the situation,
congress in June, 1866, adopted the Fourteenth amendment to the
constitution, defining citizenship "of the United States and of the
State," forbidding any State to abridge the privileges and im
munities of citizens, to deprive any person of life, liberty or prop
erty without due process of law, or to deny to any person the
equal protection of the laws, and in the second section, providing
that representation in the lower house of congress should be based
on population, "but when the right to vote at any election for the
choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United
States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial
officers of the State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is
denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-
one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way
abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the
basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole
number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."
The third section excluded from congress and the electoral college,
and "any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under
any State," any person who had taken an official oath to support
the constitution of the United States, and afterward engaged in in
surrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort
to the enemies thereof; unless congress by two-thirds vote of each

MISSISSIPPI 525
house, removed the disability. This was to remove the power of
amnesty from the president. The fourth section made unquestion
able the validity of the national debt incurred on account of insur
rection or rebellion and made "illegal and void" any debt or obliga
tion incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion, "or any claim for
the loss or emancipation of any slave." The fifth section gave
congress power to enforce these provisions.
This amendment was accompanied by two bills, one making the
ratification of the amendment a prerequisite to the admission of
senators and representatives from any State lately in insurrection,
the other declaring high officials under the Confederacy ineligible
to office under the government of the United States.
In the elections of 1866, throughout the Union, reconstruction
was the issue, and the North overwhelmingly sustained the con
gressional policy, and chose a congress with 143 Republican to
49 Democratic representatives, a most unfortunate sectional divi
sion, for which President Johnson was originally responsible, which
created a semblance of a continuation of the strife that had been
submitted to the decision of battle. Only Tennessee submitted
to the congressional policy, and at once was restored to representa
tion in congress and self-government. In such action the Southern
legislatures were directly encouraged by President Johnson. Gen.
Grant wrote to Gen. Richard Taylor, "I would like exceedingly to
see one Southern State, excluded State, ratify the amendments to
enable us to see the exact course that would be pursued. I believe
it would much modify the demands that may be made if there is
much delay."
The joint standing committee on State and Federal relations,
of which Judge Simrall was chairman, in the special session of the
legislature, 1866-67, made an elaborate report, recommending that
Mississippi refuse to ratify the Fourteenth amendment, on the
ground that "the voting class should not be swollen by sudden and
large infusions of ignorance and prejudice. It cannot be pretended
that the lately enfranchised blacks are, as a body, either morally
or intellectually competent to vote. They have never had any con
cern or participation in public affairs. In the main they are desti
tute of the simplest elemental training. They have no habits of
thought, are incapable of comprehending our system of govern
ment and of reasoning upon and apprehending measures of wise
statesmanship. . . , The fourth section degrades and disfran
chises a most useful, intelligent and respectable class of our citi
zens — in a form the most odious and tyrannical — by ex post facto
law. . . . All who have taken the amnesty oath or been spec
ially pardoned have been forgiven any crime or offense by reason
of their complicity in the recent insurrection. ... To reach
them by a bill of attainder or ex post facto law is beyond the
power of congress. The problem is yet unsolved, whether they may
may not be punished by a constitutional amendment." The legis
lation of congress during the war was cited to support the position
that Mississippi had never been out of the Union. The Thirteenth

526 MISSISSIPPI
amendment was submitted to each of the 36 States and ratified by
nearly all the Southern States, among the others. It was contended
that it was revolutionary and subversive of fundamental principles,
"that a State may be in the Union for some purposes, and out of
it for others ; that she may, through her legislature, ratify an amend
ment of the constitution, and at the same time be excluded from
the consideration and vote on the amendment in Congress. . . .
The assumption that 25 States can govern the other 11 in a mode
different from that prescribed in the Constitution, is nothing more
nor less than a subversion of the Constitution and the Union
created by it." The legislature voted unanimously to reject the
amendment. February 3, 1867, William L. Sharkey, senator elect, telegraphed
from Washington to hold the legislature in session until he could
be heard from. He forwarded a plan of reconstruction proposed
by a delegate from North Carolina, and recommended adoption
thereof by the Southern States. This proposed another form of
the Fourteenth amendment, declaring the Union perpetual, mak
ing sacred the public debt of the United States and repudiating the
debts of the insurrectionary movement, declaring the citizenship
of all persons born or naturalized in the United States and pro
tecting all citizens of the United States from denial of rights and
privileges by the States, providing for congressional apportionment
on the basis of the population permitted to vote by the State
laws ; the constitution of the State to be amended to permit any
male citizen, qualified by age and residence, to vote, who could
read the declaration of independence and the constitution of the
United States, write his name, and was the owner of $250 worth
of taxable property. Governor Humphreys transmitted the com
munication to the legislature, saying he disapproved it entirely,
and the majority of the Simrall committee again discussed the con
stitutional question, declaring that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
amendments "were not offered by congress to the Southern States
as the conditions of restoration," and recommending the adop
tion of a resolution asking congress to propose "a final plan for the
adjustment of State and Federal relations." Hillyer and Lewis,
minority, were not prepared to admit they would consider the
Sharkey proposition, even if it were proposed by congress.
Congress soon presented a "final plan." This was embodied in
the Military Reconstruction Act, entitled, "an act for the more
efficient government of the rebel States," adopted over the presi
dent's veto March 2, 1867. It was the preamble of this act that
"no legal State governments or adequate protection for life and
property now exists in the rebel States [enumerating all the late
Confederate States except Tennessee], and whereas it is necessary
that peace and good order should be enforced in said States until
loyal and republican State governments can be legally established,"
therefore the said States for their government were thrown into
military districts, Mississippi and Arkansas forming the Fourth,
and provision made for a convention in each State to form "a con-

MISSISSIPPI 527
stitution of government in conformity with the constitution of the
United States in all respects." (See Const. Conv. of 1868.) March
23, 1867, the next congress passed a supplemental bill giving
specific instructions as to the method of reconstruction required.
J. W. C. Watson had predicted in the Convention of 1865 that
resistance to the inevitable results of the war would bring about
another convention, which would be without regard to race or
color. (See Const. Conv. 1865.) The military control had never
been entirely withdrawn, even during the administration of Gover
nor Humphreys, whom President Johnson declined, for some time
after his inauguration, to treat as a governor. The only change
made was to dispense with the functions of Provisional Governor
Sharkey. But as time passed and Governor Humphreys and the
executive and judicial officers were, in general, not interfered with,
the majority in the State took the attitude, more strongly than
before, that the State was "in the Union," though the congressional
delegation was denied recognition. It was denied that the United
States government could enforce military government under the
Reconstruction acts, while the civil government continued, though
fne military commandants had all along exercised powers of a mil
itary governor, and Governor Humphreys had deferred to the mil
itary government in regard to the execution of certain la.ws. (See
Humphreys' Adm.) "Trial by military commission in a Northern
State where the courts were open was held to be unconstitutional,"
says Garner.
The opinion of Justice Tarbell (Welborne vs. Mayrant, 48 Miss.
653) was: "By no refinement of , reason can we escape the fact
that there existed in the State in 1868 a pure, undisguised, military
government, and the military force was not kept there simply as a
police force, but it was sent there to govern as well." This opinion
was given on an appeal which questioned the constitutional right
of the general commanding to set aside the judgment of an arbi
tration court that he had himself created, by military proclama
tion. "Tarbell's view was certainly justified by the actual practice
of the commanders, if not by the spirit of the reconstruction acts,"
Garner comments ; "whether it was justified by the constitution
of the United States is not quite so clear." To which, of course,
the opposing theory was that the appeal to the constitution of the
United States was as yet unauthorized. (See Const. Conv. 1865.)
Judge R. A. Hill, of the United States court, the only judge of the
State permitted to issue the writ of habeas corpus, "declined to hold
the Civil Rights act unconstitutional under existing conditions,"
and construed it as not intended to deprive the citizen of his con
stitutional rights regarding trial and punishment for alleged mis
demeanor, but that in a certain class of offenses a different forum
was provided, composed of military officers of the government,
who were supposed to be free from local and other prejudices on
the subjects involved. (Autobiographical sketch, Goodspeed
Memoirs.) The two famous cases in which the habeas corpus
was invoked were those of Col. McCardle (q. v.), an editor charged

528 MISSISSIPPI
with obstructing the congressional laws, and E. N. Yerger, charged
with killing the military mayor of Jackson. The State attempted
to raise the whole question of status before the United States
supreme court, Judge Sharkey and Robert J. Walker appearing and
asking leave to file an application for an injunction against Presi
dent Johnson and Gen. Ord, to restrain them from enforcing. the
reconstruction acts. The application was based upon the theory
that secession was null and void and the State was not therefore
a proper subject of reconstruction. The court refused to permit
the filing of the application, to avoid interference with the president
in the execution of the laws. (Mississippi vs. Johnson, 4 Wall
475.) Under the Military Reconstruction act of 1867 Gen. E. O. C. Ord
was appointed to command of the Fourth district, with headquar
ters at Vicksburg. Ord announced his appointment March 26,
1867; Gen. Alvan C. Gillem had command, under him, of the sub-
district of Mississippi. Gov. Humphreys was permitted to retain
his office, and the ordinary administration of civil government con
tinued, but with no legislative functions. Gen. Ord had two gen
eral duties, — to preserve order, and to provide for the registering
of voters under the new law and an election on the question of a
constitutional convention. (See Humphreys' Adm.) The election
held and convention ordered, Gen. Ord, after nine months' service,
asked for transfer, and was succeeded by Gen. Alvan C. Gillem,
who took command of the Fourth district, January 8, 1868. The
United States troops in the State at that time were the 24th and
34th infantry and two companies of cavalry, posted at Vicksburg,
Meridian, Jackson, Natchez, Grenada, Columbus, Holly Springs,
Corinth, Durant, Brookhaven and Lauderdale. Four more com
panies were brought in for fear of disorder at the elections. Gen.
Gillem was able to greatly relax the rigor of military rule, though
he made more appointments to civil office than did his predecessor.
(See Humphreys' Adm.) The constitutional convention of 1868
(q. v.) assembled at Jackson January 9, 1868, with 17 negroes among
the delegates. It was, as might have been expected, a crude and
revolutionary assemblage, anxious to do so many things that it
continued in session 115 days. The constitution it framed was
submitted to popular vote June 22, 1868, the first time such a
thing had been done in Mississippi. "Every possible precaution
to prevent fraud and unfairness seems to have been taken by the
district commander. It is difficult to see what more could have
been done," says Mr. Garner. Meanwhile the Democratic party
was reorganized, and all its strength put into the campaign against
the constitution, and for the election of a governor to succeed
Humphreys. June 4 Gen. Gillem was succeeded in command of the Fourth
district, by order of the president, by Gen. Irwin McDowell, who,
unlike Ord and Gillem, had never been on duty in the State. On
the charge of opposition to the Reconstruction acts, he removed
Gov. Humphreys from office. Lieut.-Col. Adelbert Ames, of the

MISSISSIPPI 529
24th infantry (brevet major-general), was appointed provisional
governor, the function first exercised by Judge Sharkey. Other
changes were made, State officers being supplanted by officers of
the regiments of the State garrison. (See Ames Prov. Adm.)
McDowell added another day to the election date. But before
he was able to announce the result, he was removed from com
mand, and Gillem reinstated, a step which met with popular ap
proval. Gillem announced July 10 the result of the June election. It
showed that the constitution had been rejected.
Two days before the returns were completed, the Committee of
Five, of the constitutional convention (q. v.), reported to the
Reconstruction committee of congress that election commissioners
had been unable to discharge their duties in some counties, in
others there was a reign of terror for the purpose of intimidation,
and that a sort of boycott had been proclaimed to compel negroes
to refrain from voting the Republican ticket. On the other hand
the Democrats charged that negroes were intimidated from voting
tjieir ticket. There is no doubt of the truth, to some extent, of all
these allegations. Not more than half the colored vote was cast.
The Committee of Five requested Gen. Gillem to investigate its
charges, and upon his refusal so to do, the committee took rooms
at the capitol, and with closed doors took testimony to support its
position. After four months the chairman of the committee on
November 3 issued a proclamation declaring the constitution
adopted by a majority of the legal votes cast, and the Republican
State ticket elected at the same time. The elections in Copiah,
Carroll, Chickasaw, DeSoto, Lafayette, Rankin and Yalobusha
counties were declared to be illegal and void on account of threats,
intimidations, frauds and violence. He also claimed that two Re
publicans had been elected to the 40th congress, and impeached
the title of a number of members of the legislature declared elected
by Gen. Gillem.
Meanwhile the committee had asked congress to support this
conclusion. The House passed a bill July 24, to re-assemble the
convention to frame a new constitution, but it was rejected by the
senate. A Republican State convention was convened at Jackson,
November 25, which memorialized congress to the same effect,
renewed the charges of fraud, and adopted an address declaring
that a large party in Mississippi, in "defiance of the authority, and
regardless of the wishes of congress, had rejected in contempt all
terms of restoration, and had assumed the right to dictate the
terms under which they would condescend to be re-admitted to
the Union." Similar conventions were held in nearly every county.
A committee of six persons from the State at large, and two from
each congressional district, were sent to Washington to urge the
adoption of this policy. There was a hearing before the Recon
struction committee. Gov. Sharkey testified that the election was
fair so far as he knew, that many negroes voted voluntarily with
the Democrats, that there was good feeling between the races, and
34-n

530 MISSISSIPPI
that if again submitted, with the proscriptive features omitted the
constitution would be adopted. Gen. Gillem had the same view
of the constitution, and denied that he had opposed the recon
struction measures, as charged against him. J. W. C. Watson
said the people, though opposed to negro suffrage, would- have
approved the constitution but for the features of white disfran
chisement. Another Mississippi reconstruction party, among the
leaders of which were A. Warner, A. C. Fiske, Judge Jeffords, J.
L. Wofford and Frederick Speed, nearly all Northerners, opposed
what they called the Eggleston clique, and favored the policy which
was afterward adopted.
While the subject was yet before congress, Gen. U. S. Grant was
inaugurated as president, March 4, 1869. The overwhelming sup
port of Grant as a candidate in 1868 had its effect upon the situ
ation in Mississippi and elsewhere, as indicating the inevitable.
After his iuauguration, president and congress pursued one policy.
Gen. Gillem was removed from district command, and the provis
ional governor of Mississippi, Gen. Adelbert Ames, was appointed
his successor.
Just before the Reconstruction committee closed its hearings,-
A. G. Brown, Judge Simrall, and others, representing the Demo
cratic party of the State, appeared before it, and were given "a
full and patient hearing." An argument between two of these
gentlemen and two of the Republican committee was heard by
President Grant. His conclusion was that the proscriptive clauses
in the constitution were wrong; that the people could not afford to
have another convention, and he suggested resubmission with the
objectional clauses stricken out, which Brown and Simrall ap
proved. The president's suggestion carried weight with congress, which
considered two plans of re-submission of the rejected constitutions
of Mississippi, Virginia and Texas — one by Gen. B. F. Butler,
and the other by Gen. Farnsworth, of Illinois. The Farnsworth
plan was finally adopted as the basis, amended by Senator Morton,
of Indiana, to require the State to adopt the Fifteenth amendment
to the constitution of the United States before the restoration of
representation in congress. This bill became a law in April, 1869,
immediately after which congress adjourned, leaving the comple
tion of the work to the president.
The Fifteenth amendment, intended to reinforce the Fourteenth
amendment, had passed congress February 25, 1869. It provided
that "The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall
not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State,
on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," and
authorized enforcement by legislation.
By proclamation of President Grant, July 13, 1869, the consti
tution of 1868 "was resubmitted at an election November 30, 1869.
(See Ames' Adm.) By overwhelming majorities it was adopted
with the objectionable features stricken out, and all the Republi-

MISSISSIPPI 531
can candidates for State office, legislature and congress were elec
ted by great majorities.
Accordingly the legislature of the State, for the first time since
1866, met in January, 1870, under the new constitution, the Four
teenth and Fifteenth amendments were promptly ratified, by almost
unanimous vote (Garner's Reconstruction, 271), and United States
senators (q. v.) were elected. All the other States had been re
admitted in January, 1870. Gen. Butler reported a bill in the lower
house of congress February 3, 1870, readmitting Mississippi, but
with the conditions of a stringent oath of allegiance for civil offi
cers, and pledges that the constitution should never be amended
so as to deprive any citizen of the right to vote, or to hold office
because of race, color or previous condition of servitude, or so as
to ever deprive any citizen of the benefits of the public schools.
Senator Morton in the Senate added other restrictions. The bill
thus passed both houses and was approved February 23, 1870.
Gen. Ames, who had been elected one of the United States sena
tors, issued his general orders No. 25, February 26, 1870, an
nouncing that the command known as the Fourth military district
had ceased to exist.
The measures of reconstruction had as a basis negro enfran
chisement and white disfranchisement. The enforcement of such
a policy was impossible, because it would have resulted in the ruin
of both races.
"The construction period found the negro free. His freedom
was not the result of his own efforts, although in most instances
it was his desire to be free. By reason of the entire absence of
self-reliance, his want of experience and his failure to understand
or appreciate his changed condition, the negro after his emanci
pation was helpless. At this critical time the carpet-bagger invaded
the South intent upon nothing but gain. At best the pathway
toward better things was, blocked by many difficulties. The com
ing of the carpet bagger and the evil influence he gained over the
negro, by causing him to lose faith in his best friends, was the
crowning sorrow and humiliation of the South.
"The picture of conditions existing in the South during the period
of reconstruction may strike those who know nothing of it as too
dark. Some thinking and impartial men of the North are inclined
to believe that Southern men overdraw the darkness of the night
of reconstruction. At this time — thirty years after — in the light
of the facts of history the student of that period, whose opinions
are not embittered by the trials of the times, stands in astonish
ment and marvels at the patience and long suffering of a brave and
chivalrous people." (Dunbar Rowland in "A Mississippi View of
Race Relations.")
Under the general title of "Reconstruction," the whole period,
1865-67 is often included. For the period following 1869 see the
articles, Alcorn', Powers' and Ames' Administrations, etc.
Red Banks, an incorporated post-town of Marshall county, on
the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R, 9 miles northwest

532 MISSISSIPPI
of Holly Springs, the nearest banking town. It was so named
because of the reddish appearance of the banks of the creek on
which it is located. It has 2 churches, a money order postoffice
and a steam gin. Population in 1900, 79.
Redbone, a postoffice of Warren county, 12 miles south of Vicks
burg, and 2 miles east of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R.
Redding, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Calhoun
county, about 18 miles from Pittsboro, the county seat. Population
in 1900, 27.
Reddoch, a postoffice of Jones county.
Redland, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Pontotoc county,
about 12 miles south of Pontotoc, the county seat. De Soto and his
army are believed to have spent the winter of 1540-41, one mile
northwest of Redland, at the Indian village of Chicaca. It has a
church. Population in 1900, 52.
Redlick, a post-hamlet of Jefferson county on the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley Railroad, 8 miles by rail northeast of Fayette, the
-county seat and nearest banking town. In writing of the five early
settlements of Jefferson county, the late Col. John A. Watkins, of
New Orleans, La, says: "The northeast (Redlick) was settled
largely by the Ross, Chambliss, Cesney, Prince, Shelby and Jeffrey
families." It has three churches, and a money order postoffice is
maintained here. Population in 1900, 70.
Redmondville, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Yazoo
county, about 15 miles from Yazoo City, the county seat. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1906 was about 100. It is a
flourishing town.
Redstar, a post-hamlet of Lincoln county, 8 miles northwest of
Brookhaven, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Redwood, a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R,
about 10 miles north of Vicksburg, in Warren county. It has a
money order postoffice.
Reed, Thomas B, was a native of Kentucky, well educated, and
had some experience as a young lawyer at Lexington before com
ing down the river to Natchez in 1809. It is the tradition that he
arrived without money and had some difficulty in getting his
baggage transported from the landing. He was appointed city
clerk in December, 1811. In 1813 he was an unsuccessful candidate
for delegate in congress, against Cowles Mead and Dr. Lattimore.
He appeared in the first criminal case brought before the supreme
court of the State, arguing for the defence in behalf of the Blenner-
hassetts, at the June term, 1818. In January, 1821, he was elected
attorney-general of the State, receiving 20 votes to 13 for Edward
Turner. Adams county elected him to the legislature in 1825. In
January, 1826 he was a candidate for the unexpired term of David
Holmes in the United States senate. This caused a curious com
plication. The. constitution of Mississippi provided that a member
of the legislature should not be eligible to any office for which the
legislature had the power of election. Reed did not resign his mem
bership in the legislature, but simply declined to take his seat in

MISSISSIPPI 533
that body. Though the objection was urged against him strongly,
he was elected, and was given his seat in the United States senate,
which has the right to pass upon the qualifications of its own mem
bers. In January, 1827, Reed was defeated before the legislature by
Powhatan Ellis, and he went before the people as a candidate.
In 1828, after he had sent out a circular announcing his candi
dacy for the senate, a counter circular was issued by Wiley P.
Harris, making a bitter onslaught upon him, charging that his
character was "blackened with charges of almost every species
of bad faith and moral turpitude, and particularly the charge of
perjury." Reed replied that the charge of perjury had previously
been exposed and was based only on his taking out letters of ad
ministration on the insolvent estate of a friend in preference to
probating the will in which he was named as executor. Another
charge made by Harris, that he was "a hightoned Federalist" until
he became a candidate for office, he denied, most emphatically and
oersonally, citing proof that in Kentucky he had been considered
'rather too democratical." He charged Harris with having, for
several years waged "a war of extermination" against him. When
the legislature met, he was opposed by Poindexter and Lynch,
but was elected by a large majority, for the full term of six years,
to succeed T. H. Williams. While on his way to Washington,
D. C, he died at his old home, Lexington, Ky, November 25,
1829. His contemporary, Henry S. Foote, said of him that he
had a profound knowledge of law, but was deficient in general in
formation and was not fluent in speech. "His person was large
and commanding; he dressed with much taste and elegance; and
his manners were marked with a loftiness bordering on hauteur
which impressed ordinary beholders with mingled awe and aver
sion." He gained no little reputation during his short service in
the senate, and his speech on the judiciary question, much talked
of at the time, may yet be read with profit and entertainment.
His obituary notice in the Natchez "Southern Galaxy" reads:
"In person Mr: Reed was above the ordinary heisrht, but of delicate
frame. He possessed a pleasing address — affable and urbane.
. . . As a lawyer, Mr. Reed had obtained a high eminence.
. '. In popular declamation before a jury, he may not have
been pre-eminent; but in legal argument, we shall give no offence
when we say, he had no equal. . . . His deficiency in the
knowledge of mankind and in moral courage — in firmness and
promptitude of action, were the great source of his errors. Hesi
tating under the fear of going wrong, he was exposed to the very
errors he would have avoided. As a man, Mr. Reed was, we be
lieve, universally respected."
The wife of Senator Reed was Margaret A, daughter of Isaac
Ross. In maidenhood she was betrothed to a young lawyer named
Fry, who was killed in duel by Daniel Beasley, who out of remorse
joined the troops at Baton Rouge, was commissioned major, and

534 MISSISSIPPI
was in command at Fort Mims when killed. She was the widow
of one of the Archers when she married Reed.
Reese, a postoffice of Coahoma county.
Rees Store, a post-hamlet of Monroe county, situated on Butta-
hatchie river, about 12 miles southeast of Aberdeen, the county
seat. Population in 1900, 50.
Reeves, a post-hamlet of Carroll county, 16 miles south of Car
roUton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Reform, a post-hamlet of Choctaw county, situated 6 miles north
east of Chester, the county seat, and 8 miles north of Ackerman the
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 63; in 1906 it was esti
mated at 200. It has a saw mill and cotton gin, and is on the
M. J. & K. C. R. R.
Refuge, a post-hamlet of Washington county, on the Mississippi
river, 10 miles below Greenville. Population in 1900, 30.
Reganton, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Claiborne
county, one mile east of the Big Black river, and about 20 miles
northeast of Port Gibson, the county seat. Population in 1900.
48. It has 2 stores, one church and a school.
Reid, a post-hamlet of Calhoun county, 10 miles northeast of
Pittsboro, the county seat. Population in 1900, 17.
Reids Switch, a postoffice of Benton county, on the Kansas City,
Memphis & Birmingham R. R, 15 miles south of Ashland, the
county seat.
Relay, a postoffice of Smith county, about 12 miles northeast of
Raleigh, the county seat.
Religious Toleration. Concerning the toleration of religious
freedom during the Spanish dominion, it is said by Claiborne, in
his "Mississippi," pp. 136-7:
"A large majority of the settlers were Protestants, who enjoyed
their faith and the right of private worship. No attempt was
made to proselyte or proscribe them, nor was there ever any-
official interference unless the parties in their zeal, or under in
discreet advisers, became offensively demonstrative. There was
in fact, more religious freedom and toleration for Protestants in
the Natchez district, than Catholics and dissenters from the ruling
denominations, enjoyed in eithen Old or New England. The re
ligious bigotry and proscription so prevalent at that day, in Mas
sachusetts — the sectarian frenzy which has been witnessed, in our
own times, distracting families, burning convents, enforcing test
oaths and carrying religion into politics, and politics into the pul
pit, were entirely unknown. It was a community of Protestants
under a strictly Catholic dynasty, in an age of intolerance." This
statement might be misleading.
It is evident that the treatment of the inhabitants of West Flor
ida, with respect to being allowed to remain in their homes upon
a mere oath of allegiance, without being required to profess the
religion of their conquerors, was due to the enlightened policy of
Gen. Galvez and Gov. Miro. But it was contemplated that under
religious instruction they, or their children, would embrace the

MISSISSIPPI 535
established religion. Hence no Protestant preachers were to be
allowed. The situation at Natchez, according to Gov. Miro (see
D'Arges Colony) was that the settlers were not to be disturbed
by solicitation to become Catholics, but "they are not to have the
free exercise of their religion" — that is, not to have the privilege
of religious assembly. In 1786 the king ordered that parishes be
formed, and put under the direction of Irish clergymen, in order to
bring over the inhabitants and their families to the Catholic faith.
When the Yazoo companies threatened an American settlement
in Mississippi, Miro wrote, in 1789, "It is to be feared that the
conformity of language, manners and religion, the free and public
exercise of which would be permitted, would draw thither a con
siderable number of the families now established in the Natchez
district." A commissary of the Holy Inquisition was appointed in New
Orleans in 1789, during the revival of bigotry which followed the
accession of Charles IV. This official notified Miro that he might
need some guards soon, at a late hour of the night, to assist him in
his operations. Miro wrote home, "When I read the communica
tion of that Capuchin, I shuddered." He sent an officer and guards,
at a late hour of the night, to the priest's room, seized him, and
put him on a ship for Spain. "The mere name of the Inquisition
uttered in New Orleans," he wrote, "would be sufficient to check
immigration, but would also be capable of driving away those who
have recently come."
Miro refused to sanction the privileges of the proposed Morgan
colony which founded New Madrid, because, having self-govern
ment, "they would declare themselves independent, and what is
worse, having the free use of their respective religious, they would
never become Catholics."
"While Protestants were tolerated, they were not free -in the
practice of their religion. Rev. Adam Cloud, the first Episcopal
minister in this section, was persecuted and driven away, and many
interesting accounts are extant, illustrations of the spirit of Span
ish bigotry and persecution." — Gerard Brandon, "Historic Adams
County." For more than thirty years anterior to March 30, 1798, says the
Rev. John G. Jones, in his History of Methodism, "a Protestant
population had been gradually accumulating in the Natchez dis
trict," because of the claims of Georgia and the United States,
"in either case affording reasonable assurance that the country
would ultimately be opened for the free introduction of the Protes
tant faith and forms of Christianity. But these first Protestant
families had to endure a long and bitter persecution from the ad
herents of Catholicism, under a rigid Catholic government, even
to personal abuse, imprisonment and banishment from the coun
try." Of the experience of the Swayze settlement, after the Span
ish conquest, Mr. Jones writes : "The public worship of all
Protestants was prohibited under heavy pains and penalties, and
for the succeeding nineteen years could only be kept up clandes-

536 MISSISSIPPI
finely. Wherever their bibles and other Protestant books could
be found by the emissaries of the priesthood, they were committed
to the flames. Rev. Mr. Swayze often concealed himself and his
bible in the hollow of a large sycamore tree, standing on the margin
of what is still known as Sammies Creek, in the midst of a dense
canebrake." In June, 1791, Governor Gayoso gave permission for a Baptist
clergyman to preach one Sunday, at the home of Col. Hutchins,
"which was the first time a protestant minister had been allowed
to hold religious services." (Forman's Journal, p. 58.)
Governor Gayoso at Natchez, September 20, 1793, proclaimed the
recently expressed intentions of his gracious sovereign regarding
his subjects in Louisiana and the Floridas who did not profess the
Catholic religion, "to furnish them the means of legitimatizing
their posterity." It was, in order to bring about this highly desir
able end, ordained that "contracts of matrimony between his be
loved subjects, either Protestant with Protestant, or Catholic with
Protestant, shall be celebrated before the Parish Priests established
in his said dominions." The priests were informed that this was
one of their principal duties.
March 29, 1897, Gayoso issued a proclamation intended to con
ciliate and hold the affections of the inhabitants, at a critical mo
ment, and this contains the most liberal provision regarding relig
ion that the Spanish government had made. He said: "The mis
construction of what is meant by the enjoyment of the liberty of
conscience is hereby removed, by explaining it positively to be,
that no individual of this government shall be molested on account
of religious principles, and that they shall not be hindered in their
private meetings ; but no other public worship shall be allowed, but
that generally established in all his Majesty's dominions, which
is the Catholic religion." (Ellicott's Journal, p. 66.)
This was followed in June by the arbitrary sending to the stocks
of Hanna, the Baptist pioneer preacher, for the reason, according
to the governor's own statement, that he was insolent to him in
demanding redress for an assault suffered. This proceeding
brought on the revolution that ended the Spanish government in
the Natchez.
September 9, 1797, after he had become governor-general, Gayoso
gave the following instructions regarding settlers in Spanish ter
ritory: "The privilege of enjoying liberty of conscience is not
to extend beyond the first generation. The children of those who
enjoy it, must positively be Catholics. Those who will not conform
to this rule are not to be admitted, but are to be sent back out of
the province immediately, even though they possess much prop
erty. The commandants will take particular care that no Protes
tant preacher, or one of any sect other than the Catholic, shall in
troduce himself into the province. The least neglect in this re
spect will be a subject of great reprehension."
Remus, a hamlet of Leake county, situated on Humbleton creek,
an affluent of the Pearl river, about 14 miles northeast of Carthage,

MISSISSIPPI 537
the county seat. The postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and
.it now has rural free delivery from Edinburg.
Renalara, a post-hamlet of Coahoma county, on the Riverside
Division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 12 miles west of
Clarksdale. Population in 1900, 50.
Reneau, Sallie Eola. This lady, the pioneer of higher education
for women in Mississippi, then having her home at Grenada, sent
to Governor McRae in 1856 an elaborate memorial, accompanied
by a scheme of organization. The legislature passed an act of in
corporation of a State Female college, to be located in Yalobusha
county, but there was no endowment. An attempt to obtain the
same from congress was unsuccessful. Again, in 1872, Miss Reneau
secured an amendment to the charter of the State university, es
tablishing the Reneau female university as a branch, the amend
ment to become operative when congress should bestow an endow
ment. The latter was not forthcoming for this, nor for the Female
university to be located at Sardis, chartered in the following year.
"Thus baffled, after a contest of twenty years, Miss Renau left
the State, and fell at the post of duty at Germantown, Tenn, in the
epidemic of 1879. ... In the noble cause to which she devoted
much of her life she displayed an energy and a courage worthy of
success, and although victory perched not on her banner, yet should
her name along with Mrs. Peyton's be ever honored." (Chancel
lor Mayes.)
Renfroe, a post-hamlet of Leake county, situated on Yellow
Creek, 10 miles north, northeast of Carthage, the county seat. Pop
ulation in 1900, 21.
Renova, a postoffice of Bolivar county, on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R, 3 miles north of Cleveland. It has a large saw
mill plant and the town is growing rapidly.
Repudiation Resolution. (See Banking.) The political issue in
the election of a governor and legislature in 1841 was the proposed
repudiation of the Union bank bonds. Tilghman M. Tucker, the
repudiation candidate, was successful by a majority of 2,286. "The
vote for governor by counties shows that the repudiators were
uniformly successful in the poor and sparsely settled agricultural
districts of the State, while heavy majorities against repudiation
were returned in Adams, Hinds, Madison and Warren counties,
that represented the bulk of the State's population and taxable
property. . . . On February 18, 1842, scarcely a month after
the new administration had gone into office, there passed by the
impressive majorities of 16 to 10 in the senate and 54 to 37 in the
house, the famous repudiation resolution reported by the special
cofnmittee. . . . This resolution is worded as follows : 'That
for the reasons set forth in the foregoing report, this legislature
denies that the State of Mississippi is under any legal or moral
obligation to redeem the five millions of bonds, sold by the com
missioners of the Mississippi Union bank to Nicholas Biddle on
the 18th day of August 1838. But while the Legislature does most
solemnly repudiate said bonds, and declare the sale thereof as il-

538 MISSISSIPPI
legal, fraudulent and unconstitutional, yet, that the holders of those
bonds may have every possible legal and equitable remedy for
collecting the amount paid on said bonds, they are hereby invited,
to pursue the remedy afforded by our laws and Constitution against
the Mississippi Union bank and against all and every person who,
by his, her or their connection with said institution, have rendered
him, her or themselves liable, either in law or equity, for the debts
of said bank.' " The High court of Errors and Appeals decided
in 1853 by unanimous vote that the reasons upon which the legis
lature based this declaration, were inconsequential, and that the
bonds were a debt of the State. "However, this decision was nul
lified the same year by a vote of the people repudiating the Planters'
as well as the Union bank bonds, and. was given its coup de grace
by the Constitution of 1890, which expressly prohibits the payment
of any indebtedness alleged to be due by the State of Mississippi'
to the Union and Planters' banks. This indebtedness consists of
$2,000,000 of Planters' bank bonds and $5,000,000 of Union bank
bonds." It has been suggested by Major R. W. Millsaps that the
people of the State have in the expenses of obtaining loans since
the act of repudiation, more than paid the amount repudiated, to
financiers not entitled to the same, leaving the victims of the
bonds unrequitted. (History of Banking, C. H. Brough, Publ.
M. H. S, III, 317.)
Rest, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 9 miles due north of
Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 36.
Retreat, a postoffice of Calhoun county, 8 miles southwest of
Pittsboro, the county seat.
Retta, a postoffice of Attala county, about 16 miles north oi
Kosciusko, the county seat.
Retus, a postoffice of Sunflower county, 18 miles due north of
Indianola, the county seat, and one mile south of the station of
Halstead, on the Boyle & Sunflower branch of the Yazoo & Miss.
Valley R. R.
Revels, Hiram R, the first negro United States senator, was
born at Fayetteville, N. C, September 1, 1822. He was unable to
obtain an education in his native State, moved to Indiana, attended
the Quaker seminary in Union county, and was a preacher in Bal
timore, Md, at the beginning of the war. He assisted in organiz
ing the first two colored regiments in Maryland. He taught school
in St. Louis, moved to Vicksburg, and afterwards to Natchez.
He held various local offices, and was elected United States sena
tor, serving from February 25, 1870 to March 3, 1871. He was
president of Alcorn university for the next ten years; removed to
Richmond, Ind, and became pastor of the African Methodist
church. He died at Aberdeen, Miss, January 16, 1901.
Revenue Agent. Owing to the character of tax-collectors during
the period from 1868 to 1876, a large amount of money collected
failed to reach the government. By act of March 4, 1875, the gov
ernor was authorized to appoint one or more agents, at a compen
sation of not more than 50%, to bring suit on the bonds of tax

MISSISSIPPI 539
collectors of counties or levee boards, where money collected had
been improperly withheld or where any erroneous or false state
ment of the amount of tax had been made. In order to make way
for a more stringent law, this act was repealed without the ap
proval of Gov. Ames, January 28, 1876, and on April 15, Gov.
Stone approved an act fixing compensation at 25%, and stating
with much more minuteness the cases where suit could be brought.
The provisions of this act were slightly extended in 1877 and 1880,
and in 1884 the law was extended to include cities and towns.
No great amount of good seemed to be done, as at this time most
of the officials were honest in collections, and the trouble was
seen to be in the assessment. In 1888 the supreme court held that
the office had expired. By an act of February 22, 1890, revised by
the code of 1892, the office of Revenue Agent was again created,
the agent to be appointed by the governor for two years, and,
after 1895, to be elected for four years, who should collect taxes
not only from officers, but also from persons and corporations when
not paid promptly, and who could in addition have the power of
assessing property not properly assessed. In the March, 1893,
ferm of the Supreme Court this law was held unconstitutional, as
it transferred by legislation to the Revenue Agent duties assigned
by the constitution to the assessor. The law under which the
Agent acts at present is that of February 7, 1894, and it avoids
the constitutional point by requiring the Revenue Agent to in
form the assessor of property not duly assessed and to bring suit
on this assessment. Public attention was attracted to it by the
famous cases in 1898 against the Illinois Central and Yazoo
Mississippi Valley railroads. The cases were appealed to the
United States Supreme Court, and the case of the State sus
tained at every point, so that near a million dollars was collected
from these roads. These are the "back tax cases," but the law
has also become well known to individuals and corporations in all
parts of the State.
Gen. Wirt Adams was appointed State revenue agent by Gov
ernor Stone in 1880, served until his resignation November 12,
1885, when Wirt Adams, Jr., was appointed. Continuing in the
office, he was elected for a term of four years in 1895, and has
since then been reelected.
In his message of 1902 Governor Longino said : "The amounts
collected by and through the State revenue agent and paid into the
State, county, municipal and levee board- treasuries for the past two
years, is unprecedented in the history of that office, and is ample
evidence of the efficiency of Agent Wirt Adams, who has conduc
ted all suits instituted by him with fairness and impartiality. By
reference to his report it will be seen that he has paid in to the
State treasury the sum of $345,552, into county treasuries the sum
of $435,654, into municipal treasuries $43,930, and into levee board
treasuries $3,521, which, together with amounts in hands of tax
collectors ($52,150) makes a grand total of $1,096,958,, less his
fees."

540 MISSISSIPPI
In 1905 the revenue agent made an investigation of the fiscal
affairs of the various institutions of the State, which he reported
in 1906. The collections by and through the office in 1904 and 1905
were over $250,000.
Revive, a post-hamlet of Madison county, about 18 miles north
east of Canton, the county seat and nearest banking town. Popu
lation in 1900, 47.
Revolt of 1781. Gayarre, in his history of Louisiana, ascribes
the revolt of Natchez district in 1781 mainly to "the British ad
herents who had settled in that neighborhood in 1775, under Gen
eral Lyman. . . . These men had seen with much regret the
British flag succeeded by the Spanish. When they heard that
Galvez had dared invade Florida, their patriotism did not doubt
of his defeat, and, in the excess of their zeal, they determined to
give a proof of their loyalty to their sovereign. They secretly
formed the plan of driving away the Spaniards, engaged most of
the other inhabitants in the conspiracy, and secured the coopera
tion of some of the neighboring Indians." Wailes, in his Histori
cal Outline, names Thaddeus Lyman (son of the general) and his
associates, as prominent in the movement. According to Calvin
Smith (son of the Congregational minister) an eye witness in his
boyhood, the persons actively in the lead were Col. Anthony Hutch
ins, Capt. D. Blomart, Jacob Winfrey, Christian Bingaman, all of
whom had held commissions in the king's service, the two Alstons,
and Turner Mulkey, a Baptist preacher. The district had been
under Spanish control for two years. There was yet no reason
to hope that Protestants would be permitted to remain in the
country. There was a strong Protestant spirit animating the Ly
man and Swayze colonists. Spanish dominion meant an oath of
allegiance to His Catholic Majesty, successor of Philip II. If
Spanish dominion continued, therefore, they must seek homes else
where, but where would they go? The only chance was the desper
ate one of revolt, in the hope that it might prove a straw to throw
the balance for British success. The religious hostility to Spain
that was the spur to enterprise in the day of Sir Walter Raleigh
and the beginnings of Virginia, had another manifestation here on
the banks of the Mississippi.
In preparing for the revolt, a messenger, Mann, was sent to
Governor Chester, at Pensacola, asking assistance. Chester and
Campbell, in daily anticipation of an attack by an armada from
Havana, sent such supplies as they could spare, (by packhorses,
it may be inferred), but instructed Mann to stop in the Choctaw
country with Fulsom, a white who had married in the nation and
wait for further orders. Mann disregarded these orders, says
Wailes, in the hope of plunder. He and Fulsom collected a party
of about fifty (Wailes has it about twenty whites and as many
Indians) and, approaching Natchez, precipitated the attack on the
Spanish -garrison. The inhabitants collected for action, believing
they had the support and authority of Governor Chester. "As
sembling at the house of John Row, afterward the residence of Job

MISSISSIPPI 541
Routh, the British flag was raised on April 22, in full view of the
fort." (1781, not 1782, as given by mere oversight in both Wailes,
and Claiborne. Chester surrendered May 9, 1781.) During the
night they came nearer to the fort (according to the story in Mar
tin's Louisiana) and brought some artillery to bear upon it, but
a heavy fire from the Spanish guns soon forced them to retire.
From the 24th to the 28th hostilities were kept up between the
insurgents and the Spanish, and some gunshots were exchanged,
which killed a few men. "On the 28th, the commandant of the
fort sent one of his officers to the insurgents, to represent to them
the danger to which they exposed themselves by a rebellion against
their lawful sovereign, recommending to them, at the same time,
to deliver up their leaders and disperse, and promising that, if they
did so, the royal clemency should be extended to them. They
promised to send an answer the next day. Accordingly, in the
morning, a planter came to the fort with a letter from Mcintosh,
one of the most respectable inhabitants of the district, informing
him that what the messenger would say could be relied on. This
man, on being questioned, said the fort was undermined, and would
be blown up on the following day. There was a deep valley at a
very short distance from the fort, at which the Spaniards had
noticed a considerable number of persons during the preceding
days, a circumstance which gave some credit to the story. On the
29th, the men, according to the report of the commandant, being
exhausted with fatigue and watching, and the provisions and am
munition being nearly consumed, the fort was surrendered, the
garrison being permitted to march to Baton Rouge."
The narrative of Wiales is that the Spanish flag was sent out as
soon as the fort was menaced. The warning of a mine was sent
in by one Stille, who lived with Capt. Alexander Mcintosh on St.
Catherine, and was caught carrying a message of encouragement
to the Spanish commandant. John Alston, "who had the art of
imitating handwriting" prepared the substituted message, which
was sent in to the garrison. The insurgents, under the command
of Captain Blomart, with Winfrey and Smith as lieutenants, had
been bombarding the fort from a position near Row's house, pro
tected by a deep ravine, using an old gun found at the French
meadows on the St. Catherine, probably a relic of 1729, and two
swivels captured from a Spanish gunboat waylaid below Natchez.
With this equipment they could not do much damage to the heavy
earth ramparts, or the stockade of cypress logs. In the exchange
of shots, the Spanish demolished a small house in which some be
siegers took shelter. "A shot from the assailants passed through
the commandant's house in the fort, and a corporal in the garrison
was killed, the only life lost, it is said, in the attack." (See Wailes,
of which Claiborne's account seems to be a confusion.) It was
after a siege of this nature, "continued for a week with more noise
than effect," says Wailes, that the ruse of a mine was successfully
used. "The fort was strong, and said to be well provided with
provisions and ammunition, and capable of sustaining a long siege.

542 MISSISSIPPI
. . . The apprehension of the explosion of the mine is generally
regarded as the cause of the surrender. Even to this day the
tradition is preserved among the Choctaws, who yet enjoy the
ruse practiced upon the commandant."
The garrison is spoken of as Spanish, but like as not was French,
even to the Commandant, whose name is not available. The troops
were escorted southward by Winfrey and a detachment of the
Natchez soldiery, but they had hardly reached Loftus Heights when
five barges, carrying the flag of Spain and well loaded with troops,
were espied going up the river. This was a detachment of French
militia from Opelousas, and a body of western Indians, in all
about three hundred, under the command of Major Mulligan, an
Irish "Spaniard." Winfrey released his prisoners and retreated.
Mulligan landed most of his force and started in pursuit, and at
daylight next morning, surprising the insurgent party pounding
corn and roasting beef at Winfrey's plantation, near the Homo
chitto, attacked without warning. Fourteen of the Natchez people
were killed and nearly all the survivors made prisoners.
When news of this disaster reached Natchez, "the inhabitants
were forced to retire into forts, of which there were two between
the French meadows and Natchez (as well as Fort Panmure) ;
but being greatly harassed, aroused themselves to. resistance, and
the Spanish party was forced to retire and take a position at the
White Cliffs," now known as Ellis Cliffs, twelve miles below
Natchez. "About the middle of June the Natchez inhabitants had
assembled a force of about two hundred men to attack them, when
they were filled with consternation by the arrival of an express
from Pensacola, bringing intelligence of the fall of that place,"
probably also of the surrender of the province to Spain and the ar
rangement that it should be evacuated by the subjects of the
British king.
The little band of Natchez insurgents, left alone in, the midst
of a hostile continent, with no friends nearer than Savannah, unless
the Choctaws remained faithful, scattered in dismay. Mulligan
occupied Fort Panmure, and his men ravaged the district. "For
thirty days plundering parties roamed through the country, seiz
ing the property and destroying the houses of the inhabitants,
until Col. Grand Pre arrived with a battalion of troops, and took
regular possession of the country." — (Wailes.)
Some of the men concerned in the uprising took refuge among
the friendly Indians, others saw no safety short of the Atlantic
coast. A party of more than 100, including the Lyman family,
made the trip to Savannah in 149 days without the loss of a life.
When that city was evacuated by the British they were again with
out a country, and scattered to the various British possessions.
Of the three brothers, all died of a broken heart, says the ancient
chronicle. Some, like Col. Anthony Hutchins, concealed them
selves in the canebrakes, waiting for some light as to their fate,
for Alexander Mcintosh, lately in great disfavor, went to New
Orleans to intercede for the "rebels." Hutchins' home was visited

MISSISSIPPI 543
by the enemy, either in the Mulligan period or later, and Tony,
the colonel's body servant, was run up on a rope a few times to
force him to betray his master's retreat. He was faithful, however,
and Hutchins frianaged to escape. Wailes suggests that it was not
known at first that he was implicated in the revolt. Leaving his
plantation in the hands of his wife, he started out, with a few
companions, on the trail for Savannah. At the first daybreak they
were ambushed by Indians, and four were killed or wounded.
Hutchins and a boy, John Orr, escaped, and after great hardships,
reached the Chattahoochee, and were rescued by a trading party.
Colonel Grand Pre took command July 29, when, says Monette,
"measures were immediately instituted for the punishment of such
of the late insurgents as were within reach of the Spanish author
ities. Arrests, seizures and confiscations commenced. During
the months of September and October, the goods, chattels, effects
and dues of every kind, pertaining to more than twenty 'fugitive
rebels,' had been siezed for confiscation. Some of these were men
jpi wealth, especially George Rapalji and Jacob Blomart. Before
the middle of November seven of the leaders were prisoners in close
confinement in New Orleans, 'charged with the crime of attempt
ing to promote a general rebellion' against his Catholic Majesty's
government in the district of Natchez: Seven were convicted and
sentenced to death, but were subsequently reprieved by the gover
nor-general" The Spanish records of the Natchez District on file in the Mis
sissippi Department of Archives and History preserve the names of
the fugitives and the proceedings against such as were arrested.
Those named as fleeing the country were Philip Alston, John O-gg,
Christian Bingaman, Caleb Hansbrough, Thaddeus Lyman, John
Watkins, William Case, John Turner, Thomas James, Philip Mul
key, Ebenezer Gossett, Thompson Lyman and Nathaniel Johnson.
The "leaders of the rebellion," in prison November 16th, were
John Alston, arrested in the Indian nation ; Jacob Blomart, called
the chief of the rebels ; John Smith, "lieutenant of rebels ;" Jacob
Winfrey, "captain of rebels ;" William Eason, Parker Carradine,
and George Rapalji. "Bingaman was spared through the inter
cession of Mcintosh," says Wailes, and "it is believed that Blomart
was subsequently sent to Spain for trial."
The offering of a premium for the arrest of the fugitives gave
license to marauding parties that kept the district in terror.
"Numerous outrages and several murders were perpetrated. Many
settlers, who had taken no part in the revolt, for security abandoned
their farms and got temporary homes in the immediate vicinity
of Fort Rosalie." (Claiborne, p. 123, note.) One of the homes
visited was that on Cole's Creek, where lived Felt, the slayer of
Lieutenant Pentacost in the previous troubles with the British.
Summoned to surrender, Felt made defense and killed two of his
assailants. They then set fire' to the house, in which his wife and
three children were consumed. Escaping himself, with his hired
man, they kept up the fight with clubbed muskets until overpow-

544 MISSISSIPPI
ered and killed. Negroes were run away, certainly twelve from the
Hutchins plantation, before the departure of the colonel, Tony
among them, who long afterward related that they were cafried to
Pensacola and sold to the Spaniards by "a wicked old man," whose
"granchillen is great folks here- now, and not sponsible for what
dere granfadder did." (Sparks, Memories of Fifty Years, p. 306.)
When Tony heard from an Indian that his "missus" was alone,
he ran away and returned through the wilderness to the old plan
tation home.
"Many of the insurgents," according to Butler's account, joined
the Colberts, Scotch Indians among the Chickasaws, and like ex
patriated people in all times, indulged in piracy. Their post at
Chickasaw bluffs became quite formidable, and passing boats were
stopped and plundered at pleasure. To end such disorder, all the
refugees among the Indians were invited by proclamation, later,
to return to their homes in peace.
"All sales executed at the time the rebels were- in possession of
the fort at Natchez were declared invalid. In the confiscation of
the estates of Parker Carradine and John Smith, the rights of
their wives to a separate property in their estates were recognized.
. . . The families of all the fugitives, it seems, were regarded
with indulgence, and the part of the property held by them at least
was assigned for their support. The large British grant to Ly
man of 20,000 acres was confiscated, but upon application to Grand
Pre the sale of one-half of the tract was arrested and it was granted
to Salome, daughter of Thaddeus Lyman, left destitute in the
country with her grandfather, Waterman Crane." — (Wailes.)
Claiborne says that the property of Col. Hutchins, "consisting
of extensive bodies of land, numerous slaves, one thousand head
of cattle and five hundred horses, was not molested." According to
Pickett, it was all confiscated save a bare subsistence for his wife.
It appears from Claiborne that Grand Pre was "an old friend of
the family" and sent Mrs. Hutchins, with an escort to New Or
leans. She returned with a letter from the "chivalric" Piernas
sustaining Grand Pre in his action. "We war not on women or
for plunder. She has already been robbed by American brigands,
and our forbearance will contrast honorably with theirs." Wailes
ascribes this to the exertion of "some unknown influence," and
says that "subsequently, his extensive British grants were con
firmed to his children, and in the end Colonel Hutchins was per
mitted himself to return to the country." In fact, the land grants
he had from the British government at the time of the revolt, were
insignificant, compared with the grants made him bv the Spanish,
in 1789 and 1790. He was again prominent in affairs in 1792,
and representative of a British trading house.
Revolution, American. The revolutionary movement had its
beginning, perceptibly, in the years following the French and In
dian war, which was concluded bv the treaty of Paris in 1763.
The reservation of western lands from settlement, and the effort
to divert western emigration to the Floridas are evidences of royal

MISSISSIPPI 545
distrust of the thirteen colonies. It was plainly announced that
the colonial policy was to prevent extension of the old colonies
beyond easy control by British troops and traders.
It is likely that the sense of approaching conflict had some in
fluence upon the natural selection of Baton Rouge and Natchez
settlers, even as early as 1772. The Connecticut "adventurers"
came before the bitterness of the conflict was apparent, and there
were no more devoted friends of the king than they.
The spirit of the revolution was manifested among the people
of West Florida, despite their loyalty to the king, as early as 1773,
when the older colonies were protesting against taxation without
representation. The issue was made on the term of office of mem
bers of the legislature, just as it was in East Florida. There Gov
ernor Moultrie was willing to have a popular assembly, if the
members were elected for three years. The inhabitants demanded
one year terms, and consequently there was no assefnbly. Will
iam Drayton, chief justice, was suspended from office because of
sympathy with the popular movement. So, in West Florida, in
J772, the freeholders of Mobile town and Charlotte county elected
eight representatives to the provincial assembly, but insisted on
the condition that the election was for one year only. Pensacola
elected the other six members, and though that town was more
closely connected with the .government, four of the six refused to
sit in the assembly unless the Mobile condition was granted.
After twice proroguing the assembly, in hope that Mobile would
give in, Governor Chester was compelled to dissolve it. This ac
tion was approved at London, and the governor was instructed to
omit Mobile entirely from representation. To avoid further trou
ble Chester did not call an election again until 1778, when it
became necessary to pass militia and Indian bills. Then the dis
tricts of Mobile, Manchac and Natchez were assigned four mem
bers each, but Mobile was omitted from the writ of election, and
Pensacola was authorized to elect eight members. "As a result
the assembly was cantankerous, as Chester called it, sat thirty-
four days without passing the bills, and otherwise obstructed
business in order to force the reenfranchisement of Mobile."
In May, 1779, there was a general memorial to the king against
the administration of Governor Chester. But then the day of Gal
vez was close at hand.
"As the trouble in the North increased, the loyalty of Florida
permitted the withdrawal of troops, and in January, 1774, a regi
ment was ordered from Pensacola to Massachusetts, on account
of the threatening condition manifested in the famous 'tea-party'
at Boston harbor." Patrick Tonyn, a newly appointed governor
at St. Augustine, upon his arrival in March, 1774, invited the roy
alists of the colonies northward to take refuge in Florida. The
Pensacola regiment at Boston was reinforced from England, and
in April, 1775, there was an expendition to Lexington that pro
voked "the shot that echoed round the world." Next year came
the declaration of independence, which provoked the loyal refu-
35-11

546 MISSISSIPPI
gees at St. Augustine to burn the effigies of Adams and Hancock
on the plaza. (Memoirs of Florida.)
"Tories driven from Georgia and South Carolina," says Ham
ilton, in "Colonial Mobile," "were the first white settlers of what
are now Washington, Clarke and Baldwin counties, the ancestors
of the half-breed Mcintosh, Manac, McQueen, McGirk, and other
families to be of note." Other prominent settlers about Mobile
in this period are named, among them Moses Kirkland, who set
tled on the west side of Tombigbee. He was lately a colonel of
militia and justice of the peace in District Ninety-six, of South
Carolina, and had embodied 4,000 volunteers to serve the king on
the outbreak of the rebellion. After imprisonment by the rebels
he escaped to Dunmore's fleet, and brought General Howe's dis
patches to the Floridas.
Over the borders of East Florida in the following years, little
armies marched back and forth, of Patriots and Tories, in counter
invasions, and terrible devastation and the most bitter alienation
of neighbors was the common lot in the Southern colonies, as in
deed, was characteristic of the North also. It was a struggle that
set father against son and brother against brother, not an united-
uprising. Even in the frontier settlements there was the same division,
and it extended among the Indians. "The revolutionary struggle
had the unfortunate result of somewhat dividing the whites" of
Watauga, says Hamilton, and "almost totally alienating the Cher
okees from the Americans." The Chickasaws, on the other hand,
were friendly to the revolution, like the Delawares of the North,
and their influence upon the result is not easy to estimate. The
Creeks became allies of Great Brittain.
John Stuart, the Indian agent, planned, when the Revolution
began, that a British army should land in West Florida, march
through the land of the Four Nations, gather an army of the red
men, and attack the colonies in the rear while naval attacks were
delivered at Charleston and Boston. Letters were sent to the roy
alists in South Carolina to prepare to rise when the royal standard
was unfurled in the Cherokee country. Stuart was among the
Indians in the interest of this scheme in 1776. But it failed
through the energy of the frontiersmen, who were aided with
money and military supplies by the Spanish at New Orleans, and
the vigorous policy of Governor Galvez, who exhorted the Four
Nations to remain neutral and prevent the passage of troops to or
from Florida. Stuart abandoned his scheme in 1779, the year of
the Spanish invasion, and returned to Europe.
In the winter of 1777-78, it will be remembered that the British
army passed a gay winter at Philadelphia, and George Washing
ton and his ragged Continentals had huts in the snow at Valley
Forge. As spring approached Capt. James Willing started down
the rivers to negotiate with the settlers of West Florida, and
George Rogers Clark made his famous expedition to the Illinois.
France, about this time, recognized the independence of the United

MISSISSIPPI 547
States, but West Florida hardly assumed that attitude. The cir
cumstances of Willing's visit make a conclusion as to the pre
dominant sentiment in the Natchez district difficult to guess at.
The Royalist party, however, retained the ascendancy. Willing
also visited the Tensas settlements, and probably found no friends
in Major Farmer and his tenants. He dared to go to Mobile even,
perhaps encouraged by prospects of interesting the French popu
lation, and it is said that Pollock accompanied him, with copies of
the declaration of independence. But Willing was arrested and
kept in rigorous confinement at Fort Charlotte. '(Hamilton and
Monette.) Early in 1779 Col. Hamilton, the British commandant
at Detroit, was captured at Vincennes by George Rogers Clark,
and upon Hamilton was visited retaliatory hardships until he and
Willing were exchanged. In 1779 also, another American expedi
tion was sent down to renew the effort at Natchez, but it was
then too late. Spain occupied the region, and though her occu
pancy put an end to all fear of a British and Indian invasion of -the
western frontier, Spain occupied with the full intention of holding
as far as possible, all that Spain or France had formerly possessed,
as the price of Bourbon intervention.
Revolution of 1797. Francis Baily, a young Londoner seeking
adventure and some profit in the Indian trade, arrived at Natchez
May 11, 1797, and recorded his understanding of the trouble in his
"Journal of a Tour in North America." From his experience he
concluded that the Spanish government must have been intol
erable to people of American rearing, who must "depend in all
their civil and criminal affairs upon the whim or caprice, favor or
folly" of the governor set over them, "who, through pique or malice,
or in a fit of drunkenness or insanity, has it in his power to sport
with the lives and property" of inhabitants. The people heard of
the prospect of American government with pleasure, and viewed
the disposition of Spain to ignore the treaty with resentment. "This
just resentment was carried to a great pitch whilst I was here, and
broke out in open acts of violence several times ; and at last pro
ceeded so far as to induce the governor to retire into the fort and
to call upon all the people attached to his person to come to him.
. . . There were about a dozen flocked to his standard ; as to
the rest of the district, they surrounded the fort, and kept his Ex
cellency prisoner there near a fortnight, and would not let him
come out at last, till he had signed articles of capitulation."
Preliminary events of 1797 are treated in the articles "Advent
of the Flag" and "Ellicott and Gayoso."
The proclamation of Maj.-Gen, Baron de Carondelet, governor
of Louisiana and West Florida, May 24, 1797, recited, as a
whereas, "that some evil disposed persons, who have nothing to
lose, have been endeavoring to draw the inhabitants of Natchez
into improper measures, whose disagreeable consequences would
only fall on those possessed of property, whilst the perturbators
would screen themselves by flight." This was the diplomatic
misconstruction of the impatience of the inhabitants toward the

548 MISSISSIPPI
Spanish delay in leaving the territory of the United States. There
were then about 4,000 inhabitants of the district, mainly immi
grants from the States, of the active and restless frontier type that
were characteristic of the period when the West of that day was
opened to civilization — not essentially different from the pioneer
type of any age. The old British colonial or loyalist population
mainly remained and was very influential because of character
and property both, but had lost preponderance in numbers. The
settlements reached as far north as Colonel Bruin's home on Bayou
Pierre and inland to the headwaters of the creeks. The only cause
of excitement was Spanish reinforcement, as if to hold the Nat
chez district by force of arms, which the greater part of the people
did not propose to submit to. Carondelet shrewdly sought, as
Gayoso had previously done, to create a division between the land
and slave owners and those not so well-to-do, and used the uni
versal argument against revolution, the appeal to property. To
explain "the suspension of the demarcation of the limits and the
evacuation of the forts," he declared "authentically," that it was
"at present only occasioned by the imperious necessity of secur
ing Lower Louisiana from the hostilities of the English," who, he
said, had set on foot an expedition against New Orleans, and were
expected to occupy the Illinois country, when they could avail
themselves of the last treaty of Great Britain with the United
States, to use the Mississippi river for their invasion. (See Jay
treaty.) He had thought proper to put the fort at Walnut Hills"
"in a respectable but provisional state of defense," until the United
States was informed of the projects of the English, by the minis
ter of Spain, to whom Carondelet had communicated them, so
that by taking proper steps to cause the territory to be respected,
it would be in the power of Spain "to fulfill without danger the
articles of the treaty concerning limits." In conclusion he ex
horted the inhabitants of Natchez to continue in tranquillity and
affection towards the Spanish government, which would be
pained if forced to "compel the insubordinate minds to hear the
dictates of national gratitude."
A week later another address was issued by Carondelet, in
which he again urged the British invasion as the reason for sus
pending the evacuation of the forts at Natchez and Walnut Hills,
as those posts covered lower Louisiana ; especially because the
United States had made a treaty with Great Britain apparently
annulling the treaty with Spain, in which "the United States ac
knowledge that no other nation can navigate upon the Mississippi
without the consent of Spain. . . . We are now informed that
a detachment of the army of the United States cantoned on the
Ohio are on their way by Holston towards Natchez, while the
militia of Cumberland are intimated to hold themselves ready to
march at the first notice.
These hostile dispositions can naturally only concern these
provinces, because the United States are in peace with all the
savages. The anterior menaces of the commissary of limits and

MISSISSIPPI 549
the commandant of the detachment of Americans now at Natchez,
and (if the American gazettes are to be believed) the imminent
rupture between France, our intimate ally, and the United States,
engage us to be on our guard, to defend our property with that
vaior and energy, which the inhabitants of these provinces have
manifested on all occasions, with the advantage and superiority
which a knowledge of our local situation will procure and with
that confidence which right and justice inspire. If the Congress
of the United States have no hostile intention against these prov
inces, they will either leave the post of Natchez or the Walnut
Hills, the only bulwarks of Lower Louisiana, to stop the course
of the British, or give us security against the article of the treaty
with Great Britain, which exposes Lower Louisiana to be pil
laged and destroyed down to the capital, we will then deliver up
the said posts and lay down our arms, which they have forced us
to take up by arming their militia in time of peace and sending a
considerable body of troops by roundabout ways to surprise us."
(The military activity in East Tennessee, which was the basis
of Carondelet' s complaint, was for the police purpose of keeping
peace between the Cherokees and aggressive settlers.)
The proclamation of May 24 confirmed the suspicions of the
Natchez people that -the real purpose of the Spanish was not yet
revealed, and the forcible -suggestion that England and the United
States were in a sort of alliance against Spain tended to alienate
from Carondelet the strongest element upon which he must de
pend, namely, as Ellicott said, that "large class of the inhabitants
who had formerly been British subjects and to which government
many of them were still attached both from principle and habit,"
and to whom "no intelligence could have been so pleasing as that
of the British preparing to reposses that country."
"After the appearance of the Baron's proclamation," Ellicott
says, "the public mind might be compared to inflammable gas; it
wanted but a spark to produce an explosion! A country in this
situation presents to the reflecting and inquisitive mind one of
the most interesting and awful spectacles which concerns the hu
man race." Ellicott did not supply the spark, as the Spanish
asserted, as it was his policy to turn the people away from actual
hostilities toward some plan of organization that could be used
in case of necessity to resist any attempt of the Spanish to subdue
them by force of arms. In brief, he wished to plant the seed of
an independent, self-governing community of the United States.
The spark was supplied by another source, one more vitally
concerning the people than even allegiance to the United States
or His Catholic Majesty; namely, religion. It is evident from the
earlier proclamation of Gayoso, that the question of freedom of
worship had agitated the inhabitants before this date. Many of
them had suffered patiently for years, and could no longer wear
"the mask of duplicity," as Narsworthy expressed it. A frontier
Baptist preacher, one of a class of people theretofore strictly for
bidden to enter the country, came through the wilderness to Nat-

550 MISSISSIPPI
chez, and, asking to preach in the Ellicott camp on Sunday, was
given permission by Gayoso, on Ellicott's request. This, in itself,
aroused in the minds of the inhabitants a desire for freedom of
religion, and when on June 9, the preacher, having been assaulted
on the street, demanded redress of Gayoso, perhaps, in an inso
lent manner, that officer sent him to the stocks as he would an
insubordinate soldier. The incident may have reminded the phil
osophical that they were not only without religious freedom and
without the right of trial by jury or the right of habeas corpus;
but it was enough for most to know that a fellow American was
imprisoned in the Spanish fort, under gross indignities, appar
ently because he had preached the gospel. Upon the first intelli
gence of the event, Ellicott urged anxiously, through Captain
Minor, that Hanna, the preacher, should be released, in order to
preserve peace, as his own camp was in commotion about the
arrest, but Gayoso would not hear to the request. That night
there was an uprising of the inhabitants of all the country round
about, in the face of which Gov. Gayoso, with the officers of the
government and several Spanish families, fled from their homes
to take refuge in the fort. Within 24 hours the whole district was
ready to take such steps as should be deemed advisable to drive
out the Spaniards. Some were for capturing the fort, others for
seizing the galleys and cutting off river communication. The sec
ond proclamation of Carondelet, previously mentioned, was made
public about this time and was construed as practically a threat
of war, of which Natchez district was bound to take notice.
To gain time and avoid bloodshed, the leaders were advised by
Ellicott to circulate pledges of allegiance to the United States so
as to be in position to ask the aid of the United States, and this
was done. The governor then asked the presence of Ellicott and
Pope at the fort, which Pope refused point blank, adding that he
proposed to repel by force any attempt to imprison citizens of the
United States. Ellicott declined to respond alone to a joint sum
mons. Thereupon Gayoso sent a written protest, declaring that
"it seems past a doubt that a number of the inhabitants of this
government, subjects of 'his majesty, are at present in a state of
rebellion, with the hostile design of attacking this fort ;" that sev
eral of the insurgents were soliciting subscriptions to a declaration
of citizenship in the United States, "though they are actually un
der oath of allegiance to his Majesty." He could not believe, he
said, that Ellicott would authorize such proceedings, "which would
unavoidably produce the most disagreeable and fatal misunder
standing between our nations and the total destruction of this dis
trict." If so, then he proposed to make Ellicott responsible.
Ellicott, knowing that Gayoso was fully informed, as the sub
scription had been explained beforehand to Captain Minor, replied,
on June 12, urging the common sense view of the present allegiance
of the people, and denying that he was concerned in any measures
destructive of his Majesty's interests, or in any attempt to attack

MISSISSIPPI 551
the fort. In turn, he solemnly protesed against any more warlike
preparations by Spain within that territory.
Gayoso's protest was made to Pope, also, and the lieutenant
replied even more emphatically. He said, "If your government
feels the necessity of breaking its engagements, and if, on this
account, the people become irritated against it, as I have not been
the first promoter of the deceit, so I am as little responsible for
the event." He added that the ianding of more troops at Natchez
would be considered by him as an attack upon the honor and dig
nity of his country, and he would feel bound by duty to act ac
cordingly. On the night following this day (12th) Lieut. Pope, on informa
tion that a large number of the inhabitants were assembled at
Benjamin Balk's tavern, on the Nashville ro'ad, about eight miles
from town, addressed his "fellow citizens," promising that he
would "at all hazards protect the citizens of the United States
from every act of hostility," meaning all such as resided north of
latitude 31°, and exhorting them "to come forward, assert your
fights, and you may rely on my sincere corroboration to accom
plish that desirable object. I shall expect your assistance to repel
any troops or hostile parties that make an attempt to land for the
purpose of reinforcing this garrison, or other purposes detrimental
to the inhabitants of this country." Ellicott signed this also, fully
approving it, in view of "the alarming situation of the country."
It appears also that a notice was given out on the 13th signed
by Ellicott as "commissioner of the United States" and Pope as
"commandant of the United States troops on the Mississippi,"
stating that "we have no knowledge of our country being now at
war; but from the hostile preparations which the officers of his
Catholic Majesty are making in these parts, we are induced to
believe that war is not very distant, and until the commencement
of hostilities against the United States those who consider them
selves citizens thereof will respect all descriptions of persons and
things." Then followed an interview between Ellicott and Gayoso, ar
ranged by George Cochran, contractor for the boundary commis
sion, at his house, at which Gayoso was at first much excited, says
Ellicott, and threatened to call out the Indians, but finally asked
advice and agreed to issue a proclamation in the interest of peace.
The proclamation of June 14 set out that the reasons for the
uprising were rumors that a war might be declared between Spain
and the United States, that forces were accumulating to constrain
the inhabitants, that the Indians had been called to support the
troops, that road and river communications were stopped, and the
inhabitants would be compelled to render military service for
Spain. The governor denied all this, saving the circumstances of
the war with England, and promising that volunteers only would
be called for to repel invasion. The inhabitants were ordered to
disperse and resume their occupations, "never to assemble again
upon the same principles as the present . . . whilst under the

552 MISSISSIPPI
government and laws of His Majesty," in which case "general for
giveness will be the fruit of a candid repentance." These expres
sions did not accord with the feelings of the people and the
proclamation did no good. Ellicott's report to the secretary of
state, made at the time, says: "The business now put on a very
serious aspect, and hostilities appeared inevitable. By this time
the opposition to the Spanish government had assumed some form;
a number of respectable militia companies had elected their offi
cers and were ready to take the field." On the 16th a call was
sent out for a meeting on the 20th at Balk's, of the principal in
habitants of the district, to organize some sort of provisional gov
ernment. Gayoso also, was making ready, putting his fort in order and
calling in all who could be persuaded to join him. On the even
ing of the 17th there was a collision of patrols from the Spanish
and American camps and shots fired, without damage. At the
sound of firing all the lights in the American camp were extin
guished, for fear of the Spanish artillery, as one of the guns had
been trained upon Ellicott's tent for a number of weeks, notwith
standing his protest.
The governor perceived that the population was against him,
and, overwhelmed with chagrin and humiliation, he sought an in
terview with Ellicott at the home of Capt. Minor, finding it neces
sary to ride thither in a roundabout way, through canebrakes and
a corn field. Ellicott told the governor "that a plan had already
been agreed upon by Colonel Hutchins and myself to check and
finally put an end to the present disturbance," and the governor
accepted this plan, which involved the neutrality of the district,
as regarded military operations.
The convention at Balk's was a "large and respectable" assem
blage, that ratified the previous arrangements "agreed upon by
the gentlement of property and influence in the country." One
proposition was to elect a committee to take into consideration the
situation of the country, and make arrangements with Gayoso that
should be submitted to Carondelet for approval. About three
o'clock in the afternoon the committee was unanimously chosen.
Anthony Hutchins, who took "an active, useful and decided part"
in the deliberations, was the first elected. The others were Ber
nard Lintot, Isaac Galliard, William Ratliff, Cato West, Joseph
Bernard and Gabriel Benoist. Ellicott and Pope were unanimously
requested to attend with them.
The governor courteously acknowledged notice of this proceed
ing from his fort, and the committee established itself in a new
house of William Dunbar's, that Ellicott had been expecting to
occupy. After several meetings and conferences with the gover
nor, (Amer. State Pps. II, 80) a sort of treaty, or charter, of four
articles, was framed, as follows:
1. The inhabitants of the District of Natchez who under the
belief and persuasion that they were citizens of the United States
agreeably to the late treaty have assembled and embodied them-

MISSISSIPPI 553
selves are not to be prosecuted or injured for their conduct on that
account but to stand exonerated and acquitted.
2. The inhabitants of the Government aforesaid above the
31st degree of north latitude, are not to be embodied as militia or
called upon to aid in any military operation except in case of an
Indian invasion or for the suppression of riots during the present
state of uncertainty owing to the late treaty between the United
States and his Catholic Majesty not being1 fully carried into effect.
3. The laws of Spain in the above district shall be continued
and on all occasions be executed with mildness and moderation nor
shall any of the inhabitants be transported as prisoners out of this
¦government on any pretext whatever and notwithstanding the
operation of the law aforesaid is hereby admitted yet the inhabi
tants shall be considered to be in an actual state of neutrality dur
ing the continuance of the uncertainty as mentioned in the second
proposition. 4. We the committee aforesaid do engage to recommend it to
our constituents and to the utmost of our power endeavor to pre
serve the peace and promote the due execution of justice.
The significant assurances were that the inhabitants would not
be called out against the United States or Great Britain, and only
the civil law of Spain should be executed.
This was signed by the committee and by Governor Gayoso and
Secretary Vidal on June 22d, Ellicott and Pope giving their sep
arate engagement of cooperation, and the governor made procla
mation of the fact. He and his officers returned quietly to their
homes. "Thus ended this formidable tumult," says Ellicott, "with
out a single act of violence having been committed by the inhabi
tants of the country, during a suspension of the government and
laws for the space of two weeks. Baron Carondelet approved the
agreement when submitted to him by Benoist, except that per
sons accused of capital crimes must be tried at New Orleans.
The committee alsp recommended to the governor that the in
habitants, if dissatisfied with any alcalde (magistrate) then in
office, might assemble and nominate three men from whom the
the governor should appoint one to the office; that all prosecu
tions should be before the alcalde of the district where the offense
was committed, and that the alcaldes should have power to sum
mon a posse "to apprehend criminals and disturbers of the peace."
The governor assented to the first two recommendations, reserv
ing to himself review of criminal sentences and to parties in civil
cases the right of appeal to him from judgment for fifty dollars or
more, and appeal to the governor of Louisiana from judgments
exceeding $100. The request for civil powers in the posse he ig
nored. (Claiborne, 171-2.)
The Permanent Committee followed, giving the Natchez dis
trict a sort of representative government, though the forms of
Spanish administratin continued.
Authorities: Amer. State Papers, II For. Aff, Ellicott's Jour
nal, Claiborne's History.

.554 MISSISSIPPI
Rex, a postoffice of Bolivar county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R, about one mile from the Mississippi river, and 20
miles below Rosedale.
Rexford, a postoffice of Simpson county, about 14 miles north
west of Mendenhall.
Reynolds, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Panola
county, about 12 miles southeast of Batesville, one of the seats of
justice for the county, and the nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 31.
Reynolds, Reuben O, was born in Morgan county, Ga, and
reared near Aberdeen, Miss. ; was graduated in letters at the Uni
versity of Georgia and in law at the University of Virginia, and
began the practice at Aberdeen in 1855. In 1856 he had some
prominence in politics, as a supporter of the American party.
The following year, Col. Reuben Davis was elected to congress,
and Reynolds took his place as a partner of Judge Houston. Upon
the secession of Mississippi he raised a company, called the Van
Dorn Reserves, which became part of the 11th regiment, of whjch
he was elected major, and was later promoted to colonel. . He was
wounded at Sharpsburg, and again in one of the last battles
around Petersburg, the last injury causing the amputation of his
left arm. Toward the close of the war he married a daughter of
Col. G. H. Young of Waverly. Returning to Mississippi he was
reporter of the supreme court, compiling the decisions of 1865-70.
In 1875 he was elected to the State senate, and by reflections he
was retained there until death, being thrice elected president pro
tem. He was one of the founders of the State bar association.
"He was a man of great versatility. Quick-tempered and impul
sive, yet self-controlled and generous, his varied virtues were
crowned by an unobtrusive but genuine piety. It would be diffi
cult to find his superior in the combination of graces that go to
make a strong, honorable and attractive man." (Mayes.) Col.
Reynolds died at Aberdeen, September 4, 1887.
Rials, a post-hamlet of Simpson county, 6 miles south of Men
denhall. Magee is the nearest banking town. It has a church, a
seminary, a store and a cotton gin. Population in 1900, 37.
Riceville, a postoffice in the west-central part of Harrison county
near the west bank of the Little Biloxi river, and about 20 miles
northwest of Gulfport, the county seat.
Rich, or Yazoo Pass Station, is located in the northeastern part
of Coahoma county, on the Helena Branch of the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R, about 14 miles northeast of Friar's point. It has
a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 30.
Richardson, a post-hamlet of Hancock county, on the New Or
leans & North Eastern R. R, 36 miles northwest of Bay St. Louis,
the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Richburg, a post-village in the northeastern part of Lamar
county, on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 10 miles north
of Purvis, the county seat, and 6 miles southwest of Hattiesburg,
the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 150.

MISSISSIPPI 555
Richland, a post-hamlet of Holmes county, 6 miles west of Good
man station, and 10 miles south, southeast of Lexington, the county
seat. Goodman is the nearest banking town. It has a church and
an academy. Population in 1900, 54.
Richmond. This old town in Rankin county was located on the
east side of the Pearl river, about five miles from Jackson. (See
Rankin County.)
Richmond, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Covington coun
ty, on Bowie Creek, 12 miles southeast of Williamsburg, the county
seat. The postoffice at this place was recently discontinued, and
mail now goes to Sumrall station, 5 miles south, on the Mississippi
Central R. R. Population in 1900, 73.
Richmondlee, a hamlet of Lee county, 10 miles southeast of
Tupelo, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 52.
Richton, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Perry county, on
the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R, 10 miles from New
Augusta, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, an ex
press office, several stores, a large saw mill, 2 churches, a good
school, a bank, and a cotton gin. The Bank of Richton was estab
lished in 1904.
Ridgeland, a village in the southern part of Madison county, on
the Illinois Central Railroad, 9 miles by rail north of Jackson. It
has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 300 ; the popula
tion in 1906 was estimated at 400. It is surrounded by a good
trucking country and ships quantities of berries, vegetables and
fruits. Ridgeville, a postoffice of Tippah county, situated in the extreme
northwestern part near the Tennessee boundary line, and 18 miles
north of Ripley, the county seat.
Rienzi, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of Alcorn
county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, about 12 miles south of
Corinth, and 50 miles east of Holly Springs. It has a money-order
postoffice, 4 churches, a foundry, 2 steam grist-mills, and a bank
which was established in 1905. The town has several good stores.
Its population in 1906 was estimated, 300.
Riggins, a hamlet of Monroe county, situated in the northeastern
part, on Splunge creek, a tributary of the Buttahatchie river,
about 15 miles from Amory, the nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 22. It has rural mail service.
Riley, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Attala county, 7 miles
west of MaCool station. It has rural free delivery from McCool.
Riley, Franklin L, was born in Simpson and reared in Law
rence county, Miss. He was graduated at Mississippi College in 1891
receiving the degree of A. M. ; was made principal of Hebron High
School, and married Fannie Leigh, July, 1891. He afterward took
the Ph. D. degree at Johns Hopkins University. In 1897 Prof.
Riley was made professor of history and rhetoric in the University
of Mississippi. He was elected secretary of the Mississippi His
torical Society at its first meeting, after its reorganization, May

556 MISSISSIPPI
1, 1890, and still holds that position. He is an active member of
that organization, and has edited all of its publications, to which
he has also contributed a number of articles. He is the author of
a school history of Mississippi, 1900.
Rio, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Kemper county,
on Oktibbeha creek, about 15 miles from Dekalb, the county seat.
It has two churches. Population in 1900, 32.
Ripley, the county seat of Tippah county, was platted in 1835,
and incorporated in 1837. It is an important station on the Mobile,
Jackson & Kansas City R. R, 30 miles east by north of Holly
Springs, and about 15 miles north of New Albany. What was
known as the Ripley Railroad originated in the brain of Col. Wm.
C. Falkner, and was built in 1872. It ran north from Ripley to Mid
dleton, Tenn, and is said to have been the first narrow gauge rail
road built in the United States. Col. Falkner was the president of
the road. It now forms a part of the M. J. & K. C. R. R.
Ripley has a money order postoffice, a telegraph office, an ex
press office, a newspaper office, and two banking institutions. The
Tishomingo Savings Institution was established here in 1897, and
has a capital of $10,000 ; The Bank of Ripley was established in
1904, capital $30,000. The Southern Sentinel is a Democratic
weekly, established May 1, 1878, by Capt. Thos. Spight, the pres
ent congressman from the Second congressional district. It is now
owned and edited by A. C. Anderson, and is a leading newspaper
in this section of the State. Ripley has five churches, a high school,
a courthouse and jail and several mercantile establishments of im
portance. Its population in 1900 was 653, and in 1906 was estimated
at 900. Among the industries of the town may be mentioned a
saw and planing mill, a Munger system ginnery, a large brick mf'g.
plant, and a stave factory. The following fraternities have lodges
here — Masons, Knights of Honor, Knights of Pythias, and Wood
men of the World. There are 5 rural free delivery routes emanating
from Ripley.
Risingsun, a post-hamlet of Leflore county, on the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley R. R, 3 miles south of Greenwood, the county seat,
and nearest banking, telegraph and express town. It is located near
the west bank of the Yazoo river. Population in 1900, 72.
Rivermen. No account of river transportation in the Mississippi
and Ohio valleys is complete without some reference to the river-
men who manned the various craft. The complete history of these
boatmen would include the early rivermen who paddled a canoe
and pushed a keel-boat and bring us down to the men who labor
on the modern steamboats. This story has never been written in
full, but enough has been told to give us some insight into what
manner of men they were, and the incidents of their daily life.
Only brief mention need be made of the men who plied the primi
tive canoe and pirogue. They were the explorers and fur traders —
the old time voyageurs, the first to ply the western rivers. They
first learned the old-time riffles — many of which became known
by the names these early voyageurs gave them. "They knew

MISSISSIPPI 557
islands which have long since passed from sight; they knew the
old licks and the old trails. They practiced the lost arts of the
woodsmen; they had eyes and ears of which their successors in
these valleys do not know. Browned by the sun and hardened by
wind and weather they were a strong race of men; they could
paddle or walk the entire day with little fatigue. Not as boister
ous as the French on the Great Lakes and their tributaries, these
first Americans in the West were yet a buoyant crew." Among
them "there was no caste, no clique, no faction." (Historic High
ways, Hulbert.) Their detailed knowledge of the rivers and land
was of great importance to the men who followed them — to march
ing armies, scouts and spies, peace commissioners, military su
perintendents, commanders of forts, cohorts of surveyors, land com
panies, investors, promoters, and pioneers, and especially to the
later rivermen. With the filling of the valleys came the passing
of the fur tra 'e and the opening of the era of the freight craft,
such as the flat-boat, and the barge and keel-boat; some of these
early rivermen remained upon the scene and others moved farther
west to renew their old life. Says Hulbert: "To row or steer a
barge or flat or to pole a keel-boat was work no voyageur of
earlier times had undertaken. It was rougher work than had ever
been demanded of men in the West and it soon developed rougher
men than the West had ever seen. . . . They were a type of
hardy but vicious manhood who found hard work awaiting them
on the rivers where millions of tons of freight were to be moved."
Another writer of a generation ago wrote:
"The Ohio river being once reached, the main channel of emi
gration lay in the water-courses. Steamboats as yet were but be
ginning their invasion, amid the general dismay and cursing of
the population of boatmen that had rapidly established itself
along the shore of every river. The variety of river craft corre
sponded to the varied temperatments of the boatmen. There was
the great barge with lofty deck requiring twenty-five men to work
it upstream ; there was the long keel-boat, carrying from twenty-
five to thirty tons; there was the Kentucky 'broadhorn,' compared
by the emigrants of that day to a New England pig-sty set afloat,
and sometimes built one hundred feet long, and carrying seventy
tons; there was a 'family boat', of like structure, and bearing a
whole household, with cattle, hogs, horses, and sheep. Other
boats were floating tin-shops, whiskey shops, dry-goods shops.
A few were propelled by horse-power."
"The bargemen were a distinct class of people," writes Ben Cas
sedy in his "History of Louisville," "whose fearlessness of char
acter, recklessness of habits and laxity of morals rendered them a
marked people. ... In the earlier stages of this sort of navi
gation, their trips were dangerous, not only on account of the
Indians whose hunting-grounds bounded their track on either
side, but also because the shores of both rivers (Ohio and Mis
sissippi) were infested with organized banditti, who sought every
occasion to rob and murder the owners of these boats. Besides

558 MISSISSIPPI
all this the Spanish government had forbidden the navigation of
the lower Mississippi by the Americans, and thus, hedged in every
way by danger, it became these boatmen to cultivate all the hardi
hood and wiliness of the pioneer, while it led them also into the
possession of that recklesness of independent freedom of manner,
which even after the causes that produced it had ceased, still clung
to and formed an integral part of the character of the Western
Bargeman. . . . The crews were carefully chosen. A 'Ken-
tuck,' or Kentuckian was considered the best man at a pole, and
a 'Canuck,' or French Canadian, at the oar or the 'cordelles,' the
rope used to haul a boat upstream. Their talk was of the dangers
of the river; of 'planters' and 'sawyers', meaning tree trunks im
bedded more or less firmly in the river; of 'riffles', meaning ripples;
and of 'shoots,' or rapids. (French Chutes.) It was as necessary
to have violins on board as to have whiskey and all the traditions
in song or picture of the 'jolly boatman' date back to that by-gone
day." Among the heroes of the days of the barge and keel-boat stands
Mike Fink, who has thus described himself: "I can out-run, out-
hop, out-jump, throw down, drag out and lick any man in the
country. I'm a Salt-river roarer; I love the wimming and I'm
chock full of fight." He was a typical leader of his class and many
marvelous stories are told of this man.
Mention has already been made about the feeling of the old-
time rivermen concerning the introduction of steam navigation.
River life at once underwent a great change with the gradual su
premacy of the steamboat in the carrying trade. The "sounding
whistle" blew away from the valleys much that was picturesque,
and well developed muscles no longer commanded the same pre
mium. The flat-boat did not pass away, but the old-time river
men, as a type, have disappeared. The preceding generation of
rivermen were accustomed to obey the orders of superiors, ,and
they were sharply divided into two classes, the serving and the
served. Mike Fink was "captain" of his boat and the master of
his men. On the steamboat this division is reduplicated, and
there are found four general classes, the proprietors, navigators,
operators, and deckhands.
River Transportation. The story of river transportation, in
connection with the history of Mississippi, can be best told by
tracing the evolution of river craft and commerce on the Missis
sippi river. Along the entire western border of the State the
great stream pursues its turbid, impetuous course, and the earliest
white settlements were in the neighborhood of its banks, or ad
jacent to tributary streams which gave ready access to its waters.
The same craft, broadly speaking, which plied the waters of the
Mississippi, traversed the inland waters of the State. True, the
barges, keels, flats and steamboats, on the Big Black, Yazoo, Pearl,
Tallahatchie, Pascagoula and Tombigbee, were identical in all
save size, with the craft on the larger stream. Space is wanting,
were it possible, to detail the story of inland transportation in Mis-

MISSISSIPPI 559
sissippi, and we shall only attempt an outline of the broader as
pects of the subject.
To reath the isolated settlements of the Natchez District in
southwestern Mississippi, before the opening up and improvement
of the well known overland routes through the Territory, the long
and dangerous sea voyage from the Atlantic Coast States, via the
foreign port of New Orleans, and the lower reaches of the Mis
sissippi river, was often undertaken. Another route of travel was
by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Navigable waters were
easily reached in the latter part of the eighteenth century by im
portant roads which converged at Pittsburg and neighboring
towns on the Youghiogheny and Monongahela. The Ohio and
the Mississippi were long the great liquid highways to the west
and southwest. Before the days of steam navigation, the bulk of
traffic was ever downstream, and the Ohio and Mississippi flowed
in the RIGHT DIRECTION. Down these mighty streams at the
dawning of the nineteeth century poured an ever increasing vol
ume of immigration and commerce.
•Compared with the evolution of methods of travel by land, the
evolution of river craft was rapid and spectacular. A half century
witnessed little change in wagons and stages, and the "freighter"
or "Conestoga" of 1790 differed but little from that of 1840. The
same period, approximately, witnessed a change in river craft
which ran the whole gamut from the primitive canoe and pirogue,
through the later barge, keel-boat, flat-boat and sailing vessel, to
the palatial river steamers of. the '40's. Each marked some change
in the social order of things, some development, unnoticed at the
time perhaps, in the development of western civilization.
Many types of early river craft were in use at the same time,
and no stated periods can be named in which one style of river
craft was in exclusive use. The canoe continued in use long after
it had subserved its original purposes of a cheap, light and quickly
made craft, especially adapted to the wants of the aborigines, and
the early explorers and traders. The crude up-stream crafts of
burden, such as the keels and barges had their beginnings as far
back as 1742, and overlap the era of steam ; while the heavy, lum
bering, downstream flat-boats, were in use by the thousands on
the Mississippi, long after the steamboats plied its rapid and
treacherous currents, and, indeed, are in common use today in
their modified forms.
It is nevertheless true that prior to the close of the Revolution
ary War, the canoe, pirogue and batteau types of river craft
reigned supreme on the inland waters. The customary freight of
the canoe was wampum and Indian goods and presents, packs and
peltries. Nor should its carrying capacity be underestimated.
Though frail, and commonly built from the bark of trees, it could
be made long, and freighted with a score of men and their sup
plies for an extended voyage.
The words pirogue and canoe were often used interchangeably,
but were technically distinct. Both were quickly made, but while

560 MISSISSIPPI
the canoe was paddled and easily glided up stream, the pirogue
was pushed by oars or setting-poles, ran easily with the current,
and only ascended the stream by the expenditure of much effort.
Both were boats of a primitive and undeveloped period.
The batteau was a downstream craft and commonly known on
the Mississippi as a barge. It differed, however, from the barge
in being wider at the middle and tapering at each end like the
modern "canal boat."
The early Mississippi barge was a square box of any length,
width and depth, and rarely ascended the river with a load. The
barge and batteau were essentially craft of burden and could be
loaded according to the prevailing stage of water. Furs, peltries,
Indian supplies, and the armament and stores for the early west
ern forts were floated down stream in their clumsy hulks.
As population poured into the upper Mississippi and Ohio val
leys, and prosperous settlements arose such as St. Louis, Pitts
burg, Cincinnati, and other towns, the surplus products of these
regions increased vastly in amount, and -were shipped south in
constantly increasing bulk. They found a ready market among
the rich planters of the lower Mississippi, in New Orleans and
Mobile, and many ship loads were sent to the eastern seaboard, to
the West Indies and to European ports. At the same time new
and better markets were created for the staples of the South, such
as sugar, molasses, fruits, etc. The era from 1780-1817 was essen
tially that of the barge, the keel-boat and the flat-boat — all crafts
of burden. The famous keel-boat was the first upstream boat of
burden to ply the southern and western waters. Its functions were
two-fold : first, the upstream trade, second, to touch and connect
interior settlements and do the carrying trade of the numerous
portages. The keel-boat heralded a new era in the internal devel
opment of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. (Historic Highways,
vol. 9, p. 113.) "It was a long narrow craft, averaging twelve to
fifteen feet by fifty, and pointed at both prow and stern. On either
side were provided what were known as "running Boards", ex
tending from end to end. The space between, the body of the
boat, was enclosed and roofed over with boards and shingles. A
keel-boat would carry from twenty to forty tons of freight well
protected from the weather; it required from six to ten men, in
addition to the captain, who was usually the steersman, to propel
it upstream. Each man was provided with a pole to which was
affixed a heavy socket. The crew, being divided equally on each
side of the boat, 'set' their poles at the head of the boat; then
bringing the end of the pole to the shoulder, with bodies bent,
they walked slowly along the running boards to the stern — re
turning quickly, at the command of the captain, to the head for a
new 'set'. In ascending rapids, the greatest effort of the whole
crew was required, so that only one man at a time could 'shift' his
pole. This ascending of rapids was attended with great danger,
especially if the channel was rocky. The slightest error in push
ing or steering the boat exposed her to be thrown across the cur-

MISSISSIPPI . 561
rent, and to be brought sideways in contact with rocks which
would mean her destruction. Or, if she escaped injury, a crew
who had let their boat swing in the rapids would have lost caste.
A boatman who could not boast that he had never swung or
backed in a chute was regarded with contempt, and never trusted
with the head pole, the place of honor among keel-boat men. It
required much practice to become a first rate boatman, and none
would be taken, even on trial, who did not possess great muscular
power." (The American Pioneer, vol. II, p. 271.)
The barges of this period were great, pointed, covered hulks
carrying forty or fifty tons of freight (the very largest carried 60
to 80), and manned by almost as many men. (There were, of
course, numerous small barges in use as well, that could go wher
ever a keel-boat went, and used on certain portage and path trades
on the smaller streams. The small barge was practically a keel-
boat, varying only in shape and the absence of running-boards.)
The great freight barges of the Mississippi went down stream
with the current and ascended by means of oars, poles, sails and
tordelles. The important up-river cargoes on the Orleans barges
were sugar and molasses, and sometimes, coffee, dry goods and
hardware, and they came down stream laden with the products of
the west such as peltry, skins, flour, lead, tobacco, hemp, bacon,
pork, beef, apples, whiskey, peach brandy, cider, beer, iron, lard,
cotton, butter, millstones, etc. Like the keel-boats, they plied
regularly up and down stream, but were unable to ascend the
smaller rivers or reach portages of the large streams by reason
of their draught and size. The regular trip to New Orleans and
back to Louisville or Cincinnati required two months for the down
ward and four for the upward voyage, or six months altogether,
and only two trips a year could be made by the same boat. Never
theless, the line of inter-communication was maintained by a suc
cession of boats owned by enterprising men. It is probable that
the number of barges and keels engaged in the up and down stream
commerce on the Mississippi to New Orleans never exceeded 40
in any one year. Between the peace of 1783 and the surrender
of Louisiana in 1803, the Spanish maintained a regular trade and
intercourse between New Orleans and upper Louisiana. Spanish
barges were common on the upper as well as upon the lower Mis
sissippi; and extensive commercial houses at St. Louis, St.
Charles, Kaskaskia and other towns upon the river conducted the
trade. (Navigation and Commerce, Monette.)
The commerce of the Ohio region passed beyond the limits of
the United States and entered the Spanish port of New Orleans,
by virtue of commercial treaties with that nation. Monette writes
that the exports from the United States by this route agreeably
to the Custom-house register, at Loftus' Heights, from January 1
until June 30 of 1801, .were conveyed in four hundred and fifty
flat-boats, twenty-six keels, two schooners, one brig and seven
pirogues. The flat-boat was the important craft of the era of im'migra-
36— II

562 MISSISSIPPI
tion, the friend of the pioneer. It was the boat that never came
back, a downstream craft solely. The flat-boat of average size
was a roofed craft about forty feet long, twelve feet wide and
eight feet deep. It was square and flat-bottomed and was man
aged by six oars ; two of. these, about thirty feet long, on each side,
were known as "sweeps" and were manned by two men each ; one
at the stern, forty or fifty feet long including its big blade, was
called the "steering oar" ; a small oar was located at the prow,
known as the "gouger," which assisted in guiding the boat
through swift water. One man only was required at the steering
oar and at the gouger. These flat-boats were of two types, the
"Kentucky" and "New Orleans," and Kentucky and New Orleans
were the destinations of the great majority. The nominal differ
ence between a Kentucky and New Orleans boat was that the
former was only half roofed over, while the latter was stronger
and entirely covered with a roof-
The Navigator, published by Zadok Cramer in Pittsburg, in its,
edition of 1811, and calling itself "the trader's useful guide in
navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers" was a guide book for emigrants. How to buy or build
a flat-boat was the first query of the pioneer father as he finally
arrived at one of the ports on the upper Ohio. Often several
families joined their fortunes and came down the river on one
"flat," a motley congregation of men, women, children, and do
mestic animals, surrounded by the few crude, housekeeping uten
sils which had been brought over the mountains or purchased at
the port of embarkation. To such emigrants as contemplated a
trip down the Mississippi the Navigator had this to say: "The
boats intended for the Mississippi must be much stronger in their
timbers, and more firmly built than those for the Ohio only. They ,
ought also to be caulked better, and much higher all around, better
roofed, and have a longer and stronger cable ; and it would be well,
if proprietors can afford it, instead of taking alongside a canoe, to
procure a kind of long boat, that would carry, in case of a ship
wreck, a leak, or other accident, 20 or 30 barrels of flour or whis
key. This provision might be sometimes perhaps the means of
saving a part of a cargo, and the boat would sell at Orleans, if
well and neatly made, for as much as it might cost at Pittsburgh,
or any other place where they could be purchased."
Collins, in his History of Kentucky states that Captain Jacob
Yoder took the first flat-boat down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers
to New Orleans in 1782. From this time on they were used in
increasing numbers. Both in early and more recent times, they
were always used or sold at their destination for lumber, and their
owners and crews, except for the few who preferred to Work their
passage north on the barges and keels, returned to their homes
on foot and on horseback by way of the overland trails through
Mississippi, Kentucky and Tennessee, a long, wearisome journey
of 1,000 miles or more. The boatmen, returning home on foot
after selling out their flatboats and cargo in New Orleans and

MISSISSIPPI 563
Natchez, often made wagers to beat the post to Nashville, and
generally won. The celebrated "Walking" Johnson, the greatest
pedestrian of his day, beat the mail three times, on a wager, be
tween Natchez and Nashville.
The Kentucky "broadhorns" or "broadhorn flat-boats," as they
were also called, were provided with a tin horn by means of which
some one on board would announce the arrival of the boat, or
make its presence known in case of fog. This "weird music, re
verberating from hill to hill, was heard far and wide, and was
welcomed by the country people." (Hulbert.) The History of
the flat-boat comes down within the present generation, and the
beginning of the War of 1861-65 saw numerous flat-boats on the
Mississippi. Once the sign of the emigrant, these boats in the
'50's had assumed the distinctive role of freighters, and bore their
cargoes to the southern ports or retailed them along the Missis
sippi river plantations. A man of enterprise would build a "flat",
buy up ^the agricultural produce of his neighborhood, load his un-'
wieldy craft and await the "fall rise." The boats were loaded
fhrough a trapdoor over the bow and the cargo stored away in the
hold. Apples and potatoes were the staples for through freight;
but the boats intended to "coast" (peddle the cargo to the planta
tions) also included in their cargoes cider, cheese, pork, bacon,
and often cabbage. Apple and peach brandy were profitable in
vestments ; the peach brandy being often little more than apple
brandy, with a few peaches in it, and palmed off on the thirsty
negroes as the genuine article. The preparations for the three
thousand mile journey were soon made by the owner of a flat-boat.
He would ship a few farm hands for a crew, and all would live in
the stern of the boat separated from the cargo by a partition. Lit
tle work was required of the crew, except to keep the craft in the
current. If the boat was intended for the coasting trade, business
began at the first large plantations. The plantation overseers lib
erally patronized the "coasters", and paid for their purchases in
drafts on New Orleans. The negroes sometimes were allowed to
make their own purchases, and would often exchange molasses
for brandy even, gallon for gallon. Arrived at his destination, the
owner sold the balance of "his stock and his boat, bought sugar
and molasses with the proceeds, embarked with his freight on a
packet for home, and' thus cleared two profits.
After the War 1861-65, the flat-boat men found a sad and im
poverished South. The negroes were "free", the overseers gone
and the coasting trade was ruined. Since 1865 through freights
were found the only profitable ones.
A few words Will suffice to explain the other familiar types of
early river craft, such as the "ark", the galley, the brig and the
schooner. Harris thus describes the ark, which was the primi
tive type of house-boat : "These boats are generally called 'Arks' ;
and are said to have been invented by Mr. Krudger, on the Juan-
ita, about ten years ago (1795). "They are square, and flat-bot
tomed ; about forty feet by fifteen, with sides six feet deep ;

564 MISSISSIPPI
covered with a roof of thin boards ; and accommodated with a fire
place. They require but four hands to navigate them, carry no
sail, and are wafted down by the current." The same author de
clares the historical succession of river craft as : canoe, pirogue,
keel-boat, barge and ark.
The galley had a covered deck and was propelled by oarsmen.
It was a boat of this pattern that Gen. George Rogers Clark armed
as a gunboat on the Lower Ohio and used as a patrolling
gunboat during the War of the Revolution. Another familiar
type of this boat was the celebrated "Adventure Galley" of the
New England pilgrims to Marietta. It was forty-five feet long
and twelve feet wide and of about fifty tons burden. Her bows
were "raking" or curved, strongly built with heavy timbers and
covered with a deck roof. Many of the mail boats of the western
rivers in the early days were of this pattern.
Sails were quite generally used on all the river craft previously
described. These sails were of every conceivable shape and ma
terial and were resorted to when the winds were favorable. None,
however, were distinctively a sailing vessel. The business of
building sailing vessels, brigs and schooners, began in the Ohio
Basin at the beginning of the last century. The designers in
tended them to drop down the Ohio and Mississippi and then
engage in the ocean trade. They were never intended to return,
but were the first export carriers, just as the keel-boats were the
first important carriers in the commerce between the States. The
firm of Tarascon, Berthoud & Co. of Pittsburg, who built the first
keel-boats on the Ohio were pioneers in the business of building
sailing vessels. They first built the schooner "Amity", of 120
tons, and the ship "Pittsburg" of 250 tons in 1801. The second
summer they built the brig "Nanina" of 200 and the ship "Louis
iana" of 350 tons. The brig was sent direct to Marseilles and the
ship was sent out ballasted with "stone coal", Which was sold at
Philadelphia, for 37 and % cents per bushel The following year
they built the "Western Trader" of 400 tons. In 1803 Thaddeus
Harris found several of these ships on the stocks at Pittsburg;
three had been launched before April, "from 160 to 275 tons bur
den." (Harris: Tour, p. 43.) Writing from Marietta on May 4,
1803, he says : "the schooner 'Dorcas and Sally', of 70 tons, built
at Wheeling and rigged at Marietta, dropped down the river. The
following day there passed down the schooner 'Amity', of 103 tons,
from Pittsburg, and the ship 'Pittsburg', of 275 ton burden, from
the same place, laden with seventeen hundred barrels of flour, with
the rest of her cargo in flat-bottomed boats. In the evening the
brig 'Mary Avery', of 130 tons, built at Marietta, set sail. . . .
The building and lading of SHIPS is now considered as an enter
prise of the greatest importance in this part of the country. The
last (1802) there were launched from the ship-yard of Captain
Devol, (Captain Jonathan Devon), on the Muskingum river, five
miles above its mouth, the ship 'Muskingum', of 204 tons, owned
by Benjamin Ives Gilman, Esq, and the brigantine Eliza Greene,

MISSISSIPPI 565
of 115 tons, owned by Charles Greene, Esq, merchants at Mari
etta. At the spring-flood of the present year, the schooner 'In
diana,' of 100 tons, the brig 'Marietta', of 130 tons, and another
of 150 tons, also built here, were launched and descended the river
for New Orleans and the trade to the West Indies. . . . This
part of the country owes much to those gentlemen, who, in new
and experimental lines, have set this example of enterprise and
perseverance." One ship from Marietta is said to have had the
existence of her port of clearance questioned in Italy.
After the port of New Orleans had passed into American hands
and the commerce on the Mississippi and Ohio was relieved of the
vexatious exactions of Spain in 1803, the Mississippi river was
covered with hundreds of Kentucky flats, loaded with rich cargoes
of western produce. The articles of trade that were floated down
the Mississippi were as various as the needs of a new and fertile
country. Monette writes that "the amount of western trade an
nually increased and soon became almost incredible for quantity
and variety. This surplus product of the west was not only such
as supplied the demands of New Orleans and the rich settlements
of the lower Mississippi, but it furnished hundreds of ship-loads
to the ports of the West 'Indies and Europe." This commerce
continued to swell in volume until the War of 1812. The year 1811
saw not less than 500 flat-boats, and forty keels, all well freighted,
descend the Mississippi from the Ohio Valley. The trade from
the Missouri and the upper Mississippi, began as early as the year
1720, and consisted chiefly of lead, furs and peltries. For the years
1790-1805 this trade amounted to about $78,000 annually and it
increased gradually up to the time of the War of 1812.
Despite the enormous volume of trade down the Mississippi the
upstream commerce from New Orleans remained comparatively
small, on account of the difficulties of the upward navigation. The
cost of transporting cheap, heavy freight was enormous. The
first cost at New Orleans of such articles as dry goods, hardware
and queensware was sometimes doubled before the goods reached
their destination.
The rich planters of Mississippi, and the prosperous agricultural
communities of the Ohio and upper Mississippi region had a wealth
of surplus products they were ready to exchange for the manu
factures of the Atlantic States and of Europe, and the cost and
difficulties involved in supplying their growing wants on account
of the impetuous current of the Mississippi grew more and more
unbearable. The times were ripe for another power which would
turn the tide of commerce up the river, and the dawning of the
new era of steam and navigation brought aboiit by the genius of
Fulton. The era of the steamboat on the rivers of Mississippi, up
to the time it was robbed of its business and pride by the railroads
will be found sketched in a separate articles.
' Roach, a post-hamlet of Simpson county, 12 miles southeast of
Mendenhall. Population in 1900, 23.

566 MISSISSIPPI
Roads. The building of adequate roads is essential to the proper
development of any region. During the period of more than a
century covered by the French, British, Spanish and early Ameri
can occupancy of the so-called Natchez District, the ocean, rivers
and streams afforded the chief and, indeed, almost the only means
of reaching its isolated settlements. One of the first concerns of
Mississippi territorial authorities was to open up overland
routes of travel to the older settled regions of the United States
in the East, and to New Orleans on the South. This policy was
regarded as an urgent military necessity in those troublous times,
as well as a commercial and economic good, and an important
means of attracting new settlers.
Natchez Trace. The earliest and the most famous of the public
highways which traversed the present State of Mississippi was
the so called Natchez Trace. Its origin is interesting. As soon as
the Spaniards finally evacuated the Natchez District, and imme
diately after the organization of the Territorial government of
Mississippi, the Federal authorities empowered General Wilkin
son, then in command of the United States troops at Natchez and
Fort Adams, to enter into certain negotiations with the Indian
tribes south of Tennessee. One of the principal objects of the
negotiations with the Indians was to obtain their consent to the
opening of public roads and mail routes, from the settlements of
the Natchez District, to the frontier settlements of Tennessee and
Georgia, thereby facilitating intercourse and trade and promot
ing emigration to the new Mississippi Territory. All the vast
region extending north and east of the Natchez District for nearly
500 miles to the distant white settlements on the Cumberland
River, Tenn, and to those on the Oconee, in Georgia, was undis
puted Indian territory, with the single exception of the limited
area on the Tombigbee and Mobile rivers, to which the Indian
title had been extinguished by France and England in former
years. The Natchez District was remote and difficult of access.
Intercourse with the United States was by the laborious ascent
of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the Kentucky and Tennessee
settlements, or else over the lonely Indian trace which led for five
hundred miles through the lands of the Choctaws and Chicka
saws, to the Cumberland river. In pursuance of these plans, the
Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs was concluded Oct. 24, 1801, whereby
the Chickasaws conceded to the United States the right "to lay
out, open, and make, a convenient wagon road through their land,
between the settlements of Mero district in the State of Tennessee,
and those of Natchez in the Mississippi Territory . . . and
the same shall be a highway for the citizens of the United States,
and the Chickasaws." Also the Treaty of Fort Adams, concluded
Dec. 17, 1801, with the Choctaws, whereby that nation consented
"that a convenient and durable wagon way may be explored,
marked, opened, and made through their lands ; to commence at
the northern extremity of the settlements of the Mississipoi Ter
ritory, and to be extended from thence, until it shall strike the

MISSISSIPPI 567
i
lands claimed by the Chickasaw nation ; and the same shall be and
continue forever a highway for the citizens of the United States
and the Choctaws.
In November, 1801, Gen. Wilkinson asked the Assembly,
through Gov. Claiborne, to immediately appoint commissioners to
mark a route for a permanent highway from Grindstone Fork by
way of Fort Adams to the line of demarcation, whereupon he
would build the road, as it was needed "for free communication
to the sea for succor, or retreat in case of exigency."
The road from the national boundary to Natchez was laid out
in 1802. The governor's journal shows that Hugh Davis and John
Collins were two of the commissioners and James Patton a marker.
South of Natchez, this road ran close to the river to a station called
Tomlinson's, 16 miles distant, thence via Homochitto Ferry, 4
miles, Buffalo bridge 10 miles, Fort Adams 16 miles and Pinckney
ville 11 miles.
April 21, 1806, Congress appropriated the sum of $6,000 for the
purpose of opening the road through the Indian country in con
formity to the above treaties.
In 1815, a committee of Congress, appointed to enquire into the
expediency of repairing and keeping in repair, the road from Nat
chez to Nashville, reported in favor of an appropriation for that
purpose, stating that the subject was then unusually interesting
"from the efforts of the enemy to seize upon the emporium of an
immense country, as well as other positions in the same quarter,
of less, though great importance to the United States. So long as
the war continues, New Orleans and other adjacent parts will be
liable to invasion, and will, of course, require ' no inconsiderable
force for their defense. During such a state of things, it is highly
desirable, indeed necessary, that good roads should facilitate the
transmission of intelligence, as well as the march of troops and
transportation of supplies, when a passage by water may be too
tardy, or wholly impracticable." An appropriation bill was passed
in accordance with the recommendations of the committee.
The Natchez Trace crossed the Tennessee river a few miles be
low the Mussel Shoals, at "Colbert's Ferry," and thence pursued a
southwesterly course through the country of the Chickasaw's and
Choctaw's, to the "Grindstone Ford," on the Bayou Pierre ; thence
ran south and west to Natchez ; South of Natchez, we have already
seen that it followed the general trend of the river to the line of
demarcation ; it eventually connected with the various roads lead
ing to New Orleans.
At Nashville, Tenn, this old foad connected with the public
highway, which ran east to Pittsburg, Penn, via Lexington, Chil-
licothe and Zanesville. Under the treaties, the Indians expressly
rese.rved the right to establish public houses of entertainment
along this route, as well as the control of the numerous ferries.
The stations which sprang up along the road between Natchez
and Nashville, and the distances (miles) separating each station
from the other, were as follows : Washington, 6 ; Selsertown, 5 ;

568 MISSISSIPPI
Union Town, 8; Huntley (later Old Greenville), 8; Port Gibson,
25; Grindstone Ford, 8; McRavens, Indian line, 18; Brashear's,
40 ; Norton's, 12 ; Chotas, 30 ; Leffloes, 34 ; Folsom's, Pigeon Roost,
30 ; Choctaw Line, 43 ; Indian Agents, 10 ; James Colbert's, 10 ;
Old Factor's, 26; James Brown's, 17; Bear Creek, 33; Levi Col
bert's, Buzzard Roost, 5 ; Geo. Colbert's, Tenn. River, 7 ; Tos-
comby's, 16; Factor's Sons, 16; Indian Line, 20; Dobbin's, 5;
Stanfield's, Keg Spring, 10; Duck River, 8; Smith's, 8; Boon's,
16 ; Franklin, 8 ; McDonald's, 6 ; Nashville, 12. The total distance
to Nashville was 501 miles, and the distance to Pittsburg was
1,013 miles.
Undoubtedly, the road through the Indian country in Missis
sippi was once the old Indian trail leading southwest to the Mis
sissippi river. Down it passed a steady stream of travelers, often
men of wealth, journeying to the South in sNearch of land and other
profitable investments; up it passed traders, supercargoes and
boatmen, from New Orleans, who would make the long return
journey overland to their homes 1,000 miles away. They traveled
a-foot and on horseback, in small companies for mutual protec
tion, and frequently carried with them rich treasures of specie—
the proceeds of their cargoes — packed on mules and horses. Many
stories are told of the Mason and the Murel gangs of bandits,
who infested this lonesome trail for years.
Natchez to Fort Stoddert. There were three important roads,
or horse-paths, which traversed the vast expanse of the Mississippi
Territory, during the first few years after its organization. First,
the road from the Cumberland settlements through the Chickasaw
and Choctaw nations to the Natchez District, and known as the
Natchez Trace, (Vide ut Supra) ; second, the road from Knox
ville through the Cherokee and Creek nations, by way of the Tom
bigbee, to Natchez ; third, the road from the Oconee settlements of
Georgia, by way of Fort Stoddert, to Natchez and New Orleans.
While the first of these roads was the most frequented, the third
is important because it first bridged the eastern and western parts
of the Territory. In the summer of 1807, "agreeably to an act of
the legislature, approved February 4th, 1807, Harry Toulmin,
James Caller, and Lemuel Henry had completed the duty assigned
them as 'commisioners to view, mark, and open a good road on
the nearest route from the city of Natchez to Fort Stoddert so as
to interesect the new Creek road (the second road above men
tioned) on the line of demarkation east of Pearl river.' This was
the first road from Natchez to St. Stephen's. . . . On the 7th
of December following, public notice was given that 'the ferry is
now complete over the Alabama river, above Little river, and on
the Tombigbee, just above Fort St. Stephen. The way is now
completely opened and marked with causeways across all boggy
guts and branches, so that strangers can travel the road with
safety, by observing the three notches, or three-chopped way,
which cuts off a great distance in traveling from Natchez to
Georgia.' This was the first road opened from the western to the

MISSISSIPPI 569
eastern part of the Territory." (Monette, II, p, 380.) It ran east
from Natchez by way of the following stations: Washington, 6
miles; Hoggat's, 12 miles; Head of Homochitto river, 40 miles;
Bogue Chitto, 58 miles; Monticello, 90 miles; Winchester on the
Chickasawhay river, 195 miles; Eastern branch of Pascagoula, 206
miles; Sintabogue river; Fort St. Stephens, 239 miles; Fort Clai
borne, 264 miles ; Hurricane Spring, 307 miles ; Fort Decatur, 363
miles ; Point Comfort, 374 miles ; Chattahoochee river, 405 miles.
The total distance to Milledgeville, on the Oconee river was 545
miles. Natchez to New Orleans. Early in the 19th century two pub
lic roads were opened up, which ran south from Natchez to New
Orleans. One ran by way of Madisonville, La, to the head of
Lake Ponchartrain and thence across the lake by water to New
Orleans, a total distance of 156 miles ; the other followed the river
south by way of Baton Rouge and the levee. Marschalk's Al
manac for 1819 gives the stations on the Madisonville road, to
gether with the distance of each from Natchez as follows: St.
Catharine Creek 4 miles; Second creek 14 miles; Homochitto
river 20 miles; the 31st degree N. Latitude 55 miles; crossing at
Amite river 59 miles ; Spillers 73 miles ; Court house, St. Helena
bridge over the Tickfoha river 88 miles ; Springfield on Notalbany
creek 98 miles ; Ponchatoola creek 103 miles ; Tangipao river 112
miles; Madisonville 127 miles; Mouth of Chifuncte 130 miles;
over Lake Ponchartrain, to Ft. St. John, mouth of Bayou St. John
150 miles; St. John's Suburb (Fauxburg) 154 miles; New Orleans
156 miles. The stations and distances on the Baton Rouge and
Levee road were as follows : St. Catharine creek 3 miles ; White
Apple Village 12 miles; Homochitto river 18 miles; Ferry over
Buffalo river 29 miles; Woodville 37 miles; Sligo 46 miles; Bayou
Sara creek 53 miles; St. Francisville in New Feliciana, La, 68
miles; Buller's Plains 79 miles; Baton Rouge 95 miles; New Or
leans 219 miles.
Games' Trace. This old road ran from "Colbert's Ferry," a few
miles below the Mussel Shoals on the Tennessee river, to St.
Stephens on the lower Tombigbee. The Federal Government had
established a large trading house at St. Stephens, to encourage
trade with the Choctaws and other Indians, and as an offset to the
Spanish and French trading posts at Mobile and Pensacola, which
maintained close trade relations and intercourse with the Choc
taws and Creeks. George Strother Gaines, brother of Gen. E. P.
Gaines, held the posts of U. S. assistant factor and factor at St.
Stephens, from 1805-1825. It appears that he experienced con
stant trouble with the revenue authorities at Mobile, who exacted
duties and delayed his vessels, so that the Federal authorities re
solved to send supplies down the Ohio and up the Tennessee river
to Colbert's Ferry. Major Gaines, in his Reminiscences of Early
Times in the Mississippi Territory, written for the Mobile Regis
ter, says : "In October, 1810, I received instructions from the Sec
retary of War to proceed to the Chickasaw Nation and endeavor

570 MISSISSIPPI
to obtain permission of the Indians to open a wagon road from Col
bert's Ferry to Cotton Gin Port, on the Tombigbee, and make ar
rangements to transport the goods thence to St. Stephens. I set
out immediately, in obedience to my instructions, had an interview
with the leading chiefs of the Chickasaws, who objected to opening
the wagon road, but promised me facilities and safety for the trans
portation of goods for the Choctaw trading house, on pack-horses,
at a very moderate expense. Lieut. Gaines, by order of the War
Department, had six or seven years before this time, surveyed
and marked out the road I was instructed to open." After pur
chasing his supplies, Mr. Gaines says : "I then returned on horse
back to Colbert's Ferry, on the Tenn, made arrangements for re
ceiving and 'packing' the goods to Maj. Pitchlyn, at the mouth of
the Octibbeha, below Cotton Gin Port. I proceeded to Major
Pitchlyn's and with his aid, arranged for transporting the goods
down the Tombigbee to St. Stephens."
The trace is thus referred to in the treaty of Chickasaw Council-
House, Sep't. 20, 1816 : The Chickasaws relinquish their claim
and title to the lands "east of a line commencing at the mouth of
Caney creek, running up said creek to its source, thence a due
south course to the ridge path, or commonly called Gaines' road,
along said road southwestwardly to a point on the Tombigbee river,
well known by the name of Cotton Gin Port, and down the west
bank of the Tombigbee to the Choctaw boundary." The Hunts
ville survey, a short time after, adopted the western boundary of
the above Chickasaw cession, and the road can be readily identified
today. George J. Leftwich, in writing of this old road, says: "It will
be observed that this trace road leaves the Tombigbee river on an
elevated plateau and follows the 'divide' through to the Tennessee,
thus avoiding water courses. . . . From Cotton Gin Port this
road ran nearly due west about ten miles to a kind of tavern kept
by Major Levi Colbert, a Chickasaw chief. There the road forked,
one branch leading northeast (northwest?) to Pontotoc, whence
it intercepted the Natchez Trace running to Natchez and New Or
leans. The other branch turned southeast through the prairie,
running not far from Muldon and West Point to Waverly, in Clay
county. There is a strong probability that DeSoto in 1540 fol
lowed this same path through the prairie. Gaines' Trace is still
a public road and we are told that Col. J. B. Prewett, of Monroe
county, traveled over it in 1824, with his father."
Old Military Road. In accordance with an act of Congress
passed April 27th, 1816, a thoroughfare known as 'Jackson's Mil
itary Road was built through Mississippi. It extended from Madi
sonville, Louisiana to a point twenty-one miles north of the Mus
sel Shoals. The work, which was done under the direction of the
War Department occupied a period of over two years, June 1817,
to Tanuary, 1820." (Riley's History of Mississippi.)
Special Acts. By act of the General Assembly, December 5,
1809, "John Hanes, Benjamin S. Smoot and James Caller be, and

MISSISSIPPI 571
-they are hereby appointed commissioners to employ a fit person
to open a road from Pearl river, where the present Choctaw boun
dary line across the same, the nearest and best way to the Chic-
asawhay river, so as to intersect the same at, or near the lower end
of the Higawana Reserve, and they are hereby empowered to con
tract with said person, for the payment of such sum as may appear
reasonable, for the performance of said work, to be paid out of the
Territorial treasury, after the fulfillment of said contract: Pro
vided, nevertheless, That the sum to be expended for making and
opening said road, shall not exceed three hundred dollars."
By act of Dec, 18, 1811, sec. 31, "The old road leading by or near
St. Albans to the Walnut Hills, as laid out by the Spanish govern
ment, be and the same is hereby declared a public road, and shall
be used and worked upon accordingly, until altered by order of
court, or as hereinafter directed."
By act of Dec. 12, 1812, sec. 1, the following rates and tolls for
ferriages across the river Homochitto, where any public road may
cross the same were established: "For every wheel carriage
twelve and one-half cents per wheel; for every man and horse,
twelve and one-half cents ; for every foot passenger, six and one-
quarter' cents ; for each and every head of horses or horned cattle,
more than one, four cents, if but one, six and one-quarter cents ;
and for each and every head of hogs, sheep, etc. the sum of two
cents. By act of January 6, 1814, Harry Toulmin, Burrel. Pitman, Eu-
gena Chastang, James Taylor, Lewis Blackman, William Patton,
George Evans, and William Powe shall be, and they are hereby
appointed commissioners to lay out and establish a road from the
town of Mobile to M'Cray's ferry on the Buckatanny."
In November, 1816, Micajah Davis, Daniel M'Gahay, Daniel -
Williams, Jr., Nathan Swazey and Janathan Thompson were ap
pointed commissioners to lay out, open, and keep in repair, a road
thirty feet wide, from the city of Natchez to the Louisiana line,
following the general direction of a line from Natchez to the river
Amite, just below the mouth of Beaver creek.
Huntsville Road. In 1823 a road was marked from Huntsville,
Ala, by way of Columbus to Doak's stand, on the Robinson road.
As this terminus of the new road was thirty-five miles from Jack
son, and the nearest point on the Robinson road was the Choctaw
agency house, ten miles north of the capital, ' Governor Leake
sought to have the Columbus road changed, but it remained for
some years the only line of communication between the capital
and the populous and prosperous Tombigbee country in northeast
Mississippi. Roadside, a postoffice of Yazoo county, 8 miles southeast of
Yazoo City.
Robbs, a post-hamlet of Pontotoc county, about 15 miles south
west of Pontotoc, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20. It has
a church, a good school, and 3 stores.

572 MISSISSIPPI
Roberts, Robert W., was a native of Delaware who migrated to
Mississippi when about twenty-one years old, bringing the slaves
inherited from his father. He was a circuit judge before he re
moved to northern Mississippi and located at Hillsboro. He rep
resented Scott county in the legislature, 1838-44, and was speaker
of the house, in 1842 and 1844. He was elected to congress in 1843
and reelected in 1845. Nobody was his equal as a parliamentarian,
during his day in Mississippi. "As a man of honor, a patriot, a
good citizen, a true and conscientious and skillful party leader,
we have never had his superior," says J. F. H. Claiborne, History,
p. 451.
Robinson Springs, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Madison
county, situated on Limekiln creek, about 15 miles southwest of
Canton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Robinsonville, a village in the northern part of Tunica county,
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 10 miles by rail north of
Tunica, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money
order postoffice. Population in 1900, 300.
Roche a Davion. In July 1699, Fathers Davion and Martigny
and 18 men arrived at Fort Maurepas in two canoes. Says Claiborne
"Father Davion had originally settled at Natchez for a year, but
making no converts he went to the Tunicas, and erected a cross on
the highest bluffs, where he said mass every morning. It was
called Roche a Davion until 1764, when it became known as Loftus
Heights, and afterwards and ever since as Fort Adams."
Rockport, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Copiah coun
ty, on the Pearl river, about 16 miles southeast of Hazlehurst, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 52.
Rockwall, a hamlet of Union county, 12 miles east of New Albany,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has
rural free delivery from Bethany, Lee county.
Rocky Point, once extinct, but later rebuilt, is a post-town in
Attala county, about 14 miles northwest of Kosciusko. Armstrong
and Black erected a tanyard here in 1842 and started the place.
It is related that at that time "twenty-one head of cattle were ex
empt from taxation, hence the farmers always had a number of
beeves to butcher. The hides were tanned on shares or exchanged
for leather. Very many of the farmers knew as well how to make
a shoe as to run a plow. They had a last for each member of
the family. These lasts were known as 'Mary's,' 'John's,' 'Mar
tha's,' etc. The tanyard was sold in 1843 to Benj. F. Rowe, who
built a residence and store. The store was afterwards run by a Jew
of the name of Marks, then by Bartain Evens, and was finally sold
to Williamson McAdory in 1847. The village was the muster
ground for the county for a number of years. It has an excellent
school. (See Riley's Extinct Towns and Villages).
Rocky Springs, a post-hamlet of Claiborne county, 25 miles south
by east of Vicksburg, and about 14 miles northeast of Port Gibson,
the county seat. Utica station, 12 miles east, is the nearest banking

MISSISSIPPI 573
town. It has two churches, and a money order postoffice. Popu
lation in 1900, 58.
Rodney. The old town of Rodney is situated in the extreme
northwestern part of Jefferson county, about one and one-half
miles from the Mississippi river. The town was first settled and
laid out about the year 1826, and was incorporated by act of the
Legislature in 1828. Subsequent acts, relating to its charter were
passed in 1829, 1841, 1844 and f848. It was named in honor of
Judge Thomas Rodney, one of the most popular of the Territorial
judges. The locality was known as far back as 1765, as "Little
Gulf" and later as "Petit Gulf." The region about the town is
known as "Petit Gulf Hills," and the cotton raised in the neigh
borhood, technically called "Petit Gulf Cotton," in former years,
commanded the best price for lint and seed in the cotton market.
Among the earliest settlers in Petit Gulf were Pierce Nolan,
Dr. Nutt, Dr. Eli Harden, John Tullis, Andrew Montgomery, and
the Harrison, Griffin and Gibson families. Its earliest merchants
were John Ducker, Levi Harris, John Watt, J. G. James, followed
at a later period by the Warners, Kirkers, Yoes, Drakes, Evans,
Broughtons and Becks. Until the year 1864, the current of the
Mississippi river ran in front of the town, and it was an important
shipping point. Since the above year, a bar has formed near the
town, cutting it off from the river by a distance of a mile and a
half. The town has suffered two disastrous fires, almost entirely con
suming it, one in 1852 and one in 1869. Said an eye-witness of the
latter conflagration, aboard the steamer Richmond, which was
passing down the river, "The whole village was wrapped in a
mantle of flame, and as at two o'clock in the morning, our boat
glided swiftly down along the other shore, the scene was grand
beyond description; lit up as it was by the lurid lights from burn
ing buildings, mingled with the moon's pale beams."
The county fairs held at Rodney during the falls of 1858, 1859
and 1860, were highly successful events. Says Mr. J. A. Limerick,
a citizen of Rodney : "No finer display of blooded stock was ever
presented at any fair, in this State, than that shown at the Rodney
fair; and no finer premiums were ever offered in this State; they
being solid silver cups, vases, etc. A number of Mississippi raised
horses taking premiums over blue ribbon horses that had been
brought from other States and from other fairs. The visitors at
these fairs were largely from New Orleans, Vicksburg, Natchez,
Port Gibson, and neighboring Louisiana Parishes."
An exciting incident took place at Rodney during the summer
of 1863. The U, S. S. Rattler was then lying off Rodney. Sept.
12, being Sunday, Acting Master E. A. Fentriss, Acting Ensign
S. Strunk and about twenty seamen from the vessel went ashore to
attend divine services at the Rodney Presbyterian Church. During
the services, the church was surrounded by a small band of Confed
erates, under the command of Lieut. Allen, a Confederate scout.
After a struggle in which many shots were fired in and around the

574 MISSISSIPPI
church, the Federals surrendered. Fortunately, despite the
crowded condition of the church, only one seaman was slightly
wounded in the melee. Speaking of this incident, Mr. Limerick
says: "Before the congregation had time to disperse the steamer
Rattler began shelling the town, one shell striking the Presbyterian
church. After the Confederates had retired to a place of safety
with their prisoners, the Federals came ashore and made an attempt
to burn the town. The citizens notified Lieut. Allen of the fact
and he sent word to the Federal commander, that if any house or
property was destroyed, he would hang every prisoner in his charge.
This message had the proper effect and upon receipt of the same
they returned to their boat and in a short time left for Natchez,
to make a report to the commander of the Naval Fleet of this
District." The old Presbyterian institution of learning, known as Oakland
College, was established near Rodney in 1832, and prospered greatly
down to the time of the War between the States. Its first president
was Rev. Jeremiah Chamberlain, and its first graduate was Judge
James M. Smyly, who received his A. B. degree in 1833, and is
believed to be the first native of Mississippi to receive a degree in
his own State. Oakland College was sold by the Synod to the State
in 1871, for the establishment of a school for the higher education
of negroes, known as Alcorn University, now changed to Alcorn
Agricultural and Mechanical College.
Oakland College during its long career, exercised a highly refin
ing influence on the rural neighborhood, and Rodney was the seat
of an unusually high degree of culture.
Rodney, Thomas, Territorial judge, was- born in Sussex county,
Del, June 4, 1744. He was a brother of Cassar Rodney, of Dela
ware, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the
Continental congress and general of Delaware militia. They were
descended from William Rodney, native of England, who was a
member of Penn's council. Thomas was a lawyer and politician
from early manhood. He served as justice of the peace in 1770,
Was a member of the assembly to elect delegates to the first Con
tinental congress in 1774, member of the council of safety in 1775>
colonel of militia during the War of the Revolution. In 1778 he
was chief justice of the Kent county court, in 1779 register of bills,
in 1781-83 and 1785-87 member of the Congress of the Confedera
tion. In 1787 he was speaker of the Delaware assembly. July 12,
1803, he and Robert Williams were appointed land commissioners'
for the territory west of Pearl river, and at the same time he was
appointed Territorial judge to succeed Seth Lewis. This office
he held until his death at his plantation home in Jefferson county,
January 2, 1811. When Rodney was about to make a visit to Rich
mond in August, 1807, having concluded the land commission
work, he was given a banquet at the home of Abram de France,
at which, after he had retired, the toast was offered: "Col. Thomas
Rodney, a hero of '76." His name is commemorated by the town
of Rodney, and Rodney landing on the Mississippi river. Notable

MISSISSIPPI 575
events in his career were his investigation of the Kemper raiders,
the hearing of Aaron Burr, and his conflict of authority with his
former associate on the commission, Governor Williams. Judge
Rodney's son, Caesar Augustus Rodney, born in Delaware, 1772,
was attorney-general of the United States under Jefferson, prose
cuted the impeachment of Judge Chase and the indictment of Aaron
Burr, visited the South American republics for Madison, was repre
sentative and senator in congress, and died when minister to Buenos
Ayres. Rogers, Francis M, was a lawyer at Athens, a noble, large-
hearted and generous man. He was a Whig in a Democratic
district, but as a rule the judges were Whigs, and he was elected
judge of the northeastern circuit in 1844. In 1853 he was nomi
nated for governor by his party, but was defeated by the Demo
cratic nominee, John J. McRae.
Rolling Fork, the capital of Sharkey county, is a thriving station
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 44 miles north of Vicks
burg. It is situated on Deer Creek, at the point where a largd
prong of that stream turns abruptly to the right and flows into
the Sunflower river six miles to the east. It was here that Thomas
Y. Chaney, the first settler in the county, located in 1828, and
named the stream Rolling Fork on account of the swiftness of the
current before it joined the Sunflower. Just south of the town
is an important group of five Indian mounds, situated on a crescent
shaped ridge half a mile long ; the largest of the mounds is over
50 feet in height, and circular in shape. A postoffice was established
at Rolling Fork in 1848, and Thomas Redwood, the first merchant
in the county, became the first postmaster. In 1883 the Louisville,
New Orleans & Texas railway (now the Yazoo & Miss. Val) was
built through the town, and the first train reached Rolling Fork
in October of that year. Rolling Fork was made the county seat
of Sharkey county at the time of the organization of the county
in 1876. Cotton and also fruit are extensively grown in the sur
rounding region ; fine cattle are also raised in this section. A num
ber -of large lumber mills are located at Rolling Fork. The Bank
of Rolling Fork was established here in 1902 with a capital of
$25,000. The Deer Creek Pilot, a Democratic weekly established
in 1884, is published here by T. W. Campbell. Population in 1906,
1,000. Rome, a postoffice of Sunflower county, is located in the extreme
northeastern corner of the county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R, about 36 miles north of Indianola, the county seat.
It has a church, and 2 public schools. Population in 1906 was esti
mated at 200.
Roosevelt, a postoffice in the east-central part of Harrison county,
about 22 miles north of Gulfport, the county seat. It has a tur
pentine distilery and a store.
Rose, a postoffice of Coahoma county.
Rosebloom, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Talla
hatchie county, about 15 miles distant from Charleston, the county

576 MISSISSIPPI
seat, and about 10 miles from Grenada the nearest banking town.
Hardy Station, on the Illinois Central R. R, is 6 miles due east.
Population in 1900, 50.
Rosedale, one of the two county seats of justice for Bolivar coun
ty, is an incorporated post-town on the Mississippi river, 125 miles
south of Memphis. It was formerly known as Floreyville, and
under that name became the county seat in 1872. The first court
house was destroyed by fire, and the present building was erected
in 1890. It is one of the best county buildings in the State. It
is built of pressed brick, trimmed with white stone, and cost over
$30,000. A substantial brick jail was erected in 1888, costing about
$13,500. It is a prosperous and well built little city, and does a
thriving business. Two branches of the Yazoo & Mississippi Val
ley R. R, and the Mississippi river provide it with excellent ship-"
ping facilities. It lies in the fertile Mississippi Delta, and the sur-
roundng region produces immense quantities of cotton and lum
ber. The town is provided with telegraph, telephone, express and
banking facilities, has several churches, and many handsome busi
ness blocks and residences. The Valley Bank was established
here in 1889 with a capital of $10,000. The Bolivar County Demo
crat is an influential Democratic weekly, established in 1888, owned
and edited by A. D. Linnell
Among the important industries of the town are a large cotton
compress which holds the world's record for 10 hours' work — 1,370
bales; The Gilt-Edge Compound Cooperage Co, established in
1906; a large cotton seed oil mill; a shingle mill and a saw mill.
Rosedale has excellent schools for both white and colored, and
owns and operates its electric lighting and water works systems.
A chemical analysis has shown the water to be 95% pure. The
population of the town in 1900 was 622 ; this has since increased
to about 1,500.
Rosehill, a post-hamlet of Jasper county, 8 miles northeast of
Paulding, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Pop
ulation in 1900, 32; population in 1906, 150 (estimated).
Roseneath, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Yazoo county,
on the Yazoo river, 18 miles north of Yazoo City, the county seat
and nearest banking town. Silver City is the nearest railroad sta
tion and banking town. Population in 1900, 50.
Rosetta, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Wilkinson
county, on the Homochitto river, about 18 miles from Woodville
the county seat. It is a prosperous station on the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley R. R, about 10 miles north of Gloster, the nearest
banking town. Population in 1900, 100.
Rosine, a postoffice of Perry county, on the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R, 18 miles by rail south of Hattiesburg. It has several stores,
a large saw mill, and is a prosperous town.
Round Island Expedition. In his message of January, 1850t
Governor Matthews said : "During the past year a company of
men, about three hundred in number, assembled on our gulf coast,
at a place called Round Island, within the jurisdiction of the State

MISSISSIPPI 577
of Mississippi. What led to their assemblage or the object of that
assemblage, was not known; but it was suspected by the navaf
officers of the United States then commanding in the gulf that they
meditated an expedition against Cuba, or against some power
with which the United States were at peace. Although these men
were unarmed and displayed no military organization, yet Lieuten
ant Totten and Commander Randolph, acting as they alleged under
instructions from the government at Washington, issued each a
proclamation, in which opprobrious epithets were applied to these
men and in which they were notified that they would not be al
lowed to leave the island, except to disperse, and that until such
dispersion all supplies should be cut off. Several vessels on our
coast, belonging to our citizens, were ordered, under peril of being
fired upon, not to leave their position; and our coast was strictly
blockaded for several weeks, to the great injury and annoyance
of our citizens." The governor complained seriously of the "law
less acts" of the United States officers, and said that, "esteeming
this an outrage upon our rights, and an insult to the sovereignty
of* Mississippi, but wishing to avoid any collision with the govern
ment of the United States, I addressed a respectful note to the sec
retary of the navy, enclosing copies of the proclamations of Messrs.
Totten and Randolph and requesting a copy of the instructions
under which they acted. To this communication I received in re
ply his note, declining a compliance with my request, and giving
me no information on the subject." There is no indication that
the governor had considered the propriety of acting himself, as
head of a "sovereign state," to guard against breach of neutrality.
In fact, there was a wide spread disposition to encourage revolu
tion in Cuba.' The State government, however, gave no manner of
responsible recognition to this Round Island expedition, and the
outcry in the North was in no way justified. During President
Polk's administration the Spanish monarch was offered $100,000,-
000 for Cuba, but the sale was declined. Filibustering movements
then became popular, and Narciso Lopez, a native of Venezuela,
who had been a colonel in the Spanish army and a politician on the
side of Queen Isabelle against Don Carlos in Spain, came,
to the United States from Cuba, and spent his fortune lavishly in
organizing expeditions to encourage revolution in the island. The
Round Island expedition was the most notable result in 1849.
Colonel White was the head of the expedition, which was largely
collected from New Orleans. President Taylor's proclamation of
August 11, 1849, and his energetic action, leading to the capture
and condemnation of the ships Sea Gull and New Orleans, put a
stop to the Round Island project. But Commander V. M. Ran
dolph reported to the secretary of the navy that certain newspapers
continued to encourage the enterprise. "I exceedingly regret to
hear such a band of would-be buccaneers eulogized as patriotic
and chivalrous American citizens ; and the navy, and myself in par
ticular, denounced as having shamefully prevented so meritorious
a band of heroes from participating in a great and glorious strug-
37-11

578 MISSISSIPPI
gle for liberty, and the rights of man." Judge C. P. Smith, of the
supreme court, was interested in the Lopez movement, also Gov
ernor Quitman (q. v.)
Roundlake, a post-hamlet of Bolivar county, situated in the north
ern part on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 15 miles
northeast of Rosedale, one of the county seats of justice. Gunnison
is, the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice.
Population in 1900, 95; estimated at 250 in 1906.
Rounsaville, a postoffice of Greene county.
Routh, Job, said to have been the first man of English blood to
settle at Natchez, was of Danish-English descent. He made a
large fortune. Receiving a grant of land on Lake St. Joseph, in
Tensas parish, he and his children formed a settlement there, and
at one time had about 20,000 acres under cultivation, and owned
over 5,000 slaves. His wife was Madeline Miller. One of their
sons, John K, was in his day called the cotton king, his crop in
one year amounting to nearly nine thousand bales. (See Memoirs
of Miss, II, 522.)
Rowland, Dunbar, Director of the Mississippi Department of
Archives and History, was born August 25, 1864, at Oakland, Miss.,
and is the youngest son of Dr. William Brewer Rowland and
Mary (Bryan) Rowland. His mother was a direct descendant of
Charles Moorman of Louisa county, Virginia, who emancipated his
slaves in 1778. William Brewer Rowland was the son of Col. Creed
T. Rowland and Matilda (Brewer) Rowland of Henry county, Vir
ginia. Creed T. Rowland moved to Mississippi about 1840 and
settled in Lowndes county. After remaining there a few years he
removed to Aberdeen, Monroe county, and lived on his plantation,
"Rowland Place," near that city, dying there in 1866. He was
the son of Michael Rowland and Elizabeth (Hairston) Rowland,
natives of Henry county, Virginia. Michael Rowland served in the
Revolutionary Army and took part in the battle of Guilford Court
House. He was the son of Andrew Rowland a descendant of John
Rowland of Surrey county, England, who immigrated to America
in 1635, and resided in Virginia. Dunbar Rowland received
his primary education in the private schools of Memphis,
Tenn, and was prepared for college at Oakland Academy. In
1882 he entered the Freshman Class of the Mississippi A. &
M. College and was graduated in 1886 with the degree of B.
S. ; was first anniversarian of the Philotechnic Society in 1885,
and delivered the second Alumni oration in 1888. In 1886
he entered the Law Department of the State University and was
graduated from that institution in 1888 with the degree of LL. B. ;
was senior debater at Commencement, June, 1888. In November,
1888, he located in Memphis, Tenn, for the practice of law and re
mained four years, his culture and scholarly attainments attracting
the attention of his associates. In 1893 Mr. Rowland returned to
Mississippi and opened a law office at Coffeeville, at which place
in the past, Dr. Edward Mayes, L. Q. C. Lamar and Gen. E. C.
Walthall had practiced, a circumstance that serves to make its

MISSISSIPPI 579
history unusually interesting. In 1902 the State Department of
Archives and History was created by the legislature ; Mr. Rowland
was elected Director and, during his incumbency, has done valu
able work in preserving and publishing the historical archives of
the State. He has compiled and edited a number of valuable his
torical publications, some of the most important being the Official
and Statistical Register of Mississippi, (1904) ; Mississippi Ter
ritorial Archives, Vol. I, (1906) and the Encyclopedia of Missis
sippi History, (1906). In recognition of his valuable service to the
State the University of Mississippi conferred the degree of LL.
D, upon him, June, 1906. In the summer of 1906 Dr. Rowland
went abroad for the purpose of investigating the official archives
of England, France and Spain which relate to the provincial history
of Mississippi, the legislature having provided funds to secure
transcripts of original records. He is deeply absorbed in historical
work; is in close touch with the best historians of the present
day, and his fine sense of justice, broadness of view and utter lack
of all sectional prejudice have won the admiration of the people
North and South. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, the
American Historical Association and the Delta Kappa- Epsilom
fraternity, and is an honorary member of several historical socie
ties in the United States.
Dr. Rowland w.as married December 20, 1906, at Flora, Miss, to
his cousin Mrs. Eron Opha Gregory, a descendant of the Byrd
family of Virginia.
Rowsey, a postoffice of Panola county, situated in the extreme
southeastern part, on the Yocona river, about 15 miles from Bates
ville, one of the county seats of justice.
, Roxie, an incorporated post-town in the western part of Frank
lin county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 22 miles east
of Natchez. Fayette is the nearest banking town. The town
sprang into existence in 1885 shortly after the building of the rail
road. A, short distance to the north of the town are located the
celebrated Franklin Springs, while a few miles to the south are
found beds of sandstone used as a building stone. The town has
a Masonic lodge, two churches, and a good school. Population in
1900, 214.
Roy, a postoffice of Clarke county, 11 miles north of Quitman,
the county seat and nearest banking town.
Royal, a postoffice of Smith county, situated on Hatchushe
creek, 8 miles northeast of Raleigh, the county seat.
Ruble, a postoffice of Jackson county, situated in the north
western part on Red creek, about 35 miles distant from Pasca
goula, the county seat.
Ruby, a post^hamlet in the northeastern part of Copiah county,
on Brushy creek, a tributary of the Pearl river, and about 10 miles
from Hazlehurst, the county seat and nearest banking town. It
has several good stores, churches, a fine school, and a cotton gin.
It is surrounded by a fine farming country. Population in 1900,
75. Its estimated population in 1906 was 200.

580 MISSISSIPPI
Ruckersville. This was an old settlement in Tippah county (q.
v.), first called Finger's Cross Roads, from its location where the
Ripley, Pochahontas and Salem public roads cross. Two brothers,
John and Daniel Finger, settled here in 1842. In 1846, Dr. Charles
Rucker, settled here and the place took his name. After the build
ing of a railroad to Ripley, in 1876, five miles away, the business
of the town moved to the railroad, and nothing is now left of the
old town.
Rudyard, a postoffice of Coahoma county, on the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley R. R, 6 miles east of Friar's point, the county seat.
Rue, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Newton county. It has
rural free delivery from Battlefield station. ,
Ruff, a post-hamlet of Choctaw county, 6 miles northwest of
Chester, the county seat. Population in 1900, 21. It has 2 stores
and a cotton gin.
Rufus, a postoffice of Rankin county, about 15 miles southeast
Of Brandon, the county seat and banking town.
Ruleville is an incorporated post-town and station on the Yazoo
& Mississippi Valley R. R, in the north-central part of Sunflower
county. It is an important cotton shipping point, and has telegraph,
telephone, express and banking facilities. The Bank of Ruleville
was established here in 1903 with a capital of $50,000. Population
in 1900, 226 ; estimated in 1906 to be 500. There are three churches,
two for whites and one for colored ; an electric light plant and a
water works system ; three public gins, and excellent public schools.
The town was laid out in 1898 by J. W. Rule for whom it was
named. It is growing rapidly and has an ambition to become the
seat of justice for the second Judicial district. There are now
(1906) about 20 business houses all in a flourishing condition. It
is surrounded by a fine fertile country and timber lands, and in the
year 1905, shipped about 7,000 bales of cotton.
Runnels, Hiram G, governor, 1833-35, was a son of Harmon
Runnels, a member of the constitutional convention of 1817. Har
mon Runnels was one of the pioneers of the Pearl river country,
in the first Choctaw purchase, in territorial times. Colonel Clai
borne wrote of him, "had been a hard fighting captain in Georgia,
in the Continental army — had many a fight with the British, Tories
and Indians — was a hardshell Baptist — a devoted follower of Gen.
Elisha Clark — was decidedly pugilistic in his temperament and
would fire up and fight anybody and at any time, for a slur on his
religion, his politics or his friend Clark. He had strong friends
and bitter enemies, but he whipped the latter into submission, and
with four sons to back him, as ready to fight as himself, he ruled
the Pearl river country as long as he lived, and died an octogena
rian, at Monticello, 'in the odor of sanctity.' No truer patriot ever
lived." Hiram G. Runnels was elected auditor of state by the legisla
ture in 1822, and served in that office until 1830, with a clean rec
ord. As a member of the legislature from Hinds county in 1830
he was the main force in securing the admission to the State of a

MISSISSIPPI 581
branch of the United States bank. In 1831 he was a candidate for
governor. But there were three other candidates, and he was
defeated by Abram M. Scott by about 200 votes. At the special elec
tion under the new constitution in May, 1833, he was again a can
didate, and was elected over Scott by a close vote. Though the
constitution seems to have provided this May election expressly
for filling the offices before the date of the regular election to come
(after 1833) in November, Mr. Runnels did not take the office, even
after the death of Gov. Scott in June, until the legislature met in
regular session in November. The sources of information for this
transition period are very meagre. It appears from a newspaper of
that date that the "governor-elect" was invited to a barbecue in
August, but on account of severe domestic affliction, could not at
tend. His attitude toward the vexed questions of his time are stated in
his message of 1835. "In contemplating the inestimable utility of
our Federal Union, the mind is imperceptibly drawn to the con
templation of the virtue, patriotism and prophetic wisdom of the
framers of the constitution of the United States, in which instru
ment the experience of each year inspires us with renewed confi
dence." He regarded the administration of Andrew Jackson as hav
ing respected the proper spheres of Federal and State authority,
with "salutary effects upon the rights of the States and the per
petuity of the Union," and denounced the resolution of censure by
the senate in 1834 at the instigation of Calhoun and Poindexter, as
"arranged and procured by a few master spirits of intrigue." He
advised instruction of the senators of Mississippi to vote for the ex
punging of that resolution "as being unprecedented, unjust to the
president, and offensive to a large portion of the American peo
ple." Col. Claiborne wrote of the campaign of 1835, when he was a
candidate for reelection, that Franklin E. Plummer, his bitter
enemy, retained for that purpose by the bank interest, followed
him about, goading him with irritating speeches and publications.
They met at Gallatin -on the day of election, and Plummer, having
no principle, was able to keep provokingly cool and entertaining
to the crowd, while Runnels found his indignation and resentment
beyond expression in parliamentary language. The effect upon the
crowd was against him, and perhaps lost him the vote of the county
and a second term as governor. He was defeated by a combina
tion of Jackson and anti- Jackson men, Whigs and Democrats, Nul-
lifiers and Unionists, the real issue being a personal one, for or
against George Poindexter, in which Poindexter was beaten, but
Lynch happened to win by a narrow margin. Runnels' character
was assailed in every way, and some of the roorbacks, just before
election, may have caused his defeat. But in fact he and Lynch
were not far apart in politics, and both were good men, not respon
sible for the outrageous campaign that was made. Upon the or
ganization of the Union bank in 1838 he accepted the office of pres
ident at a salary of $10,000 a year. His experience in that posi-

582 MISSISSIPPI
tion could not have been gratifying to him. In 1841 he was again
in the legislature from Hinds county.
Runnels' Administration. The May, 1833, election, under the
constitution of 1832, resulted in the choice of the following execu
tive officers : Hiram G. Runnels, governor ; David Dickson, secre
tary of state; James Phillips, treasurer; John H. Mallory, auditor.
The term of each was two years, and the reelection of the governor
was limited so that he could not hold the office longer than four
years in any six. Gov. Runnels did not take office until the meet
ing of the legislature in regular session according to the constitu
tion, which was on the third Monday of November, 1833. M. D.
Patton succeeded R. M. Gaines as attorney-general, 1834-37.
The November session enacted a militia law, erected 16 new
counties in the land about to be vacated by the Choctaws, and made
an apportionment of representatives and senators without taking
these new counties into account. Another notable act was the
appropriation of the proceeds of the sale of lots in Jackson to the
building of a new statehouse, the one now known (1906) as the
"old capitol."
There was a revival of abolition activity at this time, not so
strictly in the North as it was later.
At one of the legislative sessions in 1833 a law was passed pro
hibiting the importation of slaves for sale, one of the expressed
motives being to compel the border States to retain their slaves and
continue in political alliance with the planting States. A conven
tion was held at Jackson in the same year to approve the nullifi
cation action of South Carolina. But the Democratic State con
vention of June 9, 1834, presided over by Gen. Thomas Hinds,
unanimously resolved "that a constitutional right of secession
from the Union on the part of a single State, as asserted by the
nullifying leaders of South Carolina, is utterly unsanctioned by the
constitution, which was framed to establish, not to destroy the
Union." The legislature passed a resolution pledging President
Jackson the support of Mississippi. (Garner, M. H. S. Publ, IV,
90.) Throughout 1834 political affairs were warming up to the great
battle of 1835, in which the personality of George Poindexter was
foremost. He was essentially an enemy of President Jackson,
partly because he must fight somebody and Jackson had offended
him in regard to appointments. Consequently the senator figured
as the chief supporter of Calhoun and nullification of the tariff,
though he had desired the election of Henry Clay, father of the tariff,
in 1832. He was also the great champion of the United States
bank, and hence, in some degree, the enemy of the State banks,
which now enjoyed the use of the government deposits. Gov.
Runnels, on the other hand, admired President Jackson, approved
his vigorous assertion of national powers, and was disposed to cen
sure Poindexter for his course in the senate. Poindexter's term
was to expire March 4, 1835. Consequently the governor called
an extra session of the legislature in January of that year, to elect

MISSISSIPPI 583
for the ensuing term, Poindexter being a candidate for reelection.
Meanwhile, the governor had taken steps to secure a full represen
tation of the State in the legislature, by authorizing the new
counties in the Choctaw country to elect representatives. Subse
quent events warrant the opinion that their votes would have de
feated Poindexter. As has been stated, the acts of the session' of
December, 1833, appeared on their face, to warrant the opinion that
the legislature did not intend that the new counties should have
representation until a later time, when they should have acquired
a population of some consequence. But Runnels construed the
constitutional provision as urgent, that every county should have
a representative in the legislature. The representatives were elec
ted, 16 of them, among them Greenwood Leflore, and when the
legislature met in January, the governor said: "I submit the sub
ject without comment to your consideration . . . each house
having the power of judging of the qualifications and elections of.
each of its own members."
The house committee made a majority report that the new mem
bers were entitled to seats at this special session of the old legis
lature. But their chairman, James H. Maury, made a minority
report, saying that according to the apportionment of 1833 the
senate had twelve members, the house 37 from the old counties,
but if the 16 new counties should each haye a representative, the
number of senators would be less than one-fourth the representa
tives, which would be repugnant to the constitution. Also, the
proposed members did not have the constitutional qualification of
residence in their counties. He advised the legislature to adjourn,
and wait until a new legislature could be elected without violation
of the constitution. But the house proceeded to admit the new
members. On account of this the senate resolved January 27 that
the body assembled as a house was not in verity the house, and the
alleged legislature was not the legislature authorized by the con
stitution and laws, and proposed to adjourn sine die. The house
unanimously refused to concur. Mr. Williams proposed that the
members all resign and go before the people, which was rejected.
The senate refused to recognize the existence of the house further.
The house ordered the doorkeeper to make the doors and windows
fast and deposit the keys with the secretary of state. The gover
nor proclaimed January 31, that the best interests of the State
required adjournment of both houses, which was accordingly de
clared. Thus the reelection of Poindexter was defeated until a new
legislature could be elected in the fall of 1835. (See Lynch, Bench
and Bar, 167-74.)
State treasury disbursements in 1835 were $53,246, $40,000 of
which was for judiciary and state house. The total expenditures
for education were $1,000, including the Literary fund and Semi
nary land fund. The balance in the treasury was nearly $89,000.
Gov. Runnels deposited in the Planters Bank, notes of lot pur
chases at Jackson for about $20,000 and borrowed nearly $19,000
on his individual note to use in building the state house, but many

584 MISSISSIPPI
of the notes had to be sued for collection. It was difficult to collect
notes given in payment for seminary lands also, though secured by
responsible sureties, said Auditor Mallory. Suit was ordered
against Hadley, the late auditor, for $3,150. At the same time
speculation was at its height and the credit of individuals and of
the State was being strained to the breaking point. At this
moment, however, there was no thought of danger. The bonds of
the State of Mississippi were quoted at a large premium in the
market at London, and there was no thought that they were not as
good as gold or better.
In the campaign of 1835 the battle was over Jacksori and Poin
dexter. Poindexter desired reelection. Jackson did not, but the
success of his friends meant the election of his choice as a suc
cessor, Martin VanBuren, in 1836. VanBuren's chief recommen
dation was that he represented New York, a State that had been
friendly to Jackson as a candidate, through influences set in motion
by Aaron Burr, or by the organization that Aaron Burr created.
The election of a New York man would be almost as great a rev
olution as had been the election of Jackson himself — a man neither
from Virginia or Massachusetts. If the South had been able to
overcome the resolve of "Old Hickory," the candidate would have
been John C. Calhoun. The subjects most talked about in the Mis
sissippi campaign were the United States bank and the tariff.
The cause of Jackson, in the campaign, was managed by William M.
Gwin, United States marshal, and presented on the stump by Rob
ert J. Walker and Henry S. Foote. The Whigs made a vigorous
fight, with S. S. Prentiss and Adam L. Bingaman as their great
leaders, and Charles Lynch their standard bearer as candidate for
governor. Gov. Runnels was the Democratic candidate for re
election. He was a devoted supporter of Jackson and opposed to
Calhounism and Poindexter; but he was opposed by Franklin E.
Plummer, ostensibly a candidate for senator, but really a represen
tative of the coalition of State banks and "nullifiers," and for this
reason very likely also because the issue threw the Jacksonian
Democrats so close to the Whig position in politics that Lynch
profited thereby, the latter won by a small margin. The vote was,
Lynch, 9,867 ; Runnels, 9,441.
At the session of January-March, 1833, the legislature fixed the
time of its future convenings as the first Monday in January. The
next session therefore, was in January, 1836. The time of the in
stallation of the governor was not fixed by the constitution or by
statute, the constitution providing merely, that he should hold
office "two years from the time of his installation." Gov. Runnels
had waited for the session of the legislature in November, 1833,
to begin his term of office, and he decided that his term ended
November 20, 1835, regardless of the change of the legislative
session. The succession, according to the new constitution, was
first the president of the senate and next the speaker of the house ;
but the legislature had expired also, a new legislature having been
elected in 1835, and the ultimate step provided in the constitution

MISSISSIPPI 585
was necessary. Consequently Gen. Dickson, secretary of state,
called a special session of the newly-elected senate, which, meet
ing on December 3, elected John A. Quitman president by a major
ity of one, on the 7th ballot, next day.
Ruralhill, a hamlet in the western part of Winston county, 15
miles west of Louisville, the county seat and nearest railroad town.
McCool is the nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 93.
Rushings Store, a post-hamlet of Lauderdale county, situated
on Okatibbee creek, 10 miles north, northwest of Meridian. Pop
ulation in 1900, 40.
Rusk, a postoffice of Lee county, on the St. Louis & San Francisco
R. R, 8 miles southeast of Tupelo, the county seat and nearest
banking town.
Russell, a post-hamlet of Lauderdale county, on the Alabama
Great Southern R. R, about 7 miles east of Meridian. Population
in 1900, 48.
Russell, Irwin, was born at Port Gibson, Miss, June 3, 1853.
He possessed the poetic temperament to such an extent that he was
not fitted for the rush of a practical world, and his waywardness
caused his life to be filled with sorrow and suffering, although he
had at his command all that affection could suggest. He died at New
Orleans, December 23, 1879. His poems were published by the
Century company after his death. "The opinion of an uncritical
mind ought not to go for much, but it seems to me that some of
Irwin Russell's negro character studies rise to the level of what,
in a large way, we term literature." (Joel Chandler Harris.)
Russellville, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Warren
county. Population in 1900, 25.
Russum, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Claiborne county,
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 6 miles south of Port
Gibson, the county seat, and nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 62.
Ruth, a post-hamlet of Lincoln county, and a station on the N.
C. & M. R. R, about 10 miles east of Norfield. Population in 1900,
20. Rust University. Rust University, at Holly Springs, was estab
lished in 1868 by the M. E. Church for the education of colored peo
ple. It has commodious buildings and large grounds, valued at
$100,000 ; has a library of 4,000 books and 300 pamphlets. Its work
is divided into two main departments, collegiate and preparatory.
The preparatory department does not offer the elementary grades.
No agricultural, engineering or professional courses are offered, but
there is a good normal -course and a domestic science department
for the girls. The college course leads to the bachelor's degree.
In 1901 there were 132 men students and 127 women, of whom 91
were taking the normal course.
Ryals, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Pike county, about
28 miles east of Magnolia, the county seat. Tylertown is its near
est railroad and banking town.

586 MISSISSIPPI
Rye, a postoffice of Monroe county, located on the Buttahatchie
river, 15 miles east of Aberdeen, the county seat.
Sabine Expedition. This was one of the most exciting incidents
in the course of events leading up to the Florida Acquisition (q.
v.). After the acquisition of Louisiana, the United States claimed
eastern and western boundaries of that province on the' Perdido
and Rio Grande, including Mobile and San Antonio. After some
negotiations France declined to aid the United States in these
pretensions and sided with Spain, whereupon Spain seemed dis
posed to pass from negotiations to military force. She was also
disturbed by the Aaron Burr project to revolutionize Mexico. This
was manifest as early as the fail of 1805. (See Williams' Adm.)
At a later date the Spanish proposition, if the United States desired
the Floridas, was to take back Louisiana west of the Mississippi
river, from which it may be inferred that in 1805 the Spaniards did
not entertain seriously the American pretensions west of Red river.
American ships Were being taken in the Atlantic by Spanish pri
vateers and by French and Spanish privateers in the West Indies.
Santiago, Cuba (or St. Jago, as it was written then), was a
scene of robbery, plunder, perjury and cruelty, in which American
seamen were the continual sufferers. Mr. Jefferson's gunboats
and militia were ineffectual to save the American coastwise trade
between NeW Orleans and the Atlantic ports from destruction.
In July, 1805, there were yet many Spanish officers and officials
at New Orleans, part of them composing the "commission of the
limits of the province of Louisiana," under royal orders of August
20, 1804. Brig.-Gen. Caso Calvo was at the head of this commission,
and Captains Stephen Minor and Thomas Power were associated
with it in military capacities. Baron Bastrop, owner of a great
concession on the Ouachita, which Aaron Burr was presently ne
gotiating for, industriously spread the report that Louisiana would
soon return into the hands of Spain. As Bastrop was a close friend
of Casa Calvo's, the prediction seemed to have significance. Casa
Calvo himself made a trip into Texas, fomenting resistance. In
October, 1805, small detachments of Spanish troops on the Texas
frontier occupied Nana and Bayou Pierre, near Adayes, an old
Spanish post, in the vicinity of Natchitoches. Major Porter, of
Fort Claiborne, (Natchitoches) under orders from Washington,
sent a detachment to Bayou Pierre to compel the Spanish to retire
beyond the Sabine, which, upon menace, they did.
The Mexican government was informed of Burr's intentions to
found a state in the debatable country and foment a revojution in
Mexico. Colonel Herrera was ordered to the Sabine with the
Texas militia. The government of New Orleans, as a first step of
defense, compelled Morales and Casa Calvo to depart. The gov
ernor of Pensacola guarded against the plot of Col. Caller by for
bidding the transmission of the United States mails, and putting the
Mobile fortifications in order. (See Washington County.) April
26, 1806, Gen. Dearborn, secretary of war, wrote Gov. Williams,
"Under existing circumstances, it is considered advisable to take

MISSISSIPPI 587
some precautionary measures in relation to our Spanish neighbors,
it is desirable that you should have the militia of your territory
in as good order and as well prepared for actual service as circum
stances will permit, especially those of the county of Washing
ton." John Pitchlyn reported that the Spaniards at Mobile, on May
16, had about 1,100 Choctaws in council, had given them powder
and lead, and asked them to come again in three moons to hear a
talk from "the great mingo at Pensacola."
In the summer of 1806 the whole West, including Natchez and
New Orleans, was aflame with the spirit of war against Spain, for
the extension of republican government. Miranda was preparing
an expedition at New York for the promotion of revolution in Ven
ezuela, and great interest was felt in Mississippi in this project,
as in various succeeding enterprises of the same nature. In July,
Viana, with about 700 men, crossed the Sabine and again took
post at Bayou Pierre. Governor Claiborne was a guest at Con
cord, near Natchez, when he heard of this. He had a conference
with Acting-Governor Mead, and they made a memorandum for
joint action, August 17 (Claiborne's Miss, p. 265) in which they
agreed to support the United States troops under Major Porter;
Claiborne to go to Natchitoches and call out the militia of his ter
ritory, Mead to put his militia in training and prepare to support
the mayor of New Orleans as well as defend Mississippi territory,
and send at least a hundred men to Natchitoches. Claiborne went
on to the frontier and began negotiations with Herrera, but dis
covered that while Porter had orders to drive out the Spanish,
something was not as it should be. "My present suspicion is that
all is not right," he wrote to Mead. In fact the major had been
ordered by Gen. Wilkinson to remain quiet. Wilkinson, then at
St. Louis, had been instructed in May to repair to the territory of
Orleans and take command of all the troops that might be furnished,
and "by all means in your power, repel any invasion of the terri
tory of the United States east of the River Sabine, or north or
west of the bounds of what has been called West Florida." But
he waited three months at St. Louis. It may have been natural
laziness, but by coincidence, at least, Aaron Burr wanted time to
complete his arrangements. Wilkinson arrived at Natchez Septem
ber 7, and next day wrote to Dearborn he Would "drain the cup
of conciliation to maintain the peace of our country;" promised
to discourage the warlike plans of Claiborne and Mead until he had
"penetrated the designs of the Spaniard ;" then, if forced to appeal
to arms, he would drive the Spaniards beyond the Rio Grande.
At this time, according to Monette's history, the general ordered
the commandant at Fort Stoddert to hold himself in readiness to
invest Mobile with his troops, supported by two hundred militia
of Tombigbee, under Col Caller, "who was then actively engaged in
preparations for the capture of Mobile." Wilkinson spent two
weeks traveling to Natchitoches, ordering up the militia from New
Orleans and Natchez. Writing to Senator Smith, of Ohio, Burr's

588 MISSISSIPPI
friend, he said that "with sufficient support" he counted on taking
possession of the viceroyalty of Mexico.
But the Spanish, perhaps, gained an understanding of what was
involved. Herrera suddenly retreated beyond the Sabine, Septem
ber 27, leaving no pretext for war. On the same day Burr was at
banquet at Nashville with Andrew Jackson, and their friends were
cheering the prospect of a war that was vanished, and Gov. Mead
was making ready an expedition that should find no foe.
To furnish his quota of militia, Gov. Mead, on September 25,
ordered to rendezvous in the Jefferson district, October 4, Capt.
Farrar's troop of dragoons, Capt. Newman's company of Natchez
infantry, Capt. Poindexter's company of Mississippi Blues, o£
Adams county, Capt. Davidson's dragoons of Jefferson county, and
a similar order for rendezvous at Fort Adams was sent to Col.
Ellis, of the Adams district. These orders were promptly obeyed.
The people were particularly anxious to put an end to Spanish gov
ernment on the coast by taking advantage of the encroachments
that had been made. Farrar's troop was the first to report ready for
duty; October 6 Gen. Wilkinson's requisition of militia was filled
and the men crossed the river and started forward. They took 80
of the rifles at Fort Dearborn, which left only about 150 with which
to make the conquest of the Floridas, which somewhat depressed
Gov. Mead's ardor. The field and staff officers of the battalion
were: Ferdinand L. Claiborne, major; Thomas H. Williams,
captain adjutant and quartermaster: Frederick Seip, surgeon; Her
itage Howerton, quartermaster sergeant; Joshua Knowlton, ser
geant major. The companies were commanded by Capts. Benjamin
Farrar, cavalry; George Poindexter, Alexander Bisland, Basil An
drews, William T. Voss and Ralph Regan, infantry. The Natchez
Herald of the 7th said that Capt. Thomas Hinds' dragoons from
Jefferson would follow to Natchitoches in a few days, also a com
pany of mounted infantry from Wilkinson county. In the organi
zation work Maj. William Scott, brigade inspector, and William B.
Shields, aide-de-camp of the governor, were active. Claiborne,
on reaching Rapides, was met by orders directing the infantry to
return to Natchez, and Farrar's troops to proceed to Natchitoches.
It is one theory regarding Wilkinson that when the hope of
war vanished, he decided to abandon Burr, whose operations would
now be embarrassing, and proceed with an eye solely to his own
profit. He wrote the government Oct. 4 he would march to the
Sabine, to wipe off the stigma of Spanish possession ; but he had not
moved Oct. 8, when Samuel Swartwout arrived with the famous
cipher message from Burr. Next morning Wilkinson confided to
Col. Cushing that he had discovered that Burr was engaged in a
plot of treason, the separation of the west from the United States.
A week later, September 14-15, when Swartwout left for New Or
leans, the Mississippi cavalry arrived at Natchitoches, and among
them was Walter Burling, a planter near Natchez, who was an
intimate friend of the general. Wilkinson confided to him also the
"discovery," and made Burling his aide-de-camp> It was now an-

MISSISSIPPI 589
nounced that the general, menaced by treason in the rear and a for
eign foe in front, had decided to advance and make terms with the
Spanish, so that he might be free to turn upon the domestic enemy.
Then 'began the tremendous distortion of the Burr expedition, and
the spreading of the alarm that made even Cowles Mead, the pro
fessed enemy of Wilkinson, become an auxiliary to the general
in proceedings that from the distant viewpoint of the present, have
a strong tinge of the ridiculous. The general prepared to ruin Burr
as he had -ruined Col Morgan and his New Madrid enterprise.
Whether he did this solely for personal profit or as a "good Span
iard," can be nothing more than a matter of conjecture.
The Mississippi infantry arrived at Natchez, October 15, pro
ceeded to Washington and were discharged. (Natchez Messenger,
Oct. 21.) The Jefferson troops, however, remained with the gen
eral, and when Wilkinson had reached the Sabine, Oct. 29, Mr.
Burling carried the letters between the general and the Spanish
officer. The result appeared Nov. 5 in the Neutral Ground treaty,
which was heralded as a great diplomatic victory, but the terms
6f which Wilkinson refused to disclose at the Burr trial. It was
in fact, says one student (W. F. McCaleb, "The Aaron Burr Con
spiracy"), a move that compromised the western pretensions of the
United States, made ridiculous the claim to the Rio Grande frontier,
and was "a phase in an unsurpassed scheme of imposture and
rascality." Wilkinson, accompanied by Burling, returned to
Natchez, Nov. 11, and hurried to Concord, the home of Capt. Ste
phen Minor, of the Spanish regular army, where the general's wife
lay, near to death. A few days later, Burling left for San Antonio
to buy mules. Mr. Burling was a wealthy planter who had never
dabbled in the business of such adventurers as Philip Nolan, and
people wondered. He traveled overland, under a Spanish military
escort, to the city of Mexico, had an interview with the viceroy,
and thence proceeded to Vera Cruz and by boat to New Orleans,
where he arrived before Wilkinson's departure for Richmond.
This was subsequently explained by the general. He sent his "dear
and honored friend" to "penetrate the veil which concealed the
route to the city of Mexico," and as a cover gave him a passport
declaring that he traveled to Mexico to inform the viceroy of the
plot of Aaron Burr to invade that country. Burling also carried
a passport from Captain Minor, dated Natchez, Nov. 17. Burling
reached Mexico in January, and laid before the viceroy, Iturrigaray,
a letter from Wilkinson, in which, the viceroy wrote to Cevallos,
Spanish minister of state, "you will see he lays great stress on the
measures he has taken at the risk of his life, fame and fortune in
order to save, or at least to protect this kingdom from the attacks
of the insurgents. . . . He finally comes to what I had antici
pated, the question of payment for his services. He asks for $85,-
000 in one sum and $26,000 in another." The general also desired
compensation for expenses. The viceroy answered that the gen
eral gave him no information that was not old ; that he could not
pay such sums of money without orders from the king, and wished

590 MISSISSIPPI
him "happiness in the pursuit of his righteous intentions." When
Burling returned, Wilkinson sent President Jefferson a bill for
$1,500 as the expenses of the trip, and to this extent one govern
ment was found open to conquest by Messrs. Burr and Wilkinson.
Mr. Burling's report of his journey, and description of the country,
is printed in the memoirs of Gen. Wilkinson. Authorities : Missis
sippi Territorial Journals, American State Papers, McCaleb's
"Aaron Burr Conspiracy," (quoting Spanish archives), Claiborne's
Mississippi. Sabino, a postoffice in the western part of Quitman county, about
7 miles southwest of Belen, the county seat.
Sable, a postoffice of Clarke county, 14 miles north of Quitman.
Sabougla, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Calhoun
county, a short distance south of the Yalobusha river, and about 15
miles from Pittsboro, the county seat. Grenada, 18 miles west, is
the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 150.
Safety, a hamlet of Kemper county, situated on Sucarnoochee
creek, about 9 miles north of Dekalb, the county seat. Population
in 1900, 65. The postoffice was discontinued in 1906 and mail is
addressed to Minnieola.
Sage, a hamlet in the southern part of Union county. It has rural
free delivery from Pontotoc.
Sageville, an old village of Lauderdale county, now extinct. It
was located near the present station of Okatibbe. (See Lauder
dale county.)
Saint Anns, a post-hamlet in the west-central part of Leake
county, on Yokahockany creek, 10 miles west of Carthage, the
county seat. Kosciusko is the nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 59.
Saint Elmo, a postrhamlet of Claiborne county, on the Natchez-
Jackson division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 12 miles
east of Port Gibson, the county seat. Hermanville is the nearest
banking town: It has a church and a store. Population in 1900, 62.
Saints Rest, a post-hamlet of Sunflower county, 6 miles west of
Indianola, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 42.
Sale, John Burress, was born in Amherst county, Va, June 7,
1818, son of an eminent preacher, Alexander Sale, who moved with
his family to Lawrence county, Ala, where John B. was educated
at the LaGrange college. At 19 years of age he was admitted to the
bar, and two years later was made judge of probate. In 1845 he
made his home at Aberdeen, Miss, forming a law partnership with
John Goodwin, to which James Phelan was admitted in 1854. In
1861 he raised a. company of volunteers, which became a part of
the 27th regiment, of which he was elected major, and later lieuten
ant-colonel He was judge-advocate of the Army of Tennessee
six months and was then promoted to colonel and ordered to re
port to Gen. Bragg as chief of staff. Bragg was at that time,
February, 1864, and later, charged with the conduct of military
operations of the armies of the Confederate States, under the direc-

MISSISSIPPI 591
tion of President Davis. After his return home in 1865 he resumed
the practice of law, associated with Senator Phelan and later with
Col W. F. Dowd. He died January 24, 1876.
Colonel Sale was genial with his friends, but in general he was
reserved almost to haughtiness. "His mind, like his tall person,
was of a massive, ponderous order, and moved slowly but effec
tively. A man of more immense application and labor never exis
ted." (R. Davis' Recollections.) He was generally regarded as
one of the ablest lawyers in the history of the State.
Salem, an old town in Tippah (now Benton) county, which was a
place of some importance during the 30's and 40's. It was incor
porated in 1837, had a population of about 200, and supported about
a dozen business houses, two hotels and a prosperous female school.
It was -finally absorbed by Ashland, the county seat of Benton, a
few miles to the east. (See Tippah county.)
Salem, a post-hamlet of Benton county, 6 miles west of Ashland,
the county seat and about 14 miles northeast of Holly Springs, the
nearest banking town. It has two churches. Population in 1900, 32.
#Sallis, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of
Attala county, on Long creek, an affluent of the Big Black river, and
a station on the Kosciusko branch of the Illinois Central R. R.
The town was located in 1874, and was named for Dr. James D.
Sallis, the former owner of the town site. It is 11 miles by rail
west of Kosciusko, the county seat. Durant is the nearest banking
town. It is situated in a fine cotton growing region, and ships a
large amount of the staple annually. It has a money order post-
office, an academy, several churches, and a steam grist mill. Popu
lation in 1900, 195. The population in 1906 was estimated at 250.
Salona, a postoffice of Washington county.
Salt. One of the first inconveniences of the people during the
war -of 1861-65 was the shutting off of the supply of salt. State
Geologist Hilgard made a search for salt in the State, without
success. Governor Pettus in the summer of 1862 sent agents to
Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana, and there was no available sup
ply found except in Louisiana. The only way to obtain salt was by
mining at New Iberia, La, hauling by wagon to Atchafalaya, and
shipping thence by boat, exposed to capture by the Federal navy.
Several foreigners proposed to run salt in through the blockade,
and with one of these, Minett, the governor made a contract in
1862 to pay 500 bales of cotton for a cargo of salt, Minett depos
iting $10,000 in Confederate notes as security. But the contract was
never fulfilled. Then the governor sent D. S. Pattison, with $20,-
000 and a steamboat, to get salt at Iberia. A boat load was ob
tained, but on his return Pattison was delayed by the Confederate
authorities, on account of danger from Federal gunboats, until he
was actually blockaded. He managed, however, after much labor,
to bring 40,000 pounds to Vicksburg. An effort to manufacture
on State account failed, and contracts were made with Strong,
Cunningham & Co. to manufacture at. Saltville, on private account
for North and Northeast Mississippi. The legislature by act of

592 MISSISSIPPI
January 1, 1863, appropriated $500,000 for the purchase of salt,
and Capt. C. W. Turner was appointed salt agent. He contracted
for salt from the State salt works of Alabama, but the delivery by
the contractors was unsatisfactory. In April, 1863, Col. A. M.
West was appointed to distribute the salt, and in October he was
given entire charge of the salt affairs. Fifty bales of the cotton
bought to pay Minett was turned over to Dr. Luke Blackburn, one
of the medical commissioners of the State, to be exchanged at
Havana for medical supplies. Under the act of January 1, 1863,
there was expended in the following ten months, for salt, $120,000
in Treasury notes. The legislature of 1865 authorized the appoint
ment of a commissioner to sell all the property invested in the
State Distillery and Salt works. J. R. Robinson, commissioner,
closed out the Distillery, but found no property of the Salt works.
Saltillo, an incorporated post-town in the north-central part of
Lee county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 9 miles north of Tupelo.
Guntown, 5 miles north, is the nearest banking town. The five
commissioners appointed by the legislature in 1866 to organize the
new county of Lee, held their first meeting in Saltillo, November
12, 1866. The Lee County Citizen, a semi-monthly Republican
paper, was established here in 1898, and is edited and published by
R. D. Gladney. The town has a brick and tile factory, two cotton
gins, a saw mill, several stores, five churches, one of them the only
Catholic church -in the county, and a good school. The population
in 1906 was estimated at 300.
Sandersville, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part
of Jones county, on-the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 10
miles northeast of Laurel. The Bank of Sandersville was estab
lished in 1905. Lumbering and stock raising are the important in
dustries of the locality. It has a money order postoffice. Popula
tion in 1900, 357.
Sandhill, a postoffice of Rankin county, about 18 miles northeast
of Brandon, the county seat. Jackson is its nearest banking town.
Sandpoint, a post-hamlet of Smith county, 5 miles northeast of
Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Sandy, a postoffice of Panola county, 10 miles northeast of Bates
ville, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest railroad and
banking town.
Sanford, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Covington
county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, about 18 miles from Wil
liamsburg, the county seat. Seminary is the nearest banking town.
There is a good saw mill located here, a church and a good school.
The population in 1906 was estimated at 300.
Santee, a post-hamlet of Covington county, 10 miles southwest
of Williamsburg, the county seat, and 1 mile east of the Missis
sippi Central Railroad. Population in 1900, 25.
Sapa, a post-hamlet of Webster county, on the Southern Railway,
3 miles east of Eupora, the nearest banking town. It has a money
order postoffice. Population in 1900, 50.

MISSISSIPPI 593
Sarah, a postoffice in the extreme southwestern part of Tate
county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 15 miles
west of Senatobia, the county seat and the nearest banking town.
Saratoga, a station at the junction of the main line of the Gulf
& Ship Island R. R, with its Laurel branch, situated in the south
eastern part of Simpson county. Mount Olive is the nearest bank
ing town." It has a money order postoffice, two saw mills, a planing
mill, a good general store, and bottling works. There is a fine
spring near the town.
Sardinia. An extinct town of Yalobusha county which flourished
down to 1856. It "was located on the Craig plantation . . .
near the Yacona river, 1 mile north of the present church of
Sardinia." (See sketch of Yalobusha county.)
Sardis, the seat of justice for the first judicial district of Panola
county, is located in the north-central part of the county, on the
Illinois Central R. R, 50 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. The
following information concerning the origin of the town is supplied
by the article on "Extinct Towns and Villages of Mississippi," by
Dr. F. L. Riley, in the fifth volume of the publications of the Mis
sissippi Historical Society : "This town had its beginning in a small
log school house, known as Danville Academy, in which Daniel
B. Killebrew taught. The Baptists then built a church at this place
and called it the Sardis Baptist church. This church gave the name
to the town which was afterwards built at this place." It is
claimed that W. H. Alexander built the first house in Sardis in 1836
and was the first postmaster ; also that he named the town "Sardis,"
obtaining the word from the Bible. Mr. Alexander is still living
in Sardis at the age of 86 years. The old town of Belmont, now
extinct, was located in the 30's, 5 or 6 miles to the southeast, on the
Tallahatchie river and was absorbed by Sardis, after it had failed
in the contest for the county seat with Old Panola (see Belmont).
The two judicial districts of the county are a relic of this old contest.
The Sardis & Delta Railroad, a short spur line, extends southwest
from Sardis for about 22 miles to Carrier.
Sardis is the largest and the most important town in the county.
It has one of the most healthful locations in the State, and is sur
rounded by a fertile agricultural district. It has telegraph, tele
phone, express and banking facilities. The Southern Reporter, an
influential ,' Democratic weekly, established in 1885, is published
here by J. F. & P. N. Simmons. Large quantities of timber for
spokes, staves, and lumber are shipped from this point annually.
It has two banks, the Bank of Sardis and the Panola County Bank,
with an invested capital of $114,000 ; two hotels, a public high school
for both races, separately conducted; a system of water works; a
privately controlled electric lighting plant ; Methodist, Presbyterian,
Baptist, Catholic and Episcopalian churches ; also colored Methodist
and Baptist churches. Among the manufacturing enterprises now
in the town are a hardwood saw mill, bending works, a box factory,
a mill for the manufacture of hardwood flooring and inside furnish-
38-n

594 MISSISSIPPI
ing lumber, a veneering factory, two cotton gins, a cotton-seed oil
mill, brick and tile works, bottling works and a machine shop.
Sardis has a debt of $15,000 ; the assessed valuation of its prop
erty, real and personal, is $455,473 ; the tax rate is 10 mills ; the pop
ulation in 1900 was 1,002; the estimated population in 1906 was
2,000. Sarepta, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part of
Calhoun county, about 20 miles east of Water Valley, the nearest
railroad and banking town. It has three churches and a money
order postoffice. Population in 1900, 172.
Sargent, Winthrop, was born at Gloucester, a coast town of Mas
sachusetts, May 1, 1755. His first paternal ancestor who came to
America was William Sargent. He immigrated to the colony from
Gloucester, England, some time before 1668, since which time his-
descendants have been distinguished in law, literature, art and
politics. Winthrop Sargent was graduated from Harvard University, and
soon after went to sea as captain of a merchant vessel owned by
his father. On July 7, 1775, he enlisted in the Army of the Rev
olution, as a lieutenant in Gridley's regiment of Massachusetts
artillery; on December 10, 1775, was promoted to captain lieuten
ant of Knox's regiment, Continental artillery. He received the
following promotions before the close of the war: Captain 3d Con
tinental Artillery, January 1, 1777; brevet major, August 28, 1783;:
served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Howe from June, 1780, to 1783.
Major Sargent took an active part, with his artillery, at the
siege of Boston, the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Tren
ton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and other important
operations. A chronicler of 1801, in writing of Sargent at the close
of the war, says : "Six months' pay in Morris' notes and his sword
were all that were left him." In this condition of affairs Major
Sargent determined to apply for a commission in the army of Hol
land, and with that end in view, applied to General Washington
for a testimonial of his service in the Continental army, who gave
him a certificate in these words :
,_:),'• ; ;;. ;: -.¦¦>. : ' - - -¦'
"I'certify, that "Major Winthrop Sargent,,' lately, an officer in the
line }6i artillery; arid Aide-de-Camp to Major General Howe, has
setved with great reputation in the armies of the United States of
Afriefica : that he entered into the service of his country at an early
period of the war, and during the continuance of it, displayed a
zeal,' integrity and intelligence which did honor to him as an officer
and a gentleman.
"Given under my hand and seal, this 18th day of June, 1785.
"(Signed) George Washington,
late Commander in Chief, &c."
\
At this juncture a company was formed, made up largely of
revolutionary soldiers, for the settlement of the Ohio river coun
try, known as the Northwestern Territory, and Maj. Sargent ac-

MISSISSIPPI 595
cepted employment as a surveyor, charged with the duty of laying
out the country into townships. On the organization of a govern
ment for the Northwest Territory, in 1787, he was. elected its
secretary by the old congress.
In the war against the Miami Indians, Secretary Sargent served
as adjutant-general of the army in the field under Gen. Arthur St.
Clair, and was wounded in the disastrous defeat on the Maumee,
November 4, 1791. He continued to serve as secretary of the
Northwestern Territory, and much of the time as acting-governor.
until May 7, 1798, when President Adams appointed him governor
of Mississippi Territory. In a letter to Secretary Pickering, rela
tive to arrangements for going to his new post, he says, under date
of June 16, 1798 :
"General Wilkinson arrived here the evening before last and has
assured me of accommodation to descend the river in a very few
days, so that you will not probably hear again from me at this
place." Governor Sargent arrived at Natchez August 6, in very poor
health, and was taken to Concord, the old home of Governor Gay
oso, where he remained until convalescent. His first official act
was performed August 16, when he delivered an address at Nat
chez to the people of the Territory.
The territorial officers, as appointed by President Adams, were :
William McGuire, chief justice ; and Peter Bryan Bruin and Dan
iel Tilton members of the Court. John Steele was appointed sec
retary. Legislative authority was vested in the governor and territorial
judges. Judge Bruin was the only resident member of the Court,
and the absence of the other members greatly embarrassed the
governor in the organization of his administration. Judge Tilton
did not arrive until January 10, 1799, and Judge McGuire not until
the following summer.
On the arrival of Gov. Sargent in the Territory, the United
States and France were on the eve of hostilities, which prompted
him to temporarily organize the militia, which was done by an
official order, dated September 8, 1798.
Political discontent, under the leadership of Anthony Hutchins
and Cato West, soon began to manifest itself. Sargent was a Fed
eralist; the majority of the people were Jeffersonian Republicans,
and party feeling prevented them from cooperating with him in
his, really, earnest and sincere efforts to give them good govern
ment. On the arrival of Judge Tilton, the legislative branch of the gov
ernment was organized, and the first law of Mississippi Territory
beafs'date of February 28, 1799.
Soon after this time Gov. Sargent was married to Maria Mcin
tosh Williams, a young widow of considerable fortune in lands,
which gave him a permanent interest in the Territory. One son
was born of this marriage, William Fitz Winthrop.
The leaders of the opposition violently attacked the laws that

596 MISSISSIPPI
were enacted by the governor and judges. These dissensions re
sulted in a public meeting of the opponents of the administration,
at which a committee was appointed to present grievances to the
governor and judges.- The committee also appointed Narsworthy
Hunter as its agent, and instructed him to proceed to Philadelphia
and lay their complaints before congress. The petition to con
gress was prepared by Cato West ; it bears date of October 2, 1799,
and was signed by fifteen citizens of the Territory.
The agitation by the West Committee, as represented by
Hunter, before congress, resulted in the supplemental act of June
34, 1800, which authorized a legislative body for the Territory, to
consist of a house of representatives elected by the people, and a
legislative council nominated by the house and appointed by the
president. The house had a membership of nine; the council was
composed of five members.
On June 24, 1800, the governor ordered an election for members
of the house of representatives, to be held at the county seats on
the fourth Monday of July. The election resulted in a victory for
the opponents of Gov. Sargent. The representatives-elect met Sep
tember 22, 1800, at the government house in Natchez.
In his address to the representatives of the people, the governor
adopted a conciliatory attitude, but the presence of Hutchins and
West as members, probably, prevented agreeable relations.
The Territory had been divided into three counties, Adams,
Pickering and Washington, which were named in honor of John
Adams, Timothy Pickering and George Washington. Adams
County was represented by Henry Hunter, James Hoggett, An
thony Hutchins and Sutton Banks ; Pickering County by Cato
West, Thomas M. Green, John Burnet and Thomas Calvit. Wash
ington county's election was held irregularly, in that it was not
held on the day fixed by law, and the House refused to seat John
.Flood McGrew, the representative from that county.
The change to the second grade of government, as provided for
by the act of June 24, 1800, soon became unpopular, and a petition
for its repeal, dated December 6, 1800, signed by four hundred citi
zens of the Territory, was presented to congress.
When President Adams was defeated by Thomas Jefferson for
the Presidency, Gov. Sargent, early in April, 1801, took a leave of
absence, which had been granted some time before, to visit Wash
ington, in order to defend his administration against the attacks
of his political enemies, and seek vindication by reappointment.
He left the Territory soon after, and proceeded to the national cap
ital for that purpose, but his mission was not accomplished, as
William Charles Cole Claiborne was commissioned governor of
the Mississippi Territory May 25, 1801.
The popular opinion of the Sargent administration has been de
rived from Claiborne's Mississippi ; and it is somewhat natural that
his criticism should have been adopted without investigation by
other historical writers. Claiborne pictures Sargent as a cold,
austere, unsympathetic, arbitrary, grasping man, who was never

MISSISSIPPI 597;
in touch with the true interests of the people. Such an estimate
seems to be partisan on its face, and is not borne out by a careful
perusal of the record. His journal impresses one that he had a
deep love for his country and its interests, that he was sincerely
ambitious to serve, faithfully, the people to whom he had been
sent, and that he surmounted unusual difficulties in the establish
ment of law and order in a frontier settlement. In his adminis
tration of the affairs of government he was industrious, capable
and just. He was, possibly, wanting in political tact, and perhaps
his military training caused him to expect too much obedience and
reverence for law in a frontier people.
During his trip to the Atlantic States, Governor Sargent visited
his old home in Massachusetts, after which he returned to Mis-
• sissippi Territory, and quietly took up the life of a planter. He
called his home Gloucester, evidently in honor of his birthplace.
He was a successful planter, and was one of the committee ap
pointed by the legislature in 1809 to receive subscriptions to stock
of the Bank of Mississippi, the first banking house establishment
in* the Mississippi Territory. Governor Sargent died in New Or
leans June 3, 1820, and is buried at Gloucester, his home, near
Natchez. For authorities on the life of Governor Sargent consult Missis
sippi Archives, Heitman's Register Continental Army, Annals of
Congress 1799-1801, Papers in relation to the official conduct of
Governor Sargent, Claiborne's Mississippi, Wilkinson's Memoirs.
. Sargent's Administration, 1798-1801. On May 7, 1798, the senate
confirmed the appointment by President Adams, of officers of the
Mississippi territory, south of the Yazoo line, as follows : Win
throp Sargent, of the Northwest territory, governor and Indian
agent; John Steele, of Virginia, secretary; Peter Bryan Bruin, of
Mississippi, and Daniel Tilton, of New Hampshire, judges, the third
judge, William McGuire, of Virginia, being appointed June 28.
When notified that he would be appointed, Col. Sargent had lately
returned to Cincinnati from ardous duty in quieting an uprising
in the Illinois country under the French flag, and was suffering
from a dangerous malady almost as fatal as the yellow fever then
raging at Philadelphia. He began a correspondence with the sec
retary of state regarding his duties. He asked that the judges ap
pointed be instructed to accompany him. "First impressions are
strong," he wrote, "it will therefore, I apprehend, be unfortunate
for our government should the Executive be constrained to visit
the Mississippi territory without the Judges — the people have been
anticipating that which it is not in the government's power to
bestow." He asked that statutes of the various States be furnished
him so that he could select laws, as required by the Ordinance ;
which request was not complied with. He asked that the powers
of the governor and Mr. Hawkins, the United States Indian agent,
be defined. He received information that his confirmation had been
opposed in the senate, but felt less mortified through the assurance
that opposition was because he had been an "Eastern man." He

598 MISSISSIPPI
accepted advice of the secretary in good part, and answered : "The
footing upon which Governor Gayoso lived with the inhabitants of
the Natchez, it may not be exactly in my power to observe, from
the difference between American and Spanish appointments, and
which must be as well, or better known to you than myself; I will
however cheerfully make such pecuniary sacrifices, as my circum
stances may admit, for the interests of government, and it shall
be my study to conciliate and attach all parties to the United
States." June 16 he wrote : "From the best intelligence I have
been able to procure, there prevails in the country of our destina
tion, a refractory and turbulent spirit, with parties headed by men
of perverseness and cunning. They have run wild in the recess of
government and every moment's delay in adoption of rules and
regulations after the ordinance, etc, shall be promulgated amongst
them, must be productive of growing evils and discontent."
Capt. Guion, at Natchez, worried by the appeals of the two
factions to him for recognition, had written May 9, in a private
letter :
"This is a hot country and people in a very chequered manner —
a great number of the most turbulent characters — who have fled
from the different states, for fear of having justice done on them.
They are the most clamorous for government (having nothing to
protect) and afraid of it." Writing a month later to the secretary
of war, he reduced his indictment to "a few turbulent and busy
spirits," and declared that the majority of the people, "when left
to the unbiased exercise of their own judgment" were "above the
ordinary capacity of like numbers in most of the states," which is
also the impression received from Ellicott's observations. As
Wailes has commented, the rivalries for "power and influence were
but the common instincts of ambitious men wherever they may _
be placed." The district had for many years been subject to the
intrigues of Spanish, French, and English, not to mention the dis
cordant policies of the United States and Georgia — an intricate
maze difficult to thread intelligently now with many secrets dis
closed. The people had had little opportunity for the unbiased
exercise of their own judgment. The recent rivalry between Col.
Hutchins and Commissioner Ellicott had tended to bias the judg
ment of the inhabitants regarding the Ordinance of 1787, particu
larly the mode of territorial government it prescribed. It was not1
difficult to see why Hutchins should have asked that the people
should have the right to select their own governor, when it is re
membered that the report came down that Ellicott was to be chosen,
but his assertions that life under that ordinance would be no bet
ter than slavery undoubtedly had much effect. In fact, a consider
able party in Ohio said the same thing, protesting against a govern
ment in which the people had no voice. The lawmaking power,
until there should be a white population of something like 25,000,
was to be exercised by three men, the governor and two of three
judges, appointed by the president of the United States, and
answerable only to him and the senate. When the territory should

MISSISSIPPI 599
have 5,000 free males of lawful age, a house of representatives
would be permitted, but yet the' president would have the ap
pointment of the upper house or council, and the governor would
have an absolute veto. Such, however, was the form of govern
ment devised for western territory eleven years before his time,
and applied to all the country from Lake Superior to the Gulf.
(See Ordinance of 1787.)
The party headed by Anthony Hutchins and the Committee of
Safety had represented to congress in 1797 that the Natchez, a
region of five thousand white inhabitants and half as many negroes,
might admit of different regulations from a wilderness to be set
tled, and that some acquaintance with the country was necessary
to adjust its laws ; the people should have the right to recommend
the governor to be appointed, and the people by a majority of votes
should take the lead under congress. (M. H. S. Ill, 294.) He
might have added that twenty years before, the British government
of West Florida had given Natchez district elective representation.
The other party, headed by the Permanent committee under the
a8vice of Commissioner Ellicott, expressed themselves satisfied
that the provisions of the ordinance of 1787 would effect as great
a change from despotism toward representative government as
could be wisely made, at once.
Another very important change in conditions was the prohibi
tion of the importation of slaves from any port outside the limits
of the United States. For many years negroes had been bought in
Jamaica of the English slave-traders, or at New Orleans. The
prohibition may be viewed as putting under the ban of the law a
commerce previously considered legitimate, or it may be looked
at in the same light as previous edicts of Spain, control of the
traffic for the benefit of the nation asserting domain. Thereafter,
the foreign slave trade in this region was done by smugglers, and
this trade was quite important as long as Florida remained in the
hands of the Spanish. Many urged that the prohibition was un
constitutional. It is also to be remembered that during the con
sideration of the territorial act of 1798 there had been a proposition
in congress to prohibit slavery entirely, as was first proposed by
Thomas Jefferson. This precipitated a heated debate and revealed
a settled determination on the part of the political leaders in Geor
gia and the Carolinas to maintain the slave-labor system at any
cost. Gov. Sargent must necessarily, coming from a territory where
slavery was prohibited, have been under suspicion by those inter
ested in the protection of slavery.
Whatever prejudice had been excited against the government
tinder the ordinance of 1787, by Hutchins' campaign to prevent the
appointment of Ellicott as governor, was bound to operate against
Winthrop Sargent. As secretary of the Northwest territory, and
acting governor, as early as 1790, at Vincennes, he had taken part
in some law making acts that were, technically, beyond the pro
visions of the ordinance. They may have been better adapted to
the needs of the people, but they were not copied from the laws of

600 MISSISSIPPI
the old States, and consequently Sargent was accused of usurpation.
Such rumors of this as might have come down the river would
not recommend him to the Natchez people, in the peculiar state
of mind that prevailed. These difficulties were not all. War with
France seemed inevitable, and that, according to the alliances then
existing, probably meant war with Spain also. In any case, Mis
sissippi territory would be the theatre of military operations, if war
should be declared, as almost came about in the following year.
It is a reasonable inference that Sargent, an old and gallant soldier
of the Continental army, was impelled to accept the call to Natchez,
though he had been desperately ill arid was yearning for the sea
shore, by a sense of duty to his country in time of danger.
Sargent started out from Cincinnati in boats furnished by Gen.
Wilkinson, who was preparing to follow. He wrote from the foot
of the rapids, July 2d, to John Steele, engaged on an Indian treaty
at Knoxville, urging him that it was "specially important at this
crisis, that every officer of the government should be at his post."
During the voyage he was very sick, and for a considerable time
after his arrival at Natchez his life was despaired of. He was
cared for at Concord, the old home of Gayoso, then in charge of
Peter Walker. As soon as the governor was able to ride out he
caused the acts for the government of the territory to be formally
published, probably by reading and posting written copies, as there
was no printing press in the district. Immediately afterward, on
August 10, he addressed a meeting of the inhabitants at Natchez.
In this address he called attention to the blessings of civil govern
ment assured, and the promise of admission to the Union as a
sovereign and independent State as soon as population warranted;
that congress had in special indulgence to the people of this ter
ritory so accommodated the ordinance "that property in slaves
shall be continued to the present owners, with permission of im
portation from any country not out of the dominions of the United
States; that a concise and clear code of laws, void of partiality to
sect or class and breathing the genuine spirit of divine clemency,
which is so honorable in legislation," would be no longer delayed
than the arrival of one of the non-resident judges; that he hoped
if mistakes were made in the laws they could be remedied within
the territory, but in any event they had recourse to the national law
making body; that in the execution of -the laws clemency could not
be admitted without extreme hazard to the territory, firmness must
be exercised, and faithful performance of duty would be expected
from all appointees to office. On the exciting topic of appointment
to office he said : "All appointments within the territory, not
specially provided for by the ordinance of the honorable congress,
rest with the governor, and merit only can entitle a man to office.
Strong and evident marks of attachment to the United States and
good government, a disposition to preserve the peace and order
of society and harmonize contending sentiments (if such have un
fortunately existed) will be held by government in any honorable
estimation and duly noticed by the executive — for this, and the

MISSISSIPPI 601
unremitted endeavors of the governor to promote your and the
national interests and dignity, I am most fully authorized to pledge
myself." He asked the cooperation of a community which enjoyed
an established reputation for good sense and cultivated minds capa
ble of appreciating that the elegancies and refined pleasures of
social life could be continued only under a government that respec
ted individual as well as national rights. "Imperious circumstan
ces" demanded that he should "lose no time to array the militia
power of the State," and he would "postpone the same only for due
information of characters suitable to commission, and your prob
able strength ;" for the first he would trust to further acquaintance,
and he asked information as to the probable enrollment and the
former militia regulations, and the condition of arms and accoutre
ments. "I shall as soon as possible divide the territory into dis
tricts and make the appointments of magistrates and other officers
necessary to the execution of process civil and criminal. . . .
I am aware, however, that in the meantime insidious attempts of
nefarious men might for a moment disturb your repose. Indeed the
anxieties of some amongst you, thereupon, have been suggested to
me; but fear not, our stability is proportioned to the occasion, and
the arm of the United States is mighty. As good citizens void of
jealousy of each other and emulous of public good, you will keep
your eye on the men of no country whose pursuits here (under the
most favorable construction thereof) are quite problematical, and
whose smallest interference with your police must be considered as
vile usurpation. Any kind of disrespect upon their part to the
general or territorial government will naturally lead you to sus
pect them as foes to our peace and quiet, and the most prompt and
energetic measures should follow the first notice of their char
acter." The governor's address was received in good spirit, and he wrote
on the 20th that he hoped for a formal response, which would be
transmitted to government. His reference to dangers within the
community had reference to French and Spanish agents and some
of the characters whom he had occasion to antagonize in the Illi
nois country, perhaps, also, to Zachariah Coxe and other represen
tatives of the Georgia land companies. "Mr. Coxe was at large
within the territory," he wrote the secretary of state, "and an armed
party at his command, before my arrival. His coming was talked
of amongst some few disaffected persons here and that he was to
assume the government for the State of Georgia. He is now in
close confinement, but with every indulgence that a state prisoner
should expect, for I am not disposed to torture even a criminal.
I wish ardently for the president's instructions in this business,
as early as possible, for until I may receive it, Mr. Cox will be con
tinued a prisoner." He had ordered the arrest of Coxe by the mil
itary, on the 18th, and September 5 advised Judge Bruin that
Coxe's confinement was for such misdemeanors as have indicated
the most treasonable intentions toward the United States. Bruin

602 MISSISSIPPI
was instructed to investigate the case of a supposed captain of
Coxe's who had addressed a protest to the governor.
In the same communication the governor lamented the absence of
the judges, and begged that some man learned in the law be sent
to act as attorney for the government. The secretary also was ab
sent, but he was used in Ohio to acting as governor and secretary
both. He had already decided on two counties, and their names,
Adams and Pickering, and asked for appropriate seals, also for a
small printing press. At the same time he asked permission to visit
the Atlantic States in the next summer, by way of New Orleans,
for his health and family concerns. September 8 he issued an order
organizing the militia of the territory (q. v.). This subject was of
great interest on account of the impending war with France, and
rumors of a French fleet off the Balize.
There was also then much anxiety about the Choctaw Indians.
Vidal, announcing himself as Spanish consul, told the governor that
Spain was informed that the Choctaws would not permit the sur
vey of the boundary, and professed that Spain would aid in sub
duing the Indians. Ellicott made the same report, and was ad
vised to quit if he met with any serious resistance. The Indians
were not openly hostile, but they were now, more than ever, fre
quenting the settlements, and the inhabitants were bound to feed
them and give them what they liked, for fear of hostility, which
enforced hospitality was threatening many of the planters with
utter ruin.
"The sufferings of the inhabitants from the Indians, under Span
ish and American government," Sargent wrote afterward, was
"then complained of by almost every man of my knowledge, and
was late presented as a grievance by the grand inquest." At this
time he wrote the government: "We live here only upon suffer
ance and their good will ; our settlements are scattered over a great
extent of country, and not to be defended. Our whole militia, free
male inhabitants from sixteen to fifty years of age, may amount to
eight hundred men ; and I have taken measures to organize them
without delay — nearly half the number will probably be mounted."
Also, finding the government thrown upon him alone, so that he
was "the veriest slave in the world," every day and hour multi
plying complaints, "some of them amounting to felonies and very
high misdemeanors," he was compelled to make several civil ap
pointments, in the absence of a quorum of the legislating body.
September 9, 1798, he announced the temporary appointment of
Daniel Clark, William Dunbar, Isaac Gaillard, John Ellis, James
Mcintosh, Philander Smith, Thomas Wilkins, Joshua Howard and
Joseph Calvit, as conservators of the peace, and Lewis Evans, sher
iff, for a district of the Mississippi territory from the southern or
lower boundary thereof, to and including all the country between
the same and a due east line from the mouth of Fairchild's creek
to the river Chattahoochee.
For the district north of that, and much less in population, the
appointments were Cato West, Samuel Gibson and' Tobias Bra-

MISSISSIPPI , 603
shears, conservators, and William Ferguson, sheriff. The duties of
these officers were to "keep and preserve the peace; to suppress
all riots and affrays, and to take notice of all treasonable and sedi
tious language, and commit the authors unless they shall give se
curity for future good conduct and to answer for their crimes," at
the first session of the court to be established. The new officers
were also authorized up to October 30 next, to administer to all
male inhabitants considered as permanent residents an oath of al
legiance to the United States. Citizens were advised to keep their
certificates of naturalization, as Congress had provided that aliens
may be banished the country. Two months later, to make some
provision for the care of the estates of decedents, as a matter of
exigency, William Dunbar was instructed to grant letters of ad
ministration, when they should be required, according to his best
judgment and the laws of the Northwest territory, the governor
announcing his intention to appoint him probate judge as soon as
his powers and duties could be defined by law. (See Claiborne's
Miss, p. 208.)
* As soon as the nonresident judges (McGuire and Tilton) should
arrive, the governor proposed to establish two counties, the Villa
Gayoso, twenty miles above Natchez, with buildings and 200 acres
of land, supposed to have been Spanish property, but claimed by
Thomas Green, to be used as the county seat. For the seat of the
lower county he proposed to use a building erected by the Spanish
government as auxiliary to the church, and used by Capt. Guion
as his quarters. But Gen. Wilkinson refused to permit this, say
ing the property surrendered by the Spanish was "national prop
erty." Some months later the general permitted the use of Villa
Gayoso, but the Natchez buildings were not given up until after
longer delay.
Coxe escaped on the night of September 26, "under circum
stances so base as extremely to aggravate his guilt to men of
honor." The governor demanded extradition of Gayoso at New
Orleans, but Coxe was arrested in Tennessee early in the next year.
Several of Coxe's adherents were taken and imprisoned immedi
ately after his departure on a warrant from Judge Bruin. George
Matthews, ex-governor of Georgia, who was there in the inter
ests of one of the land companies, was informed that the governor
was ignorant of any company rights in the territory, and a proc
lamation was issued warning people who were making surveys and
establishing themselves on land that they were doing so without
authority and contrary to law. Thus vigorously the governor was
compelled to act, soon after his arrival, in the midst of intricate
complications, on the frontier of a country expected soon to be hos
tile, far from his government, with no post road but a trail in
fested by robbers.
Judge Bruin was "indefatigable and meritorious, but for the
want of another judge we are wretched. The people, smarting
from our delinquency, will become restless, and I tremble for the
consequences," the governor wrote September 29. "Hutchins and

604 * MISSISSIPPI
some others, it is hinted to me, are again busy. Some memorial
to congress is possible. My own reputation is already at stake,
and every moment increases my hazard. I have been constrained
by imperious necessity to attempt something like regulation," in
the militia and conservator orders. The discontented, he wrote a
little later, were more than a few. "The worst construction is in-
siduously given by them to every act of the general government,
and my character and conduct not infrequently most grossly mis
represented. Prompt and energetic measures will be taken as soon
as they are fully known. But they manage with great art and
address." He suspected Dr. White to be of this number, though
he had hoped the best from him, because of his standing in life.
"He is, however, it is said, establishing himself below," i. e, in
the Spanish territory.
October 10 the governor ordered that persons not citizens of
the United States must report themselves to the conservators of
the peace within two hours after their arrival at any settlement.
Sheriff Evans was ordered November 7 to arrest James White,
John Callahan and William West, for "high crimes and misde
meanors against the United States." White, and presumably the
others, were arrested for examination on suspicion of circulating
a manuscript at Natchez, "for very wicked purposes." At the
same time $300 reward was offered for the recapture of Coxe, sup
posed to be in the Indian country.
Early in November the governor had an interview with Col.
Hutchins. Soon after his arrival Sargent visited Ellicott on the
line, a circumstance which, it appears, was very offensive to
Hutchins, by whom, and his friends, it was charged that the gov
ernor was influenced by Ellicott in his appointments. Indeed, the
governor afterward admitted that he was influenced against
Hutchins, by the representation that he was then on half-pay as
a British officer, and for that reason refused fo honor him with
appointment. At this interview (Sargent wrote to Wilkinson)
Col. Hutchins solemnly protested that all he had' said about the
general was "on authority of  ."
On various assigned reasons, Doctor White refused a commis
sion as lieutenant-colonel commanding for the south district, with
Sutton Bankes as major and Adam Bingaman as captain, and
Narsworthy Hunter and Thomas Green, as major and captain in
the upper district, where Cato West was appointed lieutenant-col
onel, and served for sometime in the work of organizing. In Jan
uary, 1799, the governor wrote, "Considerable opposition has been
made to my endeavors at military arrangements, and the militia
are not yet completely enrolled. Though but only released from
Spanish servile bondage they would immediately assume all gov
ernment, and the appointment of their officers, civil and military,
is a measure advocated by some wicked and designing men among
them." It was believed that Ellicott had made out the list of com
missions, which Daniel Clark himself was disposed to credit. The
plea that companies should have the right to elect their own offi-

MISSISSIPPI 605
cers was the ostensible cause of remonstrance. Judging from the
words used by Sargent, he gave little opportunity for mutual ex
planation and conciliation.
The timber for a jail at Natchez arrived by the river, in Novem
ber, 1798, and on the 24th Sargent directed Peter Walker and
Lewis Evans to select a site for the building, advising them to take
counsel with Judge Bruin. This was the first public building of
the territory, except as the government put in use the buildings
left by the Spaniards.
At the same time, Col. West having remonstrated against the
location of the prison for the upper district at Uniontown, where
the inhabitants had offered to donate the land and build the jail,
West was requested to give information of some other suitable
place. Upon Wilkinson's departure, in the spring of 1799, Sargent took
possession of the Spanish building he had desired, establishing the
secretary there, and using a small residence attached as an office
and legislative hall. He afterward sought to obtain the building
used as a hospital for the Adams county courthouse, but Sheriff
Lewis was rudely repulsed by Maj. Cushing, then in command,
though its use was loaned for a sitting of the supreme court pre
vious to October, 1799. Cushing professed to care nothing for the
opinions of the secretary of state ; he took orders from the secre
tary of war.
As the year 1798 drew to a close Sargent entreated the govern
ment to hasten to make some provision for settling the land dis
putes and uncertainties. He was yet without judges, except Bruin.
Every delay made the work of making laws more arduous. At first
the people would have welcomed almost any laws under the United
States, "but being almost in a state of nature since their emanci
pation, the very mildest statutes, I am apprehensive, may be con
sidered as oppressive." He begged for legislation for their relief.
"I pray it for the sake of the people, for the fair reputation and
dignity of the United States, and for my own honour, peace and
quiet. I am here, sir, a mere cipher, and tortured by ten thousand
evils, which I cannot remedy or redress. My situation is dis
tressing, and but for the continuance of hope would be truly
wretched." In January, 1799, he issued a proclamation forbidding foreigners
to enter the territory without a passport, hoping to keep out the
Louisiana fugitives from justice, and as Wilkinson was complain
ing of losing men by desertion there was some negotiation author
ized between that officer and Gayoso, which resulted in a conven
tion the terms of which Sargent disapproved, denying the military
power of arrest. Out of this and other conflicts grew a relation
between governor and general that was dangerous to the former,
for the facile Wilkinson was to be a greater figure than ever under
the next administration, and Sargent was quite unadaptable to
change. Judge Tiltori arrived January 10, 1799, bringing the seal and

606 MISSISSIPPI
commissions, but nothing else that Sargent had asked for. Sar
gent, Bruin and Tilton then set about the necessary legislation,
"though with much regret on my part," he wrote the secretary of
State, "at the want of the laws of the several States, as we must
be compelled to form our code from the volumes of the Northwest
ern territory, which I by no means can be induced to believe a
very good basis." He was diffident of his own law knowledge, and
anxious for the aid of Judge McGuire. A printing press was then
in operation, and the laws were printed by Lieut. Andrew Mar
schalk, of Fort Sargent, as fast as compiled. These laws provided
for a system of courts (see Judiciary) and by proclamation, April
2, 1799, the counties of Pickering and Adams were established,
with the county seats at Villa Gayoso and Natchez. The judicial
system and county organization provided for a large number of
appointments, in Adams county over thirty, in addition to the mili
tia appointments, and in Pickering a smaller number. There was
not much opportunity for appointments in the general government.
Bernard Lintot was made treasurer-general and William Williams
keeper of the seal for the Territory.
Dissensions soon arose, which resulted in the appointment of a
committee, which sent addresses to the governor and judges, and
appointed Narsworthy Hunter as its agent to congress (see Com
mittee of 1799). In November the governor was agitated by ad
vices that the Marquis de Casa Calvo, at New Orleans, was making
negotiations with the Choctaw Indians, and he and Agent John
McKee busied themselves to meet whatever foreign complication
might be at hand. The proceedings of the Committee regarding
the government inspired unauthorized meetings for the election of
militia officers, which the governor forbade in a solemn proclama
tion to the commanders, January 1, 1800. He declared that "de
termined systematic opposition to sovereign will, as expressed in
the ordinance for the government of the Mississippi territory and
the laws which have been adopted by the constituted authorities,
is a crime of so very alarming a tendency that I pray God this
people may never commit it. . . . The constitution requiring
I should appoint all officers, I shall not directly or indirectly vio
late the trust."
Early in 1800 the Territory had a newspaper, the Mississippi
Gazette, and a post route was established from Natchez to Knox
ville. The territorial judges and governor convened again in a legis
lative capacity in May, 1800, when the governor advised that the
inadvertent provisions of forfeiture of property as a punishment
for treason and arson should be repealed. He had received the
laws of New Hampshire, North Carolina and Kentucky, which it
was hoped would be found useful.
It seems to be admitted on both sides, on occasion, that there
was much lawlessness among the floating element during this
period, though Messrs. West and Hunter contended it was not so
before. Gov. Sargent frequently made caustic references to the

MISSISSIPPI 607
subject. In a letter to Justice Daniel Clark, in June, 1800, he al
ludes to a case in which a Mr. Fero seems to have suffered. Gen.
Wilkinson was interested in securing justice, and Sargent con
fessed horror at the atrociousness of the offense. "I would to God
for the honor of our government there remained equal hope of
the due investigation for the manifold outrages upon decorum and
the municipal laws. ... I believe in your sympathy and ex
treme mortification at that apathy which has so strangely marked
our character during the administration of the government of the
United States — repeated murders (or I am misinformed) have
passed unnoticed, though attended by circumstances of high ag-
i gravation." He also called attention to the "abominable" custom
of duelling. One may infer from the laws, that the frontier cus
toms of "gouging" and other forms of mutilation were not un
known. The negroes had a good deal of freedom to make
Saturday nights and Sundays hideous at Natchez, and the Indians,
presuming upon the tardiness of the government in making
treaties with them, imposed seriously upon the good nature of the
settlements. Writing to William Dunbar, upon his resignation
after the election in 1800, the governor said : "The murders,
robberies and other enormous crimes committed within this terri
tory, and which have far exceeded any thing within my observa
tion in much more populous countries, imperiously command the
collected wisdom, and energy of the government to 'suppress.' "
The agitation before Congress by Hunter as the representative
of the Committee resulted in a supplementary act establishing a
general assembly in the Territory, and providing for an amicable1
satisfaction and extinction of the Georgia claims of domain. The
settlers on the Tensas and Tombigbee rivers, in the ancient district
of Mobile, formed the only settlement in the vast territory, outside
of the Natchez district, and they were to be given one representa
tive among the nine in the house of representatives, and the two
counties having four apiece. The governor hastened therefore to-
establish the county of Washington June 4, embracing all the terri
tory east of Pearl river, with the county seat at Mcintosh's bluff.
June 24 he called an election of representatives in the three coun
ties, to be held at the county seats on the fourth Monday of July,
under the supervision of the sheriffs. Notice was also given that
under the ordinance of 1787 a candidate for representative must
have been a citizen of the United States for three years and be
the owner of 200 acres of land, while a voter must have been a
resident for two years and owner of fifty acres. These restrictions
disqualified many from voting and more from election, as the oath of
allegiance was generally administered in 1798. The representa
tives met September 22, at the government house in Natchez, and
the session was stormy, as the opponents of the governor had
carried the elections. (See General Assembly.)
Cato West, Thomas M. Green, John Burnet, Thomas Calvit,
Henry Hunter and James Hoggett, were the names of the mem
bers called to meet in September, 1800. Anthony Hutchins and

608 MISSISSIPPI
Sutton Bankes seem to have been elected, but the governor ques
tioned their right to seats, on the ground that they were not citi
zens of three years' standing. The house solicited the opinion of
the judges on the subject of Hutchins. Washington county's elec
tion was too late to make McGrew's title to a seat acceptable to
the legislature. William Dunbar, who had been a candidate in
Adams county, declined to make a contest on the ground of dis
qualification of his opponents, as he was himself also disqualified
under the citizenship requirement. He retired from the offices in
which he had been serving the public.
The governor evidently made attempts to be conciliatory, but
probably destroyed the effects of this by his effort to contest the
election. There was a general disagreement between the gover
nor and representatives, illustrated by a handbill addressed to the
people by the latter, signed unanimously, in November, and a vig
orous reply by the governor, which seems to relate to the election
of Narsworthy Hunter as delegate to congress.
A movement was put on foot for a suspension of the act of con
gress. On account of the restrictions upon voters by the ordi
nance of 1787, the total vote in Adams county was only 142, in
Pickering 92 and in Washington 72. This indicated an unfair
apportionment. Besides, as Sargent wrote, Men of character and
property, professional and commercial men, were denied suffrage.
"Englishmen, Spaniards and apostacized Americans, it is morti-
fyingly believed, are with a few exceptions the only persons en
titled to this privilege."
The grand jury of Adams county in November, Benjamin Far
rar, J. Pannele, Robert More, William Dunbar, jr., M. Stackpole,
William Lewis, Nathan Swayze, Solomon Hopkins, Jeremiah
Routh, Elias Fisher, Samuel Larms, Richard Swayze, recom
mended the suspension of the act of congress because it imposed a
great expense upon a country already overburdened. Consequently
a memorial to congress, to that effect, was circulated and signed
by more than 400 inhabitants. (See Memorial of 1800.)
When the news of the election and inauguration of President
Jefferson had reached Natchez, Sargent, early in April, 1801, ap
plied for leave of absence, as had been promised him when the
government should be organized. Before taking his leave he was
the recipient of appreciative addresses from the territorial judges,
secretary and "most of the principal inhabitants," and from Lieut.-
Col. Gaither, officers of the army at Fort Adams, and the gentle
men of their vicinity. In his response to the latter the governor,
speaking with more than ordinary feeling, said: "The hosanna of
the multitude has in no country been my lot, nor indeed has it
ever been my desire ; but I had fondly hoped that, in a community
of so much urbanity and politeness, my well meant endeavors
should at least have shielded me from the cross." He sailed by
way of New Orleans, reached Boston in May, and visited Presi
dent Jefferson on the 30th of that month ; but the appointment had
already been made out to congressman W. C. C. Claiborne, though

MISSISSIPPI 609
not yet announced. A letter from the department of state, June
16, advised him that the law provided that the secretary was au
thorized to act as governor only in cases of his death, removal,
resignation or necessary absence, and inasmuch as his term ex
pired May 7, an emergency existed demanding an immediate
appointment. "The various, and some of them delicate considera
tions, which at present mingle themselves with the designation of
the individual for this purpose, have rendered it expedient, in the
judgment of the president, that the station should be filled by an
other than yourself, whose administration, with whatever meritor
ious intentions conducted, has not been so fortunate as to secure
the general harmony, and the mutual attachment between the
people and the public functionaries, so particularly necessary for
the prosperity and happiness of an infant establishment. In com
municating this determination, I have the pleasure to be authorized
by the president, to add, that he wishes it to be- understood, as 'not
conveying any definitive opinion whatever with respect to your
official or personal conduct, which might wound your feelings, or
throw a blot on your character. With great respect and esteem,
I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, James
Madison." '
Sartinville, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Pike county,
about 22 miles from Magnolia, the county seat. Population in
1900, 32.
Satartia, a village of Yazoo county, situated on the Yazoo river,
20 miles southwest of Yazoo City, the county seat and the nearest
banking town. It is 32 miles northeast of Vicksburg. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 146 ; population in
1906 was about 200. It has several good general stores, churches, a
Masonic lodge, and excellent schools.
Saucier, a post-hamlet in the central part of Harrison county,
on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, 18 miles north of Gulfport. Mc-
Henry is the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice
and express office. Population in 1900, 110 ; estimated at 200 in 1906.
Saukum, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Wilkinson
county, 14 miles from Woodville, the county seat. Population in
1900, 20.
Saulsbury, a post-hamlet in the western part of Lawrence county,
about 10 miles southwest of Monticello, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 25.
Sauvolle. M. de Sauvolle de la Villantray, poet, orator and sol
dier, was one of the most accomplished officers that ever went to
Louisiana. Of high birth and fortune, he preferred a life of activ
ity to one of ease, and when he learned that M. d'lberville was
about to sail to Louisiana, he asked permission to join the expedi
tion. When d'lberville had established his colony at Biloxi and
protected them with a fort, he left for France in May, 1699, and
appointed Sauvolle and Bienville his lieutenants during his ab
sence ; the first to command the fort, and the other as superintend
ent of the colony. When d'lberville returned from France to the
39-11

610 MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi in January, 1900, he brought commissions for the offi
cers of the colony. Sauvolie was made governor, Bienville lieu
tenant and Boisbriant major. During the administration of Gov.
Sauvolle, he was chiefly engaged in carrying out the instructions
of d'lberville with reference to the exploration of the Mississippi,
and other streams of the surrounding country, and in perfecting
friendly relations with the several Indian tribes, such as the Biloxis,
Moctobis, Pascagoulas, Baiagoulas. He sent an expedition over
land to the Natchez to ascertain its distance from Biloxi, and the
character of the intervening country. They reported they had
found one river four days journey from the fort, which they be
lieved to be the Colapissas (Pearl) ; that the country of the Natchez
was a beautiful region and that it was 50 leagues from here. In
regard to pearls he writes that he had never actually seen any,
but had been informed there were a great many in the Colapissas
river. It was during his administration as governor that Bienville
saw, at what has since been called the "English Turn," a small
English vessel carrying 16 guns and commanded by Captain Barr,
and induced the Englishman to return to the Gulf, either by per
suading hirii that the French were already well established on the
Mississippi, or by the impudent assertion that the river was not
the Mississippi at all, and the river he sought lay farther to the
west. Governor Sauvolle has left us a narrative of great interest
in his Historical Journal, because it gives the details of what took
place when the first colony on Mississippi soil was established.
His career in the new world was short and brilliant. August 21,
1701, he succumbed to the malignant fever which had devastated
the ranks of the new colony, and was succeeded by the young Bien
ville. There is no evidence from the letters or journal of M. de Sau
volle de la Villahtray, that he was a brother of d'lberville and
Bienville, though often so stated by American historians. (See
His. Coll of La, p. Ill, second series.) The same fact may be
inferred from dTberville's letter of July 3, 1699, to Le Compte de
Pontchartrain, wherein he says: "I left M. de Sauvol, naval ensign,
in command, who is a man of merit, and capable of fulfilling his
duty; my brother, De Bienville, as King's Lieutenant, the Sieur
Levasseur, a Canadian, as Major, with M. de Bordenac, the Chap
lain of the Badine, and eighty men as garrison."
Savage, a postoffice of Tunica county, on the Coldwater river,
and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 12 miles
southeast of Tunica, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Savoy, a hamlet in the southern part of Lauderdale county, on
the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 8 miles south of Meridian.
The postoffice at this place was recently discontinued and mail
now goes to Sterling.
Saw, a postoffice of Neshoba county, 8 miles west of Philadelphia,
the county seat.
Sayle, a postoffice of Yalobusha county.

MISSISSIPPI 611
Schlater, a village of Leflore county, on the Tallahatchie branch
of the Southern Ry, 1 mile east of the old town of McNutt, and 12
miles northwest of Greenwood, the county seat. It has a money
order postoffice, and two banks. Population in 1900, 100.
Schley, a postoffice of Simpson county, about 16 miles southwest
of Mendenhall.
School System, Public. The land act of Congress of 1803 re
served from sale section No. 16 in every township of thirty-six
sections, for the support of schools. Under this law there "might
have been" now available to rent for the support of common
schools, 835,000 acres of land. But most of this area was long
ago leased for 99 years, for petty sums soon spent, and 174,500
acres were sold and the proceeds put in a fund which was used by
the State, and on which the State yet pays interest, and has paid
millions. (See Sixteenth Sections and Chickasaw School Fund.)
Congress, in the same act, donated 36 sections, or 23,040 acres,
for the endowment of Jefferson college, also some land at Nat
chez. In 1815 there was a further donation of thirty-six sections,
renewed in 1819, for the support of "a seminary of learning." This
was the beginning of the Seminary fund (q. v.). Many years later
there was another donation to endow an Agricultural college,
which also became a State debt, instead of a source of revenue.
The first State legislation, in 1818, authorized the justices of the
county courts in each county, "to take charge of the lands given
by the United States to the State of Mississippi," and provide for
the erection of one or more schools, etc. For subsequent legisla
tion, see Sixteenth Sections. One famous school was founded,
Franklin academy, at Columbus, in 1821. As to the status of edu
cation in the early days of the State, Governor Poindexter's mes
sage of 1821 is direct testimony. He had collected information
from every county, and reported : "There is scarcely a seminary
of learning among us worthy of the name ; perhaps not one. The
rudiments of the English language are taught in a few private
schools dispersed over a wide extent of country, and even these
meet with poor encouragement, and are often conducted by in
competent teachers. Jefferson college, which has been so richly
endowed by the general government, and on which our liberality
has been so freely bestowed, is comparatively an empty dome with
pensioned preceptors." He recommended the legislature to cre
ate "a Literary Fund, to be raised by a moderate county tax
annually," with three commissioners in each county to educate
poo'r orphan children and care for the fund, so that it might ac
cumulate to a permanent capital for the maintenance of schools.
Accordingly the act of November 26, 1821, evidently written by
Poindexter, created the Literary Fund, which was to receive "all
escheats, confiscations, forfeitures, and all personal property accru
ing to the State as derelict," all fines not otherwise appropriated,
and unclaimed estates. A State tax equal to one-sixth of the gen
eral levy, was imposed, and taxes against non-residents were ap
propriated to the fund. The governor and certain other State

612 MISSISSIPPI
officers, presiding judge of the supreme court, chancellor, and
three appointees, were to be incorporated as "President and Di
rectors of the Literary Fund." They could appoint an agent in
each county, and five school commissioners. They were to send
a committee once a year to inspect all educational institutions,
and. see that teachers in seminaries were qualified to teach the
Greek and Latin languages. Above all it was their duty to "im
press on the minds of the children and youth committed to their
care and instruction, the principles of piety, justice and a sacred
regard to truth, love to their country, humanity and universal
benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality, chastity, modera
tion and temperance, and those other virtues which are the orna
ment of human society and the basis upon which the republican
constitution is structured."
"Thus Mississippi stands foremost in the South and West, in
this truly munificent design," said a contemporary newspaper.
But the law seems to have been unpopular, as the tax of 6 per
cent, was repealed and the money collected refunded to the coun
ties, by the legislature of January, 1823. The literary fund and its
agents, and the township trustees of the school lands were sep
arate and distinct. The school land fund has always been a local
affair, occasionally subject to special legislation, in individual
cases. White Turpin, treasurer of Jefferson college, was appointed
escheator-general of the State iri 1823, but Governor Brandon re
ported in 1827 that the duties of the office, the collection of
escheats, had been entirely neglected except in the officer's home
county. The Literary fund amounted to $8,844 in 1826, mostly
loaned out at 10 per cent. On the suggestion of Governor Bran
don, the investment of the fund was ordered to be made in 120
shares of stock in the Bank of Mississippi. At the close of 1830,
$30,000 had been invested in bank stock, and with a tax of one-
tenth in operation, it was estimated that in two years a distribu
tion of dividends could be made.
In 1829, by authority of the legislature, Governor Brandon ap
pointed Peter A. Van Dorn, William Dowsing and James Y. Mc
Nabb as "agents to inquire into all the means and resources of
this State which may or can be applied to the purposes of a gen
eral system of education . . . suited to the various local
interests of the citizens." Their report was submitted to a com
mittee of the House in 1830, Walter W. New, chairman, which
reported full approval of the views of the agents of the supreme
importance of primary schools, in order "to lessen the wide gap
between the educated and the ignorant, and as placing it in the
power of all to become acquainted with and consequently to
appreciate the rights, privileges and blessings of an American citi
zen." But the committee could not approve the plan of appro
priating all the balance in the treasury to "a school fund; instead
""this legislature cannot adopt a wiser or more salutary policy, than
to revive the Literary Fund law, as laying a better foundation

MISSISSIPPI 613
. . . than any system which has been proposed or which has
suggested itself." Later in the same year, the governor again
noted the revival of education. Private schools and academies were
springing up in every county.
In 1833 the Literary fund amounted to $50,000 in Planters Bank
stock, and an apportionment of the same among the counties that
had contributed to it, was made, the fund to remain a part of the
funded stock of the bank. Investments in the same stock were
continued. Acting-Governor Quitman, in his message of 1836„
said: "In monarchical governments, the heir to the throne is edu
cated at the public expense. Why should not the same care be
taken in republics to communicate at least the elements of knowl
edge to those who are to become the rulers of their destinies.
. . . The means of a plain practical education should be ex
tended to every free child in the country, cost what it may. . . -
I recommend to the legislature the adoption, as early as possible,
of an effective Common School System. . . . Until the estab
lishment of a general system of common school education, it would
be but vain ostentation in the State to build up seminaries for in
struction in the higher branches of learning."
J. H. Ingraham wrote in 1835 : "The education of young chil
dren on plantations is much neglected. Many boys and girls,.
whose parents reside five or ten miles from any town or academy,.
and do not employ tutors, grow up to the age of eight or ten, un
able either to read or write. . . . Two-thirds of the planters"
children of this State are educated out of it. There is annually a
larger sum carried out of the State, for the education of children
at the north, and in the expenses of parents in making them yearly
visits there, than would be sufficient to endow an institution-
. . . Their own institutions are neglected and soon fall into
decay." The auditor reported in 1836 that the literary and seminary funds
had been invested in over one thousand shares of Planters bank
stock, which could be disposed of for more than $100,000. The
Literary fund came to an end in the collapse of the bank, and the
act of 1839, which appropriated fines and forfeitures in the several
counties, to certain academies therein. See Academies and Col
leges. The census of 1840 showed 8,273 pupils in the 396 primary and
comrhon schools, 2,480 in the 71 academies, and 454 in the 8 col
leges. The Pray code (never adopted) provided for an annual
school tax. "I consider this tax essential to the establishment of
the system," said Governor McNutt in 1840. "Those who enjoy
the protection of the laws are bound to contribute their share of
the expenses necessary to their enforcement. The State is bound,
by the highest obligations of duty and patriotism, to educate all
her children. . . .. The legislature that establishes a system
of free schools, where every child, rich and poor, can obtain knowl-

614 MISSISSIPPI
edge at the same fountain, free of charge, will be immortalized in
the annals of the State."
Governor Tucker gave a great part of his last message, 1844,
to discussion of this subject. He suggested the propriety of alter
ing "the system (if it can be called a system as it now exists in
this state) and of remedying the crying evil of neglecting the edu
cation of the youth of the State." He recommended the estab
lishing of a free primary school in each township, for at least six
months in the year, to be supported by the school land fund and
taxation. He pleaded with great earnestness for the favorable con
sideration of his plan, which was a wise and practical one. Gov.
A. G. Brown made the promotion of common schools one of the
main efforts of his administration, beginning in 1844, and at his
instance Judge James S. B. Thatcher, who had been reared in
Boston, devised a scheme of popular education which was pub
lished throughout the State in the fall of 1845. The subject was
discussed upon the stump, both parties demanding a school sys
tem, but differing somewhat in the method of support. The legis
lature responded in 1846 with "An act to establish a System of
Common Schools," which provided for a board of five school com
missioners in each county, to license teachers and have charge of
schools, lease the school lands and have charge of the school fund
in each county, which fund should include a special tax not to ex
ceed the State tax, .for common school purposes, also all fines,
forfeitures, liquor and other licenses. The secretary of state was
made ex-officio General School Commissioner of the State. But
there was added to the clause permitting a special tax a proviso
that the consent of the majority of resident heads of families in
each township should be given in writing before the tax could be
levied. This destroyed the efficacy of the law as the establishment
of a general policy. In his message of 1848, Governor Brown asked
the legislature to immediately repeal the law and adopt one more
in accordance with his recommendations. He also alluded to the
necessity of a State normal school. The legislature found it im
possible to require a local tax in all counties. For Hinds and six
other counties a law was enacted providing for a county superin
tendent and a local tax of one-fourth of the general State tax. An
act repealing the consent proviso of the law of 1846 was passed
with an amendment making it apply only to Clark, Jasper, Lau
derdale, Harrison, Hancock and Copiah. Marshall, Adams, Chick
asaw, Lafayette and Tippah were given a sort of "pauper" school
system. As for Lowndes, and fifteen other counties, the law of
1846 was repealed and former laws revived. "The educational
movement of that period is a curious study. The carping criticism
and the generous indulgence, the pessimistic forecasting and the
wide-eyed faith, the short-sighted temporizing and the far-reaching
provision, all were most strikingly exhibited ; but the universal
innocence among both foes and friends of all j.ust conception of
the cost of the movement iri dollars and cents is wonderful."
(Edward Mayes.)

MISSISSIPPI 615
In 1850 Governor Matthews, in transmitting .the report of the
secretary of state, ex-officio general school commissioner, said, "It
will be perceived that the results of the common school system
adopted by the legislature of 1846, if not a total failure, has fallen
far short of the expectations of its friends. ... If we intend
to perform our duty to 'ourselves, to our country, and to posterity,
we must abandon a half-way, temporizing policy; and I recom
mend ... to supply any deficit that may be required to carry
out a general system of common school education, a tax upon the
persons and property of all the citizens of the State."
Again at the session of 1850 special acts were passed for a large
number of counties, the general effect of which was to destroy the
system. It was practically impossible to tell what the school law
of the State was, if such a thing could be said to be. In 1850 and
1851 the secretary of state received reports from only three coun
ties. Yet this was an important point in the scheme of the law
of 1846. In this way the public school system ran on until the
war brought a hiatus in social organization. The legislature of
1859-60 passed no less than twenty-six local acts regarding edu
cation. Yet in some places, perhaps in many, where public senti
ment supported the schools, they were doing good work, and the
special legislation showed interest, at least.
In 1860 there were 1,116 public schools in Mississippi, attended
by 30,970 pupils, according to the statement of Joseph Bardwell,
state superintendent in 1876.
The war of 1861-65 was an interregnum in education as in other
civil functions. When peace returned the number of children de
manding education was more than doubled by the emancipation
of the negro race. Having launched this race into citizenship, the
Northern people and the United States government attempted to
provide extraordinary facilities for its education, old and young
alike. The moyement began with a school at Corinth soon after
the Union occupation in 1862. "The American Missionary society,
the Freedmen's Aid society, and the Society of Friends had estab
lished schools about Vicksburg before the close of the war. Upon
the organization of the Freedmen's bureau, a more systematic and
comprehensive plan of negro education was undertaken. Joseph
Warren, chaplain of a negro regiment, was appointed superintend
ent of freedmen's schools for the State at large. These schools
were under military supervision, and benevolent associations sup
plied them with books, and in many cases furnished clothing to
the students." (Garner.) At the close of the war there were such
educational institutions, with 60 teachers, and about 4,500 students,
about Vicksburg and Natchez and at the Davis Bend colony. By
1869 there were 81 negro schools in the State, with 105 teachers,
40 of whom were colored, and a normal school for their instruc
tion. The tendency of the reconstruction period was, of course, to
bring into existence such a system of public education as had been
evolved by experience in the white-settled States of the West.

616 MISSISSIPPI
There was a meeting of the teachers of the State in Jackson, Janu
ary 17, 1867, that recommended a "uniform system" of education,
and normal schools for the preparation of colored teachers for their
own race. The constitutional convention of 1868 met this demand
by adopting an article of ten sections, a complete State system in
outline, which should forever put an end to the system of local
neglect. (See Constitution of 1869.)
According to Governor Alcorn (App. Senate Journal, 1870, 15)
to put Mississippi in the average educational condition of the
States, at that time, would require the employment of 6,000
teachers, and about 4,000 school' houses, at a cost for buildings and
sites of $3,000,000. The annual cost would be $1,700,000 paid by
local taxes, and $405,000 by State taxes, in all, over $2,000,000 an
nually. The first legislature under the constitution of 1869 adopted the
school law of July 7, 1870, an elaborate statute framed to carry
out in detail the educational plan of the constitution. Each county
in the State, and each city of over 5,000, was made a school dis
trict, in which free public schools were to be maintained for at
least four months in the year, under the supervision of a board of
school directors.
A protest against this bill, because it would prove so burden
some as to excite the prejudice of the people, alienate their sym
pathies, and prevent the cooperation of all good citizens necessary
to success, was spread on the records by Senators H. M. Paine,
Stephen Johnson, H. L. Duncan, T. J.' Hardy, W. T. Stricklin and
T. W. Castle.
At the beginning of his administration (1870) Gov. Alcorn said
in a special message, that the creation of schools of a higher grade,
authorized by the constitution, should be interpreted as authority
for the immediate establishment of one normal school for the edu
cation of the higher class of teachers. "One normal school we
cannot dispense with, even at the very outset of one educational
system," and he believed the most urgent need was by the colored
teachers. During the administrations of Governors Alcorn, Powers
and Ames, one State normal school for whites was maintained at
Holly Springs, and one for negroes at Tougaloo. (q. v.) Holly
Springs normal was established in 1870 ; the Tougaloo normal was
organized in October, 1871. Governor Alcorn took a deep interest
in the framing of the law, and particularly urged that county su
perintendents should be elected by the people of the counties.
Instead, the State board of education was given the power of ap
pointment, greatly to the detriment of the school system, for in
some cases strangers were sent to take these offices, exciting grave
prejudice. Governor Powers, in 1872, remonstrated against the
diversion of school funds to "costly School-houses, elegantly fur
nished and supplied with libraries and apparatus," and declared
that many of the teachers employed were "totally unfit," some
"disqualified on account of immoral habits."

MISSISSIPPI 617
The first distribution of the common school fund (q. v.) in 1872,
of $82,000, was mainly the poll tax of 1870. It was reported in
1874 that the common school fund principal amounted to $1,950,-
000. The interest on this was available annually. The total
revenue accruing to the fund was $616,000 and the revenue from
capitation and special county taxes was $602,000. There was,
however, no such fund in actual existence.
The amount expended for schools, including normals, and ex
penditures of all kinds, was estimated at $492,500. To every school
law the objection was made that it was too expensive. In this case
the law was made by recent white immigrants or perhaps transient
residents, on the model of what had grown up through many years
of adjustment in thickly settled and wealthy States. The preju
dice against it was necessarily great. The people were very poor,
as the result of war; the simplest system for the education of white
children alone would have been burdensome, but under the new
regime the negro children also were to be educated at public ex
pense. There was even prejudice excited by the efforts to replace
fhe old log schoolhouses with frame houses. In education as in
other matters the unnatural forcing of progress created trouble.
One of the effects was to greatly increase the salaries of teachers,
because, for freedmen's schools especially, only Northerners could
be persuaded to undertake the work. It was put in evidence before
the Congressional committee that in Lowndes county, 26 school
houses were furnished free, 14 were rented by the county, and six
were built or purchased. The expenditure for white school houses
was $8,000, for colored, $1,250. No furniture was bought except
for white schools, total less than $3,000. On the petitions of citi
zens the board also purchased three buildings of high order for
school houses, payment to be made in 1871 of $6,600. Total
teachers, white, 47, colored, 9; in black schools 25, in white 31;
aggregate salaries in white schools, $14,190 ; in black schools,
$6,200. A county tax of $21,000 was to be levied in 1871. The
pauper tax at the same time was $11,000. Of the local debt to the
Chickasaw school fund, $13,000 had been paid during the war in
Confederate money ; most of the notes unpaid were worthless. The
Chickasaw fund interest received by the county had been used as
a police fund during the war.
There was an impression that the Northern immigrants pro
posed to mingle the races, but "when it became evident that there
was no intention of establishing mixed schools, much of the oppo
sition wore away."
Superintendent Pease reported that in the first year of recon
struction more than 3,000 free schools were opened, with an
attendance of 66,257 pupils. "Of the 3,600 teachers employed, all
except 369 were white. Five hundred school sites had been do
nated and 200 buildings erected by private subscription. The
total expenditures for the year were $869,766, a greater amount

618 MISSISSIPPI
than all the other State expenditures. This burden might have
been much lighter, had it not been for the mismanagement of the
school funds prior to the war. More than $1,000,000 of the Six
teenth section funds, to say nothing of the Seminary and Chick
asaw funds, were lost through poor management before 1860."
(Garner.) The educational expenditures were really small, for
such a State as Mississippi, but conditions made it burdensome,
and there was "some foundation for the general outcry against the
alleged plunder of the school funds," said Governor Alcorn.
"When the reconstructiOnists surrendered the government to
the Democracy, in 1876, the public school system which they had
fathered had become firmly established, its efficiency increased,
and its administration somewhat less expensive than at first.
There does not seem to have been any disposition upon the part
of the Democrats to abolish it or impair its efficiency. On the
other hand, they kept their promise to the negroes, made provisions
for continuing the system, and guaranteed an annual five months
term instead of four, as formerly. Moreover the cost of main
taining the schools was very largely reduced, and the administra
tion decentralized and democratized, thereby removing what had
been a strong obstacle to peace and good order. And thus the
system of public education, unpopular at first, on account of the
circumstances surrounding its establishment, has grown in favor
with the people, until to-day it is the chief pride of the common
wealth, and is destined to be the chief means of solving the great
problem which the Civil war left as a legacy to the white race."
(Garner's Reconstruction.)
In 1875 a constitutional amendment was adopted requiring the
proceeds of the sale of lands forfeited for taxes, and proceeds of
fines and liquor licenses, to be collected in United States currency,
and distributed among the schools, pro rata to the educable children.
This resulted in some benefit from the so-called school fund. The
legislature of 1876 made some sweeping changes and cut the
Teachers' fund tax in half. In 1878 a general common school law
was passed. Part of the legislation of 1878 was for the especial
benefit of certain high schools, which legislation, however, the
supreme court later declared unconstitutional.
The common school system remained for a long time hardly
more than a system. The pressing problem for twenty years after
the close of the war was the question of bread and meat, and next
was the problem of the two races. Of late a great prosperity has
dawned upon the State, and vastly more than ever before its re
sources are being utilized in such a manner that the profits inure
to the benefit of the inhabitants generally. But the problem of
two races remained very troublesome because the former indiffer
ence toward adequate public provision for common education was
reflected in the public attitude on the subject of negro education;
also very troublesome and burdensome because school-houses,
teachers, and every expense of education, must be duplicated ; also
because "the problem of raising and distributing the school rev-

MISSISSIPPI 619
enues is rendered complex by reason of the uneven distribution
of the races — the negro population being densely aggregated in
the rich counties." In 1882 the legislature created a fund for the
building of school houses, to be distributed when it reached $15,000.
This was increased in 1888 by the appropriation thereto of the
receipts from the Two and Three per cent, funds, donated by the_
United States, which gave about $80,000 for school-house build
ing. This led fo the erection of about 500 new school-houses.
Some counties wilfully misappropriated the money. Monroe added
to her share and built 41 houses.
According to the reports of Superintendent Preston the defect
of the original system was that it permitted in practice too many
schools, although the law required them to be three miles apart.
"The education of the children was overlooked, in the zeal to get
a school located for a particular teacher, who resided in the neigh
borhood and needed a support." The legislature was called on to
authorize counties by special tax to pay indebtedness thus incurred.
Hinds county, with an annual school fund of $31,000, was bur
dened with a debt of $65,000 in two years, in this manner. The
pay of teachers was too small to obtain competent ones. Then
one of the incidents of the revolution of 1875-76 was the practical
abolition of the county superintendency, leaving the schools with
out supervision and inspection. "Here we struck a great blow to
the progress of public education. The State was yearly spending
three-quarters of a million of dollars, with no agents to see how it
was spent, or whether the children were receiving an education."
Also, "it became the practice to divide the four months school
into two terms of two months each," on the plea that children
could not be spared four months continuously. "The claim when
made means simply this : that our people must make slaves of
their children, that they must rob them of the opportunity to be
come intelligent citizens ... a claim unworthy of the sacred
ties of parentage and of intelligent citizenship in the State." In a
decade and a half the State spent nearly $15,000,000 for free
schools. "It must be conceded by any fair minded man that it has
been largely squandered," said Mr. Preston, "producing inadequate
results, doled out month by month to indigent and incompetent
school teachers who were placed in charge of the most sacred inter
ests of the commonwealth, in many instances without even the
semblance of a test as to their capacity and fitness."
In 1884 Superintendent Smith reported : "It is with regret that
I have to state that Mississippi, in my opinion, is behind most of
her sister States in the qualification and efficiency of her public-
school teachers. And this I attribute to the absence of schools
devoted to the teaching and training of teachers. Mississippi is
the only State in the Union where normal schools are not estab
lished for qualifying white teachers for our public schools. We
have a normal school for the education and training of colored
teachers at Holly Springs, and I am of the opinion that it is doing
good work. But we have not a school in the State, supported

620 MISSISSIPPI
wholly or in part by the State, for the advancement of our white
teachers." In 1890, when there had not yet been added to the
curriculum of the State university instruction in teaching, Super
intendent Preston reported that ten of the best educational towns
in the State had employed principals at salaries of from $850 to
$1,500 a year. "Not a single Mississippian was selected. These
towns wanted professionally trained men — the State could not
furnish' them."
"For the first fifteen years — from 1870 to 1885 — the public schools,
like a transplanted tree, manifested a low degree of vitality. The
idea of popular education was combated openly and covertly, but
it won its way steadily and gained vital force year by year. This
increased strength was not manifested to any great degree in the
quality of the schools. It showed itself rather in the assaults made
on the schools because of their inefficiency, and in the annual
changes in the law which prevented organic growth. The schools
were kept pretty much without plan. What one legislature en
acted the next modified or repealed. A crisis was reached in 1886,
and the legislature of that year made a complete revision of the
school law. The prominent new features of the law thus revised
were : uniform school examinations ; a new system of school dis
tricts ; institutes for teachers ; visitation of the schools by the
county superintendent; requiring the superintendent to fix salaries
according to the size of the school, the grade of license held and
the executive and teaching capacity of the teachers; granting to
smaller towns the privilege of becoming separate school districts
and of levying a tax or issuing bonds to build school houses-; pro
visions for the prompt payment of teachers' salaries." (Report of
Supt. Preston, 1895.)
Before this law went into effect almost any one who applied was
licensed to teach. At the first State examination 70 per cent, of
the applicants fell below grade. But improvement soon followed,
in the midst of violent remonstrance. Prior to 1887 the schools
were run on the credit system, the taxes being collected at the end
of the year, and teachers' salaries were discounted. Since then the
schools have been on a cash basis.
By the terms of the constitution of 1890 the sixteenth section
lands are forever withheld from sale; the rate of interest on the
Chickasaw school fund and other trust funds for education is fixed
at six per cent, the maintenance of the A. & M. college and Alcorn
college is declared to be a sacred trust; "separate schools shall be
maintained for children of the white and colored races;" to the
language of the constitution of 1868 was added, "nor shall any
funds be appropriated towards the support of any sectarian
school." Since 1892 the "Common School Fund" (q. v.) is an an
nual appropriation of the poll tax of $2 collected in each county,
and an additional sum from the general fund in the State treasury,
which together shall be sufficient to maintain the common schools
for the term of four months in each scholastic year. Any county

MISSISSIPPI 621
or separate school district is permitted to levy an additional tax
to maintain its schools for a longer time.
There is a State Board of Education, composed of the secretary
of State, superintendent of public education and the attorney-gen
eral This board was originally authorized to appoint' a superin
tendent of public education in each county, with the approval of
the senate, for a term of four years, but in most counties the office
is now elective. The State Superintendents of Public Education
have been: Henry R. Pease, 1870-74; T. W. Cardoza, 1874-76;
Thomas S. Gathright, April to September, 1876 ; Joseph Bardwell,
1876-78; James A. Smith, 1878-86; James R. Preston, 1886-96; A.
A. Kincannon, 1896-98; Henry L. Whitfield, 4898 to the present.
In January, 1890, Superintendent Preston reported the numbers
of educable children as 191,792 white; 272,682 colored. Number
enrolled in public schools, 148,435 and 173,552 of each race. Aver
age daily attendance, 90,716 and 101,710 of each race. The State.
Teachers' association had been revived, teachers had met in 1,954
institutes in the year, there had been an increase of over 800 in
the annual building of school-houses ; 600 frame school-houses had
been built in the rural districts. Said the report, "An era of im
provement has manifestly begun ; though we are yet far from real
izing the final aims of a great State system."
In 1892 the school law was amended to require an annual county
institute of five days, for each race, in each county. The State
board of education organized a system of instruction at these in
stitutes; which Chancellor Payne reported in 1893 was a typical
one. It included a special training school at Oxford for the insti
tute conductors.
Superintendent Preston reported for 1892-93 that the total re
ceipts for education were $1,392,000, of which two-thirds was from
State taxation. The receipts from the congressional land funds
were about $80,000, from county levies, $66,386. The expendi
tures for the common schools were $1,192,844, equivalent to a levy
of $7 on the thousand, much less than in the Northwest, but first
in the South, and eighth among the States of the Union. The in
crease in population from 1880 to 1890 was less than 14 per cent,
but the increase in school enrollment was 20 per cent, and in ex
penditures 50 per cent. As to average attendance, Mississippi had
1,775 children in average attendance while Indiana had 1,690. But
in length of school term Mississippi had 5^4 months while the
average in the United States was seven months.
Under the administration of Superintendent Smith five teachers'
institutes were held in 1879, at Jackson, Brookhaven, Meridian,
Okolona and Winona, aided by a contribution of $1,000 from the
Peabody fund, by which Maj. Jed Hotchkiss, of Virginia, and
Prof. H. H. Smith, of Texas, were secured as instructors. This
was the beginning of the teachers' institutes in Mississippi. They
were provided for in later State laws.
In 1891 a memorial signed by Bishop Galloway, Dr. Sproles,
Major Millsaps, and other prominent citizens, was forwarded to

622 MISSISSIPPI
the trustees of the Peabody institute asking that the State be re
instated as a beneficiary of the fund, having been dropped because
the State had repudiated the old bank bonds in which the fund
had considerable investments. In 1892, the trustees of the fund
resolved to readmit Mississippi and Florida. Since then the fund
has sustained the summer normal schools. There were nearly a
thousand teachers in attendance on these schools in 1893, marking
a new era.
In 1893 there were 58 town or city school districts maintaining
advanced schools, and besides these 233 proprietary high schools,
academies and colleges, with an attendance of nearly 23,000, and
the five State institutions, with 1,300 students.
In 1894 Dr. J. L. M. Curry, general agent of the Peabody fund,
visited the legislature, and his appeal resulted in the appropriation
.of $1,500 to support summer normals, whereupon he increased the
Peabody donation to $3,000 a year. Colored teachers were amply
provided for in 1894.
Superintendent Preston's summary of the first ten years under
the law of 1886 showed an increase of nearly 70,000 in enrollment,
and of 29 days in the length of session ; an increase of over 1,000
in teachers ; 2,400 school houses built, besides 48 in the town dis
tricts ; an increase of 70 per cent, in revenue ; establishment of
county institutes with 4,000 attendants ; summer normals with ¦
2,000 attendants,; departments of pedagogy in two State institu
tions ; a great elevation of professional spirit among the teachers.
The separate districts are an important feature. They maintain
schools that include primary and high school education. They be
gan under the law of 1870 providing for cities of 5,000 inhabitants,
but the privilege was gradually extended. There were eighty of
these districts in 1902. The girls' school at Brandon is the Female
college, established by Miss F. A. Johnson in 1865 ; the Columbus
school is the Franklin academy; the Natchez school was estab
lished in 1845, mainly through the efforts of Alvarez Fisk; the
Summit school is a Peabody school, formerly receiving $1,000 a
year from that fund ; the Vicksburg school was opened in 1845,
with the famous author, Dr. J. G. Holland, as its principal about
1850 ; nearly all the districts maintain separate schools for colored .
children, the Natchez building for that purpose costing $30,000,
and several of the schools are provided with valuable libraries and
apparatus, the Meridian school having a library of 5,000 volumes.
In Superintendent Whitfield's report for 1901-3 he said: "As
a rule our terms are too short, the compensation received by our
teachers for a year's work is too small for them to make the prep
arations to be skilled in their work, and our schoolhouses in the
main are uncomfortable and poorly equipped. ... As long
as we have four and five months school sessions and pay- our
teachers $25 or $30 a month, or $125 to $130 for a year's work, out
of which they must pay their board, etc, we cannot hope to have
those teachers with that training necessary to make them quali
fied to give our children the training they .so much need. . . •

MISSISSIPPI 623
There is only one other State besides Mississippi that has failed to
make some provision for the training of the great mass of its rural
teachers. . . . One of the greatest needs of the State at this
time is a number of well-distributed free rural high schools. Under
our present laws public high schools can be maintained only in the
towns, and I am glad to report that practically all of our town
schools have moderately well-equipped high school departments
. . . but less than 10 per cent, of the children of the State live
within the bounds of these districts. ... I am satisfied that
every member of the legislature will agree with me when I say that
the school-houses of Mississippi in the main are a disgrace to the
State. Reference to the statistics contained in this report will show
that over 50 per cent, of the children enrolled are in average at
tendance ; . . . the reason why the average attendence is not
better is that the houses are uncomfortable, both in winter and
summer. . . . Something should be done to make more effec
tive the office of county superintendent. As it is now, the salary
is so small that competent men cannot be secured for their full
•time. ... As is known to your honorable body the public
school curriculum is' one of the very lowest in the United States."
Superintendent Whitfield argued forcibly that only through edu
cation of the people could it be expected that the profits arising
from the recent great increase in development would remain in, and
benefit the State. He noted the success in 1903 of the summer
school for teachers at the State university, attended by over 800.
This summer school was begun in 1893, and considerably developed
in 1900-02 through the generosity of Mrs. Fanny J. Ricks, of Yazoo
City, and in 1903 the General Education Board (Peabody fund)
donated $2,500 to duplicate what was donated by the University,
the State superintendent, and the $2,000 from Mrs. Ricks. The
resources of the State appropriation and the Peabody fund permit
ted an extension of most county institutes to two weeks. A com
mittee appointed by the State Teachers' association had made an
exhaustive report covering every phase of the subject of public
education. The State Superintendent, aided by several prominent
educators and citizens had made a campaign for better education,
and a livelier sentiment was reported. "Over thirty counties are
now levying taxes for longer school terms and better schools."
Under the present law this tax has to be levied every year in order
to give permanence to the school systems of the various counties,"
and this local tax, voted by the people, could not exceed the max
imum fixed by the legislature.
In his last report the superintendent says : "During the last
few years the State has made substantial progress in an educational
way; yet, in length of terms, preparation of teachers, curriculum,
houses and equipments, we are far behind the more progressive
States and countries. ... In some sections of the State public
sentiment has not yet advanced to the point where it recognizes
that the school interests are the paramount interests of the State.
• . . The problem of our schools is the supply of teachers."

624 MISSISSIPPI
He again strongly urged the establishment of a normal college,
particularly adapted to the needs of the country districts, and the
peculiar conditions of the State, and the promotion of rural high
schools, specifically at least an agricultural high school to carry out
the work of the experiment stations.
The enrollment of the school year 1904-05 was 169,507 white,
205,601 colored, (outside of the separate districts) with an average
attendance of 93,375 white and 110,686 colored. In the separate
districts the enrollment was 29,796 white, 18,837 colored, average
attendance 20,806 white, 10,353 colored. Total for State, 199,293
white, 224,438 colored, average attendance 114,781 white, 121,039
colored. There are 4,188 white schools taught outside of the separ
ate districts, and 2,892 for negro children. One thousand teachers
are employed in the separate districts, and 8,330 outside. The
average monthly salary of white teachers in the separate districts
is $54; in the other districts, $36; of colored teachers a little over
half the same. Average length of school term in separate districts
165 days, in others 129. The expenditure for education, outside of
the separate districts, is about $7 for each white child and $2 for
each negro child; in the separate districts, $12.75 for each white
child and $3.50 for' each negro child.
The revenues of the last year, outside of separate districts were,
balance on hand, $361,000; from distribution of State tax $1,110,-
851; polls, $305,596; Sixteenth section fund, $147,765; Chickasaw
fund, $60,000 ; County levy, $156,000 ; and smaller items making a
total of $2,170,648. The separate districts had a revenue of $750,-
000, of which the largest items were $237,374, city levy, and $164,-
863, State distribution. The total revenue for the State was $2,-
921,784, of which practically all was paid by taxation, as the so-
called funds are all debts of the State treasury. The disbursements
were $2,329,311.
Schooner, a postoffice of Chickasaw county.
Scobey, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of
Yalobusha county, on the Memphis Division of the Illinois Central
R. R, 13 miles north of Grenada, and 11 miles west of Coffeeville,
one of the county seats of justice. Oakland is the nearest banking
town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 146.
Two public cotton gins are located here.
Scooba, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part of
Kemper county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 41 miles north of
Meridian, and 6 miles west of the Alabama line. Big Scooba creek,
an affluent of the Tombigbee river flows a short distance to the
south of the town. Scooba is an Indian word meaning "reed brake."
Scooba lies near the northeastern prairie region of the State, and
is surrounded by a good farming section. The Kemper Herald, a
Democratic weekly, established in 1876, is published here. A. W.
Struthers is the editor. The town has several good general stores,
two saw milling plants, a fine Munger System cotton gin, five
churches, three white and two colored ; a graded school and a bank,
Bank of Kemper, established in 1904 with a capital of $25,000. The

MISSISSIPPI 625
population in 1906 was estimated at about 600. During the first
six months of 1906 three large brick business houses, eight dwell
ing houses and a large hotel containing 19 rooms were erected.
One of the best livery barns in the county is located here. The
Scooba postoffice is the third largest distributing office on the
Mobile & Ohio R. R, between Mobile, Ala, and Jackson, Tenn.,,
and the town has held its own with Meridian as a cotton market for
the last twenty years.
Scotland, a postoffice in the extreme southeastern part of Talla
hatchie county, on Hurd creek, an affluent of the Tallahatchie river,
about 15 miles southeast of Charleston, the county seat.
Scott, a post-hamlet of Greene county, situated on the Leaf river,
about 14 miles southwest of Leakesville, the county seat. It is
about 2 miles from the station of Leaf, on the Mobile, Jackson &
Kansas City R. R. Population in 1900, 40.
Scott, Abram M, was a native of South Carolina, who settled in
Wilkinson county before 1810, when he was appointed assessor.
In 1812 he was collector of taxes. As a young Mississippian he
<had such prominence in 1812-13 that he was commissioned one
-of the captains in the First Mississippi regiment, United States
volunteers, and served in this rank in the war with the Creeks.
He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1817,
and represented Wilkinson county in the State senate in 1822,
1826 and 1827. He was a colonel on the governor's staff in
1822. In 1824 he was appointed sheriff. In 1831 he was elec
ted governor, receiving about one-third of the total votes, but
having a small plurality over H. G. Runnels, the nearest of his four
competitors. His administration and death are noted in a separate
article. The State Rights Banner, of Jackson, announcing his death,
spoke of him as "one of the best men, the most devoted public ser
vant. He fell a victim to his sense of public duty ; for nothing but
the pressure and importance of official business has kept him in
this place since the cholera made its appearance."
At his death he was 48 years of age. On his monument in the
old graveyard at Jackson it is inscribed that "as a man he was
honest, generous and brave ; as a friend ardent, disinterested and
sincere; the stranger's patron and the poor man's friend; as a cit
izen he was orderly, active and patriotic; as a soldier daring, bold
and energetic. He filled many important offices, always usefully,
creditably and satisfactorily. He rose from one position unto
another until he" became the governor of the State, which office he
filled when he died."
In his public papers are many admirable sentences, of which the
following is an example : "Legislation should take enlarged views. •
A wise policy will rarely attempt any restraint on the pursuits of
individual interest; but rather to awaken the inclination. . . .
Guard and watch over the interest of all, and leave every man to
take his own track."
Scott's Administration. Governor Abram M. Scott was inaugu
rated in January, 1832, with Fountain Winston as lieutenant-gov-
40-11

626 MISSISSIPPI .
ernor. This was the year of the constitutional convention (q. v.) ;
of the second Jackson presidential campaign; of the South Caroli
na nullification discussion, in which Senator Poindexter (q. v.)
was a conspicuous figure ; of the Black Hawk war in the Northwest,
in which Jefferson Davis served as a lieutenant from West Point,
of the terrible cholera (q. v.) epidemic all over the United States;
of revolutions and wars and rumors of wars throughout the world.
There were three electoral tickets before the people in 1832, for
Jackson and VanBuren, Jackson and Barbour, and Clay and Sar-
geant. The reelection of Plummer to congress indicated that Mis
sissippi adhered to Jackson as opposed to Calhoun and Poindexter.
The prevailing spirit of revolution, evident in Mississippi as else
where, rendered some men ardent and hopeful of greater good to
result from enlarged self-government, and others scornful and dis
posed to cling to the narrower ideals of the past. Governor Scott
was one of the enthusiasts, viewing the year as the era of "a new
term of political existence, unshackled by the prejudices, errors and
forms which, in old communities, sanctified by time and strength
ened by habit, too often acquire the force and energy of nature."
He regarded the new constitution as pushing popular rights to the
"utmost verge."
He said in his message of January, 1833, to the first legislature
under the new constitution :
"Representing a youthful and enterprising State, which, with a
fearlessness of consequences and in a spirit of reform, characteris
tic of the age in which we live ; throwing aside many of the received
doctrines of the existing school of politics, and advancing boldly
upon the field of experiment, in the organization of its government
has pushed to its utmost verge the doctrine of popular rights, your
duties will be equally delicate, difficult and important. . . .
Whatever difference of opinion may exist, in relation to the ex
pediency of the novel doctrines infused into the fundamental law of
Mississippi, in your patriotism I have the best assurance, and in
your wisdom the surest guarantee, that that efficiency and direction
which is best calculated to advance the glory and prosperity of our
country will be given to it." He urged the paramount duty of pro
viding for schools, the encouragement of agriculture by improve
ment of roads and all means of transportation, and regulation of the
banks and currency.
The State was in an excellent financial condition. The receipts
from November, 1831, to January, 1833, were $106,000; expendi
tures, $91,000. Political discussion, of the questions of protective
tariff and nullification, occupied the legislature to a considerable
degree, the opposition to Calhoun and Poindexter being led by the
great Whig Mississippian, Adam L. Bingaman (q. v.).
The governor, referring to the Mississippi resolutions of 1829,
in opposition to the tariff, said congress, notwithstanding the pro
tests of the South generally, had "persisted in this most injust and
oppressive system, until one of the States, affording the purest
patriots and most talented statesmen, has been induced to believe

MISSISSIPPI 627
that no relief was to be expected, and has entered upon a course
which seems to threaten the dissolution of the Union." He hoped
congress would modify the obnoxious law. But in the campaign
for reelection as governor which followed, he published a denial
that he was a "milliner." Auditor Hadley proposed that the South
ern States put a tax of fifty per cent, upon the sales of all articles
manufactured in the United States, which were benefited by the
protective tariff. "It would effectually shut out those articles from
the Southern markets, without which the manufacturers of them
could not long exist," and the market could be supplied by foreign
made goods. (Journal of House, 1833, p. 60.) On the subject of
the Indians the governor said : "The rapid emigration of the Choc
taws to their homes in the west will in a very limited time leave
us in undivided possession of the territory acquired by contract
from them by the general government."
At the same session the legislature authorized the sale of
bonds to the amount of $1,500,000 for the basis of additional
currency to be issued by the Planters bank, in confidence that the
great prosperity of the State would make easy the payment of the
bonds out of the bank profits. These bonds were sold to Northern
capitalists at New York in August, at a premium of 13 per cent.
The new constitution adopted in October, 1832, provided that the
governor and all officers, civil and military, should continue until
superseded pursuant to the provisions of the constitution. Tem
porarily, the first legislature was elected in December following, to
meet on the first Monday of January, and provided for an election
of State and county officers on the first Monday of May, 1833, to
serve until the succeeding general election, in November and after,
as if they had been chosen at that general election. The legislature
by act of March 2d, provided for the May election, also that the
regular general election of State and county officers, members of
legislature and congress, should occur on the first Monday of No
vember, and the day after, biennially. At the election of state
officers in May, 1833, Governor Scott was defeated by Hiram G.
Runnels, the vote being 6,675 to 6,117. Governor Scott continued
in office, however, until his death.
The cholera, scattered along the Mississippi river, from New
Orleans to St. Louis, appeared at Natchez in March, 1833, and from
the river towns it spread inland. Governor Scott remained at Jack
son to transact the public business, after many had fled, and was
taken with the disease in the evening of June 12, 1833, and died at
the home of Col. Grimball, at 11 p. m. The president of the sen
ate, Charles Lynch, was acting governor until after the time of the
November election, when Governor Runnels took office as if he
had been elected then. The succession of officers in this transi
tion period is difficult to ascertain, because laws and journals are
missing. But the facts are as above stated. The State officers
through this administration were the same as in the Brandon ad
ministration.

628 MISSISSIPPI
Scott, Charles, chancellor of the State from 1853 to 1857, was
born at Knoxville, Tenn, November 12, 1811. He was a son of
Edmond Scott, for thirty years circuit judge of the Knoxville dis
trict; was a grandson of Maj. Joseph Scott, wounded at the battle
of Germantown and afterward United States marshal of Virginia,
whose brother Gen. Charles Scott, was famous in the Indian wars
on the Ohio, and later governor of Kentucky. Chancellor Scott be
gan the practice of law at Nashville, but soon moved to Jackson,
Miss, and became a partner of George S.» Yerger, who married his
sister. As chancellor he entered the decree in the famous case of
Johnston vs. The State, asserting the liability of the State for the
payment of the bonds of the Union bank, affirmed by the high court
of errors and appeals, but overruled by the popular vote. In 1859
he removed to Memphis, but returned to Jackson, in 1861, de
termined to cast his lot with the State with which he had been so
long identified. But he died at Jackson, May 30, 1861. He was
grand master of the Mississippi grand lodge of Masons in 1850,
and author of two books that were widely circulated in the frater
nity throughout the United States. He was deeply read in liter
ature, and was devoted to poetry and sacred literature; "a man of
noble candor and knightly courtesy."
Scott County was organized December 23, 1833, and was named
in honor of Abram M. Scott, seventh Governor of Mississippi. The
act which established the county defined its boundaries as follows:
"Beginning at the northwest corner of Jasper county, and running
from thence north, with the line between ranges 9 and 10 east, to
the line between the townships 8 and 9 ; from thence west with
said line to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east ; from thence south
with said line to the western boundary of the Choctaw nation;
from thence directly south, to a point directly west of the line, be
tween townships 4 and 5 ; and from thence east with said line to
the place of beginning." February 8, 1838, the county was enlarged
by the addition of "all that portion of territory lying east of Pearl
river and the old Choctaw boundary line, designating the dividing
line between the Indian and white settlements prior to the treaty of
Dancing Rabbit creek, in 1830, from the point where the said
boundary line crosses Pearl river, to the point where the same
intersects the present western boundary line of the county of
Scott." It is now a nearly square area of land in the center of the
State, containing about 584 square miles of territory, and was one of
the sixteen counties formed at the above time from the territory
ceded by the Choctaws in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, September
27, 1830. It is bounded on the north by Leake county, on the east by
Newton county, on the south by Smith county and on the west by
Rankin county; the old Choctaw boundary line, treaty of Doak's
Stand, October 18, 1820, forms part of the western boundary be
tween Scott and Rankin, and the Pearl river, in the extreme north
west corner separates it for a short distance from the county of
Madison. The first members of the Board of Police for the county
were John Dunn, President of the Board; James Russell, Wade H.

MISSISSIPPI 629
Holland, Stephen Berry and Jeremiah B. White. The first sheriff
was John Smith, the first Clerk of the Probate Court, Nicholas
Finley, and Wm. Ricks, Sr, was the first Probate Judge, and served
in that capacity for several years. Besancon's Annual Register, for
1838, gives the following list of county officers at that time: M.
Patrick, E. Smith, J. L. Denson, J. Summers, J. Carr, members of
the Board of Police; J. J. Chambers, Clerk of the Circuit Court;
J. J. Chambers, Clerk of the Probate Court ; Wm. Ricks, Sr, Probate
Judge; J. B- White, Sheriff, Assessor and Collector; A. Eastland,
Ranger and Coroner; M. D. Young, Treasurer; W. J. Denson,
Surveyor. The original county seat was located at Berryville, about
four miles southwest of Forest, but after the streets were laid out,
it was abandoned within twelve months and the court house was
removed to Hillsboro in the fall of 1836, where it remained for
thirty years. (See Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical
Memoirs of Mississippi, Vol. 1, p. 244.) It was finally removed to
Forest, on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R, which is a thriving little
town of 1,000 people and the center of trade for the region round
Aout it for some distance. Some of the other towns are Harper
ville (pop. 130), noted for the excellence of its Collegiate Institute
and schools; Morton (pop. 200) and Lake (pop. 236), situated on
the railroad, and Pulaski (pop. 200), Ludlow, Norris and McDill.
The Alabama & Vicksburg R. R. runs through the center of the
county from east to west and affords an outlet for the products
of the county. The numerous creeks in the northern and south
western sections are tributaries of the Pearl river, and those in the
eastern and southeastern part are tributary to the Leaf river. Most
of the county is undulating in character, with some level stretches
on the creek and river bottoms, and some hilly portions. About
one-third of the acreage is improved and the timber growth con
sists of long and short leaf pine, oaks, hickory, poplar, beech, red
and sweet gum, etc. Scott county lies in the central prairie region
of the State and the soil is extremely varied in character. Sandy in
the hills, scattered patches of black prairie, pine and bottom lands.
The "reed brakes" are very fertile and when properly drained and
cultivated, produce from 50 to 80 bushels of corn to the acre.
Considerable limestone and extensive beds of marl are found in the
county, providing excellent fertilizers, which have been extensively
applied at small cost. The last census reports an expenditure of
$19,756 in the county for fertilizers for the year 1900. Much of the
county is readily cultivated and the products are those common to
the middle section of the State and the yield good. Fruits and vege
tables do well and it has all the requirements of a good stock
country, as Bermuda and other grasses grow luxuriantly. Manu
factures have attained a small start; there is a large spoke factory
near Lake, and a number of other manufactories elsewhere.
The following statistics were taken from the twelfth United
States census and , relate to farms, manufactures and population :
Number of farms 2,083, acreage in farms 236,061, acres improved
70,943, value of the land exclusive of buildings $599,310, value of

630 MISSISSIPPI
buildings $330,910, value of live stock $376,662, total value of
products not fed to stock $687,820. Number of manufactures 28,
capital invested $85,570, wages paid $12,695, cost of materials used
$44,461, total value of products $86,047. The population in 1900
consisted of whites 8,107, colored 6,209, total 14,316, increase of
2,576 over the year 1890. The population in 1906 was estimated at
16,000 which shows a prosperous growth. The total assessed val
uation of real and personal property in Scott county in 1905 was
$1,681,235 and in 1906 it was $2,828,525 showing an increase of
$1,147,290 during the year.
Scranton, the old county seat of Jackson county, which was
recently incorporated with Pascagoula under the name of Pas
cagoula, Was named for the important city of Scranton in Penn
sylvania. It was known far and wide for many years as Mis
sissippi's only seaport, and does an enormous lumber manufac
turing and shipping business. The city is a thriving station
on the Louisville & Nashville R. R, located immediately on the
Gulf, and the Federal Government has expended over a half million
dollars making a ship canal from Horn Island Harbor into the Pas
cagoula river, at whose mouth it is situated. The Pascagoula river
and its tributaries drain some thirteen counties of the State and af
ford the means of outlet and transportation for the logs and timber
of all these counties. The port here is the distributing point for
this immense output of timber, and the annual product of the mills
in this neighborhood approximates 100,000,000 feet of lumber,
which is shipped from here to all parts of the world. The city, in
cluding old Pascagoula, contains about 4,000 inhabitants, while
in its immediate vicinity some 12,000 more people are congregated.
It is a modern city in every sense of the word, equipped with tele
graph, telephone, express, electric lighting, waterworks and ample
banking facilities. An electric road connects the city with Moss
Point on the north, and beautiful shell drives extend from Scranton
to the neighboring towns. The Federal census of 1900 credits
the city with a number of large manufacturing establishments,
whose output in the previous year was nearly a third of a million
dollars. Its importance as a seaport will continue to grow with
the development of the State. See Pascagoula.
Scutch, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Claiborne county,
about 16 miles from Port Gibson, the county seat. The station of
Utica is the nearest railroad and banking town.
Sears, Claudius W, was commissioned colonel of the 46th Mis
sissippi regiment, December 11, 1862, which became a part of Bald
win's brigade, of the army for the defense of Vicksburg. He and
his men took part in the famous defeat of Sherman at Chickasaw
Bayou, soon after the organization of the regiment, and repelled
the Federal attacks at Fort Pemberton early in 1863. After fight
ing at Port Gibson May 1, they served in the trenches at, Vicks
burg, through the siege. For several months following they were
under parole, but on being exchanged the regiment was again on
duty, and, upon the death of General Baldwin, early in 1864, Col-

MISSISSIPPI 631
onel Sears was in command of the brigade. He was commissioned
brigadier-general March 1, 1864. His brigade was the only part
of the army under General Polk that reached Georgia, in the spring
of 1864, in time to take part in the battle of Resaca. During the
remainder of that campaign he was on active duty until the siege
of Atlanta, when he was disabled by illness. He was distinguished
at the battles of Allatoona and Franklin, under General Hood;
commanded his brigade, under Forrest, in the siege of Murfrees
boro, and finally was with his men on the lines about Nashville,
where, December 15, 1864, he was severely wounded, causing the
loss of a leg, and was made a prisoner of war. On the close of hos
tilities Gen. Sears returned to his home in Mississippi.
Sebastopol, a post-hamiet in the extreme northeastern corner of
Scott county, about 18 miles from Forest, the county seat. It has
two churches and two stores. Population in 1900, 43.
Secession, 1860-61. For preliminary events, see the following.
administration articles : Matthews, Quitman, Guion-Whitfield,
¦ Foote, McRae, McWillie, and Pettus; also Constitutional Conven
tion of 1851, and Nashville Convention. See also Runnels Adm.,
and Bingaman, A. L.
The general causes which led up to the Secession movement and
to the bold and decisive steps taken by the Southern States in 1860-
61, it is now possible to discuss without passion or prejudice. It is
certainly true that for many years after the formation of the Repub
lic few would have questioned the legal theory upon which the
Southern Commonwealths based their right to withdraw from the
Union, whatever resistance -might have been offered to actual with
drawal. The wise men of 1787 were forced to appease many jeal
ousies and to adjust many delicate situations before the constitu
tion could win the necessary support to insure its adoption by the
States. This brought about the many well known compromises of
the constitution, together with some significant omissions in the in
strument. If the right of secession was nowhere mentioned, neither
was it negatived ; nor was there anywhere a grant of power to the
National government to coerce a recalcitrant State. The prevail
ing early view of the constitution and the nature of the Union is
well illustrated in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798 ;
in the attitude of those New England States which condemned the
embargo laid upon shipping by the National government in 1808,
declared it unconstitutional and refused to enforce it; in 1812,
when Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to honor the requi
sition of the President for the use of the militia of those States
without their borders, on the ground that the act of Congress au
thorizing the requisition was unconstitutional; in 1828-30, when
Georgia refused to obey an act of Congress regarding the Chero
kee Indians, and defied the Federal authority; and finally in 1832,
when South Carolina through State convention and by legislative
enactment declared null and void the tariff imposed by Congress,
and was prepared to secede if necessary. All these incidents serve
to show that the secession idea was no new one. Those States

632 MISSISSIPPI
which finally seceded in 1861 justified their course by the claim
that the National Union was formed by a compact between inde
pendent States, each of which could judge for itself, whether the
compact had been violated, and secede for such violation. A State,
by virtue of its individual, sovereign right, could repeal or withdraw
its act of acceptance of the constitution, as the basis or bond of
union, and resume the powers which had been delegated and
enumerated in that instrument. This action was that of the people
of the State, in the assertion of a power above that of Federal or
State governments.
Apart from the legal grounds upon which the right of secession
was based, the interests of the North and the South had grown
widely apart. In the progress of the years the social and economic
development of the two sections had diverged more and more. The
South believed that its enormous agricultural interests, and its
peculiar institution of African slavery, were in grave peril, and that
Seward's "irrepressible conflict" could not be long deferred. It felt
that slavery was an indispensible economic necessity in the produc
tion of its great staples, cotton and tobacco — products which had
made her rich and prosperous. Its future depended on the perpet
uity of its industrial system, now gravely threatened by the results
of the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency — a man who
had declared that he looked forward to seeing slavery "put where
the people would be satisfied that it was in course of ultimate ex
tinction." Many events had tended to intensify the feeling between the
sections. The South resented the charge of moral guilt for the
original introduction of slavery. There was certainly no basis for
this charge, as the South was no more responsible than the North.
The selfish commercial policy of England denied the colonies any
choice in the matter ; they were obliged to permit the slave-trade
and to receive the slaves. Before the year 1808 when the Federal
constitution authorized Congress to act in the matter, all the lead
ing Southern States had voluntarily abolished the foreign slave-
trade. It is a fact, familiar to all southerners that the South only
tolerated the domestic slave-trade, as the best means for the proper
economic distribution of the slave population. General hatred, and
social ostracism were the lot of the slave-trader. Again, the South
believed that the people of the North condoned, if they had not
actually abetted the mad act of the fanatic John Brown. Every
southerner realized what a hideous danger a slave insurrection
meant to southern homes. The South felt and demanded that slav
ery was entitled to statutory protection wherever it existed in the
Territories in obedience to the law as enunciated in the Dred Scott
decision. The failure of many of the northern States to enforce
the provisions of the fugitive slave law was especially exasper
ating. The great political struggle of 1860 was ushered in by the battle
in Congress, begun in December, 1859, over the election of a speaker
of the house. The Democrats nominated Bocock, of Virginia; the

MISSISSIPPI 633
Douglas Democrats, John Davis; the Republicans, John Sherman.
The Republicans were in a minority of one, if the opposition could
combine, but it could not. Voting being useless the house fell to
discussion which was little removed from fighting. Some personal
encounters occurred. "It was whispered about that a majority of
members on both sides went constantly armed in expectation for
general affray, and such a calamity was no doubt apprehended."
(Reuben Davis, Recollections.) After nine weeks a Democrat of
New York made his choice of a Republican for speaker and he was
elected. Before the adjournment of Congress the nominations for
president were made.
When the Democratic national convention met at Charleston,
April 23d, Mississippi was represented by a brilliant delegation,
including Jefferson Davis, W. S. Barry, L. Q. C. Lamar, Charles
Clark, Jacob Thompson, J. W. Matthews and S. J. Gholson. The
delegation reported the demand of Yancey, that the platform must
declare for protection by Congress of slave property, the attitude
to which the Southern Democrats had advanced from non-interven-
€on. This was simply a demand for strict compliance with the
doctrine of the recent Dred Scott decision. The policy was stated
by Albert G. Brown, in a letter published in the Aberdeen Sunny
South: "The whole power of the government, in all its depart
ments, is to be used, as soon as we get hold of it, to protect our slave
property in the territories and on the high seas, in the same way
and to the same extent that other kinds of property are protected."
The Northwestern Democrats, mainly, rejected this principle
and a platform was adopted which left slavery to the voice of the
inhabitants of the territories, which was the Douglas policy. There
upon the delegations of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas,
and scattering members of other delegations, seceded from the con
vention. The convention ballotted 57 times, but Douglas failed to
receive a two-thirds vote, and it then adjourned to meet at Balti
more June 18. Mr. Davis opposed this rupture, "because he knew
we could achieve a more solid and enduring triumph by remaining
in and defeating Douglas. . . . But there was no holding back
such men as Gen. Clark, Thompson, Matthews and Judge Gholson.
They forced Alabama to stand to their instructions and then stood
by her." (Letter of Lamar to Mott, May 29th). Afterward Mr.
Davis sent out an address advising the return of the delegates to
Baltimore, and Lamar signed it with him.
At Baltimore, Mississippi and South Carolina refused to partici
pate unless all the delegates from the seceding States were ad
mitted. There were contests, decided against the anti-Douglas
men, and the Southern party again seceded. The remainder of the
convention nominated Douglas for president. The Southern party
met at Richmond, adjourned back to Baltimore, and there, in
June, nominated Breckinridge. Meanwhile, in May, the Constitu
tional Union party, identical with the Foote party in Mississippi,
had held a convention at Baltimore and nominated John Bell, of
Tennessee. It was mainly a Southern party, in fact, but had hopes

634 MISSISSIPPI
of national support. The Republican party had a convention at
Chicago in May also, and nominated Abraham Lincoln. Thus there
were two Northern and two Southern parties. Both sets were di
vided on the old Whig and Democrat issues, but in the South the
actual issue between the Breckinridge and Bell parties was seces
sion, as the election of Lincoln was considered certain.
In Mississippi the Bell men denounced the Democrats as having
always bred dissension and never having done anything to heal it.
If Breckinridge and Douglas were the only candidates the issue
would be the same, they said. The Natchez Courier (Whig) de
clared the Breckinridge ticket was supported by Southern section
alism and Buchanan corruption. It asked, "Will you follow Yancey
and his clique in their mad scheme of precipitating the cotton States
into a revolution and bring upon yourselves the horrors and deso
lation of civil war?"
When Congress adjourned, "Members from the South purchased
long-range guns to take home with them," says Reuben Davis.
"The unthinking among them' rejoiced that the end was in sight,
but those who considered more deeply were dismayed by the pros
pect. It was regarded as almost certain that Lincoln would be
elected, unless Breckinridge or Douglas could be withdrawn from
the field, and it was idle to hope that this could be done." Gillings
of Ohio, a famous Abolitionist, demanded a candidate in opposition
to Lincoln, but that movement had little strength in the North.
"The presidential campaign was, as was inevitable, one of extraor
dinary violence."
The Breckinridge electoral ticket was headed by Henry T. Ellett
and A. K. Blythe. The Bell ticket was, John W. C. Watson, Amos
R. Johnston, T. B. Mosely, William A. Shaw, W. B.-Helm, Sylva
nus Evans, Gustavus H. Wilcox. The Douglas ticket was, Samuel
Smith, Franklin Smith, B. N. Kinyon, R. W. Flournoy, E. Dis-
mukes, Henry Calhoun, Edmund McAllister. The campaign was
characterized, as it was in the North, by considerable military
parade. The Union party had its big rallies, at Natchez, Jackson,
Vicksburg, and elsewhere, as well as the Democrats, and there were
many torch light processions. There was a Union meeting at Jack
son, early in October, under the management of Fulton Anderson,
Judge Sharkey, the Yergers, R. L. Buck and many other prominent
men. But there was not much doubt as to what the result would
be. In October the Union men, knowing the settled program,
were calling attention to the resolutions of the Convention of 1851,
that a convention was illegal without first letting the people vote
on the calling of it.
Mississippi gave an overwhelming majority to Breckinridge.
(See Presidential elections). But Breckinridge was in a vast
minority in the Union. According to the constitutional method
of election, provided to protect the States from consolidation, Mr.
Lincoln was assured of 180 electoral votes, a half more than all his
opponents together. Bell carried 39 votes, Breckinridge 72, Doug
las 12. The popular vote of the United States was by no means so

MISSISSIPPI 635
decisive. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes; Douglas, 1,375,157;
Breckinridge, 847,953; Bell, 590,631. The great vote for Douglas
was in the north and carried very few States. The total opposition
vote to the Republicans was 2,823,741, — a majority of almost a mil
lion, in a total vote of about four millions and a half. The oppo
sition to Lincoln had polled 1,288,611 in the North and West alone.
In Lincoln's own State, Illinois, the opposition vote only lacked
three thousand of that polled by the Republicans. It was really a
narrow victory, and it was the part of wisdom for the Republican
leaders to move cautiously.
In 1858, in the famous debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln
had said : "I am not nor ever have been in favor of making vote.rs
or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to
intermarry with white people ; and I will say, in addition to this,
that there is a physical difference between the white and black
races, which I believe will forever forbid the two races living to
gether on terms of social and political equality." At the same time
Jie felt and said that the Union could not permanently endure, half
slave and half free labor; but he was disposed to be very patient
with the South, as he confessed he could not see the solution of the
problem. One of the clearest minded men of his age, he saw the
equal truth of the two great facts involved, one social and the other
industrial, and both hopelessly mixed up in the most rampant sec
tional politics. Because of this "irrepressible conflict" of two truths
he was absolutely uncompromising regarding the extension of slav
ery, and so was his party. As indicating a hostile attitude, there
was quoted in the South his generalization of 1859 : "This is a
world of compensation, and he who would be no slave must consent
to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it
not for themselves and under a just God cannot long retain it."
Also, "No man is good enough to govern another man without the
other's consent. I say this is the leading principle — the sheet an
chor of American Republicanism." (Quoted in T. J. Wharton's
secession address to Tennessee.)
November 13th Governor Pettus issued a proclamation, that,
"Whereas, the recent election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin dem
onstrates that those who neither reverence the Constitution, obey
the laws, nor reverence their oaths, have now the power to elect to
the highest offices in this Confederacy men who sympathize with
them in all their mad zeal to destroy the peace, prosperity and
property of the Southern section, and will use the power of the
Federal government to defeat all the purposes for which it was
formed; and whereas, the dearest rights of the people depend for
protection under our constitution on the fidelity to their oaths of
those who administer the government," he called the legislature
to provide "surer and better safeguards for the lives, liberties and
property of her citizens than have been found, or are to be hoped
for in Black Republican oaths." Gov. Pettus also invited the Con
gressional delegation to meet him in conference at Jackson. All
attended but McRae. Diverse opinions were maintained. Some

636 MISSISSIPPI
opposed separate State action in secession. Some were opposed to
secession, unless eight other States would consent to go out at the
same time. Finally Reuben Davis proposed that the governor
should recommend a convention to adopt an ordinance of secession
to take effect immediately. This was carried by the votes of Gov
ernor Pettus, O. R. Singleton, William Barksdale arid Reuben
Davis. The governor then showed the conference a telegram from
the governor of South Carolina asking advice as to whether the
South Carolina ordinance should take effect immediately or on the
4th of March, and the same four votes were cast to give the advice,
"immediately." (R. Davis, Recollections, 390. Also, see Mayes'
Lamar, p. 87.)
When the legislature convened at Jackson, November 26, the
message of the governor was immediately delivered. He declared
they had before them "the greatest and most solemn question that
ever engaged the attention of any legislative body on this conti
nent," one that involved "the destiny, for weal or for woe, of this
age, and all generations that come after us, for an indefinite num
ber of generations, the end of which no prophet can foretell." He
said the Northern States had decided "that slavery is sinful and
must be destroyed," and that it only remained for the Southern
States "to choose whether it shall be a peaceable and gradual aboli
tion or speedy and violent." These were hard terms, and he argued
that from the resistance to the fugitive slave law and the popular
sympathy with John Brown that "the lives, liberty and property
of the people of Mississippi" would not be safe under Republican
rule. He saw but one path of honor and safety for Mississippi, to
separate as Abraham parted from Lot. "That Mississippi may
be enabled to speak on this grave subject in her sovereign capacity
I recommend that a convention be called, to meet at an early date."
He argued at length the doctrine of a reserved right of secession
by the States of the Union, and declared that this was the great
saving principle to which alone the Southern States could look and
live. "This saving principle must perish under Black Republican
rule. Then go down into Egypt while Herod reigns in Judea — it
is the only means of saving the life of this Emanuel of American
politics." In after years he hoped, when "Black Republicans" had
passed away, to come back "under the benign influences of a re
united government." "If we falter now," he said in conclusion,
"we or our sons must pay the penalty in future years, of bloody,
if not fruitless, efforts to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the State,
which if finally unsuccessful must leave our fair land blighted —
cursed with Black Republican politics and free negro morals, to
become a cesspool of vice, crime and infamy. Can we hesitate!
when one bold resolve, bravely executed, makes powerless the
aggressor, and one united effort makes safe our homes? May the
God of our fathers put it into the hearts of our people to make it."
Among the members a written plan of a Confederacy was freely
circulated. (Published in the Mississippian of December 4th).
"The States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida are

MISSISSIPPI 637
believed to be ready to go out of the Union," this began. "To these
States, let commissioners be appointed now by the State," etc.
Thus exhorted the legislature passed, November 28th, the Con
vention bill, reported by Charles Clark in the house. It provided
that an election of delegates to a convention should be held in each
county, Thursday, December 20th, each county to have as many
delegates as it had representatives in the legislature. Originally
the bill would have allowed any "citizen" to be a delegate, but the
senate inserted an amendment requiring one year's residence in
the State. The delegates elected were to meet at the Capitol, Mon
day, January 7, 1861, and "proceed to consider the then existing
relations between the government of the United States and the gov
ernment and people of the State of Mississippi, and to adopt such
measures of vindicating the sovereignty of the State, and the pro
tection of its institutions as shall appear to them to be demanded."
On the following day resolutions were adopted requesting the
governor to appoint Commissioners "to visit each of the slave-hold
ing States," to inform them of the action of the Mississippi legisla
ture, "express the earnest hope of Mississippi that those States
will cooperate with her in the adoption of efficient measures for
their common defence and safety," and appeal to the governors
to call the legislatures into extra session where that had not been
done. Another resolution requested the State officers to prepare
a device for a coat of arms for the State of Mississippi, to be ready
by the 7th of January. Delay was not to the taste of the legisla
ture. Senator Buck's resolve that it would not be proper to take
final action without consultation with the sister slave-holding
States, was lost, 27 to 3. The resolutions adopted by a large ma
jority, after reciting the grounds for complaint, said, "That in the
opinion of those who now constitute the State legislature, the seces
sion of each aggrieved State is the proper remedy for these in
juries." The legislature adjourned November 30.
The governor appointed the following commissioners, who vis
ited the other States, and addressed the legislatures and people :
Henry Dickinson, to Delaware ; A. H. Handy, to Maryland ; Wal
ker Brooke and Fulton Anderson, to Virginia; Jacob Thompson,
to North Carolina; G. S. Gaines, to Florida; W. L. Harris and
Thomas W. White to Georgia ; W. S. Featherston, to Kentucky ;
Thomas J. Wharton, to Tennessee; Joseph W. Matthews, to Ala-.
bama ; Daniel R. Russell, to Missouri ; George R. Fall, to Arkansas ;
Wirt Adams, to Louisiana ; H. H. Miller, to Texas ; C. E. Hooker,
to South Carolina. Mississippi was herself visited by like commis
sioners. Colonel Armistead, from South Carolina, and E. W.
Pettus, brother of the governor, from Alabama, attended the Jan
uary convention.
While preparations were going on for confederation and war,
Congress was talking compromise, and the famous Crittenden res
olutions were proposed. Said the Natchez Free Trader: "They
come too late. They never will be agreed to by the South." They

638 MISSISSIPPI
were not in fact given serious consideration anywhere. (See Con
vention of 1861.)
Seigers, a postoffice of Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R.
R, 6 miles south of Jackson.
Selden, a postoffice in the extreme northeastern part of Tippah
county, 2 miles east of Brownfield station on the Mobile, Jackson
& Kansas City R. R, arid 20 miles from Ripley, the county seat.
Selfcreek, a hamlet of Oktibbeha county, 12 miles due west of
StarkviUe, the county seat. Population in 1900, 75.
Selma, a postoffice of Adams county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R, about 9 miles from Natchez.
Selsertown, an extinct settlement in Jefferson county, which was
situated on the extreme southern limits of the county, about six
miles from the old town of Washington in Adams county. The old
Natchez trace ran through this place, and early in the last century,
George Selser kept an inn here and gave the settlement its name.
We are told that the last owner of the old inn was one John Mc-
Collum, who proclaimed his nationality by the sign in front of the
stables, "Intertainment for Man and Baste." Not long after the
War between the States, the old house and stables were burned.
In the vicinity of the old settlement was a large Indian mound,
which was investigated in 1838 by a party of scholars from Natchez.
Seminary, a village of Covington county, about 8 miles south-
' east of Williamsburg, the county seat. It is a thriving station on
the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad, 21 miles by rail from Hattiesburg.
It has a money order postoffice and an express office. The Bank of
Seminary was established here in 1905 with a capital of $30,000.
There is a large saw mill and a turpentine plant located here and the
town is prospering. It has three churches and a good school.
Population in 1900, 500.
Seminary Fund. By the public land act of 1803 congress reserved
from sale thirty-six sections, or 23,040 acres, for the use of a semi
nary of learning in the Mississippi Territory, incidental to the sur
vey of the Creek boundary line. After the division of the Terri
tory and the admission of the State of Mississippi, a substitute
act was approved February 20, 1819, granting the State, in addition
to the grant for Jefferson college, "another township, or a quantity
of land equal thereto, to be located in tracts of not less than four
entire sections each, which shall be vested in the legislature of the
said State, in trust, for the support of a seminary of learning there
in," the lands to be located by the secretary of the treasury when
the Indian title had been extinguished in suitable lands. The lo
cation was made by 1823. In 1825 the legislature authorized the
State auditor to lease the seminary lands for four years, bonds
being required for improvements and proper care. "The plantation
at the old Choctaw agency" was to be leased for three years to the
highest bidder. An act of 1827 required notice of leasing to be
given, and offer to the highest bidder. Further provision for leas
ing was made in 1830, proceeds to be paid into the State treasury.
An act of March 2, 1833, required the governor to appoint three

MISSISSIPPI 639
commissioners to estimate the value of the thirty-six sections,
whereupon the State auditor should advertise them for sale in tracts
of not less than a quarter section, to the highest bidder, at not less
than three-fourths the appraisement, three years credit to be given,
the proceeds of the notes given by the purchasers to be invested
in stock of the Planters' bank. The land was sold in 1833, all, with
the exception of half a section, in exchange for notes with approved
security, for the aggregate amount of $277,322. Gov. Lynch re
ported in 1835 that the notes were all due, with interest, making
the amount $310,00. Gov. McNutt, in 1839, said the notes were
generally well secured, "but many of them are under protest. The
late auditor, John H. Mallory, has embezzled a portion of the fund.
. . . Many of the drawers of the notes are dead, and others have
moved out of the State." A committee of the House in 1841 was of
the opinion that if due diligence had been used, more than three-
fourths of the large outstanding debt (about $168,000) could have
been collected. Auditor Saunders declared that in some instances
the land was occupied by persons not bound for the payment of the
same. In 1841 $163,513 was uncollected, $16,439 was in the State
treasury, and $137,189 had been invested in the Planters' bank.
An act of 1840 directed the selection of a site for a State univer
sity, and "all sums of money belonging or hereafter accruing to
the seminary fund, are hereby appropriated for the use and
benefit of the University of the State of Mississippi." The Semi
nary fund was created by act of July 26, 1843, to include "all moneys
which have accrued or may hereafter accrue from the sale of the
thirty-six sections, etc, and all bank stock, in which any such mon
eys shall have been vested," to be under the control of a commis
sioner appointed for four years, with authority to bring suits to re
cover the assets, assisted by the attorney-general The treasurer of
the State was required to keep an account of money paid on account
of the fund, credited it with interest at five per cent, on previous
receipt's, and thereafter eight per cent, interest.
At the beginning of his administration Gov. A. G. Brown said :
"Where is the seminary fund, is a question often asked but never
yet satisfactorily answered. . . . Our constituents will expect
of us some account of this munificent fund, and a speedy application
of it to the great purpose for which it has been set apart." In 1846
he said : "This fund was formerly collected through the agency
of the Planters' bank and by law it was invested in the stock of that
institution. It was a trust fund, so declared by the act of congress
making the donation of lands, out of which it sprung. The State,
as trustee, had no authority for investing it in the stock of any
bank; she did so, however, and $84,900, with several years' interest
on that amount, has been lost. The State is, in my opinion, under
the most solemn obligation to pay it back." At this time there was
in the State treasury of this fund, $103,000, and if all collections
were made, and the lost principal and interest refunded, the total
fund would be $250,000.
An act of 1848 fixed the rate of interest at six per cent, to be

640 MISSISSIPPI
paid on the amount then standing on the books and afterward to
be received. Gov. McRae urged the obligation of the State in 1856.
A calculation was then made, showing the gross liability of the
State on account of this fund to have been, January 1, 1857, $1,-
077,790, considering the State accountable for what had been lost
as well as the part collected. In 1869 the State treasurer's books
showed a total credit in favor of the fund of $89,000. Gov. Alcorn
in 1871 urged that the fund be restored as a debt of the State, and
calculated that on the basis of Auditor Saunder's statement for
1841, "the amount which the State now owes the University is
about $650,000."
The action taken prior to 1876 was the payment to the University
of an annual allowance of $50,000, to cover what interest might be
due from the State upon the fund. Subsequently the allowance
was reduced, but in 1880 a settlement was made, so that the fund
was accounted for by including an estimate of the amount due in
the debt of the State. It appeared in the debt statement after 1880
as $544,061, on which interest is paid at 6 per cent, annually by the
State. Another section was donated for the University by the United
States in 1894, and was sold by the State for $138,668. This amount
was added to the State debt to the University endowment fund,
which is given in the last financial report as $688,410.
Senath, a hamlet of Monroe county, 6 miles northeast of Aber
deen, the county seat. It has rural free delivery from Aberdeen.
Senatobia is the county seat of Tate county, situated near the
center of the county, on the line of the Illinois Central railroad.
Its name is an Indian word, meaning "white sycamore," or, accord
ing to another authority, "black snake." It was spelled in the
Chickasaw dialect Sen-a-ta-ho-ba. Senatobia was founded at the
time of the construction of the Mississippi & Tennessee (now the
Illinois Central) railroad, on land which belonged to Eli McMullen.
It was incorporated in 1856, and its first mayor was William Finney.
Subsequent mayors have been J. L. Medders, A. Motley, I. D.
Oglesby, William Atkinson, R. L. Wait, A. A. Royall, T. E. Neely,
J. C. Roseborough, J. F. Heard, J. F. Dean, W. J. East, J. B>.
Stamps, J. L. Medders, a former incumbent, N. A. Taylor, J. W.
Lauderdale, Harper Johnson and C. P. Varner. The county seat
was located here in 1873, when Tate county was first organized,
and the first county courts were held in Blackbourne's Hall. Its
population in 1900 was 1,156 and in 1906 it was estimated at 1,500.
The region about the town is an excellent fruit and vegetable
country, and a considerable business is done in shipping these
products of the soil to the nearby market of Memphis, distant 37
miles. The town also handles a large amount of cotton and corn.
About 15,000 bales of cotton are shipped from here annually. It
offers excellent advantages for brick and sewer pipe factories. It
has a handsome court house building, which was erected in 1875
by J. H. Cocke, at a cost of $19,800. An addition was made to the
¦court house in 1904, costing $5,000. The town is a separate school

MISSISSIPPI 641
district and maintains two excellent white schools and one negro
school, by local taxation. The Blackbourne College for white girls,
and the Senatobia high school for white boys, are each open 9
months in the year and are free to all children within the corporate
limits. There are more than 60 places of business in the town, and
many of the business houses are constructed of brick which were
manufactured within a quarter of a mile of the court house. The
only exception being a few new buildings for which the brick could
not be supplied here. The total assessed valuation of personal and
real property for 1905 was $668,378 ; the tax rate was 5>£ mills with
6 mills school tax. The town has a debt of only $2,100. With the ex
ception of the Roman Catholic, the principal denominations are rep
resented in the churches here. The town owns and operates its
electric lighting .and water works systems. There are two banks —
The Tate County Bank, established in 1891 wth a capital of $25,000,
and the Senatobia Bank, established in 1900, with a capital of
$30,000. There are two local papers published here — The Sena
tobia Democrat, a weekly Democratic paper, and The Baptist
Herald (colored), a religious paper. The industries of the town are
a large oil mill, capitalized at $55,000 ; a steam laundry, owned by
the citizens of the town ; a brick plant, blacksmith and repair shops,
and two cotton gins.
Senators, U. S. The first senators were elected by the legislature,
October 9, 1817 — Walter Leake and Thomas H. Williams, who took
their seats December 11.
Leake drew the short term, four years from March 4, 1817. He
resigned in 1820, and in January, 1821, David Holmes was unani
mously elected to the vacancy, also to serve six years from March
4, 1821. He resigned in 1825, and Governor Leake appointed Pow
hatan Ellis, September 28, 1825, ad interim. Ellis was a candidate
before the legislature in January, 1826, and received 21 votes, but
Thomas B. Reed received 23 and was elected for the unexpired
term of Holmes. In the next legislature, January, 1827, the verdict
was reversed (Ellis 27, Reed 16), and Powhatan Ellis was elected
for six years from March 4, 1827.
All this time, and until March 4, 1829, Thomas H. Williams
was the other senator, having been elected to a second term of six
years. In January, 1829, the legislature voted for a successor to
Williams— Thomas B. Reed, 34; Charles Lynch, 13; Thomas
Hinds, 3. Reed's term was six years from March 4, 1829. But he
died within the year, and the legislature in January, 1830, elected
Robert H. Adams to fill out his term, the vote being, Adams 24,
Joshua J. Child 3, George Poindexter 16, R. J. Walker 2. Adams
died in' the same year, and the governor appointed George Poin
dexter, October 14 ; and he was elected in November, receiving 41
votes to 6 for Judge Child. Consequently Poindexter was the ef
fective successor of Williams, to March 4, 1835.
' Powhatan Ellis resigned, 1832. The governor appointed James
C. Wilkins, who declined, and John Black was appointed. The ap
pointment was unanimously confirmed by the legislature January
41-11

642 MISSISSIPPI
31, 1833, and eleven ballots taken for the term following. John
Black, James C. Wilkins and P. Rutilius R. Pray were the candi
dates. Pray was gaining, when the senate withdrew, and the house
resolved that such action was "unparliamentary and out of order."
Black was subsequently elected. In. 1835 the legislature asked him
to resign because, he had opposed President Jackson. He resigned
in 1838.
The fight of Poindexter for reelection raged through 1834 and
1835. In January, 1835, a special session of the legislature was
called to elect, but the attempt to count in 16 new representatives
from the Choctaw counties caused the senate to refuse to recognize
the house, and the session was adjourned by the governor to pre
vent trouble. The vote for senator in January, 1836, was, — on the
first ballot— Robert J. Walker, 36; Franklin E. Plummer, 18;
George Poindexter, 23. Plummer gained, Poindexter lost, and
James C. Wilkins received as high as twelve votes. On the fifth
ballot Walker received 44, a majority of two, and was elected for
six years from March 4, 1835. He took his seat February 22, 1836.
In 1840 he was reelected. -S. S. Prentiss was put in nomination,
but his name was immediately withdrawn by Mr. Guion. The
vote was Walker 70, Prentiss 37, Smith 3, Black 2, Williams 1,
Foote 1, Poindexter 1. The resignation of Senator Walker was re
ceived February 21, 1845 ; Joseph W. Chalmers, of Marshall county,
was then appointed, and this was confirmed by legislative election
in January, 1846, for the remainder of the term, Chalmers receiv
ing 96 votes to 33 for George Winchester. At the same session,
for six years from March 4, 1847, Henry S. Foote was elected, 93
to 35, over Winchester.
At the election of senator vice Black, resigned, in January, 1838,
the vote was : James F. Trotter, 62, W. S. Bodley, 32, John Hen
derson, 25. Trotter was a Democrat or "loco-foco," the others both
Whigs. Trotter took his seat February 19, 1838, and resigned in
the same year. In January, 1839, to fill the unexpired term, Thomas
H. Williams received 60 votes ; John Henderson, 52. For the six
years from March 4, 1839, John Henderson, Whig, was elected,
receiving 59 votes; C. Pinckney Smith, 30; Thomas H. Williams,
19. At the senatorial election in 1844 Jesse Speight, of Lowndes,
received 78 votes; Roger Barton, of Marshall, 43; C. P. Smith, 6;
Joseph A. Marshall, 2. Jesse Speight died at his home in Lowndes
county May 1, 1847, and August 10 Col Jefferson Davis was ap
pointed to fill the vacancy, by the governor. January 11, 1848, the
legislature elected Davis by acclamation to fill out the term of Sen
ator Speight. At the election (to succeed Speight-Davis) February
11, 1850, Roger Barton received 8 votes, Jefferson Davis 64, A. G.
Brown 3, William A. Lake 4, John I. Guion 15, William L. Sharkey
8, Jacob Thompson 1, necessary to choice 65. On the second bal
lot Davis received 73, Barton 37, scattering 19, and Mr. Davis was
declared elected for six years from March 4, 1851.
Senator Foote became a candidate for governor in 1851, the is-

MISSISSIPPI 643
sue being one of national importance, and he had been censured
by the legislature as misrepresenting his State. He became a
candidate without resigning his seat in the senate. Senator Davis
after the withdrawal pf Quitman, became the opposing candidate
for governor, and at once resigned his seat, September 23. There
upon the acting governor of the State, appointed John J. McRae
to fill his place until the legislature should convene. Foote was
elected governor. McRae took his seat in December. Foote
also served in the senate until just before his inauguration.
February 7, 1852, Gov. Foote formally reported that there was
a vacancy on account of his resignation to be filled; that "Missis
sippi has only one senatorial representative now in Washington,
and he, holding his authority by executive appointment alone, is
unfortunately a gentleman who, whatever qualifications his friends
may attribute to him, is well known to entertain sentiments and
opinions highly dangerous in their character and tendency, and
which have been twice openly repudiated by the sovereign people
of the State, in two successive popular elections." He urged the
legislature to elect two senators who would support the compro-.
mise of 1850. He noted that the two houses were in disagreement
about the form of procedure in the election to fill the two vacancies,
and the election for the regular term to begin March 4, 1853, and
urged that an agreement be reached. The message was laid on the
table and ordered printed by a vote of 40 to 38. An agreement was
reached so that a joint ballot was taken for a successor to Foote,
February 18. Twenty-five candidates were voted for, Walker
Brooke receiving 42 votes, A. G. Brown 12, A. B. Bradford 9,
necessary to a choice 61. On the second and third ballots N. S.
Brown had 20 votes, and on the third Brooke was elected, receiving
61 votes. He was a1 Whig. On the following day the ballot was
for the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis. Stephen Adams, Union
Democrat received 66 votes, John J. McRae 47, scattering 4. It
was also the agreement that there should be a ballot on the 23d
for a senator for the full term beginning March 4, 1853, but the
house adjourned that day in memory of Jehu Wall, deceased.
Brooke took his seat March 11; Adams, March 17, 1852. The
State senate with a Democratic majority, of holdovers, refused to
take part in the election required by the State and National law.
The majority of the committee on the subject, of which O. R. Sing
leton was chairman, reported that there was a precedent in 1835
to sustain such action, , and that the mails brought word that the
legislatures of Alabama and Tennessee were likewise refusing to
elect. The reason was frankly stated : "The present legislature
was confessedly elected, under the pretended issue of Union or
dis-Union  all other considerations were merged in it. . . .
Your committee are clearly of the opinion that the legislature may
elect or not, to fill the term commencing March 4, 1853, as a sound
discretion may dictate." The legislature adjourned without an
election for the approaching full term.
The next legislature, elected in 1853, was strongly Democratic.

644 MISSISSIPPI
Gov. Foote resigned three days after delivering his message. Two
days later, January 7, 1854, the ballot was taken, -with this result:
Albert G. Brown, 76; Henry S. Foote, 22; William L. Sharkey,
7 ; William A. Lake, 3 ; A. K. McClung, 2 ; F. M. Rogers, 2 ; J. A.
Quitman, 1 ; J. D. Freeman, 1. Brown had 18 votes to spare. Gov.
Foote had made no appointment to fill the vacancy in the senate,
and Stephen Adams was the only senator during the session from
December 5, 1853, until Brown took his seat January 26, 1854.
His term was six years from March 4, 1853.
The contest for the senatorship in the legislature of 1856, for
the term beginning March 4, 1857, was between Jefferson Davis,
then a member of the cabinet of President Pierce, and Jacob
Thompson, for some years prominent as a congressman. Both
were of the same political sentiment, and the Democratic majority
in the legislature was overwhelming. The northern counties were
generally for Thompson, but Reuben Davis, Barry of Columbus,
and Green of Holly Springs, supported Davis. At the caucus the
latter had a majority of two, and next day he received 90 votes out
of 123 cast.
At the legislative session of November, 1857 Albert G. Brown
was elected almost unanimously (receiving 111 votes out of 115
cast) to succeed himself for the term beginning March 4, 1859. This
apparently premature election was because the time of secession
had been changed, and the legislature would not meet again regu
larly until November, 1859.
Davis and Brown were senators January 9, 1861, when the Mis
sissippi convention adopted the ordinance of secession. This was
in the midst of the second session of the 36th congress. Senator
Brown withdrew January 12 and Senator Davis January 21. Their
seats were declared vacant March 14, 1861.
During the Confederate period, the State held that it had with
drawn from the Federal compact and did not seek representation
in the United States congress until after the close of the war. The
first subsequent elections of senators were for the terms succeeding
those to which Davis and Brown were elected.
The first legislature after the close of the Confederate States
period, meeting in October, 1865, on the 19th elected William L.
Sharkey for the term beginning March 5, 1863 (to succeed Jeffer
son Davis). He received 102 votes, to 26 for Fulton Anderson.
For the term beginning March 5, 1865 (to succeed Brown), the first
ballot was William Yerger, 26 ; J. W. C. Watson, 19 ; W. S. Feath
erston, 6 ; James L. Alcorn, 40 ; S. J. Gholson, 21 ; E. C. Walthall,
10 ; Lock E. Houston (not nominated) 2. On the fourth ballot, on
the following day, after the names of Walthall, Watson and Feath
erston had been withdrawn, Alcorn was elected, receiving 74 votes
to 33 for Gholson and 19 for Yerger. When Congress met in De
cember, 1865, Sharkey and Alcorn were refused recognition until
an investigation had been made, and in the following year they were
excluded until further "reconstruction" (q. v.) had been brought

MISSISSIPPI 645
about. They had some recognition as "delegates," however, pend
ing the final exclusion.
The next election of senators was by the provisional session of
the legislature in 1870, January 19. For the term of six years be
ginning March 4, 1871, succeeding the vacant term to which Alcorn
had been elected in 1865, Gen. Alcorn was elected by a vote of 120
to 1 for Judge Sharkey. For the full term beginning March 4,
1869, to succeed the vacant term to which Sharkey had been elected
in 1865, Gen. Adelbert Ames was elected, receiving 94 votes, Gen.
Robert Lowry 24, Horace Greeley 1, J. L. Alcorn 1.
To fill out what remained of the vacant term, 1865 to 1871, five
ballots were taken. On the first the leaders were R. W. Flournoy
27, J. W. Vance 19, A. Alderson 21 ; B. B. Eggleston 19, J. W. C.
Watson 18. Flourney and Watson were "home" candidates. Wat
son was withdrawn, and on the third ballot Hiram R. Revels, a
negro army chaplain, received a considerable vote. The opposi
tion endeavored to unite on Vance, who came within ten votes of
election. Next day, Revels was elected by a vote of 81 to 38. He
•was not, as has been frequently stated by historians, "chosen to
fill the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis." He was in the suc
cession to Brown, but not to fill out even his term. No one filled
out the term of Mr. Davis. Judge Sharkey was elected to the
following term, 1863-69, and his successor, for 1869-75, as stated
above, was Gen. Adelbert Ames.
Senator Ames resigned in January, 1874, to become governor,
and February 4, Henry R. Pease was elected to fill out his term,
receiving 95 votes,, the opposition voting mainly for H. M. Street.
At the same, time Blanche K. Bruce, a mulatto, was elected for the
term 1875-81 to succeed Pease. Bruce was succeeded by George.
The first election of J. Z. George was in January, 1880. The
Democratic members were in overwhelming majority, but there
were 15 Greenbackers, whose choice for senator was Ethelbert
Barksdale. The Democrats took 49 ballots on nine successive even
ings in caucus, the candidates at first being Barksdale, O. R. Sing
leton and E. C. Walthall. Later the name of Gen. George was pro
posed. The houses met in joint convention to ballot, but voting
separately. The first ballot, January 21st, was : J. Z. George 35 ;
Ethelbert Barksdale 49, O. R. Singleton 52, A. M. West 13, B. K.
Bruce 2, Harris 1. Next day the Barksdale and Singleton vote
was given to George and he received 131 votes. Senator George
was reelected in 1886, one vote being cast in opposition, for Mr.
Alcorn. He was again reelected in 1892. At the regular session
of the legislature in 1896 H. D. Money was elected to succeed
Senator George at the expiration of his term in 1899. Senator
George died August 14, 1897, and Mr. Money was appointed by the
governor, October 11th, for the remainder of the term. He has
since continued in the office, the last election being in January,
1904, for the term beginning March 4, 1905.
Senator Alcorn was succeeded by L. Q. C. Lamar, elected Jan
uary 19, 1876, for the term 1877-83, the two houses voting separ-

646 MISSISSIPPI
ately and meeting in joint session to compare results. The aggre
gate was Lamar 114, blank "24. Lamar was reelected without op
position for the term 1883-89, but resigned March 5, 1885, to enter
Mr. Cleveland's cabinet. In his place Gen. E. C. Walthall was ap
pointed March 7, 1885, by Gov. Lowry, and when the legislature met
in 1886, he was elected for the remainder of the term, and afterward
for the" term 1889-95. One of the provisions of the Constitution of
1890 is that elections for full terms of six years can take place only
at regular sessions, which are held once in four years, though elec
tions to fill vacancies can be made at special sessions. As Senator
George's term would expire in 1893, and Senator Walthall's in
1895, both Senators were reelected at the regular session in 1892,
Walthall for the term, 1895-1901. January 18, 1894, Senator Walt
hall, on account of ill health, resigned the remainder of the term
ending March 4, 1895, and the legislature, being in special session,
elected A. J. McLaurin for the unexpired period. General Walthali
resumed his seat, March 4, 1895, and served till his death, April 21,
1898. May 28 the governor appointed Will Van Amberg Sullivan
for the unexpired term. In January, 1900, the two houses failed to
concur in a joint session to count the vote for senator for the terms
ending and beginning March 4, 1901. But Mr. Sullivan was elected
for the remainder of General Walthall's term ; and for the full term,
Governor McLaurin was elected. Senator McLaurin was reelected
in January, 1904, for the term beginning March 4, 1907.
Senator McLaurin is in the Williams-Walker-Foote-Brown-Al-
corn-Lamar line of succession ; Senator Money in the Leake-Black-
Adams-Davis-Sharkey-George line.
In 1898 Governor McLaurin in his regular message recommended
a memorial to congress asking for an amendment to the constitution
requiring election of senators by the voters of each State. He said:
"Between plutocracy and democracy there can be no harmony.
They are in constant conflict in every land until one or the other
prevails. Every advantage gained and fortified is an incentive to
further and more vigorous aggression on the part of the victor,
while it correspondingly demoralizes and weakens the loser. Every
change which puts the election of their officers more directly in the
hands of the people gives them greater strength and more power
and influence in public affairs."
Under the primary election law of 1902 senators are nominated
at the party primary elections, which, so far, have been held only by
the Democratic party. At the first primary election under this law,
in 1903, Senator McLaurin received 71,650 votes without opposi
tion, and the vote for the term 1905-11 was H. D. Money 59,758,
A. H. Longino 36,121.
Service, a post-hamlet of Jones county, on the Laurel branch of
the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, 6 miles northwest of Laurel, the
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 20.
Sessions, Joseph, a member of the constitutional convention of
1817, was born in Sampson county, N. C, and came to the Missis
sippi Territory in 1801 as a surveyor. He married the daughter of

MISSISSIPPI 647
Joshua Howard, who had settled on Sandy Creek when Natchez
district was under the British government. He was a member of
the Territorial council in 1806-08, and of the lower house in 1811-
12; declined the command of the First regiment of militia, to suc
ceed F. L. Claiborne in 1807, was appointed aide-de-camp to the
governor in 1809, and rendered important services during the war of
1813-15. He was elected representative from Adams county vice
Wm. Snodgrass, resigned, in 1814, served in 18i7-19 and' was sena
tor in 1821-22. Col. Sessions was the son of Richard Sessions, who
lived and died in Sampson county, N. C, and his mother was Esther
Boone, a niece of Daniel Boone. Jesse, a younger brother of Joseph,
followed him to Mississippi. His son, Maj. J. F. Sessions, an officer
of Powers' cavalry regiment, was elected to the railroad commis
sion in 1886.
Sessums, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Oktibbeha county,
on the Columbus branch of the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, 7 miles by
rail from StarkviUe, the county seat and nearest banking town.
It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 27.
§hands, Garvin D, was born December 5, 1844 in Spartanburg
district, S. C. He was the oldest son of Anthony C. and his wife
Frances J. (Ferguson) Shands. He was reared at the family home
in South Carolina and educated at Woodford college in that State.
At the outbreak of the war he enlisted in Manigault's battalion,
and at the end of one year in the 6th S. C. cavalry. His command
did service guarding the port of Charleston until 1864, when they
were transferred to Virginia for service under Gen. Wade Hamp
ton. He was in all of Hampton's battles from May, 1864, until the
surrender, when he was with Johnston's army at Hillsboro, N. C.
In 1867 he removed to Panola county, Miss, where he engaged in
teaching and read law for two years. He went to Tate county in
1869 and took his law degree at the University of Kentucky in
1870. He opened an office at Senatobia, where he built up an ex
tensive practice. He was a member of the legislature from 1876 to
1880; was lieutenant-governor of Mississippi from 1882 to 1890,
and in 1894 became professor of law in the University of Missis
sippi. In 1906 he resigned to accept a similar position in Tulane Uni
versity. In 1870 Gov. Shands was married to Mary E.. daughter of W. D.
Roseborough. They have five children. Their eldest son, Hubert
A, became fellow in English literature at the University of Mis-
sippi at the early age of eighteen.
Shankstown, an extinct town in Jefferson county, 6 miles north
of the historic old town of Greenville. In the early days the hotel
of the place was kept by a Mr. Shanks, who gave the settlement
its name. It was never regularly platted, but had a large number
of business houses, a few stores, and a number of shops.
Shannon, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of Lee
county, on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, 60 miles south of Corinth,
and 8 miles south of Tupelo, the county seat and nearest banking

648 MISSISSIPPI
town. The town is prosperous and growing rapidly. Population
in 1900, 434.
Sharkey, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, on the Yazoo
river, 15 miles southwest of Charleston, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 51.
Sharkey County was organized late in the history of the State,
March 29, 1876, and received its name in honor of Judge William
L. Sharkey, provisional Governor of the State in 1865. The county
has a land surface of 438 square miles. It was carved from territory
formerly belonging to the two counties of Washington and Issa
quena (q. v.), has a long, irregular shape, and lies entirely in the
Mississippi Bottom, in the west central part of the State. Deer
creek runs entirely through the county. It is bounded on the
north by Washington county, on the east by Yazoo county, the
Yazoo river and the Big Sunflower forming part of the crooked
boundary line, on the south by Issaquena county and on the west
by Washington and Issaquena counties. It is an exceedingly rich
and fertile district, but is still sparsely settled with a population
largely composed of negroes. The last decade, however, has seen
a large increase in population — about 25 per cent, according to the
census returns for 1900. The first officers of the county were, J.
H. Robertson, Sheriff; T. C. Watson, County Treasurer; J. G.
Davis, Assessor and Collector; Henry Pickard, Clerk of the Chan
cery and Circuit Courts ; Col. W. T. Barnard, President ; J. A. C.
Shrader, Eugene Clark, A. P. Ferguson, D. Hunt, were members
of the Board of Supervisors, appointed by the act which created
the county, and Rolling Fork was made the county seat by the
same act. There are no large towns in the county, the largest
being the county seat, Rolling Fork, which is a town of 1,000
people, in the west central part, on the line of the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Val. R. R. The Y. & M. V. R. R, traverses the county
from north to south and other towns along its line are Anguilla
(pop. 300), Cary (pop. 101), Egremont, Blanton, Smedes, Nitta-
yuma, Cameta, and Panther Burn. The streams in the county are
Deer creek, Little Sunflower and Big Sunflower rivers, navigable
for the greater portion of the year. The surface of the land is
level and the soil is alluvial, for the most part "buckshot," with
some sandy soil on the bayous and creeks. It produces abundant
crops of cotton, corn, oats, potatoes, sorghum, and all fruits and
vegetables common to this latitude. With careful cultivation, from
one to two bales of cotton, and thirty to sixty bushels of corn per
acre can be grown. The timber consists of white and red oak,
cottonwood, pecan, cypress, red and sweet gum. Pasturage is ex
cellent and stock thrive here all through the year. Churches and
schools (separate for- the two races) are found all over the county.
The healthfulness of the region has been distinctly bettered within
the last few years by tapping the underlying basin for artesian
water._ Possessed of the richest soil to be found in the world,
and with excellent shipping facilities by rail and water, this county
should continue to grow in wealth and population.

MISSISSIPPI 649
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth U. S. census
for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : Number
of farms 2,043, acreage in farms 80,362, acres improved 61,115, value
of land exclusive of buildings $2,222,100, value of buildings $463,-
300, value of live stock $416,466, value of products not fed to stock
$1,356,880. Number of manufacturing establishments 44, capital
invested $156,041, wages paid $12,959, cost of materials $45,586,
total value of products $115,021. The population in 1900 consisted
of whites 1,549, colored 10,729, total 12,178, increase over 1890,
3,796. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property
in Sharkey county in 1905 was $1,613,889 and in 1906 it was $1,750,-
517 which shows an increase of $136,628 during the year.
Sharkey, William Lewis, Chief Justice of Mississippi from 1832
to 1850, was born near the Mussel Shoals of the Holston river on
the East Tennessee path from the Atlantic coast to the Natchez in
the year 1797, at a period when the demand was being made upon
the Spanish government for the surrender of Mississippi to the
United States. He was of Irish ancestry, from which he inherited
tthe characteristic wit and fortitude. His father, Patrick Sharkey,
a native of Ireland immigrated to America with his brother
Michael, who afterwards held the rank of captain under Washing
ton. After the Revolution, Patrick Sharkey sought the Indian
border along the Holston. He married the daughter of a German
frontiersman, who bore him three sons: William Lewis, Jacob
Rhodes and James Elliott. William early developed great strength
of character. Born amid the wild splendor of nature, his life par
took of the environments of his birth, commingling the quiet majes
ty of the river with the loftiness of the rugged mountains. In 1803
the Sharkey family migrated to the famed Natchez country and set
tled on a little farm, in what is at present Warren county, near the
now extinct town of Warrenton, the first county seat. While yet
a lad, William offered his service to the army, and participated in
the battle of New Orleans. His parents, unable to stand the con
ditions of a new country, having died, quite early the boy was forced
to provide for himself and orphaned brothers. By his own exertions
he was enabled to attend college at Greenville, Tenn, and later
to read law at Lebanon. Having a decided taste for the profession
of law he continued its study under Judge Edward Turner at
Natchez. In 1822 he was admitted to the bar and opened an office
at Warrenton in 1825. When the county seat was moved from that
place to Vicksburg he located there and formed a partnership with
John I. Guion. His education was not scholastic in the full meaning
of the term, but possessing great native intellect and being an
unwearying student his progress to fame was rapid, and he was
soon recognized" as the ablest lawyer at the Vicksburg bar.
His first public office was that of a member of the legislature,
1828-29, when he was an influential member of the judiciary com
mittee; he was afterwards elected circuit judge. In 1832 the second
constitutional convention was held in Mississippi ; the constitution
adopted in 1817, in many respects, needed revision. One of the pro-

650 MISSISSIPPI
visions of the new constitution was the establishment of a High
Court of Errors and Appeals, the three judges to be elected by the
people for a term of six years each, one of whom was to be Chief
Justice. Judge Sharkey, though strongly opposed to an elective
judiciary, claiming that the supreme judgeship should be above
the whims and caprices of the people, was chosen one of the three
members of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. In that posi
tion he sternly opposed the popular policy of repudiation of the
Union Bank Bonds. At the Convention of the anti-repudiation
party at Jackson June, 1843, he would have been nominated for
governor had it not been for an appeal from S. S. Prentiss, who de
clared that Judge Sharkey could not be spared from the bench at
such a time. He was associated during his first term on the
supreme bench with Judges D. W. Wright and Cotesworth Pinck
ney Smith. These three being the first judges elected to this
position by the sovereign vote of the people. Judge Sharkey's
associates chose him for Chief Justice, which exalted office he filled
for four successive terms.
In 1849 a discussion of slavery agitated the minds of the people.
Should slavery be allowed in the newly acquired territory on the
Pacific, was the question of the hour. At a convention held in
Jackson, Miss, in October, 1849, a call was issued for a convention
of the Southern States to meet at Nashville, Tenn. in June of the
following year. Judge Sharkey was chosen president of this con
vention. The distinguished jurist believed that he saw in the situ
ation a question of equity between the States of the Union and
stood by his convictions with a fine courage and commendable
zeal. Referring to his attitude upon this occasion Foote says :
"He evinced a mingled courage and wisdom that tended much to
calm the excitement of that body and commanded the respect of
all true lovers of their country."
The political career of Judge Sharkey is a subject of great inter
est, and one which has in the past elicited much comment, favorable
and adverse. Some have lauded him highly as a jurist and excori
ated him as a politician. In political faith he was an Old Line
Whig, strictly adhering to its doctrine. As an accepted adherent of
this party he was proffered a position in the cabinet of President
Taylor in 1848, but declined the honor, preferring to remain on the
supreme bench of Mississippi. He was a close personal friend of
Henry Clay and warmly advocated the political principles of the
Great Pacificator. He was one of that distinguished coterie of
Whigs in Mississippi, of whom S. S. Prentiss, William Yerger,
and Alexander K. McClung were prominent leaders.
Oct. 1, 1850, Judge Sharkey resigned his office as Chief Justice
and returned to the practice of law, locating for that purpose at
Jackson. It has been said that he was moved to this step by
pecuniary embarrassment growing out of the insufficient salaries
at that time allowed the judiciary of the State. After retiring from
the bench, he built a home on the plot of ground, now known as
Poindexter Park, in the western portion of Jackson; and there in

MISSISSIPPI 651
the society of his amiable wife, and cultured and brilliant adopted
daughter, Fannie (later the wife of Col. Charles E. Hooker), he
spent the leisure and restful moments of his long and eventful
career. He was not, however, permitted to remain in the seclusion
of home enjoyments more than a few brief days at a time, but was
constantly called to public service. It was about this time that he
was invited by President Fillmore to serve as Consul to Havana
and adjust complications which had grown out of filibustering ex
peditions ; but, finding that the emoluments of the position had
been exaggerated he resigned and resumed his practice. "In the
critical year of 1850," says Foote, "he visited Washington City and
was able to make many valuable suggestions to individual congress
men that tended to pacify the rising storm of sectional strife." He
was at this time tendered by President Fillmore the office of sec
retary of war which he promptly declined, alleging his inexperience
in such a public function, and leaving the capital hurriedly to avoid
solicitation. In 1858 he exerted his powerful influence to prevent
the adoption by the State of the policy of the Vicksburg Conven
tion in favor of the re-opening of the African slave trade. He had
long before construed the constitution of 1832 as absolutely pro
hibiting the importation of negro slaves into Mississippi as mer
chandise. Thus, though not aggressive in an obnoxious sense of the term,
we find him always a fearless thinker, who refused to enslave him
self to public opinion. He was a man of decided personality and so
attracted men and inspired them with confidence, that, in hours
of necessity when a strong man was wanted they chose him with
out thought of his private opinion or political bias. In a character
sketch of him Rowland says: "In personal appearance Judge
Sharkey was a man of commanding and distinguished presence,
with great personal dignity and sincerity of manner, and with the
look of conscious power upon him. His career as a Judge was
marked by great common sense, sound judgment and a profound
sense of justice. Though not what we call learned in the science
of the law, his knowledge of it was extensive ; his mental equipment
was intensely legal, and he was quick to grasp the facts and apply
the law. On the bench he was patient, kind and attentive, and in
the discharge of all public duties was fearless, conscientious and
faithful." In 1854, under an act of the legislature William L. Sharkey,
William L. Harris and Henry T. Ellett were appointed to revise,
digest and codify the laws of the State. The work was completed
and presented to the legislature in 1856 ; was adopted by that and
a succeeding session and printed in 1857. In the matter of seces
sion Judge Sharkey was a Unionist, and, though his loyalty to his
State and section was never questioned he remained true to his
conviction as long as he lived. Of his position upon the question
of slavery Foote sympathetically says : "His known devotion to the
Union and aversion to uncalled for civil strife exposed him to no
little discomfort and harassment during the late, most deplorable

652 MISSISSIPPI
sectional conflict; but those lofty attributes of character which all
knew him to possess, and his patient and dignified conduct through
out that trying period caused him to be loved and respected by all
virtuous and well-intending citizens far more than he had ever
been before, and when the clash of arms had at last ceased to be
heard in the land, and the people of Mississippi were seeking to be
reconciled to the government against which they had been arrayed,
and to be readmitted into that sisterhood of States from which
they had for a time severed their connection, it was under the coun
sel and leadership of this venerable and trusted personage that
those desirable objects were ultimately obtained."
In 1865 Gov. Clark appointed William L. Sharkey and William
Yerger commissioners of the State to go to Washington to propose
a method of reconstruction. After they had accepted the North
Carolina plan, Judge Sharkey was appointed by President John
son provisional governor of the State. Johnson and Sharkey were
both from the State of Tennessee, a circumstance which worked
greatly in the latter's favor. Governor Sharkey's commission,
however, was complicated and his position perplexing. His office
was partly civic and partly military. Gen. Osterhaus, commander
of the Department of Mississippi, was to cooperate with him in re
storing and maintaining order in the State. Gov. Sharkey was to
receive a salary of $3,000 to be paid by the United States govern
ment, which he refused, saying that he would look to his people
for compensation for his services. He came in conflict with the
military authorities the first week of his incumbency, and the
Jackson Daily News wished to know who was the Governor,
Sharkey, Slocum or Osterhaus. The people of the State stood
solidly with Governor Sharkey, and aided him in the performance
of his duties to the extent of their ability. He issued a call for a
constitutional convention to make the constitution of Mississippi
accord with the existing constitution of the United States as the
President had outlined. The Convention was held, and was har
monious and orderly. Governor Sharkey and James L. Alcorn
were chosen United States Senators; but congress repudiated
President Johnson's plan of reconstruction and the senators-elect
from Mississippi, along with those of the other Southern States,
were refused seats in the Senate. Gov. Sharkey accepted this de
feat of his patriotic efforts with his usual dignity, and quietly
resumed his practice at Jackson. He died in Washington City
March 30, 1873. His remains were brought to Jackson and allowed
to rest in state in the rotunda of the old Capitol for the last honors
of a sorrowing people. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery of
Jackson and there were present at his funeral many distinguished
men from all parts of the State. The resolutions of the supreme
court, adopted May 19, 1873, referred to his life as one "made
honorable and distinguished by great public service, which con
ferred enduring public benefit," and recalled his integrity, firmness
and independence ; the mingled dignity and courtesy of his bear
ing on the bench; the simplicity, decorum and purity of his priv-

MISSISSIPPI 653
ate life; his steadfast devotion to constitutional liberty and his
pure and elevated patriotism.-
The memorial in Morris' State Cases classes Sharkey among the
great lawyers who have been the authors of the best precedents
and continues, "Their acts are the precedents themselves, which
grow brighter with receding years ; and to them the advocate of
the oppressed shall turn in ages to come and find encouragement
and strength in the struggle for the right. It is upon such founda
tion that must forever rest the pure fame of a Hardwicke and a
Mansfield. And upon it, with still more commanding consequence
to those respectively concerned, must rest the claims of such men
as John Marshall and William L. Sharkey."
Sharkey's Administration. William L. Sharkey was appointed
provisional governor of Mississippi, by proclamation of President
Andrew Johnson, as commander-in-chief of the army, following
the deposition of General Clark, who had been elected governor
during the Confederate States period. He was notified of his ap
pointment June 13, 1865, and on July 1 issued a proclamation to
his "fellow citizens of the State of Mississippi."
"The President of the United States, by virtue of the power
vested in him by the Constitution of the United States, has been
pleased to appoint the undersigned Provisional Governor of the
State of Mississippi, 'for the purpose of enabling the loyal people
of said State to organize a State Government, Whereby justice may
be established, domestic tranquillity insured, and loyal citizens pro
tected in all their rights of life, liberty and property.' And, to
accomplish that object, has directed me, 'at the earliest practicable
period, to prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary
and proper for convening a Convention of Delegates, to be chosen
by that portion of the people of said State who are loyal to the
United States, and no others, for the purpose of altering and
amending the Constitution thereof,' so that the State may be able
to resume its place in the Union. And being anxious to carry out
the wishes of the President, and to restore the dominion of civil
government as speedily as possible, I do hereby ordain and declare
as follows."
To avoid delay the governor directed the county and municipal
judges and other officials in office May 22 to resume their duties,
reserving the right to remove any one not loyal to the United
States government, and requiring each one to take the amnesty
oath. There were several classes of people, mainly those of high
office under the Confederacy, who were excepted from amnesty
except by special pardon by the president. These were excluded
from office, until pardoned, as many were through the recom
mendation of the governor. This prompt county reorganization
was essential to the holding of an election for a constitutional con
vention, set in this proclamation for August 7, the convention to
meet August 14. For the suppression of lawlessness the people
were exhorted to cooperate with the commanding general, who
had put his troops at the service of the governor. Citizens in re-

654 MISSISSIPPI
mote counties were urged to organize themselves into a county
patrol for the apprehension of offenders.
The main part of the proclamation was given to consideration
of the objections of some to taking the amnesty oath, which
pledged them to observe the emancipation proclamation of 1863.
The objection that that measure was not constitutional, said Judge
Sharkey, "certainly cannot be raised with propriety by such as
denied that they were subject to the Constitution of the United
States as the supreme law, when the proclamation was issued.
Whether it be constitutional or not, is a question which the peo
ple have no right to determine. The determination of that ques
tion rests with the supreme judicial department of the government.
. . . This [emancipation] proclamation must be regarded as
valid until the Supreme court shall decide otherwise. When it
does so decide, parties will be absolved from the obligation of the
oath. Perhaps, however, parties who believe the proclamation void
are over-sanguine in the correctness of their opinions. There is
a general principle in the law of nations which authorizes one bel
ligerent party to do towards his neighbor whatever will strengthen
himself and weaken his enemy, limited of course by the laws of
humanity. Some writers of high authority hold that legitimate
power in war, towards an enemy, is co-extensive with necessity.
Even the desolating of a country and the burning of towns and
villages are held to be justifiable acts in certain cases. Whether
these principles be broad enough to cover the taking of slaves, as
they certainly are with regard to other property, is not for me to
determine, and I mention them only to show to those who enter
tain this opinion that perhaps it does not rest on as solid a foun
dation as they imagine it does. The people of the Southern States
were in rebellion ; the president of the United States had a right
to prescribe terms of amnesty; he has done so, and it is hoped the
people will all cheerfully take his oath with a fixed purpose to
observe it in good faith. Why should they npw hesitate or doubt,
since slavery has ceased to be a practical question? It was the
ostensible cause of the war; it was staked upon the issue of the
war, and that issue has been decided against us. It is the part of
wisdom and of honor to submit without a murmur. The negroes
are free, free by the fortunes of war — free by the proclamation —
free by common consent — free practically as well as theoretically,
and it is too late to raise technical questions as to the means by
which they became so. Besides it would be bad policy now to
undertake to change their condition if we could do so. It would
be nothing less than an effort to establish slavery where it does
not exist. Therefore let us cordially unite our efforts to organize
our State government so that we may by wise legislation prepare
ourselves to live in prosperity and happiness in the changed con
dition of our domestic relations. . . . The people of the South
have just passed through a most terrible and disastrous revolution,
in which they have signally failed to accomplish their purpose.
Perhaps their success would have proved to be the greatest calam-

MISSISSIPPI 655
ity that could have befallen the country, and the greatest calamity
to the cause of civil liberty throughout the world. The true pa
triot finds his greatest enjoyment in the noble and pleasing reflec
tion that his government is to live with an honored name, to shed
its blessings on millions through future centuries. And as good
governments are things of growth, improved by the lights of ex
perience and often by revolutions, let us hope — sad and disastrous
as this revolution has been — that the lessons it has taught will not
be destitute of value. The business of improving our government,
if it should be found to need it, and of promoting reconciliation
between the Northern and Southern people, are now prominent
duties before us, so that we may hereafter live in the more secure
and perfect enjoyment of the great patrimony left us by our
fathers, and so that those who are to come after us may long enjoy
in their fullest functions the inestimable blessing of civil liberty,
the best birthright and noblest inheritance of mankind."
The governor made some necessary appointments to office,' in
cluding James R. Yerger as secretary of state, and John H. Echols
'as state treasurer.
As governor under military commission Governor Sharkey had
broad powers. He levied a tax on stores, taverns, gaming tables,
restaurants, peddlers, brokers, banking establishments, and $10
on every bale of cotton sent to market, to provide a fund for the
maintenance of his government. When various persons refused
to pay this tax, he ordered the amount doubled as a penalty and
collected by levy and public auction. (Garner.) The receipts
during his administration from all sources were $152,814; expen
ditures $68,942. (House Journal, 1865, p. 105.) But at the time
of the meeting of the constitutional convention there was no money
in the State treasury, and the penitentiary and lunatic asylum were
in part supported by the United States.
While the regular judicial system was in abeyance, he revised
the replevin laws, empowering two justices of the p*eace to issue
the writ, and by edict created a new court, the Special Court of
Equity (See Judiciary) to determine the disputes about cotton
contracts. It must be borne in mind that he exercised these powers under
the military authority, the president of the United States not hav
ing revoked the proclamation of 1862 instituting martial law, and
declaring Mississippi in insurrection. Maj.-Gen. P. J. Osterhaus
was commander of the department of Mississippi, and the chief
authority, under the president, from the beginning of Sharkey's
administration until he was superseded by Maj.-Gen. W. H. Slo
cum, June 23, with headquarters at Vicksburg. The State was
divided into five districts, under subordinate generals, and the
military, in great part colored soldiers, were used for the main
tenance of order. Above the provisional governor and the courts
he might institute, was the military authority.
In the constitutional convention of August Judge William Yer
ger said, in illustrating the actual condition : "A few weeks ago,

656 MISSISSIPPI
a citizen of the State of Mississippi was arrested in Washington
county, and brought to Vicksburg, charged with having killed a
negro. Judge Sharkey, provisional governor of the State, issued
a writ of habeas corpus against the officer having him in charge.
The officer refused to surrender him; he did more — he arrested
the judge who issued the writ, for doing so. An appeal was made
to the president of the United States, and the response was that
the government of the State at present is provisional only; that
the arms of the United States cannot be withdrawn — military law
could not cease, until the State of Mississippi established a form
of government restoring her to the Federal Union, in a manner
approved by Congress."
In another case where white citizens had assaulted negro Un
ion soldiers, it was ruled that "the rebellion, though physically
crushed, has not been officially announced or created either directly
or indirectly as a thing of the past," and the offenders were prop
erly punished by martial law. Gen. Slocum was directly ordered
by Secretary Stanton to put under arrest any judge who should'
issue a writ of habeas corpus against the authority of the Freed
men's Bureau or military courts. (See Const. Conv. of 1865.)
When Governor Sharkey instituted a volunteer militia, however,
he was sustained by President Johnson, against Gen. Slocum. The
governor took this step because, he said, bands of robbers and
plunderers infested the State, the soldiers were insufficient to re
press disorder, and the use of negro soldiers did more harm than
good. As an instance of the condition of affairs he said that for
twelve or thirteen consecutive nights the passengers on the stage
coach between Jackson and Vicksburg had been robbed by high
waymen. (See Militia.)
Without discussing constitutional questions, the situation was
as if Mississippi were a Territory preparing for admission to the
United States, the people of the whole country watched the reor
ganization of Mississippi, as Mississippi had watched the organ
ization of the States of California and Kansas. Gov. Sharkey's
proclamation was pleasing everywhere, except that there was some
criticism of his wholesale restoration of civil officials. The presi
dent suggested caution, and the governor responded with assur
ances that he was avoiding the appoinment of secessionists, and
that every official was required to take the amnesty oath.
President Johnson suggested to the August convention that, to
avoid future trouble, a qualified suffrage should be extended to
the negroes (see Const. Conv. of 1865) but this advice was ignored.
It was not the wish of the majority of the white citizens to yield
the right of suffrage at this time. While prepared to recognize
the freedom of the negroes and to accord them a large measure of
civil rights, they naturally viewed with profound alarm the "new,
unaccustomed, unpracticed, and wholly unrestrained liberty of so
vast a laboring, landless, homeless class," and felt that certain re
straints should be placed on the negroes for the protection of
society until they should develop some capacity for the exercise of

MISSISSIPPI 657
full citizenship. After the surrender in 1865, it seems that the first
official to accept negro testimony was the mayor of Vicksburg,
and his action was widely censured. On account of this situation,
the military authorities of the United States authorized the re
moval of all cases in which negroes were involved, to the tribunals
under the management of the Freedmen's bureau. September 20,
Col. Samuel Thomas, assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's
bureau, proposed to Gov. Sharkey to transfer all such cases to the
civil courts, provided that negroes might have the right of bring
ing suit and giving testimony. Gov. Sharkey replied that in his
opinion the negro already had those rights in any court of the
State, under the constitution of the United States, since the action
of the State convention prohibiting slavery.
The governor accordingly issued a proclamation, September 25,
announcing his construction of the law, and requesting that the
freedmen's courts be closed and their pending business transferred
to the civil courts. This was, of course, unpopular with a large
part of the white population, by whom it was called a "bargain"
^between Judge Sharkey and Col. Thomas. Negro testimony be
came the issue in the election ordered by the convention. The
Jackson News expressed the fear of the opposition : "If the privi
lege is ever granted, it will lead to greater demands, and at last
end in the admission of the negro to the jury box and ballot box."
So serious was this opposition to negro testimony that it was a
reason urged by some for emigration to Mexico, where several
Confederate generals, as well as Robert J. Walker (q. v.) , were
interested in creating an American colony. Gen. Wood, formerly
of Natchez, was the promoter of emigration to Brazil, whither sev
eral families actually moved. But this movement was opposed by
the more judicious. Pursuant to an ordinance of the August con
vention, an election was held October 2, for congressmen and all
State, district and county officers, the officials in office when the
Confederate armies surrendered being considered as losing all of
ficial status with the collapse of the Confederacy.
Judge Ephraim S. Fisher, of the High court, was the favorite
of the convention as a candidate for governor, but Gen. Benjamin
G. Humphreys was the choice of his army comrades who disliked
Fisher because of his indifference to the Confederacy. Another
candidate was W. S. Patton. The result of the election was that
Humphreys received 17,814 votes; Fisher, 14,528; Patton, 9,422.
The opposition to negro testimony secured a majority of the legis
lature, though some of the ablest men elected were of the oppos
ing policy. "Original secessionists" were elected to the High
court, but the congressmen were all men who had opposed seces
sion. When the legislature met, in October, for the first time under
the United States government since 1860, Governor Sharkey
briefly addressed the two houses. "He remarked," says the jour
nal, "that he had not prepared any formal address or message, and
that he did not consider it his province as provisional governor to
42-11

658 MISSISSIPPI
do so. He did not consider himself the constitutional governor of
Mississippi ; but he thanked the legislature for the compliment
implied in their resolution. He alluded to the distracted condition
of the State for the past four years ; how that the work of reor
ganization fell to his lot, and how distrustful he was of his abili
ties in assuming the great responsibilities which thus devolved'
upon him. He had done the best he could — had labored faithfully
to bring order out of chaos; and notwithstanding the embarrass
ments which had crowded around him from every possible direc
tion, he felt that he was in some degree successful. He was proud
to say that Mississippi had taken the lead in the work of reorgan
ization, and that, without any lights for her guidance, she had set
an example to her sister States that is being deemed worthy of
emulation, and with the most beneficial results to the South." He
spoke gratefully of the cordial and unfailing, support of President
Johnson, and of the pleasure he felt in transferring his powers as
provisional governor to the governor regularly elected by the peo
ple. The writ of habeas corpus was restored, but Governor Hum
phreys was not for some time fully recognized by the president of
the United States. Governor Sharkey was notified November 17
that his services as provisional governor were not yet dispensed
with, and he continued to be the medium for official communica
tion between the United States and the State of Mississippi, until
he was notified December 14, by Secretary Seward, that the time
had come, in the judgment of the president, when the care and
conduct of affairs in Mississippi might be remitted to the properly
constituted authorities, chosen by the people thereof, without dan
ger to the peace and safety of the United States. (Garner.) He
was ordered to transfer his papers and the property of the State
in his custody, to Governor Humphreys, and was commended for
his fidelity, loyalty and discretion. (But, for events following
the election see Humphreys' Adm.)
Sharon, an incorporated post-town of Madison county, about
8 miles northeast of Canton, the nearest railroad and banking town.
It was so named because the Sharon seminary for girls was situ
ated here at an early day. It has three churches and a non-
sectarian school. Population in 1900, 173.
Sharp, a hamlet of Amite county, about 8 miles northeast of Lib
erty, the county seat. The postoffice at this place was discontinued
in 1905, and it now has rural free delivery from Liberty.
Sharp, Jacob H, was born in North Carolina in 1833, reared
from infancy in Lowndes county, Miss, and educated at Athens,
Ga, where he was a class-mate of Gen. John B. Gordon. He en
tered the Confederate service as a private in Blythe's regiment, the
Forty-fourth Mississippi, and was elected captain of his company.
This regiment was part of Chalmers' infantry brigade, with which
he served at Shiloh and Munfordville, Ky, gaining commendation
for' gallantry. After the Kentucky campaign he was elected col
onel, to succeed Blythe, and after commanding his regiment at,

MISSISSIPPI 659
Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, and Resaca, where General
Tucker was wounded, he took command of the brigade. He was
promoted to brigadier-general for gallantry on the field of battle at
Atlanta, July 22, 1864, and within a week won new distinction for
gallantry at Ezra Church. He led his brigade through the North
Georgia and Tennessee campaigns that followed, fought his last
battle at Bentonville, N. C, and was paroled with the army of
General Johnston. After the war he returned to his home in
Lowndes county.
Sharpsburg, a post-hamlet of Madison county, 10 miles north of
Canton, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 74.
Shaw, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of Bol
ivar county, on Porter's Bayou, and on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R, 25 miles southeast of Rosedale. It was named for the
owner of the land through which the railroad passes. It has a
money order postoffice, and telegraph, express and banking facil
ities. Its two banks are both prosperous institutions. The Bank
of Shaw was established in 1902 with a capital of $30,000, and the
First National Bank was founded in 1904 with a capital of $30,000.
A large cotton-seed oil mill was established here in 1903, and there
are three large cotton gins, which annually gin about 9,000 bales
of CQtton. It supports separate schools for white and colored,
which are efficiently conducted. There are four churches, two white
and two colored. The Christian Plea (colored), is a semi-monthly,
religious publication, established in 1902. The town has just in
stalled an excellent electric light and water works system. It is
situated in a fertile cotton growing district, and the people are wide
awake and enterprising. Its population is increasing at a rapid
rate. It had 422 inhabitants in 1900, and in 1906 the population
was estimated at 1,000.
Shawnee, a postoffice in the western part of Benton county, 10
miles east of Holly Springs, the nearest banking town.
Sheba, a postoffice of Webster county, 12 miles east of Walthall,
the county seat.
Shelby, a post-town of Bolivar county, on the main line of the
,Y. & M. V. R. R, 16 miles by rail north of Cleveland, one of the
county seats of justice. The town was named for the Shelby family,
who were the first settlers in this part of Bolivar county. It is a
prosperous, growing place, and annually ships a large amount of
cotton; in 1904, 8,500 bales were shipped from here, all grown
within zy2 miles of town. Shelby has an international money order
postoffice, excellent public schools, and seven churches, three
white, and four colored. There are two banking institutions — the
Shelby Bank was founded in 1902 with a capital of $10,000, which
has since been increased to $23,000 ; the Citizens Bank was estab
lished in 1904 with a capital of $10,000, since increased to $12,300.
Among the industrial enterprises of the town are a large cotton-seed
oil mill erected in 1903 ; two spoke factories ; a heading mill and
three cotton gins. Arrangements are now being perfected whereby

660 MISSISSIPPI
the town will have a water works system. Its population in 1900
was 250, and was estimated at 1,050 in 1906.
Shelby Creek, a hamlet of Tippah county, 4 miles northwest of
Ripley, the county seat. It has rural free delivery from Ripley.
Shellmound, a post-village of Leflore county, situated on the
Yazoo river, 8 miles northwest of Greenwood, the county seat,
and nearest banking town, and 3 miles west of the station of Money,
on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. It has a money order
postoffice. Population in 1900, 150.
Shelton, a post-hamlet of Jones county, 12 miles southwest of
Ellisville, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 46.
Sheppardtown, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Leflore
county, on the Yazoo river, 12 miles southwest of Greenwood, the
county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order
postoffice, a church, several stores, and a saw mill. Population
in 1900, 78.
Sherard, a post-hamlet of Coahoma county, on the Riverside
Division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 8 miles west of
Clarksdale, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 56.
Sherman, an incorporated post-town, and station on the Kansas
City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R, in the extreme northeastern
part of Pontotoc county, and 8 miles northwest of Tupelo. It has a
money order postoffice, a bank which is a branch of the Tupelo
Bank & Trust Company's bank. Sherman has three churches, a
good school, and a cotton gin. The population in 1906 was esti
mated at 500.
Shields, William Bayard, prominent among the lawyers of the
Territorial and early State periods, was a native of Delaware, kin
of the Rodneys and Bayards. He was appointed major on the staff
of Governor Williams in 1805, and he and Poindexter were the
escort of Aaron Burr to Washington town in 1807. He was mar
ried in 1807 to Victoire, daughter of Gabriel Benoist. He succeeded
Seth Lewis as attorney-general, west of Pearl river, in 1808. He
was a representative in the general assembly in 1808 and again in
1813-14 from Adams county. In January, 1818, he was elected
judge of the supreme court of the State for the first district, defeat
ing Joshua G. Clark for that honor, but on April 20, of the same
year, he was commissioned the first judge of the United States
court for the district of Mississippi, a position he held until his
death in 1823. Judge Shields was a man of popular qualities, a
leader of the Jeffersonian party throughout his career, and as a
judge, "patient, laborious, discriminating and scrupulously impar
tial." It was at the home of his widow that S. S. Prentiss (q. v.)
made his home when he came to Mississippi.
Shiloh, a hamlet of Issaquena county, situated on the Missis
sippi river, about 15 miles south of MayersviUe, the county seat.
It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 72.
Shiloh, Battle of. This battle was fought by Gen. Albert Sid
ney Johnston's Army of the Mississippi (q. v.), advancing from
Corinth, with the purpose of attacking Gen. U. S. Grant's army,

MISSISSIPPI 661
which, after capturing Fort Donelson and 14,000 Confederate
troops, had moved up the Tennessee river, and encamped at Pitts
burg Landing, about 18 miles from Corinth. Gen. Buell was ad
vancing from Nashville, and the Confederate plan was to over
whelm Grant before he could be re-inforced. Heavy rains delayed
the movement just enough to prevent success. Hardee's corps was
the Confederate advance force, and the fighting began about day
light Sunday morning, April 6, on the skirmish line of Hardcastle's
battalion. The Sixth Mississippi charged with Pat Cleburne,
drove the enemy from their tents, and pushed on to meet a bloody
repulse. "It was oflly when the regiment had lost 300 officers and
men killed and wounded, out of an aggregate of 425, that it yielded
and retreated over its own dead and dying." Col. Thornton and
Maj. Robert Lowry were among the wounded. Chalmers' Missis
sippi brigade, on the extreme right, drove the enemy before them
until they nearly reached Pittsburg Landing and came under the
fire of the gunboats. Then turning toward the center they struck
the flank of Prentiss' division about the time it surrendered, at four
^n the evening. Some of Prentiss' officers surrendered to the Mis
sissippians. After that Chalmers attacked another position but was
held in check until darkness stopped the carnage.
Gen. Ruggles claimed much of the credit for the surrender of
Prentiss' division for the Mississippi batteries of Swett, Burns and
Stanford. Smith's battery was commended for "splendid service."
Their six-pounder guns were exchanged for 12-pounder Federal
guns. Miller's cavalry battalion captured a Michigan battery of
six guns. Blythe's regiment drove a battery from position, but
as they pushed on, Col. Blythe was shot dead from his horse and
Lieut.-Col. D. L. Herron and Capt. R. H. Humphreys were mor
tally wounded. Statham's brigade was in the front with Breck
inridge through the day. Martin's 2d Confederate regiment, in the
same division, fought against Prentiss, and lost 100 men, among
the killed Sergt.-'Maj. White and Capt. Davis, Lieut.-Col E. F.
McGehee severely wounded. Martin commanded the brigade after
Bowen was wounded, and advanced until stopped by the gunboats.
Gen. Johnston was killed in the evening, but there was hope that
a renewed attack in the morning would have compelled the sur
render of Grant* if Buell had not arrived in the night. The second
day's fight was against fresh troops and the Confederate army was
driven back. That day Stanford sacrificed his battery; losing
nearly all his horses and 20 men, holding the enemy in check.
Harper was. wounded and Put Darden commanded his guns in
a fierce artillery fight. Hardcastle's battalion was in the thick of
the desperate struggle. The 2d Confederate, under Maj. T. H.
Mangun, checked the victorious enemy with repeated charges and
captured a battery. Chalmers' brigade was again distinguished,
but lost Col. W. A. Rankin, of the Ninth. Maj. T. E. Whitfield was
badly wounded. The brigade went into battle 1,740 strong, cap
tured 1,600 prisoners and lost 82 killed and 343 wounded. The

662 MISSISSIPPI
Confederate loss in battle was 10,699 killed and wounded; the Fed
eral loss 15,000 killed, wounded and captured.
The battle of Shiloh, so-called from the old church of Shiloh,
round which the struggle raged for two days, was in many respects
the most desperate of the war. Only the rough and wooded char
acter of the ground, and the timely arrival of reinforcements under
Buell, saved the Federal army from utter defeat. When the ex
hausted Confederates were finally forced to retire, an eye-witness
of the retreat says that in a ride of 12 miles he saw more of human
agony than he trusted he should ever again be called to witness.
The long line of wagons, packed with wounded like bags of grain,
and drawn by mules plunged belly deep in mud and water; the
groans of the wounded and dying; the cold drizzling rain which
turned to hail at night, from which the wounded had no blankets
to shield them, made a sight never to be forgotten.
Ship Island. This island was first called "Surgeres" by the
French, in honor of Compte de Surgeres, commander of the frigate
Le Marin of DTberville's expedition, who discovered it February
9, 1699. They afterwards called it ITsle aux Vaisseaux or Ship
Island. On the original expedition of D'lberville to the Missis
sippi in 1699, his ships lay at anchor in the harbor of this island for
many weeks, while the commander was engaged in fixing upon a
place of settlement for the colony. When the headquarters of the
colony were removed to Mobile Bay in 1701, Dauphine Island,
then called Massacre Island, was used as the general naval rendez
vous for a number of years. In 1717, the harbor at Dauphine
Island became chocked up with sand, and Ship Island was selected
as the future place of anchorage, and deposit by MM. D'Epinay
and De Bienville. Ship Island was always the first point on the
coast where vessels anchored on coming from France. A fort was
built there with convenient accommodations for troops, besides
warehouses for the storage of goods and supplies for the colony.
In the report of M. Hubert on Pensacola, Mobile, and Dauphine
Island in 1721, he recommends "Ship Island" as the best harbor on
the coast of Louisiana, and the best harbor for a naval station and
ships of war (His. Coll. of La, 2nd ser. p. 44).
The island is low, flat and sandy; is about two miles long by half
a mile in breadth, and lies about twelve miles off the coast of Har
rison county of which it forms a part. It is now a United States
military reservation and contains a total area of about 50 acres.
As a part of the public domain it was reserved for military purposes
by Executive Order dated August 30, 1847. Federal jurisdiction
was ceded by an act of the State legislature in 1858, "for the pur
pose of enabling the United States to carry into effect an act of
Congress of March 3, 1857, providing for the fortification of Ship
Island, Coast of Mississippi, by building and maintaining such
forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, wharves, and other struc
tures, with their appendages, as may be necessary for the object
aforesaid." The State, however, retained concurrent jurisdiction
over the island for the service of its civil and criminal process. The

MISSISSIPPI 663
United States government maintains a quarantine . station here.
See Gulfport and Harrison county for description of the great
modern ship harbor at this point.
Shipp, Barnard, was born near Natchez, April 30, 1813. His
grandfather, Richard Shipp, moved to Kentucky from Fauquier
county, Va, in 1784, whence William, son of the latter, moved to
Natchez in 1802. He was successful as a merchant, and married a
daughter of Joseph Barnard, a Londoner who had settled in 1784
on a tract of land five miles north of Natchez, making a plantation
called Elysian Fields. After the birth of Barnard Shipp, the family
moved to Kentucky, but they returned to Natchez in 1817 on the
steamer "Vesuvius." Barnard was educated in the Partridge mil
itary school at Norwich, Vt, taught school at Lexington, Ky, and
made the.latter place his home 1828-48. In 1902 he was a resident of
Jacksonville, Fla, and contributed reminiscences to the Gulf States
Historical Magazine. He is the author of two volumes of poems,
1848 and 1852, but mainly known for his works : "The History of
Hernando de Soto and Florida," 1881, and "The Indians and Anti
quities of America," 1897.
Shivers, a postoffice in the southern part of Simpson county, on
the Columbia Branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, about 14
miles south of Mendenhall. It has a money order postoffice, tele
graph, telephone and express offices, two stores, two saw mills and
a cotton ginery. The population in 1906 was estimated at 150.
Shoccoe, a post-hamlet of Madison county, 8 miles east of Canton,
the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 25.
"Shoestring District," Sixth Congressional District (1876-1892).
On March 8, 1876, the legislature, which was Democratic, passed
a bill redistricting the State for congressional elections. The ob
ject of this bill was so to "gerrymander" the districts that not more
than one colored representative could be elected. This was ac
complished by throwing all the counties on the Mississippi river,
where the negro vote was largest, into the sixth district, composed
of the counties, Tunica, Coahoma, Bolivar, Washington, Issaquena,
Yazoo (later transferred to the fourth), Warren, Claiborne, Jef
ferson, Adams, and Wilkinson, to which Sharkey was added on
its organization later in the year, and Quitman when it was orga
nized in 1877. Gov. Ames allowed the bill to become law without
his signature, March 18, 1876, ten days after it was sent to him and
eleven days before his resignation. The shape of this district,
which was the whole western side of the State, about 250 miles long
and in many places not more than 20 miles wide, gave origin to the
name "shoestring" by which it was known all over the United
States. Shongalo, an extinct village in Carroll county, near Vaiden, in
corporated by the Legislature in 1840.
Shongelo, a post-hamlet in the north-central part of Smith
county, 6 miles north of Raleigh, the county seat. Population in
1900, 20.

664 MISSISSIPPI
Short, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Tishomingo
county, 1 mile from the Tennessee river, and 10 miles due north of
luka, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Pop
ulation in 1900, 50.
Shraderville, a postoffice of Sharkey county.
Shrock, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Attala county,
about 24 miles from Kosciusko, the county seat, and 6 miles east
of Goodman, the nearest railroad station and banking town. Pop
ulation in 1900, 46.
Shubuta, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of
Clarke county, on the Chickasawhay river, and a station on the
Mobile & Ohio R. R, 39 miles south of Meridian. It has tele
graph, express and banking facilities. The Bank of Shubuta was
established here in 1902 with a capital of $25,000. A Democratic
weekly newspaper, the Mississippi Messenger, established in 1879,
is published here by C. A. Stovall. It is an important cotton ship
ping point, and also ships wool and naval stores. It has a money
order postoffice, and a high school. There is a large saw milling
plant, a large oil and fertilizer plant and a cross-arm plant. The
town is growing and had a population in 1906 of 750.
Shuford, a postoffice of Panola county, 12 miles southeast of
Batesville, one of the seats of justice for Panola county.
Shuqualak, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of
Noxubee county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 10 miles south of
Macon, and 53 miles north of Meridian. It has telegraph, express
and banking facilities, a water works system, and a good school.
Cotton is the chief crop of the surrounding region, and a large
amount of that staple is shipped from this point. The Bank of
Shuqualak was established in 1900 with a capital of $15,000. It
supports a Democratic weekly paper, the New Era, established in
1898, E. B. Hamilton editor and publisher. The population of the
town in 1900 was 600, which had increased to at least 800 in 1906.
Shute, a postoffice of Panola county.
Sibley, a hamlet of Adams county, situated on Second creek,
9 miles south of Natchez. It has a money order postoffice.
Sibleyton, a hamlet of Montgomery county, on the Southern
Railway, 14 miles east of Winona, the county seat, and about a
mile north of the Big Black river. Kilmichael is the nearest bank
ing town. It has a money order postoffice.
Sidney, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Carroll county,
about 14 miles from CarroUton, the county seat. Grenada is the
nearest banking town. A portion of Carroll county is called "Little
Texas," and the leading citizen of that section, who is styled the
Governor, resides at Sidney.
Sidon, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of
Leflore county, on the navigable Yazoo river, and a station on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, 8 miles south of Greenwood,
the county seat and nearest banking town. It was named for the
ancient city of that name in Palestine. It has two churches, a
steam grist mill, a bank, two public gins, and a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 148; estimated in 1906 to be 250.

MISSISSIPPI 665
Sierra, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 7 miles southwest of
Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Signal, a postoffice of Warren county, 4 miles northeast of Vicks
burg, on the Y. & M. V. R. R.
Silver City, a post-town on the Y. & M. V. R. R, and on the
Yazoo river, in the western part of Yazoo county, about 20 miles
north of Yazoo City. It has a number of good general stores,
several churches, a bank, a lumber yard, a public gin and a cotton
compress. It is a flourishing place with good schools and a popu
lation of about 500.
Silvercreek, an incorporated town in the central part of Law
rence county, on the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship Island
Railroad, and at its junction with the Miss. Central R. R, 8 miles
northeast of Monticello, the county seat. The town is situated on
a high level and has excellent drainage. It is on the west bank of
Silver creek, one of the prettiest streams in the State. To the west
ward are beautiful hills covered with magnificent forests of yellow
pine. The Lawrence county high school is located here, and there
are good churches, several large mercantile establishments, and a
strong bank, The Merchants & Planters Bank, established in 1903
with an authorized capital of $30,000. The Silver Creek Star, a
Democratic weekly, was established in 1903 with R. W. Hall,
editor and publisher. There are saw mills, a planing mill, a brick
plant, a machine shop, an ice factory, bottling works, a cotton gin,
four hotels, three livery and one sale stable. These advantages and
others combine to make this one of the best towns in Lawrence
county. The town is surrounded by an abundance of hardwood
timber and the vicinity is adapted to fruit and vegetable growing
which is proving to be a very successful industry. Here is a
splendid location for manufactures, especially of hardwood timber.
The lands around Silvercreek are fertile and can be purchased in
small or large bodies at a very reasonable figure.
Silversprings, a post-hamlet of Tippah county, about 10 miles
northeast of Ripley, the county seat and nearest railroad and bank
ing town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 66.
Similo, a postThamlet of Lincoln county, about 12 miles south
west of Brookhaven, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 60.
Simlin, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Lawrence county.
The postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905, and mail
now goes to Vixen.
Simmonsville, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Pike
county, about 10 miles southeast of Magnolia, the county seat and
nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 57.
Simonton, John M, was elected to the State senate from Ita
wamba county and served in 1859-61, leaving the legislature to
enter the military service, where he was distinguished, rising to
the rank of colonel of the First regiment. He was again a member
of the senate, 1864-68, a delegate to the constitutional convention
of 1865 (q. v.), senator 1884-88, and a member of the constitutional
convention of 1890. He was elected in 1895 land commissioner,

666 MISSISSIPPI
an office he held at the time of his death, June 24, 1898. Governor
McLaurin said of him, "In all his life he exemplified the lovely
character of a loyal patriot and pure Christian."
Simpson County was organized seven years after Mississippi
became a State, January 23, 1824, and was named for Judge Josiah
Simpson. The county has a land surface of 578 square miles. It
was part of the Choctaw cession of 1820, termed the New Purchase,
and previously formed the eastern part of the county of Copiah,
erected during the preceding year. It lies a little south of the center
of the State and is bounded on the north by Rankin county, on the
east the old Choctaw Indian line of 1820 divides it from Smith
county, on the south the Choctaw boundary line of 1805 divides it
from Lawrence and Covington counties, and on the west is Copiah
county, the Pearl river forming the dividing line. It has an area
of about twenty townships, and as early as 1837 had a free white
population of 2,329, slaves 891, a majority of these early settlers
coming from the older portions of the State on the west and south.
The following is a list of the county officers for the year 1824,
the year the county was created : Duncan McLaurin, Judge of
Probate; Wm. Morris, Peter Stubbs, Neal McNair, Richard Nail,
James B. Satturfield, Associate Justices ; Laughlin McLaurin, Jacob
Carr, James Briggs, John C. Halford, Justices of the Peace ; Richard
Sparks, Sheriff; Neal McNair, Assessor and Collector; Daniel Mc-
Caskill, Coroner ; Eli Nichols, Surveyor ; John C. McFarland, Treas
urer; Daniel L. Eerrington, Notary Public; Gideon Royal, Ranger;
other county officers in 1825, 1826 and 1827 were John Briggs,
Joseph R. Plummer, John Campbell, Absalom Harper, James Welch,
Joseph Carr, Justices of the Peace; John R. Hubert, Associate
Justice; William B. Easterling, Treasurer and Surveyor; Macom
McDuffee, Ranger.
The first courts of the new county were held at the house of
William Gibson, and, in 1827, the village of Westville was made the
county seat and remained such until recently, when the county
Tecords were moved to Mendenhall, where they remained until
Nov. 1905, when they were returned to Westville. A contest be
tween Mendenhall and Westville over the final location of the
county seat was taken before the Supreme court of the State for
determination, and the court ordered the county seat to be located at
Westville pending an election to decide whether it would be
located at Westville or Mendenhall. The election was held in 1906
and Mendenhall was selected as the county seat. Mendenhall is lo
cated in the north-central part, at the junction of the two lines of the
Gulf & Ship Island R.R. Westville is about \y2 miles east of Pinola,
which is on the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship Island rail
road running south through Lawrence county. There are no large
settlements in the county; some of the other towns are Braxton,
Magee, Maddox, Everett, Coat and Weathersby. More than one-
third of the acreage of the county is now improved, and much of
the balance is finely timbered with long leaf or yellow pine; on the
river and creek bottoms are oaks of all kinds, ash, beech, magnolia,
pecan, hickory, poplar, cypress, etc. The general surface of the

MISSISSIPPI 667
land is undulating, level on the bottoms, and some portions hilly.
Though a piney woods country, the lands are fairly fertile, those on
the three forks of Silver creek being reputed among the best in
east Mississippi. Stock can range without much care the entire
year, feeding on the native grasses and switch cane. The
products of the county are corn, cotton, sugar-cane, rice, sorghum,
oats, field peas, ground peas, and all varieties of fruits and vege
tables common to the latitude. Strong river flows through the
center of the county from northeast to southwest, Pearl river is
the western boundary, and the numerous tributaries of these two
streams afford excellent water power. Many fine mill sites are to
be found on the streams and creeks. The Gulf & Ship Island R. R.
traverses the county from northwest to southeast, and the Columbia
branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, extending from
Maxie to Mendenhall, provide it with good shipping facilities. The
county has increased rapidly in population since the advent of the
railroad. School and church advantages are general throughout the
county. A great number of lumbering plants have been established
since 1900 and there are probably as many as 30 saw mills in the
county. The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population:
Number of farms 2,161, acreage in farms 222,949, acres improved
74,281, value of lands exclusive of buildings $770,750, value of
buildings $301,320, value of live stock $369,313, total value of
products not fed to stock $698,362. Number of manufacturing es
tablishments 27, capital invested $68,985, wages paid $20,207, cost
of materials $64,311, total value of products $121,274. The popula
tion in 1900 was whites 7,846, colored 4,954, total 12,800, increase
over 1890, 2,662. The population in 1906 was estimated at 15,000.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Simp
son county in 1905 was $2,233,826 and in 1906 it was $4,009,701
which shows an increase of $1,775,875 during the year.
Simpson, Josiah, Territorial judge, was a native of Pennsylvania,
educated at Princeton college, and after reading law engaged in
the practice of that profession. fHe married a Miss Stuart, of
Fredericksburg, Va. In 1812 he was appointed one of the Terri
torial judges, to succeed Judge Fitts, and the records show his
presence at least as early as October of that year. He made his
home at Green Hill, near Natchez, afterward known as Devereaux
Hall, "one of the old historic homes of Natchez, beautiful in its
loveliness, with many sweet memories clustering around it." Says
J. F. H. Claiborne, "Nature had given him a vigorous intellect,
and being a close student and very methodical in his habits, with
great purity of character and simplicity of manners, he was fully
equal to the high station to which he had been called. . . .
Judge Simpson soon impressed himself on the bar and the commu
nity as a man of great ability, learning and rectitude, and no man
was more beloved." In the constitutional convention of 1817, "a
position he would have avoided, but was literally forced into by

668 MISSISSIPPI
a universal call, he took a very prominent part, and his conserva
tive character is impressed upon the most important features of
our first constitution. He died soon after the convention dis
solved." Cowles Mead introduced a bill for the relief of his Widow in
the legislature of 1817, in evidence of Mississippi's high sense of
respect for the memory of "Josiah Simpson, late a judge of the
superior courts of the Mississippi Territory, and late a member
of the convention, where he rendered great and signal services to
the State, to the citizens thereof, and to posterity, by the purity of
his principles, sustained by talent, integrity and judgment." The
legislature passed an act to provide for the education of his child,
who according to Claiborne, afterward became the wife of Thomas
L. Dobyns, of Rodney, Miss.
Simrall, Horatio F, was born near Shelbyville, Ky, February
6, 1818. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and his father was an
officer in the War of 1812. He attended the Hanover (Ind.) col
lege; then taught school for a while, after which he took a law
course at Transylvania university, and was admitted to the bar.
He came to Mississippi in the fall of 1838; stopped at Natchez,
but located at Woodville in 1839, and soon became prominent as
a lawyer. He was in the legislature of 1846-48; made a strong
effort to secure free schools for the State, and secured a system of
free schools for Wilkinson county. In 1857 he became a professor
of law in the University of Louisville, but returned to Wilkinson
county in 1861. Meanwhile a Confederate State government had
been set up in Kentucky, and he was elected lieutenant governor.
He returned to that state, but it was soon in the possession of the
Federals, and he came back to Mississippi. After the war he was
a member of the legislature of 1865-66 and as chairman of the com
mittee on federal relations recommended rejection of the Four
teenth amendment. In 1867 he removed to Vicksburg. He was
prominent in defending people who were tried before the military
courts. He went to Washington with a committee of Democrats
and appealed to President Grant against the proscriptive features
of the constitution of 1868 ; was appointed supreme judge in 1870 ;
held this place for nine years, becoming chief justice in 1876, and
retired to private life in 1879. He was offered the professorship
of law in the University of Mississippi in 1881, but declined. He
was a member of the constitutional convention of 1890.
Sims, a post-hamlet of Attala county, about 10 miles north of
Kosciusko, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Sims, William H, was born in Lexington, Ga, in 1840, son of
Dr. James Saunders Sims and Amanda Booker Moore. He gradu
ated from the University of Georgia before he was nineteen, and
after being admitted to the bar at Lexington spent a year in study
at Harvard. In 1859 he made his home at Columbus, Miss, and
was just beginning his practice when he enlisted in the Confederate
army, where he rose to the rank of colonel. After arduous service
in the army, during which he was twice wounded, he was captured

MISSISSIPPI 669
in 1865, and taken to a military prison at Louisville. Out of 9,000
prisoners here, all were soon discharged except Col. Sims and two
others, who were to be tried for treason. Finally, however, he was
paroled, and in 1866 began his practice again in Columbus. In
August, 1870, he married Louie Upson, of Lexington, Ga. He was
elected to the State senate in the "Revolution of 1875," and when
John M. Stone succeeded to the governorship, he was unanimously
chosen president of the senate, and thus exercised the duties of
lieutenant-governor. In 1878, he and Governor Stone were re
elected for four years. He was president of the Democratic State
convention in 1885, and at the St. Louis Democratic convention in
1888 he was instrumental in reconciling the jarring factions in the
platform committee. For several years he resided at Columbus,
engaged with his business interests and his practice, but is now
living in Florida.
Sinai, a postoffice of Rankin county.
Singer, a postoffice of Tunica county.
Singleton, a post-hamlet of Winston county, about 40 miles
sotithwest of Columbus, and 13 miles east of Louisville, the county
seat and the nearest railroad and banking town. It has two
churches. Population in 1900, 75.
Singleton, Otho R, was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky,
October 14, 1814. After graduating from St. Joseph's College,
Bardstown, Ky, and from the Lexington Law School, he moved to
Mississippi in 1838. He was a member of the lower house for two
years and of the State senate for six years. He represented Mlis
sissippi in the thirty-third, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth congresses,
and resigned from the latter January 12, 1861. He represented
Mississippi in the Confederate congress throughout the war, and
in 1875 was elected to the national congress where he served from
the forty-fourth to the forty-ninth congresses inclusively (1875-
1885). He died in 1889.
Sitka, a postoffice of Covington county, 13 miles east of Williams
burg, the county seat.
Siwel, a hamlet of Hinds county, 8 miles southwest of Jackson.
It has a money order postoffice.
Sixteenth Sections. The act of congress, in 1803, providing for
the sale of land "south of the State of Tennessee," excepted "sec
tion No. 16, which shall be reserved in each township, for the sup
port of schools within the same." As each township contains 36
sections, this was a reservation of one-thirty-sixth of the area, in
other words, one mile square in every six miles square. This pro
vision would be equivalent, under fair conditions, to a land tax
of nearly thirty cents on the dollar for public education. The land
was acquired by the United States by conquest, international treaty
and purchase, and the school sections were a reservation from the
lands which the United States were offering for sale. Said Gov
ernor Leake (1822) : "The sixteenth sections were not granted
to the States or Territories in which they lay, but the title re
mained in the United States, and was held by them in trust foe the

670 MISSISSIPPI
use and benefit of the inhabitants of the particular township in
which it was reserved." It was one of the inducements for people
to adventure to the wild lands and build up new communities.
The donation was made in trust for the children of the State, "and
was accepted by the State subject to all the responsibilities of a
trustee." (Gov. Alcorn, 1871.)
In 1806 it was provided that when the 16th section fell on land
previously granted by congress or claimed under a British grant,
another section should be located in the same township or one ad
joining. In 1815 congress authorized the Territorial county courts
to appoint five agents to lease the 16th sections in each county, the
leases to expire January 1 after the admission of the Territory
as a State. The first action by the legislature in regard to these
lands was the law of 1818, providing that the justices of the county
courts should "take charge of the lands given by the United States
to the State of Mississippi, in their counties respectively, and pro
vide for the erection of one or more schools, as they may deem
right and useful." The justices were authorized to lease the lands,
for a term not exceeding three years, and protect them against
waste of soil and timber. Under the law of 1824 each township
wherein lands were reserved was authorized to elect a board of
trustees to "take into consideration the situation of the school sec
tions and how to apply the money arising from the lease or rents
of the same," to protect them from waste, and rent them for a
term not exceeding five years. It will be observed that the 16th
sections were treated as a source of local revenue. The State
school fund at this time was the "Literary fund" of 1821 (q. v.)
A law of 1829 authorized the trustees of school lands to establish
as many schools in each township as they may deem necessary,
and apportion the rent according to the school enrollment. The
following year (1830) the United States had acquired the title of
the Choctaws in the State, by purchase and trade, and all the
State was being opened to settlement except the great northern
area held by the Chickasaws, which was yielded by them for the
regular price of public lands, in 1832. The total area of the 16th
sections, was estimated in 1846, by Governor Brown, at 700,000
acres. The Chickasaw school sections were sold at $6.00 an acre
and the proceeds ultimately became a public debt, instead of a
source of revenue.
The system of short leases was abandoned under the act of leg
islature1 of February 27, 1833, which provided that when the ma
jority of the resident heads of families in any township requested
it, the school land trustees should lease the section for 99 years
to the highest bidder, it being permitted to lease in lots of not less
than eighty acres. Where the township did not have a sufficient
population to have a board of trustees, the county board pf police
might lease the section. The leases were to be made on a credit
of one, two, three and four years the purchaser to give notes pay
able to the trustees, who were required when the notes were paid,
to "appropriate the amount so collected to the purchase of stock

MISSISSIPPI 671
in the Planters' bank of the State of Mississippi," the dividends
on which should be used for the purposes of education in the town-
-ships where the lands were located. This law was admirably
adapted to destroy all hope of revenue from the school lands for the
period of ninety-nine years. In 1836 authority was given to loan
the proceeds to private persons or invest the same in any solvent
bank. In 1841 the school section trustees were authorized to sell
the depreciated bank paper in their hands at public auction. A law
of 1842 authorized the trustees or county judge of probate to com
promise or rescind all leases or other contracts for the sixteenth
sections, or purchase for the township under the liens retained.
In 1846 Governor Brown said the leasing system had not worked
well. A very small fraction of the 1,100 sections were well man
aged. Some were trespassed on and denuded of timber, some
were leased and the money not collected ; in many instances the
proceeds had been collected and squandered, and "in the fewest
number of instances have there been free schools kept by the pro-1
ceeds." Lowndes county is distinguished as one that has main
tained schools on the land fund since 1821. The common school
law of 1846 provided that the county treasurers should open an
account for each township, entering a credit for the principal and
interest arising from the lease of "the 16th section, the principal to
remain a permanent fund, the interest thereon to be used for town
ship education; but this requirement was made valueless by a pro
viso that upon protest of a majority of the heads of families, the
control of the fund should be left with the township trustees.
The constitution of 1869 made the proceeds of the school lands,
and "the funds arising from the consolidation of the Congressional
township funds and the lands belonging thereto," part of the Com
mon School Fund of the State, to be invested in United States
bonds and remain a perpetual fund, etc. This pleasing anticipa
tion was never realized. Governor Alcorn, in 1870, urged that
"the new order of things shall mark its condemnation of the old
by declaring that the lands left by half a century of political cor
ruption, at the service of education,, an inalienable heritage as
such, for the children of the people." The school law of 1870 pro
vided for the handling of the school sections in a way that Gover
nor Alcorn said was "but a rehearsal of a past legislation which
has made the educational interests of the children of the State a
subject of most outrageous spoliation." The lands should be leased,
he said, for a term not exceeding twenty years, the rents payable
annually in advance, on pain of eviction, and bond required for pro
tection of timber, etc. But his recommendations were not fol-
lowedv Superint'endent Preston wrote in 1890 : "The leasing of 16th
sections under the statutes of the State has been neither uniform
nor judicious. It has been entrusted to boards of police, to county
school directors, to county school commissioners, and to boards
of supervisors. Various shifts and devices were enacted from time
to time for the purpose of either saving or destroying the children's

672 MISSISSIPPI
heritage. The only uniformity discernible at this distance is that
manifested in the fact that the lands went and no revenue came in
return." The reports of the State board of education 1871-80 throw
but little light upon the obscurity that surrounded the fate of this
great educational endowment. Under the Alcorn administration
investigations were made in the counties to determine the condi
tion of the school sections. From Lowndes county it was reported
that six of the school sections were missing, that is, it was impos
sible to tell where, they had been located. The records were gone,
as was the case in a good many counties. In other counties the
school sections were held by persons who claimed title in fee.
Superintendent J. A. Smith continued the inquiry, but his efforts
resulted only in the information : "Leased for 99 years, notes and
revenues all lost or squandered." A few counties required the
county treasurer to have charge of the fund. In Warren county
a complete and satisfactory report was made by Treasurer Cameron.
Practically the only sections remaining unleased were in the Yazoo
delta, but they were in process of disappearance, as formerly.
"Within the past few years the 16th sections of some townships
have been parcelled out and leased for 99 years by the owners of
adjacent lands, the sum paid being from $2 to $4 per acre." Super
intendent Preston estimated in 1890 that a section, two-thirds
cleared, properly rented, would in twenty years create a fund of
$40,000, which would yield $2,000 annual interest. Consequently,
if the original grant of 661,000 acres had been then available, it
would have made in the same period, a permanent fund of over
$40,000,000, yielding an annual revenue of $2,000,000, to say nothing
of the future rent, after twenty years. It was this that was thrown
away, and, in some degree, there was similar waste in all the
western country. In the words of Edward Mayes, "The year
1935, or thereabouts, will set the matter right, if that be any con
solation ; provided it do not happen again."
The constitution of 1890 provides that the legislature shall enact
laws to ascertain the true condition of the title to the 16th sections,
and provide that they shall be reserved for the support of township
schools, shall not be sold, nor leased for a longer term than twenty-
five years for a ground rental payable annually. (Also see Chick
asaw School Fund and School System.) In 1892 Superintendent
Preston reported that by persistent efforts complete reports of the
Sixteenth section fund had been obtained from most of the coun
ties outside of the Chickasaw cession. "The funds reported aggre
gate $162,839 ; and the interest on these funds added to the rentals
of Sixteenth sections amounts to $32,973 per annum; this last
sum being the total amount accruing for annual use from the once
magnificent bequest of 661,000 acres set apart by the general gov
ernment for the education of children of the Choctaw counties
[also for the Natchez district]. The receipts are less than 5 cents
per acre — less than five per cent, of a fund which might have been
created by selling the land at $1 per acre. This lamentable squan
dering of the children's heritage is a lasting shame to our State."

MISSISSIPPI 673
The State land commissioner reported in 1891 that the school
indemnity lands confirmed to the State that year by the United
States, in lieu of Sixteenth section lands previously granted, to
which, for various legal reasons, the State had failed to acquire
title, had been located, to the extent of 30,829 acres in Hancock
county. Governor McLaurin recommended their sale in 1896, not
withstanding the constitutional prohibition, which he construed,
did not "prohibit their sale as it does the Sixteenth section lands."
Skene, a postoffice of Bolivar county, and a station on the Boyle
& Sunflower branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 4
miles southwest of Cleveland.
Skinner, a postoffice of Perry county.
Skipper, a postoffice of Kemper county, 8 miles north of Dekalb,
the county seat. It has a saw mill, a church and a school
Slago, a postoffice of Simpson county, 7 miles southwest of Men
denhall. Slate Spring, an incorporated post-town in the southern part of
Calhoun county, about 25 miles east of Grenada, the nearest rail
road and banking town. The old boundary line between the Choc
taw and Chickasaw cessions ran about three miles northeast of the
town. It has a college, two churches, a saw mill, a flour mill, and
a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 189.
Slavery. Slavery was revived in Christendom by the wars with
the Mohammedans. The explorations of the west African coast
by the Portuguese preceded the discovery of America by Colum
bus, and when it was found impracticable to enslave the native
Americans, the opportunity of buying slaves of African coast war
riors was taken to solve the problem of labor in exploiting the new
world. Slavery was regarded by the jurists from the time of Jus
tinian as contrary to the law of nature and justifiable only as a pun
ishment for debt or crime, or a mitigation of the right of a~victor
to kill his vanquished enemy in battle. In law, the slavery of
negroes in America was based upon the alleged status of war
among African tribes. Practically it was regarded as an industrial
necessity in a warm climate. But its necessity and propriety were
both denied at all times by many. As an incident of the European
struggles for supremacy, England obtained from Spain the right to
carry on the slave trade, not the government of England directly,
but in behalf of a corporation. The institution of slavery in the
colonies was in disregard of the admonitions of the Pope, the
supreme lawgiver of the Spanish, and English law treated it as
a colonial condition not pertaining to the settled civilization of the
home country.
The mainland of North America was first visited by the Spanish
in search of Indian slaves, but Ponce de Leon was charged with
the duty of preventing such raids. Cabeza, the first white man to
enter the interior, 1528-36, was accompanied by a negro in his
wanderings through the Southwest, Estevanico (Little Steve).
Menendez, the founder of St. Augustine, 1565, was authorized by
the king of Spain to import 500 negro slaves. The English, foun-
43-11

674 MISSISSIPPI
ding Charleston a century later, also introduced negro slaves.
Within a few years, the question of fugitive slaves caused war be
tween Florida and Carolina, and there were frightful scenes of car
nage. Caravans of captive Florida Indians were carried away into
slavery by the Carolinians about 1702. These wars involved, to
some extent, the Indian nations that inhabited the present bounds
of Mississippi, and a few negro fugitives or captured slaves were
held at the beginning of the 18th century by the Indians.. When
the king of France made the grant of the Mississippi region to
Crozat, there were about twenty African slaves held by the French.
There were some at Fort Louis, says Hamilton (Colonial Mobile,
65). "Chateaugay had a negro named Francois Jacemin, who the
same year was declared to be the father of Anthoine, born October
26, of Bienville's negro woman, Marie. This is the first recorded
birth of a negro on the gulf coast, although these other children
may have been born there." Indian slaves were more numerous
among the French then. The letters patent issued to Crozat con
tained this provision: "If for the cultures and plantations which
the said Sieur Crozat is minded to make, he finds it proper to have
blacks in the said country of the Louisiana, he may send a ship
every year to trade for them directly upon the coast of Guinea,
taking permission from the Guinea Company so to do ; he may sell
those blacks to the inhabitants of the colony of Louisiana, and we
forbid all other companies and persons whatsoever, under any pre
tense whatsoever, to introduce blacks or traffic for them in the
said country, nor shall the said Sieur Crozat carry any blacks else
where." It does not appear that he availed himself of the above
privilege. One of the stipulations in the grant to the Western
Company in 1717, provided that during the life of the charter
(twenty-five years), not less than 3,000 negroes be carried over to
the colony. The first large importation was made under the au
spices of the Western Company in June, 1719, when Le Grand
Due de Maine and L'Aurore arrived at Dauphin Island with 500
negroes from the coast of Guinea. "In March, 1821, arrived 120
negroes from Guinea in the Africaine, a warship, and also 338 in
the Maire, and 138 more in the Neride. The mortality on these
slave ships was great. Three hundred and fifty negroes had sailed
in the frigate Charles from Angola. This vessel was burned at
sea, many of the crew and human cargo perishing." (Hamilton,
Colonial Mobile, 87.) During the existence of the company and
for several years afterwards, their agents continued to supply the
demand at the rate of three to five hundred annually. The com
mon price for a good negro man was about $150 ; and for a woman,
about $120. (His. Coll. of La, vol. iii, p. 64). When the company
surrendered its charter in 1732, the black population had increased
from 20 to upwards of 2,000.
The black code of Louisiana was drafted by Bienville under the
orders of the Western Company in 1724, and was kept in force with
few alterations until 1803. It required religious training and pro
hibited amalgamation. When France resumed control of the col-

MISSISSIPPI 675
ony after 1732, she continued to supply the province' with negroes
for the plantations, and many blacks were also imported by both
England and Spain. After the Natchez massacre, the slaves there
attached themselves to the Indians, but many were killed or retaken
by the French.
The region of Mississippi was embraced, at the same time, within
the alleged western extension of the English Colony of Carolina,
in which slavery was protected. In 1732 General Oglethorpe was
granted the southern part of Carolina Claim for a colony that
should be the refuge of the unfortunate or oppressed, and negro
labor was prohibited in Georgia. If the Georgia title in the west
were then a reality, negro slavery was illegal in part of the region
of Mississippi for a few years about that time. But the powerful
influence of South Carolina soon compelled the introduction of
slavery in Georgia, over the earnest protests of some of the colo
nists. After 1763 the Natchez district was settled by immigrants
from the American colonies, including New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and New England, as a slave labor colony. The Lyman colony
*(q. v.) brought a few slaves. Others, coming as did William Dun
bar (q. v.) imported slaves from the West Indies. (See Natchez
District and West Florida.). There was no change, of course, dur
ing the Spanish occupation, during which the immigration was re
vived. Meanwhile, there was a tendency to abolish slavery, in the At
lantic colonies, which finally was effective north of Maryland. It
was strong in Virginia, but" confined to a few like Henry Laurens,
in the Carolinas. Thomas Jefferson endeavored, in 1784, to pro
hibit slavery west of the Chattahoochee river. (See Ordinances
of 1784 and 1787). In his opinion "nothing is more certainly writ
ten in the book of fate than that these people are to be free, nor is
it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the
same government." There was an effort to restrict slavery to
the region where it then prevailed but the South Atlantic States,
with assistance from the slave trading interests in New England,
secured a constitutional pledge regarding the recovery of fugitive
slaves, the postponement of the abolition of the African slave trade
until 1808, and the omission of the clause prohibiting slavery when
the Ordinance of 1787 was extended to the Southwest. Though
slavery was not prohibited in the Southwest, as it had been in the
Northwest, the importation of slaves from foreign lands was pro
hibited. This excluded the slaves of prospective immigrants in the
Baton Rouge district, Mobile, and the coast in general. During the
discussion by congress of grievances of a portion of the Missis
sippi inhabitants, in the close of the administration of John Adams
(1800), a bill was introduced to permit the bringing in of slaves
by their owners, without limitation, for the period of one year,
it being specified that these slaves were owned at the time when
the American government was extended over the Territory. The
bill passed the house, but the senate refused to concur. The house
was then Republican and the senate Federalist.

676 MISSISSIPPI
Governor Sargent (Federalist) in an address urging better or
ganization of the -militia, in January, 1801, said : "Almost every
day adds to the number of our slaves, and, reasoning from the
finer feelings of man, to the number of our most inveterate ene
mies also. 'Tis more than probable, that in the lapse of another
year, there will be more blacks than whites withiri the Mississippi
Territory. That we deprive them of the sacred boon of liberty is
a crime they can never forgive — mild and humane treatment may
for a time continue them quiet, but can never fully reconcile them
to their situation — and calculating from the experience of some
amongst us, in a war with any European, or even Indian power,
they might be irresistably stimulated to vengeance."
In a general militia order, October 4, 1799, Governor Sargent
declared that "the law for regulating slaves within the Territory is
most shamefully violated, particularly upon Sundays, and the nights
of that and the preceding day, and in a very notorious manner at and
in the vicinity of Natchez, where slaves are said to assemble in con
siderable numbers from distant plantations, committing great exces
ses, and carrying on an illicit traffic with the aid and connivance of
the ill-disposed." The militia commanders of the two countries
were directed to order the necessary patrols to be careful in the ex
amination of passports and permits, which slaves were required to
have when out of quarters. (See Patrol.) In November, 1800,
Governor Sargent circulated a hundred printed copies of his ad
dress announcing the famous plot for an insurrection of slaves in
Virginia, and the suppression of the same, and urging the utmost
vigilance toward the negroes of the district. Violent assaults had
been made upon the overseers of the Lintot and Moore plantations,
which, the governor suggested, could be assigned for a reason for
strict enforcement of the laws against the carrying* of weapons by
slaves, the attempted insurrection to be kept secret.
Governor Claiborne (Jeffersonian Republican) wrote to the sec
retary of state, James Madison, in January, 1802 : "A law to pro
hibit the importation into this Territory [from the States] of
male slaves, above the age of sixteen, passed the house of repre
sentatives [of Mississippi], but was rejected in the council. This
kind of property is becoming alarming, and will in all probability
(sooner or later) prove a source of much distress. The culture of
cotton is so lucrative, and personal labor consequently so valuable,
that common negro fellows will generally command six hundred
dollars per head, and if such encouragement should long be af
forded to the sellers of negroes this Territory must soon be over
run by the most abandoned of the unfortunate race."
The recovery of fugitive slaves was a factor in the troubles all
along the Florida line, as it had been for a century. A suggestion
of the problems that arose may be found in the fact that June 21,
1806, Governor Grand Pre asked the delivery of William Vousdan
Keary, of the neighborhood of Pinckneyville, who had recovered
a negro of his property from the jail at Baton Rouge and there
upon murdered the negro by a "tedious and cruel death." Secre-

- MISSISSIPPI 677
tary Meade communicated the request to Secretary Madison, who
directed an answer that the two governments had no compact for
the mutual surrender of criminals.
In 'his message of December 4, 1807, Governor Williams said:
"I cannot, gentlemen, consistent with my own sense of public duty,
and the interest we must all feel for the future prosperity and hap
piness of our country, omit drawing your attention to a subject
which I am aware may be equally delicate as important on the
score of legislation. I allude to the introduction of a certain spec
ies of population amongst us. That individuals should incline to
pursue their particular and immediate interest, regardless of future
consequences, and in opposition to that of the community of which
they are members, is not uncommon, though it be regretted; hence
the necessity of interposing the will of such community to check
and abridge the enjoyment or exercise of their individual rights
and privileges when opposed to the public good. Slavery being
already in our country, we have only to guard against too great
an accumulation of the evil and its consequences ; perhaps this can
not be consistently done, but by regulating and limiting the mode
and manner of introducing slaves into our Territory. I submit,
therefore, whether it may not be proper to prevent their introduc
tion among us for the purpose of traffic and trade ; by those, too,
whose motives and sole objects are pecuniary; and who have no
immediate or particular interest here, or concern for our political
happiness. Were they introduced by those intending to reside
among us, by which a relative proportion in our population might
be kept up, the conclusions would be different from those the facts
now warrant. But they are rummaged from the jails and criminal
cells of the Atlantic States, being mostly the dregs of this degraded
class of human beings who are brought and let loose amongst us
in this way by a lot of mercenary characters, many of whom have
no residence here or elsewhere, and of course feel no responsibility
or concern, as regards policy or humanity. Was there a probabil
ity of this evil becoming stationary, we might better risk the conse
quences; but the reverse will be the fact. The productiveness of
our soil, the proceeds of labor, and withal the favorableness of our
climate for these people, will continue to encourage their intro
duction and increase their population in a ratio heretofore un
known in any country. We are justified in this conclusion from
the last twelve months experience. Policy, gentlemen, dictates
that the consequences to be dreaded and guarded against, should
be mentioned and acted on with as much prudence and reserve as
possible." In 1808 the importation of slaves from the United
States or Territories was regulated, preventing the introduction
of criminals, and a tax of $5 was laid on each individual import.
After 1808 the importation of negroes from foreign countries was
prohibited by United States laws, but smuggling was common
until the naval blockade of 1861: The importation of slaves was
mainly done by British and New England slave traders. Newport,
R. I, was one of the most famous ports whence skippers sailed,

678 MISSISSIPPI
with more or less secrecy, to engage in the slave trade. The mes
sage of Acting-Governor Ware to legislature of 1815 recited: "The
collector of the port of Mobile informs the executive that some
negroes have been seized that were brought into that port con
trary to the laws of- the United States. You will observe, gentle
men, that the laws subject such negroes to the disposal of the
State or Territorial legislature, within whose bounds they were
seized. I therefore submit to your consideration, the necessity of
making some general law disposing of such property for the bene
fit of the Territory." In 1815, especially to prevent smuggling from
Pensacola, there was a Mississippi statute which provided that
such importations might be libelled before any superior court, and
the slaves sold at auction.
During the summer of 1807 Governor Williams received infor
mation that an insurrection of blacks was suspected, and some of
the most respectable citizens requested the patrol to be established.
This was done, and a detachment of United States troops placed at
Fort Dearborn. The planters were again agitated in January, 1811,
by news of the insurrection among the slaves in the parish of St.
John Baptist, at the west end of Lake Ponchartrain. About 500
negroes organized to march to New Orleans, and some plantations
were ravaged. Gen. Hampton sent troops against them, and a con
siderable number were killed. Sixteen, regarded as leaders, were
taken to New Orleans, "tried, convicted and excuted in an exem
plary manner, after which their heads were exposed on poles at dif
ferent points along the river." (Monette, II. 491.) The militia
officers in the Natchez district were ordered to establish patrols
on account of this insurrection. Each captain put out eight men to
patrol at night in the respective company districts. The two
companies at the town of Washington were, in case of alarm, to
rendezvous at the government house and the home of Charles De
France. Lieutenant White, commanding at Fort Adams, was
called on to supply arms.
In 1812 the Territory was threatened by war with Great Britain,
and was called on for troops to serve auxiliary to the regular forces
under Gen. Wilkinson. When Governor Holmes had 700 men in
camp for this purpose he reported to the general that remon
strances of the inhabitants forbade him to put more men at his call.
This was not alone because of fear of the Indians. "In slave coun
tries the danger of insurrection always exists, and the inhabitants
should be prepared to meet the event. . . . Nearly one half
of the entire population are slaves." Both the British and Ameri
can commanders made use of negroes as -soldiers in the ensuing
war. Admiral Cbchrane brought to Ship Island two black regi
ments he had enlisted on the eastern coast. Along the Mississippi
river the British picked up 200 negro slaves. Gen. Jackson, in his
report of the New Orleans campaign, said : "The two corps of col
ored volunteers have not disappointed the hopes that were formed
of their courage and perseverance in the performance of their
duty." These "men of color," as he entitled them in his address

MISSISSIPPI 679
before the battle, he collected from "the shores of Mobile." At the
close of the war the British had many refugees or captured slaves
on Dauphine island, and Gen. Lambart would "not admit that the
agreement of surrender of captured property covered slaves, as
England did not recognize property in human beings." The own
ers were finally allowed to take them if they could persuade them
to return by talking with them. (Colonial Mobile, 358).
Laws for the police regulation of the slave population, existed
in the Natchez district when the United States took possession.
Among the earliest regulations of the Territory it was forbidden
to allow slaves to cultivate on their own account, because it af
forded a cloak for the selling of stolen cotton. There were laws
also to protect the slaves from cruelty. Daniel Ryan, in 1802,
having been found guilty of manslaughter for the killing of a negro,
was sentenced to imprisonment in the jail, to be burned in the
brawn of the left thumb and pay a fine o| thirty dollars. The gov
ernor remitted the fine.
In Spanish times the commandants exercised the right of eman
cipating slaves, even against the consent of the owner, compensa
tion being given. By the act of 1805 it was unlawful to liberate
slaves, except by permission of the general asseinbly for some
meritorious act; even in that case the owner must give bond that
the slave should not become a public charge, and even then the
slave is liable to be taken to pay a debt contracted by the master
before emancipation. The evidence of slaves was not taken in
court except for or against each other. Slaves were forbidden to
go from their place of abode to another without a pass, letter or
token ; if without the same any person could arrest the slave and
take him before a justice for whipping; the owner or overseer of
a plantation, entered by a slave without authority, could inflict
similar punishment without recourse to a magistrate. Slaves were
strictly forbidden to keep or carry firearms. Masters should not
allow their slaves to be more than four hours absent without leave,
on penalty of heavy fine. Meetings were prohibited by the regu
lation that no master should allow more than five slaves not his
own to remain on his plantation at any one time, but this was
not to be construed against their meeting at a public mill or any
other lawful occasion by license in writing, "nor their going to
church, and attending divine service, on the Lord's day, and be
tween sun-rising and sun-setting." Riots, routs, unlawful assemblies,
trespasses and seditious speeches, were punishable by 39 stripes
or less." Any white person, free negro or mulatto, meeting with
slaves at any unlawful meeting (more than five without license)
should be fined $20. Trading with slaves without the master's
permission was punishable by heavy fine ; letting a slave go at large
and trade as a freeman or hire himself out, was an offence in the
master that called for a fine of $50. "Whereas many times slaves
run away and lie out hid, and lurking in swamps, woods and other
obscure places, killing hogs and committing other injuries," pro
vision was made for rewards for their apprehension, out of the pub-

680 MISSISSIPPI
lie treasury. Slaves were forbidden to keep dogs or own horses or
mules. Conspiring to make insurrection was punishable by death.
"And whereas it has been the humane policy of all civilized nations,
where slavery has been permitted, to protect this useful but de
graded class of men from cruelty and oppression; therefore, no
cruel or unusual punishment shall be inflicted on any slave within
this Territory." The limit of fine therefore was $200. In 1809
the selling of intoxicants to slaves was prohibited ; patrols were
authorized to kill all dogs owned by negroes ; masters who allowed
slaves to keep any live stock were to be fined $50; slaves found
eight miles from home without a pass, or who had lain out two
days without leave, were to be considered runaways. In 1809 it
was made lawful for any citizen, on observing a slave offer any
thing for sale, without a written permit, to arrest the slave. (See
Statutes of 1814.)
The first constitution of the State (1817) provided that the leg
islature should have no power to emancipate slaves without the
consent of their owners, except for "some distinguished service"
to the State, in which case the owner should be compensated. The
legislature was forbidden to prevent immigrants bringing with
them as their bona fide property "such persons as are deemed slaves
by the laws of any one of the United States, so long as any person
of the same age or description shall be continued in slavery by the
laws of this State." It was authorized to exclude slaves guilty of
high crimes; to pass laws to permit emancipation by owners, sav
ing the rights of creditors and protecting the public against indi
gence. "They shall have full power to prevent slaves from being
brought into this State as- merchandise; and, also, to oblige the
owners of slaves to treat them with humanity; to provide them with
necessary clothing and provisions, to abstain from all injuries to
them extending to life and limb." The clauses regarding slaves
were modeled on the Kentucky constitution, but were less liberal
toward emancipation. The first legislature, in January, 1818,
passed an act to confirm the emancipation by the will of Col. Ben-
ajah Osmun, of "his boy Jerry," but not without considerable dis
cussion. The next session passed an act authorizing John Baptiste
Nicaisse to emancipate his daughter, "the mulatto girl named Isa
bella," "saving, however, the right of creditors," and on condition
that her father give bond that she should not become a public
charge. (Acts of 1818, p. 27-28).
Governor Holmes, first governor of the State, said in his first
message : "By the constitution you are invested with the author
ity to enact laws to prevent slaves from being brought into the
State for the purpose of being disposed of as merchandise. Under
existing circumstances I am aware, gentlemen, of the difficulty you
will find in devising any mode that will be adequate to put an entire
end to this odious traffic; but I trust that in your wisdom you
will be enabled to adopt such measures as may in some degree les
sen the evil. As the practice is now prohibited by most of the
States where domestic slavery is tolerated, it is evident that great

MISSISSIPPI 681
numbers will be brought to this State, and principally those of the
most vicious character, unless by some means we can render the
trade at least precarious to those who engage in it. I am fully
persuaded, gentlemen, that you will deem this subject worthy of
your most serious consideration." The legislature of 1819 provided
that slaves imported for sale should be registered, with proof that
they had not been guilty of "murder, burglary, arson, rape or grand
larceny," an import tax of $20 each was imposed, for the benefit
of the Natchez hospital ; but this did not apply to slaves imported
by a citizen for his own use, except from Louisiana and Alabama.
Any free negro or mulatto who should enter the State should depart
on warning within thirty days, or be sold. Governor Holmes in
his next message, said the law was difficult to enforce, and one of
the judges of the supreme court had declared it to be in conflict
with the constitution of the United States. He asked the legisla
ture to exercise "the power, with which they are invested by the
constitution, of preventing, unconditionally, the importation of
slaves, as merchandize. The evils arising from this odious prac
tice, are constantly, tho' imperceptibly, increasing, and must ulti
mately result in consequences of a most serious nature, unless the
traffic is wholly prohibited." The assembly did not do this, though
a bill to prohibit importation was introduced by Joseph E. Davis.
At the first session of the supreme court of Mississippi, June,
1818, in the case of "Harry and others" to assert their right to free
dom because they were brought from the French district of Indi
ana and sold in 1816, the court ruled that these negroes were made
free by the ordinance of 1787, adding, "Slavery' is condemned by
reason of the laws of nature. It exists and can only exist through
municipal regulations, and in matters of doubt, is it not an unques
tioned rule that courts must lean in favorem vitae et libertatis."
(Harry vs. Decker, Walker, 36.) In June, 1820, the court consid
ered the first appeal from a sentence of death for murder. It was
the case of a white man who had killed a negro, and sought relief
by raising in question the personal rights of negroes. Judge
Clarke, in pronouncing the opinion, said : "In some respects slaves
may be considered as chattels, but in others they are regarded as
men." The syllabus reads : "The ancient laws of Rome giving
power over the life of a slave never extended here. Slavery exists
not by force of the law of nature, or of nations, but by virtue only
of the positive provisions of the law ; to these the master must look
for all his rights, and they do not confer the power of taking the
life of the negro." - The records of the early State period show""1
occasional orders that a force of militia attend the sheriff to pre
serve order during the execution of negroes for murder. Occasion
ally also there are records of pardons to negroes sentenced to
death. -4"~"
The Territorial code was the basis of subsequent codes. It was
embodied, revised and additional restrictions added, in the Poin
dexter code of 1822. The death penalty was provided, as it hacf~j
been before, for any slave who should maim a white person, or at- J

€82 MISSISSIPPI
tempt to commit rape, or any capital crime, or arson. It was pro
vided that when proof had been made to a court that any negro
or mulatto had "given false testimony" he should, without further
trial, "be ordered by the said court, to have one ear nailed to the
pillory, and there to stand for the space of one hour, and then the
said ear to be cut off, and thereafter the other ear nailed in like
manner and cut off' at the expiration of one other hour, and more
over to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back, well
laid on, at the public whipping post, or such other punishment as
the court shall think proper, not extending to life or limb." Just
what were the provisions in the Poindexter code that were used
against him in politics, it does not appear. The code was said at
the time to prohibit any religious instruction of slaves. The act
passed in place of these objectionable sections was similar to the
Territorial laws above quoted in a general way, regulating the vis-^
iting and meeting together of slaves. This act to ameliorate the
Poindexter code prohibited any assemblage of slaves to be taught
reading or writing, under any pretext, but provided that this should
not forbid masters giving slaves written consent to attend relig
ious worship, if the same were conducted by a regular white min
ister. The proposition in 1819 to prohibit slavery in the new State
of Missouri, as it had been prohibited in the Northwest Territory
and States, caused the first open sectional dispute on the subject,
although an even division of the United States between slave
States and free States had been long before this quietly maintained.
(See Statehood.) To preserve the national tolerance of slavery,
as well as obtain an outlet for the negro increase, it became neces
sary to insist upon the extension of slavery into new States. But
the Missouri compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery, west of the
Mississippi, north of an extension of the south ' ljne of Virginia
and Kentucky, except that slavery should be permitted in Missouri.
This made the acquisition of Texas inevitable. In 1825 the legis
lature refused to concur in the resolution of the legislature of Ohio,
"proposing a plan for the emancipation of slaves in the United
States," and approved the constitutional amendment proposed by
Georgia, to prohibit the interstate slave trade, in other words,
""the importation or ingress of any person of color into any one of
the United States, contrary to the laws of said States." In Janu
ary, 1826, resolutions of the States of Delaware, Connecticut, Illi
nois and Indiana, concurring with the Ohio resolution, were re
ferred to a committee of which William Haile (q. v.) was chair
man. Haile reported resolutions, which were adopted by the ma
jority of both houses of the general assembly. The report was:
"That, under the Constitution and Laws of our Country, the right
of property in Slaves is as sacred and inviolate as that of any other
species of property whatever. However great may be the national
evil of slavery, and however much we may regret it, circumstances
over which we have no control have rendered it inevitable, and
places it without the pale of legislative authority. We, therefore,

MISSISSIPPI 683
cannot concur in any arrangement for their emancipation, by any
legislative enactment, without violating the constitutional rights
of our citizens. Any interference in our own internal concerns upon
subjects of- this kind, is only calculated to engender feelings of
prejudice, which, if fostered by the continued efforts of the
Non-Slave holding States, may, eventually, produce consequences
deplorable to society, and tend to weaken that bond of union and
fellowship which should exist between all the members of the
same confederacy. Your committee conceive, also, that any meas
ures which might be taken by other States to ameliorate the condi
tion of the slave would tend rather to aggravate than relieve his
misfortunes. By a gradual emancipation the hopes and prospects of
those, who remain in slavery would be so far excited as to create a
spirit of discontent and of insurrection, which might not only en
danger the interests but the personal safety and lives of our citizens.
And it is, therefore, with serious apprehensions for our peace and
safety that your committee witness the combined efforts of several
of the Non Slave holding States in their behalf. By holding out the
semblance of aid and prospect of freedom they might be easily
stimulated to rebellion, and our citizens might fall victims to a pol
icy against the exercise of which they protest, and in which policy
they are determined not to participate. We, therefore, most sin
cerely deprecate and will continue firmly to resist all interference
on the part of other States. The Southern States, who suffer, and
are compelled, from circumstances, to endure the evil, ought to be
the best judges of the remedy; and so soon as they can concur in
any expedient for their relief, it will be time enough to adopt it.
This State, in the language of Georgia, 'claims the right with her
Southern sisters, whose situation is similar, of moving this ques
tion when an enlarged system of benevolence and philanthropic
exertions in consistency with her rights and interests shall render
it practicable.' " On this point Gen. Felix Houston wrote several
years later to a New York paper that the planters apprehended no
injury from their slaves, and looked to no power on earth, not even
the Union, for protection. They were abundantly supplied with
arms, and could easily control the black population. "If the South
are so safe, it may be asked why are they so sensitive on this sub
ject? I will answer — they are sensitive from motives of interest
and humanity. He who makes my negroes dissatisfied with their
situation, makes them less useful to me, and puts me under the
necessity of dealing more rigorously with them. Throughout the
whole south it is considered disgraceful not to cloth and feed
negroes well, or to treat them cruelly, and there are very few who
have the hardihood to brave public sentiment. . . . But if
negroes become disorderly, discontented and disobedient, the neces
sity requires that they should either be set at large at once, or
their privileges curtailed, and discipline made more rigorous till
they are brought into complete subjection — there is no middle
course. Again, there is a possibility, if they become rebellious,
that they may, do damage in a single neighborhood, and destroy

684 MISSISSIPPI
the lives of a few women and children — the consequence of which
would be that then whites would be under the necessity of putting
great numbers of the misguided wretches to death. Such was the
case at Southampton."
In his annual message of 1828 Gerard C. Brandon, the first native
governor, said : "The southern States generally having passed laws
to prevent the importation of slaves for the purpose of traffic,
has left Mississippi almost the only receptacle for the surplus
black population of the middle States, where their labor is not
found so productive as in the south. The vast number annually
imported into our State has excited uneasiness in the minds of
our fellow citizens and caused them to feel much solicitude that we
should adopt the policy of our neighboring States. Slavery is an
evil at best, and has invariably operated oppressively on the poorer
class of every community into which it has been introduced, by de
stroying that mutual dependence which would otherwise exist be
tween the rich and the poor, and excludes from the State, in pro
portion to the number of slaves, a free white population, through
the means of which alone can we expect to take rank with our
sister States." But no restriction was made, except by taxation.
The State income from this source in 1831 was a trifle over $3,000.
In 1830 the board of internal improvements recommended the plan
urged by Charles Lynch, that the State should become the owner
of a body of slaves, to be used in public works.
After the election of Gen. Jackson (1828) there was, much less
toleration of the discussion of slavery. Also, "The horrible slave
insurrection of August, 1831, at Southampton, Va, caused a panic
that resulted in mobs and the expulsion from the South of a num
ber of persons suspected of tampering with the slaves, and in the
general strengthening of the patrol system." (Birney and his
Times, 72). The biographer of James G. Birney writes: "At the
time his abhorrence of slavery was banishing him from his native
South (1832), he shuddered at the thought of the horrors he thought
would follow the general immediate abolition of slavery. To him,
as to most Southerners, it appeared to involve social convulsions,
the overthrow of civilization in the South, and the substitution of
immorality and barbarism."
The constitution of 1832 followed the constitution of 1817, with
this addition : "The introduction of slaves into this State' as mer
chandise or for sale, shall be prohibited from and after the first day
of May, 1833 ; provided, that the actual settler or settlers shall not
be prohibited from purchasing slaves in any State in this Union,
and bringing them into this State for their own individual use, until
_the year 1845."
An attempt was made in 1833 to amend the constitution by strik
ing out this clause, but the amendment failed of adoption by pop
ular vote. "It was rejected by the people," said Judge Sharkey.
Not all the planters, by any means, were disposed to sanction the
inter-state slave trade, and there was naturally much opposition
to negro labor among the "mechanics," as white laboring men

MISSISSIPPI 685
were called. • But the doctrine was set up by those interested in
the traffic that the prohibition in the constitution was inoperative
without an act of legislature. The legislature did not enact any,
penalties, immediately. In 1833 a tax was laid on negroes im
ported, and in 1837 another act imposed a fine of $500 and impris
onment for each slave introduced. The first enactment, it is inti
mated by Judge Sharkey, was unconstitutional. Contracts entered
into for slaves imported as merchandise were held to be invalid
in three cases brought before the High Court, but afterward the
Supreme court of the United States, in the case of Groves vs.
Slaughter (15 Peters) held such contracts valid, on the ground that
the constitutional prohibition was a mere mandate to the legisla
ture to carry out the provision by providing proper penalties. In
the case of Brien vs. Williamson, (7 Howard, 14) Chief Justice
Sharkey reiterated the ruling of the highest court of Mississippi
that a constitutional prohibition was operative without an act of
legislature, and that, even if it were admitted, as bearing on the
validity of a contract, that the clause of the constitution was a
mere mandate, "the mere mandate was a law which will avoid
the contract which was made in violation of its spirit. . . .
Our legislation has looked and tended to this point [prohibition of,
the slave trade] since 1817. . . . The prohibitory provision
. . . established the policy of the State." He also remarked:
"Judge Story has told us . . ' . that the mandatory provisions
in the constitution of the United States, addressed to congress,
were so imperative that they could not be defeated. How is it that
a mandatory provision in our constitution should be less obliga
tory?" .
The slave trade was constitutionally prohibited in Mississippi^
from 1832 to 1857, according to the rulings of the highest court of
the State. But the financial interests overcame this prohibition.
Under the constitution of 1832, also, a tax was imposed upon
vendors in slaves, but several judges ruled the tax unconstitutional,
and the restriction failed. —
The great importation of slaves from Virginia and Kentucky,
and their sale on credit, during the opening up of the Indian coun
try, was one of the main causes of the financial crash. At the same
time the slave gangs along the Ohio and Potomac rivers, practically
the same as in Africa where the slave trade was maintained,
aroused the abolition sentiment in Kentucky and Ohio and in con
gress to great intensity. —
Acting Governor Quitman was the first governor of Mississippi
(1836) to defend slavery in an executive message. He ccfmplained
of "reviews, orations, tracts and even school books, emanating
from the non-slaveholding States. . . . These publications
have been characterized by illiberal and odious comparisons, by
false or mistaken misrepresentations of our character, morals and
habits, arid by sweeping denunciation of our civil institutions.
• ¦ . Within the past year . . . this interference has as
sumed a character which will no longer permit us to be silent or

686 MISSISSIPPI
inactive. Organized associations have been formed in some of the
non-slaveholding States, with the avowed purpose of effecting the
abolition of slavery, in every State of the Union, by whatever
means their envy, their fanaticism or their deep-seated malignity,
may devise." He charged that attempts had been made to incite
insurrection or organization among slaves for the promotion of
emancipation. "The morality, the expediency, and the duration
of the institution of slavery, are questions which belong exclusively
to ourselves. It would degrade the character and prostrate the dig
nity of the sovereign State, to step down into the arena of con
troversy and discuss the morality, the propriety or wisdom of her
civil institutions with foreign powers or with self-constituted as
sociations of individuals, who have no right to question them.
It is enough that we, the people of Mississippi, professing to be
actuated by as high a regard for the precepts of religion and moral
ity as the citizens of other States, and claiming to be more com
petent judges of our own substantial interests, have chosen to
adopt into our political system, and still choose to retain, the in
stitution of domestic slavery."
Governor Lynch, who was elected by the opponents of Calhoun,
was no less vigorous in repudiating outside interference. "The
question of right involved admits of no parley, no intermeddling,
no discussion from any quarter — nor can a proposition bearing on
this point, either immediately or 'remotely, be listened to for a
moment. In stamping upon these incendiary movements our in
dignant and decided disapprobation, there can be but one opinion.
Mississippi has given a practical demonstration of feeling on this
exciting subject that may serve as an impressive admonition to
offenders ; and however we may regret the occasion, we are con
strained to admit that necessity will sometimes prompt a summary
mode of trial and punishment unknown to the law. But no means
should be spared to guard against and prevent similar occurrences."
(See Panic of 1835.)
Upon the collapse of credit in 1837, Governor Lynch asked the
legislature "whether the passage of an act prohibiting the intro
duction of slaves in this State as merchandise may not have a salu
tary effect in checking the immense drain of capital annually made
upon us by the sale of this description of property." To do so
would only be obedience to the constitution. "It is freely admitted,
and the objection may be made to such a law, that it would be at
variance with the broad principles of our free institutions — its en
forcement, too, must always be attended with difficulty. Under
such impressions I voted in convention against the clause imposing
the inhibition ; and under different circumstances, looking to its
general operation, I should certainly still oppose it." But he be
lieved circumstances now warranted an experiment. He also
noted that the prohibitive clause in the constitution had cast a
cloud upon the validity of all bills of sale of negroes.
A committee of the house (Phillips of Madison chairman) in
recommending the annexation of Texas in 1837, discussed the ques-

MISSISSIPPI 687
tion of slavery as the reason of opposition to annexation, and an
argument why the South should demand annexation, so that "an
equipoise of influence in the halls of congress will be secured."
(House Journal, 1837, p. 158). This committee said of slavery:
"This system is cherished by our constituents as the very pal
ladium of their prosperity and happiness, and whatever ignorant
fanatics may elsewhere conjecture, the committee are fully as
sured, upon the most diligent observation and reflection on the sub
ject, that the South does not possess within her limits a blessing,
with which the affections of her people are so closely entwined and
so completely enfibered, and whose value is fnore highly appre
ciated, than that which we are now considering. . . . To this
system we owe more than we can well estimate of domestic com
fort and social happiness. To it we are chiefly indebted for the
proud spirit of liberty which so eminently distinguishes the proud
and highminded inhabitants of this happy region . . , . which
every southern man, worthy of the name, is resolved before high
heaven to protect and sustain, if need be, even at the hazard of his
life. . . During the last winter the hall of representatives
in congress was for the first time desecrated with a petition from
slaves, on the subject of abolition. . . . Abolition societies,
created in a fiendish spirit of malignity, discreditable to the dignity
of human character, are at this time multiplying with astonishing
rapidity in the New England States. . . . This unholy crusade
has not only a potent band of moral agitators in our own country,
but they are encouraged and stimulated to action by a hypocritical
fraternity of polar philanthropists across the Atlantic." In 1841
Governor McNutt transmitted to the legislatures communications
from other States relative to the refusal of Northern States to sur
render fugitives charged with stealing slaves. He said : "The prin
ciples contended for by the governors of the States of Maine and '
New York are utterly indefensible, and in violation of both the
letter and spirit of the national compact, and if adopted generally,
by the non-slaveholding States, will inevitably lead to a dissolution
of the Union." (For subsequent history see Administrations,
Tucker to Sharkey.)
Niles Register, of February, 1849, notes a petition from Han
cock county to the governor of Mississippi asking an extra session
of the legislature to prohibit the further shipping in of slaves from
Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, where slavery had
ceased to be profitable, "throwing an immense population on the
extreme southern States, which is destined to increase with im
mense rapidity." But congressional prohibition of this traffic was
bitterly opposed by the politicians. (See Nashville Convention.)
A writer in DeBow's Commercial Review said, about this time,
that it was the belief of many citizens that the neglect of manufac
ture and the turning of all investment into agriculture could be
remedied by prohibiting the further introduction of slaves. "In
my opinion, there is a still more cogent reason for the adoption
of this system of exclusion not only by Mississippi, but also by

688 MISSISSIPPI
most of the extreme Southern States. In the northern slaveholding
States (Kentucky to Virginia), slave labor is but little profitable,
and a disposition is already manifested by them to sell us their
slaves, and eventually abolish the institution within their respec
tive limits. The wild fanaticism of the abolitionist has checked
this evil to some extent, but we should also anticipate it by forbid
ding the introduction of their slaves amongst us, and thus compel
them to be our allies, by forcing them to retain their property, and
thus possess a common interest with us in its preservation." (Vol.
XI, p. 618).
The attitude of the extremists as the great war approached is
stated in the resolution introduced in the Mississippi senate by
I. N. Davis, November 1, 1858 : "Whereas, At the adoption of the
Federal Constitution, every State which formed the Union, save
one, tolerated and protected slavery; and Whereas, property in
slaves is directly and fully recognized by said constitution and also
by the Holy Bible; Therefore, Resolved, That the institution of
slavery, as now held and practiced in the Southern States, is neither
legally nor morally wrong, and hence the law of congress making
the slave trade piracy should be repealed." After two weeks, in
which this proposition was thoroughly discussed, the proposition
to revive the African slave trade was defeated by reference to
committee. The author of the resolution had been the Unionist
candidate for congressman-at-large in 1852, on the Foote ticket.
On the general subject of conditions S. S. Prentiss wrote to his
brother in Maine, dated Natchez, July 25, 1831 : "You ask me
about the slaves in this country — how they are treated, etc. . . .
The situation of slaves — at least in this State — is not half as bad
as it is represented, and believed to be, in the North. They are in
general, as far as my observation extends, well clothed, well fed,
and kindly treated — and, I suspect, fully as happy as their masters.
Indeed, I have no question, that their situation is much preferable
to that of the free negroes, who infest the Northern cities. To be
sure, there are, occasionally, men who treat their slaves cruelly
and inhumanly — but they are not countenanced by society, and
their conduct is as much reprobated as it would be anywhere else.
To free the slaves, and let them continue in the United States,
would not, in my opinion, be any advantage to them: though if
they could be transported to African again, it would be better. But
that is impossible on account of their number — and even if they
were all offered the privilege of going to Africa, I do not believe
half of them would accept it. The sin of the business lies at the
doors of those who first introduced slavery into this country. The
evil now is too deep-rooted to be eradicated."
There were three distinct classes of slaves : (1) the domestic
slaves or servants, some of whom were taught to read and write,
and readily imitated the manners of their masters ; (2) the town
slaves, including the negroes working at the various trades and as
draymen, hucksters, etc. White mechanics had one or more as
sistants of this sort when they could afford it; and some free

MISSISSIPPI 689
negroes owned slaves. "Many of the negroes who swarm in the
cities are what are called hired servants, hired out by their masters
or allowed to hire their own time," paying a tribute to their masters
according to their earnings. Some saved their earnings until they
were able to buy their freedom. "There are indeed few families,
however wealthy, whose incomes are not increased by the wages
of hired slaves, and there are many poor people, who own one or.
two slaves, whose hire enables them to live comfortably. From $3
to $5 a week is the hire of a female, and 75 cents to a dollar a day
for a male. The city slaves are distinguished as a class by superior
intelligence, acuteness and deeper moral degradation. (3) The
third and lowest class consisted of those slaves who are termed
field hands."
Mrs. Jefferson Davis wrote (biography of Jefferson Davis)
concerning James Pemberton, the colored man who was selected by
Jefferson Davis as overseer of his plantation, that he "took charge
of Briarfield, and managed the negroes according to his master's
and his own views. They were devoted friends and always ob
served the utmost ceremony and politeness in their intercourse,
and at parting "a cigar was always presented by Mr. Davis to him.
James never sat down without being asked, and his master always
invited him to be seated, and sometimes fetched him a chair. James
was a dignified, quiet man, of fine, manly appearance, very silent,
but what he said was always to the point. His death, which oc
curred from pneumonia in 1850, during our absence, was a sore
grief to us, and his place was never filled." See Davis, Joseph E. ;
Dabney, Thomas ; Cameron, J. S.
Thomas Dabney, writing in 1884, noted that the negroes left at
home by Confederate soldiers were never rude to the women and
children. "The more the problem is studied the greater is the
marvel. I have arrived at the conclusion that the universal
acquiescence of the negroes was due to their enlightenment, and not
to their ignorance. You will remember that the San Domingo ne
groes were nearly all savages but recently imported, and very few
to the manner born. It was the common practice among Southern
ladies to teach their servants to. read, and as many of the out ne
groes as chose to attend. That amount of knowledge enabled
them to separate the clothes when they came in from the laundry,
and deposit each piece in its proper drawer. That might have been
motive enough ; but many were educated far above that. A negro
man, living on a very fine plantation but a few miles below Vicks
burg, rented the plantation as it stood, from his former master, at
the close of the war, and was soon known as the best planter in
the county, and perhaps in the State. His cotton, at the Cincin
nati Exposition, took all of the prizes. . . . The good behav
ior of the negroes was not due, as you suggest, to their ignorance."
In this connection it is well to note that servile races have never
revolted in times of war.
Marriage between slaves had no recognition in law. Hence the
Condition of J:he slaves in this respect varied with the character of
44-11

690 MISSISSIPPI
the masters. The essential feature of slavery, as a continuing in
stitution, was that the offspring of slaves were the property of the
master. Whether this property right should be asserted to the ex
tent of selling off, depended upon the character of the masters, also.
In cases of financial emergency, it was difficult to resist the exer
cise of the legal right to sell. Selling off also became necessary
where the plantation operations were not extensive, or the growing
population of the quarters would ruin the master. Thomas Dabney
(q. v.) was a Virginian who was remarkably considerate of his
negroes. He sold but four in his life time — one who killed her hus
band, one who attempted to kill the overseer, a thievish girl and
one who desired to be transferred. He disapproved of hiring out
servants, but at times hired out good mechanics. For one, a black
smith, he received $500 a year.
Mississippi was never such a slave exporting State as Virginia,'
but was the famous destination of the slave gangs that were
marched through the wilderness, brought down the Ohio, or by
ship from Norfolk or Alexandria to Natchez. There was a general
impression outside that in Mississippi the lot of the slave was
much harder than in the region where he was reared. That the
policy of labor in the Southwest was to get the utmost out of a
slave during his years of greatest capacity, regardless of his fate
afterward, was the general understanding, as appears, in numerous
publications of the ante-bellum period. This understanding was
prevalent among the negroes of Virginia and Kentucky also. J. H.
Ingraham wrote in 1835 : "Perhaps two-thirds of the first slaves
came into the State from Virginia; and nearly all now introduced,
of whom there are several thousands annually, are brought from
that State. Kentucky contributes a small number, which is yearly
increasing; and since the late passage of a slave law in Missouri,
a new market is opened there for this trade. It is computed that
more than $200,000 worth of slaves will be purchased in Missouri
this season, for the Natchez market. A single individual has re
cently left Natchez with $100,000 for the purpose of buying up
negroes in that State to sell in Mississippi. The usual way of
transporting slaves is by land, although they are frequently brought
round by sea. . . . Last year more than 4,000 were brought
into the State, one-third of whom were sold in the Natchez market.
The prices of slaves vary with the prices of cotton and sugar. At
this time, when cotton brings a good price, a good field hand can
not be bought for less than $800 if a male; if a female for $600.
Body servants sell much higher, $1,000 being a common price for
them. Good mechanics sometimes sell for $2,000, and seldom for
less than $900. The usual price for a good seamstress or nurse is
from $700 to $1,000. An infant adds $100 to the price of the
mother, and from infancy the children of the slaves increase in
value about $100 for every three years. All domestic slaves or
house servants . . . often sell at the most extravagant prices
 the best, native or acclimated, at $1,800. to $2,000. . . .
Negro traders soon accumulate great wealth, from the immense

MISSISSIPPI 691
profit they make on their merchandise. . . . One of their num
ber, who is the great Southern slave merchant, and who, for the
last fifteen years, has supplied this country with two-thirds of the
slaves brought into it, has amassed a fortune of more than a mil
lion of dollars by this traffic alone."
The slave market near Natchez was about a mile from the
town — a courtyard surrounded by low buildings. The negroes for
sale were dressed in black fur hats, roundabouts and trousers of
corduroy velvet, good vests, strong shoes, and white cotton shirts.
The females were dressed in neat calico frocks, white aprons and
capes, and fancy kerchiefs. This market was visited often by In
graham, as well as others, where several hundred slaves of all
ages, colors and conditions were exposed for sale. "I have con
versed with a great number of them, from the liveliest to the most
sullen,, and my impression, which is daily strengthened by a more
intimate knowledge of their species is, that the negro is not dis
satisfied with his condition — that it is seldom or never the subject
of his thoughts — that he regards it as his destiny, as much as a
home about the poles is to the Laplanders ; nor does he pine for
freedom more than the other after the green hills and sunny skies
of Italy. . . . Negroes, when brought into market, are always
anxious to be sold; and to be sold first is a great desideratum, for
in their estimation it is an evidence of their superiority." Owners
frequently refused to sell negroes so as to part sisters attached to
each other; but negroes related frequently preferred to be sold to
different owners, so that they might have pretexts for visits.
The State treasurer's report of 1854 states that the average price
of slaves (including children, it may be inferred) was $600 in 1844,
and had increased in ten years to about $800. The number of
slaves listed in 1844 was 288,707, and the number in 1854 was esti
mated at 300,000. The total value would be $250,000,000. But
taxation fell very lightly upon this sort of property. Owners were
taxed for slaves, of any age, under 60 years, 60 cents each under
the law of 1844, and this rate was cut iri half by the law of 1850.
It was a rate of about 5 cents on the $100, in 1844, and 2 or 3 cents
in 1850. An owner was taxed as much for an infant as for a field
hand value at $1,500, or a good mechanic, worth from $2,000 to
$4,000. Judge William Yerger said in the constitutional convention of
1865 (q. v.) : "The president of the United States, by a proclama
tion, issued as a war measure, on the 1st day of January, 1863,
declared that slavery was thenceforward abolished. But that
proclamation, being a mere declaration, did not abolish it. Some
thing more was necessary. Before the issuance of this proclama
tion, the president, in September, 1862, had issued another proc
lamation, calling upon the people of the Southern States to lay
down their arms and return to their allegiance to the government
of the United States — assuring them that if they would do so they
would be protected in ail their rights to person and property, in
cluding slaves, guaranteed to them by the constitution ; but warn-

692 MISSISSIPPI
ing them, if they did not do so, he would, on the first day of
January, 1863, declare, by proclamation, that all slaves in the in
surrectionary States should be free. This proclamation was de
rided — the warning was disregarded — the insurrection continued —
and the war was carried on until the armies of the United States
entered into every States and compelled the surrender of all the
forces arrayed against them — and thus carried into execution the
proclamation of emancipation. Hence, as a fact, slavery has not
been abolished .by the sole act of the United States — but its aboli
tion has been produced by the joint action of the government and
the people of the Southern States."
In "A Southern Planter," recalling the life of the Dabneys, of
Hinds county, Susan Dabney Smedes writes : "Very many slave
holders looked on slavery as an incubus, and longed to be rid of
it, but they were not able to give up their young and valuable
negroes, nor were they willing to set adrift the aged and helpless.
To have provided for this class, without any compensation for the
loss of the other, would have reduced them to penury. Now that
the institution" is swept away, I venture to express the conviction
that there is not an intelligent white man or woman in the South
who would have it recalled, if a wish could do it. Those who suf
fered and lost most — those who were reduced from a life of afflu
ence to one of grinding poverty — are content to pay the price.
Good, masters saw the evil that bad masters could do. It is true,
a bad master was universally execrated, and no vocation was held
so debasing as the negro traders. Every conscientious proprietor
felt that these were helpless creatures, whose life and limb were,
in a certain sense, under his control. There were others who felt
that slavery was a yoke upon the white man's neck almost as gall
ing as on the slaves; and it was a saying that the mistress of a
plantation was the most complete slave on it."
The effort to maintain slavery had, of course, back of it, the self
ish motives of property. But the war could never have gained such
great popular support in the South unless there were a worthier
reason. Nations and individuals, when at their best, understand
least their real motives. There is something of cause they cannot
fathom. It may be seen now, in all sections of the Union, that the
fundamental wrong, to which slavery was incidental, was that
the negro was injected, as the laborer, into a community founded
on the principle of giving the laborer equal rights with the rich
and powerful. The community could not survive as an American
community with truth to American ideals, and oppress any part
of the population; and, on the other hand, the white population
could not contemplate a condition in which the negro should be
the political master by force of numbers.
As John Sharp Williams has said, "the philosophy of our sec
tional history — the purpose, conscious or unconscious, of our sec
tional strivings — will be shown to have been always consistent,"
always with one purpose. "And that purpose, however the shib
boleth of the hour, State's Rights, secession, sanctity of slavery,

MISSISSIPPI 693
equal citizenship in the Territories, anti-reconstruction, or what
not, may more or less have obscured it to the eyes of others and
for a time to our own — that unvarying purpose is this — the pre
servation of our racial purity and racial integrity; the supremacy
of the white man's ethics and civilization. There has been no 'lost
cause,' but a preserved cause, though many things thought at
many times to be a necessary part of the cause have been lost.
For example, Secession has been lost. It was the remedy resorted
to to. assert the Cause. Slavery has been lost, but it was not our
Cause, though we thought so once, and fought for it, among other
things. But why? Was it not because our people thought that
with the enfranchisement of the negroes would necessarily come
the downfall of the white man's civilization and the destruction of
his family life, whence is evolved his code of ethics and upon which
is based his civilization? The event has proved that the appre
hended result was not a necessary result, but how well-founded
was the apprehension, judging by San Domingo, Mexico and South
America, whose experience alone history had then furnished us.
Moreover, how hardly did we escape it? Would we have escaped
it at all, hut for the fortitude, patience, constancy, self-discipline,
self-command, and solidarity and capacity for organization learned
during four years of hardship and war?"
Slayden, or Slayden's Crossing, a post-hamlet in the northern
part of Marshall county, 12 miles north of Holly Springs. Popu
lation in 1900, 26.
Sledge, a postoffice in the northern part of Quitman county, on
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 12 miles northeast of Belen,
the county seat.
Small Pox. The first quarantine law was enacted by Governor
Sargent and the judges, and opportunity for its application was
given by the prevalence of small pox at New Orleans in 1802.
William Dunbar wrote Governor Claiborne urging quarantine and
suggesting that the new discovery of vaccination be made use of.
The terms of the law hardly covered the case, and the governor
could only warn the merchants of Natchez not to expose for sale
goods from New Orleans. He suggested that the citizens by sub
scription employ a messenger to bring vaccine from Kentucky.
This was done, but the virus proved ineffective. The small pox
was ranging at Natchez when the legislature met in special ses
sion in May, and the governor urged the enactment of a health
law, to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases.
A small pox camp was established by order of Governor Clai
borne, and Drs. D. and W. Lattimore put in charge of it. Their
report, showing that few deaths resulted is recorded in the gov
ernor's journal. Following is an extract : "The well-known ex
ertions which your excellency used to preserve the territory from
the small-pox, and the influence you have exercised in favor of
vaccination, induce us to believe that you will be highly gratified
to hear that the latter has prevented the ravages of the former,
by a very general circulation. We conceive that two-thirds of

694 MISSISSIPPI
the inhabitants must have undergone vaccination, and in no case
that we have heard of has it produced mortality. It is not easy
to say what might have been the fate of this menaced country,
without the advantage of this invaluable preventative ; but it would
seem as if its opportune arrival amongst us was something provi
dential. No case of small-pox, as far as we know, now exists in
the territory."
At the session of the legislature of 1846, much alarm prevailed
on the subject of the small pox, and by the act of March 2, 1846,
a vaccine depot and agency was established at Jackson, with an
annual salary of $400 to the agent. In 1852 the governor recom
mended that the agency be abolished, the cause of alarm having
long since passed away and vaccine matter being accessible to all
at trifling expense. For recent epidemics, see Board of Health.
Smedes, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Sharkey
county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 16 miles
south of Rolling Fork, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 41.
Smiley, James Malcolm, vice-chancellor 1846-52, was born in
Amite county, Miss, October 25, 1812, was educated at Jefferson
college, Pennsylvania, and at Oakland college, Mississippi, being
the first graduate of that institution and the entire "class" of 1834.
He read law with William Dillingham, of Liberty, completed his
studies at New Orleans and at Transylvania university, Ky, and
began the practice in Amite county in 1837. He was elected to
the legislature in 1841, 1843 and 1845, and in 1846 was elected vice-
chancellor for the southern district of the State, defeating Pow
hatan Ellis by a large majority. He was reelected in 1850, but
resigned in 1852 to make his home at New Orleans. There he was
concerned in important litigation, including the celebrated Gaines
case, in which he was one of the counsel for Mrs. Myra Clark
Gaines, daughter of Daniel Clark, Jr. Judge Smiley returned to
Amite county in 1859, was elected circuit judge in 1865, and held
that office by various reappointments until January, 1878, when he
resigned. His death was at Magnolia, April 8, 1879. In politics,
so far as he permitted himself to participate, he was a Whig. He
was particularly noticeable as bringing down to times not far re
mote the characteristics of the bench and bar of a much older
period. Smith, Benjamin F, a native of Kentucky, when a boy of six
teen, enlisted with the troops under Gen. Jackson and served in
the battles of the Creek campaign and at Mobile, Pensacola and
New Orleans, as a private and officer gaining the favorable atten-
tention of his general Subsequently he removed to Mississippi
with his father, Maj. David Smith, a hero of the revolution. The
family settled in Hinds county, not long after that region was
yielded by the Choctaws, and B. F. was the first representative of
Hinds in the legislature. Afterward he was appointed agent among
the Chickasaws by President Jackson. Joining the Austin colony

MISSISSIPPI , 695
in Texas he was adjutant of the revolutionary troops at the begin
ning of hostilities in 1835, under Col. Austin.
Smithburg, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Pike county,
10 miles east of Osyka, the nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 36.
Smith, Cotesworth Pinckney, was born ' in the district of Nat
chez, the son of Peter Smith, a planter who immigrated from
South Carolina in 1785, and died in 1837, leaving a large estate.
In early manhood he engaged in the practice of law. In politics
he was a Whig. In 1826 he was elected representative of Wilkin
son county and was chairman of the committee on internal im
provements in the house. In 1830 he was elected to the State sen
ate, and after the new constitution went into effect he was elected
one of the three judges of the High court of errors and appeals.
He served until 1837 by this election ; for a few months in 1840,
by appointment of the governor, was the successor of Judge Pray,
and in 1849 was again elected to the court for a full term, and in
November, 1851, was chosen chief justice, a dignity which contin
ued to be his until his death, November 11, 1862. He delivered
the opinion of the court in the famous case of Johnson vs. The
State, sustaining the validity of the Union bank bonds, in contra
diction to the political decision on this subject. The resolutions
of the bar, presented by Hon. T. J. Wharton, February 23, 1863,
recite: "Born in Mississippi while yet under the Territorial gov
ernment of Georgia, Judge Smith grew with the growth of his
State. Honored and trusted at all times by his fellow-citizens, he
never sought rewards or honors from any other source, and never
"held an office not conferred by them. . . . Learned, conscien
tious, fearless and upright, for nearly twelve years he presided in
this court."
Governor Clark wrote of him in a message of December, 1863 :
"Sad as have been the inroads which death has made upon our
State in the last twelve months, the demise of none of her sons has
caused a wider or more heart-felt sorrow. Born upon the soil of
Mississippi, devoted heart and soul to her interest, and watching
with zealous care over her honor, Judge Smith spent a long and
laborious life in her service. In the forum, in the senate chamber
and upon the bench, he labored with a zeal that knew no weari
ness, and with a purity of patriotism and loftiness of purpose that
has had few parallels. In every position he occupied, his great
talents, his profound erudition, his extensive legal attainments
and the unquestioned purity of his character, shed unfading luster
upon the annals of his native State."
In the winter of 1861 Judge Smith asked and was given a place
on the staff of Gen. Reuben Davis, in command at Corinth. "I
considered this a very great honor to me," Davis wrote, "as he was
a gentleman of sixty-five years of age, of unusual dignity of char
acter, a ripe scholar, and the ablest jurist in the State, excepting
Judge W. L. Sharkey." He was interested in the movement for
the liberation of Cuba, in 1850, and while he was judge of the

696 MISSISSIPPI
high court his name appeared on the bonds that were put in cir
culation by Lopez.
Smith County was established December 23, 1833, and was named
in honor of Major David Smith, of Hinds county. The county has
a land surface of 610 square miles. It lies a little to the south of
the center of the State, and was the southwestern corner of the
large area of land finally ceded to the United States by the Choc
taws, in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, September 27, 1830. Its
limits were defined as follows by the act which created the county:
"Beginning on the line between ranges 9 and 10 east, at the point
at which the line between townships 4 and 5 crosses said line, and
from thence south with the said line between ranges 9 and 10 east,
to the southern boundary of the Choctaw nation ; from thence west,
with said southern boundary line, to the western boundary line of
said Choctaw nation ; from thence north with said western bound
ary line, to the point at which the line between townships 2 and 3
strikes said western boundary line; from thence west to the line
between ranges 5 and 6 east; from thence north with said line be
tween ranges 5 and 6 east, to the line between townships 4 and 5;
and from thence to the place of beginning." A large influx of set
tlers from the older parts of the State poured into the new county
at an early date, and by 1837 there were 1,085 free whites, owning
some three hundred slaves. A list of the county officers for the
year 1838 follows: Abraham Carr, Sampson Ainsworth, Emanuel
A. Durr, Thomas J. Husbands, John Sprinks, Members of the Board
of Police; James B. Graham, Sheriff, Assessor and Collector; Ben
jamin Thornton, Clerk of the Circuit and Probate Courts ; John
Campbell, Judge of Probate; James L. McCaugh, County Surveyor;
Abner Lewis, Coroner; Charles C. Horton, Ranger; Reuben Craft,
County Treasurer ; David Ward, Justice of the Peace ; Jesse Rose,
Constable. The original county site was located at Fairchild, about four miles
south of Raleigh, but was soon abandoned. The county seat was
then established at Raleigh, so called for Sir Walter Raleigh, and
was a place of 200 inhabitants in 1900, situated near the center of the
county. There are no large settlements in the region, but numerous
small villages abound. Two of the oldest towns are Polkville and
Trenton, established during the 40's and located on the east and
west bank of Strong river in the northwestern corner. Some of
the other towns are Boykins (pop. 350), Lorena, Lemon, Sylvarena,
Taylorsville and Summerland. The only railroad in the county is
the Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, which cuts across
the southern part of the county from west to east. The water
courses are Strong and Leaf rivers and their numerous tributary
streams, affording very good water power. About one-fourth of the
acreage of the county is now improved, and the balance is well
timbered with long-leaf pine for the most part; on the river and
creek bottoms are found white, red and black oak, hickory, chest
nut, beech, magnolia, pecan and cypress. The surface of the land
is level on the bottoms, undulating and hilly elsewhere. The soil is
of various kinds ; partly red and black prairie, good for corn and

MISSISSIPPI 697
cotton; partly fertile bottoms, and partly hill lands, where the soil
is not so good. All the agricultural crops, fruits and vegetables
common to the central part of the State are raised in fair abundance.
Sheep raising and animal husbandry are profitable, as the pastur
age is good, wood range in summer and switch-cane on the bottoms
in winter. The climate is mild and healthful and schools and
churches are to be found in every neighborhood. No manufactures
of importance are to be found in the county, though the census
lists some 46 small ones.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population:
Number of farms 2,400, acreage in farms 270,831, acres improved
75,602, value of lands exclusive of buildings $749,490, value of build
ings $335,620, value of live stock $421,041, total value of products
not fed to stock $751,744. The number of manufactures was 46, capi
tal invested $66,914, wages paid $7,796, cost of materials $47,135,
total value of products $80,672. The population in 1900 consisted
of whites 10,695, colored 2,360, total 13,055, increase of 2,420 over
the year 1890. The total assessed valuation of real and personal
property in Smith county in 1905 was $1,996,641 and in 1906 it was
$3,404,118 showing an increase during the year of $1,407,477.
Smithdale, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Amite county,
on the east fork of the Amite river, about 16 miles from Liberty,
the county seat. Summit, 11 miles east, on the Illinois Central R.
R, is the nearest railroad and banking town. Smithdale has two
churches. Population in 1900, 31.
Smith, James Argyle, a native of Tennessee, was appointed from
Mississippi to West Point in 1849, and after his graduation was
on duty with the United States army in the west until 1861, when
he resigned and accepted a commission as captain in the Confed
erate States army. In 1862 he was adjutant-general of General
Polk's army until Shiloh, when he was second in command of a
regiment. He commanded the Fifth Confederate regiment at Per
ryville, Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, winning promotion to
brigadier-general At Missionary Ridge he was distinguished for
gallantry and was shot through both thighs. On recovery he led
his brigade at the battle of Atlanta and was again wounded. When
Major-General Cleburne was killed at Franklin, Smith took com
mand of his division, and his last service was at Bentonville, N. C.
After the war he made his home in Mississippi, being engaged in
farming from 1866-1877, and in the latter year was elected State
superintendent of education, an office he held until 1886!
Smiths Mills, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Carroll county,
on Potacocowah creek, about 15 miles north of CarroUton, the
county seat. Pbpulation in 1900, 15.
Smith Station, a hamlet in the western part of Hinds county,
on the Big Black river, and a station on the Alabama & Vicksburg
R. R, 16 miles by rail east of Vicksburg. It has rural free delivery
from the town of Edwards. Population in 1900, 24.

698 MISSISSIPPI
Smithville, a village in the northern part of Monroe county, 2y2
miles east of the East fork of the Tombigbee river, and 24 miles
northeast of Aberdeen, the county seat. Amory is the nearest
railroad and banking town. It has two churches, and a money order
postoffice. Population in 1900, 150.
Smyrna, a post-hamlet of Attala county, 9 miles southeast of
Kosciusko, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 30.
Snell, a postoffice of Clarke county.
Snoody, a postoffice of Kemper county, 5 miles southwest of De
kalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Snowden, a postoffice of Lauderdale county, about 14 miles north
of Meridian.
Society, Colonization. This society was organized by a few
philanthropic men in Mississippi, to co-operate with the American
society under the presidency of Bushrod Washington, of Virginia".
James G. Birney, of Huntsville, Ala, a lawyer and planter and one
of the organizers of the State of Alabama, was appointed in July,
1832, agent of the Colonization society for Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. It was after his efforts in
this field that Birney became an abolitionist.
The American Almanac (1833) said of Mississippi : "Free blacks,
of intelligence and respectability, have been sent to Liberia, to
examine the prospects. Auxiliary societies have been formed in
several counties, and they number among their numbers many of
the most intelligent and wealthy planters." At the annual meet
ing in 1836 the society resolved to purchase a suitable territory in
Africa for colonization by free negroes from Mississippi and such
negroes as might be freed. The strain upon the social and State
organization of maintaining the system of slavery was making it
impossible to allow slaves to be freed and then to remain in the
State, although not a few slave owners desired to free slaves from
time to time. A committee of the Mississippi society acquired a
region on the river Sinoe, and as there was delay in taking posses
sion, the society resolved in 1837 to "go onward notwithstanding
the empty condition of the treasury, and to rely on the prompt
liberality of the friends of the measure, and of the cause of African
colonization, for the necessary funds." They resolved to call the
country "Mississippi in Africa," and to name the main town "Green
ville," in memory "of the late James Green of Adams county and
as a memorial of his munificent bequests to the cause of African
colonization ;" that an expedition should be prepared as soon as
possible, to sail from New Orleans ; that the parent society should
take temporary supervision of the colony, and Rev. R. S. Finley was
appointed general agent. Stephen Duncan was president of the
Mississippi society, Thomas Henderson, secretary, and other mem
bers were John Ker, F. Beaumont, and Levin Wailes. — (Natchez
Courier & Journal, Jan. 27, 1837.)
The annual meeting of 1838 was held at the Methodist church,
at Natchez, with addresses by the Reverends Winans, Page, Drake

MISSISSIPPI 699
and Winchester. In this year the society owned the brig "Mail,"
which sailed from New Orleans in March with a company of emi
grants from Mississippi, bound for "Mississippi in Africa."
The will of Capt. Isaac Ross, of Jefferson county, who died Jan.
16, 1836, provided that the bulk of his estate should be applied
to the support of education in Liberia, and such of his slaves as
so desired should be sent there by his executors, "there to remain
free." Suit was brought by the widow and children to set ,aside
the will. One of the two children was Margaret A, wife of Thomas
B. Reed (q. v.). Upon the bequest being sustained by Chancellor
Edward Turner, there was an appeal to the High Court. S. S.
Prentiss argued in behalf of the Colonization society. The popular
points in the opposing argument, made by Daniel Mayes, as at
torney for the heirs, embraced the following:
"Slavery is a cherished institution of Mississippi. . . . Her
interest, her feelings, her judgment and her conscience alike con-
¦ spire to sustain it. . . . Is it not necessary, to maintain the
institution of slavery and to rescue our wives and our children from
$ie horrors of insurrection and servile war, that we hold out no
inducements to abolitionists and emancipators to visit our State
and inculcate and disseminate their principles? . . . Is it not
a part of the policy of Mississippi to protect her citizens against
fanaticism in religion and a morbid sensibility on the subject of
slaveholding? . . . The existence and promotion of the Roman
Catholic religion, at Rome or in France, comes no more in conflict
with the policy of England, than does the education of negroes in
Africa come in conflict with the policy of Mississippi. . . . Al
though the colonization society is established to colonize, on the
coasts of Africa, such free persons of color as may voluntarily go,
or such slaves as may be manumitted by their owners with a view
to colonization, do not the members of that society look forward to
the entire overthrow of African slavery as an ultimate consequence
to their design? . . . Is it not part of the policy of Mississippi
to support the institution of slavery ?"
The opinion of the court, delivered by Judge Trotter, December
term, 1840, was that slaves were property under the law and could
be freely renounced by the owner unless there were something in
slave property different from other property. . Captain Ross could
not in his lifetime emancipate a slave, in Mississippi, for that was
forbidden by statute. But he had a perfect right to take his slaves
to Africa and there free them, in his lifetime, and this right he could
carry out by will. His provision that the slaves should remain
there free, made absurd the suggestion that he meant to evade the
law. The law against emancipation was designed to prevent the
increase of free negroes in Mississippi. Hence the opinion of the
chancellor was sustained.' The case was a very famous one and
occasioned much agitation. (See Freeman's Chancery Reports,
Supreme court reports, and Claiborne's Mississippi, 386-391.)
It was subsequently enacted by the legislature that "it shall not
be lawful for any person either by will, deed, or other conveyance,

700 MISSISSIPPI
directly or in trust, or otherwise, to make any disposition of any
slave or slaves for the purpose or with the intent to emancipate such
slave or slaves in this State, or to provide that such slaves be re
moved to be emancipated elsewhere, or by any evasion or indirec
tion so to provide that the colonization society, or any donee or
grantee, can accomplish the act, intent or purpose, designed to be
prohibited by this article."
The newspaper files show that meetings of the society were held
in Mississippi as late as during the Mexican war. The society was
courageously preaching in Mississippi that the end of slavery as a
profitable status was in sight, if not already at hand, and the coloni
zation of negroes in Africa was the only solution of the
problem that remained. But they were denounced alike by the rabid
Abolitionists in the North, and the rabid pro-slavery element in
the South, and were soon submerged by the tide of angry debate
that led to war.
In the time of the "Exodus" (q. v.), 1880, Rev. C. K. Marshall,
of Vicksburg, delivered an address before the board of directors
of the Colonization society, at Washington, D. C, in which he said :
"The South is no longer what it was when this society was organ
ized. The negro is no longer a bondsman. Nor yet is he altogether
a freeman." He did not believe "the peasantry of any country,
ancient or modern, ever made so great progress in any ten decades
as the negroes of the South have done. . . . Still the negro is
less comfortable, less moral, less happy now than formerly, with
exceptional cases. . . . The Caucasian lifts his unattainable
altitude in his presence and overwhelms and disheartens him.
Among* millions of his own race, it would be quite otherwise." He
called attention to Africa impenetrable while the abolitionists were
being rejected at the doors of parliament and congress; the Coloni
zation society planting a colony on the coast; then the Great war
with the result of millions of blacks in America free to go where
they please ; then the explorations of Livingston and Stanley.
"Migration is the normal condition of the human race. It is the
founder of nationalities. It is the Christianizer of all peoples. It
will be the salvation of Africa. . . . Africa, the Rachel of
nations, has long mourned the robbery and enslavement of her off
spring. Let her not forever weep." The same doctrine that Amer
ican slavery would work out in the end for the good of the African
continent, was held in Virginia and Maryland before the Revolu
tion. Societyhill, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Lawrence
county, about 16 miles from Monticello, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 25.
Sol, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 8 miles south, southwest of
Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 24.
Sonora, a post-hamlet of Chickasaw county, 5 miles south of
Houston, one of the county seats and the nearest railroad town.
Population in 1900, 22.

MISSISSIPPI 701
»
Sontag, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Lawrence
county, about 9 miles from Monticello, the county seat. It is a
station on the spur line of the Illinois Central R. R, which runs
from Brookhaven to Monticello. Population in 1900, 25, and in
1906 was estimated at 50.
Soso, a station on the Laurel bfanch of the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R, in the northwestern part of Jones county, 10 miles by rail
from Laurel, the nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 50.
Sowellville, a postoffice of Panola county, 5 miles northeast of
.Sardis, the nearest railroad and banking town.
Spanish Conquest. On May 8, 1779, Charles III of Spain gave
out a formal declaration of war against Great Britain, and on July
8, his subjects in America were authorized to participate in hos
tilities. This meant the repossession of Florida, a project which
had been entertained by the Spanish at New Orleans for some time.
It is impossible to doubt that in the long negotiations that pre
ceded the declaration of war by Spain, the acquisition of territory
was fully discussed, and that the movements of Spain also looked
toward a renewed possession of ancient Louisiana, eastward to
the Mobile and the Alleghanies, by France. The news of war
was received joyfully, by young Bernardo de Galvez, colonel of
the Louisiana regiment and temporary governor of the province.
It gave him an opportunity to gain the advantage of the first
blow, and end the strain of a situation in which he had reason to
fear invasiori both from West Florida and the United States. He
promptly submitted a plan for attack on the Manchac, Baton
Rouge and Natchez posts, to a council of war, which advised delay,
hoping for re-inforcements. But Galvez may have known that
Col. Campbell, at Pensacola, had been appealed to from Manchac
for British reinforcements. He carried forward his preparations,
under the veil of making ready a post on the Manchac for defense.
August 22 was the day set for the march from New Orleans, but
on the 18th a great hurricane swept over the lower Mississippi,
destroying many buildings in New Orleans and on the plantations
for forty miles .along the river. Cattle were killed, crops were
ruined, and general consternation prevailed. All the vessels pre
pared for the invasion of West Florida, save one, went to the bot
tom of the river.
Galvez would not permit this disaster to defeat his enterprise.
By working day and night he restricted the inevitable delay to a
few days. Calling the people of New Orleans together, he revealed
for the first time that his commission as governor had come from
Madrid with the notice of war, but he would not accept it or take
the oath until they had promised to stand with him to conquer or
die. The response was as hearty as he could wish. France and
Spain were now united in war on Great Britain, and the Louisiana
people could act heartily in accord. The French, indeed, were more
enthusiastic than the Spanish. Galvez raised his sunken boats and
procured others from up river. These were to form a fleet, loaded

702 MISSISSIPPI •
with provisions, munitions and ten pieces of artillery, to move up
the Mississippi, as his little army advanced. August 27 the gov
ernor started out to recruit on the German and Acadian coasts,
leaving Lieut.-Col. Don Pedro Piernas in charge at New Orleans.
On the same day the little army of invasion marched. In com
mand, under Galvez, was Col. Manuel Gonzales with Don. Estevan
Miro next in rank. There were 170 veterans, 330 recruits, 20 cara-
binieres, 60 militia, Oliver Pollock and nine other Americans, 80
free blacks and mulattoes; in all 670 men. On the march they
were joined by 600 more militia and 160 Indians. This strength
was reduced by the fatigue of the march of 115 miles, so that the
force was about 1,000 when the flag of Fort Bute was sighted,
Sept. 6. At this time, says Gayarre, Galvez first revealed to the
troops that they were to invade and conquer, not merely guard the
Spanish line. The commander posted his regulars to meet any
force that should approach by the lake route from Pensacola, and
prepared to attack the fort with his other troops. Lieut. Dickson,
in command for the British, had called for help from Pensacola,
and on its failure to arrive had left a small garrison at Bute and
retired to Baton Rouge, a more defensible position. The Wal-
decker grenadiers sent by Campbell to reinforce Dickson were on
the way. On the 7th Galvez assaulted the •fort. We may be per
mitted to believe that the garrison of twenty privates, "a captain
and two lieutenants," were summoned to surrender, though Gay
arre does not mention it. The resistance was nominal, but re
sulted in the death of one private. Six escaped, and the rest
became prisoners of war.
On the 8th the Louisiana army marched for Baton Rouge, fif
teen miles distant. Col. Grand Pre, with forces from Point
Coupee, had already taken two British outposts on Thompson's
Creek and the Amite, and stationed himself to cut off communi
cation with Natchez. The capture of Baton Rouge was a more
difficult proposition than the reduction of Manchac. "The fort was
surrounded by a ditch, eighteen feet wide and nine in depth; it
had, besides, very high walls, with a parapet protected by chevaux
de frise, and a garrison of 400 regulars and 100 militiamen, and was
supplied with thirteen pieces of heavy artillery." (Gayarre.)
Galvez halted a mile and a half from this work, and took his artil
lery from the boats. Advancing, he sent some militia, Indians and
negroes to occupy a wooded place near the fort and by a feigned
attack to draw the British fire while, under shelter of the night, the
artillery was posted in an advantageous position, screened by a
garden. Next day, September 21, the Spanish batteries opened,
and the guns of the fort replied. This artillery fight lasted until
half past three in the afternoon, when a flag of truce was sent out
with an offer to capitulate. Galvez would have nothing but un
conditional surrender of Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure, with
the dependent districts, and these terms were agreed upon. After
24 hours the garrison, 375 strong, marched out with honors, and
delivered up arms and flags, becoming prisoners of war. Upon

MISSISSIPPI 703
the settling of the terms of capitulation a captain and 80 men
started toward Fort Panmure, 130 miles distant, to take possession
of that post, which was garrisoned by 80 grenadiers and their offi
cers, according to the Louisiana account. In these forts at Baton
Rouge and Natchez were also a considerable number of militia
which had been raised among the settlements, and some free ne
groes. These were not held as prisoners, but sent to their homes,
probably under parole. A hint of what the campaign meant in the
Natchez district may be found in a report of Galvez that the
Indians behaved with unusal humanity, doing no injury whatever
to the fugitives they captured, even bringing in, in their arms, the
children who took refuge in the woods with their mothers. As
Galvez withdrew to New Orleans with his prisoners, he put in
command of the conquered region Charles de Grand Pre, with
headquarters at Baton Rouge, and subordinate officers and garri
sons at Manchac and Natchez. The Waldeckers at Fort Panmure
seem to have Remained there until the middle of October.
Naval operations aided to make the campaign a brilliant suc
cess. A schooner flying the American flag, owned by one Pikle
(or Pickler) and fitted out at New Orleans, captured a British
privateer, the West Florida, on Lake Pontchartrain. Vincent
Rieux, a Creole, in command of a sloop of war, captured on Bayou
Manchac a barque from Pensacola, carrying a company of Wal
deckers and military supplies. Several other captures were made
by the gunboats.
Altogether, the result was so gratifying, particularly to the
Acadians, that Julien Poydras celebrated the glory of the cam
paign in a poem that was printed by government authority. Ad
miral Ulloa, remembered as first Spanish governor at New
Orleans, was expected to cooperate in command of a Spanish fleet,
but it appears that after sailing from Spain he became engaged in
some mathematical investigations and forgot to open his( sealed
letters of instructions. This possibly accounts for the delay in
continuing the conquest.
In October reinforcements came from Havana, and Galvez was
soon notified of his promotion to brigadier-general. Miro and
Piernas were also advanced. On February 5, 1780, the general
sailed from the Balize with 2,000 men in 11 vessels. Again a storm
almost wrecked his enterprise. Some of his vessels were stranded
and great damage was done to his supplies and ammunition.
Campbell, at Pensacola, hearing of this, seems to have hastily con
cluded that Galvez needed no further attention. But the young
Spaniard did not give up. The capture of a British victualler ship,
carrying goods to Mobile for an Indian congress, brought some
comfort to the shattered expedition. A landing was effected on
Mobile bay, just belOw Choctaw point, but in such disorder and
after so much delay that Galvez would have given orders to retreat
overland to New Orleans, if the English at Pensacola had shown
any signs of aggressiveness. Taking heart, on March 1st he boldly
advanced on Fort Charlotte, where Durnford was in command of

704 MISSISSIPPI
about 300 men and some volunteers. In response to an appeal
from Durnford, Campbell sent forward the remainder of the Wal-
deck regiment March 5, and followed next day with the provin
cials, having in all 522 men. It was a march of 72 miles through
the wilderness. Reaching the Tensas on the 10th he set about the
building of rafts. Meanwhile the walls of the fort had been
breached with artillery, and Durnford surrendered, with the honors
of war, March 14. Campbell retreated, and the Spaniards at
tempted to pursue, but were held in check by the Choctaw and
Chickasaw warriors, who had come to the assistance of the Eng
lish. Galvez was now promoted to major-general. , Pensacola re
mained to be taken, in order to complete the conquest of West
Florida, and for this he made his base of operations mainly at
Havana. Campbell had about 800 soldiers, and the steadfast as
sistance of the Creeks, Chocktaws and Chickasaws. In January,
1781, he sent out an expedition westward, which attacked an out
post of Mobile, and was repulsed with the loss of the commander.
The troops from Havana, landed on Santa Rosa island in March,
1781, were supported by all that could be spared from New Orleans
and Mobile, under Miro. Still, the campaign might have failed,
through the Spanish commodore's caution, if Galvez had not gone
on board one of his Louisiana gunboats, under Captain Rousseau,
and run the batteries unharmed. After the arrival of another fleet
from Havana, and a formidable siege, Campbell surrendered the
garrison May 9, 1781. At the same time Governor Chester sur
rendered possession of the province of West Florida, pledging its
evacuation by British subjects within 18 months. The garrison
was paroled, as against Spain and her allies, and, with the troops
from Mobile, and other posts, were carried to Brooklyn and added
to the British forces available against the United States, of which
Spain was not an ally. Being accused of bad faith Galvez wrote
an explanation to Count de Grasse, commanding the French fleet,
which was communicated to Gen. Washington, claiming that he
was under the necessity of granting terms that Campbell de
manded. Further operations in Florida were deferred while Galvez took
command of a great military and naval expedition prepared at San
Domingo to conquer the island of Jamaica. But about this time
the British navy began to get in action; Rodney destroyed the
French fleet of De Grasse, and Galvez ended his career of conquest
by taking the Bahamas.
The English posts in the interior were possessed by the Span
iards, so far as it could be done without interference with the
Americans. Far in the north, a Spanish party marched in the
snows of winter across Illinois and captured a little British post
at St. Joseph (Michigan), in order to unfurl the banner of Spain
throughout the interior of the continent.
West Florida was now under Spanish control, by conquest, but
the war continued in other parts of the world, between Spain and

MISSISSIPPI 705
England, until peace was made at Versailles, September 3, 1783.
The purport of this treaty was that Great Britain submitted to the
conquest of West Florida, and gave up East Florida also, in ex
change for Galvez' other conquest, the Bahamas. Minorca also
remained in the hands of Spain. Her tremendous effort to capture
Gibraltar had failed, but she was again in possession of the Amer
ican gulf, and the treaty was so drawn that she was able to make
indeterminate pretentions to the Mississippi valley eastward.
Spanish Dominion. After the occupation by Galvez in 1779, the
Natchez district was under the administration of a commandant,
subject to the governor of Louisiana. The Spanish records at Mo
bile show that affairs at Pass Christian, Cat Island and Biloxi were
regulated from Mobile, and the grants of land at Mobile were
made by the governors at New Orleans. In the treaties of 1784
Galvez is entitled governor of Louisiana and West Florida. In the
Spanish census of 1785 and again in 1788 these districts of Natchez
and Mobile are enumerated along with Louisiana, of which they
were originally a part, under the French dominion. As for Flor
ida, east of Mobile, it reverted to the old Spanish system of gov
ernors at Pensacola and St. Augustine, with their jurisdiction
separated by the Apalachicola river. The Spanish governor at
Pensacola was not the successor in scope of territory, of the Eng
lish governor at Pensacola. "West Florida" was a British name
and province. But the Spanish continued the use of the name
West Florida, because it was their policy, immediately after the
treaties of 1782-83, to save whatever rights they might have within
the disputed limits of British West Florida.
All of what is now the State of Mississippi was under the ad
ministration of the government of Louisiana, which comprised the
governor-general, with civil and military powers; the intendant,
who looked after the revenues, navy and commerce; the comp
troller, auditor, etc. "In certain cases there was an appeal from
the highest tribunal of the province (Louisiana) to the captain-
general of the island of Cuba, from him to the royal audiencia in
St. Domingo, and thence to the council of the Indies at Madrid." —
(Gayarre.) This was true at Mobile the same as at New Orleans.
"The laws of Spain were made by the king with the advice of his
councils ; and the laws of Spanish America were made by the king
through the Council of the Indies. In fine, Spanish America did
not belong to Spain, but was a part of the hereditary domains of
the sovereigns of Castile as heirs of Queen Isabella, with which
the cortes of Castile had little more to do than with the kingdom of
Naples or the Netherlands." — (Bourne, "Spain in America.")
The Council of the Indies was a body of greater powers than
the British colonial board of trade and plantations. Its great digest
of colonial law, "Recopilacion de Leyes de los Reinos de las In
dias," published long before this time, says Bourne, in spite of
shortcomings as to finance and variances, with modern ideas, was,
"in its broad humanity and consideration for the general welfare
45-11

706 MISSISSIPPI
of the king's American subjects, far superior to anything that has
been shown for the English or French colonies."
The viceroy of Mexico and the captain-general of Cuba were of
equal dignity, except in importance of their domains. When Lieu-
tenant-General Galvez was transferred from Cuba to Mexico, he
was allowed to retain, apparently as a special honor, the adminis
tration of the province of Louisiana and both Floridas in addition
to the kingdom of New Spain. The audiencia was the viceroy's or
captain-general's council, made up of judges. "The administrative
subdivisions of the audiences were the 'gobiernos,' or govern
ments, the 'corregimientos,' and the 'alcaldes mayores.' " The
alcalde mayor was a district magistrate, sometimes a local gover
nor. In 1786 the local government was reorganized and the ,
viceroyalties and captaincies-general were subdivided into inten-
dencies. The corregidors and alcaldes mayores were then displaced
by the subdelegates of the intendants. Spanish town government
was by the cabiloo or municipal council, composed of regidores or
aldermen, which was an inherited or purchased honor, and a
smaller number of alcaldes, or justices, elected to the council by
the regidores, also perhaps an alferez real (royal ensign), an algua-
cil mayor (sheriff), and a subordinate officer or two. The public
service in such offices as sheriff, court clerk, depositary, regidore,
treasurer, sealer of weights and measures, notary, etc, was let out
to the best bidder, as it is the present custom to let out the work
of municipal improvements. (Bourne.)
In the Natchez district, as at Mobile, "the commandant exercised
jurisdiction, often a very summary one, over almost every kind of
dispute, including contract, attachment and damages. There
seemed to be no lawyers in the American sense, but there were
clerks and notaries to aid the litigants. In criminal cases the ap
peal [to New Orleans] was only in capital offences, and from the
expense, practically did not exist. Punishment was mild, generally
a fine or stocks, and serious crimes were rare. The alcalde, like
our justice of the peace, heard civil and criminal causes summarily
and without written proceedings. His jurisdiction was limited to
complaints in which the matter in dispute did not exceed twenty
dollars." — (Hamilton.)
Outside of Natchez and Baton Rouge districts the population
was mainly French and German. Trade was in the hands of the
French merchants, under the royal schedule of January 22, 1782,
which allowed the colonists to supply their wants from France and
its colonies. French was the language of the province, except
among the officials and in the courts. The attempt to establish
Spanish schools, even at New Orleans, was a failure. The Natchez
district records were written in Spanish, French and English.
Bernardo de Galvez, promoted to lieutenant-general, count, etc,
was captain-general of Louisiana, including Natchez and Mobile,
until 1785, when he was promoted to captain-general of Cuba,
Louisiana and the Floridas. A few months later he succeeded his
father as viceroy of Mexico or New Spain, which was the highest

MISSISSIPPI 707
Spanish dignity in the Americas, except as the viceroyalty of Peru
was a more desirable station in the same rank. His successor in
Louisiana was Col. Estevan Miro, who was commissioned in 1786
as "governor, civil and military, of Louisiana and West Florida."
With promotion to brigadier-general, he acted as governor and
intendant both, after the departure of Intendant Martin Navarro.
On December 30, 1791, Miro was succeeded by the Baron de Car
ondelet, who was promoted from governor of San Salvador. He
was given an intendant in 1794, in the person of Francisco de Ren-
don, late secretary of legation to the United States, who was suc
ceeded by Don Juan Bonaventura Morales in 1796. Carondelet was
succeeded by Brig.-Gen. Gayoso de Lemos, lately commandant of
Natchez, August 1, 1797. He died in 1799, and for a while Col.
Francis Bouligny, of the Creole regiment, was military commander
and Jose Maria Vidal was civil governor, Morales being the effec
tive head of the government. The Marquis de Casa Calvo (O'Fer-
rall) was governor ad interim, later, until Brig.-Gen. Juan Manuel
de Salcedo came in June, 1801, and with him the line ended.
The names and titles of the principal officials in 1795 were signed
as follows to a land grant to the Marquis de Maison Rouge :
Francis Louis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, Knight of Malta,
Brigadier-General of the Royal Armies of His Catholic Majesty,
Military and Civil Governor of the Provinces of Louisiana and
West Florida; Don Francis Rendon, Intendant of the Army and
Deputy Superintendent of the Royal Domains in the said Prov
inces; and Don Joseph de Orne, Knight of the Royal and Dis
tinguished Order of Charles III, Principal Accountant of the
Royal Chests for this Army, exercising the functions of Fiscal of
the Royal Domains. It may be added that Carondelet was also a
Knight of St. John, and Marshal de Camp of the Royal Armies.
Spain proposed to hold West Florida as it had been conquered
by Galvez, the conquest having been recognized by formal cession
by Great Britain in the treaty with Spain, 1783, without defining
boundaries. True, Great Britain had in 1782, agreed with the
United States that to prevent future disputes between Great
Britain and the United States, the limits of the United States
should be so and so, naming the parallel of 31°, but that could not
bind Spain, a power that at that time possessed by conquest, ter
ritory within those limits that Great Britain had administered as
West Florida. Spain claimed more than what was usually called
West Florida. As Gardoqui, commissioner of the king to nego
tiate this question, informed the American government in 1785 :
"The King will not permit any nation to navigate between the
two banks [of the Mississippi river] belonging to His Majesty,
from the extent of his conquests made by his royal arms over the
English in East and West Florida, according to the dominion for
merly held by the English, and the jurisdiction exercised by the
commandant of Pensacola, on which it depended, as well as the
countries east of the Mississippi, of which formal possession was

708 MISSISSIPPI
taken by Capt. Don Baltazar de Villers, commandant of the post
of Arkanzar, for his majesty" [November 22, 1780.].
"His Majesty does not consider the regulation made between
the United States and Great Britain respecting the territories con
quered by his arms, but as a conditional agreement, in which they
tacitly leave safe the territorial rights which he possessed in those
parts. Those territories were in that same state of conquest and
in possession neither of England nor of the United States, when
they disposed of them. There can be no doubt but that the treaty
of 30th of November, 1782, when the war between Spain and Eng
land was in continuance, could not fix the limits of countries which
were not in possession. His Majesty therefore, understands these
stipulations as conditional and dependent on the situation in which
things might be left by a general peace." Suggesting, by way
of comfort, that Spain would be a valuable ally in the Amer
ican troubles with the African powers, and holding up the promise
of trade in the Spanish dominions, including the Philippines,
Gardoqui added that it was "equally just to remind the honorable
Congress of the generosity with which His Majesty has delayed
requesting, until now, the payment of the principal of the debts
contracted by the United States, both in Spain and America, being
so delicate as not to apply even for the interest due thereon, not
withstanding the difficulties with which he provides for his own
treasury." As may be inferred from the above, Spain claimed not
only up to the Yazoo line, but on northward. The Louisiana gov
ernor exercised some jurisdiction in western Tennessee, and estab
lished a post at Chickasaw Bluffs, the site of Memphis.
Spain was not then what it had been lately, or what it was soon
to be. Under the administration of the great Florida Blanca the
home country was prosperous, with manufactures and trade and a
good banking system, the kingdom had been cleared of beggars,
and only sixty heretics were burned during the whole period of
Blanca's supremacy. England and France, on the other hand, were
crippled and enormously in debt. Blanca's policy in making peace
(1782-83) was to hold the entire Mississippi valley, and it is not
unlikely that he would have favored its retrocession, when Span
ish title was secured, to France. After the check administered to
Spain and France by the separate arrangement between the United
States and Great Britain, which was, in effect, an Anglo-Saxon
alliance to defeat the Latin projects, Spain, in behalf of the Bour
bons, held to what she could, and bided her time, expecting, as did
all Europe, the speedy collapse of the American confederation, as
it was contrary to all philosophy and history that so large a repub
lic could endure. What the result would have been, barring
George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, is an interesting
problem. Probably philosophy and history would have scored an
other "I told you so."
In 1784, on the suggestion of the great Scotch-Tallapoosa states
man, Alexander McGillivray, Governor Miro, going to Mobile,
made a treaty with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Alabamons, and

MISSISSIPPI 709
smaller tribes, which amounted to taking under Spanish protec
tion and guarantee the territorial claims of the Indian nations.
About the same time, Governor O'Neill, of Pensacola, made an
identical treaty with the Tallapoosas (Creeks) and Cherokees,
through McGillivray. The reason McGillivray gave for suggest
ing the alliance was the probability of the formation of a new
and independent American government by the frontier settlers in
the Mississippi valley, who would invade the Spanish domain at
the earliest opportunity. He represented to Miro that there was
danger of an Indian alliance with that movement, and he proposed
to throw the Indian strength to Spain in return for commercial
advantages and privileges for his people. The result was that the
houses of William Panton, at Pensacola, and James Mather, at
Mobile, were intrusted with the commercial care of the Indians,
and Spain acquired the right, as she asserted it, to defend the In
dian title to all the country from the Oconee river in Georgia to
the Mississippi, and north to the Ohio. On the basis of these
treaties the Spanish government explicitly denied the claim of the
United States to sovereignty over the Indian nations, and exclu
sive right to acquire land of them. This was convenient to the
Creeks, as they had been allies of Great Britain during the Revo
lution. McGillivray was made a Spanish colonel, with a pension
of $600 a year. He was also associated with the business of Will
iam Panton, who was possibly at the head of the whole plan. The
commercial side of it interested Great Britain as an ally in fact,
in this project to annul the treaty of peace. In the Northwest she
asserted the same control over the Indians as did Spain in the
Southwest, and she maintained military posts within the agreed
limits of the United States, as Spain maintained them from Mem
phis down. Navarro, the intendant, wrote to Madrid that with
McGillivray on their side, "we may rely on having established,
between the Floridas and Georgia, a, barrier which it will not be
easy to break through."
In 1785 commissioners from Georgia demanded the surrender
of all the region claimed by that State, north of latitude 31°, but
this was easily evaded by referring them to the negotiations of the
governments of Spain and the United States. (See Bourbon
County.) In 1787 some of the Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs were feasted
at New Orleans, and encouraged in allegiance to Spain. The giv
ing of presents to the Indians, so effectively promoted by the
diplomacy of McGillivray, continued so that according to an ac
count rendered January 5, 1788, the expense of these donations,
practically bribes to hostility against the United States, amounted
to about $800,000.
Navarro warned Madrid, in 1787, that the real enemies of the
province were not the English, but the Americans, "whom we
must oppose by active and sufficient measures." The most active
open measures were the exorbitant duties, and petty and vexa
tions restrictions to trade on the river, the seizures, fines, impris-

710 MISSISSIPPI
onments, extortions, practiced upon the boatmen from the Ohio,
who walked or rode horseback home through the Natchez district,
swearing vengeance against Spain. This was intended to encour
age the desire in Kentucky for Western Independence, because the
congress of the weak Confederation was impotent to relieve the sit
uation. The elusive James Wilkinson became a factor in the game
in 1787 and certainly took up such' relations that the Spanish
government used him as their secret agent, for a valuable consid
eration, which was, in part, a salary, and in part, exclusive free
dom of trade at New Orleans. Miro intrigued for the "delivering
up of Kentucky unto His Majesty's hands, which is the main object
to which Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely,"
(dispatch to Minister Valdes Jan. 8, 1788) ; but^ Gardoqui, at the
American capital, was using agents to induce the people of Ken
tucky .and the Cumberland "to establish themselves in West
Florida and the Florida district of Lower Louisiana under the
protection of Spain," and he made them liberal grants of land,
conceding also considerable privileges and favors. Gardoqui of
fered settlers the admission of slaves, stock and provision for two
years, free of duty, and importation of merchandise under a duty
of 25 per cent. When Miro was informed of this scheme he com
plained to Madrid that it was counter to his own, and yet he dare
not tell Wilkinson or D'Arges, the agent of Gardoqui, of the plan
of either. Wilkinson became conscious that Gardoqui, who had
agents all over the United States, was watching him, but he
imagined D'Arges was an emissary of France, because he drew
his salary through the French minister, Marbois. The entangle
ment was complete, and tended to self-defeat. Congressman
Brown, of Kentucky, who tried to make himself active as an ally
of Wilkinson, blundered, and unbosomed himself to Gardoqui and
was rebuffed. On the other hand, when Col. George Morgan, a
Gardoqui man, obtained a grant for a province, which should have
its capital at New Madrid, Wilkinson busied himself to destroy
that project.
As the year 1789 approached, Miro was gratified by assurances
from both the distinguished diplomats whom he regarded as allies,
Wilkinson and McGillivray (one cannot say certainly that either
was sincere), of the progress of disunion in the West. Kentucky
was about to become a State independent of Virginia, and no
doubt "our great scheme . . . will meet with a favorable re
ception." The Cumberland people, discouraged by the suppres
sion of their State of Frankland, asked for peace with the Creeks
and desired to be "vassals of His Catholic Majesty." In that region
Spain was represented by Dr. James White. There is a letter from
John Sevier stating that the people were unanimous in their desire
to go under the protection of Spain. They had rechristened the
Cumberland as the Miro district.
But Miro began to suspect that Wilkinson was a fraud. His
good news accompanied a flatboat cargo from Kentucky, for which
he asked generous treatment, and he wanted protection against

MISSISSIPPI 711
any rude measures for the collection of $3,000 he had borrowed in
New Orleans on the strength of Navarro's recommendation.
Before departing for Spain, in the spring of 1788, Martin
Navarro, the intendant, sent a memorial to the king, again urging
upon the government the great danger of the growth of the United
States, and the necessity of promoting secession and division.
"Grant," said he, "any sort of commercial privilege to the masses
in the western region, and shower pensions and honors on their
leaders." But no Spaniard could understand the situation. They
could give money, but they could not give what the Americans
demanded and Spain did not know — individual freedom to think
and talk and trade.
In February, %789, Wilkinson confessed, under a great show
of fine phrases and glittering prospects, that the new Union was
too strong for him and his fellow conspirators. He had even gone
over to M'iro's rival, Gardoqui, and applied for a grant of land on
the Yazoo, as a place of refuge if it became necessary. That Spain
continued her hopeless struggle after the inauguration of Presi
dent Washington, must be ascribed in considerable degree to the
advice this faithless creature sent down to New Orleans by Major
Dunn, that secession would be sure to come in time, and "to
foment the suspicion and feelings of distrust already existing here,
and inflame the animosity between the Eastern and Western
States, Spain must resort to every artifice and other means
which may be in her power." As the chief means, he urged Miro
to obstruct the river to American trade.
There was considerable immigration, resulting from the efforts
of Gardoqui, even of Pennsylvania Germans. To all claiming the
promise of special privileges Miro replied, as to these: "I can
only receive the foreigners who may come spontaneously and of
their own free will, to swear themselves vassals of His Catholic
Majesty. To them surveyed lands shall be granted gratis, in pro
portion to the laborers of whom each family may consist. The
smallest concession shall not be less than 200 arpens; 400 to fami
lies of four to ten laborers, and 800 to those numbering from ten
to fifteen hands or more." This policy was sustained by the edict
of the King in 1790 to Las Casas, captain-general of Cuba.
Morgan came down to New Orleans in 1789, and Miro advised
him to settle in the Natchez district. Of the terms Gardoqui had
promised the old soldier and speculator, Miro wrote home that
he could bring the American congress to New Orleans on such a
proposition. "Already had Thomas Hutchins, their surveyor-gen
eral and principal geographer, written to Daniel Clark, a merchant
and resident of this town, begging to be informed whether Mor
gan's propositions were accepted by me, because, disregarding the
office and the salary he now enjoys, he would become the subject
of His Catholic Majesty, being under the impression, as he declares,
that New Jersey, with the districts of Fort Pitt and of Kentucky,
would be deprived by emigration of their best inhabitants." But
Hutchins died before that year was done, to be succeeded as fore-

712 MISSISSIPPI ,
most surveyor by Andrew Ellicott. In view of the general effort
of Gardoqui, Thomas Jefferson wrote to President Washington:
"I wish a hundred thousand of our inhabitants would accept the
invitation. It would be the means of delivering to us peaceably
what must otherwise cost us a war. In the meantime we may
complain of this seduction of our inhabitants, just enough to make
the Spanish believe it is a very wise policy for them."
Three great events in 1789 determined the future of the West.
The beginning of the French Revolution; the death of the liberal
Charles III, and the accession of the worthless Charles IV, under
whom an agent of the Holy Inquisition was established at New
Orleans; the inauguration of President Washington as the execu
tive of what he called a "consolidated" republic, with Thomas
Jefferson as his secretary of state.
Out of opposition to the new constitution, however, according
to the story of O'Fallon, proceeded the first Yazoo grants by Geor
gia in 1789 to the South Carolinians, Moultrie, Huger and others.
The agent of the adventurers was instructed to tell Miro that their
proposed colony would form "a highly advantageous rampart for
Spain." But Miro replied ominously that it would be very painful
for him to be compelled to make war on citizens of the United
States. Georgia had no rights in the territory, he said.
Miro did what he could to meet the new situation. He recom
mended that Wilkinson be continued in the service of the king at
an annual pension of $2,000 and Sebastian hired to watch him. He
used the occasion of the great fire in New Orleans to practically
open the port to free ocean trade, giving the Southwest a great
advantage over the interior. But the new order of things was
indicated in 1790 by the suggestion of the United States, when a
British invasion from Canada was feared, in case of war between
Spain and England, that the United States would guarantee Louis
iana from such an attack in return for the cession of New Orleans
and the Floridas. About this time McGillivray was persuaded to
agree to acknowledge the supremacy of the United States, and
was made a brigadier-general and given an annuity by the Federal
government. He continued to maintain a show of loyalty to
Spain, but was in failing health and died in 1793. Federal appoint
ments were used effectively in Kentucky, and the war in the North
west to destroy the British-Indian pretensions made an opening
for General Wilkinson in the United States service. After France
became a republic (1793), the intrigues of Genet kept the govern
ment of Louisiana in dread of invasion by Georgians, Carolinians
and Westerners under the French flag, and even the people of New
Orleans were exposed to seduction by the call to "liberty, equality
and fraternity." An edict of June 9, 1793, on account of Louisiana
being deprived of the French trade by the war that followed the
beheading of Louis XVI, permitted commerce with all friendly na
tions, subject to a duty of 15 per cent, on imports and 6 per cent.
on exports, except negroes, who might be imported free of duty.

MISSISSIPPI 713
Wjlkinson complained that this lowering of tariff would take the
life out of the movement for Kentucky independence.
The complication of dangers and jealousies in Europe induced
Spain, in 1795, to agree to relinquish all her claims outside of the
limits yielded by Great Britain, but the turn of affairs that followed
persuaded the Spanish government to obstruct the execution of
the treaty in the hope that it might be altogether renounced. At
the same time there was a second threat of British invasion, known
as the Blount Conspiracy, which seemed to pick up the threads
dropped by the French filibusters. In this situation of affairs Elli
cott brought the United States flag to Natchez.
Spanish Relations, see Louisiana Relations,; British West Florida ;
Treaty of San Lorenzo el Real ; Spanish Dominion ; Spanish Con
quest ; Land Laws, Spanish ; Land Grants, Spanish ; Galvez,
Bernardo de ; Gayoso de Lemos ; Carondelet ; Carondelet Intrigue ;
Boundary on 31° North Latitude; Andrew Ellicott; Natchez Dis
trict, Spanish ; War with Spain, 1898 ; Minor, Stephen ; Bourbon
County; Navigation and Limits; Georgia Domain; Georgia Ces
sion ; Georgia Land Claims ; Mobile, County of ; Miro, Estevan, etc.
Sparta, a village in the southern part of Chickasaw county, 9
miles south of Houston, one of the county seats. Woodland is the
nearest railroad town. It has two churches and a school. The
postoffice has been recently discontinued, and it now has rural free
delivery from the village of MontpeHer, in Clay county. Popula
tion in 1900, 102.
Spay, a postoffice in the southern part of Choctaw county, 12
miles south of Chester, the county seat. Ackerman is the nearest
banking town. Population in 1900, 16.
Special Warrants. In 1894, with a deficit at hand because of
failure to make an adequate tax levy, the legislature had recourse
to a device resembling the certificates of Alcorn's administration
in 1870. At a special session in 1894 the auditor was directed to
issue Special warrants, instead of cash warrants upon the treasury,
in the form of bills of $5 to $20 denominations, to an amount not
exceeding $200,000, these warrants to be receivable for all dues
to the State, and bear interest at three per cent, payable January
1, 1896, but without interest when used in payment of dues. No
appropriation being made, $1,500 was borrowed of a Jackson bank
to pay the cost of printing the warrants. In June, 1894, the use
of them began, in partial payments of disbursements, and this was
kept up until the $200,000 limit was reached. January 1, 1896,
about $50,000 was outstanding. "This miserable makeshift for
cash, a forced loan, for it was nothing else, upon the citizens who
had nothing to lend, has been extremely unsatisfactory and oft-
times distressing, school teachers and the public institutions being
the chief sufferers," said Governor Stone in 1896. "Salaried officers
suffered least, as they could arrange to handle the warrants with
out material loss. Banks and money-lenders refused, with the low
rate of interest allowed, to take them except at a heavy discount.
In sections remote from the larger towns, it was difficult to get rid

714 MISSISSIPPI
of them upon any terms. This is a form of State credit than which
none can be worse. In fact, it tends to impair confidence in the
ability of the legislature to vigorously grasp financial embarrass
ment and relieve it in- a positive business-like manner."
"The issuing of these special warrants was held by the Treas
ury department of the United States government to be a violation
of the Federal laws which prohibit the issuance of such obliga
tions in similitude of the obligations of the United States, and the
secret service division of that department caused the arrest of the
governor, auditor and treasurer for an alleged violation of the Fed
eral statute that denounces counterfeiting and imposes a penalty
of twenty years' imprisonment for such violation. This was re
garded generally as a most outrageous proceeding." (Governor's
message, 1.896.) J. A. P. Campbell was appointed to defend these
officers, and the Treasury department engaged one of the ablest
lawyers of the State to prosecute, but the grand jury failed to indict
and there was no trial.
Speed, a post-hamlet of Covington county, 9 miles east of Wil
liamsburg, the county seat, and 3 miles east of the Gulf & Ship
Island R. R. Seminary is the nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 40.
Speight, Jesse. "General Speight was born in Greene county,
N. C, September 22, 1795. His father, Rev. Seth Speight, was a
minister of the Methodist church. His education was not exten
sive, but his extraordinary success was owing to his own natural
shrewdness of character, his tall and commanding person, and un
tiring perseverance. In 1822 he was first a member of the house
of commons. In 1823 he was a member of the senate, of which he
was several times the speaker and continued until 1827, when he
was elected a member of the house of representatives, until 1837,
when he declined a reelection, and removed to the State of Mis
sissippi. He was soon returned a member of the Mississippi legis
lature and speaker of the senate, and in 1844 was elected to the
senate of the United States, which post he held at the time of his
death, on May 1, 1847. Without any extraordinary powers of
mind, superior education, or brilliant parts of character, such un
exampled success in political life can only be attributed to native
energy of character, devotion to principles and simple-hearted
honesty." (Wheeler's North Carolina.) Gen. Speight, as he was
called invariably, settled at Plymouth, was elected senator from
Lowndes county in 1841, was president of the senate in 1842 and
at the extra session in 1843/ and again in 1844, when he was
also elected to the United States senate, as a Democrat, over the
distinguished Roger Barton, Whig. Before coming to Mississippi
he was a representative in Congress from December, 1829, to
March 3, 1837. He served in the United States senate from De
cember 1, 1845. He died at Columbus, May 1, 1847, and this event
permitted the appointment of Col. Jefferson Davis, on his return
from Mexico.

MISSISSIPPI 715
Spencer, an old village in Scott county which was abandoned
before the War 1861-1865. It was located in the southwestern part
of the county a few miles south of the station of Morton, on the
A. & V. railroad.
Spencer, a hamlet of Copiah county, 9 miles west, south
west of Hazlehurst, the county seat and the nearest railroad and
banking town. Population in 1900, 55.
Spencer, James Grafton, was born near Port Gibson, Miss,
September 13, 1844. He entered Oakland college in 1861, but at
the close of his freshman year enlisted in the Confederate army,
and served till the close of the war. He returned to Port Gibson,
began farming and in 1892 was sent to the legislature. In 1894
he was elected to the 54th congress.
Spight, a postoffice in the east-central part of Benton county,
on Tippah creek, 7 miles southeast of Ashland, the county seat.
Spight, Thomas, of Ripley, a lawyer of high standing and the
representative of the Second Congressional district in the lower
house of the national legislature, was born near Ripley on Oct.
&5, 1841, a son of James Munford and Mary (Rucker) Spight. His
paternal ancestors are of good Irish stock, and one of them, Richard
D. Speight, was a delegate from North Carolina to the convention
which framed the Constitution of the United States. The subject of
this sketch received his early educational advantages in the common
schools of Tippah county and the Ripley Male academy, entering
La Grange college of Tennessee from the latter institution in 1859.
Two years later he left school to enlist in the Confederate army and
before he was twenty years old he had risen to the rank of captain
of Company B of the Thirty-fourth Mississippi infantry. He was
the youngest officer of his rank in Walthall's famous brigade and
with his company participated in practically all the battles fought
by the Army of the Tennessee. On July 22, 1864, he was severely
wounded at Atlanta, Ga, and in April, 1865, was in command of
what was left of the gallant Thirty-fourth when it was surrendered
with the rest of Johnston's army at Greensboro, N. C. After the
cessation of hostilities he taught school for a time, devoting his spare
time to the study of law. In 1874 he was admitted to the prac
tice of the profession and has been actively engaged in it since.
From 1874 to 1880 he represented Tippah county in the state legisla
ture, being elected on the Democratic ticket. While a member of
that body he took a prominent part in the impeachment of Adelbert
Ames. In 1880 he was a presidential elector on the Hancock ticket
and in 1884 was elected district attorney for the Third Judicial dis
trict, serving until 1892, when he voluntarily resigned the office.
On June 1, 1898, he was elected to the House of Representatives
and has since been the incumbent of that office. He has always been
prominently identified with the work of the Democratic party and
for several years was a member of its state executive committee.
In a religious way Captain Spight is a member of the Baptist
church, is clerk of his church and association and superintendent of
the Ripley Sunday school. Fraternally he is a Knight of Honor.
On December 12, 1865, Mr. Spight married Miss Mary Virginia

716 MISSISSIPPI
Barnett, a daughter of Albert G. and Francis A. (Rucker) Barnett,
of Tippah county. The children of this union are six in number —
Mattie (Spight) Hines, Mary V, Lynn D, Alice F, Henry R. and
Lillian. Spinks, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, 10 miles southwest of
Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 35.
Splinter, a postoffice of Lafayette county, 9 miles southwest of
Oxford, the county seat and the nearest banking town.
Splunge, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Monroe county,
on the creek of the same name, 13 miles east of Amory, the nearest
banking town. Gattman station is the nearest railroad point, on the
Frisco System. It has a money order postoffice. Population
in 1900, 18.
Spring Cottage, a post-hamlet situated in the southeastern part
of Marion county, on Popes Mill creek, a tributary of the Pearl
river. It is 17 miles south, southeast of Columbia, the county seat
and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 42.
Springcreek, a postoffice of Webster county, 6 miles northeast
of Walthall, the county seat.
Springhill, a postoffice of Benton county, 8 miles north, north
west of Ashland, the county seat.
Springs, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Clarke county,
2 miles east of Buckatunna creek, and 16 miles from Quitman, the
county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. There is a
splendid mineral spring located here.
Stafford, a post-hamlet in the north-central part of Bolivar
county, 10 miles northeast of Rosedale, one of the county seats
of justice. Gunnison is the nearest banking town. It is 2 miles
east of Perthshire, a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.
R. Population in 1900, 26.
Stage, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Scott county,
about 13 miles from Forest, the county seat. Morton is its nearest
banking town. Population in 1900, 24.
Stamp, a postoffice in the eastern part of Montgomery county,
on the Southern Railway, about 14 miles east of Winona, the county
seat. Stamper, a post-hamlet of Newton county, 6 miles north of De
catur, the county seat. Population in 1900, 40. The name of the
town has recently been changed to Stratton and is a thriving place.
Stampley, a post-hamlet of Jefferson county, and a station on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 6 miles southwest of Fayette,
the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 25.
Standing Pine, a post-hamlet of Leake county, 7 miles southeast
of Carthage, the county seat, and about 22 miles northxof Forest,
the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 100.
Stanton, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Adams county,
and a station on the Natchez-Jackson branch of the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley R. R, 12 miles by rail from Natchez. Population
in 1900, 37.

MISSISSIPPI 717
Star, a postoffice in the southern part of Rankin county, and a
station on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, 17 miles by rail southeast
of Jackson.
Starke, Peter B, is known as one of the distinguished cavalry
leaders of Mississippi. At the special election of a successor to
Jefferson Davis in congress, 1846, he was the Whig candidate,
defeated by Ellett. In 1850, 1852, 1854 he represented Bolivar
county in the legislature. He organized a cavalry company early
in 1861, and in February, 1862, was commissioned colonel of the
28th regiment, a cavalry command. In the latter part of that year
he rendered valuable service in compelling the retreat of Hovey's
expedition from Arkansas. Later, his regiment formed part of
Gen. W. H. Jackson's brigade, with the regiment of Pinson, Har
ris, Adams, and Steede's battalion. He took part in the victory
of Thompson's Station, Tenn, under Van Dorn, and afterward, in
the organization under Gen. S. D. Lee, was given command of a
brigade including his regiment, Pinson's and Ballentine's. He at
tacked Sherman's Meridian expedition at Sharon, February 24,
1864. During the Atlanta campaign his brigade was commanded
by Gen. F. C. Armstrong. Commissioned brigadier-generai No
vember 4, 1864, he took part in the Tennessee campaign under
General Forrest, and at the last, was one of the three brigade com
manders under General Chalmers in Mississippi.
StarkviUe. Oktibbeha county was established December 23, 1833,
and early in the following year the present site of StarkviUe was
selected for the permanent location of a county seat of justice. The
new town was located on the southeastern quarter of section thirty-
four, township nineteen north, range fourteen east, not far from the
center of the county. The site chosen was a beautiful one, on un
dulating hills and watered by several springs of pure and never
failing water. One of these springs was called by the Choctaws
"Hickashebeha," or Sweet Gum Grove, where the Indians had long
been wont to gather and weave their baskets, etc. Here a town was
laid out, and the first sale of lots took place in 1834. It was in
corporated by the Legislature in 1837, and received its name in
memory of General John Stark, the hero of the battle of Benning
ton. Says an old chronicler, writing in 1838 : "StarkviUe is already
a growing place, with two hotels, five stores, two groceries, an
academy with fifty students, two churches, a Presbyterian and
Methodist, and four attorneys and two physicians." The following
men composed its board of selectmen for that year : Elijah Hogan,
Robert Lampkin, Richard S. Graves, L. L. Reese, David S. Moody,
Thomas H. Todd and James Cleft. The first paper published in the
'county was the StarkviUe Whig. It was founded in 1847 by Dr.
J. T. Freeman, and a few years later became the Broad Ax, under
which name it was issued until shortly before the War.
On the 28th of February, 1878, the Legislature passed an act
i which first provided for the establishment of agricultural and
mechanical colleges in Mississippi. Provision was here made for
an agricultural and mechanical college for the education of the

718 MISSISSIPPI
white youth of the State. In selecting a site for the new college,
the charter directed that the board of trustees "shall look to the con
venience of the people of every section of the State, the proximity
of the proposed site to other public institutions supported in whole
or in part by the State, with a view to giving the preference to
localities least favored heretofore, and also the facilities for going
to and from said college, the advantages and disadvantages of the
different sites proposed, and shall locate the same at the place where
most advantages are offered.". In the judgment of the board, Stark
viUe best met these tests, and the institution was located just out
side the city limits December 13, 1878. The present college land
was bought for $7.00 an acre. The citizens of StarkviUe and Oktib
beha county contributed $9,000 to the institution at the time of its
location there. The college first opened its doors to students in
1880 and has been highly successful in the attainment of the ends
for which it was created from the very start. Three hundred and
fifty-four students matriculated at the institution the first year, and
it has taken high rank among the agricultural schools of the country.
This splendid institution has benefited not only the boys and young
men of the State, but through the farmers' institutes, the bulletins
of the experiment station and other agencies, reaches out and serves
every class of people in the State. No other one agency has done
more for the material and industrial development of Mississippi.
The work carried on at the College, including its model farm and
creamery, has been of especial benefit to StarkviUe and the sur
rounding country, where more attention has been paid to raising
improved breeds of stock and to scientific methods of agriculture
than in any other part of the State. The natural result- has been
the material enhancement of land values, which have more than
doubled in the last five years.
The Southern Farm Gazette, the leading stock and agricultural
authority in the South, the East Mississippi Times, the StarkviUe
News and the Oktibbeha Record, are published at StarkviUe.
The twelfth census gave the city a population of 1,986, a total
which has been augmented to over 2,100 during the last five years.
Its merchants are prosperous and do a large local and shipping
business. Transportation facilities are provided by the Aberdeen
branch of the Illinois Central, and a branch of the Mobile & Ohio
railroads. The moral atmosphere of the city is of the best, the
following denominations supporting churches : Methodist, Baptist,
Presbyterian, Associate Reformed Presbyterian, and the Cumber
land Presbyterian. There are also three colored churches, two
Methodist and one Baptist.
Among the important industrial enterprises located at StarkviUe
are a large cotton-seed oil mill and ginnery, a textile manufacturing
plant, a fine brick manufacturing plant, creameries, saw and planing
mills, and machine shops. The city owns and operates first-class
electric lighting and water works systems. Two banks, the Peoples
Savings Bank, and the Security State Bank minister to the city's
financial needs.
State Flower. See Magnolia.

MISSISSIPPI 719
Statehood. The Georgia settlement, or articles of cession and
agreement, provided "that the territory thus ceded shall form a
State, and be admitted as such info the Union, as soon as it shall
contain sixty thousand free inhabitants, or at an earlier period
if congress shall think it expedient." The census of 1810 snowed
a population of only 40,000 both free and slave. Nevertheless, the
inhabitants were restive under the Territorial status. Mingled
with this discontent and ambition were the remoteness as well as
the rivalries of the three separated regions, the Natchez, Mobile
and Huntsville districts, which bred desire for a division of the
territory. The people of the Mobile region had petitioned con
gress for a division of the Territory in 1803 and 1809, without
reference to statehood.
In 1810 the Baton Rouge revolution gave an opportunity for the
annexation of West Florida to the United States, and as it was
claimed as a part of the ancient province of Louisiana it was ex
pedient that Governor Claiborne of New Orleans should first annex
it, as far as Mobile bay, to his Territory. It was realized, however,
that the coast at least belonged of right to Mississippi Territory,
and Delegate Poindexter took this position in congress. After
this, late in the year 1811, a formidable opposition to Poindexter
arose east of Pearl river, led by Col. Carson, Col. Caller and Maj.
Kennedy, and Cowles Mead wrote to Poindexter that Carson's
ground of opposition was that he believed the delegate to be
covertly in favor of dividing the Territory. It is stated by J. F. H.
Claiborne that Poindexter contemplated a division of the Territory
by an east and west line, and admitting the southern part imme
diately as a State. But this was made difficult of achievement by
the annexation of the Florida region west of Pearl river to Louis
iana. But Poindexter's propositions in congress were for the
extension of statehood to the entire Territory. As chairman of the
committee on the subject, January 31, 1811 , he reported an enabling
bill for the Territory as then constituted, from the Mississippi to the
Chattahoochee, as one State, and this passed the house.
In the general assembly of November, 1811, Kennedy, of Wash
ington county, introduced a memorial to congress, which set out:
"That according to the tenor and practice of the American govern
ment, every citizen within the scope of its operation, is entitled to
all the rights and privileges of freedom. Taking this principle as
the basis of this Memorial, we shall attempt to show that this peo
ple ought to be admitted to all the rights which are enjoyed by the
citizens of the States constituting the federal compact. We do
not expect anyone to deny to your honorable bodies the right to
remove our political shackles, and raising us up from menial vas
salage to the splendid rights of national independence. But we
expect to find those who will resist by force, an attempt to defeat
the purpose of this Memorial. Believing that the people of this
Territory are purely Americans, and of course competent to self-
government, we respectfully solicit, that the Mississippi Territory,
with its present limits, may be admitted into the federal union

720 MISSISSIPPI
at the present session of congress, invested with all the rights, priv
ileges and immunities used and enjoyed by the States of the Union."
It was claimed that the emigration was such that the population
would be over 60,000 before the organization could be effected; at
any rate, "We are Americans; we are the legitimate offspring of
Seventy-six," and forty- thousand were as capable of self-government
as sixty thousand. It was also said : "The sales of land have been
long withheld and greatly retarded by the forms of Territorial gov
ernment. Visitors, traversing our lands . . . seeing the evil
effects of Territorial government, and the arbitrary and unconsti
tutional acts of men in power, would turn with loathing, the honest
man from our country, and only invite the sycophant and bending
tool. . . . Your memorialists verily believe, that a change of
political state would operate as a strong inducement to emigration,
and not only add to the prospects of discharging the debt due to the
State of Georgia, but thereby bracing the frontier of the United
States," the latter being important, in view of the prospect of war.
The memorial was adopted; but Samuel Postlethwait and Philan
der Smith voted against it, and entered their protest on the jour
nals, because there had been no decided expression of the whole
people on the subject; because the population was too thinly dis
persed over an immense area, and a large part were slaves ; because
there were only 1,719 freeholders bearing the public expenses of
the whole Territory; and because an overbearing majority had
most ungraciously urged the action taken.
At the next session of congress, in December, 1811, the memorial
of the general assembly and the petition of citizens for the
same object, were referred to a committee, of which Poindex
ter was chairman, also a counter petition asking postponement
of the matter, because such additional expense was not desired
when war was in prospect, nor was it desired to make it easier
with a Federal district court for the prosecution of land claims
under British grants and the Yazoo frauds. Poindexter re
ported December 17, 1811, an enabling bill for a State to include
West Florida in addition to the Mississippi territory. April 17,
1812, the senate committee on the subject advised that consideration
of the Mississippi enabling bill be postponed until December. The
committee "could not avoid being struck with the size of the Ter
ritory proposed to be erected into a State, a size disproportionate
to the size of any of the largest States which now compose our
confederation. It embraces, in its present form, and without any
extension, to the gulf of Mexico ... an area of twice the
surface of the State of Pennsylvania." The committee recom
mended division on this line: "Up the Mobile river to the point
nearest its source which falls on the 11th degree of west latitude
from the city of Washington; thence a course due north until the
line intersects the waters of Bear creek ; thence down the said creek
to the confluence with the Tennessee river; thence down the said
river to the northern boundary line of the said territory." The
postponement was made in order to give time to obtain the consent

MISSISSIPPI 721
of Georgia to a division, which was granted; but the war came on
meanwhile, and stopped further consideration until early in 1815,
when William Lattimore was delegate.
The petition of the general assembly of Mississippi Territory
for admission as a State, was presented to the third session of the
13th. congress January 21, 1815, and referred to a committee of
which Delegate Lattimore was chairman. He suggested in his
report of February 23 that since the census of 1810 Mobile and the
coast had been annexed, and there had been considerable immigra
tion. The opinion of the committee was "that there would be no
impropriety in principle, and no injury in effect, to the interests of
the nation, in providing, without further delay, for the admission
of the Territory in question into the Union of the States. This
Territory has been, as your committee believe, a longer time under
the restraints of political minority than any other Territory of the
United States ; and they can perceive no good reason why its en
largement should still be deferred, merely on account of its present
deficiency of numbers, since a like deficiency did not prevent others,
or one other at least, from the enjoyment of a similar boon. Hith
erto your committee have considered this subject as though the ad
mission solicited were desired by all the inhabitants of the Terri
tory without delay, but they cannot undertake to state that such
is the fact." While it is true that it has been prayed for and urged
with much interest and zeal at several successive sessions, it is also
true that at last one at which the subject was brought before con
gress there were counter-petitions praying that it might be post
poned." The committee did not venture to say there would not be
counter petitions in the case of the petition before them, but, "the
extinguishment of the Yazoo claims having removed what was
perhaps the most general objection to admission, it is probable
that many who were opposed to it are now in favor of it, and since
peace is restored, it is probable also that many others will desire
to exchange the restrictions of a Territory for the rights of a
State." Consequently the committee reported a bill authorizing
a convention of delegates of the people of Mississippi territory,
with powers to form a constitution and State government prepara
tory to admission to the Union, if they so desired.
At the session of the 14th congress in December, 1815, the peti
tion of the legislature was again referred to a committee headed by
Lattimore, and another petition from the legislature was received,
also a petition of inhabitants east of Pearl for a census, and the
erection of the whole Territory into a State. Another petition,
arriving in February, asked that representation in the proposed
convention be apportioned among the counties on the basis of
white population.
On March 31, 1816, a bill for "an act to enable the Mississippi
Territory to form a constitution and State government and for the
admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the
original States," was read and debated. Stanford of North Caro
lina objected that the bill contained no provision for future divi-
46-11

722 MISSISSIPPI
sion, and he considered the Territory entirely too large in relation to
other States. Lattimore and Hardin (Ky.) replied that if the Ter
ritory were now divided, it would be twenty years before the half
of it would be sufficiently populous to ask a State government; that
it was an older Territory than Indiana, in whose favor a bill had
just passed. The bill was passed by the house, 70 to 53. In the
senate both the Indiana and Mississippi bills were referred to the
committee on the Mississippi memorial, April 2, 1816, and after
that it was resolved to obtain a census of both Territories, and con
sideration of the Mississippi bill was postponed until July. But
congress was not in session in July.
In the second session of the 14th congress, December 9, 1816,
the petition of the general assembly presented in December, 1815,
praying for admission as one State, was referred to a committee
of which Lattimore was chairman. He reported December 22,
that "the Mississippi Territory contains, according to a census
lately taken under an act of the legislature, 75,512 souls, of whom
45,085 are free white persons, 356 free people of color, and 30,061
slaves. ... It would seem to be superfluous to your commit
tee to recommend that considerations of a deficiency of numbers
be waived in this case, seeing that the house of representatives
have passed three bills, at different periods, for the admission of
this Territory, when its population was much smaller than it is at
this time. But it becomes a question whether the object of the
memorialists can be ultimately attained, or ought to be attained,
in the way in which it is asked. . . . Your committee . . .
beg leave barely to remark, that they cannot believe a State of
such unprecedented magnitude as the one contemplated by the
memorialists can be desirable to any section of the United States."
The committee also pointed out that the three principal settlements,
the Natchez district, the Mobile region and the Huntsville region,
were separated by distances of 300 and 400 miles. "Between the
Tennessee and the Mississippi settlements and between the Mis
sissippi and the Mobile settlements there is not and probably never
will be any commercial intercourse whatever; but between the
Mobile and the Tennessee settlements, such an intercourse cannot
fail to take place when the intervening country shall be settled,
and its fine navigable streams explored and improved. The whole
Mississippi Territory formed into a single State would not only
be very inconvenient to a vast majority of those of its inhabitants
whose duty or interest might call them to the seat of government,
but would also prove, in the opinion of your committee, too exten
sive for its executive to suppress internal disorders in all its parts
and repel external invasions at all points with necessary prompt
ness, energy and effect. . . . Another objection to an entire
admission of the Territory arises from the want of a continuity of
settlement and a reciprocity of interest between its distant parts "
For these reasons Mr. Lattimore's committee recommended a divi
sion of the Territory by a north and south line, the admission of
the western part as a State, and the continuance of a Territorial

MISSISSIPPI 723
government for the eastern portion. They reported two bills for
these purposes.
The committee was disposed to take the Tombigbee river for
a boundary line, or the Pascagoula in part, and according to Lat
timore, Judge Harry Toulmin, who appeared as the representative
of the Pearl River convention, demanded if division were made,
a line between the Pascagoula and Pearl rivers. Lattimore's
proposition was that the line should run "from the gulf of Mexico
to the northwest corner of Washington county [northeast corner
of Wayne] in such a way as to throw all these counties [west of
Mobile] into the proposed western State." (The east boundary
of Jackson was then the high pine ridge west of Mobile bay.)
North of the Choctaw line he would conform somewhat to the nat
ural boundaries by making a jog east on the Choctaw line to the
Tombigbee, which he would follow to Cottongin Port ; then • a
direct line to the mouth of Bear creek. But, there was danger of
the Pascagoula river being adopted in the south, and the com
promise was made of a line due south from the northwest corner of
"Washington, and northerly from the same point straight to Bear
creek. (F. H. Riley, Pubis. M. H. S, III, 175.) Lattimore com
plained that Toulmin's advocacy of the Pascagoula or a more
western line as the boundary endangered the passage of the bill;
which is undoubtedly what Toulmin desired, as his platform was
"Mississippi, one and indivisible." After the Lattimore bill was
reported, another petition of the general assembly for admission as
one State was presented, also a petition from a large number of the
members in support of division. January 9, 1817, Mr. Pickens
(N. C.) presented a petition from a convention of delegates of
fifteen counties, against division and asking admission entire.
This, undoubtedly the petition of the Pearl River convention,
brought by Judge Toulmin, was referred to a committee of which
Mr. Pickens was chairman, which reported, January 17, a bill to
admit without division.
The report of Mr. Pickens gives the arguments for admission
without division. It was much more important to the people of
the Territory and to the nation, he said, to decide whether the
Mississippi Territory should form one State or two, than to decide
regarding immediate admission. He declared that the fear of its
future great strength if admitted as a unit was exaggerated, because
it was probable that much of the land was unfit for cultivation.
"Your committee cannot apprehend that the whole Territory is
capable of such a strong population as ever to render it a formid
able State compared with the largest sized of the northern, middle
and western States." He referred to the land office sales in south
ern Mississippi to prove the undesirability of the lands. Central
and Northern Mississippi was, of course, not yet opened to settlers.
"It appears, from the concurrent testimony of persons acquainted
with the territory in question, that an uncommon proportion of its
land is unfit for cultivation; much thereof consisting of poor pine
barrens; while, on the other hand, it is certain that there is much

724 MISSISSIPPI
fertile soil on the margin of the rivers, and interspersed over dif
ferent parts, capable to sustain a sufficient population for a respec
table State. Its political strength will also be held in check by the
great proportion of slaves it is destined to contain. This circum
stance, added to the climate and soil, will render its numbers (en
titled to political calculation) relatively small compared with its
extent. As to the wishes of the people themselves, various repre
sentations have been made showing a difference of sentiment to
exist among them in regard to a division. It is, however, worthy
of notice that for several successive years the legislature of the
Territory have petitioned congress for admission as a State; in
none of which have they intimated a wish to be divided." The
form of the proposed State would be nearly square, the center as
easy of access from one extreme as another. The different parts
would have different avenues to market, by the navigation of the
Mississippi, Mobile and Chattahoochee rivers. "It is not seen
that this will create any material diversity of interests, or interfere
with the internal policy and harmony of the State, all parts of which
will be agricultural and capable of similar products." The large
State would be more likely to cherish its institutions with a liberal
policy; its military defence would be more effective. According
io the house bill, "the western division will contain 25,037 free
-white inhabitants, and 22,834 slaves, by the census lately taken.
By the census taken in 1810, there were west of the line of division
16,602 white inhabitants and 14,523 slaves, including in the last
census the county of Jackson, formerly a part of Florida, making
an increase of 8,435 white and 8,311 slave inhabitants, in the last
period of six years, including a new county from Florida."
But the enabling bill for Indiana had been passed, and the con
stitution of that new State, which had three or four times the
white population of all the Mississippi territory, was approved
December 16, 1816. This act increased the number of States north
of the Mason and Dixon line and the Ohio river to ten. The ad
mission of Louisiana in 1812 had served to balance the strength of
the two sections in the senate. The sense of sectional divergence
was felt at that time. It had been realized from the earliest days
of colonial history, and was at this time becoming more intense.
The time was near at hand for the beginning of the memorable
and lamentable political struggles over "the balance of power."
But now, apparently without contest, two points were conceded
to the Southern political leaders, the immediate admission of half
of Mississippi Territory to make the columns stand ten to ten, and
the promise of another State in the eastern half, which was now
given the name of Alabama. So Mississippi escaped that focal
place in the history of sectional warfare that Missouri assumed a
year or two later.
Senator Charles Tait, of Georgia, chairman of the senate commit
tee on the petition of the legislature, reported two bills, as Latti
more had done, for a western State and an eastern Territory, and
they were passed January 31 ; the house adopted the senate bills

MISSISSIPPI 725
with amendments, February 26 ; the senate concurred in the amend
ments February 28, and the enabling act was signed by President
Madison, March 1, 1817.
In pursuance of this enabling act the constitutional convention
(q. v.) assembled at Washington, and adopted a constitution and
form of government. When congress met in December, a resolu
tion admitting the State thus organized was passed by the house
December 8. The senate, December 1, referred the inquiry if any
legislative measures were necessary for admission of the State
of Mississippi to a committee composed of James Barbour, of Vir
ginia; Rufus King, of Massachusetts, and John Williams, of Ten
nessee, (brother of Gov. Williams). The question was somewhat
interesting, because the electoral vote of Indiana had been offered
for Monroe, on the basis of an election taken before the State had
been admitted by resolution of Congress. Objection was made,
but the vote was counted. Barbour presented a resolution for ad
mission, had read a copy of the constitution, and the resolution
was passed December 3, the day before the arrival of -an official
Copy of the constitution accompanied by a letter from Governor
Holmes. The Barbour resolution passed the house December 8 and was
signed by President Monroe December 10, 1817. The resolution
in its "whereas" recited the passage of an enabling act and the
forming of a state constitution and form of government, which was
declared to be republican and in conformity with the Ordinance
of 1787, and it was "Resolved, by the Senate and House of Rep
resentatives of the United States -of American in Congress as
sembled, That the State of Mississippi shall be one, and is hereby
declared to be one, of the United States of America, and admitted
into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all
respects whatever."
The new senators, Walter Leake and Thomas H. Williams,
and the representative, George Poindexter, were sworn in Decem
ber 11th.
An act extending the laws of the United States to the new State,
originated in the house, and was adopted by the senate, March
30, 1818, and approved April 3, 1818.
The reflection cannot be avoided, in view of the modern develop
ment of the territory, that they were wise who planned one great
State. Such a State now would combine such a variety of resour
ces as would contribute to high social development under one gov
ernment. It would have been in the South such a commonwealth
as Ohio or Pennsylvania is in the north. But these considerations
did not outweigh the political anxiety for more votes in the United
States senate. It is interesting to observe also, if the wisdom of
division be conceded, that if President Madison and his Congress
had not let "I dare not wait upon I would, like the cat in the adage,"
. the port of Pensacola would have been secured for Alabama, and
the dividing line of the two States would have been the Tombigbee
river and Mobile river and bay. One may imagine that if the

726 MISSISSIPPI
matter had been left to -Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay, both
Mobile and Pensacola would have been annexed to the Mississippi
Territory, for the only real, honest reason for taking either of them,
— that they naturally belonged to us, and were essential to our
territorial integrity.
Statehouse. See Capitol.
State Institutions. See Insane hospital, East Mississippi In
sane hospital, Deaf and Dumb institution, Blind institute, Vicks
burg Hospital, Natchez Hospital.
Statelevee, a post-hamlet of Tunica county, on the Mississippi
river, opposite Helena, Ark. Population in 1900, 25.
State Line, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of
Wayne county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, near the boundary
line between Mississippi and Alabama. It is 63 miles northwest of
Mobile, and about 20 miles southeast of Waynesboro, the county
seat and nearest banking town. It is located in a pine timber
region, and manufactures yellow pine lumber, resin and turpentine.
Population in 1900, 379. The population in 1906 was estimated at
500. It has several stores, a turpentine distillery, a saw mill, a public
cotton gin, two churches, and is the seat of the State Line Academy.
St. Denis, Juchereau de. This distinguished officer was a native
of Canada, was the uncle of Madame d'lberville, and came to Lou
isiana in December, 1699, in the frigate Renommee, commanded by
d'lberville. He spent several years in making expeditions up and
down the Mississippi, and soon acquired a general knowledge of
several Indian languages, so as to be acknowledged the Indian
grand chief. He was a gentleman of education, courage and pru
dence, and in 1714, was dispatched up Red river to explore the
country and observe the movements of the Spaniards. In the fol
lowing year he was sent as an envoy to negotiate a commercial
treaty with Mexico; and again in 1718, as the agent of M. Crozat,
with articles of merchandise to exchange with the Mexicans for'
such articles as would be useful in Louisiana. He was also em
ployed in conducting several expeditions against the Indians. In
1719 he returned to Biloxi and in command of the Indian allies
of the French, assisted in repulsing the Spaniards, who had invested
Dauphin Island, and were making repeated attempts to effect a
landing in Mobile Bay. In September, 1719, he commanded the In
dian allies of the French at the siege and capture of Pensacola, and
was knighted for his services. On the retirement of M. de Bien
ville to France, in 1726, M. de St. Denis returned to Montreal,
Canada, where he died. .
Steamboats. Under the title "River Transportation" it has been
shown that prior to. the introduction of steamboats on western
waters, the means of transportation thereon consisted of keel-boats,
barges and flat-boats. The two former laboriously ascended as
well as descended the stream ; while the flat-boat, or "broadhorn,"
was a downstream craft, exclusively, and was sold for its lumber
on arrival at its destination. As late as the year 1817, 20 barges
and keels sufficed for the upward and downward commerce between

MISSISSIPPI 727
the lower Mississippi and the Ohio region, while the commerce
from New Orleans to St. Louis on the upper Mississippi was con
veyed in two or three barges. The same barge with an efficient
crew could make the round trip in six months, and made one and
sometimes two trips in a year. As the largest barges were of only
100 tons burden, the total tonnage of all the boats engaged in this
upward trade could not have exceeded seven thousand tons.
Whether steam could be employed on western rivers was a ques
tion. Its success between New York and Albany was not consid
ered as having been solved satisfactorily, and when it was sug
gested that a boat be built at Pittsburg, to ply between Natchez
and New Orleans, an investigation of the waters to be navigated
was first determined upon. Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of New York,
undertook this work, with the understanding that if the report was
favorable, Chancellor Livingston, Robert Fulton, and himself were
to be equally interested in the undertaking. Livingston and Fulton
were to supply the capital, and Roosevelt was to superintend the
building of the boat and engine. The report was highly favorable,
and Roosevelt was sent to Pittsburg in 1810 to superintend the
building of the first steamboat to be launched on western waters.
Its size and plan were furnished by Robert Fulton. It was to be
116 feet in length and 20 feet beam. The engine was to have a 34
inch cylinder and the boiler, etc, was to be in proportion. Men
were sent into the forest to obtain its timbers.
The Pittsburg "Navigator" of 1811 makes this unique comment
on the intention and purpose of Fulton and Livingston : "There is
now on foot a new method of navigating our western waters, par
ticularly the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This is with boats pro
pelled by the power of steam. This plan has been carried into suc
cessful operation on the Hudson river at New York, and on the
Delaware between New Castle and Burlington. It has been stated
that the one on the Hudson goes at the rate of four miles an hour
against wind and tide on her route between New York and Albany,
and frequently with 500 passengers on board. From these success
ful experiments there can be but little doubt of the plan succeeding
on our western waters, and proving of immense advantage to the
commerce of our. country. A Mr. Rosewalt, a gentleman of enter
prise, and who is acting it is said in conjunction with Messrs.
Fulton and Livingston of New York, has a boat of this kind now
(1810) on the stocks at Pittsburgh, of 138 feet keel, calculated for
300 or 400 tons burden. And there is one building at Frankfort,
Kentucky, by citizens who will .no doubt push the enterprise. It
will be a novel sight, and as pleasing as novel to see a huge boat
working her way up the windings of the Ohio, without the appear
ance of sail, oar, pole, or any manual labour about her — moving
within the secrets of her own wonderful mechanism, and propelled
by power undiscoverable." The boat was called the New Orleans,
and descended the Ohio and Mississippi and landed at Natchez in
December, 1811, where she took on lading and passengers for the
first time, and passed on to New Orleans. The New Orleans was

728 MISSISSIPPI
the first steamer that attempted to ascend the river, leaving New
Orleans for Natchez on January 23, 1812. A week afterward the
Louisiana Advertiser said, "We are enabled to state that she can
stem the current at the rate of three miles an hour ; she went from
the city of Houma, 75 miles, in 23 hours." She ran as a packet
from New Orleans to Natchez for more than a year, when she
was wrecked upon a snag near Baton Rouge. The "Navigator"
tells us "her accommodations are good, and her passengers gener
ally numerous ; seldom less than 10 to 20 from Natchez, at 18 dol
lars a head, and when she starts from New Orleans, generally from
30 to 50, and sometimes as many as 80 passengers, at 25 dollars
each to Natchez. The boat's receipts for freight upwards, has
averaged the last year 700 dollars, passage money $900 — down
wards $300 freight, $500 for passengers — She performs 13 trips in
the year, which at 2,400 per trip, amounts, to $31,200."
Sharfs' History of St. Louis gives a long list of sixty pioneer
steamboats, built for the trade on the western waters, prior to the
year 1820. The great majority of these were built for the New
Orleans and Louisville trade, and a noticeable feature is the num
erous points that were selected to build them, ranging from Pitts
burg to New Orleans, and the great number of persons that were
ready to embark in the new enterprise. Few owners appear as
such in any two boats. Fulton and Livingston who built the first
boat, did not long continue in the business after the courts re
fused to legalize the authority they claimed, for the exclusive right
to navigate the Mississippi for the term of twenty-five years.
The second steamboat was the "Comet" of 25 tons, owned by
Samuel Smith, built at Pittsburg by Daniel French. She made a
voyage to Louisville in 1813, and to New Orleans in the spring of
1814. She made two trips to Natchez and was then sold and her
engine put into a plantation and used to drive a cotton gin.
The third steamboat, also built at Pittsburg, was the "Vesuvius,"
of 340 tons. She was built by Robert Fulton and owned by a com
pany belonging to New York and New Orleans. She was the first
boat to attempt the ascent of the Mississippi above Natchez. She
started from New Orleans, bound for Louisville, June 1, 1814,
and grounded on a bar 700 miles up the Mississippi, where she lay
until December, when the river rose and floated her off. She then
returned to New Orleans and was for a time pressed into service
by Gen. Jackson, in resisting British invasion. Later she ran as
a packet between New Orleans and Natchez, and afterwards went
into the Louisville trade, and was finally libeled by her commander
and sold at public auction in 1819.
The fourth steamboat was the "Enterprise," forty-five tons,
built at Brownsville, Penn, by Daniel French, under his patent
granted in 1809. She went to New Orleans in December, 1814,
and was employed by Gen. Jackson in transporting troops and mil
itary stores for the defence of New Orleans. She was the first
steamboat ever used on western waters to expedite the military
movements, for national defence. In May, 1817, she left New Or-

MISSISSIPPI 729
leans for Pittsburg, and arrived at Shippingport on the 30th, twen
ty-five days out, being the first steamboat that ever arrived at that
port from New Oceans. New Orleans was now brought two
months nearer Pittsburg, and Capt. Shreve of the Enterprise was
acknowledged the father of steam navigation on the Mississippi.
The fifth boat was the "Aetna," 340 tons, built at Pittsburg and
owned by the same company as the "Vesuvius." She made her
first voyage to New Orleans in 1815 and also entered the Natchez
trade. She afterwards made six trips to Louisville, under the
command of Captain Robinson De Hart.
The sixth steamboat was the "Zebulon M. Pike," built by Mr.
Prentice, of Henderson, Ky, in 1815. She deserves mention as the
first boat to ascend the Mississippi above the mouth of the Ohio,
and the first to touch at St. Louis. The seventh boat was the
"Dispatch," 25 tons, built at Brownsville, Pa, by the owners of
the "Enterprise." The eighth boat was the "Buffalo," 300 tons,
built at Pittsburg by Benjamin H. Latrobe, Sr, the distinguished
architect of the Capitol at Washington. In 1816 the "Washington,"
400 tons, a two decker, built at Wheeling, made the round trip
from Louisville to New Orleans twice in 1816-17 and first convinced
the despairing public that steamboat navigation would succeed on
western waters. The time consumed in her last voyage down and
back was only 45 days, which opened a new era to western com
merce. Prior to 1818, the boats had been chiefly designed for the recep
tion of freight, and with few conveniences for passengers. These
first boats were built after the models of ships, with deep holds ;
had low pressure engines and heavy machinery, and were useless
in low water, and very hard to propel against the current. "In
order to attain greater speed, the builders soon made the boats
long and narrow, but it- was not until they came to the decision
that boats would run faster on the water than in it, and began
making them flat and broad, that they finally got a boat capable of
carrying a thousand tons, when drawing only four feet, and when
empty two and one-half feet. Then with a high pressure engine
at each wheel they could make unprecedented speed; and these
boats afforded travelling and freight accommodations equal to any.
Although the price of passage did not exceed hotel rates, yet more
bountifully filled tables were not to be found on land and the boats
were marvels of splendor in their appointments. The chief im
provement made in the river steamboats was in placing one large
wheel at the stern of the boat entirely behind the hulk and with
long paddles the full length of the beam, operated by double engines
and quartering cranks." (Historic Highways, Hulbert.) The "Gen
eral Pike," built at Cincinnati in 1818, was ^:he first steamboat built
on western waters for the exclusive convenience of passengers.
Her accommodations were ample; her apartments spacious and
convenient. She measured 100 feet keel, 25 feet beam, and drew
only 39 inches of water. Her cabin was 40 feet in length, and 25
feet wide. At one end were six state rooms, at the other end

730 MISSISSIPPI
eight. Between the two state rooms was a saloon forty by eighteen
feet, large enough for 100 passengers. ,
Before 1830 the Ohio and Mississippi became literally covered
with steamboat fleets, and they were also soon found on every
deep tributary of these streams. In 1834 the number of steamboats
on western waters was 230, and in 1844, 450. Their average bur
den was 200 tons each, making an aggregate of 90,000 tons, which
at $80 per ton, was $7,200,000. By the official returns of 1842 it
appears that the whole steamboat tonnage of the United States was
218,994 tons, divided as follows: Southwest 126,278 tons, North
west 17,652 tons, Seaboard 76,064 tons. From which it appears
that two-thirds belonged to the West, and more than one-half
to the Southwest. The steamboat tonnage of the Mississippi val
ley (1842) exceeded by 40,000 tons the entire steamboat tonnage
of Great Britain (1834). In 1840-42 the best boats could make the
voyagefrom Natchez to New Orleans, a distance of 285 miles, in
22 hours, at a speed of more than 12 miles per hour against the
current of the Mississippi. The same boats would run from New
Orleans to St. Louis in four days and a half, against the impetuous
current, above Natchez ; or at the rate of 9 miles per hour the whole
distance of nearly 1,200 miles. (Monette). After 1844 the most
magnificent steamboats in all the west were built at St. Louis,
and were veritable floating palaces. As illustrating their carrying
capacity, we read that in January, 1846, the splendid* steamboat
Maria, from St. Louis, arrived at New Orleans with the enormous
load of 4,058 bales of cotton.
In 1836 and 1837 the burning of steamboats on the river was
very frequent. The Ben Sherrod racing with the Prairie Belle
off the mouth of Homochitto, May 9, 1837, caught fire from her
own furnaces, and burned so rapidly that out of two or three hun
dred passengers only forty escaped to the shore. A public meet
ing at Natchez, presided over by General Quitman, demanded the
prevention of racing, and denounced the outrageous conduct of the
captain of the burned steamer. The cost of the passenger trans
portation from Natchez to Pittsburg, 1,700 miles, was $33 including
board, in 1835.
Four general classes of men came to be recognized in connection
with the steamboat traffic ; the proprietors, navigators, operators,
and deckhands. The upper ranks of the steam-packet business
furnished the West with many fine types of men. "The typical
captain of the first half century of steamboating in the West was
a man any one was glad to number among his friends and ac
quaintances. But between the pilot house and the deck lay a
gulf — not impassable, for it was frequently spanned by the worthy —
deep and significant. Until the Civil War 'deckoneering' was,
largely, the pursuit of whites. A few plantation owners rented out
slaves to steamboat owners, but negroes did not usurp the profes
sion until they were freed. This was contemporaneous with the
general introduction of steam railways." (Hulbert).
Not only did the War 1861-5 put an end to the days of the "deck-

* *

MISSISSIPPI 731
qneering" of white men, and to the "coasting" trade of the flat-
boats, but it also marked the passing of the old gambling days in
the steamboat business. For more than thirty years the steamboats
had been infested by a swarm of sporting men which almost lived
upon the Ohio-Mississippi boats. Opulent southern planters trav
eled "largely by -steam packets and were a source of immense reve
nue to these card-sharps. Gambling, like drinking intoxicants, im
plied no social ostracism, and men of national reputation whiled
away the long hours of leisure on the voyage by indulging in games
of chance. Thousands of dollars were often wagered in a single
night in games between the gamblers and rich planters. Boat-
owners were at last compelled to prohibit all such pastimes to re
establish the reputations of the river boats.
Probably no interest in the Mississippi valley suffered so much
from the effects of the war as did steamboating, especially at the
South. On the cessation of hostilities, those who survived and had
saved their boats, or could build or buy others made a determined
effort to re-establish themselves in the business, and many were
soon doing a flourishing business. But in the meantime the war
had given their natural enemy, the railroads, a great impetus, and
river transportation began to wane. Under the fierce competition
of the constantly expanding railroad lines, the steamboat business on
the Mississippi and the smaller rivers, is but a fraction of its for
mer volume.
Steel, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Scott county, about 10
miles north of Forest, the county seat, and nearest railroad and
banking town. The postoffice here was recently discontinued, and
it now has rural free delivery from Harperville. Population in
1900, 40.
Steele, John, first secretary of the Mississippi Territory, was a
native of Virginia, born about 1755. He was a line officer during
the war of the Revolution, and at the battle of Germantown was
shot through the body. Before coming to Mississippi in 1798 he
had served on the executive council, and when appointed to the
office of secretary was a member of the commission, with George
Walton and Alfred Moore, to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee
Indians. During a great part of his official term as secretary he
was in feeble health, but he seems to have performed a good deal
of service, among other duties visiting the distant Tombigbee set
tlement. His failure to read and approve the laws of the first gen
eral assembly, in special session, 1801, may have been due, partly,
to other reasons than health. He was then acting governor, a duty
he performed from April until November, 1801. Governor Clai
borne was expected to arrive in time for the regular session of the
assembly. His term expired May 7, 1802, but he continued to be
a citizen of the Territory, living at his plantation which he gave
the name of Belvidere. In 1804-05 he was a member of the house
of representatives, and in various ways he was honored all through
the Territorial period. Finally he was a member of the constitu-

732 MISSISSIPPI
tional convention of 1817, but he did not long survive that date,
dying at Natchez, far advanced in years and unmarried.
, Steele's Administration. After the departure of Governor Sar
gent in the spring of 1801 and until the arrival of Governor Clai
borne in the latter part of November, Secretary John Steele was
acting governor, apparently without any supervision from either
the outgoing or incoming governor. Claiborne was appointed
May 25, to fill a "vacancy existing," but the administration was
not his until his arrival. The main event was the first session of
the general assembly, (q. v.) Secretary Steele called this first ses-
¦ sion, May 26, 1801, to meet in July, and he addressed the two houses
at their meeting, congratulating them upon the event. The assem
bly responded, welcoming his expression of a spirit of conciliation.
"We reciprocate, sir, your congratulations upon the dawn of free
dom and safety under laws emanating from the people through
their immediate representatives, and anticipate the advantages re
sulting from the exercise of powers so essential to the happiness
of a free people, and which have been withheld from the inhabitants
of the Natchez. That this extension of privilege will be used and
exercised in a becoming and judicious manner, with a scrupulous
regard to the laws of the superior government, we trust there can
be no doubt." They deplored the absolute veto power of. the gov
ernor, but hoped it would be exercised wisely; regarded the judi
ciary of the Territory as inefficient in operation, but the revision
of laws was to be handled cautiously ; to the Secretary's expression
that the militia laws were "in almost a total state of inexecution,"
they responded that this condition would likely continue "unless
the people are permitted (at least) to recommend their officers
for appointment."
Secretary Steele returned to the assembly, from his home at
"Belvidere," without his assent, the resolutions presented to him
by Banks, West and Stampley, for the change of the seat of gov
ernment from Natchez to the town of Washington. He gave as
his reasons that the acts of congress contemplated that Natchez
was the capital, and, in any case, the change proposed was too
important to be effected by mere resolution.
The grand jury of Pickering county in November expressed
regret that "the late infirm state of health of the Hon. Colo. John
Steel has so far rendered him incapable of acting in his official
capacity as to read or sign the laws lately passed by our legislature,
and fondly hope from his recovery and the expected arrival of a
new governor that this obstacle is now removed." The grand
jury also gave a glimpse of conditions by deploring that there
were no laws to repress "Sabbath breaking, swearing, drunken
ness and other enormities ;" that "the frequent escapes of Felons
from the Goal of the County of Adams is truly alarming," that pun
ishments were inadequate, and that "it is high time for such per
sons after repeated and aggravated offences to be cut off from
society as pests and disturbers of the public peace ;" that a number
of orphan children were permitted to run at large without a master

MISSISSIPPI 733
or protector; that a court of equity was needed, from "alarming
circumstances lately taken place in the courts," evidently referring
to the rulings on Spanish land titles.
Steens, a hamlet in the eastern part of Lowndes county, on
Floating Turtle creek, and a station on the Southern Railway, 8
miles northeast of Columbus, the county seat and nearest banking
town. It has a money order postoffice, and one rural route emanates
therefrom. Population in 1900, 26.
Steiner, a post-hamlet of Sunflower county, 12 miles north of
Indianola, the county seat, arid nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 21.
Stella, a postoffice of Kemper county, 7 miles southwest of De
kalb, the county seat. It is situated on P'awticfaw creek, 25 miles
north of Meridian.
Stephensville, a hamlet of Sunflower county, situated on Porters
Bayou, 6 miles north of Indianola, the county seat and nearest
railroad and banking town. It has a money order postoffice.
Sterling, or Okatibbee Station, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, is
a*hamlet of Lauderdale county, 5 miles by rail south of Meridian.
It has rural free delivery from Meridian. Population in 1900, 23.
Stewart, an incorporated post-town in the eastern part of Mont
gomery county, and a station on the Southern Railway, 18 miles
east of Winona, the county seat, and 12 miles west of Eupora. Kil
michael is the nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1906, 200.
Stewart, Duncan, first lieutenant-governor of Mississippi, Octo
ber 7, 1817, to January 5, 1820, was a son of William Stewart, who
emigrated from Scotland, to North Carolina, about 1730. Patrick,
one of the sons of William, was a royalist officer during the revo
lution. Duncan was an officer in the Continental army. He mar
ried Penelope, daughter of Col. Tignal Jones, of North Carolina.
About 1797, he and a brother James moved to Tennessee, where
Duncan was honored with election to the legislature. About 1808
he removed to Wilkinson county, Miss, where he became a wealthy
planter. He held the office of surveyor-general as well as lieu
tenant-governor. He died at the age of sixty years.
Tignal J, his eldest son, was a member of the legislature, prom
inent in securing the legal rights of married women. He married
a daughter of Peter Randolph, Federal judge, and had two daugh
ters. James A, second son, married another daughter of Judge
Randolph, and they had seven children. Charles Duncan, the third
son of Duncan, married a daughter of Judge Black, afterward
United States senator, and became a planter in Pointe Coupee par
ish. His son, John Black Stewart, was a famous author under the
name of "Archibald Clavering Gunter," author of "Mr. Barnes of
New York," and other works. Catherine, fourth child of Governor
Stewart, married Judge Harry Cage. Her two sons were in the
Mexican war and the Civil war, Duncan Stewart Cage as col
onel, Albert Cage as captain. Eliza, the youngest child of Governor
Stewart, married Col. W. S. Hamilton.

734 MISSISSIPPI
Stockdale, Thomas Ringland, was born in Green county, Penn,
February 28, 1828, son of William Stockdale and Hannah McQuaid.
After the hard life of the farmer boy in those early days, he entered
college and graduated from Washington and Jefferson college in
1856. In the same year he came to Mississippi, and, after teaching
four years, in 1858 he became a student at the university where he
graduated in law in 1859. He entered on his profession at Holmes
ville at once, but in 1861 enlisted in the Confederate service as a
private. He was promoted to the rank of colonel, and was paroled
from Forrest's army in May, 1865. In 1867 he married Fannie
Wicker, of Amite county, and they made their home in Summit.
Col. Stockdale was a law partner of Judge Hiram Cassidy for twelve
years. He was a member of the national Democratic convention
in 1868, and was presidential elector in 1872 and in 1884. In 188C
he was elected to the 50th congress, and served till 1895. He was
appointed ' in 1896 to fill out an unexpired term in the Supreme
Court, and served till May 1897. He died at Summit, Miss, Jan
uary 8, 1899.
Stockton, Richard, Jr., a native of New Jersey, was educated at
Princeton, taking first honors, before he came to Mississippi to
practice law. "He was an eminent lawyer and man of ability,"
says Lynch, and "remarkably modest and unassuming in his man
ners." He had the rank of colonel on the staff of Governor Leake,
who appointed him judge of the First circuit and of the supreme
court, in August, 1822, to succeed Bela Metcalf, resigned, and was
elected by the legislature in the following December. There was
in that period in Mississippi as in other States and in the United
States as a whole, great jealousy of the legislative body toward
the courts, particularly in regard to the right of the court, now ad
mitted, to pass upon the constitutionality of session acts. At this
period also, the legislatures in the new States were straining the
rules of justice in behalf of debtors, as was, no doubt, desirable,
although there was a dangerous tendency toward a general repu
diation and nullification of contracts and compacts, which it was
the duty of the courts to check.
The house of representatives, in the session of 1825, required the
sergeant at arms to notify the judges of the supreme court to
appear at the bar of the house and show cause why they should
not be removed from office in consequence of their decision in rela
tion to an act extending further relief to debtors. The committee
on the subject called Judge Stockton before it, who made a state
ment of facts. In the case of Cochrane and Murdoch vs. Benjamin
Kitchen, and sureties, judgment had been rendered on a note, and
execution issued and levied, and thereupon the sheriff, under the act
of the legislature, had sold the goods on one year's credit, taking
new sureties and releasing the original ones. Stockton cited the
constitution of the United States and the State, and the opinions
of the courts in other States on the same sort of ex post facto laws,
but the legislators contended that the supreme court went too far
in fining the sheriff $100 for carrying out an act of legislature. On

MISSISSIPPI 735
the same day Judge Stockton resigned. There was no personal
feeling in the matter. He was elected attorney-general of the
State at the same session, (Jan. 25, 1826) and he held this office
until his death in 1827, dying, says Lynch (Bench and Bar, 92-
99) in a duel at New Orleans.
Stokely, a postoffice of Coahoma county.
Stokes, a postoffice of Madison county.
Stone, a postoffice in the north-central part of Neshoba county,
6 miles north of Philadelphia, the county seat.
Stone, John Marshall, deceased, was born near Milan, Gibson
county, Tenn, April 30, 1830 ; son of Asher and Judith (Royall)
Stone, natives respectively of Pittsylvania and Halifax counties,
Va. Asher Stone, who died in Carroll county, Tenn, Sept. 20, 1841,
was the son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Whitworth) Stone, of Pittsyl
vania county, Va. ; Isaac Stone was the son of William Stone, who
served during the Revolution in the Virginia State troops. William
was born in 1845 and was the son of Joshua Stone, the first Amer
ican settler of the family. He resided in Prince Edward county,
Va, where he reared a large family, some of whom migrated to
Kentucky and other Southern states. Judith, mother of John M.
Stone, was the daughter of Richard Royall, of Halifax county,
Va, whose wife was Fannie Royster, daughter of a Revolutionary
soldier. When John Marshall Stone was eleven years of age, his
father died, and the family moved to Henderson county, Tenn,
where the young son attended the common schools and labored in
the support of his mother and her nine children, left in straightened
circumstances. This condition was relieved by the bequest of a
grandmother in 1846.
John M. Stone began his career as a teacher in the common
schools of Tennessee. After teaching for a short time he came to
Mississippi and accepted a clerkship in the store at Eastport, a
village near luka. In 1855-61 he was agent of the railroad at luka.
When the state seceded from the Union, early in 1861, he entered
the service of the Confederate States as captain of the luka Rifles,
assigned as Company K to Colonel Flakner's Second regiment, in
Virginia. On April 16, 1862, he was elected colonel of the regiment.
As senior colonel he frequently commanded Davis' brigade, with
particular distinction at the Wilderness, where he was highly
praised by General Lee and other officers.
He was wounded several times during the war, but never
'seriously. Near the close of the war he came home for a brief
furlough, and while returning to the service was captured by Gen
eral Steadman at Salisbury, N. C, and sent to Johnson's Island,
where he remained a prisoner until July 25, 1865. After the war he
returned to luka and quietly took up the duties of a citizen, which
he performed as heroically as he had those of war. His military
record had been very brilliant, a fact that served to deepen the
admiration with which his friends regarded him. In the important
State election of 1869, preparatory to the beginning of the Alcorn
administration, he was elected to the state senate for a term of

736 MISSISSIPPI
four years. Being reelected in 1873, Colonel Stone served as sena
tor through the period of negro domination. When the democratic
party gained a majority of the legislature of 1876, and it was de
termined to impeach Ames and Davis, Stone was elected president
pro tem. of the senate by acclamation, with the understanding that
he would become governor. Beginning his service as chief execu
tive March 29, 1876, he served by virtue of election in 1877, to Jan-
nary, 1881, and being again elected in 1889 he served from January
13, 1890, to January 20, 1896, by virtue of an extension of term by
the constitutional convention. Between his terms as governor he
was a railroad commissioner by appointment in 1886. In 1896 he
became president of the Merchants' bank at Jackson, Miss. When
a vacancy occurred in the presidency of the Agricultural and Me
chanical college, occasioned by the resignation of General S. D. Lee,
he accepted the position which he filled with ability until his death
at Holly Springs, March 26, 1900. He is buried at luka, and is
survived by his widow, whose devotion to his memory is most
marked and beautiful. On May 2, 1872, he married Mary Gillim
Coman, a daughter of James M. and Elizabeth Jordan (Mason)
Coman of Athens, Ala, who came to Mississippi in 1848, settling
near luka. Mrs. Coman was a daughter of Capt. William Mason
of Halifax county, Va. Gov. and Mrs. Stone became the parents
¦of two children, James Marshall and Mary Elizabeth, both of whom
died in infancy.
Gov. Stone was one of the most conspicuous figures in Mississippi
during the Reconstruction period, and is cherished in the hearts of
the people as one of the State's favorite sons. He was a man of
strong convictions and manifested great independence of character
when a principle was involved. As an evidence of this, in 1894 he
considered the candidacy for the United States senate, but not hav
ing favored the remonetization of silver, to which his party was
committed, he laid aside the ambition, though it was believed the
nomination could easily have been his had he sacrificed his con
victions. He was broad-minded and magnanimous, and his pre
dominating characteristic was loyalty to duty both public and
private. He was not of a nature to be confined to narrow limits,
and impressed himself upon all phases of life with which he was
associated. At the time of his death he held the position of major-
general in the Mississippi Division, United Confederate Veterans,
and in the general orders, a day later, Gen. John C. Gordon wrote:
"Conspicuous among these warriors in that titanic struggle is
his heroic form, now leading a forlorn hope through the tangled
wildwood of the wilderness, or breasting the leaden hail amid the
death dealing storm of the Bloody Angle, or on the ebb and flow
of the tide of battle at Gettysburg, or upon any and every part of
those fateful fields, wherever an offering of courage could be made
for his country's honor, or a libation poured out in its defense.
Mississippi has been prolific of great men, and the pages of history
are luminous with their illustrious names, but she will have none
upon her shield purer, braver, or more resplendent than that of

MISSISSIPPI 737
John Marshall Stone." (See Stone's Administration.) Gen. Stone
was very prominently identified with the Masonic order, and in
1889 was grand master in the state of Mississippi. He was a Knight
Templar and at one time was commander of Mary Lodge at
Corinth. He was also a member of the Knights and Ladies of
Honor. Stone's Administration, 1876-82. John M. Stone,' as president pro
tempore of the senate, became governor upon the resignation of
Governor Ames, March 29, 1876. The legislature was then in ses
sion, and had been busied, since convening in January, with inves
tigation of all branches of the government, and the impeachment
of Governor Ames and Lieutenant-Governor Cardozo. Three
amendments to the constitution, adopted at the 1875 election, were
embodied in the constitution, one of them permitting a great re
duction in the expense of the judiciary, but the payment of wit
ness fees in criminal cases by the counties instead of by the State,
continued to be a great expense and evil. The office of commis
sioner of immigration and agriculture was practically abolished
by reduction of the salary to a nominal sum. Special agents to
investigate county tax returns were abolished, also the state board
for equalization of taxes, the office of cotton weigher, etc, and the
militia, practically, by the reduction of pay to five cents a day when
on duty. The district printing law was repealed, abolishing a num
ber of newspapers thereby supported. The State publications were
reduced to the least possible volume, though after a few years
they were restored to the former size, at a greatly reduced ex
pense. Salaries of State officers and the judiciary were reduced.
The appropriations for educational purposes were curtailed, includ
ing the reduction of the 4-mill teachers' tax, to two mills. In
general the measures taken were for a sweeping reform of the whole
financial and administrative system. "One cannot fail to see in this
legislation the signs of a revolution. The legislature of 1876, the
first controled by the tax payers after the inauguration of the re
construction policy, proceeded on the belief that the work of the
carpet baggers was unworthy to stand. The majority of the Dem
ocratic members believed that much official corruption existed in
the administration of the State government when they took hold.
The most searching investigation was instituted in every depart
ment, which resulted in unveiling numerous frauds. The legisla
ture continued in session until April 15, a period of three and a
half months, endeavoring to wipe out every trace of the old regime,
and to restore the government to a 'systematic and economical'
basis. Judged from the standpoint of its legislation alone, it de
serves to be ranked as one of the most. important in the history
of the State. There is little doubt that most of its legislation was
wholesome and wise — certainly it was economical — and it had the
result of restoring the confidence of the people in the government."
(Garner, "Reconstruction," 412) "While the legislature was re
moving the carpet baggers from office and repealing the laws which
they had enacted, many of them were preparing to emigrate. There
47-11

738 MISSISSIPPI
was no longer any likelihood that they would ever again get pos
session of the offices, and as some of them were in bad standing
among the native whites, there seemed to be little encouragement
for them to remain. During the year 1876, a large majority of those
who had at one time or another held office moved away. . . .
Of those who were prominent in politics, less than half a dozen
remained. They were good citizens and- were highly respected."
(Ibid, 413.)
The main item of the reduction in expenditures was $140,000
in expenses of the judiciary, partly because of the constitutional
amendment relating to chancery courts, and the transfer of jury
and witness expenditures from the State to the counties. (See
Ames Adm.) The appropriations for the penitentiary were cut
$66,000 to $19,000; for the lunatic asylum from $97,000 to $28,000.
The printing bill was cut down from $50,000 to $21,000, the ex
penses of assessing from $34,000 to $14,000, and the expenses of
the legislature were reduced about one-seventh.
When the legislature met in 1876 the State warrants were selling
at 80 to 85 cents on the dollar. The average quotation in 1875
had been 84 cents. Before the close of the session of 1876 the
price rose to 95 cents, and later in the year it was 99 cents, where it
remained for some time nominally, though the warrants were prac
tically at par.
The secretary, auditor, treasurer and attorney-general of the
Ames administration served out their regular terms to January,
1878. The United States senate appointed a committee in March, 1876,
to investigate the charge that the elections of 1875 were carried by
fraud and intimidation. The committee held a twenty days' session
at Washington, D. C, 14 days at Jackson, beginning June 9, and two
days at Aberdeen, and the testimony was printed in two volumes of
2,000 pages. The majority report declared that the legislature elected
was rightfully Republican, the congressional delegation also, and
the recommendation was in general that the State be remanded to
a territorial form of government and again be reconstructed. The
report was partisan and was made for political purposes. The
revolution of 1876 saved the State from ruin and bankruptcy, and
placed the control of the government in the hands of honest, intel
ligent and capable citizens.
Auditor Gibbs, in his report to the legislature in January, 1877,
said the financial statement for 1876 "shows the financial condi
tion of the State to be very flattering to the wisdom displayed by
your honorable body at the last session, and that the efforts to econ
omize and retrench the expenditures of the State government, which
were then made, have been to a great degree crowned with success,
without detriment to the general public service." Under the law
of 1876 requiring fines, forfeitures and taxes to be paid in currency,
there had been collected for the common schools $104,000, to which
was added for distribution the proceeds of United States bonds in
the treasury, $60,000. The two-mill tax brought in $185,933, and

MISSISSIPPI 739
the total amount distributed was 52 cents for each child of school
age. '
The total receipts for the year 1876 were $981,373; total dis
bursements by warrants, $518,709. But this statement did not
show the bond and certificate ' account, included in former state
ments. Out of the apparent balance of $462,000 the treasurer had
retired certificates of indebtedness, to the amount of $122,500,
and paid bonds and interest to the amount of $179,224: The total
expenditures therefore, were about $820,000, and the excess of re
ceipts over expenditures $161,000. The total expenditures of the
last year of the Ames administration had been $1,430,000, accord
ing to the method of book-keeping then in vogue, including $425,-
000 to retire bonds, etc, and the excess of receipts over expenditures
was estimated at $400,000. In his message Governor Stone esti
mated that taking into account the same items of expenditure,
there had been a reduction in expenditures from $1,130,000 in 1875
to $547,000* in 1876.
In 1876 the State political conventions were held at Jackson,
•the Republican March 30, and the Democratic June 14. A spirited
canvass was made by the Democrats, thoroughly organized in Con
servative clubs, while the Republicans showed little activity. The
vote was about two to one for the Tilden electors, and the six con
gressmen-elect were Democrats, as were a large majority of the
members of the legislature.
The Agricultural lien law was a subject of much discussion in
1877, it being alleged that "the prostration of business and the
poverty of the laboring class, are mainly caused by the law which
enables the laborer to mortgage the products of his labor months
in advance of its performance." The burdens of municipal taxation
were yet complained of, and Governor Stone said: "Some legisla
tion is needed to put a limit upon the power of cities and towns
to levy taxes for corporation purposes." Among the more im
portant acts of the legislature in 1877 were several authorizing
counties and cities to fund their floating indebtedness. The city
of Vicksburg was authorized to compromise by issuing 5 per cent.
bonds with 50 years to, run, to take the place of the ten per cent.
improvement bonds and the Vicksburg, Pensacola & Ship Island
railroad bonds, at a rate not exceeding 65 cents on the dollar.
In 1877 the Republicans made no nominations, and the Demo
cratic ticket was elected practically by unanimous vote. At the
Democratic convention, August 1-2, Governor Stone had been nom
inated for governor on the tenth ballot, and the following, who
served with him during 1878-79 : Lieutenant-Governor W. H.
Sims; Kinloch Falconer, -secretary of state; W. L. Hemingway,
state treasurer ; Sylvester Gwin, auditor ; T. C. Catchings, attorney-
general ; James A. Smith, superintendent of education. A consti
tutional amendment was adopted, making the sessions of the leg
islature biennial after 1878. Governor Stone was inaugurated Jan
uary 10, 1878. In his inaugural address he said: "Can a govern
ment, based upon unlimited suffrage, be successfully carried on be-

740 MISSISSIPPI
tween two races, the most antagonistic on earth, which, while ac
cording equal rights to each, shall tend to the common prosperity
and happiness of both? The experience of the past ten years suf
ficiently demonstrates that it cannot be done by governments, the
controlling influence in which is wielded by the inferior race. It
remains to be seen whether one controlled by the superior will
be more successful." By a strange coincidence, Governor Stone
was at the head of the State twelve years later when another solu
tion of this problem was attempted.
In his message of January, 1878, he wrote: "During the past
year, general peace and quiet have prevailed. With few exceptions,
confined to one or two localities, no disturbances have occurred,
the laws have been enforced and the courts have protected the citi
zen in his life, person and property. Local self-government has
been sufficient to preserve the peace, and to secure to our people
the blessings of good government. The wisdom of the legislation
of your predecessors, enacted in the memorable legislation of 1876
and in the session of 1877, is seen in the prosperous and satisfactory
condition of every department, and .in the general content and sat
isfaction of the people of all classes and races. The finances of the
State are in a more satisfactory condition than at any period during
the past eight years, and ample opportunity is afforded to every
educable child to receive a good English education in the free
public schools. . . . Much has been accomplished within the
past two years. Taxes, for State purposes, have been reduced from
14 mills on the dollar in 1874 and 9% in 1875, to 6i/2 in 1876, and 5
in 1877. Reductions equally as great have been made in the matter
of county taxation, and within a short time, when the indebtedness
of the State and counties shall have been discharged — indebtedness
which existed prior to the 1st of January, 1876 — the taxes to be
paid by the people will be reduced to a rate which will compare
most favorably with that of any other State in the Union. The
warrants of the State are at par, and have been since the first day
of January, 1877. As stated, taxation has been greatly reduced in
every county, and where indebtedness existed two years ago, it
has been either entirely extinguished, or greatly lessened."
The State tax on real estate was decreasd from $623,000 in 1876,
to $475,000 in 1877; on personal property from $232,000 to $160,000.
The total receipts from all sources in 1877, were $865,000 ; dis
bursements, $562,000 ; besides which the bonded debt was paid to
the amount of $305,000 principal, and $105,000 interest. There
was an issue of bonds, however, so that the actual reduction of
principal of bonded debt was about $100,000. In January, 1878,
the nominal debt was $3,227,000, but the "total debt proper," in ex
cess of trust funds, and cash on hand, was less than $600,000.
The summer and fall of 1878 was marked by a terrible epidemic
of yellow fever, more than ever before known. "For many months
the whole State was a melancholy scene of suffering, and desola
tion and mourning. But in the midst of their distress the charitable
world, with unstinted hand, ministered to the relief of our suffering

MISSISSIPPI 741
people. From the cities, towns and villages, North, East, West
and South, large sums of money and many needed supplies were
forwarded to our relief associations ; and several large donations
were received from foreign countries. The different Masonic bod
ies, Odd Fellows, and other benevolent institutions throughout the
country, were most conspicuous and liberal in their deeds of char
ity. . . . The relief thus contributed was transported and distrib
uted by railroad, express and steamboat companies free of charge ;
and all correspondence for purposes of relief was transmitted by
telegraph companies upon the same terms." (Governor Stone.)
Kinloch Falconer, secretary of state, died of the fever September
23, and subsequently Henry C. Myers was appointed to the vacancy.
Another victim was Chancellor J. C. Gray, of the Third circuit.
The treasurer's report for 1878 showed receipts on warrants,
$933,529 ; on bonds sold, $337,150 ; total $1,270,679. Disbursements,
$895,347. Warrants outstanding December 31, 1878, $401,516. The
report for 1879 was, receipts on warrants, $558,802, on bonds $106,-
650; total $665,452. Disbursements, $759,619. Warrants outstand
ing at end of year, $386,823. There was a decrease in the public
debt of $220,000 in two years, 1878-79, and while the nominal debt
was about $3,000,000, the actual indebtedness was stated as $379,-
485: There was still held in the treasury $795,000 in paper money
of the war period, which was worthless. This was destroyed,
under an act of legislature, in 1880.
The receipts by warrant in 1878 were $558,862 ; disbursements
by warrant $553,326. The judiciary expenses had then been re
duced to $71,000. Mississippi university was receiving $30,000
and Alcorn university $2,300, in place of $50,000 to each, as in the
Ames administration. Public printing had fallen from its former
enormous cost to $8,000. On account of the leasing system the total
appropriation for the penitentiary was only $121. The valuation
of real estate for 1879 was $76,000,000, about 28,000,000 acres being
listed, and the State tax imposed upon it was $266,000. For 1879
the report of the treasurer was: Receipts, $665,452; current funds
on hand at beginning of year, $894,924; Disbursements, on war
rants, $568,019 ; bonds and certificates of indebtedness retired,
$191,600 ; balance at close of year, $800,757.
Another amendment to the constitution was submitted in 1879
(and lost), to make the legislative sessions biennial in the odd
. years, and the general elections biennial in the even years. The
election that year was for legislators and county officers,, mainly.
There was some effort politically, construed as an attempt to re
vive the political organization of the negroes. The white nominee
for sheriff in Yazoo county, in this movement, was compelled to re
fuse the candidacy. Subsequently, in the campaign, there were
some cases of personal encounter and loss of life.
A State prohibition convention at Jackson, July 20, 1881, asked
the submission of a constitutional amendment prohibiting the
liquor traffic, and local option pending the same.
The general election of 1880, in which the State majority was

742 MISSISSIPPI
given to the Hancock electors, passed off quietly. The financial
statement for this year was: Receipts on warrants, $976,878, on
bonds issued, $115,000; Disbursements, warrants, bonds and cou
pons, $1,097,180. Warrants outstanding at close of year, $296,-
620. For 1881: Receipts on warrants and bonds, $597,925; Dis
bursements, $848,165. Warrants outstanding, $218,840. - Cash bal
ance in treasury, $545,000.
Governor Stone's administration was marked by the political
movement against corporation aggressiveness, called the Green
back party, out of which grew the demand for State supervision
of railroad rates opposed by the governor (see Railroad Commis
sion) ; by the beginning of a rational warfare against the scourge
of yellow fever under the Board of Health, the beginning of
Western immigration in response to the efforts of the Board of
Immigration and Agriculture ; by a "boom" in railroad build
ing; the common school law of 1878, and the founding of the Agri
cultural and Mechanical college. There were heavy sales of land.
and the birth of a new prosperity, which, after a temporary check,
has since continued in steady growth.
The census of 1880 gave the State a population 1,131,597, an in
crease of 40 per cent, over 1870, and an additional congressman
was allowed it, making seven representatives in the lower house.
Several important changes were made in the personnel of the Su
preme Court, for which see Judiciary. The Democratic convention
of 1881 nominated the following ticket : for governor, Gen. Robert
Lowry ; for lieutenant-governor, G. D. Shands ; for secretary of
state, H. C. Myers ; for treasurer, W. L. Hemingway ; for auditor,
Sylvester Gwin ; for attorney-general, T. C. Catchings ; for superin
tendent of education, Gen. J. A. Smith. The Greenback-Republi
can convention nominated a ticket with Benjamin King for gover
nor, and the following candidates for the offices above named: J.
B. Yellowley, J. M. Bynum, A. T. Wimberly, W. F. Fitzgerald, W.
D. Howze. The vote for governor was, Lowry, 76,877; King, 51,-
856. Mississippi was not represented at the Yorktown centennial nor
at the Atlanta cotton exposition, though the State had delegates
at the National Cotton Planters' Association which met at Atlanta,
December, 1881.
In his last message, January, 1882, Governor Stone congratulated
the State on the adoption of the Campbell code in 1880, and the
general satisfaction with it, after a thorough discussion in the cam
paign of 1881. The revenue system embodied in this code prom
ised to be of great value and the governor earnestly begged that it
might be left unamended. Frequent changes had created great
confusion. "The best lawyers and wisest judges are puzzled to
tell when a tax title is valid, or what the revenue law of the State
was at a particular time." There was great necessity of legisla
tion, however, for the equalization of taxes. The existing laws for
that purpose were generally disregarded, and very great injustice
resulted. Lands forfeited to the State for delinquent taxes were

MISSISSIPPI 743
being rapidly returned to the tax rolls, and all lands held by the
Levee commissioners for taxes had been sold by decree of the
chancery court. By these means, and the sale of swamp lands
the sources of revenue were being considerably increased. The
sales by the Levee commissioners amounted to 1,300,000 acres.
He stated the public debt at $2,685,866, including the school funds,
and the indebtedness, aside from school funds, and above the
amount of cash in the treasury, $322,615, a decrease in two years
-of about $57,000. He also called attention to the fact that the
State had made no provision for the higher education of women,
and said, "The time has come in which our people, with one accord,
are pleading for the rights of the girls of the State in matters of ed
ucation." The, State Teachers' association also agitated the sub
ject, with the result that the State university was opened to women
in 1883, and the Industrial institute was founded soon afterward.
Stone's Administration (1890-96). John M. Stone, for the third
time, took the oath as governor of Mississippi, January 13, 1890;
and in 1896 he laid down the reins of government, after serving
for twelve years, longer than any other governor since the organiza
tion of the State, and lacking less than five months of equalling the
term of service of David Holmes as Territorial and State governor.
By far the most important event in this administration was the
Constitutional Convention of 1890. (q. v.). One of the ordinances
¦of the Convention extended the term of service of the governor
and the other elective State officers for two years, making their
terms expire in 1896. The officers elected in 1889 and installed with
Governor Stone were M. M. Evans, lieutenant-governor ; George
M. Govan, secretary of state; J. J. Evans, treasurer; W. W. Stone,
auditor ; T. M. Miller, attorney-general ; J. R. Preston, superinten
dent of education. Attorney-General Miller resigned January 21,
1893, and was succeeded by Frank Johnston, appointed by the
governor. Toward the close of the legislative session of 1890, the revelation
was made that there was a large deficit in the accounts of Treasurer
Hemingway, who had held the office since 1876. Under a resolu
tion of February 22, 1890, a joint committee was appointed to in
vestigate, and the shortage was found to be $315,612. Subsequent
investigation failed to reduce this amount, or discover the fate of
the missing funds. "Penal proceedings were immediately insti
tuted against the ex-treasurer, and the attorney-general brought
suit on his bond and recovered judgment for the penalty thereof
and interest, amounting to $82,600, of which sum $68,750 have been
paid into the treasury, and I am informed that satisfactory arrange
ments have been made with the attorney-general, and that the
amount remaining due will be paid at an early date. In the inves
tigation of this cause no proof whatever could be made of any de
fault upon any previous bond of the ex-treasurer, or to fix any lia
bility upon any except the bond and sureties upon which suit was
brought, and as the transfer of his property to indemnify his sure
ties was sustained by the courts, no further recovery could be had."

744 MISSISSIPPI
(Governor's message, 1882). In this emergency the legislature
authorized the selling of four per cent, bonds authorized in 1888,
but they could not be disposed of at the minimum price asked, 95
cents, and the Constitutional convention, in October, authorized
a bank loan. The deficit was tided over by borrowing $25,000 of a
Jackson bank for three months.
In 1890-91 the financial affairs of the State were investigated by
Robert C. Patty and Addison Craft, appointed under an act of leg
islature, i
A great deal of depression was caused throughout the State by
the price of cotton, which had fallen below the cost of production.
Governor Stone gave his influence to the creation of a sentiment for
more diversified production in order to avoid dependence on one
staple, and this policy, while slow in gaining ground among the
people of the State, is becoming recognized as the only wise policy.
The census of 1890 gave the State an increase of 158,000, 14%,
making the population 1,289,600. This was not enough, however,
to give an additional seat in congress. For the senators and repre
sentatives of this administration, see Congressional Representation,
and for the changes in the Supreme Court, see the Judiciary. In
accordance with the Constitution of 1890, the governor appointed
R. H. Thompson, George G. Dillard, and R. B. Campbell to codify
and revise the statute law of the State. The result of their work
was adopted by the legislature in 1892, and is known as the code of
1892. On the 3rd of June, 1891, the Confederate Monument was
unveiled at Jackson. Under an appropriation of $60,000 in 1890'
buildings for the negro insane were erected on the asylum grounds
at Jackson in 1891. "It is safe to assume," said Governor Stone,
"that no building for the insane, of such character and capacity,
was ever before erected at so small a cost." The general industrial
depression following the financial crisis of 1893 was felt with espec
ial force in Mississippi, owing to the continuation of the low price
of cotton, the treasury deficit of 1890, and the general feeling of bus
iness stagnation. The disbursements exceed the receipts for four
years by amounts varying from $88,000 to $248,000. At the special
session of the legislature in 1894, it was evident that there would
be another deficit for the current year, and the auditor was author
ized to issue Special warrants (q. v.) to an amount not exceeding
$200,000, in lieu of cash warrants on the treasury.
By act of congress, 1894, another township of land was donated
to the State for the use of the University. Subsequently, the lands
which had been reserved for naval purposes, lying chiefly in Jackson
and Harrison counties, were restored to the public domain of the
United States, and from them the acreage was selected for the
University. This was done mainly through the efforts of Chancel
lor Fulton. The land commissioners report for 1895 showed that
the State held for sale, 307,984 acres of lands forfeited for taxes,
30,700 Chickasaw school lands (Sixteenth sections) ; 1,470 acres
internal improvement lands, and 12,677 Lowry island lands, a total
of over 500,000 acres. An act of congress also donated three town-

MISSISSIPPI 745
ships of land for the use of the Agricultural and Mechanical col
lege, the Industrial institute for girls, and the Alcorn college. W.
K. Ramsey, of Harrison county, was appointed to select the most
valuable lands from those remaining unsold by the United States
land office. During the following administration the proceeds
were appropriated by the State, becoming a State debt at 6% in
terest. Governor Stone's message of 1894 gave considerable attention
to the Code of 1891, suggesting the repeal or amendment of many
provisions which he said were unconstitutional, unnecessary, op
pressive, etc. Among other criticisms, "There is no provision in
the Annotated code for filling vacancies in State offices." In the
same message he also made an earnest demand, and reiterated it
in 1896, "for the better enforcement of the laws of the State and
for the better protection of human life." He' called attention "to
the necessity of some provision for immediate and summary inves
tigation of homicides. Human life is far too cheap. Manslayers
often go unwhipped of justice  Nothing calls so loudly
for correction as the present miscarriage of justice in trials for
homicide. It is the source of many evils. It breeds mobs and
lynch law. ... It has led to the reproach that a man of means
may slay his fellow man with impunity." He suggested that the
legislature had power to create tribunals that could give criminal
cases immediate trial and administer justice, and by providing ef
fective government promote in the minds of the people a respect
for government
The Democratic convention in 1895 nominated a state ticket
headed by A. J. McLaurin, for governor ; the ticket of the Peoples
Party was headed by Frank Burkitt, and polled 17,466 votes against
46,873 for the Democratic candidates, who were elected.
In his last message, 1896, Governor Stone said : "The financial
condition of the State, as shown by the current reports of the audi
tor and treasurer, is neither satisfactory nor encouraging. Upon my
induction into office in 1890, I was at once confronted with financial
complications which, with slight intermissions, have continued
until the present time. The difficulties were successfully corn-
batted until the meeting of the special session of the legislature of
1894, by which the special warrant act was passed. . . . The
State's resources in treasury cash are still far below the imperative
requirements of the most conservative appropriations at your hands
for the current year." (See Finances.) The State tax levy was
then 5 mills. In the past two years the appropriations had exceeded
the revenues by $180,000. Governor Stone's parting admonition
was : "The credit of the State is a matter of the utmost importance
to every taxpayer, and to maintain it, the treasury must be provided
with means to meet every legitimate demand. If in your wisdom
the amount needed for all purposes cannot be raised immediately
by taxation without oppressing the people, I recommend the is
suance of bonds at a low rate of interest, not exceeding four per
cent, non-taxable, for an amount sufficient to meet the emergency,

746 ^ MISSISSIPPI
and for such time to run as will enable taxpayers to meet them,
principal and interest, without oppression. Such bonds would,
in my opinion, readily float at par, and should not be disposed of
at a lower figure."
Stoneville, a post-village of Washington county, situated on Deer
creek, about 9 miles east of Greenville, the county seat. Leland is
the nearest banking town. It is at the junction of the Southern, and
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroads. It has two churches,
and seven or eight stores. Population in 1900, 150.
Stonewall, a prosperous town in the northwestern part of Clarke
county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 3 miles by rail south of Enter
prise, the nearest banking town, and 8 miles northwest of Quit
man, the county seat. Chickasawhay river, a fine water power
stream, flows one mile west of the town. A large cotton factory
is located here, and it has two churches, a public school, and a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 1,000. •
Stonington, a post-hamlet of Jefferson county, on the Natchez-
Jackson Division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 4 miles
northeast of Fayette, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 27.
Stop, a hamlet in the north-central part of Clarke county, 8 miles
northeast of Quitman, the county seat. It has rural free delivery
from Quitman.
Storm, a hamlet of Lincoln county. It has rural free delivery
from Brookhaven, the county seat.
Story, a postoffice of Lawrence county.
Stovall, a post-hamlet of Coahoma county, on the Riverside
Division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 6 miles south of
Friar's Point, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest
banking town. Population in 1900, 100.
Stratton. See Stamper.
Strayhorn, a village of Tate county, located 1 mile north of the
creek of the same name, and 10 miles due west of Senatobia, the
county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office, several stores, a cotton gin, a church and a school. Popu
lation in 1900, 125.
Street, a post-hamlet of Amite county, 10 miles southwest of
Liberty, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 22.
Strengthford, a postoffice of Wayne county.
Stringer, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Jasper county,
on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R, about 16 miles south
west of Paulding, the county seat, and about 15 miles north of
Laurel. Bay Spring is its nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 86. The population in 1906 was estimated at 150. It has good
general stores, a saw mill, a cotton gin and a good school.
Strongs, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Monroe county.
It is a station on the Illinois Central R. R, between Westpoint and
Aberdeen. Pppulation in 1900, 63.
Sturgis, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of
Oktibbeha county, on the Aberdeen branch of the Illinois Central

MISSISSIPPI 747
R. R, 15 miles by rail from StarkviUe, the county seat. The nearest
banking town is Ackerman, 9 miles west by rail. It has a money
order postoffice, and three rural routes emanate from here. Popula
tion in 1900, 203. The town is growing and its industries are cotton
gins and saw mills; also a brick manufacturing plant. Its popula
tion in 1906 was estimated at 350.
Sucarnoochee, a post-hamlet and station of Kemper county, on
the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 34 miles north, northeast of Meridian, and
10 miles east of Dekalb, the county seat. The creek of the same
name, a stream about 100 miles long, flows about 2 miles south
west of the station. It has a money order postoffice. Population
in 1900, 92.
Success, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Jasper county,
near Otakooche creek, and 10 miles southwest of Newton, the
nearest railroad and banking town.
Suffolk, a postoffice of Franklin county, 5 miles west of Mead-
ville, the county seat.
Suffrage. The inhabitants of the Natchez district had the privi
lege of electing representatives to the provincial council under the
British government, about the year 1778, but under what qualifi
cations is not known. Under Spanish government there was no
such exercise of individual right. When the Territorial govern
ment under the United States was established, the ordinance of
1787 was extended to the district and afterward to all the region
of the present State, not held by the Indians. This ordinance,
justly famed as a charter of individual liberty, was not generous
in the immediate granting of local self-government. The coun
tries under its provisions were treated as provinces under tutelage
for a period, the limit of which was the attainment, in any given
territory, of a population of five thousand free male inhabitants.
When that degree of population was attained, then the right of
suffrage was granted, but only for the election of a house of rep
resentatives, and there was a property qualification. A voter must
be a free male inhabitant of full age, with a freehold in fifty acres
of land, and be a citizen of one of the United States and a resident
of the Territory, or a resident of the Territory for two years. Dis
satisfaction of the inhabitants, and considerations of national poli
tics, caused the extension of this right of suffrage to Mississippi
Territory by special act of congress, in 1800, in which year it was
first exercised, when the total free population, male and female,
of all ages, probably was close to 'five thousand.
A property qualification for suffrage was in great favor at the
time of the passage of the ordinance of 1787, South and North,
and there were many arguments in favor of its application to such
communities as Natchez district, through which many people were
passing without permanent interests. But a way was soon found
to evade the law and gain for partisan advantage ;the votes of the
very class it was designed to exclude. The method was to put in
the hands of unqualified voters deeds for fifty acres of land, with
fraudulent intent. An instance is quoted in the article, West's Ad-

748 , MISSISSIPPI
ministration, and another is revealed by a citation from the Mis
sissippi Messenger, of July 8, 1808, referring to a recent election:
"Several patriotic citizens of this city exerted themselves to create
voters, to defeat the Republican ticket. Governor Williams opened
an office for this purpose. Every drayman, alien and free negro
in the city hostile to our government became, by magic a free
holder." This also serves to call attention to the fact that until a
special law was passed by congress, free negro landholders were
entitled to suffrage. By an act approved in 1803 the "freeholders,
landholders and householders" of the city of Natchez were author
ized by a majority vote to elect municipal officers, and it was pro
vided that a roomer should be considered a householder. "The
most notable thing about this, the first legislative act of Missis
sippi conferring the right of suffrage, is that no distinction is made
because of age, color or sex. Whether this were by accident or
design, and whether other than adult white males really voted
thereunder, does not appear." (R. H. Thompson, Suffrage in Mis
sissippi.) In February, 1805, Delegate Lattimore reported a bill in con
gress, in response to the memorial of the general assembly of Mis
sissippi territory, providing for the removal of the freehold quali
fication, also for an increase of the membership of the house of rep
resentatives. But congress was then busy with the trial of Judge
Chase. In December, 1806, when the proposition was again brought
forward, the Georgia members, who were anxious about the profits
of their cession, opposed the extension of suffrage and defeated the
clause for aid of the Natchez hospital. George Poindexter, elected
delegate in 1806, continued the effort, but succeeded only in ob
taining an increase of number of representatives. He said: "Ex
perience has shown us that the freehold qualification is liable to the
abuse of fraudulent conveyances made for the express purpose of
enabling a dishonest candidate to obtain a fictitious majority over
the virtuous and worthy citizen who. will not stoop to the violation
of the plain dictates of morality." The national house passed such
a bill as he desired, but the senate, "for wise reasons, no doubt,
thought proper to restrict the right of suffrage to the holders of real
estate." There was a more definite statement of qualifications,
and the color line was drawn, in the act of congress of January 9,
1808 : "Every free white male person in the Mississippi Terri
tory above the age of twenty-one years, having been a citizen of
the United States, and resident in the said Territory one year next
preceding an election of representatives, and who has a legal or
equitable title to a tract of land, by virtue of any act of congress,
or who may become the purchaser of any tract of land from the
United States of the quantity of fifty acres, or who may hold in
his own right a town lot of the value of one hundred dollars, within
the said Territory, shall be entitled to vote for representatives to
the general assembly of said Territory." There was yet no right
to elect any other officers, and that privilege was not exercised
until the people became organized as a State of the Union.

MISSISSIPPI 749
Another petition of the general assembly for the extension of
suffrage was presented in February, 1814, to congress, and in Sep
tember, referred' to a committee of which Delegate Lattimore was
chairman. rThe bill he reported also authorized an increase of the
legislature. As passed and approved October 23, 1814, the bill
provided that:
"Each and every free white male person, being a citizen of the
United States, who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years,
and who shall have paid a county or Territorial tax, and who also
shall have resided one year in said Territory previous to any general
election, and be at the time of any such election a resident thereof,
shall be entitled to vote for members of the house of representa
tives and a delegate to congress, for the Territory aforesaid; any
thing in the ordinance, or in any act relative to the government
of said Territory to the contrary notwithstanding."
Under the constitution of 1817 the qualifications were, a free
white male of the age of twenty-one years, a citizen of the United
States, resident of the county six months and the State one year,
and enrollment in the militia if not exempt. There was a strug
gle in the convention to impose a property qualification, which
resulted in the adoption of an ambiguous clause, proposed by Dan
iel Burnet: "or having the aforesaid qualifications of citizenship
and residence, shall have paid a State or county tax." It was left
to the legisltaUre to provide for disfranchisement as a punishment
for crimes. "On the subject of pardons and its effect on the right
of suffrage . . . the doctrine in this State until the adoption
of the constitution of 1890 was in favor of the restoration of the
right to vote; the constitution just named having made provision
for a legislative restoration of the right to vote leaves the matter
now an open question as concerns executive pardons." (Thomp
son, from whose exhaustive article, Pubis. M. H. S, I, 25, the
remainder of this article is abridged.) The constitution of 1817
provided that the first -election should be by ballot, all future
elections to be regulated by law. The act of February 10, 1821,
authorized elections viva voce, but the act was repealed June 13,
1822, since when elections have been by ballot, the constitutions
since 1869 so requiring. The qualifications for municipal voting
continued different. "Citizens of the town" were made voters in
Shieldsborough (Bay St. Louis) in 1818, in Greenville (Jefferson
county) in 1819, and there are other interesting instances of varia
tion, an analysis of all of which indicates that under the constitu
tion of 1817 "color was not a qualification or disqualification in
eight of the towns of the state legislated upon," including Vicks
burg, Columbus and Washington. "Of course slaves were not
freeholders or citizens, but free men of color were frequent
freeholders and, before the Dred Scott decision, were regarded by
many as citizens." But it is doubtful if a negro ever voted in any
of these towns until after the war, and their apparent admission
to suffrage may have been merely carelessness in the drafting of
the laws.

750 MISSISSIPPI
The constitution of 1832 enlarged the privilege of suffrage by
sweeping away the requirements of militia enrollment or payment
of taxes. Otherwise the qualifications remained as in 1817. In
the chartering of municipalities after this, the legislature, as be
fore, varied from the terms of the constitution. A phraseology
often followed was "every free white male inhabitant of the town."
In the case of the charter of Brandon, in 1833, the words of the
act do not exclude any resident either on account of race, color,
sex, or infancy. Registration of voters was first required in 1839,
and it applied to municipal elections at Vicksburg only. In 1861
a similar requirement was made for Canton, and in 1865 for Nat
chez. The qualifications for suffrage under the constitution of 1869
were, a male inhabitant of the State (idiots, insane persons and
Indians not taxed, excepted), a citizen of the United States, or
naturalized; twenty-one years old, resident of the State six months
and county one month, and duly registered. "Under this consti
tution, of course, the negroes were voters."
There was variance regarding municipal suffrage. In some in
stances persons having "permanent business" in a town were con
sidered qualified voters in it, and non-resident freeholders were
permitted to vote in Senatobia, 1882, and Tunica, 1888. The time
of required municipal residence varied in the acts from ten days to
two years. It was not unusual to require a separate municipal
registration, sometimes payment of the municipal tax was a neces
sary qualification. The modification of the registration and elec
tion laws, dispensing with their complex machinery by abolishing
State and county boards of registration, was one of the features
of the Campbell code of 1880.
Indiscriminate male suffrage was terminated by the constitu
tion of 1890, Section 241, which .requires that a voter shall be a
male inhabitant of the State, twenty-one years of age (excepting
idiots, insane, and Indians not taxed) ; a citizen of the United
States, resident of the State two years, and of the election district
or city or town one year; he must also be duly registered; never
convicted of bribery, burglary, theft, arson, obtaining money or
goods under false pretenses, perjury, forgery, embezzlement or
bigamy; a tax payer for the two preceding years, and able to read
any section of the constitution of this State, or able to understand
the same when read to him or give a reasonable interpretation
thereof. Registration is prohibited within four months of an elec
tion. The code of municipalities has made uniform the requirements
for municipal franchise. Under this constitution Mississippi has,
"to all intents and purposes, an educational qualification pure and
simple." Mr. Thompson found, in 1893, that more negroes had
registered under the "understanding clause" than whites, who, it
may be surmised, would shrink from such a confession of inability
to read. "With scarcely an exception the negroes are thoroughly
content with the constitution, and are satisfied to be measured for

MISSISSIPPI 751
registration and voting by its standard." Other sections of the
constitution make ample provision for appeal to the protection of
the courts in any case of unjust denial of the right of suffrage.
Under the constitution of 1890 StatS officers are not elected by
the people en masse, but by counties, somewhat as the president
of the United States is chosen. The majority in each county de
termines to whom the electoral vote of that county shall be given,
each county having as many electoral votes as it has members
of the house of representatives. The power of any county, there
fore, depends upon the apportionment of representatives that may
have' been made by the legislature, not on the actual population.
The county election returns are transmitted to the speaker of the
house, who opens them in the presence of the house, which body
ascertains and cqunts the electoral votes and decides contests. A
majority of all the electoral votes is necessary to elect, also a ma
jority of the popular vote. In case of a failure of such majorities, s
the house shall proceed to elect one of the two highest candidates.
The people do not elect the judges, who are appointed by the
governor with the advice and consent of the senate, and the legis
lature has the power to elect its own officers, and also the State
librarian, and United States senators. The legislature is not pro
hibited from choosing presidential electors, but it does not exercise
that power.
Under the local option law a. majority of the qualified electors
in any county may prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors in the
county. The "resident freeholders and leaseholders," which does
not exclude women and minors, may decide the question of fencing
against live stock in any county. The Australian ballot system is
now in use, for the prevention of bribery and intimidation. (See
Const. Conv. of 1890, Legislature, and Primary Election law, under
which elections are now made in white primaries.)
Says J. S. McNeilly (Const. Conv. 1890, M. H. S. Publ. VI, 138)
of the present constitutional regulations : "Of two ills Mississippi
chose the lesser. She has exchanged an organic malady for a
functional disorder. The convention substituted a dessicated for
a diseased electorate. The ensuing ills of the present State are
within the check and correction of the white citizens. Honest
politics are at least possible."
Sullivan, Will Van Amberg, was born December 18, 1857, near
Winona, Miss. He attended the University of Mississippi, and
graduated from Vanderbilt university in 1875. He began the
practice of law in the fall of 1875 at Austin, Miss, and in 1877
removed to Oxford, his present home. He was a member of the
Democratic national convention in 1892, and of the Democratic
national executive committee in 1896. In the latter year he was
elected to the Fifty-fifth congress, and served till May 31, 1898,
when he was appointed United States senator to succeed General
Walthall, deceased. In January, 1900, he was elected by the legis
lature to fill out the remainder of General Walthall's term, and
served till March 4, 1901.

752 MISSISSIPPI
Sulphur Springs, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Madison
county, 18 miles northeast of Canton. It has a church. Population
in 1900, 26.
Summerland, a post-hanflet and station in the southeastern part
of Smith county, on the Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R. Taylorsville is the nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 75.
Summit, an incorporated post-town of Pike county, is an im
portant station on the Illinois Central R. R, 108 miles from New
Orleans, and 75 miles from Jackson. As its name implies, it is the
highest point on the railroad between New Orleans and Jackson.
There is an abundance of pine and hardwood timber near the town,
and it lies in a fertile fruit and cotton growing district. It handles
as much cotton as any town of its size in the State, and ships
annually 30,000 bales. Among its manufacturing enterprises are
a fine cotton ginnery, a cotton-seed oil mill, a saw and planing mill,
and a cotton compress. The well known Godbold's mineral wells
are located here. It has two banks, the Bank of Summit, and the
Peoples Bank, with a combined capital of $85,000. There are two
hotels, a free school, and seven churches, four white and three
colored. The streets are well lighted by thirty electric arc lights,
and a complete system of water works furnishes water for domestic
use and fire protection, besides which, there has lately been estab
lished a volunteer fire department. It has in addition two tele
phone systems, giving it many of the advantages of a large city.
Among its public buildings are a city hall, two fine opera houses,
and excellent graded public schools for white and colored. The
Sentinel, an influential Democratic weekly newspaper, founded in
1873, is published at Summit, N. P. Bonney being the owner and
editor. ' .
It has a city debt of $24,000; the assessed valuation of property
is $800,000 ; the tax rate is 11 mills ; and the population in 1900 was
1,499 ; present estimated population 1,600.
Sumner, a post-village and station in the northwestern part of
Tallahatchie county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 18
miles west of Charleston. It has a money order postoffice. Its
population in 1900, was 200 ; the population in 1906, was estimated
at 400. It is the county seat of the second judicial district and is a
flourishing town. The Peoples Bank was established here in 1904,
with T. J. James, Pres, and T. C. Buford, cashier.
Sumrall, a post-town in the northwestern part of Lamar county,
on the Mississippi Central R. R, 18 miles from Hattiesburg. It
has a money order postoffice, two banks, several good stores, a
weekly paper, churches, a good school, and one of the largest saw
milling plants in the State ; also a turpentine plant. The Sumrall
Bank was established in 1905, with a capital of $25,000; and the
Sumrall branch of the Lamar County Bank was established here in
1906. The Sumrall Argus, a Democratic weekly, edited and pub
lished by Duck Wall, was established in 1905. The population of
Sumrall in 1900 was only 20, and in 1906 was estimatedat 3,000,
which will give some idea of the rapid growth of this thriving town.

MISSISSIPPI 753
Sun, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Scott county, 12 miles
from Eorest, the county seat.
Sunday Laws. It was provided by act March 12, 1803, that "No
worldly business or employment, ordinary or servile work (works
of necessity or charity excepted) nor shooting, sporting, hunting,
gaming, racing, fiddling, or other music for the sake of merriment,
nor any kind of playing, sports, pastimes or diversions, shall be
done, performed or practiced, by any person or persons within
this Territory, on the Christian Sabbath, or first day of the week,
commonly called Sunday." Fine, $2. The penalty of keeping
store Sunday was $20, or to "be set publicly in the stocks, for any
space of time not exceeding four hours." No waggoner, carter,
drayman, drover, butcher, or any of his slaves or servants, should
ply or travel, nor should any cattle, sheep or swine be driven.
Public entertainments were prohibited, including "bear baiting or
bull baiting." In the same law "profanely cursing or swearing"
was punishable by a fine of fifty cents. This law continued in
force during the Territorial period. The Poindexter code, 1823,
prohibited laboring at a trade, or keeping open a place of business,
or public plays or entertainments.
Sunflower, a post-hamlet and station of Sunflower county, on
Howling Wolf Bayou, and on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R,
8 miles northeast of Indianola, the county seat. It has a money
order postoffice, telegraph and telephone offices. Population in
1900, 50; estimated in 1906 to be 150. The Bank of Sunflower
was organized here in 1905.
Sunflower County was formed February 15, 1844, from the county
of Bolivar, and received its name from the river of the same name
by the act creating and organizing the county. Its original limits
were defined as follows : "Beginning at the corner of townships
24 and 25, of ranges 4 and 5 west, thence east between townships
24 and 25, to the line between ranges 2 and 3 west ; thence south
between ranges 2 and 3 west to the line between townships 21 and
22; thence east between townships 21 and 22 to the Tallahatchie
river ; thence down the Tallahatchie river, and down the Yazoo river
to the point where the old Choctaw boundary line intersects it;
thence with the said boundary line north, forty-six degrees west,
to the point where the line between ranges 4 and 5 west, intersects
that line ; thence north with the line between ranges 4 and 5 west,
to the place of beginning." A large portion of its eastern area was
subsequently taken to assist in forming the county of Leflore, and
its western and southern limits were extended at the expense of
Washington and Bolivar counties, so that its present area is de
fined as follows: "Beginning at the northwest corner of T. 24,
R. 4, west; thence east on the township line to the line between
ranges 2 and 3 west; thence south to the township line between
townships 16 and 17, R. 3, west; thence west along the township
line to the range line between ranges 5 and 6 west ; thence north on
the range line to the township line between townships 20 and 21 ;
thence east on said township line to the range line between ranges
48-11

754 MISSISSIPPI'
4 and 5 west; thence north on said range line to the beginning."
The present area of the county is 703 square miles. On March 15,
1871, when a large portion of Sunflower county was cut off to form
the new county of Leflore, the county seat was removed from Mc
Nutt, now in Leflore county, to a new town to be called Johnson
ville, at the junction of Mound Bayou with the Sunflower river.
Eleven years later in 1882, by vote of the people, the county seat
was again moved — this time to a point about four miles west of
the Sunflower river on Indian Bayou, first called Eureka, but since
that time known as Indianola. With the advent of the Georgia
Pacific R. R, a few years later, the town of Baird grew up one mile
north of Johnsonville and the latter town soon ceased to exist. The
county is a long, narrow strip of land in the northwestern part of
the State and lies entirely within the fertile Yazoo Delta region.
Governor B. G. Humphreys, was an early settler in this county,
as were James J. Chenning, G. B. Wilds, Col Eli Waits, J. Y. Mc
Neill, Col. Hezekiah McNabb, Ezekiel McNabb, Major Frank
Hawkins and Capt. John Hawkins. The first State Senators to
represent the county were Felix Lebauve and D. C. Sharpe of De
Soto county. The earliest representatives were J. J. Chenning, G.
B. Wilds and Ezekiel McNabb. The present county site, Indianola,
had a population of 630 people in 1900, and is the largest town in
the county. It is on the line of the Southern Ry, is growing very
rapidly, and around it are some of the richest and largest planta
tions in the State. That of Mr. Crawford contains 15,000 acres.
There are a number of other thriving towns in the county, the
more important ones being Moorhead (pop. 437), Baird, above men
tioned (pop. 300), Woodburn , (pop. 300), Ruleville (pop. 226),
Drew (pop. 195), Inverness (pop. 100), Dockery, Rome and Parch-
man. The county is amply supplied with railroad facilities, as the
Southern Ry, crosses the southern part from west to east, and the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. traverses its entire length from
north to south, and has three branch lines which extend in various
directions. The Sunflower river flows through the whole county
from north to south, and for several months each year is navigable
for steamboats. The other streams are Mound Bayou, Jones Bayou,
Indian Bayou, Porter's Bayou and Quiver river. About one-third
of the farm acreage in 1900 was improved, or 73,696 acres (the im
proved acreage is estimated at 100,000 in 1906), the balance is
well timbered with valuable red and white oak, red and sweet gum,
hickory, cottonwood and cypress. The cottonwood is largely
exhausted but the despised gum is rapidly taking its place as a good
substitute. Sunflower county is a level expanse of fertile Delta
bottom land and there is no richer soil in the- world. It is capable
of producing from one to two bales of cotton per acre and from
thirty to sixty bushels of corn. Besides the great staple crops of
the region, cotton and corn, it raises peas, potatoes, sugar-cane,
sorghum and a great abundance of fruit and vegetables, suitable to
the climate. Stock can be raised at a mimimum cost in money and
energy in this county, and the pasturage is extensive both winter
arid summer. The industry has already attained large proportions

MISSISSIPPI 755
and with the establishment of packing houses at adjacent shipping
points, the business would assume much larger proportions. The
county is fairly well provided with churches and schools and the
climate is mild and moist. The malarial and intermittent fevers,
common in former years, have been largely controlled by tapping
the great artesian basin which underlies the region, for a pure
supply of water. It has been found that this water can be reached
by boring from 1,000 to 1,500 feet.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census, relate to farms, manufactures and population : Number of
farms 2,705, acreage in farms 122,965, acres improved 73,696 (esti
mated in 1906 to be over 100,000 acres) , value of the land exclusive
of buildings $2,435,210, value of the buildings $477,530, value of live
stock $550,913, value of products not fed $1,078,430. Number of
manufacturing establishments 44, capital invested $617,659, wages
paid $87,936, cost of materials $353,655, total value of products
$617,202. The population of Sunflower county in 1900 consisted of
whites 4,006, colored 12,078, total 16,084, increase over the year
1890, 6,700. The population was estimated in 1906 to be over 20,000.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Sun
flower county in 1905 was $3,565,963 and in 1906 it was $4,306,920,
which shows an increase during the year of $740,957.
Sunnyside, a village of Leflore county, on the Southern Ry, and
on the Yazoo river, about 15 miles northwest of Greenwood, the
county seat. Schlater is the nearest banking town. It is an im
portant cotton shipping point. A money order postoffice is main
tained here. Population in 1900, 250.
Supreme Court, 1817-32. Under the constitution of 1817 the
inhabited part of the State was^divided into four judicial districts,
for each of which the legislature elected a judge of the supreme
court, whose duty it was also to hold superior court twice a year
in each of his counties. Judges could be removed by the governor
upon "the address of two-thirds of each house of the general as
sembly," and an age limit of sixty-five years was established, but
there was no fixed term of office. Each court had the appointment
of its own clerk.
The supreme court held its sessions at Natchez until an act of
legislature in February, 1826, required its removal to Monticello.
But in 1828 the December term was restored to Natchez.
The districts were, first, the northern part of the old Natchez
district (Warren, Claiborne and Jefferson counties) ; second,
Adams, Franklin and Lawrence ; third, Wilkinson, Amite, Pike
and Marion ; fourth Hancock, Wayne, Greene and Jackson. By
the Poindexter code, 1822, the new county of Monroe, all the
upper Tombigbee country then settled, was added to the
Fourth district, and the new county of Hinds, embracing all
the Choctaw cession of 1820, was added to the First district.
The name of "districts" was changed to "circuits," and the
superior courts to circuit courts, a circuit court to be held as
before, twice a year in each county, by the judge of the

756 MISSISSIPPI
supreme court appointed to that circuit, who must reside in it
after his appointment. So the circuits continued until 1828, when
the Fifth circuit was created, including what was originally Hinds
and Monroe counties.
In the change from Territorial to State government, the Terri
torial judges held over until the legislature could elect, which act
was deferred for some time because the legislature adjourned after
a few days' session in October, 1817, on account of the yellow
fever. In the recess, Governor Holmes appointed John Taylor to
succeed Judge Leake, elected to the United States senate; Lyman
Harding to succeed Attorney-General Christopher Rankin, re
signed; and Powhatan Ellis judge to hold superior court east of
Pearl, as provided in the constitution. After the legislature had
come together again, at Natchez, the two houses balloted, Janu
ary 21, 1818, for judges of the supreme court. For the first district
the vote was, William B. Shields 21, Joshua G. Clarke 11; Second
district, John Taylor 32 ; Third district, John P. Hampton 32 ;
Fourth district, Powhatan Ellis 27, William J. Minton 5. It was
provided, by a resolution introduced by Cowles Mead, that the
judge of the Second district should be presiding judge of the su
preme court, for the time being, to be succeeded in order by the
judges of the First, Third and Fourth districts. There was no
officially entitled "chief justice." By act of January,- 1825, the
supreme court was authorized to appoint one of their number, at
each term, to deliver the opinions of the court in writing.
The personnel of the supreme court, before its first session in
June, 1818, was changed by the appointment of Shields to be the
first judge of the United States district court. Joshua G. Clarke
was appointed to succeed him on the State bench. The list then
stood : Taylor, Hampton, Ellis, Clarke. Following is a full list,
with dates of appointments :
Judges of Supreme and Circuit Courts.
First circuit: William B. Shields, 1818; Joshua G. Clarke, 1818;
Bela Metcalf, November, 1821; Richard Stockton, Jr., August,
1822; Joshua Child, January, 1825; Wm. L. Sharkey, November,
1831, ad interim; Alexander Montgomery, the first native Missis
sippian on the bench, was elected over Sharkey in November,
1831. Second circuit: John Taylor, 1818; Walter Leake, 1820;
Louis Winston, 1821; Edward Turner, 1825-33. Fourth circuit:
Powhatan Ellis, 1818; Isaac Caldwell, ad interim, 1825; John
Black, 1825; Eli Huston, December, 1832. Third circuit: John P.
Hampton, 1818, died; George Winchester, ad interim, 1827; Harry
Cage, 1828 resigned ; C. P. Smith, ad interim, May, 1832. Fifth cir
cuit: This was established in 1828, including the two regions orig
inally called Monroe and Hinds counties. Isaac R. Nicholson was
elected over Isaac Caldwell by a small majority, as judge, and
Buckner Harris, district attorney.
Supreme Court, 1870-1906. (See High Court.) The constitu
tion of 1869 created, as did the constitution of 1817, a "Supreme

MISSISSIPPI 757
court," of three judges. The power to elect these judges and all
others was again delegated; but to the governor, by and with the
advice and consent of the Senate, not to the legislature, as in
1817-32. The term of the supreme judges was to be nine years,
but to begin with, to secure individual alternation, the terms were
respectively three, six and nine years. The terms of the supreme
court were to be held at the seat of government twice a year.
Governor Alcorn's appointees were H. F. Simrall and Ephriam G.
Peyton, old citizens of the State, and Jonathan Tarbell, a Union
soldier from New York who had settled after the war in Scott
county. Peyton and Tarbell were the only Republicans who have
ever been appointed to the supreme bench. The justices were in
stalled in office May 10, 1870, in the presence of the two houses
of the legislature, and Judge Simrall drew for the term of nine
years, Peyton for three and Tarbell for six years. They were
sworn in by Governor Alcorn. Peyton was made chief justice.
He was re-appointed for a full term of nine years from May 11,
1873, at the close of his three year term. In the early part of 1876,
when the Democratic party was again in control of the legislature,
and the impeachment trial of Governor Ames was set for March
28, to be presided over by the chief justice, Peyton was requested
by resolution of legislature to resign, until the "emergency" had
passed, which he did, and Judge Simrall was elected chief justice
in his place.
By an act of the legislature, approved April 11, 1876, by Gover
nor Stone, which was general in form, but so drawn as to apply in
only one case, Chief Justice Peyton, on account of failing health,
was retired on half pay, and was succeeded, May 10, 1876, by H. H.
Chalmers for the remainder of his unexpired term. J. A. P. Camp
bell was appointed in place of Jonathan Tarbell, whose six year
term expired, May 10, 1876. Judge Simrall's term expired May
10, 1878, and he was succeeded by J. Z. George, who was chosen
chief justice. The code of 1880 provided that the chief justice
should be the judge whose term expired in the shortest time.
Judge George resigned Feb. 10, 1881, to enter the U. S. Senate,
and was succeeded by T. E. Cooper, Judge Chalmers becoming
chief justice by virtue of the provision of 1880. In 1882 Judge
Chalmers was reappointed, and, in regular order, Judge Campbell
became chief justice. When Judge Campbell's term expired in 1885,
he was reappointed, and Judge Cooper became chief justice. Judge
Chalmers died January 4, 1885, and was succeeded by James M.
Arnold, who, by regular rule, was chief justice from Judge Cooper's
reappointment in 1888 to his own resignation, October 1, 1889.
Thomas H. Woods was appointed to fill out Judge Arnold's term,
and was chief justice from the time of his appointment until 1891.
In the constitutional convention of 1890 Mr. McLaurin of
Sharkey county proposed a supreme court of five judges to be
elected by the people of five districts for terms of twenty years.
But this did not find favor, and the plan of appointment by the
governor was a part of the general plan of government which the

758 MISSISSIPPI
convention adopted, not so much from choice but because of what
was regarded at that time as necessity. The judiciary article, as
reported by the committee composed of Wiley P. Harris, chair
man, and Simrall, Featherston, Taylor, Fewell, Chrisman, Smith
(of Warren), McLaurin (of Rankin) Ford, McLean (of Grenada),
Hooker, Sykes, Blair, Barnett, Campbell, Noland, Lacey, Sexton,
Lee (of Madison), Allen and Eskridge, and adopted, provided for
a supreme court, with the jurisdiction of a court of appeals, to be
composed of three judges, appointed by the governor with the ad
vice and consent of the senate, each judge for and from one of
three districts to be formed by the legislature. The term of office
is nine years, after the usual apportionment of three, six and nine
years at the beginning. Court is held twice a year at the seat of
government. The court at that time was composed of Justices
Thomas H. Woods, J. A. P. Campbell, and T. E. Cooper, who were
continued in office as from the State at large. Judge Woods was
reappointed in 1891, and thereupon Judge Campbell became chief
justice for the second time. The next appointment was of A. H.
Whitfield in place of Judge Campbell, whose term expired in 1894.
The Code of 1892 provided that the judge who had been for the
longest time continuously a member of the court should* be chief
justice, and under this provision Judge Cooper was chief justice
from 1894 to December, 1896, when he resigned, and was succeeded
by Thomas R. Stockdale for the remainder of the unexpired term.
Judge Woods became chief justice on the resignation of Chief
Justice Cooper. In 1897 Samuel H. Terral was appointed to suc
ceed Judge Stockdale, whose term had expired. In 1900 Judge
Woods' term expired, and he was succeeded by S. S. Calhoon,
Judge Whitfield becoming chief justice, which position he still,
holds. On the 29th of January, 1898, an amendment to the con
stitution, known as the "Noel Amendment," had been adopted by
both houses of the legislature making all tfie judiciary elective;
this was voted on by the people in the election of 1899, and re
ceived over two-thirds of all the votes cast on the amendment, but
not a majority of all the votes cast at the election. The legislature
of 1900 held that it had been adopted, and on January 26 passed
a concurrent resolution inserting it in the constitution. In the
May, 1900, term of the Lincoln circuit court, the matter was
brought up by Judge Robert Powell for adjudication; and the cir
cuit court held that the amendment had not been legally adopted.
The State appealed the case, and the supreme court, in the latter
part of May, affirmed the decision of the lower court, on the
ground, first, that the legislature was not the final judge ; second,
that the details of electing supreme judges, chancellors, etc, made
more than one amendment ; third, that a majority of all voting at
the election was required. An amendment to the constitution to
the same effect passed the house in the session of 1904, but failed
to pass in the senate. Judge Terral died in March, 1903, and J. H.
Price was appointed in his place. Chief Justice Whitfield's term
expired 1903, and he was reappointed, March 9. Judge Price re-

MISSISSIPPI 759
signed in August, 1903, and Jeff Truly was appointed to fill out
the term. The Supreme Court was then constituted, A. H. Whit
field, chief justice, term expires in 1912; associates, S. S. Calhoon,
term expires in 1909, and Jeff Truly, term expired in 1906. Upon
the expiration of the term of Judge Truly, in 1906, he was suc
ceeded by Robert B. Mayes.
Surget, Peter, was born in Rochelle, France ; when a young man
came to New York, where he married Catherine Hubbard ; became
a West Indian merchant, removed to Baton Rouge, and thence,
in 1785, came to Natchez district, where he died in 1796, leaving
a large property and several sons and daughters.
Surry, a hamlet of Perry county. It has rural free delivery from
"Hattiesburg. Susie, a postoffice of Grenada county, 15 miles east of Grenada,
the county seat.
Swamp Lands. See Levees, Internal Improvements, Foote
Adm. Amos Deason was appointed commissioner of swamp lands
•in 1871. In 1877 the law was revised and John M. Smylie ap
pointed commissioner. In 1880-81 the commissioner issued patents
for about 225,000 acres of swamp lands, with the result that
$43,000 were added to the State treasury. Of the swamp lands
patented prior to that time little remained unsold. Mr. Smylie,
under an act of 1880, presented at Washington a claim for 387,000
acres which the State considered yet due, and patents were rap
idly issued for the same. The State also claimed an indemnity of
$50,000, and there were claims for additional patents. Smylie was
succeeded in 1884 by H. D. Cameron, who had the marsh lands
on the coast surveyed and platted, something in excess of 13,000
acres. Mr. Cameron was succeeded temporarily by E. B. Com
fort, and P. M. Doherty was appointed, in 1884. He was succeeded
in 1886 by John R. Enochs. The State was indebted to the Swamp
land fund $140,000 in 1888. (See Finances.) Smylie's successor,
upon his resignation, in 1888, was J. W. McMaster, and Edgar S.
Wilson was appointed in 1890 and 1892, and served until 1896.
The commissioner, under revisions of the laws, now had charge
(1891), under a State board of Swamp land commissioners, of the
Internal Improvement lands, of which 1,838 acres remained
unsold; the Lowry Island lands, originally 13,431 acres on the
Mississippi sound, in Jackson county, and 30,829 acres of School
indemnity lands, besides 210,640 acres of swamp lands proper.
In 1896 the office was changed to that of Land commissioner (q. v.).
The legislature of 1890 enacted that all persons then holding
swamp lands under invalid purchase should have the right to pur
chase the same for a period of two years at the uniform price of
12% cents an acre; but the constitutional convention of the same
year waived the payment of such sums, and disclaimed any inter
est or title in such lands on account of erroneous locations ; it also
dedicated the proceeds of swamp lands to the common schools.
An act of 1902 transferred to the commissioner's office from the

760 MISSISSIPPI
auditor's office all the land records, and required a revision of the
lists to prevent errors in land sales.
Swanlake, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, situated on the
lake of the same name, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R, about 15 miles southwest of Charleston, the county
seat. Webb is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 52.
Swann, Thomas T, was auditor of Mississippi October 16, 1865,
to January 4, 1870. August 2, 1870, he died. His successor, H.
Musgrove, wrote of him: "His long and efficient services to the
State, in connection with this office as assistant, as deputy auditor,
and for a number of years as auditor of public accounts, is well
known. All who knew him in official relations will bear willing
testimony to his efficiency, integrity and the uprightness of his
character." Swayze, Samuel, founder of the Congregational colony in Natchez
district, made his settlement under the Ogden Mandamus, which
read as follows : "Let a patent be prepared and engrossed, to pass
the great seal of this province, imparting his Majesty's most grac
ious grant unto Captain Amos Ogden, his heirs and assigns, of a
plantation or tract of land, containing twenty-five thousand acres-,
situate southwesterly about twenty-one miles from the old Natchez
fort, bounded southerly by a creek called Homochitto creek, and
about a quarter of a mile east of a tract of one thousand acres,
granted to Colin Campbell, Esq, on said creek, about half a mile
south from land granted to Junis Hooper, on a creek called Second
Creek, and on the other side by vacant land," on condition, "That
the said Amos Ogden do settle the said lands with foreign Protes
tants, or persons that shall be brought from his majesty's other
colonies in North America, within ten years from the date of the
grant, in the proportion of one person to every hundred acres."
If one-third of the land were not so settled in three years the grant
was to be forfeited to his Majesty, his heirs and successors.
In 1772 Capt. Ogden sold 19,000 acres of his grant to Richard
and Samuel Swayze, of New Jersey, at 20 cents an acre. They vis
ited the country and located the claim on the Homochitto river,
and brought their families and a party of colonists there by sea
and through the Manchac route in the fall of 1772. Samuel Swayze
had long been a Congregational preacher and most of his party
were of that faith. The religious society they organized was un
doubtedly the first Protestant organization in the Natchez district.
The venerable pastor settled on the east bank of St. Catherine,
after they were driven to Natchez by the Indians in 1780, and died
there in 1784. Many important families of Mississippi are de
scended in one branch or another from the brothers Swayze. (Clai
borne.) In the claim of the heirs of Hiram Swayze for 164 acres near
Natchez, under a grant of January 18, 1793, by Gayoso, not by the
governor-general, it was testified by Richard King that the land
was granted Swayze as a bounty for military service (probably
when the militia went to New Orleans to -repel the French), and

MISSISSIPPI 761
that Hiram Swayze lived on or near the land from the year 1782
until his death, which was sometime in the year 1794.
Sweatman, a post-hamlet of Montgomery county, 12 miles north
east of Winona, the county seat and nearest banking town. Popu
lation in 1900, 22.
Swiftwater, a postoffice of Washington county, on the Yazoo &
Mississippi Valley R. R, 5 miles south of Greenville, the county
seat and nearest banking town.
Sycamore, a post-hamlet of Chickasaw county, 7 miles east of
Houston, and about 12 miles southwest of Okolona. Houston is
the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 66.
Sykes, a postoffice of Clarke county, situated on the East Fork of
Buckatunna creek, 10 miles northeast of Quitman, the county seat
and nearest railroad town.
Sylvarena, a post-hamlet of Smith county, 10 miles east, south
east of Raleigh, the county seat. Taylorsville is, the nearest banking
town. It has two churches and a school "called the Sylvarena
Institute, W. S. Huddleston, principal ; and a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 75.
Tabbville, a post-hamlet of Chickasaw county, 6 miles southwest
of Houston, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest rail
road town. Population in 1900, 52.
Tacaleeche, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Benton county,
2 miles from Hickoryflat station, on the Frisco System, and 14
miles south of Ashland, the county seat. Population in 1900, 22.
Taensas. See Indians.
Tallahatchie County was organized December 23, 1833, from terri
tory acquired by the United States from the Choctaw tribe of
Indians, at the treaty of Dancing Rabbit in 1830. It was called for
the river of the same name, the Indian word "Tallahatchie" signify
ing "River of the Rock." Its limits embraced the following town
ships according to the original act: Twenty-two, twenty-three,
twenty-four, twenty-five and twenty-six, of ranges one and two
west and twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five and
twenty-six of ranges one, two and three, east. A portion of its
southern area was later taken to assist in forming the counties of
Leflore and Grenada, and the three northwestern townships were
embraced in Quitman county in 1877, when that county was formed.
Some of the first county officials were: B. B. Wilson, Clerk of
the Circuit and Probate Courts; Green B. Goodwin, Sheriff ; William
Sutton, Assessor and Collector ; William Berry, Coroner ; H. C.
Davis, Ranger ; William Fanning, President ; A. L. Humphrey,
Samuel Foster, Walter A. Mangum, Joseph Carson, Members of
the Board of Police. Besancon's Register for 1838, gives the list of
county officers at that time as follows :  Wilkins, County Treas
urer; J. W. Phillips, Clerk of the Circuit Court; Edmunds Jenkins,
Judge of Probate; Green B. Goodwin, Sheriff;  Bacon, Ranger;
¦  Sutton, Coroner ; Olsamus Kendrick, Surveyor ;  Brown,
Assessor and Collector ;  Willmore, Clerk of the Probate Court ;
Campbell, Staten, Davis, Slate, Thrasher, Members of the Board of

762 MISSISSIPPI
Police ; John H. McRae,  Lawhon, J. L. Watkins, Peter B. Mc-
Daniel, Justices of the Peace.
The Tuscahomian, a newspaper, published at the old town of
Tuscahoma, in 1835, was probably the first newspaper to be pub
lished in the county.
It is situated in the northwestern part of the State, and the old
boundary line between the Choctaw and Chickasaw cessions cuts
across its northeastern border. Three-fourths of its area lies in the
Yazoo river bottom, the eastern quarter in the hills. It is one of
the rich and prosperous counties of the State and was settled early
in the 30's by an excellent body of emigrants, from the States
of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Virginia and the Carolinas, and
the older part of Mississippi. One of the earliest settlers in the
region was Samuel Foster, married to an Indian woman and living
in the valley of Tillatoba creek, on eighteen hundred acres of land,
reserved to him under the above treaty. In 1832, Col. James Bailey,
Captain Samuel Caruthers and Captain Charles Bowen came from
Hickman county, Tennessee, and settled 'in the same valley, after
an exploration on horseback of much of the new cession. Other
early settlers were Thomas and Lawrence Calhoun, nephews of
John C. Calhoun; Wiley P. Mangum, Major James W. Harper,
James Marsh, James A. and George R. Girault, from Natchez; the
McAfees, from south Mississippi ; William Y. Blocker, and Rev.
Samuel Marsh, Sr, a distinguished Baptist divine.
Some of the earliest settlements in the county were Tuscahoma
(q. v.), about 12 miles west of Grenada and at- one time a place of
about 300 people with a thriving trade ; it was here that the first
licensed saloon in the county was established in January of 1835,
and the same year "The Tuscahomian," a weekly paper, began its
publication; Pharsalia (q. v.), established in 1833 or 1834, on the
south bank of the Yacona river in the northeastern part of the
county, and numbering a population of about 200 at the time of its
greatest prosperity ; noted for its horse races and shooting matches
on Saturdays, and gander pullings on Christmas days, and the
scene of many memorable political debates; Tillatoba (q. v.),
located about a mile northwest of Charleston, once a place of 150
inhabitants, and the early county seat ; a defective title to the town
site caused the removal of the county seat to Charleston, across
Tillatoba creek ; the name Tillatoba survives in the village' of the
same name on the Illinois Central R. R, a few miles to the east;
Locopolis (q. v.), the first shipping point in Tallahatchie county,
located on the east bank of the Tallahatchie river, ten miles west of
the present town of Charleston ; a large cotton shipping point in
the 30's, with a ferry and turnpike to a point 10 miles east ; during
the year 1842, there were, according to Col. James Bailey, about a
hundred loaded wagons going in to Locopolis ; it had an extensive
trade through the Yazoo pass ; at the height of its prosperity there
were 30 or 40 flatboats and keel boats on its river front and it was
hoped to make it a rival of Memphis. All the above old places
are now extinct and only live in the memories of the oldest inhab
itants. The present county seat, Charleston, is a pretty little place

MISSISSIPPI 763
of 850 people, located in the forks of the Tillatoba, a few miles off
the railway, and was first settled about 1837. Sumner (pop. 200),
Glendora (pop. 100), Harrison Station (now called Enid, pop. 180),
Webb (pop. 128), Tutwiler (pop. 142), are the important railroad
towns in the county. The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, runs
through the western part of the county from north to south, the
Southern Ry. penetrates the southern part to Webb and the Illinois
Central R. R. crosses the extreme northeastern corner. The Yazoo
river flows through the center of the county and with its tributaries,
Tillatoba river, and Hobson's and Opossum bayous, giving it ex
cellent water privileges. The western part of the county, when
protected from overflow and drained, is exceedingly rich and pro
ductive alluvial bottom ; the eastern part, in the broken and hilly
section, has a yellow clay loam soil and is timbered with various
kinds of oak, hickory, poplar, beech, etc. ; in the bottoms, white
and overcup oaks, gum, cypress, walnut, etc. The products of the
soil are cotton, corn, oats, wheat, sorghum, sweet and Irish potatoes,
and all kinds of fruits and vegetables suited to the climate. A great
many live stock are raised in this county and the pasturage is good
winter and summer. The value of the live stock in 1900 had reached
over $600,000, and the industry is assuming greater proportions
annually. Some beds of marl and lignite or brown coal have been
found in the eastern parts of the county.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population:
Number of farms 3,289, acreage in farms 179,426, acres improved
95,611, value of the land exclusive of buildings $2,157,490, value of
the buildings $531,410, value of the live stock $624,651, total value
of products not fed to stock $1,503,418. Number of manufacturing
establishments 49, capital invested $210,025, wages paid $27,062,
cost of materials $74,916, total value of products $183,610. The
population of the countv in 1900 was whites 6,308, colored 13,292,
total 19,600, increase over 1890, 5,239. The total population in 1906
was estimated at 23,000.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in
Tallahatchie county in 1905 was $3,700,201 and in 1906 it was
$3,825,995, which shows an increase of $125,794 during the year.
Tallaloosa was an early settlement in Marshall county, 8 miles
southwest of Holly Springs, and attained sufficient importance to
be incorporated by the Legislature in 1838. It was located in a
rich farming region, occupied by such families as the Glovers,
Woods, McClatchys, Hursts, Williams, McCravens, Jones and
Echols. The town was absorbed by Holly Springs and Chulahoma,
and is now extinct.
Tallula, a post-hamlet of Issaquena county, on the Mississippi
river, 10 miles south of MayersviUe, the county seat. , Population
in 1900, 26.
Talowah, a post-hamlet and station of Lamar county, on the New
Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 6 miles south of Purvis, the county
seat and the nearest banking town. Population iri 1900, 75.

764 MISSISSIPPI
Tamola, a postoffice and station in the southeastern part of
Kemper county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 16 miles southeast of
Dekalb, the county seat, and 23y2 miles northeast of Meridian.
Tampa, a post-hamlet of Winston county, 10 miles west of Louis
ville, the county seat. It is on Butcha creek, an affluent of the
Pearl river. Louisville is the nearest banking and railroad town.
Population in 1900, 48.
Tapouchas. See Indians.
Tarbell, Jonathan, a general officer of volunteers in the United
States army, from New York, who settled in Scott county at the
close of the war 1861-65. In 1869 he was appointed probate judge
by Gen. Ames, and a justice of the supreme court by Governor Al
corn in 1870. "He was a man of fair ability and extraordinary
industry, a ready and voluminous writer," says Garner. Senator
Lamar wrote that he was esteemed in Mississippi as an upright
judge and his reputation for integrity was unquestioned. After
the action of the legislature in 1876 providing for age retirement,
he resigned and removed to Washington, D. C, where he died.
Tarbert, a post-hamlet in the extreme southwestern corner of the
State, in Wilkinson county. It is about 20 miles from Woodville,
the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 35.
Tarpley, Collin S, was born in Petersburg, Va, 1802. He re
moved with his parents to Nashville, Tenn.; studied law in the
office of A. V. Brown and Jas. K. Polk; was admitted to the bar;
practiced his profession at \ Pulaski, Tenn, until 1831, when he
removed to Florence, Ala. In 1836 he removed to Mississippi and
located in Hinds county. He secured a large practice; rose to
eminence, and was appointed judge of the High Court (q. v.) in
1851. He was the promoter of the New Orleans and Jackson rail
road, and at his death was one of its board of directors. He took
great interest in the industrial advancement of the State. He died
in the spring of 1860.
Taska, a postoffice of Marshall county, 12 miles northwest of
Holly Springs.
Tate, a postoffice of Amite county.
Tate County was established December 23, 1873, and was named
for a prominent family of the region, of which the Hon. T. S. Tate
(see below), was a member. The county has a land surface of 407
square miles. It is situated in the northwestern part of the State
and was formed chiefly from the southern part of the older county
of De Soto (q. v.), though Tunica and Marshall counties contributed
each a small portion of its area. It was a part of the Chickasaw
Indian cession of 1832. For the early history of the region com
posing Tate, see the three counties mentioned. The Governor was
empowered to appoint the county officers, pending a general election
for that purpose, and the county assumed its share of the debts of
the parent counties and received its proper share of school and county
funds. Governor R. C. Powers appointed the following county
officers : Josiah Daily, Sheriff ; O. F. West, Clerk of the Chancery

MISSISSIPPI 765
and Circuit Courts ; W. J. Pace, Treasurer ; J. R. Jackson, Assessor
and Collector ; E. J. Litsey, County Sup't of Schools ; J. E.
Matthews, Surveyor; T. S. Tate, J. V. Walker, J. P. Pickle, Eli
Bobo, D. T. Neighbors, Members of the Board of Supervisors. The
county was first represented in the Legislature by T. S. Tate and T.
B. Garret, as Representatives, and J. H. Holloway and M. Campbell
as Senators. It is one of the smaller counties, but has an abundance
of natural resources and a prosperous and contented body of people.
It is bounded on the north by the county of ,De Soto, Coldwater
river forming part of the dividing line ; on the east by Marshall
county, on the south by Panola county and on the west by the
Coldwater river which divides it from Tunica county. The county
seat is Senatobia, a thriving little town of 1,500 inhabitants, in the
south central part of the county, on the line of the Memphis division
of the Illinois Central R. R. It is a shipping point for large quan
tities of cotton, corn, fruits and vegetables from the rich country
surrounding it, and enjoys the advantage of a close local market
at Memphis, only 37 miles distant. Its name is a Choctaw Indian
¦vaord meaning "white sycamore." In the northern part of the
county, also on the railroad, is the prosperous town of Coldwater
(pop. in 1900, was 557). The villages of Strayhorn, Arkabutla, In
dependence and Tyro are the largest settlements away from the
railroad. The Memphis division of the Illinois Central R. R, runs
north and south through the center of the county, and the Yazoo
& Mississippi Valley R. R, cuts across the extreme southwestern
corner, affording it good shipping facilities. The county is watered
by the Coldwater river on its northern and western boundary, and
the tributary creeks, Senatobia, Arkabutla, Hickahala, Jim Wolf,
Bear Tail and Strayhorn. Over one-half of its farm acreage is now
improved, the balance is well timbered with all kinds of oaks, gum,
poplar, beech, walnut, elm, etc. In the extreme western part, an
extension of the bluff formation crosses the county north and south,
the rest of the county is undulating, level on the river and creek
bottoms. The soil is rich and fertile for the most part and pro
duces excellent crops of cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, sweet and
Irish potatoes, peanuts, and all the vegetables and fruits common to,
the latitude. The climate is mild and the region is generally health
ful. Of late years, considerable attention has been given to the live
stock industry, for which the region is well adapted, and fruits and
vegetables are now grown for market as well as home consumption.
Some small factories and mills are doing a prosperous business
in the county, a total of 69 being given by the census for 1900.
The following statistics, taken from the census of the United
States for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population :
Number of farms- 3,704, acreage in farms 218,340, acres improved
120,504, value of land exclusive of buildings $1,722,810, value of
buildings $563,630, value of live stock $665,292, total value of pro
ducts not fed to stock $1,404,020. Number of manufacturing estab
lishments 69, capital invested $155,590, wages paid $36,290, cost of
materials $145,476, total value of products $247,260. The popula-

766 MISSISSIPPI
tion of the county in 1900 was whites 8,439, colored 12,179, total
20,618, increase over the year 1890, 1,365. The total population in
1906 was estimated at 22,000.
There are 55 white and 46 colored schools in the county. It is
well supplied with telephone service, affording means of inter
communication with nearly every part of the county. The public
roads of the county are worked under the contract system and the
main thoroughfares are in fine condition. Among the pioneers of
Tate county may be mentioned : John Crawford, who settled about
7 miles northeast of Senatobia; Thomas Williams, who located
about 3 miles south of Senatobia; Thos. W. Dean, who settled in
the northeastern part of the county ; Wm. Carter, Thos. Eason, Seth
Woolard, Buck and Samuel Crocket, Thomas Lewis, and Capt.
Wm. J. Floyd.
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in
Tate county in 1905 was $3,180,479.50 and in 1906 it was $3,751,-
880.05, which shows an increase of $571,400.55 during the year.
Tatesville. This old village, like that of Tatumsville elsewhere
described, was situated not far distant from the town of Senatobia
in Tate county, formerly DeSoto county. It was a rival of Tatums
ville and lay only a mile north of that village. Founded by the
Hon. Thos. Simpson Tate, who was the prominent merchant of
the place, it became a prosperous little town of about seventy-five
to a hundred people, but succumbed, like its rival Tatumsville,
to Senatobia, when the Mississippi and Tennessee railroad was com
pleted to that place in 1855. Among the business concerns of the old
village were Tate & Arnold, general merchants; George B. Wool
ard, cabinet maker, and James Barbee, saddler and harness maker.
Tatum, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Tallahatchie county,
about 8 miles northwest of Grenada, the nearest railroad and bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 20.
Tatumsville. This was an extinct village in DeSoto, now Tate
county, and was situated about two miles west, and one-half mile
north of the town of Senatobia. It was founded by Herbert Tatum,
who did a general mercantile business, and had in its prosperous
days a population of about 100 inhabitants. A few stores and shops
composed its business. Dr. John T. Atkinson, Jack Browder, and
Col. Wm. Ferney were citizens of the old village. It was here that
Herbert Tate shot and killed Dr. Woodard. There was once a
beautiful cemetery here, which is now overgrown by a native
forest of large trees. When the Mississippi & Tennessee railroad,
now the Illinois Central, was completed as far as Senatobia in
1855, the old village was absorbed by that town. Soon after the
close of the war in 1865, the last building in Tatumsville had been
moved away.
Taylor, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of
Lafayette county, on the Illinois Central R. R, 6 miles south of
Oxford. It was named for an early settler of the place. Population
In 1900, 101.

MISSISSIPPI 767
Taylor, John, one of the first judges of the supreme court of Mis
sissippi, was the son of a small farmer and deputy sheriff of West
Chester, Pa. With a very limited education, but some familiarity
with law methods gained by attending court with his father, he be
gan the reading of law at the age of eighteen years. In 1804 he
was licensed to practice and immediately made the river voyage
to St. Louis to begin the work of his profession. In 1805 he pro
ceeded to New Orleans, but finding many there on the same errand,
he returned to Natchez. "The May term of the Superior court was
then in session. There was a criminal case pending, which from
the character of the parties, excited peculiar interest. Young Tay
lor volunteered for the accused and displayed remarkable acute-
ness and dexterity in the examination of witnesses. His speech
to the jury was rough but forcible. It betrayed his ignorance of
grammar, but wonderful mental power. . . . He obtained a
verdict of acquittal, was immediately retained in a dozen cases,
and in a few weeks had an extensive practice." (J. F. H. Claiborne.)
In 1808 he was appointed adjutant of the Territorial regiment of
cavalry. He was elected to the general assembly in 1813, and in
1817 to the constitutional convention. When the first session of
the legislature in October, 1817, was compelled to adjourn without
electing judges, because of the yellow fever, Governor Holmes
appointed Taylor to succeed Leake as Territorial judge, holding
over, and in January following he was elected by the legislature
judge of the supreme court for the Second district, and made pre
siding judge, or "chief justice." He died at Natchez in May or
June, 1820. He was a bachelor, lived simply, and "when he had
money to spare loaned it to his friends without interest."
Taylorsville, a post-town in the southern part of Smith county
on the Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, 23 miles
northwest of Laurel. It has telegraph, express and banking facili
ties, and has grown at a rapid rate since the coming of the railroad.
A branch of the Bank of Laurel was established here in 1902. The
Signal, a non-partisan weekly newspaper, was established here in
1901, T. W. Jarvis being the editor. Population is about 400.
Tchula, an incorporated post-town of Holmes county, on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 65 miles north of Jackson.
It has telegraph, express and banking facilities, a money order
postoffice and an oil mill. The historic old town of Rankin, now-
extinct, (q. v.) was situated on the Tchula and Yazoo City road,
about 5 miles from Tchula. The Tchula Bank was established in
1897 with a capital of $15,000. Population in 1900, 398; the popu
lation in 1906 was estimated at 500.
Teachers' Association. The first State Teachers' association
met in the hall of representatives at Jackson, in 1838. Its consti
tution was drafted by Solomon Tift. Of this association, Chancel
lor Edward Mayes said in 1889 : "The venerable Dr. Phillips was
a member, and I suppose that Dr. Phares is now the only surviving
member. Its work was supplemented by that of various local
organizations, some of which were institutes conducted on much

768 MISSISSIPPI
the same plan as they are now. The State organization, however,
was handicapped by the great difficulty of travel in those days'
and dissolved after four or five years."
The organization was revived after 1865, and in recent years its
annual meetings have been well attended. In 1905 the association
appointed a committee, composed of Superintendents Ellis, of
Lauderdale county, Cook of Columbus and Bass of Greenville, to
formulate a graded course of study and a teachers' manual for the
schools of the State, to be presented to the legislature for adoption.
(See School System.)
Teasdale, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Talahatchie
county, about 10 miles north of Charleston, the county seat. Popu
lation in 1900, 36.
Teasdale, Thos. Cox, was born in Sussex county, N. J, Decem
ber 2, 1808. He became pastor of the Baptist church at East Ben
nington, Vt, in 1830, and afterward preached at Philadelphia, New
Haven, Conn, Pittsburg, Pa, Springfield, 111, and Washington
D. C, before coming to Mississippi. He was pastor of the First
Baptist church at Columbus, 1858 to 1863, when he went to the
front to minister to the soldiers. After the fall of Atlanta he re
turned home, and in 1869 was elected corresponding secretary
of the Sunday School board of the Southern Baptist* convention;
entered upon general evangelistic work in 1871 ; accepted the chair
of rhetoric at the East Tennessee university at Knoxville in 1873.
He returned to his home at Columbus, Miss, in 1885, and died
April 4, 1891. He is the author of "Reminiscences of a Long
Life," and other works. "Dr. Teasdale's life has been one of great
activity and usefulness. He has baptised over three thousand per
sons on a profession of their faith in Christ, witnessed the conver
sion of some fifteen thousand souls under his ministry, preached
about fifteen thousand sermons ; published several pamphlets and
books, the principal of the latter of which is a volume of his 'Re
vival Discourses;' edited at different periods three religious peri
odicals ; assisted in establishing the Orphans' Home in Mississippi ;
contributed materially in building up other institutions of learning
and religion ; and conducted through most of his public life a very
large correspondence." — (Borum's Sketches.)
Teckville, a postoffice of Lafayette county, on the Tallahatchie
river, about 15 miles northwest of Oxford, the county seat.
Tecumseh. This famous Indian character was a Shawnee, born
in one of the towns of that nation in southwestern Ohio. The
Shawnee people were great wanderers and sojourned some time
in the South before the American Revolution. They were, per
haps, more closely allied to the Muscogee nations than any other
of the northern red men. Tecumseh was a man of great ability,
and intense patriotism, who gave his life to the improvement of
the condition of his people. He endeavored to form a union of the
tribes in the Northwest, so that they could treat with the United
States as a unit, in the sale of territory, and sought to relieve his
people from the curse of the frontier traffic in intoxicating liquor

MISSISSIPPI 769
as well as the equally dangerous influences that threatened the
purity of the Indian blood. In this work he was greatly aided by
his brother, who was known as the prophet, and supplied the relig
ious element of the national movement. The British colonial
authorities yet maintained some claim to interfere in behalf of the
Indians against the United States, and Tecumseh negotiated for
British assistance in support of his league. After Madison's ad
ministration began, there was a strong movement to resent the op
pressive acts of the British government, which had been endured
with more or less patience by President Jefferson, and in 1811 war
became probable. There was then an alliance of some sort be
tween Tecumseh and the British, and Tecumseh came South in the
summer and fall of 1811 to persuade the Muscogee nations to join
the confederation.
The famous Shawnee accompanied by a party of twenty war
riors, visited the Chickasaws first, but that nation, notably friendly
to the United States, refused to permit him to address their coun
cil. He next spent several weeks among the Choctaws, and was
gijsren audience before a grand council at the home of Mingo Mo-
shulitubbee, on the banks of one of the small lakes on the plan
tation known as the Blewett Chester place, near the boundary of
Noxubee and Lowndes counties. The council was attended by
Pushmataha, Hoentubbee, Puckshenubbee, John Pitchlyn and
David Folsom. (W. A. Love, M. H. S, VII, 373.) Hoentubbee
is quoted (Halbert and Ball, Creek War) that the Shawnee party,
clothed in buckskin, armed with rifles and tomahawks, bore the red
war paint on their faces and bosoms. All were adorned with
plumes of hawk and eagle feathers, save Tecumseh, from whose
scalp lock hung two long crane feathers, one white denoting peace
among the Indian nations, the other red to symbolize war on the
"Long Knives." There were silver bands about their wrists and
arms and foreheads, and a few wore silver gorgets suspended from
their necks. There was a faction among the Choctaws, principally
in the Six towns, that was disposed to favor Tecumseh, but the
great leaders were firm against war, and Tecumseh went into the
Creek nation, where he found a stronger faction disposed to join
him. The war council with the Creeks is given an imaginative
description in Claiborne's Mississippi, and it is said by reliable
authorities that the speech there quoted is entirely a product of
imagination. His talk was of a general attack by the Indians upon
"the whites, from the great lakes to the gulf. "Hillis Hadjo (mad
medicine man) was won over to the scheme. A great comet was
interpreted as a war signal from heaven, and an earthquake shock
as the stamping of Tecumseh's foot at Detroit. Colored wands
were distributed among those Indians who would join in the alliance
with the British, and these hostiles, on that account were called
Red Sticks (batons rouges)." Tecumseh's brother and his war
party were defeated at Tippecanoe, Indiana, by Gov. William Henry
Harrison, during Tecumseh's absence. After his return he aided
49-11

770 MISSISSIPPI
in the capture of Detroit, summer of 1812, in support of the British,
and was killed in the battle of the Thames, 1813 ; in western' Canada.
Ted, a post-hamlet of Smith county, 12 miles due east of Raleigh,
the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Telegraph, Electric. Extract from Natchez Courier, October
26, 1847: "A most favorable opportunity is now presented to the
citizens of Natchez and Adams county, of securing immediately
the benefits of this wonderful and useful invention. A company
is forming for extending the line from a point on the Ohio river,
above Cincinnati, to New Orleans. The route through Alabama
and Mississippi is not yet positively defined, and will depend upon
the amount of subscriptions obtained in the various counties
through which it is contemplated it will pass. It is of much im
portance that Natchez should be made a point on the line traversed
by the lightning, and a station should by all means be established
here. A comparatively small amount of stock subscription to the
stock, by our citizens, will probably ensure to us the benefit of the
telegraph, and, judging from the profitableness of the stock in all
the lines already established throughout the United States, the
investments will turn out profitably. One of the proprietors of
the line, Mr.Wm, B. Lloyd, is now in our city."
It appears in 1849 that the only line to New Orleans was that
of the Washington & New Orleans company, whose wires ran via
Montgomery and Mobile. This was the longest line in the United
States then, — 1,716 miles. There seems to have been no other
line through Mississippi.
Temple, a post-hamlet of Lauderdale county, 12 miles north of
Meridian. Population in 1900, 28.
Tenmile, a postoffice and station in the north-central part of Har
rison county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, 5 miles north of
McHenry, the nearest banking town. It has a good store and a
large saw-mill
Tennessee. "The whole of the present western district of Ten
nessee, as late as 1816, was an Indian wilderness, in the undisputed
occupancy of the native savages. Until that year, the Chickasaw
nation occupied the whole western portion of Tennessee, as far
eastward as the Tennessee river, and northward to the southern
boundary of Kentucky. The rapid advance of the civilized popu
lation made it requisite that the Indian tribes should occupy more
circumscribed limits; and they retired within the present State of
Mississippi, and subsequently to the Indian Territory west of the
present State of Arkansas."
The lands on both sides of the Tennessee, below Mussel Shoals,
were opened to settlement by the treaty with the Chickasaw nation,
made by Gen. Andrew Jackson, in 1816, at which time part of the
present territory of Mississippi and Alabama were also relin
quished. The second sale of lands by the Chickasaws in Tennessee
was two years afterward. In this case, negotiations were con
ducted by Gen. Andrew Jackson and Col. Isaac Shelby, of Ken
tucky. By this treaty, signed October 18, 1818, the Chickasaws

MISSISSIPPI 771
relinquished all their lands in the western part of Tennessee, and
concentrated at the heart of their nation in north Mississippi, where
they remained until after the treaty of Pontotoc, sixteen years
later. The first white immigrants advanced into this country
yielded by the Chickasaws early in the year 1820, when John
Overton settled near Fort Pickering, and the site of a town was
laid off in May and given the name of Memphis. West Tennessee
increased rapidly in population, and by 1840 Memphis was the
third commercial city on the Mississippi river, and the great cot
ton mart of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. For
many years that region drew immigration to the disadvantage of
the more southern State, and its metropolis absorbed that profit
that accrues to the handler and distributor of exports and im
ports. From Tennessee, Mississippi has also received much.
"Tennessee, not inaptly, has been called the mother of States.
From the bosom of this State have issued more colonies for the
peopling of the great valley of the Mississippi than from any other
State in the American Union. Her emigrant citizens have formed
a very important portion of the population of Alabama, of the
northern half of Mississippi and of Florida. They have also formed
the principal portion of the early population of the States of Mis
souri, Arkansas and Texas." (Monette, History of the Valley.)
Governor Holmes said in his message to the legislature of De
cember, 1813 : "The conduct of the State of Tennessee upon every
occasion when our Territory has been menaced by an enemy, en
titles that member of the Union to our peculiar gratitude, but the
patriotism shown by their statesmen, soldiers and citizens upon the
late occasion of the disasters which happened on the eastern fron
tier, exhibited a magnanimity of character, and a national sensi
bility, worthy of being emulated by all who justly esteem that
pride of country essential to the maintenance of those rights which
the constitution of the United States was intended to secure and
perpetuate." Teoc, a postoffice of Carroll county, 12 miles northwest of Carroll-
ton, the county seat.
Terrell, a postoffice of Covington county, situated on Bowie
creek, about 8 miles west of Williamsburg, the county seat.
Territorial Enactment. For the events leading up to the act of
congress establishing "the Mississippi Territory," see Georgia
Cession. President John Adams, June 12, 1797, in pursuance of
the policy recommended by Senator Aaron Burr in 1796, and by
later resolutions of congress, and having in view the assertion
of Spanish dominion reported by Commissioner Ellicott, recom
mended congress, in effect, to delay no longer for negotiation with
Georgia, so far as the populated district was concerned. The words
of his recommendation were : "To erect a government in the dis
trict of Natchez, similar to that established for the territory North
west of the river Ohio," etc. The first action upon this seems
to be the report of the senate committee, March 2, 1798 (see
Georgia Cession), which was followed on the 6th by the

772 MISSISSIPPI
passage of a bill by that body. This bill passed the house also,
and became a law April 7, 1798.
Sec. 1 provided for a commission to adjust the interfering claims
of the United States and Georgia in all the country west of the
Chattahoochee river. Sec. 2 enacted that the proceeds of the sale
of land shall be applied to the discharge of the public debt. Sec.
3. "That all the tract of country bounded on the West by the Mis
sissippi ; on the North by a line to be drawn due East from the
mouth of the Yazous to the Chattahoochee river; on the East by
the river Chattahoochee; and on the South by the thirty-first de
gree of North latitude, shall be, and hereby is, constituted one
district, to be called the Mississippi territory; and the President
of the United States is hereby authorized to establish therein a
government, in all respects similar to that now exercised in the
territory Northwest of the river Ohio, excepting and excluding
the last article of the ordinance made for the government thereof,
by the late congress, on the thirteenth day of July, 1787, and, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all the
necessary officers therein, who shall, respectively, receive the same
compensations for their services, to be paid in the same manner,
as by law established for similar officers in the territory Northwest
of the river Ohio; and the powers, duties and emoluments, of a
superintendent of Indian affairs, for the Southern department,
shall be united with those of Governor;" (A proviso was added
authorizing appointments in the recess of congress.) Sec. 4.
That the territory hereby constituted one district, for the purpose
of government, may, at the discretion of congress, be hereafter
divided into two districts, with separate territorial governments
in each, similar to that established by this act. Sec. 5. That the
establishment of this government shall, in no respect, impair the
right of the State of Georgia, or of any person or persons, either to
the jurisdiction or the soil of the, said territory, but the rights and
claims of the said State, and of all persons interested, are hereby de
clared to be as firm and available as if this act had never been made.
Sec. 6. That, from and after the establishment of the said gov
ernment, the people of the aforesaid territory shall be entitled to
and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges, and advantages,
granted to the people of the Territory of the United States North
west of the river Ohio, in and by the aforesaid ordinance of the
thirteenth day of July, in the year one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-seven, in as full and ample a manner as the same are pos
sessed and enjoyed by the people of the said last mentioned ter
ritory. Sec. 7. That, from and after the establishment of the afore
said government, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons
to import or bring into the said Mississippi territory, from any
port or place without the limits of the United States, or to cause
or procure to be so imported or brought, or knowingly to aid or
assist in so importing or bringing any slave or slaves, and that
every person so offending, and being thereof convicted, before any
court within the said territory, having competent jurisdiction, shall

MISSISSIPPI 773
forfeit and pay, for each and every slave so imported or brought,
the sum of three hundred dollars ; one moiety for the use of any
person or persons who shall sue for the same ; and that every slave,
so imported or brought, shall thereupon become entitled to and re
ceive his or her freedom." Sec. 8. (Appropriation.)
By the act of March 27, 1804, in which additional provision was
made for the confirmation of land claims in Natchez district, it
was further enacted, "That the tract of country lying North of the
Mississippi Territory, and South of the State of Tennessee, and
bounded on the East by the State of Georgia, and on the West by
Louisiana, shall be, and the same is hereby, annexed to, and made
a part of, the Mississippi Territory." This extended the bounds of
the Territory so as to embrace all that is now Alabama and Mis
sissippi, north of the 31st parallel.
By the act of May 14, 1812, "All that portion of territory lying
east of Pearl river, west of the Perdido, and south of the thirty-
first degree of latitude, shall be, and the same is hereby annexed
4to the Mississippi territory; to be governed by the laws now in
force therein, or which may hereafter be enacted, and the laws
and ordinances' of the United States, relative thereto, in like manner
as if the same had originally formed a part of said territory; and
until otherwise provided by law, the inhabitants of the said district
hereby annexed to the Mississippi territory, shall be entitled to one
representative in the general assembly thereof."
Terry, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of
Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R.' R, 16 miles south by west
of Jackson. The town was named for "Old" Bill Terry, a resident of
the place. Truck farming and market gardening are extensively
carried on in the vicinity, and this station is one of the most im
portant fruit and vegetable shipping points in the state. Peaches,
pears, figs, plums, strawberries, and all kinds of vegetables and
fruits are scientifically cultivated for market. The Bank of Terry
was established here in 1897 with a capital of $20,000. Population
in 1900, 481. Terry has 4 churches, 10 or 12 mercantile houses, a
good hotel, and a money order postoffice.
Terza, a postoffice of Panola county.
Texas Revolution. Following the betrayal of Burr by Wilkinson,
both of whom had designs on Texas, the insurrection of Aranjuez,
(Spain) in 1808 and the abdication of Charles IV encouraged the
Spanish provinces in America to revolt against the slavery to which
they had been subjected for about two centuries. The invasion of
Spain by Napoleon further emancipated the minds of the Creoles
from the ancient terror of the Spanish name. The revolt of the
Mexicans began in 1810 under Hidalgo.
Governor Claiborne wrote to Gen. Wade Hampton January 5,
1811 : "A terrible civil war rages in Mexico. I have seen official
reports from which it seems that the horrors of the time of Cortez
are revived. The contest is between the Europeans and the Creoles
of the country. The Creoles have brought into the field immense
armies, and in one engagement it is said ten thousand Creoles were

774 MISSISSIPPI
killed. Hitherto the Europeans have met with great success but
private letters state that numbers are flocking to the Creole
standard, and that they are in possession of immense treasure
At one town they possessed themselves of fifteen millions of
dollars. The object of the Creoles is said to be independence"
Such reports appealed strongly to the adventurous spirits of the
Natchez. , In the border land, between Natchitoches and the Sabine river,
a considerable number of adventurers and refugees from justice
had established themselves, and the region became noted for "the
commission of robberies, murders and other crimes of an infamous
and astounding character." Governor Claiborne issued a proclama
tion against the outlaws in 1812, and a body of United States sol
diers was sent against them under Lieut. Augustus William Magee,
a Massachusetts officer. This brought Magee clbser in touch with
the revolutionary movement. He resigned his commission in Junej
and organized the outlaws and others into a little army of 300 men
to attack the town of Nacogdoches. A Spaniard, Bernardo, was the
nominal leader of the movement. Nacogdoches promptly submit
ted to the revolutionists, and to that place came many recruits,
among them Reuben Kemper, and Ross, Luckett, Perry, Robinson,
Deane and Wolforth, of Mississippi. The movement was of course,
unlawful, and some secrecy was maintained in the organization.
About 80 men, well equipped, crossed the Mississippi in small
groups at different places. In the territory it was reported that
Gen. Adair was at the head of the enterprise, but he assured Gov
ernor Holmes otherwise and gave' him, in confidence, information
on the subject. Five hundred strong, Magee's army marched to
ward San Antonio, and was besieged through the winter at Goliad
by the royalist officer, Gen. Salcedo. When spring opened, Salcedo
withdrew and was pursued and defeated at Salado creek. Magee
died in March, 1813, and Reuben Kemper commanded the army
when it occupied San Antonio, under Bernardo. The latter caused
the massacre of 17 Spaniards, including Herrara and Cordero, which
so disgusted Kemper, and the Mississippians, that many of them
abandoned the enterprise.
Soon after the departure of Kemper, there arrived at San Antonio
the personage known in history as Gen. Toledo, formerly a member
of the Mexican cortes. He took secondary command, aided by
Col. Perry and the gentleman afterward known as Judge Bullard,
among the Americans. But in August, 1813, Spanish troops, under
Elisando and Aredondo, appeared on the scene, and along the
Medina river and the Trinity the "Republican army" suffered bloody
defeats, until the revolutionists were crushed, routed and well-
nigh exterminated. Many of the Americans were slain. Three
hundred were reported lost. Slocum, the Gormleys, and Caston, of
the Mississippi territory, were among the missing when Toledo
got back to Nacogdoches.
There was some activity, in 1814, which caused Governor Holmes,
March 29, to issue a proclamation against persons accused of raising

MISSISSIPPI 775
troops in the Territory for the purpose of invading the Spanish
provinces. But there was comparative quiet in Texas until 1817,
when La Fitte, the pirate, in command of a fleet of some twenty
sail, under the flag of Venezuela, took possession of the island of
Galvezton, to continue in control of that harbor for several years.
The Mexican revolution was suppressed in the course of six
years, ending with the surrender of the surviving leaders in Janu
ary, 1817. One of the latest incidents was the dispersal of an ex-
pedition-from the United States under Mina.
The boundary between Spain and the United 'States was fixed at
the Sabine by the treaty of 1819, after which the Spanish govern
ment established the province of Texas, between that river and the
Rio Grande, under the Mexican viceroyalty. The United States
abandoned all claim beyond the Sabine, in consideration of a clear
title to Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, the Florida peninsula and Oregon.
But, by individuals, an attempt was immediately made to free the
province of Texas from Spanish control. (See Long' Expedition.)
In 1821 the Mexican revolution was renewed by Iturbide, and it
was completely successful within the year. Iturbide was declared
emperor Augustine I, in May, 1822. A republican revolution fol
lowed, under the great Creole, Santa Ana ; Iturbide resigned in 1823,
and a republic was established in 1824, after the model of the United
States. Meanwhile there had been grants of extensive areas of Texas
land to colonists from the United States, among whom was Moses
Austin, and Texas began to have a population like that of an Amer
ican territory. The disposition of the colonists was to separate
Texas from the Mexican government, though Austin tried for a long
time to restrain this (See Edwards, B. F.). There naturally was
much disorder in the new Mexican republic. A war was waged
between two factions under the guise of Scotch and York free
masonry, which brought Santa Ana to the front in 1828, though he
did not become president until 1833. In 1829 slavery, which had
well-nigh disappeared except as it was revived in Texas by the
colonists from the United States, was formerly abolished by govern
ment decree. Coahuila and Texas, which had been united under one
State government, demurred to this and the citizens from the United
States refused to observe it. There was also more or less nullifi
cation of the Mexican tariff laws, which the Mexican national gov
ernment endeavored to support by military power. In 1831, Branch
T. Archer, having been invited to Texas by Col. Austin, wrote back
that the "goddess of liberty" had been violated and needed protec
tion by increased immigration from the' States. "The war dogs are
unkennelled." Trouble began after Archer's arrival at Anahuac;
in June, 1832, a body of the Austin colonists captured the Spanish
garrison at Velasco, and Travis drove the garrison from Anahuac.
The garrison at Nacogdoches was besieged, and, when escape was
attempted, was ambushed and many killed.
Then came the elevation of Santa Ana, with a promise of less
"Centralism," and peace was restored. In 1833 the Texans held a

776 MISSISSIPPI
convention to ask separate statehood, after the manner of the States
in the United States ; but a revolution was raging, and Col. Austin
was imprisoned for a year when he went to the capital to present
the subject. It became apparent that Santa Ana would play the
part of dictator; there was a terrible tragedy in suppressing insur
rection at Zacatecas ; preparations were made for a military occupa
tion of Texas, under Gen. Cos, and on October 1, 1836, occurred the
battle of Gonzales, in which the colonists were aggressors against
a Mexican garrison. An army was then organized under Col. Aus
tin, including such men as Archer, Fanning, Travis, Rusk, Bowie,
Moore, Caldwell, Neil, Grayson, Hall, Carnes. Samuel Houston
was commander in the Nacogdoches district, and later, commander-
in-chief. Goliad was taken, a battle was fought at Concepcion,
and in December, 1835, San Antonio was captured. Companies of
soldiers arrived from the Southern States to aid the colonists.
But the revolutionists met with reverses, and March 27 there was a
treacherous massacre at Goliad of the survivors of a fierce prairie
battle. Under Sam Houston as commander-in-chief, the colonists
rallied and defeated the Mexican troops decisively at San Jacinto,
April 21, taking prisoner Santa Ana himself.
News was received at Natchez of the assault and capture of San
Antonio by the revolutionists in January, 1836, and this was fol
lowed in March by tidings of the counter blow, at the Alamo. A
meeting was called at once, of which Capt. John A. Quitman was
president and Gen. Felix Huston secretary. It was resolved that
Santa Ana must fall. About $2,000 was soon subscribed for vol
unteers. Recruits were instructed in the newspapers to be cautious
about their expressions, in order to avoid arrest for violating the
neutrality laws, but there was really no danger. Quitman, who had
been chancellor, president of the senate and acting governor of
Mississippi, led the first company, that sailed April 5, about forty
men, including 15 of the Fencibles, the famous military and social
organization of which he was the head. Huston waited to organize
a larger force from all parts of the State, and made arrangements
with leaders in Louisiana and Arkansas to rendezvous in May. The
Eleventh reunion of the Natchez Fencibles and Vicksburg Volun
teers that April was brilliant with excitement. Their mottoes,
"Try Us" and "Always Ready" were cheered to the echo by the as
semblage of gallant men and beautiful women of the two cities.
But news soon arrived of the rout and capture of Santa Ana. Gen.
Thomas J. Green, formerly a citizen of Mississippi, visited the
State, in March, holding meetings to enlist volunteers and raise
funds to support the revolution. Military commissions were dis
tributed by him, among those thus honored being Benjamin W. Ed
wards. Henderson, a young lawyer from North Carolina, was one
of the most enthusiastic volunteers, and became a prominent official
of the new republic. Huston and another Mississippian (Foote?)
offered to join with Green in becoming responsible for a loan of
$200,000 at New Orleans. Quitman and his men reached San

MISSISSIPPI 777
Antonio in time for their leader to see and talk with Santa Ana be
fore his return to Natchez in May.
In the meantime Texas had declared her independence. Richard
Ellis was president of the convention and David G. Burnet was
elected president of the republic. Senator Robert J. Walker, of
Mississippi, introduced the resolution in the United States senate,
recognizing the independence of Texas, passed January, 18, 1837.
(Foote, "Texas and Texans;" Mississippi archives and newspaper
.files.) Text, a postoffice of Jasper county, 16 miles southwest of Paul
ding, the county seat.
Text-Book Commission. A law of 1904 required the governor to
appoint eight educators of known character and ability in their
profession, to constitute, with the State superintendent of educa
tion, "the Text-Book commission of Mississippi." The commission
is required to adopt a uniform system of text-books for use in the
public schools of the State, to be kept in use for five years, and re
ceive bids from publishers, and make contracts for obtaining the
lame, the publishers, whose bids are accepted, being required to
maintain one or two depositories in the State, and two or more
agencies in each county where the books may be obtained at the
contract price. Governor Vardaman appointed as the commission :
D. A. Hill, Booneville ; L. H. Jobe, Dumas ; C. E. Saunders, Green
wood; O. A. Shaw, Winona; L. Q. C. Williams, Leakesville; T. K.
Boggan, Collins; H. P. Hughes, McComb City; E. L. Bailey, Jack
son. The system was put in Operation in the summer of 1905.
Thacher, Joseph S. B, a native of Massachusetts, was reared and
educated at Boston, where his father held judicial office. He came
to Natchez in the early '30's, and from 1833 to 1837 was judge of the
district criminal court, succeeding John I. Guion. He was elected
in 1843 to the High court of errors and appeals, pledged to render
an opinion sustaining the repudiation of the Union bank bonds.
The campaign had disagreeable features, and he was defeated six
years later by the Whig candidate, Cotesworth P. Smith. Judge
Thacher is remembered as an earnest advocate of education, inter
ested in science and fine arts, and an author of literary essays of
considerable merit.
Thames, a post-hamlet of Covington county, 5 miles southeast of
Williamsburg, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Thanksgiving. In his last message, November 2, 1857, Governor
John J. McRae wrote: "Since I have been in office I have, each
year, as Governor of the State, without any authority of law, but
sustained by ancient custom, appointed a day of Thanksgiving.
Thursday, the nineteenth day of this month, is the day now ap
pointed, and I trust it will be observed. There is certainly some
superruling Providence which has brought us into existence, and
which will ultimately accomplish the ends for which we were
created, not only as individuals, but as a people. Nothing can,
therefore be lost by recognizing the obligation which we owe to
that Supreme Being — by it much may be gained."

778 MISSISSIPPI
Thaxton, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Pontotoc
county, on a tributary of the Tallahatchie river, about 11 miles from
Pontotoc, the county seat. Population in 1900, 56. It has 2
churches, a good school and a ginnery.
Thayer, a hamlet of Lincoln county, 7 miles south of Brookhaven,
the county seat, and nearest banking town, and 3 miles north of the
station of Bogue Chitto. The postoffice at this place was recently
discontinued, and it now has rural free delivery from Bogue Chitto.
Population in 1900, 46.
Thelma, a hamlet of Chickasaw county, 6 miles due north of
Houston. Houlka is the nearest railroad town. Population in 1900,
20. It has rural free delivery service from Houston.
Thomastown, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Leake
county, on the Yokahockany river, 55 miles northeast of Jackson,
and 12 miles northwest of Carthage> the county seat. Kosciusko
is the nearest railroad and banking town. It has two churches and
a college. Population in 1900, 54.
Thomasville, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, 9 miles south of
Brandon, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has 2
churches, 2 stores and a good school. Population in 1900, 31.
Thompson, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Amite
county, on the East Fork of the Amite river, about 12 miles from
Liberty, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in
1900, 40.
Thompson, Hugh Miller. The Right Reverened Hugh Miller
Thompson, D. D, LL. D, second Bishop of the Protestant Episco
pal Church in the Diocese of Mississippi, was born, of English
parentage, June 5, 1830, at Tamlaght O'Crilly, County of Derry,
Ireland. His parents came to the United States during his child
hood, and he received his early academic education from private
instructors at Caldwell, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio. He did
not attend any college or university, but having determined to
study for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he went
to the seminary at Nashotah, Wisconsin, for his theological train
ing. He describes his going to that institution as follows :
"I walked from Milwaukee to Prairieville (now Waukesha), and
thence tramped on to Nashotah. . . . On the road through the
woods then between Delafield and "Nashotah House," I met a
stout, elderly gentleman in black with a white neck-tie, a pair of
gold-bowed spectacles, and a pleasant, fresh, white and red face.
He bowed in passing, and was shortly thereafter overtaken by a
younger man, black-haired, spare, and also with gold-bowed spec
tacles over curious, questioning eyes. The younger gentleman
joined me and in a few, short, sharp questions found out what he
wanted ; i. e, he turned me inside out ; told me the gray-haired gen
tleman was Bishop Kemper, and that he was Professor William
Adams, — the man who was to have more influence upon my intel
lectual development than all other living men together.
"When we reached Nashotah my heart sank within me. I had
expected to find some outward and visible sign of an institution

MISSISSIPPI 779
of learning. I found a group of shanties ! I would have walked
back the next day to Milwaukee, but Professor Adams put his arm
in mine and led me along the trail by the Lake-shore, and he talked.
I had never met a scholar like this before. . . . Here was a man
who could teach me something, 4and I stayed and studied and
worked for three years."
He was graduated from Nashotah in 1852, and June 6 of that year
was ordained to the Deaconate by Bishop Kemper. He was or
dained to the Priesthood four years later, August 31, 1856, by the
same Bishop ; and until 1870 he continued to be associated with
Nashotah Seminary and the missionary work of the Episcopal
Church in Wisconsin and Illinois. He had charge of the missions
at Portage and Baraboo, Wisconsin, and was rector of St. John's,
Elkhorn ; St. Matthew's, Kenosha ; and the Atonement, Milwaukee.
In 1854 he was married to Caroline Berry, who died a few years
after. On October 25, 1859 he was married to Anna Weatherburn
Hindsdale, daughter of Henry Butler Hindsdale, of Kenosha, Wis,
who survives him. From 1860 to 1870 he was professor of ecclesi
astical history at Nashotah, having at the same time charge of the
parishes at Kenosha and Milwaukee. During this period he
founded Kemper Hall, a school for girls at Kenosha, which work
still continues, now under the charge of the Sisters of St. Mary;
and was also editor of the "American Churchman," a paper which
wielded great influence in the Episcopal Church. He was rector
of other congregations, viz, Grace Church, Madison, Wis. ; the
Nativity, Maysville, Ky. ; Grace Church, Galena, 111. ; and St. James'
Church, Chicago.
Bishop Thompson received the honorary degrees of Doctor in
Divinity, from Hobart College, N. Y, 1863, and of Doctor of Laws,
from the University of Mississippi, 1885.
In 1870 he went to New York as the rector of Christ Church.
While here he became editor of "The Church Journal and Gospel
Messenger," and as such made himself notable throughout the
whole country for his remarkable strong and scholarly editorials.
Two volumes of his editorials in this paper have been published
under the title of "Copy"- and "More Copy."
In 1875 he became the rector of Trinity Church, New Orleans,
La, and there he continued for eight years, until his election and
consecration as Bishop-Coadjutor to Bishop William Mercer Green,
of the Diocese of Mississippi. He was consecrated Bishop in Trin
ity Church, New Orleans, February 24, 1883 ; and at the death of
Bishop Green, in 1887, he became Bishop of the Diocese of Missis
sippi, in which office he continued until his death, November 18,
1902. His remains lie buried in St. Colomb's Chapel, Jackson, Miss.
Bishop Thompson was the author of the following publications :
(1) "Copy"; Essays from an Editor's Drawer. ,1872. (many
editions). (2) "More Copy;" Second Series of Editorials. 1897.
(3) "The World and the Logos." (Bedell Lectures, Kenyon
College). 1886.

780 MISSISSIPPI
(4) "The World and the Kingdom." (Paddock Lectures, Gen
eral Theological Seminary, New York.) 1888.
(5) "The World and the Man." (Baldwin Lectures, University
of Michigan), 1890.
(6) "The World and the Wrestlers; Personality and Responsi
bility." (Bohlen Lectures, Philadelphia.) 1895.
(7) "Unity and Its Restoration.'
(8) "Sin and Penalty."
(9) "First Principles."
(10) "The Kingdom of God."
(11) "Absolution in the Light of Primitive Practice."
(12) "Is Romanism the Best Religion for the Republic?"
Thompson, Jacob, was born in Caswell county, N. C, May 15,
1810 ; was graduated at the university of that State in 1831, and
remained for some months at the university as a tutor ; he read law
at Greensboro, and was admitted to practice in 1835, whereupon
he started to make his home at Natchez ; but on reaching Columbus,
Miss, was induced to remain in eastern Mississippi, where the re
cent cession of land by the Chickasaws opened great opportunities
for wealth. Consequently he accompanied his brother, Dr. James
Y. Thompson, to Pontotoc, where the land office was opened, and
thereafter made his home there. He began to take an active part
in politics, to which his life was mainly devoted, and made his
first speech at Pontotoc in opposition to the proposition that the
State should issue $5,000,000 bonds for the Union bank. The State
was, however, too tight in the grip of the speculative mania to heed
his warning. In 1837, when the Chickasaw cession was divided into
ten counties, and Governor Lynch refused to issue writs of election
for the representatives in the legislature, according to his under
standing of the constitution, Thompson was the leader at Pontotoc
of the party that demanded immediate representation, opposed by
William Y. Gholson and others. He drew up an address to the
Chickasaw counties advising elections under local writs. He was
accordingly nominated for attorney-general of the State by those
favoring his views, but was defeated by a small majority. But the
part he took in the organization of courts in each of the new coun
ties confirmed him in a position of leadership in north Mississippi.
The suspension of the banks followed, and the political revulsion
which put Prentiss in congress. The Democratic party made a
great fight to recover power, with A. G. McNutt and repudiation
as the State issue, and Albert G. Brown and Jacob Thompson were
the nominees for congress. The ticket was elected in November,
1839. The returns were collected by special runners, and a cer
tificate reached Thompson in time, by special courier from the
governor, so that he was able to reach Washington for the Decem
ber session, and by his vote, tie the house on a famous contested
election case. Thompson devoted himself in congress to the busi
ness interests of his people, as affected by the national regulations
regarding post roads, pension rolls, land titles, etc, and made him-

MISSISSIPPI 781
self stronger than his party in Mississippi. By continued reelection
he remained in congress 18 years, until March 4, 1857.
He made a gallant fight for his party in the State campaign of
1840; and in 1841 wrote a letter in defense of the repudiation of
Union bank bonds that was of great influence in sustaining the
action -that was taken. After the inauguration of President Polk,
it was the understanding that Robert J. Walker was to accept the
secretaryship of the treasury, and that Thompson should immedi
ately succeed him in the senate; but Walker failed to deliver to
Thompson the commission entrusted to him by the governor, (Clai
borne's narrative) and after Thompson's return to Mississippi, he
declined appointment. There was thereafter a serious breach be
tween him and Walker, whose projects he had theretofore sup
ported. Hfe supported the settlement of the Northwest boundary
and the Mexican war, and was in successive congresses chairman
of the then important committee of Indian affairs. In 1849, as at
earlier dates, he was willing to retire from congress, but his party
demanded his candidacy, as the Whigs nominated a very popular
man, Gen. A. B. Bradford. In 1851 he made a desperate fight for
the entire State ticket of his party, and was defeated, the issue be
ing resistance to the Compromise of 1850. In 1852 he was a dele
gate to the Baltimore convention and was influential in securing
the nomination of Pierce, who, upon inauguration tendered him the
consulship at Havana, which he declined. In 1855 he was a can
didate for United States senator, but was defeated by Jefferson Davis.
At the national convention at Cincinnati in 1856, he did much to se
cure the nomination of Buchanan, and in March, 1857, he was called
to the position of secretary of the interior, which department he re
organized, centralizing the management in his own hands. Toward
the close of his administration, however, there was a great defal
cation in the Indian Trust fund, due to the acceptance by the dis
bursing clerk of that fund of the drafts of a great firm of contrac
tors on the secretary of war, John B. Floyd, in accordance with an
illegitimate agreement between Floyd and the contractors. The
explosion of this scandal had great political notoriety, and Mr.
Thompson's reputation suffered severely, although a committee of
congress, mainly composed of his political opponents, reported
"that they have discovered nothing to involve the late secretary,
Hon. Jacob Thompson, in the slightest degree, in the fraud, and
nothing to indicate that he had any complicity in the abstraction,
or that he had any knowledge of it until the time of the disclos
ure of Goddard Bailey."
Mr. Thompson remained in the cabinet after the election of Mr.
Lincoln, until January 9. He then resigned and returned to Mis
sissippi, where he aided much in the organization of troops. When
Gen. Beauregard came to Jackson to take command of the army of
the West, he served with him as volunteer aide in the battle of Shi
loh and through the siege of Corinth. Afterward he was lieutenant-
colonel of Ballentine's regiment four months, and was in active
service during Grant's advance on the Central railroad, having his

782 MISSISSIPPI
horse shot under him at Water Valley. Gen. Pemberton invited
him to become chief inspector of his army. He suggested to Pem
berton, says Claiborne, the raid of VanDorn to Holly Springs. He
was with the army at Vicksburg in December, 1862, and through
the campaign of 1863, and was under parole after the surrender of
Vicksburg. He was elected to the legislature from Lafayette county, and
served in the session of 1863 at Columbus, and the called session
at Macon, after which he went to Richmond at the call of President
Davis, and accepted a secret mission to Canada, to cooperate with
the secret organizations in the Western States, against the United
States government. With verbal instructions from the president
and an ample fund, he set out upon his mission, accompanied by
C. C. Clay, of Alabama, and W. W. Cleary, of Kentucky, as secre
tary. They ran the blockade in the English ship, Thistle, to the
Bermudas, and thence sailed in a regular English packet to Halifax.
Reaching Montreal, he opened communication with Clement' L.
Vallandigham, of Ohio, who had been banished fof opposition to
the war, and held the position of grand commander of the secret
organizations, known mainly as Knights of the Golden Circle, or
more popularly by their enemies as Copperheads. They claimed a
fighting strength of 80,000 in Illinois, and 40,000 in each of the
States of Ohio and Indiana. Mr. Thompson became a member of
the order, and opened communication with their lodges in those
States, and cooperated in the plans for releasing and arming 25,-
000 Confederate prisoners at Chicago, Rock Island, Indianapolis
and Johnson's Island. Dates were set in these prisons for a con
certed uprising, but the expected allies never had the courage to
make proof of their theories. Col. Thompson did organize an expe
dition to release the men at Johnson's Island, and capture the gun
boat Michigan, which resulted in the famous exploit of Lieutenant
Beale, who seized the boat Philo Parsons, and captured and scut
tled the Island Queen, but through treachery was unable to surprise
the Michigan, and was compelled to escape to the Canada shore.
As soon as the trial of the raiders was over and they were released;
Mr. Thompson started to return home.
At this time, President Lincoln was assassinated. The President
had, a few days before his death, requested that Mr. Thompson be
permitted to proceed unmolested from Portland, Me, where he had
gone in disguise to obtain passage southward. He sailed for Eu
rope and remained several years before returning to Mississippi.
After a short residence at Oxford, he removed to Memphis, where
he died March 24, 1885. At that time L. Q. C. Lamar was secretary
of the interior, and ordered the flags- to be put at half mast over
the department buildings. (Sketch by J. F. H. Claiborne, in His
tory of Miss.)
Thompsonville, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Hinds
county, 15 miles south of Raymond. Utica is the nearest railroad
and banking town. Population in 1900, 26.

MISSISSIPPI. 783
Thorn, a post-hamlet of Chickasaw county, about 5 miles north
west of Houston, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest
railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 24.
Thornton, an incorporated post-town of Holmes county on the
Illinois Central R. R, about 18 miles north of Yazoo City. Tchula
is the nearest banking town. It was named for Dr. C. C. Thornton,
a large land owner. Population in 1900, 46. t
. Thornton, Thomas, was born in Dumfries, Va, October 12, 1794.
At the age of sixteen he became an exhorter in the Methodist
church, and was a member of the Baltimore conference at nineteen.
He became president of a college in Mississippi in 1841. In 1845
he became a member of the Episcopal church, but returned to the
Methodist church in 1850, and was readmitted to the Mississippi
conference. He was the author of "An Inquiry into Slavery," 1841,
which was a famous defense of that system.
Thrailkill, a postoffice in the southern part of Montgomery county,
18 miles from Winona, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Thrasher, a postoffice and station in the north-central part of
Prentiss county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, 6 miles north of
Booneville, the county seat.
Three Per Cent. Fund. (See Two Per Cent. Fund). The legis
lative acts appropriating this fund began as early as 1824, when the
settlements of the State were in three remote regions, unconnected
by roads. The money was wisely appropriated, with great benefit,
in opening new roads and building bridges. In January, 1826, the
legislature asked congress to permit the partial use of the fund in
improving navigation, and under an act of congress of March 14,
1826, there were some considerable expenditures at the Pascagoula
pass, in Pearl river, Bayou Pierre, in canalling Yazoo pass, and im
proving the Coldwater. By an act of January, 1826, the governor was
authorized to collect the fund of the United States and deposit it
in the treasury. Then in February, 1830, and again in 1833, the
legislature directed that the fund as received should be invested in
the stock of the Planters' bank. About $36,000 was so invested,
and it grew to $42,700 worth of stock, which was sold under another
act of legislature, in 1836, for $52,379, and in obedience to the act
of legislature, this amount, as well as $382,000 received for the
fund in 1836-37, was distributed among the counties, which was the
end of it; $13,770, received by J. H. Mallory, auditor, never reached
the treasury. $435,000, nominally distributed to the counties, was
lost — "being mostly swallowed up by the boards of police and
county treasurers and their friends, in that great period of specu
lation — and squandered in the same manner that the Common
School funds of that date were wasted." (Arthur's report) .
Another distribution act was passed in 1852, — $332 to each
county, — and it was supposed that the amount left over from the
Graves defalcation, and what was received from the United States
in 1849, was all there was to the credit of the fund. "But, strange
as it may appear, owing to the bungling manner in which the books
of the treasurer's office were kept, there was then near $86,600

784 MISSISSIPPI
more to the credit of the fund, which had never been brought for
ward on the books of 1837-40, and had been lost sight of."
November 18, 1857, the legislature passed an act to loan the fund,
in equal portions, to the railroad companies then building what are
now known as the Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central and Alabama &
Vicksburg roads. The loan was to be for six years, without inter
est, and when paid back the money was to be invested in stock in
the Gulf & Ship Island railroad. When the act passed it was sup
posed that the fund amounted to $104,736, and it was so distributed ;
but the examination of the State finances by Mr. Arthur in 1858-
59 showed that the fund was entitled to $209,176; so that there re
mained $104,000 to distribute, and the question arose where should
it go, to the railroads or the counties.
On March 16, 1852, there had been paid into the State treasury,
on account of this fund, $486,337, and disbursed $368,856. Subse
quently, up to the fall of 1859, $113,928 was received for the fund.
The United States records showed a payment to the State of $569,-
185, which added to the Planters' bank proceeds, made a total of
$621,565, which was over $24,000 more than the State records ac
counted for. (Report of A. S. Arthur, State commissioner, Senate
Journal, 1858, appendix p. 29).
Three Rivers, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Jackson
county, on the Pascagoula river, 13 miles north of Pascagoula, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Thrift, a postoffice of Madison county, 16 miles northeast of Can
ton, the county seat.
Thyatira, a hamlet of Tate county, 12 miles east of Senatobia,
the county seat. It was named for the ancient city of Asia Minor.
It has a money order postoffice, 2 stores, a church, a school, and a
cotton gin. Population in 1900, 62.
Tibbee Station, a post-hamlet of Clay county, on Line creek, and
on the Mobile & Ohio R. R, hy2 miles south of West Point, the
county seat and nearest banking town. It has a church and a
school. Population in 1900, 100.
Tillatoba. (See Tallahatchie county). This old abandoned town
was once the county seat of Tallahatchie county, but as the title to
the land on which the town stood was defective, the seat of justice
was moved about 1837 to the present county seat of Charleston.
Three of its citizens were W. H. Carothers, merchant; Trewalla, a
tailor, and Dr. Coleman. The new town of the same name on the
Illinois Central is not to be confused with the old town, which
has quite vanished.
Tillatoba, an incorporated post-town of Yalobusha county, on the
Memphis division of the Illinois Central R. R, 18 miles north of
Grenada. Oakland is the nearest banking town. It has a money
order postoffice, and a public cotton gin. Population in 1900, 115 ;
population in 1906 was estimated at 150.
Tillman, a post-hamlet and station in the southern part of
Claiborne county, on the Natchez-Jackson branch bf the Yazoo &

MISSISSIPPI 785
Mississippi Valley R. R, 8 miles southeast of Port Gibson, the
county seat, and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 38.
Tilton, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Lawrence county,
on Tilton creek, a tributary of the Pearl river, about 12 miles from
Monticello, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Timberville, a postoffice of Calhoun county.
Tinnin, a hamlet in the northern part of Hinds county, on Os-
burn's creek, about 12 miles northwest of Jackson. It has a
money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 25.
Tinsley, a postoffice of Yazoo county, 7 miles south of Yazoo
City, the county seat. It is a station on the Illinois Central R. R.
It has several stores and an express office. Its population is
about 50.
Tiplersville, a hamlet in the northern part of Tippah county, on
the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R, 13 miles north of Ripley,
the county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order
postoffice, a saw mill and a cotton gin, and lies in the midst of a
fertile farming region. Its population in 1900 was 72.
„ Tippah, a post-hamlet of Benton county, situated on the creek of
the same name, 6 miles due south of Ashland, the county seat.
Population in 1900, 26.
Tippah County was established, Feb. 9, 1836, and was named for
the wife of Pontotoc, a Chickasaw Indian chief, the name signifying
"cut off." The county has a land surface of 456 square miles. It
was one of the twelve counties created out of the Chickasaw Indian
cession of 1832, in the year 1836, and lies next to Tennessee, on the
northern border of the State. It was originally a very large county
of about 27 townships and embraced within its area a large part
of the present county of Benton, as well as the northern portion
of Union and the western portions of Alcorn and Prentiss counties.
Its original limits were defined as follows : "Beginning at the
point where the line between townships 6 and 7 intersects the basis
meridian, to the northern boundary line of the State; thence east
with the said boundary line, to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east ;
thence south with the said range line, to the line between townships
6 and 7 ; and thence west with the said township line to the be
ginning." It is now bounded on the north by the Tennessee
line, on the east by Alcorn and Prentiss counties, on the south by
Union county and on the west by Benton county. A list of the
county officers, soon after the establishment of the county, is
as follows: Joseph Hicks, George Gray, Robert P. Dean, Thos. C.
Nanty, Samuel Long, Members of the Board of Police; John
B. Ayres, John Redfern, James Parke, Hugh G. Henderson, Daniel
Cuthbert, Wm. McGraw, John C. Blackwood, Josiah Short, Joseph
Smith, David Skilman, Magistrates ; John Jones, Allen Ayres,
Hiram Oney, Handy B. Byrn, James M. Clark, Constables ; Robert
R. Thomas, Judge of Probate; Edmund J. Baiiy, Clerk of the Pro
bate Court ; Henry W. Stricklin, Clerk of the Circuit Court ; Samuel
N. Pryor, Assessor and Collector; Daniel Griffin, County Treasurer;
Wm. Kerr, County Surveyor ; Winston Corter, Coroner.
60-11

786 MISSISSIPPI
Many wealthy and substantial planters, merchants and profes
sional men came to the region in, the early '30s, and settled along
the banks of its streams. Among the early settlements of those
years, which flourished for a time, but are now moribund, may be
mentioned Salem, Orizaba and Ruckersville. Salem was first set
tled in 1836, incorporated 1837. It was two or three miles west
of Ashland in what was then Tippah county, and was absorbed by
the latter place. Among the more prominent settlers of the neigh
borhood were Col. Francis T. Seake, Thomas Hamer, Col. Daniel
B. Wright, lawyer and Congressman; Col. John B. Ayres, father of
Gus Ayres, M. D. ; Robert McDonald, Dr. J. A. Moorman, John
W. Matthews, Orin Beck, proprietor of Beck's Springs, and Col.
Baird. Major-Gen. N. B-. Forrest, the renowned cavalry leader
and a nephew of Mr. Beck, and Joseph W. Matthews, once Governor
of the State, also lived near Salem. Orizaba was 7 miles south
of Ripley and once had one hundred and fifty inhabitants. Its
people lost heavily during the war and the building of the Gulf &
Chicago R. R. a few miles to the east, and the establishment of the
large female college, at Blue Mountain, by the late Gen. M. P. Low
rey, three miles to the northwest, worked the final ruin of the old
town. Many prosperous planters were located in the surrounding
country, and local residents were : Robert I. Hill, W. T. Ratcliff,
Noah Roberts, Laird and Wear, merchants ; Laird, Magill, Ford,
Ellis and King, physicians. Ruckersville was settled in 1842 by
John and Daniel Finger and first called Finger's Cross Roads, from
its location where the Ripley and Pocahontas and Salem public
roads cross. Soon after Dr. Charles Rucker, an able physician,
established a drug store here and the place took his name. Fant,
Gibbs & Co. did a thriving mercantile business here until the
coming of the railroad to Ripley, 5 miles away. Some of the
earliest settlers in the county besides those above mentioned, were
Abner McCoy, Joseph Jamison, W. C. Falkner, lawyer, author and
colonel in the Confederate service ; Rev. Wm. A. Gray, Hon. W. A. '
Boyd, Judge Christopher A. Green, Thos. C. Hindman, father of
Gen. Thos. Hindman ; Dr. E. M. Alexander and Frederic Brougher,
Senator from Tippah in 1842, 1843 and 1844, father of Charles
Brougher, afterwards Secretary of State. The Brougher home,
"Blue Mountain," 6 miles from Ripley, was one of the famous his
toric homes of Mississippi.
The county seat of Tippah is Ripley, near the center of the county
on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R. It is a place of 900
inhabitants (incorporated May, 1837), the center of a good trade
from the surrounding country and is possessed of excellent schools.
Six miles southwest of Ripley is the town of Blue Mountain, so
called from the mountain of the same name, and a place of 700
inhabitants. Here is located the celebrated Blue Mountain Fe
male College, founded in 1873 by Gen. M. P. Lowrey, on the site of
the old Brougher home. Some of the other towns are Cottonplant
and Falkner, on the railroad, and Graves, Hatchie, Dumas, Bullock,
Mitchell, Chalybeate and Silversprings, away from the road. A

MISSISSIPPI 787
single line of railway traverses the county — the Mobile, Jackson &
Kansas City — from north to south, connecting with the Frisco
System at New Albany, and with the Southern Ry. at Middle-
ton, just across the border in Tennessee. The county is watered
by the head streams of the Tallahatchie and Tippah rivers, on the
west and south, and by the West Hatchie, and Hatchie rivers and
its tributaries, on the east and north. There is considerable good
water power available for mill sites. About three-fourths of the
land of the county is timbered and hilly, and one-sixth is bottom
land "and level. About one-third of the total farm acreage is now
cleared. The timber consists of pine, oaks, poplar, walnut, gum,
hickory, ash, cypress, etc. The eastern part of the county lies in
the so-called Limestone Formation and the western part in the
Yellow Loam Region. The soil produces corn, cotton, wheat, oats,
rye, sorghum, millet, sweet and Irish potatoes and all kinds of
fruits and vegetables. Limestone and good marls are found in
various places, also lignite and traces of bituminous coal. Consid
erable live stock is raised in the county and the industry is assum
ing more importance every year. The climate is very healthful and
good schools abound, the terms ranging from 5 to 9 months. Man
ufactures are unimportant as yet and do not figure largely in
estimating the wealth of the county.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population :
Number of farms 2,288, acreage in farms 238,980, acres improved
72,576, value of land exclusive of buildings $885,230, value of build
ings $302,750, value of live stock $392,147, total value of products
not fed to stock $733,201. Number of manufacturing establish
ments 45, capital invested $56,780, wages paid $14,424, cost of
materials $38,667, total value of products $90,777. Population in
1900 was whites 10,080, colored 2,903, total 12,983, increase over
year 1890, 32 ; in 1906 the total population was estimated at 14,000.
Land values in the last five years have increased fully 300 per cent.
Fine belts of pine and oak timber are found in the eastern portion of
the county and good springs abound throughout the region.
. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in
Tippah county in 1905 was $1,388,792 and in 1906 it was $1,469,627,
which shows an increase of $80,835 during the year.
Tishomingo County was established Feb. 9, 1836, and was one
of the twelve counties formed by the Legislature in that year, from
the Chickasaw Indian cession of 1832. The county has a land
surface of 433 square miles. It was named for a king of the Chick
asaws, the word Tishomingo signifying "Warrior Chief." Feb. 14,
1836, Peter G. Rivers, A. M. Cowan, James M. Matthews, and
James Davis were appointed by act of the Legislature to organize
the county. It is the extreme northeastern county of the State,
the Tennessee river forming its northeastern boundary for about
18 miles. It was originally very large and contained an area
of about 30 townships, or 1,080 square miles. Its original limits
were defined as follows: "Beginning at the point where the line

788 MISSISSIPPI
between townships 6 and 7 intersects the eastern boundary line of
the State, and running with the said boundary line to the Tennessee
river; thence down the said river to the point where the northern
boundary line of the State intersects the same ; thence with the said
northern boundary line, to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east of
the basis meridian ; thence south with the said range line, to the
line between townships 6 and 7 ; thence east with the said township
line to the beginning." More than half its area was taken from it in
1870, when the counties of Alcorn and Prentiss were established.
A list of the county officers soon after its establishment is as fol
lows : James Harris, L. B. Estes, W. Belcher, John C. Catter,
David Ross, Members of the Board of Police; Samuel Dancer,
Benjamin Ballard, B. M. Cobb, A. J. Aldride, Mathew Gage, T. B.
Phillips, Jacob Walker, G^ B. Rogers, John Ritcherson, John H.
Alstote, William B. Owens, Thomas Walker, John Kennerdy,<
Magistrates; Stephen H. Hogull, Sheriff; William Cowan, Coroner;
William Rushing, Treasurer; Stephen O. Gilbis, Assessor and Col
lector; Jeremiah Phillips, Surveyor; C. D. Ray, Judge of the Pro
bate Court; Thomas Pate, Clerk of the Probate Court; Mathias
B. Click, Clerk of the Circuit Court; Jehu D. Moore, Ranger. The
first white settlement in old Tishomingo county was at a place
called Troy, in the present county of Alcorn, on the old Reynolds-
burg road, near the Tuscumbia river. On the west of the settlement
was an abundance of freestone, spring water, suitable for tanyards,
for which the place was well known. The first circuit court in the
-county was held at a log house in Troy. As the' settlement grew,
the name was changed to that of Danville, as there was already
one Troy in the State. A few of the early settlers of Danville were
Dr. Broady, Dr. B. F. Liddon, H. B. Mitchell, father of Judge L. B.
Mitchell, of Corinth, the first probate judge of the county; A. B.
Dilworth and Cody Fowler, representatives of the county in the
Legislature, and the former, Secretary of State, from 1855 to
1860. The town was destroyed by Federal troops during the war.
Other old settlements in old Tishomingo were Cammel's Town, on
the old Reynoldsburg road, and about 15 miles south of the homeof
Pitman Colbert, a wealthy half-breed Indian; Boneyard, estab
lished in the early '30s by William Powell, on the stage road run
ning from Jacinto, to Lagrange, Tenn. ; Jacinto, in the southeastern
corner of Alcorn county and the first seat of justice of old Tish
omingo county ; Carrollville, in the present county of Prentiss -
(q. v.) ; and Farmington, a flourishing place until the year 1855,
when the Mobile & Ohio R. R. and the Memphis & Charleston R. R.
made a crossing about four miles to the southwest at Corinth,
and, killed the old town. The Federal forces completed the demoli
tion of the town during the war. Many prominent pioneers rest in
the old cemetery, which is still maintained. M. P. Lowrey (after
wards Gen. Lowrey), a brick mason; Drs. Stout, Joel Anderson, J-
J. Gibson and George Gray, physicians ; Ben Jones, who kept the
hotel; "Uncle Dick" Smith, ginner and farmer; Col. C. W. Mc-
Cbrd and Rev. E. C. Gillenwalters were among the prominent-

MISSISSIPPI 789
residents of the old place, many of whose descendants are now
inhabitants of Corinth. During the '30s and '40s a strong tide of
emigration to this region set in from Tennessee, northern Alabama,
Georgia and Virginia. Most of these settlers were of the better
class, thrifty and intelligent. The county seat is located at luka,
a thriving little town on the line of the Southern Ry, in the north
eastern part of the county, noted for its many fine mineral water
springs. Population in 1900 was 882, and in 1906 was estimated at
2,000. There are no other large settlements in the county. Burns-
ville, a feW miles west of luka on the railway, is a place of 500 peo
ple. Highland, Cartersville, Mingo, Belmont, Hillside and Doskie
are small villages away from the railroad. The county now has
one railroad, the Southern, which crosses it from east to west. The
Illinois Central R. R. is being built through the county from the
northwest to the southeast. Besides the Tennessee river above
mentioned, there are numerous small streams which water the
region: Yellow, Bear, Twenty Mile, Cripple Deer, Mackey's and
Indian creeks afford good water power for factories and mills.
The northeastern part of the county is broken and hilly, the bot
toms are level and the balance of the surface is undulating. There
were in 1900, 46,114 acres of improved lands out of a total farm
acreage of 208,907. The soil is light and sandy and easily culti
vated; on the bottoms, it is alluvial and very productive. The
products are corn, cotton, oats, wheat, rye, rice, sorghum, tobacco,
and a large variety of fruits and vegetables. For seven months in
the year stock do well in the woods pasture. The following timber
is found in the county: Pine, black-jack, post-oak, white and red
oak, hickory, poplar, gum, walnut, maple, cypress, etc. The follow
ing minerals are also found: Iron, kaolin (porcelain clay), alum
inous limestone for cement, silica 97 per cent, pure, red paint
earth, fire proof brick clay, and yellow okra. The climate is dry
and salubrious and good schools are to be found throughout the
county. There are no manufactures of importance, though thirty-
one are listed in the census of 1900.
The following statistics for Tishomingo county were taken from
the twelfth U. S. census for 1900, and relate to farms, manufactures
and population : Number of farms 1,625, acreage in farms 208,907,
acres improved 46,114, value of land exclusive of buildings $416,-
980, value of buildings $168,190, value of live stock $253,390, total
value of products not fed to stock $433,103. Number of manu
facturing establishments 31, capital invested $34,659, wages paid
$6,903, cost of materials $42,373, total value of products $64,432.
The population in 1900 consisted of whites 9,073, colored 1,051,
total 10,124, increase of 822 over the year 1890 ; in 1906 the popu
lation was estimated at 12,000. Land values have more than
doubled in the last 5 years. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property in Tishomingo county in 1905 was $1,022,244
and in 1906 it was $1,441,999, which shows an increase of $419,755
during the year.

790 MISSISSIPPI
Tobacco was the first staple product of the Natchez district for
export, beginning with the offers of the Spanish government to take
all the product at a good price. This offer was made to attract set
tlers. Tobacco was already growing in the country, and it was soon
generally cultivated. The leaves were packed in hogsheads by the
larger planters, and in "carrets" by less extensive growers, the
carret being formed by a pile of leaves dried under compression of
a tightly wrapped cloth, and then wrapped with rope made of the
inner bark of the basswood or linn tree. The barrels were often
hauled to Natchez by shafts attached directly to the heads, the
barrel forming both wheels and load. "To convey the tobacco to
market in New Orleans, it was usual for several planters to unite
and build a flatboat, with which one of the number would accom
pany the joint adventure, deliver the tobacco at the public ware
house, and, if it passed inspection, receive the proceeds and return
home by land, generally on foot; the payment being made in a writ
ten acknowledgement,- or bon, as it was called, which entitled the
holder to receive the amount from the governor or commandant at
Natchez, this obviating the labor and risk of packing the specie
several hundred miles." The certainty of this produce encouraged
the planters to make large investments in slaves, but the entrance
of the Kentucky product into market, through the diplomacy of
Gen. Wilkinson, and the growing indifference of the Spanish gov
ernment, made the cultivation unprofitable, greatly to the embar
rassment of the' planters who had made large investments.
(Wailes' report).
In 1850 the product of the State was estimated at 50,000 pounds
by the census statisticians. The plant is still cultivated for home
consumption. An exhibit was made at the New Orleans exposition
that attracted favorable attention.
Toccopola, an incorporated post-town in the western part of
Pontotoc county, 12 miles southeast of Oxford and 15 miles west
of Pontotoc, the nearest railroad and banking town. It has 3
churches, a high school, a grist mill, a carriage shop, and a money
order postoffice. Toccopola College, a chartered institution, is
located here. Population in 1900, 249, and in 1906 was estimated
at 300.
Tocowa, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of
Panola county, in the bluff region, midway between the valleys of
the Tallahatchie and Yocona rivers. Courtland on the Illinois
Central R. R. is the nearest railroad station and banking town.
Population in 1900, 114 ; its population in 1906 was estimated at 250.
The town is noted for its famous mineral spring. It has a good
hotel, a church, a school and several stores. The country about
Tocowa indicates that coal and oil exist.
Todd, a postoffice of Benton county, situated on Tippah creek,
11 miles south, southeast of Ashland, the county seat.
Tokio, a post-hamlet of Wayne county, 8 miles northeast of
Waynesboro, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking
town. Population in 1900, 15.

MISSISSIPPI 791
Tolarviile, a post-hamlet of Holmes county, about 12 miles
southwest of Lexington, the county seat, and nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 42.
Toles, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Kemper county,
about 15 miles from Dekalb, the county seat. Population in
1900, 30.
Tom, a postoffice in the western part of Webster county, on
Calabrella creek, 12 miles west of Walthall, the county seat.
Tomnolen, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part
of Webster county, on the Southern Ry, 6 miles southwest of
Eupora, the nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 87.
Tompkins, Patrick W, a native of Kentucky, who studied law
and began the practice at Vicksburg, Miss. He was elected to the
30th congress as a Whig, serving 1847-49. Afterward he moved
to California and died at San Francisco, May 16, 1853.
Tonic, a postoffice in the eastern part of Lauderdale county, on
Toomsuba creek, and on the Alabama Great Southern R. R, about
14 ,miles east of Meridian.
Tonnar, a postoffice in the southern part of Washington county,
about 9 miles north of Rolling Fork, the nearest banking town.
Tonti, Henri de, has thus been characterized by the historian
Claiborne : "No character in the romantic history of French explor
ation in North America, is so uniformly perfect and admirable as
Henri de Tonti. His coolness and constancy, discretion, courage,
fertility of resource and devotion to duty, never failed. His influ
ence over the fierce tribes of the Northwest, which he retained in
his remote and isolated post, even when the government at Quebec
had lost its control over them, exhibits an extraordinary faculty
for command, aided by great moral and personal qualities." All
that is known of his personal history and adventures beyond the
frequent allusions made to him by such men as d'lberville, Bien
ville, La Salle, Frontenac, etc, is recorded in a report of his ser
vices to the French Government about 1690, which is published
in the first volume of French's Historical Collections of Louisiana.
He was a brave and generous officer, and his achievements in the
exploration of the Mississippi Valley must rank him next to La
Salle; and there is no man who contributed more to the successful
extension of the French possessions in North America. Prior to
1678 he spent eight years in the French service by land and sea,
and had a hand shot off in Sicily by a grenade. He came to Canada
with La Salle in 1678 and accompanied him in his exploration of the
Mississippi river in 1682. In 1683 La Salle appointed him to the
command of Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois river, and in 1686 he
went with forty men in canoes, at his own expense, to the Gulf of
Mexico, to seek for La Salle, who had previously sailed from Ro-
chello with an expedition to plant a colony on the Mississippi
river. Unable to find him, he was subsequently engaged under
Denonville in the war with the Iroquois. On the close of the cam
paign, he returned to Fort St. Louis, and in 1689, went in search

792 MISSISSIPPI
of La Salle's colony in Texas. On account of the treachery and de
sertion of his men, he was unable to find the remnants of this col
ony, though the expedition contributed much to the knowledge of
the interior of the country. La Harpe's Journal informs us that
"On the 19 of February, 1700, M. de Tonty descended the Missis
sippi from Canada in a pirogue, to discover whether any settle
ments had been made." From this time on he seems to have at
tached himself to MM. d'lberville and Bienville, and was employed
by them in various active services up to the time of his death.
Says La Harpe, "In the month of September (1704), a great deal
of sickness prevailed in the colony (at Fort Mobile). MM. de
Tonty, et le Vasseur, Father Dongy, a Jesuit, and thirty soldiers of
the new troops who had just arrived at the fort died during this
month." Tooley, Henry, a native of Tennessee, died at Natchez, June 18,
1848, aged 75 years. He was many years magistrate, mayor, and
president of the board of county police. He was the first grand
master of Freemasonry in Mississippi ; was a member of the Meth
odist church 60 years, and 15 years a preacher. His activities were
many and noble. He was called the "Father of Temperance" at
Natchez, contributed meteorological information to the American
Almanac, was an industrious student and linguist, and made con
siderable progress in a translation of the Bible from the Hebrew.
Toomsuba, a village in the eastern part of Lauderdale county, on
the creek of that name, and a station on the Alabama Great South
ern R. R, .12 miles east of Meridian. It has 3 churches, several
stores and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 175.
Topeka, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Lawrence
county, and a station on the Natchez, Columbia & Mobile R. R, 15
miles east of Bogue- Chitto station.
Topisaw, a hamlet in the north-central part of Pike county, on
the creek of the same name, 12 miles northeast of Magnolia, the
county seat. It has rural free delivery from Summit. Population
in 1900, 46.
Topton, a postoffice of Lauderdale county, and a station on the
Mobile & Ohio R. R, 6 miles northeast of Meridian.
Torrance, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Yalobusha
county, on the Illinois Central R. R, about 8 miles south of Coffee
ville. It has 2 churches and an academy. Population in 1900, 32.
Touchstone, a postoffice of Simpson county, situated on Big
creek, 12 miles northwest of Mendenhall. Population in 1900, 18.
The town has an excellent school. *
Tougaloo, a postoffice and station of Hinds county, on the Illinois
Central R. R, 7 miles north, northeast of Jackson. This is the seat
of Tougaloo University, a colored school organized in 1869 (q. v.).
Tougaloo had a population of 26 in 1900. It has a money order
postoffice. Tougaloo University. The college grounds were purchased in
1869 by the American Missionary association, a farm °f 500 acres,
7 miles north of Jackson, with mansion and outbuildings. In 1870

MISSISSIPPI 793
two large college buildings were erected by aid received from the
Freedmen's bureau — Washington hall, and a dormitory for girls.
At the beginning of his administration, 1870, Governor Alcorn
urged the purchase by the State of the association's buildings and
land at Tougaloo, for "a high school and agricultural college" for
negroes. The act of incorporation, May 13, 1871, provided for joint
control in conjunction with the Missionary society, which already
had a preparatory department in operation. A board of trustees
was chosen, headed by R. C. Powers. The first president was H.
R. Revels, who took this position at the expiration of his service
as United States senator, in 1871.
Washington Hall afterwards burned, and later Strieby Hall and
Ballard Hall were erected. The college had a normal department
of which the State took charge in 1872, making it the State Normal
School for negro teachers. This arrangement lasted for several
years, when the State trustees failed to agree with the management
of the other departments of the institution and the appropriations
were discontinued. In 1880, however, a board of visitors was ap
pointed by the legislature, and afterward appropriations of $2,000
to $3,000 were made each year for its support.
There is a graded course, having primary, intermediate and gram
mar grades ; a preparatory course of three years ; a normal course
of four years; an industrial course of three years, which may be
followed by an apprentice course, and an agricultural course.
Toulmin, Harry, Territorial judge for Washington county, was
born in Taunton, England, in 1767, son of Dr. Joshua Toulmin.
He was a dissenting preacher several years in Lancashire, and came
to Norfolk, Va, in 1793, where he established a seminary. Thence
he was called to the presidency of Transylvania university, which
he resigned upon appointment as secretary of state of Kentucky.
He published a "Description of Kentucky," the "Magistrate's As
sistant," a "Collection of the Acts of Kentucky," and a "Revision
of the Criminal Laws of Kentucky," while in that State, and as
secretary promulgated the celebrated Resolutions of 1798. Presi
dent Jefferson appointed him judge for the county of Washington,
to succeed Judge Kirby, deceased, November 22, 1804, whereupon
he came down the river, sailed from New Orleans to Mobile, and
up to the Tombigbee settlement. His first court was held at a
place which, in memory of Goldsmith's vicar, he named Wake
field, about twenty miles below St. Stephens. He was also post
master, preached and officiated at funerals and marriages, made
Fourth of July orations, practiced medicine gratuitously, and in
general was the head of the settlements. In 1806 he was selected
to make the first digest (q. v.) of the laws of Mississippi Territory,
published at Natchez in September, 1807. He wrote eloquent ap
peals to the government for relief of the inhabitants of Washington
county from Spanish obstruction of the river trade, and at the same
time held in restraint the plots of Col. Caller to drive the Spaniards
from Mobile. Finally, he was compelled to put Caller and Reuben
Kemper under arrest in 1811, and a great outcry was made about

794 MISSISSIPPI
this; the grand jury was persuaded to make a presentment against
him, and the general assembly to memorialize congress.
"There was a' congressional investigation," writes Judge Mayes;
"but so far from being condemned, he was vindicated with applause
as a most efficient and deserving officer." Mr. Poindexter an
nounced his opinion in congress that the charges were not only un
founded, but proceeded from corruption. The record of the legisla
tive investigation is on file in, the Department of Archives and His
tory, and one of the charges against Judge Toulmin is, "that wit
nesses were examined at the point of the bayonet." However,
when he was elected to the legislature in 1813, he was denied a
seat, but this was on the ground that the functions of judge and
legislator were incompatible, although there was no law to that
effect applying to the territory. Judge Toulmin had charge of the
organization of Mobile county in 1812, but after the occupation of
Mobile preferred to remain at his plantation home near Fort Stod
dert. He continued in the office of judge until the Territory was
divided, after which he served several years in the Alabama legis
lature. He published a digest of Alabama laws in 1823. His death
occurred at Wakefield, December, 1824. (Brewer). He left two
sons, and seven daughters, one of whom married Maj.-Gen. E. P.
Gaines. Toulmin's Digest. The first digest of the laws of the Mississippi
Territory was made by Judge Harry Toulmin, who reported Jan
uary 19, 1807, that he had completed the work in pursuance with
the resolution of the legislature at its last session. Considering
that the population originated in a British colony, and that the
settlers must have brought them the laws of the parent state, which
the Spanish occupation in "ignorance of the acknowledged bounds"
did not abrogate, he felt "inclined to adopt the opinion that the
statute as well as the common law of England, as it stood previous
to the settlement bf Florida, makes a part of the law of the Mis
sissippi Territory." But, "aware that the general impression" in
the Territory did not correspond with that view, he introduced
"a very partial and limited view of the English statutes," noting
in the margins the source from which the text was derived. He
suggested that the adoption of some special statutes of some of the
American states might render the code complete without reference
to the English statutes. After this was printed, in the same year,
Toulmin was informed by letter from Mr. Bradford that one or two
great errors had been made. In a letter to Governor Williams,
from Fort Stoddert, he said he was ignorant what these errors were
unless one were an act of the legislature abolishing jury trial for
slaves, which he considered contrary to the ordinance of 1787. It
was afterward said that changes were made in the manuscript while
it was in the hands of the general assembly for inspection. The
printing of this digest was completed by Samuel Terrell, at
Natchez, in September, 1807. In February, 1808, "the general as
sembly, after some few alterations, and amendments, adopted the
Digest as the law of the Territory. The assembly at the same time

MISSISSIPPI 795
required Judge Toulmin to add to his digest all the laws passed
, at that session, and declared that when so enlarged it should bear
the title of "The Statutes of the Mississippi Territory, revised and
digested by the authority of the General Assembly ;" and that, after
.the ensuing October, all the laws of the governor and judges, all
acts of the general assembly of the Mississippi Territory, and all
statutes of England and Great Britain, not contained in the said
volume of statutes, should cease to be of force and validity in the
Territory. Judge Toulmin was also requested by the assembly
to prepare a set of forms and brief general principles for the infor
mation of justices of the peace, and to furnish the public printer
with such ordinances and acts of congress as related to the Missis
sippi Territory, to land titles within the same, to crimes and mis
demeanors, and the intercourse with the Indian nations, with the
articles of cession between the United States and Georgia ; and that
the whole be added to the volume of statutes. The digest of Judge
Toulmin, thus enlarged, . . . is of value, not only on account
of the genius and ability displayed in its adaptation, but also on
account of the knowledge it affords of the origin and progress of
our jurisprudence." (Lynch's Bench and Bar.) Toulmin's Magis
trates' Assistant was published by Samuel Terrell, the State printer
in 1807.
Towns. The State supreme court has given the following defi
nition of a town (60. Miss, 46) : "A town, in its popular sense has
been defined to be a congregation of houses so reasonably near each
other that the inhabitants thereof might be fairly said to dwell to
gether." The law of 1898 authorizes the governor to proclaim any
"village, town or city" incorporated, with certain boundaries and
name, upon petition of two-thirds of the electors thereof, when
the place contains at least one hundred inhabitants and the required
notice of incorporation has been given. The governor may exercise
a sound discretion, and deny the petition for good reason. (Atty-
Gen. Rept, 1904).
Track, a postoffice of Scott county.
Trading Posts, U. S. The first government trading house for the
Choctaws was established under an act of 1796, when John McKee
was Indian agent for the eastern part of that nation. It was estab
lished a few miles from Fort Confederation, the Spanish name of
Fort Tombecbe, and McKee resided there and traded goods for
peltry. A more elaborate system of government "factories" was
provided later.
Upon the recommendation of Governor "Claiborne, the "factory"
for the Choctaws was located on the Tombigbee river, in 1802,
that site being chosen because it would more effectually compete
with the Pensacola and Mobile trade of the British merchants.
Undoubtedly, also, Claiborne desired to divert the Indians from
their visits to Natchez, which were burdensome to the white popu
lation, and considered a nuisance by all the governors, Spanish and
American. Joseph Chambers was appointed factor for the Choc
taws, and goods were sent to Fort Adams in the fall of 1802. The

796 MISSISSIPPI
sudden hostile orders of the Intendent Morales very likely were cal
culated to check this competition with Panton, Leslie & Co. The
United States was forbidden to ship goods through New Orleans
to Fort Stoddert, and the right of free deposit was suspended for all
American commerce. In November Chambers and his goods were
in Natchez district, blockaded by the Spanish orders, and Claiborne
was considering the advisability of establishing the trading post
for the Choctaws on the Mississippi river. When it was decided
to adhere to the Tombigbee location, Gen. Wilkinson was busy
running the Natchez district line, and the trading post was delayed
until 1803.
Chambers was joined by George S. Gaines, a native of Virginia,
who came from Gallatin, Tenn, as assistant, in 1805. In 1806
Chambers resigned and Gaines became factor in 1807. In 1822 he
and his partner bought out the government store, and conducted the
business afterward as a private one. The system of government
factories was discontinued in 1825.
Says Pickett (Alabama, II, 234) : "The parsonage of the old
Spanish church was used as a skin house, and the blockhouse served
the purpose of the government store. . . . To this establish
ment the Indians — principally Choctaws — and sometimes the Amer
ican settlers, brought bear's oil, honey in kegs, beeswax, bacon,
groundnuts, tobacco in kegs, and all kinds of skins and peltries,
to pay for which the Federal government usually kept a stock of
coarse Indian merchandise, besides all kinds of iron tools, ploughs,
arms and ammunition. In the fall the furs and hides were packed
in bales and shipped to the Indian agent at Philadelphia." Gaines,
at first, came often in collision with the Spanish revenue authori
ties at Mobile, who exacted duties, delayed his vessels, and upon
one occasion came near putting him in the calaboose for venturing
to remonstrate. Hence the government authorized Gaines to open
up communication through the Chickasaw country, and he was
able to obtain permission, not for a wagon road, but a horse path,
from Colbert's Ferry to John Pitchlyn's on the Tombigbee, whence
his goods could be conveyed by boat down to St. Stephens.
In his latter years George S. Gaines wrote : "If our Indian
agents were all as patriotic, able and indefatigable in the discharge
of their duties as the late Col. Silas Dinsmore and Col. John McKee,
they would rarely attain to as much influence with the Indians as
respectable private traders. The Choctaws were fortunate in their
private traders and white inhabitants. Major John Pitchlyn, United
States interpreter, was an excellent man, of sterling integrity, great
liberality and devoted to the government. The brothers Lafleur
and Charles Juzant, Frenchmen, were very worthy men; Benja
min James, a Virginian, was a good man ; William Riddle, a Scotch
man, and John Garland, an Irishman, were honest and well-dis
posed. Indeed, there were but few white men mong the Choctaws
of bad character, and they were despised by the Indians."

MISSISSIPPI 797
Tralake, a postoffice and station of Washington county, on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 18 miles southeast of
Greenville, the county seat. Leland is the nearest banking town.
Trapp, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 6 miles west, south
west of Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 40.
Travis, a postoffice of Amite county, on the east fork of the
Amite river, 8 miles southeast of Liberty, the county seat.
Traxler, a postoffice of Smith county, 6 miles west of Raleigh,
the county seat.
Traynham, a postoffice of Coahoma county, situated on Hopson
Bayou, 8 miles south of Clarksdale, the nearest banking town.
Treaty of Beaufort. "In 1785 South Carolina instituted suit
against Georgia before congress, under the ninth article of the
Confederation. On June 1st of this year Georgia was summoned
to appear on the second Monday of May, 1786. . . . The case
was adjourned from time to time until September 4, 1786, when
both States appeared by their agents. Proceedings were then in
stituted and a court was appointed to try the case, which was to
sjt in New York, June 4, 1787. No judgment was ever rendered
by this court, in consequence of the compromise of the suit be
tween the parties." (Garrett, in Confed. Mil. History.) Both
States appointed commissioners early in 1787, to settle the dis
putes, and they concluded a convention at Beaufort, April 28,
1787. The claims of South Carolina were these: (1) for lands
"lying between the North Carolina line and the line run due west
from the mouth of Tugaloo river to the Mississippi, because the
river Savannah loses its name at the confluence of the Tugaloo and
Keowee rivers, consequently that spot is the head of the Savan
nah ;" (2) for all the lands from the Mississippi river eastward,
north of Florida and south of the south line of the Georgia char
ter, that is to say, the line the latitude of Atlanta, Ga, and Gren
ada, Miss. Georgia excepted from this claim what had been
assigned southward on the coast to Georgia by royal proclamation
in 1763, and would make the westward limit of Georgia, south of
the Atlanta line, a line from that locality to the head of the St.
Marys river. The commissioners agreed that the Savannah river
boundary line should be continued in the Tugaloo river and its
most northern branch, as the main source of the Savannah, up to
the North Carolina line, if there were any stream to follow so far
north, if not, then South Carolina should own west to the Missis
sippi along the northward of a line due west from the ultimate
source of the Tugaloo. As to the other and more important west
ern region, south and west of the Georgia settlements, South
Carolina relinquished all claim.
On March 8 of the same year, however, the South Carolina legis
lature, declaring "this State is willing to adopt every measure
which can tend to promote the honor and dignity of the United
States and strengthen the Federal Union," authorized the cession
to the United States of a part of the northern strip in dispute,
namely, all north of a line due west from the head of the southern

798 MISSISSIPPI
branch of the Tugaloo. This cession was accepted by congress,
August 9, 1787, and this Twelve-mile strip was the first area in
what is now Mississippi to become public domain, under the policy
of westward cession. For this reason the first congressional en
actment regarding Mississippi territory, refers to the region "south
of the cession made to the United States by South Carolina."
Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs. This treaty was negotiated by
Gen. James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens,
with the mingo (or "king") and sixteen head men of the Chicka
saws. Presents of $700 worth were made, and permission gained
to build a wagon road on the Natchez trace, northward to the
mouth of Bear Creek, on the Tennessee river, and on to Miro dis
trict, or Nashville. The United States had been granted five miles
square at the mouth of Bear Creek in 1784, but this had never
been occupied, as the Spanish party among the Chickasaws had
remonstrated. Of the Chickasaws the commissioners said : "We
with pleasure bear testimony to the amicable and orderly dispo
sition of this nation, whose greatest boast is that they have never
spilt the blood of a white man ; but, with these dispositions they
are not so far advanced in the habits of civilization as their neigh
bors the Cherokees, though they discover a taste for individual
property, have made considerable progress in agriculture, and in
stocking their farms, and are desirous to increase their domestic
manufacturers." After this convention, Col. Butler and eight com
panies of the Second infantry were ordered up the Tennessee, the
route was changed to east of Bear Creek, and Samuel Mitchell,
Chickasaw agent, and two Indians were deputed to mark the line.
Treaty of Chickasaw Council House. This treaty was made Sep
tember 20, 1816, and followed the Creek war, and the cession by
the Creeks of the land in Alabama southwest of the river Alabama,
adjoining the first Choctaw cession on the east. Together with
the Choctaw treaty of the same year, it opened up land north of
those two cessions, but onty east of the river Tombigbee, giving
Alabama a great lead in opportunity for development, over both
Mississippi and Georgia. The Chickasaws relinquished all claims
north of the Tennessee river, and all title south thereof, and east
of Caney Creek and the Gaines road (or ridge path), and the Tom
bigbee river south of Cotton Gin Port, where the road touches it.
The treaty was made at the "long house" of the nation, at the
Chickasaw Old Fields (Lee county) by Gen. Andrew - Jackson,
Gen. David Meriwether, and Jesse Franklin, and "the whole Chick
asaw nation in council assembled." The consideration was an
annuity of $12,000 per annum for ten years; $4,500 cash for im
provements, and $100 each to Chinnubbee, king of the Chickasaws,
Tishomingo, Coahoma (William McGillivray), Samuel Seeley, the
Colberts, Brown, and a number of others. Gen. William Colbert
was also given a life annuity of $100. Four reservations were
made for the Colberts' and others. The government also agreed to
allow no more peddlers to enter the Chickasaw country. That part
of this purchase, about 408,000 acres, which was found to lie in

MISSISSIPPI •' ; 799
Mississippi State, was organized as the county of Monroe, in 1821. '
According to the present county lines, the cession in Mississippi
form the eastern part of the counties of Tishomingo, Itawamba,
Monroe and Lowndes.
Treaty of Choctaw Trading House, concluded at St. Stephens,
October 24, 1816, relinquished, in connection with the cession by
the Chickasaws in September, all the land claimed by the two na
tions south of the Tennessee river, and east of the Gaines road
and Tombigbee river, of which a part lay within the bounds of the
State of Mississippi, as defined in 1817. The Choctaws ceded that
part east of the Tombigbee river between the mouth of the Oktib
beha and the first Choctaw cession line. The treaty was made by
Gen. John Coffee, John Rhea and John McKee, and the "mingoes,
leaders, captains and warriors of the Choctaw nation in general
council assembled." The consideration was $10,000 in goods, then
delivered, and an annuity of $6,000 for 20 years.
Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 1830. By the year 1829, the
original two million acres in the Natchez district open to settle
ment, had been enlarged to include about half the area of the State,
through purchase by the United States government from the
Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. There was not a rapid demand
for the lands already opened. Only about one-third of the Choc
taw purchase of 1820, which embraced Hinds county and the main
portion of the Yazoo delta, had been disposed of either to settlers
or speculators. Nevertheless there was a tremendous pressure by
speculators for more lands, and the people generally were easily
persuaded that it was time for the Indians to move. In his mes
sage of 1829 Governor Brandon declared that the prosperity of the
State was greatly retarded by such a large portion of fertile lands
remaining in the possession of "savage tribes of Indians, who, as
they progress in civilization, become attached to the soil and can
not be induced to remove by the policy heretofore used of treating
them as a sovereign people, and will, eventually set up for them
selves a government, professing to be an independent sovereignty
within our limits, in defiance of the authority of the state. These
things cannot be tolerated, consistent with our best interest, honor
and safety." This impatience with the established Indian policy
of the government, led to the act of the legislature, 1829, extend
ing the jurisdiction of the justices and courts of certain adjoining
counties over all the Indian territory.
Trouble was feared on this account, but the governor was able
to report a year later that "the acknowledgment on the part of
the general government, of the right of the States to exercise an
unlimited sovereignty over all territory within their chartered
limits, is a source of much gratification, and at once puts to rest
the question which portended great difficulty between many of the
states, our own amongst the number, and their Indian population."
He suggested that the legislature, if it assumed sovereignty,_ must
also take care to pass laws for the government and protection of
the Indians; but that would be very difficult. The authority of

800 MISSISSIPPI
their chiefs must first be annulled, and this would be improper
until some provision was made for other officers. And the gover
nor frankly added, "The extension of the laws of the state to the
Indians will be received by them with feelings of jealousy and dis
trust, from the view that such a measure was adopted with a view
to harrass and thereby coerce them to remove." The legislature
responded with the act of February, 1830, that proposed to abol
ish all the Indian laws and customs and extend over them the law
of Mississippi, and prohibited any person from assuming the office
of chief or mingo, under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment.
These laws were not seriously enforced. At the request of the
United States government after the treaty of 1830 they were, in
effect, suspended by the governor, so far as they related to Indians.
There were similar circumstances in Georgia, involving much de
fiant talk and proceedings. But the result was the same — the
Indians were frightened into going west. In March, 1831, the
United States supreme court decided that the action of the Geor
gia courts in sentencing four missionaries among the Creeks to
four years in the penitentiary at hard labor was contrary to the
laws and treaties of the United States and therefore null and void.
In the following month the treaty was ratified by which the
Creeks agreed to move west of the Mississippi.
Governor Scott, in 1833, vetoed a bill for the division of Yazoo
county, asserting the principle of the national constitution that
treaties are the supreme law of the land. It was expressly stipu
lated in the treaty of 1830 that the Choctaws might in part remain
until the fall of 1833, and that the lands within the Choctaw dis
trict should not be sold until then, with the obvious intention of
preventing settlements until that date. But the legislature passed
the bill almost unanimously over the veto.
The treaty of 1830 with the Choctaws was made at the council
ground between the two. prongs of Dancing Rabbit creek (Chukfi
ahihla bok, literally, Rabbit-there-dances creek) in what is now
the bounds of Noxubee county. The spot was about a hundred
yards west of the well-known spring that bears the same name as
the creek. The Chickasaw trail to the southern Choctaw towns
(Six towns) ran by this spring, and Tecumseh traveled that way
in 1811. This was the first Indian treaty at which the United
States commissioners arrived in carriages. Maj. John H. Eaton
and Gen. John Coffee, of Tennessee, close friends of President
Andrew Jackson, were the commissioners, and they were in
structed by the president to fail not to make a treaty. Gen. George
S. Gaines was the commissary, and collected provisions for three
thousand persons for one week. On their arrival the commis
sioners found a large number of Choctaws assembled; and the
Indians continued to come and go throughout the negotiations,
the estimate being that from first to last there were six thousand
in camp, bringing with them many supplies, as the Indians were
very sensitive about their independence. The people of the three
mingoes, Leflore, Moshuli-topee and Nittakechi, were given sep-

MISSISSIPPI 801
arate camps. Leflore was attired in citizen clothes, which made
some of the more ignorant Indians imagine he was in collusion
with the whites ; Moshuli-topee wore a new blue uniform presented
by General Jackson; Nittakechi was glorious in hunting shirt and
leggins, a bright colored shawl, silver bands and gorgets. The
Christian party, under David Folsom, spent the evenings in sing
ing and prayer; more sought the gambling tables and drinking
places opened by the white rabble that followed the commissioners.
"By a strange paradox in the nature of the Choctaws, than whom
no more chaste race ever existed, there was no licentiousness what
ever at Dancing Rabbit." The commissioners went to great
trouble to drive away the missionaries and allowed the faro tables
to remain unmolested. The talk began September 18, Eaton do
ing most of that work, and John Pitchlynn serving as interpreter.
It is unnecessary to detail what was said. It was a repetition of
what had been said in previous treaties, reinforced by the threat
that if the Choctaws did not now make an arrangement with the
United States they would be left to the laws of Mississippi, or to
escape therefrom at their own expense.
At their first consideration of the proposition, Little Leader
proposed to make war to hold their lands ; other chiefs recited the
" stories of the wars they had fought for the United States and the
injustice of the present demand, and only one councilman, Killi-
hota, who was in fact an agent of the government, voted for re
moval. Eaton's intemperate reply to this decision caused many of
the Indians to leave the camp and go home. There was a small
party, however, disposed to make the best of necessity, the leader
of these being Greenwood Leflore, who took part in framing an
other proposition, which after some stormy discussions, was made
ready to sign September 27th. When it was presented, the In
dians refused to sign, and Eaton made the greatest effort of his
life, in an eloquent portrayal of the situation of the Choctaws. He
was successful, thus, in causing the chiefs and headmen to affix
their names, in a panic, after which there was tremendous excite
ment, and threats of personal violence upon the commissioners.
Colonel Gaines was called upon as a pacificator, and he agreed to
act as exploring agent in the west for the Choctaws, and join with
Reynolds the Chickasaw agent, in persuading that nation to go
west and live with the Choctaws. The commissioners beat a hasty
retreat and Gaines was able to reduce the excited red men to a
condition of quiet despair at last. It was Lincecum's testimony
that "no treaty could have been made but for the solemn assur
ances of the commissioners that all might stay and keep their
homes who did not wish to go, and the Indians distinctly under
stood that this was put down as part of the treaty."
The treaty was finally signed September 27, 1830, and among
other provisions recited that, "the United States under a grant
specially to be made by the President of the U. S. shall cause to
be conveyed to the Choctaw Nation a tract of country west of the
Mississippi river, in fee simple to them and their descendants, to
51-11

802 MISSISSIPPI
inure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it,
beginning near Fort Smith where the Arkansas boundary crosses
the Arkansas river, running thence to the source of the Canadian
Fork, if in the limits of the United States, or to those limits;
thence due south to Red river, and down Red river to the west
boundary of the Territory of Arkansas; thence north along that
line to the beginning . . . the Choctaw nation of Indians con
sent and hereby cede to the United States, the entire country they
own and possess, east of the Mississippi river ; and they agree to-
move beyond the Mississippi river, early as practicable, and will
so arrange their removal, that as many as possible of their people
not exceeding one-half of the whole number, shall depart during
the falls of 1831 and 1832 ; the residue to follow during the suc
ceeding fall of 1833. Then ensued certain stipulations providing
that self-government ^should be secured to the Choctaws within
their western limits, subject only to the constitution, laws and
treaties of the U. S. ; that the United States yield the same protec
tion to the Choctaws that it gives to the citizens of the U. S. ; that
offenders within the nation be delivered up to the U. S. authori
ties for punishment when the rights of a U. S. citizen is involved;
that offences against the Choctaws by U. S. citizens be referred
to the president for equitabe adjustment; that only duly authorized
traders shall be permitted within the nation; that all navigable
streams shall be free to the Choctaws ; that postoffices, military
post roads, and posts, as deemed necessary, may be established
within the nation by the U. S. ; that all intruders shall be removed
from the nation; that the right of private property shall be always
respected, and only taken for public purposes on the payment of
due compensation to the owner, and that a qualified agent be ap
pointed for the Choctaws every four years, who shall fix his
residence convenient to the great body of the people, respect to
be paid the wishes of the Choctaw nation in the selection of said
agent immediately after the ratification of the treaty. Article
XLV declared : "Each Choctaw head of a family being desirous
to remain and become a citizen of the United States, shall be per
mitted to do so, by signifying his intention to the Agent within
six months from the ratification of this treaty, and he or she shall
thereupon be entitled to a reservation of one section of six hundred
and forty acres of land, to be bounded by sectional lines of sur
vey; in like manner shall be entitled to one-half that quantity for
each unmarried child which is living with him over 10 years of age,
to adjoin the location of the parent. If they reside upon said lands
intending to become citizens of the States for five years after the
ratification of this treaty, in that case a grant in fee simple shall
issue ; said reservation shall include the present improvement of
the head of the family, or a portion of it. Persons who claim un
der this article shall not lose the privilege of a Choctaw citizen,
but if they ever remove are not to be entitled to any portion of
the Choctaw annuity." The succeeding article made special
reservations of four sections of land to each of the principal chiefs;

MISSISSIPPI 803
Greenwood, Leflore, Moshuli-topee, and Nittakechi, together with
small annuities to continue 20 years; also made special provision
in money and clothing to certain of the lesser chiefs, captains and
warriors. Then ensued certain articles relating to the removal of
the Indians by the U. S, food supplies, payment for cattle, sur
vey of the ceded lands, reservations of land to specific classes of
individuals, particularly to those who had certain acres under cul
tivation, orphans, etc. The United States further agreed to edu
cate forty Choctaw youths for twenty years ; to erect a Council
House for the Nation ; a house for each chief, and a church and
schoolhouse in each district ; to provide teachers for 20 years ;
blacksmiths for 16 years ; a mill-wright for five years, and to fur
nish 2,100 blankets, a rifle to each warrior who emigrated ; 1,000
axes, ploughs, hoes, wheels and cards each ; and 400 looms ; also
one ton of iron and 200 weight of steel annually to each District
for 16 years. The day following, September 28, certain supple
mentary stipulations were agreed to and signed. These stipula
tions chiefly related to special reservations of lands to specified
individuals, among whom were two children of the U. S. interpre
ter John Pitchlynn, and John Donly, for 25 years mail carrier
through the Choctaw nation ; provided for an exploring party of
Choctaws to examine the new country; also for the payment of
certain debts due Allen Glover and George S. Gaines, licensed
traders. (See Indian Affairs, Vol. 2, Treaties ; also Story of the
Treaty, by H. S. Halbert, Publ. Miss. Hist. Soc, VI, 373; also
articles on Choctaw Land Frauds.)
In accordance with this treaty Congress in March, 1831, appro
priated $80,248 for the Choctaws — $9,593 for salaries for chiefs,
suits of clothes and broadswords for 99 captains ; $12,500 for the
cattle arrangement; $10,000 to build council house, chiefs' houses
and churches in the west ; $5,500 for teachers and industrial out
fits; $27,650 for blankets, rifles, agricultural implements, etc, and
$5,000 for transportation. The annual appropriation for the Choc
taw nation in 1832 and succeeding years was $66,000 in addition
to various extra allowances.
Treaty of Doak's Stand, 1820. On December 1, 1818, Mr. Poin
dexter, chairman of the congressional committee on public lands,
made a report regarding the right of the Choctaw Indians to emi
grate and settle west of the Mississippi river. Their disposition
to do this, at least to cross the Mississippi to hunt, had been
manifested in a much earlier period, because their own country
seemed to be insufficient. This tendency must have increased at
this time, when they had given up a vast region in the south and
everything east of the Tombigbee river. Poindexter reported that
for several years past the Choctaws, "to whom has been allotted
a vast and fertile territory east of the Mississippi to live and hunt
on . . . have gradually migrated to the west, and formed con
siderable settlements for hunting and even for agricultural pur
poses, on the lands of the United States, ... in direct
violation of the treaty of Hopewell," etc. This was one way to

804 MISSISSIPPI
put it. It could not be endured long, of course, that the remaining
Choctaw country in Mississippi, including the central third of the
State, should remain the roaming place of a few red men. If the
Choctaws could be prevented from obtaining sustenance across
the river, and the spirit of emigration encouraged by prohibiting
it, the prospect would be better for obtaining the relinquishment
of more land east of the Mississippi and the gradual transfer of
the nation to the west. During the session of congress of 1817-18
the president had appointed three commissioners to treat with the
Choctaws on the subject, and propose an exchange of lands, but
the Choctaw chiefs refused to make such an arrangement. Con
sequently Poindexter reported a bill to confine this nation to its
bounds in Mississippi until it should acquire other lands by treaty.
In March, 1819, James Pitchlynn wrote that he "had got several
families of the -Choctaws who are willing to move west of the Mis
sissippi," and he believed if there were a treaty a third or a half
would move in the fall. But he found that all the rich white men
in the nation opposed the project and gave "bad talks."
In April Gen. Andrew Jackson received a commission to treat
with the nation, his associates being Col. John McKee, agent, and
Col. Daniel Burnet. He advised McKee to warn the Choctaws
that the next congress would probably pass the law recommended
by Poindexter, to bring back the Indians that had gone west, then
the nation would be in a bad situation. "You may say to the chiefs
that we are instructed not only to be liberal to the nation, but to
them individually." So McKee met a council of the Choctaw na
tion in August, 1819, at which the two great medal chiefs,
Mushula-tubbee and Pooshamataha, signified their sentiments.
They were sorry they could not comply with the request of their
father. "We wish to remain here, where we have grown up as the
herbs of the wood, and do not wish to be transplanted to another
soil. Those of our people who are over the Mississippi did not
go there with the consent of the nation ; they are considered as
strangers, they are like wolves," and they were quite willing to
have them ordered back. "I am well acquainted with the country
contemplated for us," said Pooshamataha ; "I have often had my
feet bruised there by the rough lands." They had decided they
had no land to spare. If a man gave half his garment the other
half would be of no use to him. "When we had land to spare, we
gave it, with very little talk, to the commissioners you sent to us
at Tombigbee, as children ought to do to a father." They hoped
for the continued protection of their father. "When a child wakes
in the night he feels for the arm of his father to shield him from
danger." McKee and Pitchlyn were sorely disappointed by the
result. They were confident the Six Towns wefe ready to move,
except a few half breeds that made trouble. These were then
trying to raise money to send a delegation to Washington.
In 1820 congress made an appropriation of $20,000 for the pur
pose of a treaty, and the Mississippi delegation in congress
proposed that Gen. Jackson and Gen. Thomas Hinds should* be

MISSISSIPPI 805
entrusted with the negotiations. In accepting, because he could
not refuse Mr. Monroe or Mississippi, Jackson asked that he be
authorized to show the Choctaws the actual bounds of the new
home where their father proposed to settle and perpetuate them
as a nation. "This is a chord I mean to touch."
John Pitchlyn and his son exerted themselves to encourage a
favorable sentiment, and reported to Jackson that Mushula-tubbee
and Pooshamataha were delighted that he would meet them. The
government authorized the promise of a portion of the Quapaw
cession in Arkansas Territory. The great council was called to
meet October 1st, at a council ground on the Robinson road (be
tween Natchez and Tennessee), near Doak's stand, % tavern about
four miles north of Pearl in what is now the southeast corner of
Madison county. William Eastin was appointed commissary and
Samuel R. Overton secretary, and Jackson and suite set out from
Nashville September 14, 1820, reaching Doak's stand on the 28th,
where they were joined two days later by Hinds and McKee and
a squad of soldiers under Lieut; Graham. The commissioners
"removed to the treaty ground, about half a mile below Doak's,
October 2, and a few Indians came in that evening. There was
soon evidence that some white man and half breeds had formed
a combination to prevent a treaty and Jackson and Hinds sent out
a talk urging the nation that they must come and hear the talk
from their father or he might never speak again.
Puckshenubbee and his men were particularly offish. Mushula-
tubbee was on hand, but with few followers. Gradually a better
feeling grew, and after a great ball game, October 9, the talk was
begun. Three formal talks were made by Gen. Jackson ; the In
dians were in long and confused deliberation by themselves, and
finally on the 18th the treaty prepared by Jackson was accepted
and signed by the mingoes, headmen and warriors present. The
old chief Puckshenubbee was the last to yield, and an attempt was
made by some of his people to depose him. "Donations" of $500
each were made to him and the other two mingoes and John
Pitchlyn, and smaller amounts to others of influence, amounting
to $4,675, of which the ball-players got only $8. October 22 Jack
son and his party started on the return to Nashville.
The treaty was made, as appears from the preamble, to promote
the civilization of the Choctaws by the establishment of schools,
and to perpetuate them as a nation by exchange of a part of their
land for a country beyond the Mississippi. The nation ceded all
within the following limits : "Beginning on the Choctaw bound
ary east of Pearl river, at a point due south of the White Oak
spring, on the old Indian path ; thence north to said spring ; thence
northwardly to a black oak standing on the Natchez road, about
four poles eastwardly from Doak's fence, marked A. J. and blazed,
with two large pines and a black oak standing near thereto and
marked as pointers; thence a straight line to the head of Black
creek or Bogue Loosa ; thence down Black creek to a small lake ;
thence a direct course so as to strike the Mississippi one mile

806 MISSISSIPPI
below the mouth of the Arkansas river; thence down the Missis
sippi to our boundary; thence round and along the same to the
beginning." Roughly speaking, this is the west half of the middle
third of the State, including the south part of the Yazoo delta,
estimated at 5,500,000 acres in all. In consideration the United
States ceded to the Choctaws a region in the west. The Cherokees
had already been traded lands in that quarter, and the Choctaw
east line was to run from their corner on the Arkansas river to a
point three miles below the mouth of Little river on the Red. West
of this the Choctaw domain would extend, between the Red and
Canadian, to the source of the latter. It was provided that the
boundaries established east of the Mississippi "shall remain with
out alteration, until the period at which said nation shall become
so civilized and enlightened as to be made citizens of the United
States ; and congress shall lay off a limited parcel of land for the
benefit of each family or individual in the nation." Aid was to
be given poor Indians who wished to move; an agent, etc, was to
be provided in the west; fifty-four sections (square miles) were
to be laid off in the Mississippi land ceded, to be sold to raise a
fund for the support of Choctaw schools on both sides of the Mis
sissippi river; there was another reservation promised to make up
for the appropriation by some of the chiefs of the $6,000 educa
tion annuity for the past sixteen years. All who had separate set
tlements, within the area ceded, might remain as owners of one
mile square, or sell at full appraised value; compensation was to
be made for buildings ; the warriors were to be paid for their
services at Pensacola; $200 was promised each district for the
support of a police ; Mushulatubbee was guaranteed an annuity
the same as had been paid his father.
At the next session of congress, $65,000 was appropriated to
carry this treaty into effect, and in March, 1821, John C. Calhoun,
the secretary of war, notified the Choctaw agent at that time, Maj.
William Ward, that he was to superintend the emigration of the
Indians. Blankets, rifles, etc, for 500 were sent to Natchez.
Edmund Folsom, interpreter for the Six Towns, had been selected
by Jackson and Hinds to collect those who were willing to go, and
conduct them to the promised land. Henry D. Downs, of Warren
county, was appointed to survey the land in the west, and he re
ported in December, that he had run the east line of the tract.
The war department was already made aware that there were a
large number of white settlers in the tract. Downs proposed that
the line be moved west to the junction of the Arkansas and Cana
dian rivers, to accommodate 375 families of "squatters. "_ This
matter had been discussed at the council of 1820. The chiefs
knew there were white settlers on the land, and when Jackson was
told of it, he had replied that the arm of the government was
strong, and they should be removed. Jackson was sincere in this.
In 1819 he had ordered the commandants at Fort Smith and Nachi-
rtoches to remove all settlers west of the Poteau and Kiamsha
rivers, which was done, in some cases houses being burned and

MISSISSIPPI 807
crops destroyed, and the order was renewed after the running of
Downs' line, which induced the settlers to move back. But Fol
som was instructed to discuss this matter on the basis that the
white settlers must not be disturbed, and consequenly he reported
in November that after eight months' effort he had "gained the ill-
will of the Choctaw Indians, and made my friends my foes. They
have threatened to drive me out of the nation, and some of their
leaders have called me a liar and a carrier of lying talks." His
life had been threatened, and all this time he had not been paid a
cent by the government, except $20 to start with.
As soon as the treaty of Doak's Stand became known in Arkan
sas a great protest was made. Congress yielded to it and diverted
the appropriation of $65,000 to the making of a new treaty to
change the line to one due south from the southwest corner of
Missouri. This had hardly been done, when Arkansas asked a
further extension, and an act was passed to move the line forty
miles west. But the Choctaws stood firmly on the treaty Jackson
had made, and the result was the treaty of Washington (q. v.) in
•1825. (American State Papers, Ind. Affs, II.)
Treaty of 1826. Hardly had the complications following the
Treaty of 1820 been arranged by the Treaty of Washington, 1825,
when the Choctaws were requested to give up more land in Mis-
issippi. On March 18, 1826, the Mingoes Mooshela-topee, Robert
Cole and Tapeau-homa, successor of Pooshamataha, signed a letter
to the secretary, of war, saying, "We . . . having heard a prop
osition for a further cession of our land beyond the river Missis
sippi, have come to a conclusion that we will sell no more land on
any terms." They asked, also, that white intruders be moved off
their land in the west, which they were expected to find homes
upon. May 20, 1826, Congress appropriated $20,000 for the expenses
of a treaty with the Chickasaws and Choctaws to secure their re
linquishment of their remaining lands in Mississippi, and Gov.
William Clark, Gen. Thomas Hinds and Gen. John Coffee were
appointed to make the negotiation. They met the head men of
the Choctaws at the "treaty ground near Wilson's," and the coun
cil began November 10, 1826, when Tapeau-homa welcomed the
commissioners, asked them to put their propositions in writing, to
be considered by an Indian committee of thirteen. These were
Gen. Humming Bird, Ahchelata, Red Dog, Lewis Perry, P. P.
Pitchlyn, M. Foster, J. L. McDonald, Nettuckachee, Eahoka-topee,
John Garland, ' Jesse Brashears, Joel H. Nail and Israel Folsom.
After some preliminary sparring, Gen. Coffee delivered his talk,
which was, in brief, that the land in Mississippi was needed by the
white people, and as the Choctaws had already been traded lands
west of the river five times as extensive as they were now living on,
it was the interest of the Indians to give up their remaining land
in Mississippi, for which the United States would pay $1,000,000,
and would reserve 300,000 acres for such as wished to remain as
citizens, and would also give liberal supplies to each emigrant.

808 MISSISSIPPI
There was a discussion for several days, but the answer of the
Choctaws was to recite the various treaties which they had made,
each time under a promise that they should never be asked for any
more land. They would now give up no more, "Where shall we
stop? Where shall we find a resting place? We ought to be per
mitted at least to breathe a while and look around us." Brashears
favored the treaty, and was in danger of violence. Pitchlyn and
Mackay were also favorable, but a systematic effort had been made
by others to defeat the project. Mooshela-topee and Robert Cole
would have agreed to the cession. "It was therefore resolved to
remove them from office," said the commissioners in their report
(Amer. State Papers, Ind. Affs. II, 709), "and put David Folsom
and Greenwood Leflore in their places — two mixed-blood young
men, who were known to be unfriendly to a cession." The three
ruling mingoes were young men, and so were the majority of the
thirteen. The nation Was fast declining in wealth except a few
half-breeds settled on the road to Tennessee and reaping a harvest
from it.
The same commissioners began negotiations at the Chickasaw
council house October 22. Levi Colbert, Martin Colbert, J. Mc-
Clish, Emmubbia, and Ashtamatutka acted as commissioners on
behalf of the nation. The king was present, but Tishomingo, it
seems, kept in the background. They heard all the arguments for
removal and confuted them, and ended with, "It is true we are poor
for money, but we love our lands better." They even refused to
send agents to examine the land in the west.
Treaty of Fort Adams. This convention was concluded at
Loftus Heights (Fort Adams), December 12, 1801, between Gen
eral Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, with the
Choctaw nation, which was represented mainly by "Tuskonahopia,
of the Lower towns, Mingo, Poos Coos, of the Chickasaw Half town,
Oakchuma, Puckshumubbee and Elatalahoomuh of the Upper
towns, Buckshumabbe, factor of a Mobile merchant, and Mingo
Homassa-tubbe." The gifts were $2,000 in value. The treaty
provided that a road should be opened on the Natchez trace
through the Choctaw country, as had been recently agreed by the
Chickasaws, and that the old British line of Natchez district
should be resurveyed and marked as a boundary line of the lands
open to white settlement. The commissioners also proposed a
road to the settlements on the Tombigbee and Mobile, but did not
press it, as it would run through the lands of the Six towns, a
people friendly to Spain, whose head men were then in conference
with the Spanish governor at New Orleans. The commissioners
reported that "The Choctaw nation, in point of physical powers,
is at least on a level with its neighbors, and its dispositions, in re
lation to the whites, are more tractable and less sanguinary than
those of its kind, yet it has long been buried in sloth and ignor
ance." On account of the destruction of game, the Choctaws
seemed to be turning to agriculture and a very few families had
begun the culture of cotton. Edmond Fulsom and Robert Mc-

MISSISSIPPI 809
Dure, white Choctaws, asked for cards and gin, and a blacksmith
shop. Treaty of Fort Confederation. This treaty was concluded at
Fort Confederation, the old French Fort Tombecbe, on the Tom
bigbee river, October 17, 1802, by General Wilkinson, with
eighteen hundred representatives of the whole Choctaw nation.
It was a provisional convention for a resurvey of the north line of
the old British line of the district of Mobile, or Charlotte county,
so far as it lay above the Ellicott line, between the Chickasawhay
and Tombigbee rivers. The rectification of the Natchez district
frontier was also discussed. All of the land south of his north line,
between the Chickasawhay and Tombigbee-Mobile, was then open
to settlement, so far as the Indian title was concerned, through
the withdrawal of the Spaniards, and this was the only land east
of the Natchez district, and south of Tennessee, as far as the
Oconee in Georgia, not in the possession of the Indians.
The line was surveyed by Wilkinson and Mingo Poos Coos and
Alatala Hooma, and ratified by them as commissioners plenipo
tentiary, at Hobuckintupa, August 31, 1803. The boundary was
described as beginning on the Spanish line, in the Hatchee
Comeesa or Wax river, up said river to the confluence of the
Chickasawhay and Buckhatannee ; up the latter to Bogue Hooma
or Red Creek, up the latter to a pine tree near the trading path
from Mobile to the Hewhannee towns, thence in various courses
to Sintee Bogue or Snake creek, and down the same and the Tom
bigbee and Mobile to the Spanish line.
Treaty of Ghent. In the negotiation of the treaty of Ghent,
1814, making peace after the war that involved the Indians of the
South, the British commissioners asked as a sine qua non of peace,
that "the Indian nations who have been, during the war, in alli
ance, with Great Britain, should, at the termination of the war,
be included in the pacification. It is equally necessary that a defin
ite boundary should be assigned to the Indians, and that the con
tracting parties should guarantee the integrity of their territories
by a mutual stipulation not to acquire, by purchase or otherwise,
any territory within the specified limits." When the American
commissioners absolutely refused this, the British replied that
"The American government has now for the first time, in effect,
declared -that all Indian nations within its limits of demarcation
are its subjects, living there upon sufferance on lands which it also
claims the exclusive right of acquiring, thereby menacing the final
extinction of those nations. Against such a system the under
signed must formally protest." The Americans showed that the
right complained of was asserted in the treaty of Greenville. But
the United States was compelled to accept the ultimatum of Eng
land, which was embodied in the treaty, viz. : a promise to "put
an end immediately after the ratification of the present treaty, to
hostilities with all the tribes or nations of Indians with whom they
may be at war at the time of such ratification, and forthwith to
restore to such tribes or nations respectively, all the possessions,

810 MISSISSIPPI
rights and privileges which they may have enjoyed or been entitled
to, in 1811, previous to such hostilities."
Treaties of Hopewell and Seneca. Great Britain and the United
States made peace in 1783 without providing for the Indian nations
who had been allies of the king. At first each State made some
attempts at an understanding with the Indians on its frontiers.
Thus Georgia treated with the Creeks at Augusta, in 1783, pro
viding for peace and a cession of land. But it did not seem effec
tive. In 1785 Benjamin Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin
and Lachlan Mcintosh were appointed commissioners plenipoten
tiary of the United States to make peace with all the Indians of
the south, to settle the international status of the red men and
arrange satisfactory limits. Georgia and the Carolinas were very
jealous of this, and it was made difficult for the commissioners to
do business. McGillivray, of the Creeks, after much delay, re
ceived the invitation to treat, and replied, September 5, in a diplo
matic note that apparently meant that he had already made a
treaty with Spain, and the United States were too late. Only two
towns of the Creeks were represented at Galphinton, where they
were invited. After the American commissioners refused to do
business with so few, the Georgia agents, present to protest against
the United States commissioners treating on limits, fnade with
them a treaty purporting to open the Tallassee country to settle
ment. The commissioners went to the Keowee river to treat with
the other nations, who were invited by Col. John Wood. "The
agents of Georgia and North Carolina attended the treaty, as will
appear by their protests herewith enclosed." — (Report to Presi
dent R. H. Lee.) A treaty with about a thousand Cherokees was
concluded November 28, at Seneca, defining limits and recogniz
ing the supremacy of the United States. December 26 the Choctaw
chiefs arrived, at Hopewell, "a seat of General Pickens," after a
journey of seventy-seven days, "the whole of them almost naked."
The Creeks had stolen their horses and done all they could to
hinder the journey, but the Choctaws "have apparently a rooted
aversion to the Spanish and Creeks, and are determined to put
themselves under the protection of the United States." "They
are the greatest beggars, and the most indolent creatures we ever
saw," said the commissioners after a more protracted acquaint
ance. "Their passion for gambling and drinking is very great;"
when given blankets they would trade them for a pint of rum, or
lose them at play, when they knew they had five hundred miles
to travel home, with only a shirt on their backs. But they were in
earnest about seeking alliance with the United States. The chiefs
brought their British medals and commissions, to exchange for
American, of which, unfortunately there were none, and asked
for three stand of colors. John Pitchlyn, "a very honest, sober
young man," who had lived twelve years in the nation, was ap
pointed interpreter to the board. The treaty made with the
Choctaws, January 3, 1786, was of friendship and alliance and
confirmation of the bounds they had in 1782. The Chickasaws

MISSISSIPPI 811
arrived a little later, and made a treaty at Hopewell, January 10,
1785. Piomingo and Mingotusha exhibited the niedal left by the
great man of their nation, then dead, and Piomingo announced
that he was the head warrior. They promised land for a trading
post on the Tennessee river, and agreed to a frontier line for set
tlements. The commissioners reported "that if the adjoining
States were disposed to carry the treaties into effect, the Indians
would be happy in the new change of sovereignty and in constant
amity with us."
.But Georgia and North Carolina repudiated them as invasions
of the sovereignty of the States, and Governor Miro, in behalf of
the Spanish, declared the treaties were "chimeras." They were
confirmed as part of the supreme law of the land by the treaty of
Coleraine, 1796, and submitted to all parties concerned, after a
struggle that occupied the whole administration of President
Washington. Treaty, Jay. This treaty, signed by Baron Grenville and Chief
Justice John Jay, November 19, 1794, is memorable for the intense
excitement attending its reception in the United States, and for
its relation to various international principles. It was ratified by
the senate June 24, 1795, and signed by Washington, August 15,
1795, but not fully ratified by the United States until the dramatic
close of the debates in the House regarding an appropriation for
taking possession of the Northwestern military posts, in which
Fisher Ames made one' of the most effective speeches in the annals
of American oratory. As regards Mississippi history, the treaty
is of interest in a general way, because the opposition to it in the
western country encouraged the Spanish and French in their ef
forts to bring about the secession of that region from the United
States. Specially, however, the third article directly bears on this
field, as it contains the clause : "The River Mississippi shall,
however, according to the treaty of peace [1782], be entirely open
to both parties ; and it is further agreed that all the ports and places
on its eastern side, to whichsoever of the parties belonging, may
freely be resorted to and used by both parties," the same as an
Atlantic port or a British port.
This could not have been unknown to Spain when she made the
treaty of October 27, 1795 ; probably, it was a principal reason for
that treaty. Pinckney was compelled to accept words that implied
the Spanish assertion of dominion over the river except as she
shared it with the United States "only," or might share it there
after with other powers as she saw fit. England was alarmed by
the terms of this treaty with Spain and asked an explanation,
whereupon Pickering, secretary of state, and Mr. Bond, the Eng
lish charge des affaires, agreed to an explanatory article May 4,
1796, in which it was declared that "no other stipulation or treaty
concluded since by either of the contracting parties, with any
other power or nation, is understood in any manner to derogate
from the right to the free communication and commerce guaran
teed by the third article." This, in turn, Spain construed as a

812 MISSISSIPPI
direct repudiation of the Mississippi clause of the treaty of San
Lorenzo. Therefore, Yrujo said to Pickering, May 6, 1797, when
Ellicott was waiting at Natchez, Spain was justified in suspending
the further execution of the treaty regarding boundary and navi
gation. He contended that the United States had no right to give
Great Britain what she did not possess, except as Spain might
yield it. To this Pickering replied that Great Britain had the
right of navigating the river since the treaty of 1763, and had never
given it up. Western sentiment on this treaty, whose compromises
were unpalatable, is indicated in the comment of Ellicott (Journal,
p. 104), "The conduct of the United States, in admitting the Brit
ish in the navigation of the Mississippi, I never attempted to
justify." Treaty of Mobile, 1765. This treaty was concluded by the Brit
ish government of the province of West Florida, with a great
council of the Choctaws, March 26, 1765, and resulted in the ces
sion by that nation of a region on the Mobile river and its tribu
taries, and the Gulf coast south of about the line of 31° north
latitude, between Mobile bay and the most western point to which
the Choctaws had control, practically to the Mississippi river. The
treaty provided, "the boundary to be settled by a line extended
from Grosse point, in the island of Mount Louis, by the course of
the western coast of Mobile bay, to the mouth of the eastern
branch of the Tombecbee river, and north by the course of said
river to the confluence of Alibamont and Tombecbee rivers, and
afterwards along the western bank of Alibamont river to the
mouth of Chickianoce river, and from the confluence of Chickianoce
and Alibamont rivers a straight line to the confluence of Bance
and Tombecbee rivers ; from thence, by a line along the western
bank of Bance river till its confluence with the Tallatukpe river;
from thence by a straight line to Tombecbee river opposite to
Atchalikpe (Hatchatigbee bluff) ; and from Atchalikpe by a
straight line to the most northerly part of Buckatanne river, and
down the course of Buckatanne river to its confluence with the
river Pascagoula, and down by the course of the river Pascagoula,
within twelve leagues of the sea coast ; and thence, by a due west
line, as far as the Choctaw nation have a right to gra"nt." "And
none of his Majesty's white subjects should be permitted to settle
on the Tombecbee river to the northward of the rivulet called
Centebonck" (Sentabogue or Snake creek).
Treaty of Mobile, 1784. On June 22, 1784, a "vast congress of
Indians was held at M°hile," in response to the Spanish invita
tion. Choctaws, Chickasaws, Alibamons and smaller tribes were
represented, and treaties of alliance were made with all of them.
In terms this treaty was identical with the treaty made on June
1 at Pensacola, with the "Talapuches" (Creeks) mainly, but also
with "Usatastaneque or War Dog, chief of the town of Natchez;
Chickasaw Mingo, and Chickasaw Retired Arrow, the Tala-
puchy." The Spanish were represented by Don Stephen Miro,
acting governor of Louisiana, by order of Count de Galvez,

MISSISSIPPI 813
lieutenant-general, and governor of the provinces of Louisiana and
West Florida, also Don Martin Navarro, intendant general of the
provinces. The Indians in these treaties promise to "maintain an inviolable
peace and fidelity" with Spain and among themselves. "We un
dertake to expose for the rbyal service of his Catholic majesty, our
lives and fortunes ; and we promise to obey the sovereign, orders
which, in a case of necessity, shall be communicated to us by the
captain-general of the provinces of Louisiana and Florida, and in
his name by the respective governor or particular commander of
said provinces." In return for this allegiance by the contracting
Indians, and the others "who are in the lands conquered by the
arms of his majesty," the Spanish officers promised to establish a
permanent commerce at the most equitable prices, the. tariffs and
regulations to be then and there fixed. It was promised that any
stranger entering the nation to induce them to take up arms
against Spain should be turned over to the Spanish authorities.
No white person, of "what nation soever he be," should be ad
mitted among these Indians without a Spanish passport. "We
renounce forever the practice of taking scalps or making slaves of
the whites." In case of war against "enemies of his Catholic ma
jesty," they promised to treat prisoners humanely and exchange
them with the enemy. All white prisoners, subjects of the United
States, should be delivered to the governor-general Other pro
visions were made to prevent the common crimes of the frontier.
The Spanish reminded the Indians that they asked no land, and
promised security and guarantee for the lands they actually held,
"according to the right of property, with which they possess them,
on condition that they are comprehended within the lines and
limits of his Catholic majesty." If enemies of Spain should dis
possess the Indians, Spain would provide them new homes, in any
vacant land available.
These treaties were made through the influence of Alexander
McGillivray, chief of the Tallapoosas, and that of the British trad
ing house of Panton, Leslie & Co. McGillivray's explanation of
them is given in his letter to Gen. Pickens, September 5, in the
same year, when invited to a council with American commissioners
to make a similar treaty. He expressed his surprise that the
Americans had so long delayed to take the Indians under their
protection, since the peace with England. That would have made
the United States the natural guardian and ally of the Indian
nations. They had hoped for such action by Georgia, but "violence
and prejudice had taken the place of good policy and reason in all
their proceedings with us. They attempted to avail themselves
of our supposed distressed situation. Their talks to us breathed
nothing but vengeance ; and, being entirely possessed with the
idea that we were wholly at their mercy, they never once reflected
that the colonies of a powerful monarch were nearly surrounding
us, and to whom in any extremity, we might apply for succor and
protection. . . . However, we yet deferred any such proceed-

814 MISSISSIPPI
ing, still expecting we could bring them to a sense of their true
interest; but still finding no alteration in their conduct towards
us, we sought the protection of Spain and treaties pf friendship
and alliance were mutually entered into; they to guarantee our
hunting grounds and territory and to grant us a free trade in the
ports of the Floridas." How the limits of the United States and
the Spanish would be settled, a little time would show. "However,
we know our own limits, and the extent of our hunting grounds,
and, as a free nation, we have applied, as we have a right, and
have obtained protection, so that we shall pay no attention to any
limits that may prejudice our claims, that were drawn by an
American, and confirmed by a British, negotiator."
The commissioners reported that McGillivray appeared to be
"forming a dangerous conspiracy between the several Indian na
tions, the Spaniards and British agents, with whom he is con
nected. His resentment is chiefly against the citizens of Georgia,
who banished his father and confiscated a capital property which
he had in that State. There is a capital British company of mer
chants, engaged, by license from the court of Spain, to supply all
the Indian nations to the southward with goods, through East
Florida, in which company it is said, McGillivray is a partner,
and they have their agents in all the towns from Tennessee, south
wardly." It appears that McGillivray gave sufficient notice of this
treaty to the United States, but it was treated as a mystery in the
later negotiations with Spain.
Treaty of Mount Dexter, 1805. After the relinquishment of
dominion over the Choctaw country by the Spanish in 1798, the
great Indian trading house of Panton, Leslie & Co, which had
practically controlled the Indian relations for the Spanish, so
licited the United States to permit the various nations to cede them
lands in payment of debts. Their claim against the Choctaws was
$46,000. The government would not listen to a proposition of
cession to the trading house, but welcomed the opportunity to
receive from the Indians a cession of land in consideration of cash
paid, by the government nominally to the Indians, but in fact, to
the traders. It relieved the government of incurring the resent
ment of the red men by pressing them for lands for the white
settlers. President Jefferson, in a message to congress, described
the preliminaries of this first cession by the Choctaws to the United
States as follows: "The Choctaws . . . proposed at length
to the United States, to cede lands to the amount of their debts,
and designated them in two different parts of their country. These
designations not at all suiting us, their proposals were declined
for that reason, and with an intimation that if their own conven
ience should ever dispose them to cede their lands on the Missis
sippi, we should be willing to purchase. Still urged by their
creditors, as well as by their own desire to be liberated from debt,
they at length proposed to make a cession, which should be to our
convenience. James Robertson, of Tennessee, and Silas Dinsmore,
were thereupon -appointed commissioners . . . with- iristruc-

MISSISSIPPI 815
tions to purchase only on the Mississippi. On meeting their
chiefs, however, it was found that such was the attachment of the
nation to their lands on the Mississippi, that their chiefs could not
undertake to cede them; but they offered all their lands south of
a line to be run from their and our boundary, at the Omochitto,
eastwardly, to their boundary with the Creeks, on the ridge be
tween the Tombigby and Alabama, which would unite our pos
sessions there, from Natchez to Tombigby. A treaty to this effect
was accordingly signed at Pooshapukanuk, November 16, 1805.
But this being against express instructions, and not according with
the object then in view, I was disinclined to its ratification, and
therefore did not at the last session of congress lay it before the
Senate for their advice, but have suffered it to lie unacted- on."
This message was dated January 15, 1808. The European situa
tion and the failure of negotiations to persuade Spain that the
cession of Louisiana included Biloxi and Mobile, caused the presi
dent to change his mind. The opening of this border land to
settlement would aid in the acquisition of the coast, still in the
Ifands of Spain, and separate the Indians from Spanish influence.
Hence he submitted the treaty, which proposed to add about five
million acres to the available domain.
In June, 1805, Robertson and Dinsmore negotiated with a great
number of Choctaws at Fort St. Stephens, on the Tombigbee, and
arranged for the treaty in November. This treaty, "Done on
Mount Dexter in Pushapukanuk in the Choctaw country," (near
Macon, Miss.) ceded to the United States the region south of the
following described line: "Beginning at a branch of the Hooma-
cheeto, where the same is intersected by the present Choctaw
boundary [of Natchez district], and also by the path leading from
Natchez, to the county of Washington, usually called McClary's
path [probably from Lieut. McClary, commander of Ellicott's
escort] ; thence easterly along McClary's path to the east or left
bank of Pearl river; thence, on such a direct line as would touch
the lower end of a bluff on the left bank of Chickasawhay river,
the first above the Hiyoowannee towns, called Broken bluff, to a
point within four miles of the Broken bluff ; thence in a direct line,
nearly parallel with the river, to a point where an east line of four
miles in length will intersect the river, below the lowest settlement
at present occupied and improved in the Hiyoowannee town ;
thence, still east, four miles ; thence in a direct line nearly parallel
with the river, to a point on a line to be run from the lower end
of Broken bluff to Faluktabunnee, on the Tombigby river, four
miles from the Broken bluff; thence, along the said line, to Faluk
tabunnee; thence east to the boundary between the Creeks and
Choctaws, on the ridge dividing the waters running into the Ala
bama from those running into Tombigby; thence southwardly
along the said ridge apd boundary, to the southern point of the
Choctaw claim." The reservations were : a tract of N two miles
square, including the town of Fuketcheepoonta; a tract of 5,120
acres opposite Hatchatigbee bluff for the daughters of Samuel

816 MISSISSIPPI
Mitchell, United States Indian agent, "by Molly, a Choctaw
woman," and about 1,500 acres on the Tombigbee sold by Opia
Mingo and others to John McGrew, "many years ago." The con
sideration was $50,000; $48,000 to pay the Panton company and
claims of settlers for depredations, and $2,500 to John Pitchlyn,
as compensation for losses, "and as a grateful testimonial of the
nation's esteem." In addition, the nation was guaranteed an an
nuity of $3,000. "The three great medal mingoes, Pukshunnub-
bee, Mingo Hoomastubbee, and Pooshmataha," were given each
$500, and guaranty of an annuity of $150.
After the ratification of the treaty the line of boundary was run
by Col. Dinsmore. It is perpetuated in the north boundary lines
of Wayne, Jones, Covington, and Lawrence counties, and the
northeast line of Franklin. The area of the cession was 4,374,244
acres in Mississippi and 1,612,800 in Alabama.
Treaty of Natchez. This treaty was made May 14, 1790, at the
"parochial church called The Savior of the World, of the said fort
of the Natchez," between Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, colonel
of the royal armies, governor of the fort and district of Natchez,
and Tascaduca, king of the Chickasaw nation, and Franchimas-
tabia, principal chief of the Choctaw nation, accompanied by
Yteleghana, Stonahuma, Tapenahuma and Neesahumaacho, all
chiefs, and in presence of many captains and warriors of both na
tions. The treaty was witnessed by Don Joseph Vidal, secretary,
and "Carlos de Grand Pre, Blasdu Bouchet, Estevan Minor,
Turner Brashears, Ryan (Bryan) Bruin, Gregorio White, Ygnacio
Lopez, Augustin Macarty, Jorge Cochran, Francisco Candel, Luis
Faure, Juan Girault, Carlos Todd, Ebenezer Fulson, Antonio
Soler, Jorge Tompson, Guillermo Wushtoff, Jaime McFarland,
Elias Smith, Kinneth Thompson."
It was agreed that "all the individuals of the Spanish, Chicka
saw and Choctaw nations shall love one another reciprocally," and
give each other prompt information.
"Art. 2. That to remove every motive of discord, which in
future times might occur about limits, the Chickasaw and Chac-
taw nations acknowledge that the limits of the dominion of his
majesty in the neighborhood of their territory, on' the western
side, begin on the river Mississippi at the mouth of the river Zasu,
and ascending the said river along the middle of its waters till it
comes near the place called Juego do la Pelota [ball ground],
where the English nation, by agreement with the Chactaw nation,
marked a dividing line which continued till it entered West Flor
ida, and following the said line from the said Juego do la Pelota,
till it meets those which separate the rest of the dominions of his
catholic majesty from the Alibamones and Talipuche nations.
"Art. 3. The said Chickasaw and Chactaw nations declare, that
all the lands which are to the south and to the west of the said
line belong indisputably to his catholic majesty, great king of the
Spains and 'Indies, without that they for themselves or their de
scendants have any right to them, nor at any time may reclaim

MISSISSIPPI 817
them under any pretext -or motive it may be, and moreover they
promise to support the Spanish nation in possession of the said
lands, in which are specially comprehended the government and
territory of the Natchez, as far as the waters of the Zasu.
"Art. 4. The Spanish nation declares and acknowledges that
all the lands to the east of the said dividing line of the 2d article
belong lawfully and indisputably to the Chickasaw and Chactaw
nations, promising to support them therein with all their power."
The remaining 'articles (nine in all) included a pledge of par
ticular harmony on the part of the two nations with the Spanish;
for a "generous demonstration" by Governor Gayoso in return for
the cession of all rights to the territory of the Nogales, adjoining
the Yazoo. The governor "delivers to the said chiefs the keys of
the royal magazines, in which are the goods; that they may take
from them what they may desire, to their satisfaction. . . .
The said chiefs acknowledge themselves satisfied with the goods
which they have in their power, with the keys in their hands of
the said magazines, having already seen what is in them." Fin
ally, the two nations confirm the treaty made at the congress of
Mobile and whatever they had since covenanted with the gov
ernors of Louisiana and the two Floridas, and promised to be the
constant friends of the Spanish nation, and the Spanish nation was
pledged also to observe the treaty of Mobile and subsequent
promises. The translation quoted from as given, is in Amer. State Papers,
X, 228. This treaty, with the treaty of Pensacola, was commu
nicated to Mr. Jefferson, secretary of state, by Jaudenes and Viar,
Spanish commissioners, in 1793, as a justification of Spanish inter
ference in Indian affairs.
Treaty of Pontotoc, 1832. The general causes leading up to the
enactment of this treaty have been set forth in the article dealing
with the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 1830. (q. v.) The
Chickasaw agents, Ben Reynolds and John L. Allen, and the
trader, George S. Gaines, had labored to prepare the Chickasaws
for this treaty and all its mometous consequences. The treaty was
made at the Council House, on Pontotoc creek, in the southeast
ern part of Pontotoc county, between the Chickasaw nation in
general council assembled, and General John Coffee of Tennessee,
U. S. commissioner. It was signed Oct. 20, 1832, the following
persons being witnesses thereto: Ben Reynolds, Indians Agent;
John L. Allen, subagent; Nath. Anderson, secretary to the com
missioner; Benj. Love, U. S. interpreter;- Robert Gordon, Miss.;
George Wightman, Miss.; John Donley, Tenn.; D. S. Parrish,
Tenn.; S. Daggett, Miss.; Wm. A. Clurm and G. W. Long.
The preamble to the treaty reads : "The Chickasaw Nation find
themselves oppressed in their present situation by being made
subject to the laws of the States in which they reside. Being
ignorant of the language and laws of the white man, they cannot
understand or obey them. Rather than submit to this great evil,
they prefer to seek a home in the west, where they may live and
52-11

818 MISSISSIPPI
be governed by their own laws. And believing that they can pro
cure for themselves a home, in a country suited to their wants and
condition, provided they had the means to contract and pay for
the same, they have determined to sell their country and hunt a
new home. The President has heard the complaints of the Chick
asaws and like them believes they cannot be happy, and prosper
as a nation, in their present situation and condition, and being
desirous to relieve them from the great calamity that seems to
await them, if they remain as they are — He has sent his Commis
sioner Genl. John Coffee, who has met the whole Chickasaw na
tion in Council, and after mature deliberation, they have entered
into the following articles, etc."
By the terms of the treaty the Chickasaws agreed to cede to
the United States all their lands east of the Mississippi, and, as
soon as it may be in their power, to hunt out and procure a new
home for themselves west of the Mississippi. In payment for the
cession, the United States agreed to pay over to the nation all the
money arising from the sale of the land, after deducting therefrom
the cost of selling the same. The Government further agreed to
cause the lands to be forthwith surveyed, and to make suitable
allotments to each family of the nation out of the surveys made
in case they had not become settled in the west prior to the first
public sale of their country, said allotments to include their pres
ent improvements. Provision was made for the appointment of
a surveyor-general, a register and a receiver, for the land office to
be established, together with the necessary assistants. No pre
emption rights were to be granted by the United States, and all
lands were to be sold to the highest bidder. An agent was to be
continued among the Chickasaws, and the expenses of their re
moval, and one year's provisions, after they reach their new homes,
were to be furnished them out of the proceeds for sale of their
lands. Provision was also made for the creation of a perpetual
fund, for the use of the nation as a whole, from at least three-
fourths of the net proceeds of the sale, the money to be invested
by the Government in safe stocks, and all interest arising therefrom
'to be used for national purposes alone. After 50 years, if the na
tion was then sufficiently enlightened, it might take over the fund
and use it as it deemed most for the interest of the whole nation.
A method of fixing the true boundary line between the Chickasaws
and Choctaws was determined upon, and it was stipulated that
' there should be no settlement in the Chickasaw country until the
lands should be offered for sale, and then only on lands sold. Small
annuities were made to Chief Tishomingo, and to Queen Puc-
caunla. By certain supplementary articles signed two days later
it was provided that all tracts of land reserved for the residence of
the Chickasaws pending the removal of the nation, shall be given
up and sold for the benefit of the nation as soon as the Chickasaws
shall have removed from their present country; no individual or
family to retain any such tract longer than the nation may remain
in their present country; the minimum price to be placed upon such

MISSISSIPPI 819
reserved tracts to bev$3.00 an acre, until the nation may determine
to reduce the price. Colbert Moore and family were given permis
sion to continue to reside within the nation, and a tract of land was
reserved for him ; also two mail routes through the nation were
established — one from Tuscumbia, Ala, via the Agency to Rankin,
Miss, the other from Memphis, Tenn, by the offices to Cotton
Gin, Miss, and the Indians requested that John Donley, the old
mail carrier be given the contract for carrying the mails of the
nation. The total area embraced in the Chickasaw cession of 1832 was
6,283,804 acres. Since, under the terms of the treaty, the United
States agreed to turn over all the net proceeds of the sale to the
Indians, and no provision was made for the reservation of the 16th '
section in each township for use of the common schools, this whole
region of country was deprived of the customary revenues derived
from this source under the law of 1803. To remedy this defect,
Congress, by act of July 4, 1836, granted the State in lieu of such
reservation, one-thirty-sixth part of the ceded lands, to be selected
and held by the same tenure as the other common school lands of
the State. The lands thus selected and set aside for school pur
poses amounted to 174,500 acres, which became the basis of what
was afterwards called the Chickasaw School Fund (q. v.).
Treaty of San Lorenzo el Real. This treaty between Spain
and the United States was executed October 27, 1795, by Manuel
de Godoy, secretary of state, and Thomas Pinckney, envoy extraor
dinary, and was ratified March 3, 1796. It declared "The southern
boundary of the United States, which divides their territory from
the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida, shall be designated
by a line beginning on the river Mississippi, at the northernmost
part of the 31st degree of latitude north of the equator, which from
thence shall be drawn due east to the middle of the river Apalachi-
cola or Catahouchee," etc. It was agreed "that if there should
be any troops, garrisons or settlements of either party in the terri
tory of the other according to the above mentioned boundary"
they should be withdrawn within six months after the ratification
of the treaty. Commissioners and surveyors were to meet at the
Natchez, "before the expiration of six months from the ratification
of this convention." If a guard were found necessary for the sur
vey, the troops were to be furnished equally, by both parties. "It
is likewise agreed that the western boundary of the United States,
which separates them from the Spanish colony of Louisiana, is in
the middle of the channel or bed of the river Mississippi, from the
northern boundary of the said states to the completion of the _ 31st
degree of latitude north of the equator. And his Catholic Majesty
has likewise agreed that the navigation of the said river, in its
whole breadth, from its source to the ocean, shall be free only to
his subjects and the citizens of the United States, unless he should
extend this privilege to the subjects of other powers by special con
vention." In consequence of this stipulation, "His Catholic Majesty
will permit the citizens of the United States for the space of three

820 MISSISSIPPI
years from this time, to deposit their merchandise and effects in
the port of New Orleans, and to export them from thence without
paying any other duty than a fair price for the hire of the stores,
and his Majesty promises either to continue this permission, if
he finds, during that time, that it is not prejudicial to the interests
of Spain, or, if he should not agree to continue it there, he will
assign to them on another part of the Mississippi, an equivalent
establishment." The treaty also provided for rights of commerce
on the high seas, and for a commission to adjudicate claims for
damages to commerce, during the late war between Spain and
France. In regard to the Indian question the two nations agreed to main
tain peace and harmony among the Indians along the boundary.
Each agreed "to restrain by force all hostilities on the part of the
Indian nations living within their boundary," so that "Spain will
not suffer her Indians to attack the citizens of the United States
nor the Indians inhabiting their territory," and vice versa. "It is
agreed that, in future, no treaty of alliance, or other whatever
(except treaties of peace) shall be made by either party with the
Indians living within the boundary of the other ;" but both parties
would endeavor to make the Indian trade mutually beneficial,
"observing in all things the most complete reciprocity," for the
greatest profit at least expense.
Pinckney contrived the article requiring a survey under protec
tion of troops of both nations, to prevent future disputes and for
the effect on the Indians. Article 4, on navigation of the river,
was the result of a prolonged dispute, and the apparently excessive
recognition of the rights of Spain was the only way to met her
apprehensions. There was a trade on this, also, to obtain a provi
sion for adjusting spoliation claims. Article 5, on Indian relations,
"occupied much time, and great prejudices were to be removed."
Pinckney saw nothing objectional except "the kind of defensive
alliance" against the Indians. In regard to the 22d article, regard
ing the depot, Pinckney was compelled to make heated remarks,
and on this subject and spoliations he went to the extreme of ask
ing his passports.
Treaty of 1793. According to Gayarre Governor Carondelet, on
the 28th of October, 1793, had the satisfaction, through his agent
and representative, Colonel Gayoso, governor of Natchez, to make
a reciprocally defensive and offensive treaty, between Spain on the
one side, and the Chickasaws, the Creeks, the Cherokees and the
Alibamons on the other. The treaty of 1784 was ratified, and the
Indian nations agreed in return for the protection of Spain to con
tribute to maintain his Catholic Majesty in possession of the prov
inces of Louisiana and the two Floridas.
Treaty of Washington, 1825. The proposal of Secretary Calhoun
to abrogate the terms of Jackson's treaty at Doak's Stand (q. v.).
made that arrangement with the Choctaws of no effect. The Choc
taws were deeply disgusted with the character of the new agent
sent by the government, William Ward, and were forced to lose

MISSISSIPPI 821
faith in the promises of treaty commissioners, even Jackson him
self. They insisted that no further negotiations would be made
except with the great father at Washington. Accordingly a dele
gation went to Washington, at the expense of the government, in
the fall of 1824. Those who started were Pukshennubbee, Poo
shamataha, Mooshalatubbee, Robert Cole, Daniel McCurtain,
Talking Warrior, Red Fort, Nittuckachee, David Folsom and J.
L. McDonald. Pukshennubbee died on the way, and Pooshamataha
succumbed, after a few weeks at the national capital, to the un
natural entertainment. The delegates found that the government
insisted on withdrawing some part of the land ceded to them,
but were willing to pay for it, and also wished to annul the solemn
pledge of the treaty of 1820 regarding the remaining lands east of
the Mississippi. Monroe county, part of the land ceded in 1816,
was isolated and inconvenient, they were told, and they should
give more land, on the Tombigbee, to make up a good-sized judi
cial district. This the Choctaws would not do. After much discus
sion a new boundary line in the west was agreed upon, involving
the loss of about five million acres, for which Mr. Calhoun offered
$5,000 cash and $60,000 in annuities. The Choctaws asked $30,000
in goods, $9,000 a year for twenty years for the support of mechan
ical institutions, the same annuity for twenty years for the educa
tion of Choctaw children in colleges outside the nation, and an an
nuity of $3,000 for education in the western country.
Calhoun replied that the government could not give more than
the land was worth, but in January offered $90,000 in ten annual
payments, the cancellation of the debt at the government trading
house, and payment (again?) for services in the Pensacola cam
paign. The Choctaws then made the proposition that the govern
ment accepted, and which is embodied in the treaty signed at
Washington, D. C, January 20, 1825. The line was defined as be
ginning 100 paces east of Fort Smith, on the Arkansas, and run
ning due south to Red river. The compensation was an annuity of
$6,000 forever, for twenty years, to be applied to education. There
was also promised $96,000 in annuities to make up for the misap
propriation of the former educational annuity, instead of a land re
serve, as agreed in the treaty at Doak's Stand. Those who elected
to remain at their homes in the ceded tract east of the Mississippi
(Hinds county) were authorized to hold and sell the fee simple
of one square mile ; right to locate a square mile at pleasure within
the cession of 1820 (called "floats") was extended, making the
whole list, Molly McDonald, Wesley Trahern, Noble Osborn, Alex
ander Hamilton, Greenwood Leflore, George Turnbull and Alexan
der McKee. The warriors with Jackson on the Pensacola cam
paign of 1818 were to be paid $14,972.50. The delegation was given
$2,000 to pay "various claims." Robert Cole was recognized as
the successor of Pukshennubbee, with medal and annuity.
In accordance with this treaty, notwithstanding the protests of
Arkansas, the west line of that State was fixed as it now remains.

822 MISSISSIPPI
Trebloc, a postoffice of Chickasaw county, 10 miles east of
Houston. Tremont, a post-hamlet of Itawamba county, about 12 miles east,
southeast of Fulton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50.
Trent, a postoffice of Amite county, 15 miles northeast of Lib
erty, the county seat.
Trenton, a post-hamlet of Smith county, about 40 miles south by
east of Jackson, and 11 miles west by north of Raleigh, the county
seat. Forest is the nearest railroad and banking town. It has a
church. Population in 1900, 102.
Tribbett, a postoffice of Washington county, and a station on
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 16 miles east of Green
ville. Leland is the nearest banking town.
Tribble, a postoffice of Tallahatchie county.
Trim, a postoffice of Pike county, situated on Topisaw creek, 12
miles northeast of Summit, the nearest banking town.
Trimcane, , a hamlet in the north-central part of Oktibbeha
county, 6 miles northwest of StarkviUe, the county seat. The
postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905, and it now has
rural free delivery from the station of Cedarbluff in Clay county.
Population in 1900, 27.
Trotter, James F, was born in Brunswick county, Va, Novem
ber 5, 1802, but was reared and educated in East Tennessee. He
came to the town of Hamilton, Monroe county, for the practice
of law, about 1823, and became the competitor and rival of Daniel
W. Wright. He represented the county in the State legilsature
as a representative in 1827-29 and as a senator in 1829-33 ; was elec
ted judge of the circuit court in 1833; was appointed to the United
States senate in 1838 upon the resignation of Judge Black, but re
signed this honor before taking his seat, and accepted appointment
in December of the same year to the high court of errors and ap
peals, to succeed Judge Wright, resigned. He was elected to the
same office in 1839, but resigned in 1842. He delivered many im
portant opinions, which "are noted for great strength and dignity
of style, as well as for a penetrating discrimination, a sound judg
ment, and a profound knowledge of the law." (Lynch) After
retiring from the bench he resumed the practice of law at Holly
Springs. In 1855 he was elected vice-chancellor, an office he held
until the chancery system was abolished by the code of 1857. In
1860-62 he was professor of law in the State university. At the
reorganization of the courts after the Civil war he was appointed
to the circuit bench, but he died at Holly Springs, March 9, 1866.
Reuben Davis wrote of him enthusiastically in his Recollections,
as "one of the noblest and best of men ... a good scholar and
a fine speaker ; kind and generous above measure ; incapable of fear,
treachery or meanness, the ideal Southerner of that day."
Troy, an old village which is now extinct, and which was situated
a few miles below Grenada in what is now Grenada county, but
was formerly Yalobusha county. Its life was brief, as it was early
absorbed by the rising town of Grenada. It attained a growth of

MISSISSIPPI 823
from 100 to 150 people, and among its residents were the mercantile
firm of Chislom and Minter, and Robert Mullen, afterward a
leading merchant of Grenada. A wealthy class of planters lived
in the neighborhood, among whom were the Leighs, Powells,
Talberts, Bakers, Minters and Towns.
Troy, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of Pon
totoc county, on Tallabinnela creek, 12 miles southeast of Pontotoc,
the nearest railroad and banking town. It was named for the
ancient city of Asia Minor. It has a money order postoffice. Pop
ulation in 1900, 144.
Truitt, a postoffice of Madison county, about 17 miles northeast
of Canton, the county seat.
Trussell, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Neshoba county,
16 miles from Philadelphia, the county seat. It has rural free de
livery from Battlefield station, Newton county.
Trusty, a post-hamlet" of Calhoun County, 10 miles northwest of
Pittsboro, the county seat. Water Valley is the nearest railroad
and banking town. Population in 1900, 23.
•Tryus, a post-hamlet of Lawrence county, 14 miles north of
Monticello, the county seat. Population in 1900, 41.
Tubal, a postoffice of Clarke county, 18 miles southwest of Quit
man, the county seat.
Tucker, Tilghman Mayfield, was born in North Carolina, Febru
ary 5, 1802, son of John Tucker and Margaret Mayfield. He began
his life in Mississippi as a law student under Daniel W. Wright,
at Hamilton, Monroe county. He was afterward a citizen of Col
umbus, and became noted for "his law learning and political saga
city. Few men controlled a better practice, and he came to have
a sort of life estate in a seat in the legislature." (Davis' Recollec
tions.) His law partners were Adam T. Smith, General Gholson and
Sam F. Butterworth. He is described in Claborne's Mississippi
as "an earnest, sincere and honest man." Popularly, he was known
as Old Tilletoba, meaning in the Indian tongue, the blacksmith,
that having been his former occupation. He was nominated for
governor in 1841, when there seemed to be little hope for the Dem
ocratic organization, which was maintained largely through the
ambition of William M. Gwin, who persuaded Mr. Tucker to accept
the nomination after he once declined. The issue upon which he
ran was the repudiation of the Union bank bonds. He had been
broken down by typhoid fever and did not take much part in the
campaign. His opponent was David O. Shattuck, a Methodist
preacher, circuit judge, lawyer and strong public speaker. He
was the Whig candidate and favored payment of the bonds. Under
these circumstances Tucker was elected. His messages were not
brilliant, but they were marked by some valuable suggestions, par
ticularly in regard to education (q. v.)
He was a man, says Henry S. Foote in his Reminiscenses, "of
sound and vigorous intellect, of a chastened and moderate ambi
tion, and of a lofty independence worthy of all praise." In his

824 MISSISSIPPI
campaign he had taken the ground that Governor McNutt, in
signing and causing to be sold the Union bank bonds, had exceeded
his constitutional authority, which was an argument for repudia
tion quite distasteful to McNutt, and made the latter an enemy.
Bitter attacks on the public and personal character of the governor,
by various newspapers, particularly Dr. James Hagan's Sentinel,
at Vicksburg, resulted, after Judge Adams had been included in
the attack, in the violent death of the editor. In 1843 Tucker was
nominated for congressman from the State at large by the Demo
crats. He was elected and served one term. He was married in
1829 to Sarah F. McBee and in 1854 to Martha A. Conger. He was
a man of wealth, with many slaves and large estates. After retir
ing from public life he lived at his plantation home, "Cottonwood,"
in Louisiana. April 30, 1859, he died in Alabama, while visiting
his father.
Tucker's Administration. Governor Tucker was inaugurated
January 10, 1842, with the following State officers serving from
November, 1841 to November, 1843 : Lewis G. Galloway, secre
tary of state; Richard S. Graves, treasurer; James E. Matthews,
auditor. John D. Freeman was attorney-general, 1841-53. His
inaugural speech was mainly devoted to a statement of his attitude
on the Union bank bond question. He held that the people had
decided that "the transactions connected with said bank, both in
its inception and final consummation, were not governmental,
but were on the contrary individual transactions, performed, not
only without the authority of the constitution of the State, but
contrary to the express provisions thereof; though, should the leg
islature feel under any obligation, either legal or moral (which I
do not), or should deem it a matter of policy to discharge this obli
gation, and should determine to assume and pay the debt or liabil
ity," the constitution provided the method — an act pledging the
faith of the State, to be referred to the next legislature.
"In my opinion a marked distinction exists between the liability
of the State on account of the Planters' bank, and of the Mississippi
Union bank. In the case of the Planters' bank, the bonds were
executed and sold (fairly, so far as I am informed) in accordance
with the constitution and will of the people." He knew of no
reason either moral or legal forbidding the State to pay the Plan
ters' bank bonds, unless they could be construed as bills of credit
prohibited by the constitution of the United States. If found in
dispensably necessary to save the State from a violation or breach
of its contract, I will unite with you in providing the means, even
by taxation, to pay them." (See Repudiation.)
The most startling of the defalcations connected with the funds
which were contributed by the United States to Mississippi, was
that of R. S. Graves, State treasurer, in 1842. He received in Oc
tober, $144,000 from the treasury of the United States to apply _ on
the percentage of public land sales given the State for road im
provements. He had been specially authorized to receive $10,000
from the Two per cent, fund to pay the State engineer, and the sec-

MISSISSIPPI 825
retary of the treasury, also paid him all that was due on the Three
per cent, fund, making up the total. There had been some corres
pondence between the secretary and the governor regarding Graves'
authority to receipt for money due the State, with no referenc to
any spcial fund, and Governor Tucker, unsuspiciously, asserted
the authority of the treasurer in broad terms. Graves, had asso
ciates in the scheme founded upon this windfall to which the sec
retary assisted him; the scheme was to keep possession of the
money secret until he could invest it in State warrants, bought
at a great discount, which he could turn over to the State at par
. in place of the funds received at Washington. As the State was
bound to make its warrants good, or ought to do so, it was possible
to look at such a transaction as not heinous. It was a common
thing among tax collectors, and had been practiced by some of the
great bankers and other public officials before Graves. When evi
dence enough had been discovered, the governor directed George
S. Yerger and George Adams to draft a bill in chancery charging
Graves with embezzlement, and asking an injunction and the ap
pointment of a receiver. While this was pending before the Chan
cellor, Graves escaped from the custody of the Sheriff of Hinds
county. Afterward, the Chancellor refused to grant the writ or
appoint a receiver. Governor Tucker determined to appoint a
State treasurer, but before he could do so, the wife of Graves
delivered to him $69,232 in treasury warrants, $92,600 in United
States treasury notes, and $2,750 in gold. When Gen. William
Clark was appointed treasurer the office was broken open, also the
iron chest and safe, in which was found $6.50 specie, $6,500 in war
rants, and about $65,000 in depreciated bank notes.
On account of this scandal, which threatened to tarnish other
names than that of Graves, a special session of the legislature was
convened July 10, 1843, and investigation made. The committee
of which Charles Clark was chairman reported that the net defal
cation of Graves was about $45,000. There was no evidence to im
plicate other officials except the admission of some of them that
they had received some par funds in payment of salaries. There
was no other indication that anyone knew that Graves had any
real money. Silence sems to have prevailed among those he had
bought warrants of Graves was seldom at the capital, and the
first notice the governor had was the letter from Jacob Thompson,
congressman, three months after, informing the governor that
Graves had drawn the whole amount of the three per cent. fund.
Governor Tucker contended that the robbery was not of the State
of Mississippi, but of the United States treasury; the payment to
him of $134,000 was unauthorized, and consequently, was lost be
fore it was delivered to the State. But the committee believed the
secretary was authorized to pay the fund to Graves, and that the
loss must fall upon the State. They were disposed to censure the
governor for not demanding an earlier examination of the office,
but added, "that they are convinced that the action of the governor
was paralyzed, not by improper motives, but by an honorable con-

826 MISSISSIPPI
viction that to have done more than he did would have been to
transcend his constitutional power and authority."
At the election in 1843 the Anti-Bonders nominated Albert Gal
latin Brown for governor; the Bond Payers named George R.
Clayton, and Thomas H. Williams was also voted for. The vote
was, Brown 21,035, Clayton 17,322, Williams 1,343.
The general elections of 1841 and 1843 sustained the advocates
of repudiation of the Union bank bonds on the ground of their
unconstitutionality. At the same time Governor Tucker contin
ued to protest that the Planters' bank notes would be paid. He said
"We must frequently pay the heavy penalties of the past folly
and prodigality of reckless public agents, as will be the case with
us when we pay the Planters' bank bonds. ... I would urge
the payment of State debts upon the principles of protecting and
preserving untarnished the faith, credit and constitution of the
State, and upon the principles of common honesty, right and eter
nal justice. ... I consider that the refusal to pay said bonds
would tarnish the principles of the fair fame and credit of the
State, and violate and repudiate the constitution." But, by the
close of his administration, the opinion was asserted that the
Planters' bonds also were unconstitutional, because the bank was
not administered, and the funds handled by previous legislatures,
in conformity to the bill of rights, according to which all govern
ment is for the benefit of the people. It is a doctrine that, "today,
would be welcomed, but there would be great embarrassment in
its application. At that time, it was overlooked that, however
valuable the general principle, the constitution of 1832 was framed,
in part, especially to insure the constitutionality of the Planters'
bank and the validity of the bonds.
Tucker, William F, raised a company early in 1861, the Chick
asaw Guards, which was assigned to the Eleventh regiment, mus-
tered-in at Lynchburg, Va, in May, 1861. After taking part in
the first battle of Manassas he and his company were transferred
to. the Forty-first regiment, in the western army, and he was com
missioned colonel in May, 1862. March 1, 1864, he was promoted
to brigadier-general, but he had already been in command of his
brigade in the great battles of 1863. At Resaca, May 14, 1864, he
was severely wounded, so that he was incapacitated for active
service. His son, William Feimster Tucker, of Woodville, is one
of the present representatives in the 'legislature from Wilkinson
county. Gen. Tucker was assassinated at Okolona, September 15,
1881. Tula, an incorporated town in the southeastern part of Lafayette
county, on Pollocona creek, about 14 miles from Oxford, the county
seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has a money order
postoffice. Population in 1900, 119. The population in 1906 was
estimated at 200. The town has an excellent chartered school
and is growing.
Tunica, the capital of Tunica county, is an incorporated post-
town on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, about 40 miles

MISSISSIPPI 827
southwest of Memphis. It is a comparatively young town which
sprang up on the completion of the Louisville, New Orleans &
Texas R. R, now the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, through
this section. The seat of justice was moved from Austin on the
Mississippi river to this point about 1887, at which time a substan
tial courthouse and jail were built at Tunica. An exceedingly fer
tile country surrounds Tunica, as the whole county lies in the rich,
alluvial Mississippi bottom. Cotton and corn are the chief pro
ducts. Many substantial business houses are now located here,
and the town is prosperous and growing rapidly. It has telegraph,
express, telephone and banking facilities. The Bank of Tunica
was established here in 1900 with a capital of $20,000 ; Irwin's
Bank of Tunica was organized in 1905 ; capital stock paid up $20,-
000; R. C. Irwin, President; A. E. Irwin, Vice President; and
W. H. Powell, Cashier. A Democratic weekly, the Delta Democrat,
founded in 1895, and now owned and edited by M. S. Curtis, is pub
lished here. Population in 1900, 485 ; the population in 1906 was
estimated at 700. The town owns and operates a fine electric light
and water plant. The most important industry iri Tunica is a large
cotton-seed oil mill and cotton gin combined, built at a cost of $62,-
000. Its president is R. C. Irwin, secretary and treasurer, J. T.
Watson. There are also three gins, and two well equipped livery
stables. The town has 3' churches for whites, and 4 for negroes. A
fine well of artesian water supplies it with excellent drinking water.
Tunica County was established Feb. 9, 1836, and is one of the
twelve counties formed in that year from the ChickasaW Indian
cession of 1832. The county has a land surface of 449 square miles.
It was named for the Indian tribe of that name.the word meaning,
"the people." As originally established, Tunica embraced an area
of about 19 townships, or 684 square miles, and its limits were
thus defined: "Beginning at the northwestern corner of Talla
hatchie county, and running thence due north to the dividing line
between the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians ; thence
with the said dividing line to the Mississippi river ; thence up the
said river, to the point where the line between townships 2 and 3
intersects the same ; thence with the said township line, to the line
between ranges 9 and 10 west; thence south with the said range
line, and from its termination in a direct line to the northern
boundary of Tallahatchie county, and thence west with said north
ern boundary, to the beginning." In 1873 it surrendered a part
of its territory to Tate, and another portion in 1877 to Quitman.
It is situated in the northwestern part of the State, in the Missis
sippi bottom, and is quite irregular in shape. The Mississippi river
washes its entire western border, the county of DeSoto lies to
the north and east, Tate and Panola counties on the east, the Cold-
water river now forming the boundary between Tunica and Tate,
and Quitman and Coahoma counties on the south. The white pop
ulation of the county has always been small, and, in 1900, was only
1,559 out of a total of 16,479. A few of the prominent early set
tlers of the region were Walter H. Bell, the first Representative

828- MISSISSIPPI
from the county in the Lower House of the Legislature ; E. H.
Bridges, Probate Judge; J. H. Bridges, Sheriff; Joseph A. Mc-
Neely, Justice of the Peace ; Wm. Camoon, Probate Clerk ; T. W-
Floyd, Circuit Clerk ; R. J. Thornton,  Smith, William Phil
lips, James Porter, John Ballard, members of Board of Police, and
Lorenzo A. Besancon, S. May, T. M. Fletcher, R. H. Byrne, Alfred
Cox, James D. Hallam (Senator from Tunica 1837-1838), who
were early members of the Legislature from Tunica county. There
are no large towns ; Tunica, the present county seat, is a new
town of about 700 people, which has been built up on the line of the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, and is possessed of substantial'
business interests. Evansville (pop. 103), Hollywood (pop. 291),
Robinsonville (pop. 300), Maud and Dundee are some of the other
more important towns on the railroad ; on the Mississippi river are
Austin, one of the early county seats and once a large town of
over 2,000 people, with a large river and inland trade, but now a
place of only about 150 people ; Commerce, another old county seat
and the oldest town in the county; Field, O. K, State Levee, and
Trotter Landing. ' Two lines of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley
R. R. run through the county from north to south, so that the
region is amply supplied with shipping facilities both by rail and
water. Besides the Mississippi river on the western border, and
the Coldwater river on the eastern border, other waters in the county
are Buck's creek, Coon bayou, Flower lake, Walnut lake and Beaver
Dam lake. The entire county is composed of level, alluvial land, of
exceeding richness and fertility. In 1900 there were 93,438 acres
under cultivation out of a total farm acreage of 144,968. Anything
adapted to the climate will grow — cotton, corn, oats, millet, clover,
tobacco, fruits, both large and small, and vegetables. The whole
region was formerly heavily timbered with white oak, red and
sweet gum, walnut, cottonwood, hickory and cypress. A consid
erable portion of the timber has now been cut away, though a vast
acreage of valuable timber is still left, and constitutes one of the im
portant assets of the county. The region has the advantage of
a large market near at hand in Memphis, with cheap and easy
means of transportation for its abundant products. Live stock is
cheaply and profitably bred, and the industry is a large and grow
ing one, being valued at over half a million in 1900. There are a
good many small mills, gins and factories in the county. The white
population is widely scattered and social privileges are compara
tively few.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth U. S. census
for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : Number
of farms, 2,902, acreage in farms 144,968, acres improved 93,438,
value of land exclusive of buildings $2,973,140, value of buildings
$455,930, value of live stock $520,470, value of products not fed
to stock $1,846,019. Number of manufactures 44, capital invested
$252,343, wages paid $33,132, cost of materials used $147,812, total
value of products $255,522. The population in 1900 was whites

MISSISSIPPI 829
1,559, colored 14,920, total 16,479, increase of 4,321 over the year
1890. Population was estimated in 1906 at over 22,000.
The county is being rapidly cleared up, and land values have
doubled in the last 10 years. The importance of good roads is
appreciated and Tunica is spending a large amount of money on its
highways. There are 20 white schools in the county and 45 colored.
(See State Superintendent's biennial report of 1906.)
The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in
Tunica county in 1905 was $1,912,866 and in 1906 it was $2,110,120,
which shows an increase of $197,254 during the year.
Tunicas. See Indians.
Tupelo, the capital of Lee county, is a city of 3,500 people, located
in the northeastern part of the state. The St. Louis & San Fran
cisco R. R. crosses the Mobile & Ohio R. R. at this point; which
gives the city excellent shipping facilities in every direction. The
latter road was completed to Tupelo in 1860, at which time it ab
sorbed the business of the old village of Harrisburg (q. v.), one and
one-half miles to the west. A bloody battle was fought here on
July 14, 1864, between the Federal troops under Gen. A. J. Smith
and the Confederate troops under Gen. Stephen D. Lee and Gen.
N. B. Forrest. After the battle of Shiloh the Confederate troops fell
back to Tupelo and remained encamped here during the summer of
1862; and after Hood was defeated at Nashvillle he fell back to
Tupelo and was encamped here several months. At an election
held April 15, 1867, following the establishment of the county of
Lee in 1866, Tupelo was chosen as the county seat. Courts were
held in a two-story frame structure until the completion of a fine
brick courthouse building in 1871. This courthouse was burned
in February, 1873, and a new brick courthouse was completed in
1875, at a cost of about $20,000, together with a fine brick jail,
costing $8,000. In 1904 the second courthouse was destroyed by
fire and a fine new structure was immediately built at a total cost
of $75,000, with $7,000 added to the jail. Tupelo has telegraph,
telephone, express and banking facilities, and is situated in a fine
agricultural region. There are 4 banking institutions, the Bank of
Tupelo, established in 1886 with a capital of $50,000, since increased
to $100,000 ; the First National Bank, established in 1891 with a cap
ital of $50,000,and a surplus of $30,000 ;The People's Bank and Trust
Co, established in 1904, with a capital of $100,000, and The
Farmers Bank and Trust Co, established in 1906, capital $100,000.
The Journal, a Democratic weekly newspaper, was founded in
1872, and is now owned and edited by F. L. Kincannon ; the Tupelo
Review, a local weekly paper, was founded in 1901, A. Steinberger
& Sons being the editors and publishers. All the principal re
ligious denominations have churches here, and there is a good
graded school system.
Tupelo lies in an artesian basin, and there are many wells of this
character here ; the water is obtained at a depth of about 300
feet, and is soft and pure. In the immediate vicinity of the city
is found the very best clay for the manufacture of drainage tiles.

830 MISSISSIPPI
The city is located on Old Town creek, and the Chickasaw In
dians long had their chief settlements in this section. It was three
miles north of the present town of Tupelo that Governor Bienville
found them intrenched in their palisaded fort in 1736, and suffered
a disastrous repulse at their hands. (See Achia Battle.) The old
Natchez Trace (q. v.) ran near Tupelo, and near here was a station
on that celebrated road.
Among the important industries of Tupelo may be mentioned
the following: The Tupelo Cotton Mills, a large fertilizer factory,
a large cotton oil mill, a cotton compress, one of the largest and
best equipped in the state ; a knitting factory, a scale factory, ice
and bottling works, a brick plant, a cement block manufacturing
plant, a handle factory, a spoke factory, a steam laundry, a broom
factory, a fine electric light and water plant owned and operated
by the city, 4 hotels and 4 livery and sales stables. The city owns
a beautiful park with an artificial lake of 40 acres supplied by
artesian wells. A United States fish hatchery is located here.
There are about 40 miles of finely built streets. The following
fraternal orders have lodges here, viz. : Masons, Odd Fellows,
Knights of Pythias, Knights of Honor and Woodmen of the World.
Tupelo has been growing rapidly in the last 15 years, and had
2,118 inhabitants according to the census of 1900 ; population in
1890 was 1,477. The population in 1906 was estimated at 3,500.
It handles about 40,000 bales of cotton annually and 150 carloads
of live stock.
Turkey, a postoffice of Attala county, 13 miles east of Kosciusko,
the county seat.
Turnbull, a postoffice and station in the southern part of Wilkin
son county, on the Bayou Sara Branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R, 7 miles south of Woodville, the county seat and
nearest banking town.
Turner, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Adams County, on
Coles creek, 14 miles east of Natchez.
Turner, Edward, was born in Fairfax county, Va, November
25, 1778, and removed with his father's family to Kentucky in 1786.
There he attended the country schools and, at intervals, Transyl
vania university. In 1799 he was taken into the family of Col.
George Nicholas, first law professor of the college, and this enabled
him to read law in the intervals of his duties as clerk. Col. Nich
olas died in that year, and Turner continued his studies under the
second law professor, James -Brown, assisted by his elder brother,
Fielden L. Turner, who was admitted to the Mississippi bar in
1807. Edward first came down the river for the practice of law, and
arrived at Natchez in January, 1802. Says Sparks : "Four brothers
emigrated to the country about the same time. Two brothers re
mained at Natchez, one at Bayou Sara, in Louisiana, and the fourth
went to New Orleans. All became distinguished : three as lawyers,
who honored the bench in their respective localities, and the fourth
as a merchant and planter accumulated an immense fortune." It
appears that Edward Turner was appointed aide-de-camp and

MISSISSIPPI 831
private secretary for Governor Claiborne and clerk of the house of
representatives, soon after his arrival. He was married in 1802,
to a daughter of Cato West, and in .August was appointed clerk
of the court of Jefferson county, to succeed Col. John Girault. In
July, 1803, he was appointed by the president the first register of
the land office west of Pearl river, then the most western land
office in the United States. He was on duty at the town of Wash
ington until succeeded by Thomas H. Williams, when he removed
to Greenville, Jefferson county, and continued the practice of law.
Moving further north, upon his plantation in Warren county, in
1810, he was there elected to the assembly in 1811, and major of
the regiment. His wife died in February, 1811, and he married
Eliza B. Baker in December, 1812. Returning to Natchez in 1813,
he continued his law practice and was elected city magistrate and
president of the board of selectmen. He was elected in 1815 to
the last general assembly of the Territory, sitting in 1815-16, and in
December, 1815, was elected by the two houses to "digest the
statutes of the Mississippi Territory." This work, entitled, "Stat
utes of the Mississippi Territory," etc, was the second publication
of the kind in Mississippi Territory, the first having been made
by Judge Toulmin in 1807. It was printed at Natchez in 1816, by
Peter Isler, printer to the Territory. It appears to have been a
complete, well-arranged, and satisfactory compilation of the United
States laws applying to the Territory and the acts of the general
assembly. After this Turner was elected to the constitutional con
vention of 1817, where he was one of the committee that framed
the first constitution of the State. Equally important was his work ¦
as representative of Adams county in the first legislature, 1817-18,
in which he was chairman of the judiciary committee and estab
lished the judicial system under the constitution. He continued
a member of the legislature until 1822, being twice elected speaker.
In 1820-21 he was attorney-general by appointment of Governor
Poindexter; in 1823 he was appointed judge of the criminal court
of Adams county ; and in 1824 judge of the supreme court, becom
ing presiding judge in 1829, a position he held until superseded
under the constitution of 1832. He was chancellor of the State
1834-39, during which time he greatly improved the chancery
methods. In 1839 he was the Whig candidate for governor, and
received about 16,000 votes, but was defeated by A. G. McNutt.
He was in this memorable campaign an able representative of the
conservative element of the State, and his election would doubtless
have been of inestimable value. In 1840 he was elected to the High
court upon the death of Justice Pray, and in 1844 at the age of sixty-
six years, he was elected to the State senate by Jefferson and
Franklin counties. At the expiration of his term on the bench in
November, 1843, the bar in attendance on the High court resolved,
"That the State of Mississippi is under many obligations to the
Hon. Edward Turner for the many years of arduous labor he has
devoted to her service, and for the distinguished example of purity,
integrity and patriotism which he has afforded to her citizens."

832 MISSISSIPPI
He died at Woodlands, his home near Natchez, May 23, 1860, sur
vived by his wife and several children. Judge Turner was of
portly and commanding figure, standing six feet two, was generous
and kind, brilliant in conversation, gracious in manners. "He was
not considered a profound lawyer," says Lynch. But he was thor
oughly honest and industrious, and was the great judicial figure
of the early period of the State.
Turnerville, a handsome post-village of Jasper county, on Talla-
homa creek, 44 miles southwest of Meridian, and 12 miles east of
Paulding, the county seat. Bay Spring is the nearest banking
town, and also the nearest railroad station. The village has a
church and store, and is the seat of Turnerville Academy. Popu
lation in 1900, 52.
Turnetta, a post-hamlet of Madison county, on Tilda Bogue, 5
miles east of Canton, the county seat and nearest railroad and
banking town. Population in 1900, 25.
Tuscahoma. An extinct village in Tallahatchie county about 12
miles northwest of Grenada. See Tallahatchie county. It was
incorporated in 1836 and survived until 1850. Its merchants were
Girault & McRea, Campbell & Adams, and Tulson & Company.
The Williams family once kept its hotel. George W. Martin, an
intimate friend of General Jackson, was an early pioneer of the
neighborhood. Tuscola, a post-hamlet of Leake county, on Tuscalamita creek,
an affluent of Pearl river, 8 miles south of Carthage, the county
seat. Population in 1900, 41.
Tutwiler, an incorporated post-town in the northwestern part of
Tallahatchie county, at the junction of the two branches of the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 22 miles west of Charleston, the
county seat. Webb is the nearest banking town. It has a money
order postoffice. Population in 1900, 142; the population in 1906
was estimated at 200.
Twins, a postoffice of Yazoo county.
Two Percent Fund. This trust fund originated in the act of
congress, 1817, providing for the admission of the State. The
United States agreed to reserve five per cent, of the receipts
from sale of public lands, two-fifths of the same to be
appropriated by congress in making roads within the State,
and three-fifths to making public roads and canals within the
State, under the control of the legislature. The Two percent fund
accumulated from 1825 to 1841, when the legislature projected the
railroad from Brandon to the Alabama line, later known as the
Southern railroad, the eastern terminus of which was to be West
Point, on the Chattahoochee river. Congress was memorialized to
appropriate the fund accordingly. September 4, 1841, congress
passed an act giving each of the new States 500,000 acres of land
for Internal improvements and appropriating the Two percent fund
of Mississippi for a railroad from Brandon in the direction of
Montgomery, and half the fund due Alabama for the building1 of
the line west from West Point. The legislature, by act of February

MISSISSIPPI 833
26, 1842, accepted the fund and conditions and purposes, and au
thorized the governor to employ an engineer to survey the road,
also to survey a levee from Memphis to the mouth of the Yazoo
and from Ellis Cliffs to the mouth of Homochitto, to be paid out
of the Two percent fund and reimbursed from sale of the Internal
Improvement lands. The act also authorized a loan to the Jackson
& Brandon railroad of $25,000 of the Two percent fund, which was
subsequently made. The legislatures of Alabama and Mississippi
granted a joint charter to the Southern railroad company in Jan
uary and February, 1846, to build from Brandon to Montgomery
and operate a continuous line from Vicksburg to the Chattahoo
chee. Mississippi agreed to invest all the Two percent fund in the
road, and merge the Brandon road in it. Until the Southern com
pany was organized, commissioners of the State managed the Bran
don road, and in 1848, the Southern company being yet unready to
receive the trust fund, the Governor was authorized to appoint five
commissioners, vested with all the powers of the Southern and the
Jackson & Brandon roads, including the drawing of the Two per
cent, fund, of which $70,000 was to be invested in negroes to
work on construction. These commissioners were reduced to three
in 1850. They drew and expended $227,500, and paid back from
sale of slaves, etc, $14,326.
The act of Marph, 1852, revived the charter of the Southern rail
road, provided for turning the Two percent fund on hand over to
it, also the Jackson & Brandon road, and all property connected
therewith, including lands, slaves, engines and cars. The delivery
was made by Governor Foote, July 19, 1852, to T. A. Marshall,
president of the Southern company, and under authority of an act
of legislature, the Vicksburg & Jackson railroad was purchased
by the same company January 1, 1857.
Of the Two percent fund it was reported in 1858 that the United
States Register's statements showed that $379,500 had been paid to
the agents of the State, and the State accounts revealed but a slight
discrepancy. The auditor's books showed that the State owed the
fund $81,570, but Alexander H. Arthur, commissioner, reported
that the true balance was $57,691. The default of Treasurer
Graves was mainly on account of this fund. (Arthur's report,
Senate Journal, 1858, appendix, p. 29.)
Governor Lowry reported in 1884 that the last payment on the
two funds was in 1879, of $6,000, and the $25,000 that had accumu
lated since then had been withheld to apply on the Direct tax of
1861. The governor visited Washington in April, 1884, to secure
the payment, and an action was brought before the court of claims.
E. M. Watson, acting as attorney for the governor, asked a man
damus to compel the comptroller to issue a warrant for the amount
due. , In reply the comptroller admitted that the claim was just
and no set off should be made, but he could not reverse the decision
of his predecessor in office, and the court held it had no jurisdiction.
In 1886 the United States supreme court ruled that the withholding
of the fund as a set off to the war tax, was unauthorized. The
53-11

834 MISSISSIPPI
amount accumulated, was then about $40,000. After this the pay
ments were made. By 1890 about $78,500 had been paid to the
State on the 5% fund, which, by act of legislature, was distributed
among the counties for school-house purposes.
Tylertown, a village in the southeastern part of Pike county,
situated on McGees creek, a tributary of Bogue Chitto, and a
station on the Fernwood & Gulf R. R, 20 miles east of Magnolia,
the county seat, and nearest banking town. It has a money order
postoffice and an express office. A bank building is in course of
construction and as soon as completed the Bank of Tylertown
will be established. The population in 1906 was estimated at 500.
Tyro, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Tate county,
16 miles east of Senatobia, 'the county seat. It has a church, an
academy, the Tyro Hip'h School, a money order postoffice, several
stores, a cotton gin, and a saw mill. Population in 1900, 110.
Una, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Clay county, about 22
miles northwest of Westpoint, the county seat, and nearest bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 35.
Union, a village in the north-central part of Newton county, 9
miles north of Decatur, the county seat. It is on the new exten
sion of the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R. It has 2 churches,
a money order postoffice, several .stores and The Bank of Union,
established in 1905. The old town of Union was established in
1834 and was the place where courts were held before the counties
of Neshoba and Newton were divided. Union is situated in a fine
farming district and is destined to become a town- of much impor
tance. It has a population of about 250.
Union Church, an old village in the eastern pari of Jefferson
county, 17 miles east of Fayette, the county seat, and nearest bank
ing town, and about 40 miles east by north of Natchez. It has an
academy, The Union Church High School, non-sectarian and co
educational ; 3 churches ; and a money order postoffice. Population
in 1900, 136.
Union County was established during the reconstruction era
after the War, April 7th, 1870, and was named to express the now
existing sentiment between the States. The county has a land
surface of 418 square miles. It was formerly a part of the counties
of Tippah and Pontotoc and some of the early history of the region
will be found treated under those titles. It is situated in the
northeastern part of the State, between the counties of Tippah and
Pontotoc, and is counted one of the best of the northern counties.
A little north of New Albany was the old Indian trading post of
Alberson, called for the first citizen and trader at the place. Booker
Foster and Moses Collins were merchants there in the early days,
as were John N. Wiley, and Powers and Morgan, who manufac
tured wheat fans here from 1839 to 1844. Moses Collins built a
good grist mill and saw mill in 1840 on the present site of New
Albany, and the business of the older settlement soon moved to
this place. Not even a trace of the old village is left. (See Dr.
F. L. Riley's Extinct 'Towns and Villages of Miss.) During the

MISSISSIPPI 835
late 30's and early 40's, the States of Alabama, Georgia, Virginia
and Tennessee, contributed many settlers of wealth and enterprise
to "this region of the State, among whom may be mentioned, Rev.
Joseph Edwards, Col. John S. Doxey, Berry and John Hodges,
Allen and Barton Sloan, Samuel Knowles, William D. Sloan, Vin
cent and John Wages, William Hamilton, Davis Pannel, Dr.
Thompson, Ira Kemp, Frank and Alexander Morgan, Dr. H. N.
Moss, John Y. and Milas Nesbit, Ezekiel Millsaps, Zack Tate, J.
C. and Wiley D. Robbins, Carey Snider, B. C. S. and Dr. Porter
McAllister, Dr. M. Wilson, John and Robert McAllister, Rev.
Isaac Smith, Eli Cornwell, Benjamin Parker, William Liddell and
Rev. James Boswell (See Lowry & McCardle, History of Mis
sissippi, page 590, for an excellent roll of the early settlers of
Union.) In the year 1857 Moses Parker was conducting a school
at the old town of Myrtle, two miles south of the present town of
Myrtle, on the line of the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham
R. R. From an incident of the time, the place was first known as
"Candy Hill," but after the War, when a postoffice was established
he*re, it took the name of Myrtle. Hill and Murray, and W. C.
and B. F. Whittington were merchants in old Myrtle, and it had an
excellent school conducted by Mr. Chosen Myers. The advent of
the railroad two miles away caused the removal of the postoffice
and business of the old town to the new station of the same name
on the railroad. The postoffice and little store on the old site are
now known as "Avanelle." The county seat of Union is the thriv
ing town of New Albany above mentioned, situated near the center
of the county, on the line of the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City
R. R, where it crosses the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham
R. R. The town grew from a place of 548 inhabitants in 1890 to
one of 1,033 people, according to the census of 1900, and to an
estimated population in 1906 of 3,000. It is on what is known as
the "Pontotoc Ridge," the highest land in the State, has a rich
farming country all about it, with plenty of good springs and water,
and is rapidly forging to the front as a business place, and shipping
point. Wallerville, (pop. 184), Blue Springs (pop. 198), arid Myr
tle, above mentioned (pop. 165), are other prosperous railroad vil
lages in the county. The two lines of road above mentioned pro
vide the region with excellent shipping facilities in every direction.
The streams are the Tallahatchie river, which runs through the
center of the county, and its tributary creeks the Oconitahatchie,
Wilhite, Locks, Lappatubba, and Jones ; the head streams of the
West Fork of the Tombigbee river take their rise in the eastern
part of the county. There are 82,641 acres of improved farm lands
and much of the balance is well timbered with white, red and
black oak, poplar, hickory, ash, pine, gum, walnut, etc. The soil
is loamy with a red clay sub-soil, and produces cotton, corn, wheat,
oats, rye, sweet and Irish potatoes, sorghum and various kinds of
grasses. All kinds of vegetables, and fruits such as apples, pears,
peaches, figs, strawberries, blackberries, dewberries, etc, are grown
in abundance. Stock do very well here, alfalfa, cow-peas, and

836 MISSISSIPPI
Japan clover on the hills and bottoms affording extensive pasturage,
and those who have gone into stock raising have found it very
profitable. Some lignite (brown coal) has been found, also beds
of marl and limestone in some portions of the county. There has
been a tremendous growth of manufactures since the data for the
U. S. census of 1900 were obtained.
The following statistics, taken from the twelfth census of the
United States for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and popula
tion : — Number of farms 2,895, acreage in farms 218,437, acres
improved 82,641, value of land exclusive of buildings $1,051,830,
value of buildings $359,400, value of live stock $546,722, total
value of products not fed to stock $946,446. Number of manufac
turing establishments 45, capital invested $89,776, wages paid $18,-
860, cost of materials used $63,862, total value of products $131,804.
Population in 1900 consisted of whites 12,380, colored 4,142, total
16,522, increase of 916 over the year 1890 ; in 1906 the population
was estimated at 18,000. Land values in the last 5 years have in
creased fully 200 per cent. Artesian water has been found in
various parts of the county. It will be noted that the capital in
vested in manufactures in 1900 was only $89,776, but in 1906 a
conservative estimate places the capital invested in the county at
fully $600,000. The total assessed valuation of real and personal
property in Union county in 1905 was $2,084,346 and in 1906 it was
$2,688,900, which shows an increase of $604,554 during the year.
Uniontown, an extinct town in Jefferson county situated on the
south side of Cole's creek, and the next station above Selsertown
on the old Natchez Trace. It was a place of importance in the
early history of Jefferson county and platted into streets. Col.
John A. Watkins, of New Orleans describes its business life in the
following terms : "At Union Town, Shackleford established an
extensive tannery, and had branches at the old Cable place and at
Mrs. Wallace's. Ellis had a public gin, as few at that day were
able to run one for private use. Farley made all the hats. We
killed coons and took the skins to him, and in return got a hat.
Jake Warner made boots at Uniontown, Pintard was cabinet-maker,
McMurchy made wagons, plows, etc, and old Getzendmar made
bull-whips. Weaving was extensively carried on, but it was done
by hand. Greenleaf, about 1797, established a cotton-gin factory,
and that, the first gin ever used in Mississippi, was made by a
negro." See Publications Miss. His. Soc, Vol.. V, pp. 344-345. Good-
speed's Biog. and His. Mem. of Miss. Vol. I, p. 176.
United Confederate Veterans. As soon as the South began to re
cover from the effects of the war local associations of Confederate
veterans were organized in different regions. There was a notable
reunion of Confederate veterans at New Orleans February 13, 1888,
at which Generals S. D. Lee, J. R. Chalmers and Wirt Adams
were among the representatives of Mississippi. An organization
was formed of the Confederate States Cavalry, with Gen. S. D,
Lee as president, and vice presidents for the various States, among

MISSISSIPPI 837
whom were George Moorman for Louisiana, Wirt Adams for Mis
sissippi, Joseph Wheeler for Alabama, W. H. Jackson for Tennes
see, Fitzhugh Lee for Virginia, Wade Hampton for South Carolina.
General Adams was chairmaii^of the committee that reported the
plan of organization. June 10, 1889 a convention was held at New
Orleans to form a federation of Confederate associations. The
Adams county Mississippi Veteran association was represented
at this convention by L. D. Aldrich and E. L. Hopkins. This con
vention organized the United Confederate Veterans, and elected
Gen. John B. Gordon commander-in-chief. As a State federation
the grand camp of Confederate Veterans was organized at Aber
deen, October 15, 1889. Gen. E. C. Walthall was elected grand
commander; Gen. W. S. Featherston, and three lieutenant grand
commanders, Gen. S. D. Lee, Gen. Will T. Martin. The staff
officers were Maj. E. T. Sykes, adjutant-general; Maj. L. W. Ma
gruder and Capt. T. C. Carter, aides-de-camp. The State organiza
tion began with three local organizations. Gen. Walthall was' suc
ceeded in command, October 15, 1890, by Gen. W. S. Featherston,
who served until his death May 28, 1891.
The first general reunion of the United Confederate Veterans
was held at Chattanooga, Tenn, July 3-5, 1890, and the second at
Jackson, Miss, June- 2, 1891. At this reunion Mississippi was rep
resented by ten camps, the number being much larger than any
other State except Louisiana, which was represented by the same
number. The meeting was in the hall of the house of representa
tives of the old capitol, and was opened with prayer by Rev. H. F.
Sproles. The address of welcome by Gov. John M. Stone was
responded to by Gen. John B. Gordon, commander-in-chief. At
this reunion Col. George Moorman, of New Orleans, was the ad
jutant-general and chief of staff, having been appointed to that
position by Gen. Gordon, July 23, 1891. Gen. Moorman had com
manded a body of Mississippi cavalry during the war. As adjutant-
general and chief of staff he worked with zeal and energy for
many years, and much of the success of the organization is due to
his efforts. At this reunion the principal event was the perfecting
of the constitution. Resolutions were adopted in memory of Gens.
W. S. Featherston and Joseph E. Johnston, and a committee was
appointed to confer with Mrs. Jefferson Davis in regard to the lo
cation of a monument to the president of the Confederacy.
The Mississippi division has been well represented, and its mem
bers have played a prominent part in all the general reunions. The
third of these was at New Orleans, April 8-9, 1892, when the re
port showed 188 camps in the organization ; the fourth at Birming
ham, April 25-26, 1894, where Gen. Stephen D. Lee was elected
deputy commander of the army of Tennesse, and was also memo
rial orator; the fifth at Houston, Texas, May 20-24, 1895. At this
reunion Gen. Stephen D. Lee was chairman of the committee on
resolutions, and the constitution adopted at the Jackson reunion
took the place of the one adopted at Birmingham. The introduc
tion of Winnie Davis caused great enthusiasm. The sixth reunion

838 MISSISSIPPI
was at Richmond, when there were 856 camps representing every
Southern State. Gen. Stephen D. Lee delivered the oration at the
laying of the cornerstone of the Jefferson Davis monument. The
seventh reunion was at Nashville, June 22-24, 1897, where the gen
eral body was divided into three departments, with Gen. Stephen
D. Lee commanding the army of Tennessee. At the eighth re
union, Atlanta, July 20-23, 1898, Col. Chas. E. Hooker, of Missis
sippi, delivered the annual oration. This was the last reunion at
tended by Winnie Davis. At the ninth reunion, at Charleston,
May 10-13, 1899, there were memorial exercises in her honor. At
this reunion Gen. Moorman's report showed 1,209 camps, a num
ber of them being in the North. At the tenth reunion, Louisville,
May 30-June 3, 1900, Gov. Robert Lowry and Col. Chas. E. Hooker
were conspicuous figures. The surviving members of Jefferson
Davis' family attended, and his granddaughter, Miss Varina How
ell Davis Hayes, was sponsor for the South. At the eleventh re
union, Memphis, May 28-30, 19.01, Mississippi had 70 camps repre
sented, more than any other State except Texas. Of the 2,309
delegates, she sent 233. The twelfth reunion was held at Dallas,
April 23-25, 1902. At this meeting Mississippi had 57 camps rep
resented and Private John Allen was one of the chief orators.
The thirteenth reunion was at New Orleans, May 19-21, 1903. At
this meeting Mississippi had 207 delegates representing 107 camps.
The fourteenth reunion was held at Nashville, June 14-16, 1904.
Gen. Mickle's report showed 1,575 camps and a membership of
about 75,000. The 1905 reunion of the veterans was at Louisville,
Ky, June 14-16, 1905, when the report showed 1,600 camps. The
reunion of 1906 was held at New Orleans.
At the Jackson reunion, June 2, 1891, the Grand Camp of Con
federate Veterans, and all the other local organizations of Veterans
in the State were united in the Mississippi Division, U. C. V.
Gov. J. M. Stone was chosen major-general commanding. The
succeeding commanding generals have been as follows in the order
named: W, D. Holder, John A. Webb, Robert Lowry, W. D.
Holder, D. A. Campbell W. D. Cameron, Robert Lowry, B. V.
White, W. D. Cameron, Robert Lowry, the present incumbent, who
has held the position for several years. The next meeting of the
Mississippi division, after the Jackson reunion, was at Meridian.
After that, the meetings were held at the time and place of the gen
eral reunion, until 1899, when the division met at Vicksburg. Other
meetings have been at Meridian, 1900 ; Hattiesburg, 1902 ; Jackson,
1903. The present commander of the army of Tennessee depart
ment is Lieut.-Gen. Clement A. Evans, Atlanta; the adjutant-gen
eral is Gen. E. T. Sykes, Columbus, Miss. The present comman
der-in-chief of the United Confederate Veterans is Gen. Stephen
D. Lee, who succeeded Gen. John B. Gordon. The adjutant-gen
eral and chief of staff is Wm. E. Mickle.
The purposes of the U. C. V. organization are stated to be
"strictly social, literary, historical and benevolent, and its labors
shall be directed to cultivating the ties of friendship between all

MISSISSIPPI

839

the survivors of the armies and navies of the late Confederate
States; to keep fresh the memories of our comrades, who gave up
their lives for the lost cause,- in battle or in other fields of service,
or who have died since the war ; to the perpetuation of the records
of their deeds of heroism by the collection and disposition in the
manner they judge best, of all materials of value for future histo
rians; to the aiding and relieving to the extent of its ability all
members, their widows and orphans, in extreme cases of sickness
and want, and to provide homes for them when necessary."
United Daughters of the Confederacy. This organization was
formed at Nashville, Tenn, Sept. 10, 1894, and is composed of the
widows, wives, mothers, sisters and lineal female descendents of
men who served honorably in the armies and navies of the Confed
erate States, or who served in the civil service of the Confederate
States or one of the Southern States, or who gave personal services
to the Confederate cause. It is made up of local federations, gov
erned by State divisions, which are in turn subordinate to the
general organization. The constitution of the Society states its
©bjects to be "social, literary, historical, monumental, benevolent,
and honorable in every degree, without any political signification
whatever." It will endeavor (1) "To unite in the federation all
bodies of Southern women now organized or that may hereafter
be formed; (2) to cultivate ties of friendship among our women
whose fathers, sons, and, in numberless cases, mothers, shared
common dangers, sufferings, and privations, and to perpetuate
honor, integrity, valor, and other noble attributes of true Southern
character; (3) to instruct and instill into the descendents of the
people of the South a proper respect for and pride in the glorious
war history, with a veneration and love for the deeds of their fore
fathers which have created such a monument of military renown,
and to perpetuate a truthful record of the noble and chivalric
achievements of their ancestors. All with the view of furnishing
authentic information from which a conscientious historian will
be enabled to write a correct and impartial history of the Con
federate side during the struggle for Southern independence."
The present membership of the organization is 35,890, embracing
746 chapters, South and North. Its present officers are: presi
dent, Mrs. Lizzie George Henderson of Greenwood, Miss. ; 1st
vice-president, Mrs. Alfred Hunter Vorhees of San Francisco, Cal. ;
2d vice-president, Mrs. D. A. S. Vaught of New Orleans, La.;
recording secretary, Mrs. John P. Hickman of Nashville, Tenn. ;
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Annie W. Rapley of St. Louis, Mo. ; '
treasurer, Mrs. James Y. Leigh of Norfolk, Va. ; honorary presi
dents for life, Mrs. M. C. Goodlett of Nashville, Tenn. ; Mrs. Clem
ent C. Clopton of Alabama ; Mrs. Albert Sydney Johnston Pritch-
ard of California; Mrs. Stonewall Jackson of Charlotte, N. C.
The State organization known as the Mississippi Division of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy was organized at Meridian
by Mrs. Albert Weems, April 27, 1897. -It represented five chap
ters: the Columbus chapter; the Ben G. Humphreys chapter, of

840 MISSISSIPPI
Greenville; the Okolona chapter; the Vicksburg chapter; and the
Winnie Davis Chapter, of Meridian, the first chapter organized in
the State. The Division was organized with a total membership
of 303. The objects of the organization, as stated in the constitu
tion, are: "Educational, literary, social and benevolent; to collect
and preserve the material for a true history of the war; to honor
the memory of those who served and those who fell in defense of
the Confederacy; to record the patient endurance and patriotic
devotion of Southern women in the war and in reconstruction; to
care for the survivors and those dependent upon them. Mrs. Annie
Wright Duncan, of Vicksburg, was the first president of the or
ganization, and the other presidents have been, in the order named:
Mrs. Lizzie George Henderson, of Greenwood ; Mrs. Pinkie Mor
rison Moody, of Grenada; Mrs. John D. Mclnnis, of Meridian;
Mrs. Helen D. Bell, of Jackson; and Mrs. Lilly McDowell, of
Holly Springs, the present incumbent.
This division has been very active and enthusiastic in its work.
It played a prominent part in having the cornerstone of the new
capitol laid on Jefferson Davis' birthday, and in making that day
a State holiday. It has erected most of the Confederate monuments
on the soil of Mississippi ; placed hundreds of headstones at the
graves of Confederate dead; fenced in, sodded and beautified plots
where soldiers were buried, in some instances purchasing the
ground; assisted in building many Confederate monuments in other
States ; raised a part of the money for the Jefferson Davis monu
ment at Richmond, and contributed to the Rouss Battle Abbey
fund. When Beauvoir was purchased for a Home for Confederate
veterans, it repaired and maintained it from December 1903 to
March 1904 when an appropriation was made by the Legislature.
It also built annexes to the Home for Confederate veterans and
their wives and widows. The J. Z. George Chapter of Green
wood pays the expenses of a girl each year at the industrial In
stitute and College at Columbus ; and the W. D. Holder Chapter
of Jackson, through the initiative of Mrs. Dunbar Rowland, with
the assistance of the State Division, presented to the Department
of Archives and History the magnificent oil portrait of Jefferson
Davis which hangs in the Hall of Fame.
The last meeting of this organization was held at Macon, May
1905. The total number of Chapters represented was 65, with a
membership of 2,347. Mrs. Lizzie George Henderson, at the last
general convention held at Los Angeles, Cal, was made president,
and Mrs. Annie Wright Duncan, of Mississippi, was at one time
corresponding secretary.
United Sons of Confederate Veterans. In 1889 or 1890 R. K.
Jayne organized a camp of the Sons of p Confederate Veterans at
Leake, Miss, which is believed to be the first organization of this
kind in the South. Mr. Jayne was elected commander of this
camp, and Prof. J. C. Hardy, now of the A. & M. College was
afterwards president. The next camp in the State was the Jeffer
son Davis Camp, at Jackson, in the spring of 1891. This was also

MISSISSIPPI 841
organized by R. K. Jayne, who was elected commander. It took
part in the unveiling of the Confederate monument at Jackson that
year, marching in the procession with a Confederate and a United
States flag side by side. In 1902 the representatives of the local
organization met at Meridian and organized the State Division
of United Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was at this meeting
that a movement was started to establish the Beauvoir Confederate
Home. (q. v.) The organization has grown to be a very strong one.
The chief aim is to take up and carry forward the work of the
Veterans. Its present officers are: O. L. McKay, commander,
and T. M. Henry, adjutant. The first commander was A. G. Daniel,
ofYazo° City.
United States Constitution, Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth
amendments, see Reconstruction.
United States Courts. (See Judiciary, Territorial.) The estab
lishment of a Federal court in the Mississippi Territory was pro
posed in congress in 1807-8, against which the Mississippi house
of representatives protested, because it would allow non-resident
British claimants of land to bring suit to enforce their grants, and
appeal to the United States supreme court, which might cause
"great inconvenience and utter ruin." At the session of congress
in which a resolution was adopted admitting the State of Missis
sippi to the Union, Delegate Poindexter moved that the judiciary
committee be instructed to inquire into the expediency of making
provision for the due execution of the laws of the United States
within the new State. The committee reported a bill, which was
recommitted and reported again without amendment and passed.
Passing the senate also, it was approved April 3, 1818. This act
provided, "That all the laws of the United States, which are not
locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within
the said State of Mississippi as elsewhere in the United States.
. . . That the said State shall be one district, and be called the
Mississippi district. And a district court shall be held therein, to
consist of one judge, who shall reside in the said district, and be
called a district judge." He was required to hold two sessions
annually at the seat of government, and given the jurisdiction and
powers defined under the original legislation for the western States,
in the case of Kentucky. Provision was made for the appointment
of a clerk, marshal and attorney of the United States. The judge
was to receive a salary of $2,000, the clerk fees, and the marshal
and attorney $200 a year in addition to fees. The Federal court was
held at Natchez, until after the act of March 3, 1835, requiring its
removal to.Jackson. The act of June 18, 1838, dividing the State
into two districts — the Northern, with Pontotoc as the seat of the
court, and the Southern, sessions to be at Jackson. May 16, 1866,
an act was passed changing the seat of the Northern district to Ox
ford. The Eastern division of the Northern district, court to be
held at Aberdeen, was created by act of June 15, 1882 ; the Western
division of the Southern district, court at Vicksburg, was created
February 28, 1887; the Southern division of the Southern district,

, 842 MISSISSIPPI
i
court at Mississippi city, was created April 4, 1888 ; the Eastern
division of the Southern district, court at Meridian, July 18, 1894.
The first judge of the Federal court was William Bayard Shields,
already a citizen of Mississippi, and there have never been any
exceptions to the appointment of citizens of the State. Shields
was commissioned April 20, 1818, and served until his death in
1823. Peter Randolph, a citizen of Wilkinson county, recently
from Virginia, was commissioned temporarily June 25, 1823, and
permanently December 9, 1823. Powhatan Ellis resigned his seat
in the United States senate to accept a commission dated July 14,
1832, to succeed Randolph. He resigned to enter the diplomatic
service, and was succeeded by George Adams, commissioned Jan
uary 20, 1836. Samuel J. Gholson, the next Federal judge, served
from his commission February 13, 1839, until the secession of the
State. Alexander M. Clayton was appointed by President Davis
judge of the corresponding court under the Confederate States
government, 1861-65. Robert Andrew Hill was commissioned by
President Johnson May 1, 1866, resigned August 1, 1891, and was
succeeded by Henry C. Niles. During Governor Lowry's adminis
tration and up to the present time, there has been an agitation for
the re-arrangements of Federal districts in Mississippi, and the
appointment of an additional judge, but so far congress has not
seen fit to make the change.
The list of district attorneys with dates of commission, is as
follows: Bela Metcalfe, April 20, 1818; William B. Griffith, March
13, 1822; Felix Huston, January 9, 1828; George Adams, March
3, 1830; Richard M. Gaines, January 20, 1836. These were for the
district comprising the entire State. After the division into two
districts, as follows: Northern District: Samuel F. Butterworth,
June 25, 1838; Oscar F. Bledsoe, January 13, 1841; Andrew K.
Blythe, December 18, 1848; Woodson L. Ligon, August 27, 1850;
Nathaniel S. Price, April 1, 1853; Jehu A. Orr, May 31, 1854; Fla-
vius J. Lovejoy, March 12, 1857. Since 1865— J. H. Viser, James E.
Stewart, Edwin Hill, G. Willey Wells, Henry B. Whitfield, Thomas
J. Walton, Green C. Chandler, Charles B. Howry, Henry C. Niles,
H. A. Montgomery, Andrew Fuller Fox, Chapman L. Anderson,
M. A. Montgomery, W. D. Frazee.
Southern- District: Richard M. Gaines, July 9, 1840; Horatio J.
Harris, August 10, 1840 ; Carnot Posey, November 4, 1859. Since
1865— R. Leachman, G. Gordon Adam, E. Philip Jacobson, Felix
Branigan, William W. Dedrick, Luke Lea, J. Bowmar Harris, A.
H. Longino, Albert M. Lea, Robert Charles Lee.
The United States marshals, 1818 to 1838, were John Hanes,
Henry G. Johnson, Walter M. Leake, Charles M. Norton, John
H. Norton, Anthony Campbell, Samuel W. Dickson, William M.
Gwin. 1838-1905: Northern District— Adolphus G. Weir, Alex
ander K. McClung, Andrew A. Kincannon, John Rayburn, William
McQuiston, Charles R. Gordon, Wm. H. H. Tison, Joseph L.
Morphis, James M. Liddell, John S. Burton, David T. Guyton,
Alexander J. Cooke, George M. Buchanan, J. A. Toler.

MISSISSIPPI 843
Southern District — Anderson Miller, Thomas Fletcher, Richard
Griffith, Duff Green, R. H. Winter, Thomas W. Hunt, William
C. Raum, Lee W. Dinkins, S. S. Matthews, F. W. Collins, J. S.
McNeely, F. W. Collins, Edgar S. Wilson. (See article by T. M.
Owen, Publ. M. H. Soc. II, 147, and Rowland, Miss. Register.) '
University of Mississippi. The University of Mississippi, like
all the western State universities, owes its origin to the Ordinance
of 1787 (q. v.), which declared that educational institutions should
be "forever encouraged" as "necessary to the good government
and happiness of mankind." An act of 1790 extended its provisions
to Mississippi, and as a result of this policy the State of Missis
sippi was granted one township of land for the endowment of
"a seminary of learning." (See Seminary Fund.) This land was
sold, in 1833-35 for $277,282, and Governor Runnels recommended
a commission to select a site for a university. In 1840 the fund was
reported as nominally amounting to about $300,000, but it had
been invested in bank stock and was in danger of loss, and the uni
versity had not been located because of local jealousy. The legis
lature balloted in 1840 for a location. Nearly forty towns Were
voted for on the first ballot, Kosciusko, Holly Springs and Missis
sippi City being in the lead. On the sixth ballot Louisville, Kos
ciusko, Mississippi City, Oxford, Brandon, Middleton and Monroe
Missionary Station were selected for the next legislature to make
a choice from. William L. Sharkey, William L. Brandon and
Thomas H. Williams were chosen commissioners to report upon
the sites.
In 1841 the legislature, by dropping the lowest in successive
ballots, finally voted : Oxford 58, Mississippi City, 57, and Oxford
was declared the choice. A section of land had been donated by
the fortunate town.
The act to incorporate "the University of Mississippi" was ap
proved February 24, 1844. The trustees named were: Alexander
Ventress, John A. Quitman, William L. Sharkey, Alexander M.
Clayton, William Y. Gholson, Jacob Thompson, Pryor Lea, Ed
ward C. Wilkinson, James M. Howry, John J. McCaughan, Rev.
Francis Hawkes, J. N. Waddel and A. H. Pegues. In 1846 an
appropriation was made to begin the buildings at Oxford. In
January, 1848, it was expected that the main building would be
completed in the spring. The capitals for the pillars were under
contract at Cincinnati. "The plan is a parallelogram 90 feet by 55,
and is technically termed Prostyle, having a heastyle portico on the
entrance front. The proportions of the columns and entablature
of the portico are taken from the Grecian Ionic temple on the
Ilyssus near Athens. In the divisions of the first floor there are
two recitation rooms and a laboratory with a spacious hall for ap
paratus and lectures, illustrative of chemistry, electricity, geology,
etc, and for methodizing the science of agriculture— that keystone
of the property and happiness of the people of Mississippi." There
were also two dormitories, four dwelling houses for the faculty,
and a hotel or steward's hall.

844 MISSISSIPPI
The University property consists of a section of land in La
fayette county ; most all of it wooded, and part of it lying within
the city of Oxford. It is traversed by the Illinois Central railroad,
which has a depot site granted by the University. The first faculty,
which consisted of four members, was elected in July, 1848. Its
President was George Frederick Holmes and the first session, with
an attendance of eighty students, commenced in November of that
year. President Holmes was succeeded by Dr. Augustus B. Long-
street of Georgia after the first session. Up to the beginning of
the War 1861-5 the University made steady progress. In 1854 a
law department was added. The legislature made yearly appro
priations for its support, notably a special appropriation of $100,-
000 in 1856. In that year Dr. F. A. P. Barnard was made president.
After 1859 he was chancellor until 1861.
The first class was graduated in 1851, numbered fifteen, and
from that time, the number of students increased till the year 1860-
1 showed the total number of students to be 226. In the fall of
1861 an effort was made to reopen the University for its regular
session, but as only seven students presented themselves, the fac
ulty resigned. Nearly all the students and faculty entered the
ranks of the Confederacy. Two of the faculty were made custodi
ans of the University property.. One of them, Prof. Quinche, re
mained in charge and succeeded in preserving it intact.
In 1865, there was a reorganization, and Dr. John Newton Wad-
dell was made Chancellor. The attendance was 193. A preparatory
department was organized as it was found that most of the students
had only a soldier's preparation. This department became larger
than the academic department, but was discontinued in 1892 when
the University became allied with over sixty high schools. Since
that time the University has followed the policy of other State in
stitutions of depending on high schools for its preparation, and a
large number of high schools are accredited to it. In the first
quarter-century of its existence, ending in 1873, there had been
1,800 students in attendance, of whom 403 had been graduated in
literature, and 105 in law. The number of students did not in
crease as rapidly in the academic department as in the preparatory
department; but the year 1903-4 showed an attendance of 287 —
a gratifying increase of 54 per cent, in ten years.
Following Dr. Waddell, Gen. Alexander P. Stewart was chancel
lor from 1874 to 1886. One special feature of his term of service
was the admission of women with the same privileges as men.
The University has remained a coeducational institution. The next
chancellor was Dr. Edward Mayes, the distinguished lawyer and
author. He was an alumnus of the University of the class of '68,
and at the time of his selection, was professor of law in the insti
tution. He was made chairman first, several times reelected, and
then made chancellor. Due to his efforts the departments were
reorganized on a more satisfactory basis, and there was a consider
able increase in attendance.
In 1892, Robert Burwell Fulton, L. L. D, was elected chancellor.

MISSISSIPPI 845
He has been identified with the University since his graduation in
1869. After his inauguration he labored to secure from congress
a second township of land for the University, as that seems to have
been the intent of the original Act which was never fulfilled. He
was successful in his appeal to congress, thus aiding the University
very materially. Previous to 1880 the legislature had made vary
ing appropriations for the University. At that time, however, the
amount of the State's indebtedness to the University on the orig
inal land grant was settled, and interest on the sum of $544,061.72
has, since then, been paid annually. The new land grant has added
to this an annual income of $8,080.09 and there remains, owned by
the University, some 6,000 acres, valued at not less than $50,000.
This fund has been increased by special appropriations by the leg
islature for different purposes, yet the income of the University
is still less than all except a few of the State Universities. The
value of the buildings of the University, including furnishings, ap
paratus, etc, is fully $350,000. The first building to be erected, of
which the corner stone was laid in July, 1846, with Masonic cere
monies was the Lyceum. It was followed by dormitories, chapel,
library building, observatory, and hall of physics, gymnasium, law
building, womans' building, etc. The native trees give great beauty
to the campus. The situation is remarkably healthful as shown
by statistics, compiled from reports, and from those who live at
the University. There is a central steam heating plant for all the
buildings, an electric plant and sewerage system. The water sup
ply is drawn from very deep wells sunk in the orange sands for
mation, which produces remarkably pure water and as a result
the University community has always been remarkably free from
and disease due to local conditions. Tests of the water made in
Michigan and in Mississippi show it to be of unusual purity. From
this water works system is supplied a fire department providing
ample protection for the University property. The State appro
priations for the University amounted to $139,572 in 1892-95; to
$153,572 in 1896-99, and to $297,399 in 1900-03. In the latter quad-
rennium the appropriations were sufficient to add new buildings,
electric light plant, new water supply, etc, which were greatly
needed. The curriculum embraces both academic and professional depart
ments. The law department is the oldest of the professional
schools. There is also a department of engineering organized in
"1900 and a more recently organized department of medicine. The
department of education is attracting many students and the work
of the institution is constantly expanding in character and scope.
A number of fellowships and scholarships are offered— among the
latter being the well known generous bequest of Felix Le Bauve
for the education of orphans of De Soto county.
Besides the undergsaduate department, the University offers
excellent facilities to those desiring to pursue graduate work, and
many students take advantage of it.
Through the generosity of a public spirited Southern woman,

-846 , MISSISSIPPI
Mrs. Fannie J. Ricks, the faculty were enabled in 1900 to introduce
a summer session, affording opportunity for higher education to
many teachers and others whose occupations prevent them from
attending the regular sessions. The Summer course has proved
popular. and is well attended.
The University of Mississippi has achieved a high rank among
the universities of the land; the broad policy of the institution is
ever widening its field of usefulness and it now offers the best
opportunities for development to students of other States as well
as Mississippi. Its founders and their successors have built well,
and on the foundations established the structure is steadily strength
ening and increasing.
A membership on the board of trustees of the University has
always been considered a high honor. The board' (in 1905) for
the State at large was J. M. Acker, J. T. Senter, M. M. Evans,
J. W. T. Falkner, E. D. Stone, C. M. Williamson, J. D. McKie,
Frank C. Holmes ; for the congressional districts, C. Kendrick,
W. A. Belk, J. L. Hebron, A. T. Roane, W. E. Baskin, J. H. Jones,
R. H. Thompson, J. W. George. The governor is president of the
board, and the State superintendent a member, ex officio.
Upshaw, a post-hamlet of Yazoo county, situated on Silver creek,
a tributary of the Sunflower river, 15 miles northwest of Yazoo
City. Population in 1906 was about 50.
Upton, a postoffice of Simpson county, 8 miles east of Menden
hall, the nearest railroad town.
Ustane, a postoffice of Amite county, 8 miles north of Liberty,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Utica, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of
Hinds county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad, 32 miles
southwest of Jackson. It is hilly and well drained, and is sur
rounded by a rich farming section. Watermelons grow very large
and in abundance. The town is accessible to a large amount of
fine hardwood timber. It is preparing to construct waterworks
and an electric light plant. It ships annually about 10,000 bales of
cotton. It has 2 banks with a combined capital of $90,000 ; 2 hotels ;
a public school, and an industrial college for the education of
negroes; 3 churches, Methodist, Baptist and Christian; and a
Democratic weekly newspaper, the Herald, established in 1897,
edited and published by N. R. McCullough and Z. Wardlaw, Jr.
Among its manufacturing enterprises are a brick plant, 3 steam
cotton gins, and a saw mill.
There is a city debt of $1,000 ; the assessed valuation of property
is $250,000 ; tax rate, 12 mills ; population in 1900, 550 ; present pop
ulation, nearly 1,000.
Vaiden, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of
Carroll county, on the Illinois Central railroad, 3 miles west of
the Big Black river, and 10 miles south of Winona. The town
was named for Dr. C. M. Vaiden, one of its leading citizens. It is
a prosperous, growing town, equipped with telegraph, telephone,
express and banking facilities; and ships a large amount of cotton

MISSISSIPPI 847
annually. It is said to be the wealthiest town of its size in the
State. Near the town have been found some excellent beds of green
sand marl, and here are located saw and shingle mills, a furniture
factory, a spoke factory, two public gins, and a brick plant, estab
lished by the Vaiden Brick and Tile Manufacturing Co. in 1901,
which annually manufactures about 3,000,000 brick. A. A. Kaigler
is the president of the company, and James Somerville, sec'y
and treas, and general manager. A fine new court house has
recently been completed at a cost of $40,000. The Carroll News,
a Democratic weekly newspaper, was established in 1900, of
which Somerville & Somerville are the editors and publishers.
The Vaiden Bank was established in 1890 with a capital of
$27,500 ; the Merchants & Farmers Bank was established in
1905 with an authorized capital of $50,000. The town has sev
eral churches and a seminary, the Vaiden Institute. The pub
lic schools of Vaiden are under the charge of Prof. M. B. Pot
ter, and have a total attendance of 140 ; the term is 8% months.
Prof. Potter also has charge of the negro school, which has an
'enrollment of 160 and a 7 months' term. The population in 1900
was 474; in 1906 it was estimated at 800.
Vale, a postoffice of Jasper county, 8 miles northwest of Paulding,
the county seat.
Valena. An extinct village of Attala county, which was stiuated
on the Big Black river, on the western part of a plantation formerly
owned by S. H. Clark. The first sawmill in the county was built
here, and it was at one time a small trade center, containing a few
shops and stores, and a regular stopping point for flatboats on the
river. Valley, a post-hamlet and station of Yazoo county, on the Illi
nois Central R. R, 7 miles south of Yazoo City. Population in
1900, 50.
Valley Hill, a post-hamlet of Carroll county, 8 miles due west
of CarroUton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Valley Park, a post-hamlet and station in the southeastern part
of Issaquena county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R,
about 20 miles north of Vicksburg. Population in 1900, 46.
Van, a postoffice of Kemper county.
Van Buren. This was an old village in Itawamba county located
on a high bluff on the Tombigbee river. The building of the
Mobile & Ohio R. R. west of the place ruined it and the old site
is now under cultivation. Mr. Winfield Walker, a nephew of Gen
eral Winfield Scott located there in 1838 and was its first merchant,
followed a year later by W. C. Thomas & Brother. (See Itawamba
county.) VanDorn, Earl, son of Peter A. VanDorn, was born at Port Gib
son, September 17, 1820. At the age of sixteen years he wrote to
Gen. Andrew Jackson, asking his assistance in gaining admission
to West Point. This was successful, and he was graduated at the
academy and given a lieutenancy in the 7th infantry, in 1842. With
this regiment he took part in Scott's campaign in Mexico, and won

848 MISSISSIPPI
the brevets of captain and major for gallantry at Cerro Gordo,
Contreras and Churubusco. He was wounded at the Belen gate
of the Mexican capital. He afterward served in the war with the
Seminole Indians in Florida, and against the Comanches in the
West, receiving four wounds in a battle with the latter nation in
1858. He was promoted to captain in the 2d cavalry in 1855;
among his fellow officers in the regiment were J. E. Johnston, G.
B. McClellan, J. E. B. Stuart, R. E. Lee, G. H. Thomas, W. J.
Hardee, Kirby Smith, John B. Hood and Fitzhugh Lee. In 1860
he was advanced to major of this regiment. He was presented
with costly swords by the legislature of the State, and the people
of Claiborne county, in recognition of his service in Mexico, and
with a silver service by the citizens of Port Gibson because of his
great fame as an Indian fighter. Upon the secession of Mississippi
he resigned his commission, and tendered his services to the State.
He was made one of the four brigadier-generals for the organization
of a State army, and upon the election of Gen. Davis to the presi
dency was promoted to major-general, in command of State troops.
But he preferred rank in the Confederate army, and accepted a com
mission as colonel dated March 16, 1861. He was ordered to Texas
to capture the United States troops and property in t'hat State, and
on reaching Galveston in mid-April,- took command of volunteers,
captured the transport Star of the West, and a few days later, two
other steamships, creating a great sensation North and South.
At San Antonio, he accepted the surrender of his former comrades.
In June he was promoted to brigadier-general In September he
was ordered to Richmond, was promoted to major-general, and was
given command of the First division, army of the Potomac, in the
latter part of 1861. A correspondent, describing a review of the
army by Johnston, Beauregard and VanDorn, in December; de
scribed the Mississippian as "a youthful looking field marshal.
The general is rather undersized — of a spare frame, erect and grace
ful in his movements; his moustache is long and light; otherwise
he is closely shaven. His uniform was a gray tunic, with buff
collar and cuffs, heavy gold braiding on the sleeve, and three stars
on each side of the collar. As he drew on his buck gauntlets, I
caught sight of a cross, embroidered thereon in scarlet silk, an
ancient symbol or rank." But before the great campaigns in Vir
ginia opened, there was need of military talent in the West, and
VanDorn was ordered to take command of the trans-Mississippi
district, in January, 1862. Combining the forces of Price, McCul-
lough and Mcintosh, he fought the battle of Elkhorn in March, a
bloody but finally unsuccessful combat in which the two latter of
ficers were killed. As soon as possible, in obedience to Gem A.
S. Johnston, he brought his Arkansans, Texans and Missourians
to Corinth, arriving soon after the battle of Shiloh and the death
of Johnston. Beauregard then took command, VanDorn com
manding his troops as the Army of the West. After Beauregard
evacuated Corinth, and Bragg succeeded him, and took the main
army to Tennessee, VanDorn had command of the western half of

MISSISSIPPI 849
the State and the Army of West Tennessee, for the defense of
Vicksburg, leaving his former troops under Price, at Tupelo. Dur
ing his command the first attack on Vicksburg was repelled, and an
unsuccessful battle fought by part of his troops for the possession
of Baton Rouge, after which he attacked Rosecrans at Corinth
(q. v.). This was very disastrous, and his military fame was near
eclipse. He was subjected to a court martial under charges pre
ferred by Gen. John S. Bowen, of neglect of duty in preparing for
the attack, of proceeding in the manner of a surprise when the
enemy was fully aware of his intention, wearing out the troops,
and neglect of the wounded. The court martial at Abbeville in
November, composed of Price, Maury and Tilghman, also investi
gated charges of intoxication. They found that all charges were
disproved. After Gen. Pemberton was given command in the
State, over him, he continued in command of troops in the field,
opposing the advance of Grant onthe Central railroad in the latter
part of 1862, and largely redeemed his reputation by the brilliant
and successful raid on Holly Springs, which, with Forrest's similar
•operations in Tennessee, compelled Grant to retreat from Missis
sippi. He was next put in command of the cavalry of the depart
ment, by Gen. J. E. Johnston, and entered upon a campaign in mid
dle Tennessee, with Forrest, Jackson, Martin, and Armstrong as
his subordinate leaders. He routed Coburn's brigade at Thomp
son's Station, March 5, 1863, and then occupied Spring Hill as his
headquarters. Here in the last week of April he had a clash with
Forrest as a result of accusations against the latter, and the two
men were for a moment actually at swords points, Forrest recover
ing himself in time to prevent bloodshed. A few days later, May
7, Gen. VanDorn was assassinated by a physician of Spring Hill,
who, having free access to the house, entered the general's room
and shot him in the head, from behind, as he sat at his writing
table. Gen. VanDorn was one of the handsomest men and most
famous spirits in the old United States army. His hair, worn long,
was a beautiful light chestnut ; his complexion, where exposed to
the sun, of the same dark red color as the face of Robert E. Lee ;
his eyes were bright and flashing blue. In social life he, was as
gentle as a woman; in the field he was the ideal of a dashing
soldier. He was called the finest horseman in the old army. Dab
ney H. Naury wrote that "as a general of cavalry, VanDorn had
not his equal in the Confederate nor the Federal army."
VanDorn, Peter A, was born in New Jersey, September 12,
1773, of a family that came from Holland among the earliest set
tlers of that State. After graduating at Nassau hall,, Princeton,
he came south and made his home at Natchez, when he was about
twenty-one years of age. He was appointed judge of the orphans'
court; adjutant of the 4th regiment militia, 1805; was a Mason of
high degree, and one of theJmportant men of Natchez until his
removal to Port Gibson, where his home, because of its location,
was called "The Hill." He died while traveling to his plantation
on the Yazoo, February 12, 1837. Hs wife was a Miss Caffery,
54-11

850 MISSISSIPPI
a niece of Mrs. Andrew Jackson, and granddaughter of Col. John
Donelson, of Nashville.
Van Eaton, Henry S, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, Sep
tember 14, 1826. After graduating from Illinois college, he moved
to Woodville, Miss, in 1848. He was elected district attorney in
1858, and was sent to the State legislature in 1859. He served in '
the Confederate army, and then resumed the practice of law. He
was appointed chancellor of the 10th district in 1880, and was elec
ted to the 48th congress in 1882, and reelected in 1884, serving till
1887. He died May 30, 1898.
Vance, a hamlet in the southern part of Quitman county, on Cas
sidy's Bayou, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.
R, 15 miles south of Belen, the county seat. It has a money order
postoffice. Vancleave, a village in the south-central part of Jackson county,
located on Bluff creek, 14 miles northwest of Pascagoula, the coun
ty seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 76,
now (1906) 500. Extensive charcoal and turpentine industries are
located here.
Vannerson, William, born in Amherst county, Va, was married
at Lynchburg to a niece of William H. Crawford, and moved to
Natchez in 1825, where he became a successful lawyer. Afterward,
making his home at Monticello, he was a representative from Law
rence county and was elected speaker of the house in 1837. He
then appeared to be about sixty years of age. An interesting sketch
of him is given in Foote's Bench and Bar, where he is described
as a genial man of business and law, capable of making an effective
speech, but not greatly versed in law. His preference was criminal
law, in which he had an extensive practice. He was remarkable
for his hopefulness of temper, ambition for distinction, and great
store of anecdotes. He was known for many years as "the Napo
leon of the bar," but he was not incapable of laughing at this dis
tinction. Though married twice, he had no children. Gen. Allen,
killed in a duel with A. K. McClung, was a stepson. "He was the
soul of wit, and perhaps the most confirmed humorist who ever
appeared at the Mississippi bar," says Lynch. (Bench and Bar,
126-31.) Foote wrote in 1876, "Mr. Vannerson died only a year
or two ago, [1874] and I am told that when in extremis he confessed
to being one hundred and nine years old."
Varnish, a postoffice of Calhoun county, 12 miles southeast of
Pittsboro, the county seat.
Vanvleet, a post-hamlet and station of Chickasaw county, on the
Houston branch of the Southern Railway, 10 miles southwest of
Okolona, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 76.
Vanwinkle, a postoffice and station of Hinds county, on the Ya
zoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 4 miles west of Jackson.
Vardaman, James Kimble, the present governor of the State of
Mississippi, has risen to the position of executive head of one of the
great commonwealths of the Union and has made a definite impress

MISSISSIPPI 851
upon his time, as a loyal, fearless and public-spirited citizen, holding
inviolable the interests of the people and showing that sturdy man
hood from whose well-springs come all that is best and most per
manent in life. Governor Vardaman was born in Jackson county,
Tex, July 26, 1861, and is a son of William S. and Mary (Fox) Var
daman. His father was born in Copiah county, Miss, ;,nd he re
moved from this State to Texas in 1858. He was a loyal soldier of
the Confederacy during the Civil war, having been a member of a
Texas regiment. In ,1868 he Returned, with his family, to Missis
sippi and settled in Yalobusha county. Both he and his wife passed
the remainder of their lives in this State. The governor attended
school in Yalobusha county, where he had as an instructor Dr. Will
iam Bemis long recognized as one of the able educators of the State.
He read law at CarroUton, Miss, in the office of Helm & Somerville,
and after his admission to the bar, in 1882, he engaged in the practice
of his profession at Winona, Montgomery county. In 1883 he was
editor of the Winona Advance, and from 1890 to 1896, inclusive,
he was editor of the Greenwood Enterprise, at Greenwood, Leflore
^county. In the last mentioned year he there founded the Common
wealth, and he made the paper a distinctive power in connection
with politics and general public affairs in the State. He represented
Leflore county in the lower house of the State legislature in the ses
sions of 1890, 1892 and 1894, and in the last mentioned year was
speaker of the house. He was presidential elector on the Demo
cratic ticket in both 1892 and 1896, in both of which years he was
president of the electoral college. He was a candidate for governor
in 1895. He was nominated for governor by the Democratic party
in the first general primary election ever held in the State, and in
the second primary he was nominated by a majority of 6,783. He
was elected governor of the State Nov. 3, 1903. He has proven a
wise and fearless executive and is one of the leaders of his party in
this commonwealth. Among the general historical sketches in this
work will be found detailed reference to his administration as gov
ernor. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he entered the
volunteer service. He was made captain of Company A, Fifth regiment
of United States volunteers, and was later promoted major. He
served in Santiago, Cuba, from August, 1898, until May, 1899, when
he received his honorable discharge. The governor is affiliated
with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, and the Knights
and Ladies of Honor. He holds membership in the Methodist Epis
copal church, South, while his wife is a member of the Baptist church.
It should be noted that he had the distinction of being the first chief
executive to be inaugurated in Mississippi's magnificent new capitol ;
his inauguration occurred in the hall of the house of representatives
Jan. 19, 1904. On May 31, 1883, at Winona, Mississippi, was sol
emnized the marriage of Governor Vardaman to Mrs. Anna E. Rob
inson, daughter of Dr. A. A. Burleson. She was born in Alabama,
in which State, as well as in Texas, her family has been one of dis
tinction. She presides with gracious dignity over the executive
mansion and has gained marked social popularity in the capital city.

852 MISSISSIPPI
Vardaman's Administration. Governor James K. Vardaman was
inaugurated January 19, 1904. In his inaugural address he said,
"The campaign through which we have passed marks an epoch in
the political history of Mississippi. Although it was an intestine
conflict, a contest within the Democratic party, (the general elec
tion being in effect but a ratification of the result of the primary)
a party composed, as it should be, exclusively of the white men,
there was a great deal of bitterness and unnecessary partisan ran
cor engendered. The freedom of speech, while it may have been
somewhat abused, was in no way abridged. A full and ample dis
cussion of all questions, both through the press and on the hustings,
was permitted. . . . The primary election law enacted by the
last legislature afforded an opportunity which was readily embraced
by all white qualified electors, to participate in the government of
their State. . . . There is no danger in falsehood . . .
just so long as truth is untrammelled and the source of all political
power rests with and is vouchsafed by law in the hands of the
white people of Mississippi. Too much authority and power can-
riot be reposed in the people. ... It required many centuries
of tutelage in the rigid school -of experience to bring the Anglo-
Saxon race — the only self-governing race of modern times — to its
present condition of superiority. It is the result of the evolution
of the ages ; the education of the generations. ... I am in
favor of putting in the hands of the people as much power in the
government of the State as can be exercised without impairing the
facility in administering its affairs. . . . Life is too short to
be taken up in remembering or brooding over disagreeable or im
material things. Experience is no good, unless it makes men wiser
and better. He who hates hurts himself, for hatred poisons the
heart, beclouds the judgment and paralyzes the imagination.
. . . The State has a right to demand of every citizen the best
there is in him. The great problem which rises mountain-high in
the pathway of the State's future, throwing its chilling shadows
over the most glorious possibilities, would alarm a less heroic and
resourceful people. . . . That the negro was created for some
good purpose, time has demonstrated ; but that good purpose is
not participation in the government of white men. The crime of
all the ages against civilization was committed when in the 'ago
nizing spasm of infuriated men,' just after the civil war, the North
expressed its hatred of the white people of the South in the amend
ments to the Federal constitution, which invest the negro with all
the rights and privileges of citizenship. . . . The nation should
correct this error, this stupendous solecism, and now is the time to
do it. . . . The Southern people should take the initiative.
They are familiar with all the facts, they alone are capable of in
forming the world of the profound, God-stamped, time-fixed and
unalterable incompetence of the negro for citizenship in a white
man's country. ... In the meantime the Southern States must
protect themselves. Mississippi must conserve her own civilization
and by law maintain white supremacy. The welfare of the negro

MISSISSIPPI 853
.demands it as much as the interests of the white man. My fellow
citizens, the eyes of the world are upon Mississippi today. No
more important hour in all her history has been passed than that
to which the hand of time is now pointing. . . . The disposi
tion on the part of the masses in recent years has been to turn the
reins of government over to the favored few, and the favored few
have been most active and influential in producing the disposition.
In latter day political parlance, the term 'business man' describes
anybody except the man who toils. The important fact is over
looked absolutely that the only real wealth is the labor of man."
. . . Concerning the judiciary he said : "Let the political judge
— that judicial cancer on the body politic, a disease of recent de
velopment in Mississippi — be extirpated, and as quickly as that
sovereign remedy, the honest, intelligent ballot, can heal the fes
tering sore, let it become a thing only of odious memory." He rec
ommended improvement of highways, establishment of state de
positaries ; encouragement of immigration, investment of foreign
capital, and agriculture ; enlarged popular election of officials,
ample support of education of white children, a liberal system of
pensions for indigent and helpless Confederate soldiers and a sol
diers' home.
The condition of State finances required the borrowing of $200,-
000 in 1904, and the issue of new bonds at a reduced rate of inter
est, to take up the bonds for half a million falling due at the first
of the year. Among the important laws of 1904 were those estab
lishing two new, agricultural experiment stations, — one in the
northwest and one in the delta; creating a text book commission
to select a uniform series of school books ; making September 1
a legal holiday; authorizing the boards of levee commissioners
to issue $1,500,000 in bonds ; protecting wild birds other than game
birds ; requiring "equal but separate accommodations for white and
colored races" on street cars ; authorizing a new code of laws ;
creating the county of Lamar from parts of Marion and Pearl
River; creating a commission to build a new institution for the deaf
and dumb ; creating a permanent capitol commission ; and a strin
gent vagrancy law.
At the congressional election of 1904 a constitutional amendment
was adopted, striking out the requirement of a decennial State
census. The year 1905 is memorable for yellow fever invasion, opposed
for the first time in the history of the State by a campaign against
mosquito infection, in addition to quarantine. (See Yellow Fever
and Board of Health). In the latter part of the year great interest
was aroused by the effort of Governor Vardaman to defeat a pro
posed contract for working some of the State convicts on the plan
tation of State Senator H. J. McLaurin. (See Penitentiary Farms.)
The discussion of the question, and issues involved, continued
throughout the legislative session of 1906. Much of the time of
this legislature was given to the adoption of the new code of laws,
prepared under the act of 1904.

854 MISSISSIPPI
In his message of 1906 Governor Vardaman renewed his recom
mendations regarding public education and prison control Of the
former he said : "I believe a dollar invested in the development of
the mind of the white child and the cultivation of the mind of the
white man and woman, is the best investment the State ever made.
On the other hand, I believe every dollar invested for negro educa
tion under our present school system is an indefensible and unwar
ranted prodigality of cash. It is a crime against the white man
who furnishes the dollar and a disadvantage to the negro man
upon whom it is spent. There must be a moral substratum upon
which to build, or you cannot make a desirable citizen. The
negro as a race, is devoid of that element. He has never felt the
guilt of sin, and the restraining influence of moral scruples or the
goading of an outraged conscience are unknown to the real negro.
Slavery is the only process by which he has ever been partially civ
ilized. God Almighty created the negro for a menial — he is essenr
tially a servant. . . " On the subject of penitentiary manage
ment he said :
"I am more interested in the salvation of men than I am in
hoarding gold. ... If the convict be a low-bred, vulgar creat
ure, congenitally corrupt, inured to physical and moral filth, brutal
and inhuman treatment, so much greater the necessity that he
should be given kindly treatment, a decent bed to sleep on, and
sanitary surroundings in the penitentiary. He is there to be im
proved and not degraded. Let the light within his benighted
brain be brightened — let this piece of humanity, 'plundered, pro
fane, and disinherited,' be made to feel that the State is his friend,
and is willing to correct, as far as it can, the perfidious wrongs and
immedicable woes" which brought him to the miserable thing he
is. Man is the creature of heredity and environment, and the in
fluence of the latter is more potential in the formation of character
than the former. Therefore the environment of the convict in the
penitentiary should be so ordered and colored that the unfortunate
individual would be better for having suffered imprisonment there.
. . . It is no place for the cheap, dinky demagogue and politi
cal striker. Partisan politics should be absolutely eliminated from
the penitentiary management.
The State officials of this administration are: J. P. Carter, lieu-
tent-governor; Joseph W. Power, secretary of state; Thomas M.
Henry, auditor of public accounts; William Williams, attorney-
general ; W. Jones Miller, state treasurer ; Henry L. Whitfield,
superintendent of education ; Dunbar Rowland, Director Depart
ment of Archives and History; W. Q. Cole, insurance commis-
'sioner; E. H. Nail, land commissioner; Wirt Adams, revenue
agent ; George C. Myers, clerk supreme court ; Richard L. Brad
ley, S. D. McNair, J. C. Kincannon, railroad commissioners;
Arthur Fridge, adjutant-general ; Miss Mattie Plunkett, Librarian.
Vaughan, a village in the eastern part of Yazoo county, one
mile west of the Big Black river, and a station on the Illinois Cen
tral R. R, 13 miles north of Canton, the nearest banking town. It

MISSISSIPPI 855
has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 100; population
in 1906 was estimated at 150.
Velma, a post-hamlet and station of Yalobusha county, on the
.Illinois Central R. R, 6 miles south of Watervalley, one of the
county seats of justice, and the nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 20.
Venable, Robert A, is a native of Georgia, but was reared in
Arkansas. He graduated at Mississippi College in 1876; "was pas
tor of the Baptist church at Okolona, 1878-79; pastor of the
church at Helena, Ark, 1880 ; pastor of the First Baptist church
at Memphis 1881-91; president of Mississippi College 1891. Dr.
Venable is now pastor of the First Baptist church at Meridian.
He is the author of the "Baptist Layman's Book" and other works.
Ventress, James A, was born in Robertson county, Tenn,. in
1805. He came to Mississippi with his parents, who settled in
Wilkinson County, in 1809 ; was educated in Europe ; admitted to
the bar of Mississippi in 1841 ; served as State senator, speaker
of the House, and was presidential elector. He was married to
• Charlotte Davis Pynchon, of Massachusetts, in 1848; was a stu
dent and inventor, and a trustee of the University of Mississippi.
Venus, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Copiah county, sit
uated on Peggy creek, 14 miles southeast of Hazlehurst, the county
seat. It has a money order postoffice. It is a rural free delivery
distributing point.
Vera, a postoffice of Scott county, 12 miles northwest of Forest,
the county seat.
Verba, a postoffice of Jasper county.
Verna, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Lawrence county,
and a station on the Natchez, Columbia & Mobile R. R, about 14
miles southwest of Monticello, the county seat.
Vernal, a post-hamlet of Greene county, 8 miles south of Leakes
ville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 57.
Vernon, an extinct town in Holmes county twelve miles north of
Lexington. The many wealthy planters of the neighborhood were
ruined by the War. Mr. Bowman writes : "For many miles in
every direction there were many thousands of acres of land lying
waste, overgrown with grass and weeds, which before the war were
productive fields of cotton and corn. Many fine two story resi
dences were toppling down and going to decay. Some were ten
anted by thriftless negroes, who had the apology of a few acres of
badly tilled land for a crop. The building of the Yazoo & Mis
sissippi Valley railroad has resuscitated this section but trade has
found new centers."
Vernon. This was an early settlement in the southwestern part of
Madison county, incorporated by the Legislature in 1833. It was
about seven miles west of the old town of Livingston, and the fol
lowing wealthy planters lived in the vicinity. Dr. Wm. L. Bal
four, Dr. J. P. Thomas, E. T. Montgomery, Col. Guston Kearney,
Oscar D. Kearney, Col McCord Williamson, Col. Wm. Gartley,

856 MISSISSIPPI
John Lipscomb, Newal Vick, C. P. Andrews, and Maj. C. B. Greer.
The old place is now quite extinct.
Vernon, a post-hamlet of Jasper county, on Tallahoma creek,
12 miles southwest of Paulding, the county seat. Population in
1900, 60.
Verona, an incorporated post-village in the south-central part of
Lee county, four and one-half miles south of Tupelo, the county
seat and nearest banking town, and an important station on the
Mobile & Ohio R. R. It has 2 seminaries, 2 churches, and 14
stores. It has a money order postoffice, and one rural route em
anates from here. Population in 1900, 456.
1 Vest, a post-hamlet of Simpson county, 6 miles east of Menden
hall. Population in 1900, 22.
Vestry, a postoffice of Jackson county, 35 miles northwest from
Pascagoula, the county seat.
Veto, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Franklin county,
on the Homochitto_river, 10 miles from Meadville, the county seat.
Brookhaven is the nearest railroad and banking town. Population
in 1900, 45.
Vex, a postoffice in Covington county.
Vick Estate. The pioneer, Newitt Vick, after his first location
near Selsertown, moved on an old Indian clearing in the gigantic
cane and forest growth, six miles east of Vicksburg, known as the
Open Woods, and purchased two other tracts fronting on the Mis
sissippi river, the lower one of several hundred acres, and the
upper one 200 acres. This latter embraced the site of the future
city of Vicksburg. He began laying off lots in 1819, but died the
same year, being followed within twenty minutes by his wife, from
what is now supposed to have been yellow fever. His will left to
his wife, for life, her choice of the Open Woods land where the
home was, or the tracts near the river, "reserving two hundred
acres, however, on the upper part of the uppermost tract to be
laid off in town lots" by his executors, whom he named as his wife,
his son Hartwell and his nephew Willis B. Vick. He left to his
daughters an equal share with the wife and sons in his personal
property, "and to my sons one equal part of my personal estate as
they come of age, together with all of my lands." The town lots
laid off, and to be laid off, were to be sold to pay debts and other
engagements in preference to other property. Willis B. Vick
qualified as executor, and in 1821 asked leave to resign. John
Lane, who had married one of the daughters, appealed, from the
refusal of the probate court- to permit resignation, to the supreme
court; Willis B. Vick was permitted to resign, and Lane was ap
pointed administrator under the will. Hartwell Vick attempted
to revive his right to appointment as executor, but it was denied
by the Orphans court and the Supreme court. When John Lane
sought an order of court to sell town lots to pay debts, he was
opposed by the daughters. The fight was carried to the Supreme
court, which sustained the daughters and ordered a partition.
Commissioners made the partition, and filed a plat, on which Levee

MISSISSIPPI ¦ 857
street, known afterward as the Commons, was left operi to the public
Lane sold sixty or seventy lots, paid up the debts of the estate and
made his final settlements in 1829. Later, a part of the Commons
was sold to one Rapelje, who brought a suit in ejectment to get
possession. Then in 1833 the City of Vicksburg filed a bill in the
Chancery court, claiming- title to the Commons by public dedica
tion. Seargent S. Prentiss, John I. Guion, Bodley and Harrison
appeared for the heirs of Vick, and Holt and Grayson for the city.
From a decision in favor of the city, an appeal was taken to the
High court (then the name of the supreme court), and meanwhile
Prentiss bought out the greater part of the interest of the heirs
in the Commons, and the case became one mainly personal with
himself. The case was before the High court twice and, Judges
Sharkey and Wright declining to sit because of previous associa
tion with features of the litigation, Tucker and Trimble were spe
cial judges on the first hearing, and Samuel S. Boyd and Thomas
J. Jennings, on the second, with Judge Smith. The decision of the
chancery court was reversed in 1837, and it was also held that the
daughters had no interest in the land under the will. The land
which was thus confirmed in the hands of Prentiss was estimated
to be worth then $100,000 to $350,000. He put up buildings upon
it worth about $100,000. But in 1838 the daughter of Rev. John
Lane, and some of the other daughters of Newitt Vick filed a -bill
in equity in the United States court of Mississippi, being non-resi
dents of the State, claiming an interest in the Commons and
asking partition. In June, 1842, the court sustained Prentiss' de
murrer, which alleged that the daughters had no interest, under
i the will, and dismissed the bill The daughters appealed to the
United States supreme court, where they were represented by Ben
Hardin, of Kentucky, and Prentiss and his co-defendants by John
J. Crittenden. July 17, 1845, four justices concurred in an opin
ion, Chief Justice Taney and Justice McKinley dissenting, and
two justices being absent, which overruled the demurrer, and
affirmed the title of the daughters. This caused the financial ruin
of Mr. Prentiss and his removal to New Orleans. (Shield's Life
and Times of S. S. Prentiss.)
Vick, Newitt, was born in Virginia, March 17, 1766 ; married
Elizabeth Cook, of Virginia, in 1791; removed to North Carolina;
farmed in 'that State four years; journeyed with his family over
land to the Tennessee river where he bought a keel boat, and came
down that river and the Mississippi, and located on Cole's creek
in what is now Jefferson County, Miss. Some time prior to 1812
he removed to a place six miles east of the present site of Vicks
burg. Soon other Virginians settled in his neighborhood, which
was known as "Open Woods." He then cleared and cultivated a
piece of land, on a portion of which the city of Vicksburg is lo
cated, and established the quarters of his* negroes on the river.
He selected as a site for his own residence the present court house
square, but before he had time to build he was taken with a severe
illness and died August 5, 1819. "Open Woods," the place of his

858 MISSISSIPPI
tomb, is still to be seen. Mr. Vick left thirteen children, all of
whom grew to maturity. He was a Methodist preacher, and it
was at his house that the first conference of that denomination
was held in Mississippi. In his will he directed that his river place
be laid off into lots. They were offered for sale by his adminis
trator in April, 1822. Of the sons of Newit Vick, Hartwell W.
became a leading merchant of Vicksburg.
Vicksburg, (Contributed by R. V. Booth.)
Situated on lofty hills overlooking the majestic "Father of
Waters" as he winds his restless way to the Gulf, Vicksburg is
one of the most romantic and picturesque of our smaller American
cities. In the space allotted for the purpose, it will be impossible
to give more than a brief sketch of the town, for to write a detailed
account of Vicksburg, rich as it is in historic traditions and asso
ciation, would require a volume and a good large one.
In the early part of the nineteenth century, about the year, 1812,
there came from Virginia to the Mississippi Territory, a sturdy
Methodist pioneer, with his wife and several children, the Rev.
Newitt Vick, who located at a point some seven miles northeast
of the present city of Vicksburg, called "Open Woods," thus
named, it is said, by reason of the fact that the land had been de
nuded of its timber by the Indians. Soon he was followed by a
nephew, Foster Cook, and other friends and relatives from Virginia,
and in a short while quite a large and interesting colony of settlers
gathered around him at his new home.
After he had been living at "Open Woods" some years he ac
quired possession of three or four hundred acres of land on the
hills now constituting a part of the present city of Vicksburg,
with a view of having it platted into lots, stating at the time that he
was about to lay the foundations of what he believed was some day
destined to be a great city. He was not permitted, however, to
carry out his purpose in person, for, in 1819, he and his devoted
wife were stricken with yellow fever, and both died on the same
day within a few hours of each other, and now sleep at "Open
Woods," where an imposing marble shaft points the curious strang
er to the last resting place of these noble pioneers. By his will he
provided that his executor should carry out his design, which was
accordingly done by his son-in-law, the Rev. John Lane, who, in
1824, had the town surveyed and laid off in lots, and thus were
sown the seed which have germinated and grown into the present
throbbing, pulsating city.
Vicksburg was originally incorporated on the 29th day of Janu
ary, 1825, under the name of "The President and Selectmen of the
town of Vicksburg," by which it was known until, 1836, when the
name was changed to, "The Mayor and Aldermen of the city of
Vicksburg," which it- still retains. After its incorporation a steady
stream of robust citizenship of Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky,
and some of the eastern states, poured into the town, until in 1835,
it had expanded into quite a prosperous little city of twenty-five
hundred or three thousand souls.

MISSISSIPPI 859
It would be quite impossible to name all the good people who
figured in the early history of Vicksburg, and adorned the social
and industrial walks of city-life, but among them may be mentioned
the Vicks, the Cooks, the Gibsons, the Pinckards, the Guions, the
Sharkeys, the Randolphs, and a little later on, the Yergers, the
Lakes, the Smedes, the Marshalls, the Colemans, the Paynes, the
Booths, and a host of others might be mentioned whose descendants
are still prominent in the various business enterprises of the city
and county.
I may be permitted to dwell a while on the names of two very
distinguished men who were intimately identified with the early
history of Vicksburg.
Sargent S. Prentiss, whose name is imperishably interwoven with
some of the brightest pages of Mississippi's annals, came to the
state from Maine when about nineteen years of age, locating first
at Natchez, where he pursued for several years the vocation of a
school-teacher, indulging his spare hours in the study of law pre
paratory to his admission to the bar. Soon he was licensed to prac-
* tice, and Vicksburg offering a more inviting field for the display
of his peculiar talents, he came to the city, "hung out his shingle,"
and entered upon his professional career, the most brilliant, per
haps, in the history of the Southwest. From the very start his
success was phenomenal. I have it from the lips of men whose
pleasure it was to sit beneath the inspiring strains of his match
less eloquence, that he wove a spell of necromancy around the
hearts of all who heard him, and brought them willing captives
in silent adoration at his feet. I do not think it too much to say,
that in the realm of forensic eloquence, he was surpassed by no
orator of ancient or modern times. As Edgar Allen Poe was an
eccentricity of genius in the field of literature, so Sargent S. Pren
tiss was an eccentricity of genius in the field of oratory. Unique
in his way, he lived without a rival, and up to the present time he
has had no successor.
The other to whom I refer was Joseph Holt, who afterwards be
came Postmaster General in President Buchannan's Cabinet, and
later on Judge-Advocate General of the United States army. He
was a man of profound ability, an accomplished lawyer, a finished
orator, and almost always the opponent of his great rival, Prentiss,
in the courts. He amassed a handsome fortune during his residence
in Vicksburg, and won an immortality of fame.
Shortly after its incorporation, a city government was inaugu
rated of the best men in the community, churches were established,
schools were organized, and the little city started upon its brilliant
and historic career.
A sketch of this character would be incomplete without some
reference to the Press of the day. The first paper published was
"The Republican," the initial number making its appearance on
March 1st, 1825, William H. Benton, editor and proprietor; on
March 30th, 1826, the name was changed to "The Eagle and Vicks
burg Weekly Advertiser." The next in the order of time was the

860 MISSISSIPPI
"Vicksburg Register," M. Shannon & Co. publishers, Cyrus Griffin,
editor. On Sept. 30th, 1831, the name was altered to "The Advocate
and Register," with the same publishers, and William Mills, editor.
On January 31st, 1838, began the publication of the "Vicksburg-
Tri-Weekly Sentinel," with James Hagan as its editor and pub
lisher. The tragic history of this paper furnishes one of the sad
dest chapters in the early story of the city. It was the organ of the
Democratic party, an intensely partisan sheet, and though conduc
ted with considerable ability, its vindictive and vituperative utter
ances constantly involved its editors in personal difficulties, five
of whom on account of which, met violent deaths, the first being
James Hagan, himself, the owner and proprietor, who was killed
by Gen'l Dan Adams in a street encounter. The paper continued
its precarious career until, 1860, when' Roy, its last editor, was
killed by Shepard at the corner of Washington and Clay streets,
shortly after which the "Vicksburg Sentinel" breathed its last,
leaving behind only a train of bloody memories.
On January 1st, 1839, the "Advocate and Register" became
merged into the "Vicksburg Daily Whig," with Shannon and Mc
Cardle, publishers, and the versatile and accomplished Wm. H.
McCardle, editor. The "Whig" was the only "Daily" published
in the state, and the leading journal of Mississippi. Its editorial
columns were marked by a high order of ability, and it was an in
fluential factor in shaping the business and political policies of the
state. It passed out of existence amid the storms of war, for its
last issue was on the 2nd of May, 1863, when the reverberating
thunder of hostile guns was echoing along the hills and vales of the
beleagured city, of whose dearest interests this faithful journal had
been a staunch defender for twenty-five years.
In 1835, attracted by the allurements which a frontier life ever
holds out to adventurous spirits, there floated in on the tide of
immigration that had set in this direction, a large number of men
the scurf and scum of social life, who had been driven from the
haurtts of vice in the larger and older cities of the land, and among
them were a lot of gamblers of the baser and meaner stripe. These
men finally became so shameless in the prosecution of their nefa
rious vocation, that it became unsafe for a lady to go upon the
streets unattended, for fear of insult. The better portion of the
community at last was so outraged at the immoralities and mis
doings of these social brigands, that a public meeting of the citizens
was called at which it was determined that these outcasts should
be expelled and driven from the city, and accordingly a committee,
with Dr. Hugh Bodley at its head, was appointed to notify them
to leave within twenty-four hours. Failing to heed this warning
and admonition, a company was organized and marched to their
headquarters on North Washington street, where they had barri
caded themselves, and refusing to open the door it was broken
in, and Dr. Bodley being at the head was shot to death. This so
intensified the feelings of the outraged citizens that five of the
law-breakers were arrested and marched under an armed guard to

MISSISSIPPI 861
the old city Cemetery on the corner of Clay and Farmer steets,
where they were publicly executed by hanging. A sixth one whose
sins, perhaps, were not quite so grave as the others, was taken to
the center of the great river and with his hands pinioned behind
him, he was set adrift in a skiff on the current of the mighty stream,
and what hecame of this social derelict, whether he was swallowed
up in the vortex of the murky waters, or whether some kindly hand
rescued him from a terrible fate, tradition gives no answer. It
may be that the conduct of the citizens on this occasion cannot
be defended on moral grounds, but it must be remembered that
"desperate diseases require desperate remedies" and whether right
or wrong, it taught a salutary lesson, for from that day to this,- no
such experience has again fixed itself on the body politic
At the time of which I write, there came another young man
from Maine, the Rev. Charles K. Marshall, who married a daugh
ter of Newitt Vick, and for more than fifty years was closely
associated with the business , and religious interests of the city.
Dr. Marshall was a man of splendid appearance, gifted in a high
degree, and of rare accomplishments, and one of the most eloquent
of the pulpit orators of the Methodist Church, rich as it has ever
been in illustrious names. He died some fifteen years ago at a great
old age, deeply lamented by all.
From this time on Vicksburg grew in commercial importance,
until the baneful shadows of the Civil war settled down upon the
country in 1860-61. The war, of course, put a stop to all commer
cial progress, and Vicksburg soon became an armed camp, this city
and county having contributed some twenty-one companies to the
Confederate armies. During the continuance of the struggle every
thing was dedicated to its successful prosecution, and of course,
not much progress in other directions was made or could be ex
pected. In 1862, the Federal Government became impressed with the
conviction that the capture of Vicksburg was essential to the suc
cess of the Union cause, and all of its energies were directed to
the accomplishment of this purpose. Accordingly in December,
1862, General Sherman made the attempt, impotent from a mili
tary point of view, to turn the right wing of the Confederate de
fences at Haynes Bluff, but he was met by a small force under the
leadership of our distinguished citizen, Gen'l Stephen D. Lee, and
suffered a most disastrous and humiliating defeat. This ended all
effort to capture the town from that direction. But in the early
spring of 1863, General Grant was placed in command and ordered
to take such steps as he thought best to compass the fall -of the
city. His astute mind at once took in the situation, and he adopted
the only feasible plan to accomplish the end in view, and, under the
existing conditions, not a difficult one. He had at his command
an army estimated at about eighty thousand men, and he marched
his troops across the Delta peninsular, to a point on the Louisiana
shore opposite to Bruinsburg, and under cover of his gun-boats,
for he had full possession of the river, crossed his army to the

862 MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi shore, and then commenced his march to the investment
of the city. To this immense army General Pemberton could oppose
only about twenty-eight thousand men, and though engagements
were fought at Port Gibson, Champion Hill, and Raymond, yet,
on account of the great inequality of the contending forces, it
would hardly do violence to truth to say, that General Grant's
march to the investment of Vicksburg, was an' uninterrupted one.
After a small resistance at Big Black General Pemberton retired
with his army within the fortified lines around the city, and thus
began one of the most memorable sieges of modern times. Between
May 5th, the beginning of the investment, and July 4th, 1863, the
date of the surrender, General Grant made several deadly assaults
on the Confederate works in the vain hope of carrying the city by
storm, but each was repulsed with disastrous effects as the seven
teen thousand dumb witnesses who sleep in our beautiful national
cemetery two miles north of the city, but too plainly attest. No
more heroic defence than that made by General Pemberton and his
gallant army is recorded in the annals of history, and in the light
of the well-established facts of history, the suggestion that was
whispered in certain quarters at the time, of treachery, because the
surrender occurred on the 4th of July, is not only totally unwar
ranted, but is a most unjust aspersion on the memory of a gallant,
if unfortunate commander. It was believed at the time that the
fall of Vicksburg sealed the doom of the Confederacy, but whether
this is true or not, that, in connection with the battle of Gettysburg,
undoubtedly hastened the end.
A few of the caves dug by the inhabitants during the siege to
protect them from the bursting shells, are still visible in different
portions of the city, and, while objects of curious interest to the
tourist, are sad reminders of the vanished hopes and aspirations of
a brave and heroic people.
When the curtain went down at Appomattox in April, 1865, on
the last act in one of the bloodiest tragedies of modern times, the
South was left prostrate and in ruins, and Vicksburg, by reason
of the long and disastrous siege, suffered more perhaps than other
places, but her brave men and noble women laughed in the face
of disaster, and, with undaunted courage, entered upon the battle
of life with renewed energy. The decade, covering the period ex
tending from 1865 to 1875, knoWn as the Re-construction era, was
the darkest hour in Vicksburg's history, worse even than war with
all its train of horrors. Her municipal and all other official sta
tions were filled by ignorant negroes, with a small sprinkling of
carpet-bag thieves who absolutely revelled in the stolen plunder
wrested from the good people of the community. The city is at
this moment staggering under the load of debt fixed upon it by
these thieving aliens of thirty-five years ago. But there is an
avenging Nemesis that wearies never in the pursuit of the guilty
culprit, and in 1875, Mississippi summoned her unconquerable man
hood to the rescue, and in a civic revolution almost without pre
cedent, she drove the negroes and their carpet-bag allies into dis-

MISSISSIPPI 863
graceful retirement from the offices which they were polluting,
and restored them to the rightful custody of their native owners,
since which time our mighty Commonwealth has gone forward in
its grand march of progress and prosperity. From this time dates
modern Vicksburg, but in 1876, an event occurred which for a while
threw a damper over the spirit of her citizens, and retarded the
growth of the city for many years. I refer to the cut-off made in
front of the city in May of that year. For four or five years suc
ceeding this event the river gradually receded until it had gone
some two miles south, but about this time the United States gov
ernment said to the great river, "Thus far shalt thou go but no
farther," and instructed its Engineers to so revet the Delta Point
as to protect the banks against further caving. This partially re
stored confidence in the permanency of the city, and the stability
of values, but confidence was not entirely restored until about
eight years ago when the government, under the able superinten
dence of the accomplished Engineer, Major J. H. Willard, under
took the stupendous feat of diverting the Yazoo River from its
tncient bed into "Lake Centennial," and thence along the front of
the city. The consummation of this gigantic enterprise was wit
nessed on the 22nd day of December, 1902, for when the good citi
zens awoke on that morning, and came to their various places of
business, their eyes were greeted by the sight of a rapid bounding
river coursing its way along the entire city front, where for twenty
years had been dry land. This instantly had the effect of produo-
ing profound confidence in the future of the city, and, from that
moment, Vicksburg has been going ahead by leaps and bounds,
to the achievement of her splendid destiny.
In the foregoing pages I have written of ancient Vicksburg and
will now conclude this brief and imperfect sketch with an account
of Vicksburg as it is today, and of its prospective future.
The corporate limits of the city have not been extended since
1884, and therefore, the recent census returns do not give it credit
for its real size and importance, for after careful investigation, it
may be truthfully stated, that Vicksburg, with its suburban Addi
tions, has a population of, approximately, thirty thousand souls,
and is inreasing in growth rapidly day by day.
Geographically considered, there is no place on the Mississippi
river more favorably situated. Located just equi-distant from
Memphis on the north, and New Orleans on the south, at the foot
of the "Imperial Yazoo Delta," in the very heart of the finest cot
ton-belt on the globe, and, admittedly, the best long-staple cotton-
market in the world, she has but to utilize the opportunities nature
has thrown in her way, to give her a commanding influence in the
commercial future of the Mississippi Valley.
Possessed of all the utilities that enter into the make-up of a
modern metropolitan city, such as public schools, water works,
with sewerage, electric lights, gas works, street railroads, and a
fire department that, it is no exaggeration to say. 'is as fine as can
be found in any city of the land, with a Board of Trade, Cotton Ex-

864 MISSISSIPPI
change, and Business League, composed of its best citizens all
working together harmoniously for the betterment of the city,
Vicksburg is no laggard in the march of progress. Besides these,
she has two great trunk lines of railroad crossing each other at
right angles, running north and south, east and west, with the gen
eral machine shops of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad
located within her borders, giving constant employment to from
five to seven hundred skilled operatives, with a pay-roll averaging
from forty to fifty thousand dollars per month.
At Walters, her northern suburb, the Houston Brothers, and
the Anderson-Tully Co, have two of the most extensive milling
plants in the South, which employ some five hundred men.
Vicksburg has four national banks, and nine savings banks and
trust companies, to handle her ever increasing trade and financial
interests. Fourteen regular steamboats, and a larger number of
smaller craft, constantly ply her waters and land weekly at her
wharf. A dry dock, two compresses, three cotton-seed oil mills,
a furniture factory, successful beyond expectation, veneering fac
tory, box factory, basket factory, and a large number pf smaller
enterprises, enter into the make-up of her industrial life. As I
write, an elegant eight story steel building for the First National
Bank is rapidly approaching completion, while another sky-scraper
is projected only two blocks away, with the spirit of improvement
dominating its people, for turn in whatever direction we will, the
sound of the hammer and the buzz of the saw make sweet music
to the ear.
Its lofty elevation, and magnificent natural drainage, make Vicks
burg one of the healthiest cities of the land, its mortuary statistics
showing a death-rate of only a little over ten per thousand. In view
of these facts it is not strange that the stream of immigration
should empty into her environs with an ever accelerated flow. Two
additional lines of railway, at least, will at an early day be com
pleted into the city.
The present municipal government is controlled by her best and
most substantial citizens. Mr. B. W. Griffith, president of the
First National Bank, is mayor, and another of our bankers, Mr.
P. M. Harding, president of the Delta Trust and Banking Co,
with nine of our leading merchants, constitute its Board of Alder
men, under whose administration the city is progressing as nevCr
before. "The Vicksburg Daily Herald," under the editorial management
of the able and accomplished J. K. McNeiley, is the leading and
most influential journal in Mississippi, and two evening papers,
the "Vicksburg Evening Post," and the "Vicksburg American,"
with two weekly papers, "The Monday Morning News," and
"Vicksburg Democrat," make up the city press.
Vicksburg has even been distinguished for the ability of its Bar,
and now ranks with the ablest in the State, but candor compels
us to admit that in its es prit' de corps, and lofty ethical ideals, it
lags far behind the Vicksburg Bar of the olden time, when such

MISSISSIPPI 865
master spirits as Prentiss, Holt," John I. Guion, J. P. Harrison,
George S. Yerger, William C. Smedes, Thomas A. Marshall, Wil
liam A. Lake, Walker Brooke, and others, ministered at its altar.
I have reserved for the last, one of the most attractive features
of modern Vicksburg. To perpetuate the honor and valor of the
American soldier, our Great Government has established a mag
nificent National Military Park, in the shape of a half-moon along
the lines of the contending armies during the siege. The Park
embraces about fourteen hundred acres, with twenty odd miles of
gravelled drive-ways, and experts say there is no more beautiful or
picturesque spot on the continent than this. Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, have already placed
their memorials, the last at a cost of $250,000.00, whose magnificent
proportions can be seen for miles around in all directions. Iowa
has hers nearly completed at a cost of $150,000.00 and the Legis
lature of Mississippi at its late session appropriated $50,000.00 for
the like purpose, and soon our noble State will raise her shaft of
honor in memory of her heroic dead, who fell in defence of as holy
a cause as ever inspired the human heart.
Under the splendid management of the courteous and gen
tlemanly Cap't. W. T. Rigby, Chairman of the Commission, this
Park when finally completed in accordance with the purpose of our
generous government, will be one of the most beautiful in the
world. Thousands of tourists already visit it annually to feast
their eyes on its exquisite loveliness. Here sits Vicksburg to-day,
throned on her everlasting hills, exhibiting in full a realization of
Newitt Vick's prophetic dream of eighty odd years ago. Around
her brow Fame has entwined its wreath of immortality, and while
its citizenship will change with the passing of the years, its fame,
like that of another Thermopylae or a Marathon, will go sounding
down the ages linked forever to the chivalry of its heroic manhood,
and the beauty, loyalty, and devotion of its matchless womanhood.
Vicksburg Campaign, 1863. (See War of 1861-65.) General
Grant had under his department command, including West Ten
nessee and West Kentucky, an average of about 104,000 men, out
of which he was able to take against Vicksburg about 53,000 men,
besides his garrisons, at Corinth, Memphis and other points north
ward. He was aided by Admiral Porter's fleet, which, including
all sorts of armed craft, was made up of 81 vessels and 275 guns,
besides a few of Farragut's heavier war ships. Without the fleet,
Grant wrote afterwards, the campaign could not have been made
with twice the army, and could not have been made at all, with
any number of men, as it was made. Gen. Pemberton, command
ing in Mississippi and East Louisiana, had at his disposal an aver
age of 45,763 men ; but'7,000 were at Port Hudson, 3,000 or so were
cavalry held in northern and southern Mississippi, and the needs
of various garrisons were, such that he could not put a movable
force of more than 20,000 in the field. (S. D. Lee, Miss. Hist. Soc.
Publ. Ill, 27-28.) His army was in five divisions, commanded by
Major-Generals Carter L. Stevenson, Martin L. Smith, Dabney
55-11

866 MISSISSIPPI
H. Maury (succeeded by John H. Forney), John S. Bowen, and
W. W. Loring. Stevenson's division, about 10,000 strong, was
made up of Barton's Georgia brigade, Tracy's (iater Lee's) Ala
bama brigade, Taylor's Georgia brigade, Reynolds' Tennessee
brigade, and artillery of various States. Smith's division, particu
larly the defenders of Vicksburg, included the brigades of Bald
win, Vaughn and S. D. Lee (later Shoup), the latter embracing
the heavy artillery in the river batteries, with which was the
Vaiden artillery company. In this division the Mississippi troops
were the 4th regiment, Col. P. S. Layton; 46th, Col. C. W. Sears;
Smith's partisan rangers, Capt. N. J. Drew's battery, Capt. Robert
Bowman's battery, Maj. M. S. Ward's battalion (batteries of C. B.
Vance and J. H. Gates), and the Vaiden artillery, Capt. S. C. Bains.
Maury's division included Hebert's and Moore's brigades. He-
bert's was a Mississippi brigade (except the Third Louisiana)—
36th regiment, Col. W. W. Witherspoon; 37th, Col O. S. Holland;
38th, Col. Preston Brent; 43d, Col. R. Harrison; 7th battalion,
Capt. A. M. Dozier. Moore's brigade included the 35th Missis
sippi, Col W. S. Barry, the 40th, Col. W. B. Colbert and two Ala
bama regiments. Attached to Maury's command were Col. Wirt
Adams cavalry, and some State troops, under Brig.-Gen. John V.
Harris, including the 5th regiment, Col. H. C. Robinson, and Col.
T. A. Burgin's battalion. Bowen's division, about 4,500 strong,
was from Missouri and Arkansas. Loring's division was all Mis
sissippian, except an Alabama and a Kentucky regiment. Gen.
Lloyd Tilghman's brigade included the 6th Mississippi, Col. Rob
ert Lowry; 20th, Col. D. R. Russell; 23d, Col. J. M. Wells; 26th,
Col. A. E. Reynolds ; and the batteries of Capts. Jacob Culbertson
(Ward's battalion), J. J. Cowan and McLendon. Gen. W. S.
Featherston's brigade was the 3rd regiment, Col. T. H. Mellon ;
22d, Lieut.-Col. H. J. Reid; 31st, Col J. A. Orr; 33d, Col. D. W.
Hurst; First battalion sharpshooters, Maj. W. A. Rayburn; Bat
tery C, First regiment artillery. Loring's division, except a part
of Lowry's regiment, was not in the siege of Vicksburg. The Park
Commission list of Mississippi troops in the siege shows, of
Wither's First regiment of artillery, Battery A, Capt. S. J. Ridley;
C, Capt. W. T. Ratliff; D, Capt. J. L. Wofford; E, Capt. N. J.
Drew; G, Capt. J. J. Cowan, and I, Lieut. E. E. Bower (Bow
man's) ; of Ward's battalion, Vance's and Gates' companies and
Lieut. F. W. Merrin's section of Culbertson's ; also Hudson's bat
tery and the Vaiden battery.
Gen. John Adams commanded the Jackson military district un
der Pemberton. He had the 14th regiment, Col. G. W. Abert;
Pierce's battalion (Choctaw); Flarper's First battalion; Norton's
company of the 15th regiment, and two cavalry companies; and
under his orders was George's brigade of State troops, at Grenada,
but all these were so reduced in numbers that they added little to
the effective force. Early in April, there were sent to Jackson,
from the army at Port Hudson, La, Rust's brigade, Arkansans,
Louisianians, and these Mississippians — First Confederate bat-

MISSISSIPPI 867
talion (Martin's), 15th regiment, Lieut.-Col. J. R. Binford, and
Hudson's battery, Lieut. J. R. Sweany (the latter was in the siege
of Vicksburg) ; also Buford's brigade, mainly Alabamians arid
Kentuckians. Later in April Gregg's brigade followed — mainly
Tennesseans. After Admiral Porter first ran the batteries with part of his
fleet, April 16, Pemberton sent the 6th Mississippi, Martin's bat
talion, and Sweany's battery from Jackson, and Green's brigade
from Vicksburg to support Bowen's brigade at Grand Gulf. With
the Confederate commander of the department menaced by move
ments north, south and west, from Port Hudson to Corinth and
Memphis, Grant landed 20,000 men at Bruinsburg. Bowen at
Grand Gulf had been bombarded by the fleet, with a show of land
ing troops north of him as well as south. He provided for possi
bilities as best he could, and had posted Lowry's regiment on the
roads from Bruinsburg, to Grand Gulf, and Green's brigade on the
Bayou Pierre road. Reinforced at the last moment by Tracy's
and Baldwin's brigades, which came up jaded by a long march,
.Bowen had 5,164 men and 13 guns. Grant's advance, under Mc-
Clernand, pushed on in the night, and at 1 a. m. May 1st, near
Port Gibson, was repulsed by Green, but the latter was soon
flanked and compelled to retreat. Lowry made a brave stand, in
cluding a gallant charge upon a Federal battery. Tracy and Bald
win came up and formed lines to which the Confederates withdrew.
The Third and Fifth Missouri, by a desperate fight for the Nat
chez road, saved Bowen's entire command from being surrounded.
It was a very bold defense and well carried out, in Grant's judg
ment, and held the Federals in check until evening. Besides the
Sixth, the Fourth regiment was actively engaged. Bowen's com
mand lost 60 killed, among them Gen. E. D. Tracy, 340 wounded
and 387 captured. The Federal loss was 131 killed, 719 wounded
and 25 captured. This was called the battle of Port Gibson, and
ended in the Confederates taking a position back of Bayou Pierre
and burning the bridges.
Generals Pemberton and Tilghman arrived the following night
and decided that the position could not be held. Bowen was or
dered to evacuate Grand Gulf and fall back across the Big Black
river at Hankinson's Ferry. McPherson's corps followed, and was
stoutly resisted on the way, but encamped at the ferry May 3.
Grant had, at his first blow, unexpected by Pemberton, skilfully
begun the isolation of Vicksburg from Jackson, the great railroad
and manufacturing center, base of supplies and gate for reinforce
ments. He immediately occupied points along the Big Black,
made Grand Gulf his base of supply, abandoned an idea he had
entertained of first marching to unite with Banks from New Or
leans against Port Hudson, and brought part of Sherman's corps
down from opposite Vicksburg, increasing his movable army in
Mississippi to 33,000, and "leaving a force opposite Vicksburg and
in the delta sufficient to continually menace the Confederate posi
tion on the Yazoo, and compelling Pemberton to keep about 7,000

868 MISSISSIPPI
men constantly at Vicksburg, Warranton, and Snyder's bluff. Un
der the impression that Grant would try to cross the Big Black
first, and besiege Vicksburg, Pemberton ordered Loring's division
from Yazoo City and Jackson to Vicksburg, called back the bri
gades he had ordered to Tennessee, and ordered Gardner at Port
Hudson to send 5,000 men to Jackson. Gardner could not do this,
as he was soon besieged by Banks. Pemberton was confirmed in
his understanding of the situation by a telegram from President
Davis, telling him "to hold Vicksburg at all hazards, and if be
sieged he would be relieved." The advice of Gen. Johnston, on
the other hand, was to risk the loss of Vicksburg rather than to
permit himself to be besieged and cut off from reinforcements.
Pemberton believed that so long as he held the Big Black, Grant
would not move to Jackson for fear of being cut off from his base
of supplies. Consequently he massed his troops along the Big
Black, mainly at the Jackson railroad bridge, expecting to give
battle near Edwards. But Grant defeated all surmises by cutting
loose from his base of supplies, and marching on Jackson with
three days' rations of hardtack, coffee and salt, otherwise subsist
ing his army of 33,000 from the country. He found an abundance
of beef, mutton and poultry, quite a quantity of molasses and
bacon, and all the plantation mills were kept running day and
night within reach of his columns, grinding grain for his army.
Pemberton was confirmed in his expectation of a battle at Ed
wards by the advance in that direction of McClernand's corps.
On the 11th Tilghman was skirmishing with a Federal column
at Baldwin's Ferry, and Pemberton ordered Gen. W. H. T. Walker,
who had just brought his brigade and Colquitt's from South Caro
lina to Jackson, to join Gregg and march to attack the Federal
army in the rear during the anticipated battle at Edwards. But
while the McClernand movement caused this disposition of Pem-
berton's troops, Sherman's corps was marching to Clinton and
McPherson's to Raymond. Gregg, starting out to obey Pember-
ton's order, was informed by his cavalry pickets, when he reached
Raymond, that a Federal column was approaching, but he inferred,
from Pemberton's order, that it could not be a large force. At 10
o'clock, May 12, artillery opened fire on his picket line, and he
moved forward, disposing his brigade to flank and capture the
enemy. But his men soon discovered that they were attacking
overwhelming numbers. Yet for three hours they made a stub
born fight against John A. Logan's division, supported by part of
the remainder of McPherson's corps, after which Gregg withdrew
through Raymond. The Confederate loss in this battle of Ray
mond was 73 killed, 251 wounded and 190 missing, including a
number of gallant officers. McPherson's loss was 66 killed, 339
wounded and 37 captured.
In the evening of that day Gen. J. E. Johnston arrived at Jack
son and assumed chief command in the State. He heard not only
of the battle of Raymond, but that Sherman was at Clinton, and
he sent an order to Pemberton to move against Sherman with all

MISSISSIPPI 869
his strength and as quickly as possible. Pemberton was disin
clined to separate himself from Vicksburg so far. In a council of
war the majority of his generals favored Johnston's plan, but Pem
berton decided to advance with 16,000 men from Edwards toward
Raymond, stating as his object "to cut the enemy's communica
tion and force him to attack me, as I do not consider my force suf
ficient to justify an attack on the enemy in position or to attempt
to cut my way to Jackson. (Letter to Johnston.) But he did not
move from Edwards until the 15th.
Meanwhile Grant had adroitly drawn McClernand from Pem-
berton's front toward Raymond, and Sherman marched on Jack
son by the Clinton road and McPherson by the Raymond road.
May 14, Gregg resisted the advance on the Clinton road and Col
quitt and Walker on the Raymond road, until Jackson could be
evacuated. There was stubborn fighting along the line of advance
of the two columns until 2 o'clock p. m, when, Gen. John Adams
having got away the trains with stores that could be hurriedly
moved, the Confederate force defending Jackson, about 6,000
'strong, withdrew a few miles toward Canton. In this battle of
Jackson, the Confederate loss was 17 killed, 64 wounded, 118 miss
ing; the Federal loss 42 killed, 241 wounded, 7 missing. The State
capital was occupied by Grant that evening. He had been rein
forced by Blair's division, and now had 43,000 men in the field.
Johnston's order to Pemberton, above mentioned, was sent in
triplicate, and one copy was brought by its carrier to Grant, who
was thus informed of Johnston's desire to have Pemberton unite
with him. It was, however, obvious that such should be John
ston's desire, and Grant's rapid movements had all been calculated
to draw Pemberton out and attack him before he could unite with
Johnston. Next day, leaving Sherman to destroy the remaining
stores and railroad and manufacturing property, he started Mc
Pherson back to Bolton to prevent a union of Pemberton and
Johnston, and ordered McClernand to join him.
Pemberton started out from Edwards toward Raymond on the
morning of the 15th with about 17,500 men. Featherston's Mis
sissippi brigade and Buford's in the lead. Heavy rains delayed
Pemberton or he would have got in a position in which he would
not only have been cut off from Johnston, but from Vicksburg.
High water compelled the troops to take the Clinton road across
Baker's creek, and then, at Champion's hill, to cross back to the
direct Raymond road. The advance had reached the latter road
when night came on, and the troops went into bivouac. At the
same time Grant had seven divisions, marching on three converg
ing roads towards Edward, and directly toward Pemberton's posi
tion. Hovey was at Bolton, with Logan and Crocker near at
hand; Smith and Blair were approaching Loring's position on the
main Raymond road, and Osterhouse and Carr were coming up on
a road between them. On the morning of the 16th Pemberton
received an order from Johnston that finally induced him to aban
don his march toward Raymond and order his men back north of

870 MISSISSIPPI
the railroad toward Brownsville, to unite with the forces from
Jackson. But hardly had he given this order when he was aware
of the presence of Grant's army by the opening of artillery fire on
the main Raymond road. He ordered his wagon trains back and
formed a line of battle on the cross-road, at right angles to the two
Raymond roads, on which the skirmish line of four Federal divi
sions were appearing. Stevenson's division was on the left, toward
Bolton, Loring on the right, and Bowen between them. Stephen
D. Lee's brigade was on the extreme left, where the Bolton road
came in, on which three Federal divisions were approaching. It
soon became apparent that the real battle was to be where Lee was
stationed. Pemberton was forced to change his line of battle to
face toward Bolton, whence he was assailed by the divisions of
Hovey, Logan and Croker. He "found himself, with a force out
numbering him in his front, compelled to change his line of battle
At right angles to meet the movement on his left of another force,
also outnumbering, his entire force." (S. D. Lee.) He had in all
15,000 with which to make battle, after sending Reynolds' brigade
back with his wagon trains. But the battle on the left was fought
by Stevenson's division, unsupported by Bowen until late in the
'evening, and with no help from Loring except that four Federal
divisions lay inactive before him. The battle against Stevenson
was fought by Hovey, Logan and Crocker, who had 15,000 to put
in the field, according to Grant. They were pushing forward
toward Edwards, which would have cut off Pemherton from both
Vicksburg and Johnston. Before noon part of McPherson's corps
had turned Lee's left and was practically between him and the
bridge over Baker's creek. The battle opened in greatest fury
against Lee's Alabama and Cumming's Georgia brigade at noon.
The carrying of the high point of the hill by McGinnis' Indiana
brigade, and the forcing back of Lee and Cumming, occupied most
of two hours, "and was marked by the most desperate fighting on
both sides, ground being taken and retaken several times." (S, D.
Lee.) Waddell's battery, which had done splendid service, was
captured by an Iowa regiment at 1 :30. Barton's brigade attempted
to form on Lee's left and was driven across Baker's creek to the
rear. Then came up Bowen's little division of about 3,500 Mis-
sourians and Arkansans, and made their famous charge against
Hovey's division at 2 :30 p. m. This fight lasted about two hours,
and though two other brigades got in Bowen's way, "the Union
troops were driven over a mile and beyond the crest of the hill
originally held by the Confederate troops. The Union troops
made a desperate stand on the slope of the hills toward Cham
pion's house, and sixteen guns were put in battery so as to enfilade
Bowen's line." Then about 3:30 o'clock, two Federal divisions
from one of the Raymond roads began to move down upon the
field. Bowen and Stevenson were forced to retreat across Baker's
Creek. Featherston's Mississippi brigade, with the artillery under
Col. Withers, then came to the rescue and held the ford, supported
by the rest of Loring's division, until Stevenson could cross. Lor-

MISSISSIPPI 871
ing was cut off. Under cover of darkness his division marched
around west and south of Grant's army to Crystal Springs, and
finally joined Gen. Johnston.
In the defense of the ford Gen. Tilghman, a gallant Marylander,
was killed. Fighting with Stevenson's division, Maj. Joseph W.
Anderson, chief of his artillery, was killed. The gallant Capt.
Samuel J. Ridley, of Withers' artillery, fought his guns until he
fell, pierced with.six shots. A section of his battery, under Lieut.
Frank Johnston, did effective service, until all the horses were
killed and the guns had to be abandoned. Cowan's battery also
lost their guns. Stevenson's division lost 233 killed, 527 wounded,
2,103 captured; also 11 cannon and 2,834 small arms. Bowen's
division lost 65 killed, 293 wounded, 242 missing, and saved its
artillery. Loring's division, only slightly engaged, lost 16 killed,
61 wounded, 43 captured. The total Confederate loss was 324
killed, 3,269 wounded and captured, besides artillery and small
arms; the Federal loss was 410 killed, 1,844 wounded, 187 missing.
This battle of Baker's Creek, or Champion's Hill, May 16, 1863,
? was the decisive event of the campaign. Pemberton withdrew
most of the remainder of his army across the Big Black, but tried
to hold the tete-du-pont, or fortifications protecting the bridge,
until he could hear from Loring, whom he expected to rejoin him.
Vaughn's brigade and the remnant of Bowen's division were left
in these works, but Bowen was exposed by a panic in Vaughn's
command. "The Confederate troops were very much demoralized,
and soon broke in their efforts to cross the bridge." (S. D. Lee.)
In this affair at the Big Black bridge, May 17, the Federals lost
276 killed and wounded, and captured 18 guns and 1,751 prisoners.
Pemberton concentrated all his remaining forces in the intrenched
line around Vicksburg, abandoning Warrenton, Snyder's mill and
the Chickasaw bayou line. See Vicksburg, Siege of.
The returns of March 31 showed at Vicksburg, Jackson, and
points of support, an "aggregate present" of 41,107, of which there
were 30,000 "present for duty." At Port Hudson, also under the
command of Gen. Pemberton, from which he could draw at will,
were 16,277 "present for duty." Three brigades of these were
brought up to Jackson before the campaign began, and two small
Georgia brigades arrived there from the east before Grant reached
Jackson. A part of the force collected at Jackson was sent to
Grand Gulf, 400 were killed and captured before Jackson, and 235
were wounded, after which Johnston estimated he had 6,000 in
the field. In the main part of the army, collected about Vicksburg
and along the Big Black, 5,147 were reported killed and captured
in the campaign, and 1,221 wounded, and Loring's division, 7,000
present for duty, was cut off at Baker's Creek. After these losses,
Pemberton was able to put in the trenches on the land side of
Vicksburg, and in a supporting column, 18,500, besides the men
in the long line of river batteries. An estimate on the basis of
these figures, would indicate 40,000 effective troops on the Vicks
burg and Jackson line to begin with, and the number of these that

872 MISSISSIPPI
could be put in a compact and movable force with which to meet
Grant in the open depended upon the vigor and daring of Pember
ton. These troops were nearly all veterans of the armies of Ten
nessee and Virginia and the West; as good fighters as there were
on earth. It would appear then, that though the Confederate
government could not put at Vicksburg and Jackson a force equal
to all the troops in Grant's department, it did provide an effective
force to meet such a movable column as Grant could put in south
ern Mississippi and subsist. At the same time all that could be
done to divert the Federal strength from Mississippi was being
done by the armies of Lee and Bragg. The left flank of the battle
line, of which Vicksburg was the center, was in Louisiana, and
the right flank was in Virginia. In his able description of the cam
paign (Miss. Hist. Publ, vol 3) Gen. S. D. Lee writes: "When
we consider the odds during the campaign in favor of the Federal
army . . . the result could not well have been other than it
was. It must be considered, however, that the campaign of Gen
eral Grant from the time he conceived it, was bold and masterly
and has but few equals in this or any other war. It is true he had
great odds and resources, but he used them as only a great gen
eral could have used them."
Vicksburg, First Defense. When Gen. Martin L. Smith was as
signed to command at Vicksburg, May 12, 1862, three batteries
had been completed, by Col. J. L. Autry, commandant, and Chief
Engineer D. B. Harris. The United States fleets were then ap
proaching the city. On the South they were at Natchez, and
nothing to prevent their advance. On the north they had yet to
overcome the resistance of Fort Pillow, from which little was ex
pected. The work was pushed feverishly, and six batteries were
ready when the first division of the Federal fleet arrived, May 18.
The only troops at hand were parts of two Louisiana regiments.
Commodore Lee demanded the surrender of the town and its
defenses, to which Mayor Lindsay, Col. Autry and Gen. Smith
each sent an answer of refusal and defiance. The citizens "had
with great unanimity made up their minds that its possession
ought to be maintained at all hazards, even though total demoli
tion should be the result," said Smith. On his advice, many left
the town whenthe smoke of the approaching fleet was first seen,
but others remained to take their chances, a few of whom remained
during the whole bombardment. Lee gave notice on the 21st that
women and children should be removed, as he could not attack with
out injury to the town. He waited until the 26th before opening fire.
Meanwhile, more warships had come up, in all nine ocean vessels,
under Admiral Farragut, and transports carrying 3,000 troops,
under Gen. T. H. Williams. Smith had been reinforced by two
Louisiana regiments, five companies of Starke's cavalry, Ridley's
battery, and four companies of Balfour's battalion, which were
stationed at Warrenton to resist land attack. Two more Louisiana
regiments arrived later. From May 26 until the middle of June
the bombardment from the boats was kept up at intervals, some-

MISSISSIPPI 873
times quite heavily. June 14 to 18 there was a lull, after which
18 mortar boats, brought up from New Orleans, joined in the at
tack. Meanwhile, Fort Pillow fell, the little Confederate fleet at
Memphis was destroyed, and a fleet of 40 vessels came down from
Memphis, under Flag-Officer Davis. The bombardment was
quite heavy, often lasting late into the night, June 20-27. Gen.
Earl VanDorn, who had been assigned to command of the river
district, arrived June 28, and with him the advance of Breckin
ridge's division. Guns were brought up from Mobile, Richmond
and Columbus, and put in the batteries which then mounted 29
heavy guns. When VanDorn had brought all his troops, the Mis
sissippi commands at and around Vicksburg were, in Statham's
brigade, the 15th and 22d regiments ; the 6th regiment and 2d bat
talion, in Bowen's brigade; the. 3d and 31st regiments, Balfour's
battalion, Wither's regiment of artillery, Starke's cavalry regiment,
Company I, 39th regiment. With them were troops from Ken
tucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri —
not a large army iri all, but ample, as the Federals did not attempt
an attack by land.
The bombardment of June 28 was furious, 35 gunboats moving
up in front of the city and directing their fire on the batteries,
while the mortars, from a distance, were dropping shells in the
batteries and streets. ' The batteries replied, and the roar of can
non was deafening. Amid the crash of falling houses, the remain
ing inhabitants began a hasty flight to the country. Among these,
Mrs. Gamble, who had been a devoted worker in the hospitals,
was killed by a fragment of shell. The bombardment made no
impression on the batteries. Not a gun was disabled and few sol
diers or citizens were killed. It was evident that Vicksburg could
not be reduced except by a campaign by land. But it was also
proved during this engagement, that the boats could run past the
batteries without serious loss. Farragut took position behind the
neck of land opposite Vicksburg, with nine of his ships, and under
his protection the infantry command of Gen. Williams was landed
there, on Louisiana soil. They began the digging of a canal across
the neck, but never succeeded in making it a complete success.
The bombardment went on, but with less vigor. Those of the
inhabitants remaining became accustomed to life in caves dug in
the upper bluffs, and as the firing was not continuous, it was pos
sible to carry on business to some extent. About the middle of
July occurred the famous battle of the Confederate ironclad, Ar
kansas (q. v.). The bombardment ceased July 27 and both fleets
withdrew. During 67 days they had thrown 20,000 to 25,000 shot.
and shell into the town and the batteries, yet the casualties in the
batteries were only 7 killed and 15 wounded, and in the town 2
killed. Two Confederate guns were temporarily disabled. (Conf.
Military History, Vol. VII.)
Vicksburg Harbor. "On April 27, 1876, the river broke through
a long peninsula jutting out from the Louisiana shore in front of
Vicksburg. This cut off changed the channel, and its damaging

874 MISSISSIPPI
effects may be traced for two hundred miles. The harbor of Vicks
burg, once the finest on the river, began at once to silt up, and the
changes were so rapid and alarming that a board of engineer offi
cers was convened, who recommended revetments and dikes, fol
lowed by dredging out of the harbor, and, if these prove insuffi-
ficient, that the Yazoo river be diverted, to assist in keeping open
the lake that is forming. Congress has already expended $229,000
on these works; but before they had progressed sufficiently to
arrest the filling process, the lower part of the harbor, received so
much deposit that it goes dry at twenty feet above low water.
Though the upper end is still open, the channel is so circuitous
that at low stage the wharf boats are moved down below the bar
two miles from the old landing. The dredging and revetment now
needed will cost $436,000." (Annual Cyclopedia, 1881.)
An act of congress, 1890, provided for another survey- of the sit
uation, resulting in approval of the project to bring the Yazoo
river by way of Old river through "Lake Centennial" down by
the old river front of Vicksburg, and work was begun on this
canal in 1894. In 1895 the amount that had been appropriated for
survey, etc, was $345,000, and the estimate to complete the canal
by 1898 was $905,000. The canal was completed January 28, 1903.
Vicksburg Hospital. The Freedmen's Bureau turned over to
the State during the provisional administration of Gen. Ames, the
Marine hospital at Vicksburg, with its building (originally a resi
dence) and seven acres of ground, and this was used as a State
asylum, to accommodate the incurable from the Lunatic asylum,
and some destitute, disabled and blind. Gen. Swift was in charge.
In 1870 Governor Alcorn said the property could be purchased
from the United States government at the price fixed, $20,000, or
might be obtained as a free gift. It had been maintained at the
expense of the United States. The Vicksburg hospital was made a
State institution by act of legislature, March, 1871, an appropria
tion of $25,000 made, and Dr. John R. Hicks appointed as super
intendent. In nine months, 1,723 patients were treated.
As described in "Picturesque Vicksburg," 1895, the hospital had
an annual endowment of $10,000 from the city, county and State,
besides aid from the U. S. Marine hospital ; and was supplied with
a capable staff of physicians and surgeons, headed by Chief Sur
geon S. D. Robbins and his assistant, Dr. John H. Purnell. The
hospital is a handsome brick building with spacious and elevated
grounds. It now has the title of the State Charity Hospital and
is supported by annual appropriations of the legislature, aggregat
ing in the years 1904-5, $35,000.
Vicksburg Riots, 1874. The white citizens of Warren county,
early in 1874, formed a taxpayers' league to redeem the city from
corrupt negro government. There were then only three white offi
cers in the county. In 1869 the city and county debt together had
amounted to $13,000; in 1874 the city debt was $1,400,000. The
county tax rate was 14 mills on the dollar, and the municipal rate
2iy2 mills, in addition to the State and school rate of 14 mills,

MISSISSIPPI 875 '
making about 4 cents on the dollar of valuation for taxation.
Extravagant aid had been given to railroad companies and munici
pal improvements. "Among all the local officers," said Senator
Furlong, a Republican, "ignorance and incapacity, defalcation and
embezzlement, forgery and the larceny of both money and the
public records, had got to be the general rule. . . . We know
that the board of supervisors arbitrarily and persistently refused
to even meet so that they could so much as hear the just com
plaints of an outraged people." He also said that, over all this,
there was thrown by the favor of Governor Ames and the courts
"an air of official insolence and arrogance to which the history of
civilized goyernment affords no parallel" The Ames, Republican
party, nominated for mayor a white man then under indictment
for 23 offences, and for aldermen seven ignorant negroes and a
white saloon keeper. Many white Republicans and some negro
voters supported the Taxpayers' ticket. The campaign, was excit
ing, and white and colored marching clubs were organized. In
April, A. K. Davis, the negro acting governor, applied to the com
mandants at Jackson and New Orleans for United States troops
to maintain order. In July he notified President Grant that "im
mense armed bodies are parading the streets both day and night,
and the city authorities are unable to protect life and property."
He asked fqr two companies of United States troops. Governor
Ames, returning to the State, renewed these appeals, but the presi
dent would not heed them until it had been shown that there was
some insurrection beyond the power of the State to repress. The
election came off August 4, and the reform ticket was elected.
Attention was then turned to the county affairs. Peter Crosby,
the negro sheriff and tax-collector, had given a bond that was
worthless. The board of supervisors was asked to require a new
bond, but it refused to meet, and Crosby publicly declared that
he would not give a new bond or vacate his office until the supreme
court should require it. Judge Wiley P. Harris could see no legal
remedy when the officers and tribunals appointed by law utterly
failed to act. Governor Ames might, by a word of disapproval,
have compelled action, but he was silent. "The truth is," said
Harris, "that under our government, as it now exists, there is no
, remedy for the peculations of public officers. We are fleeced and
robbed on all sides, and we are powerless to prevent it, either by
law or the force of public opinion. . . . You can't operate a
government honestly when the majority of the voters care noth
ing for the morals of the officials." (Letter to Lamar, Dec. 11,
1874.) In August, the State auditor, W. H. Gibbs, discovered and
made known a fraudulent and forged issue of court warrants at
Vicksburg. The grand jury, in November, found indictments
against Cordoza, former circuit clerk, then State superintendent,
for forgery and embezzlement, and like indictments against the in
cumbent circuit and chancery clerks. This was followed by the
abstraction of records from the county officers to prevent the con
viction of these officials. A Tax payers' convention December 2,

876 MISSISSIPPI
demanded the resignation of the sheriff, chancery clerk and cor
oner. When Crosby refused, the convention, about 500 strong,
marched to the courthouse and compelled him to resign. An ex-
Union soldier was put in charge. The chancery clerk also re
signed. Crosby went to Jackson, and Governor Ames advised the
sheriff that his resignation was void and he should have the sup
port of the State in holding his office. Two members of the gov
ernor's staff returned with the sheriff to Vicksburg, and a call was
sent out for the assistance of all Republicans, black and white.
Governor Ames issued a proclamation directed against the attempt
of "riotous and disorderly persons," to deprive the negroes of their
rights. He ordered the captain of a negro militia company to aid
Crosby, and ignored the two white companies in the city. On
Sunday and Monday the city was thrown into great excitement
by rumors of an invasion of negroes and, finally, a large body of
blacks was known to be approaching, Monday morning, December
7. The mayor ordered all armed bodies to disperse, put the town
under martial law, with an ex-Confederate officer in command.
Armed men moved out to meet the invaders, and Union veterans
seem to have been as numerous as Confederates in the mayor's
forces. There were several collisions, one at the Pemberton mon
ument, in all of which, including the following two or three days,
2 whites were killed and 29 blacks. (Garner.) Thirty prisoners
were taken but soon released. In a few days quiet was restored
and a special election was ordered for sheriff. President Grant is
sued a proclamation requiring peace, but no troops were sent.
The governor called a special session of the legislature, which ap
pealed to the president for troops, and passed a law intended to
invalidate the special election. This was held, however, and Flan-
nagan elected, the negroes refusing to vote. January 5, 1875, Gen.
P. H. Sheridan took command of the military department of the
Gulf, and recommended to the secretary of war that the leaders
of revolt in New Orleans and elsewhere should be declared
"banditti," and left to his mercy as such. January 18, Flannagan
was ejected from the sheriff's office by an officer of the United
States army, and Crosby reinstated. The affair was the cause
of much censure of Governor Ames, who displayed no desire to
investigate the alleged wrongs or establish friendly relations with
the white population, none of whom condemned him more fiercely
than Gen. Furlong, formerly a member of Gen. Sherman's staff.
On the other hand Governor Ames declared that the trouble
was a result of an effort to urge "a war of races for political pur
poses." He said, "No single legal remedy had been exhausted.-
The petit jury had not been organized." No attempt had been
made to restrain the Sheriff by injunction or compel him to make
a new bond. But a reign of terror had been created through the
county by bands of armed riders ; officials and prominent men had
been compelled to flee, and even the judges of the State courts
forced to escape at night. There was not in the county "a single
militia officer," but officers and companies had been organized pre-

MISSISSIPPI 877
tending to act by authority of the State, and homes were searched,
officials deposed and citizens put to death. To this the governor's
attorney-general, Joshua S. Morris, replied that as regards militia
officers, the governor was an "official liar." An investigation was
made by a committee of congress which made majority and minor
ity reports, with testimony, of 560 pages, in February, 1875.
(Mayes' Lamar, Garner's Reconstruction.)
Vicksburg, Second Campaign. Gen. Grant, in planning this
campaign, in the fall of 1862, desired to withdraw Rosecrans from
Corinth, destroy the railroads in that vicinity, make Memphis his
base pf supplies, and operate in a line parallel with the Mississippi
river, supported by the gunboats. He would compel the evacuation
of Vicksburg by moving down the Central railroad to Jackson,
with his main army. But he was overruled in almost every detail
by the authorities at Washington. "General Grant was not fully
informed as to the matured plans at Washington, and was allowed
to start to carry out his plans, but soon saw that he was not sup
ported by his superiors, and was checked at almost every step of
• his advance." (S. D. Lee.)
With the first of November Grant began a concentration of his
army at Grand Junction and LaGrange, Tenn, ordering three divi
sions from Corinth, and Sherman from Memphis. The troops at
Helena, Ark, under Gen. A. P. Hovey, were ordered to cross the
Mississippi and move towards Grenada, so as to compel Pember
ton to retreat from Holly Springs. These movements would bring
about 40,000 men into the field against Pemberton's 22,000. Pem
berton called anxiously for reinforcements, and VanDorn and
Price and Lovell fell back to the south bank of the Tallahatchie,
where they began fortifying. Gen. George with his State troops,
lingered a while at Oxford. While Grant was yet at LaGrange,
his cavalry reconnaissance entered Holly Springs, November 9,
and found the town evacuated.
Grant brought his army to Holly Springs about two weeks later,
repairing the railroad as he came, and began the collection of
stores at Holly Springs as his base of supplies.
Pemberton was compelled to abandon the Tallahatchie and fall
back to Grenada, making the Yallobusha his line of defense, early
in December. Grant made his headquarters at Oxford, and his
cavalry advanced as far as Coffeeville, where they were defeated.
December 5 by Gen. Lloyd Tilghman's command, mainly the 23d
Mississippi, Col. Moses McCarley; 26th, Maj. T. F. Parker, and
14th, Maj. Doss.
"Hovey was taken care of by Starke's cavalry, and after skir
mishes at the mouth of the Coldwater on the Yockhapatalfa, at
Mitchell's Cross roads and Oakland, he retreated to the Missis
sippi, having done little damage except burning some bridges and
sinking the steamer New Moon on the Tallahatchie."
But now Grant was required to send Sherman with a division
back to Memphis. Thence Sherman was to take an army by boat
to capture Vicksburg, while Grant should confine himself to keep-

878 MISSISSIPPI
ing the Confederate troops in his front from going to the defense
of that fortified city. On a week's notice, Sherman obtained at
Memphis transports to carry 32,000 men. Admiral Porter brought
to Memphis the entire river gunboat fleet, including 19 ironclads,
31 vessels in all, carrying 150 guns. The entire expedition, which
set out from Memphis December 20, comprised 125 boats. But,
as this expedition was starting, Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, sent
to Pemberton's assistance from Bragg's army near Chattanooga,
made a great cavalry raid to Jackson, Tenn, and along the rail
road north, cutting Grant's communications with the North, and
capturing many of the smaller garrisons. At the same time, Grant
having sent a cavalry expedition under Col. Dickey on a raid to
cut the railroad near Tupelo, Gen. VanDorn took about 2,500 Con
federate cavalry, left Grenada December 18, and moved around
Grant's flank by way of Pontotoc, as if to attack Dickey. Van
Dorn was informed of the posting of troops, etc, at Holly Springs,
by a spy who had spent a week there in the guise of a countryman
looking for negroes. He passed through Pontotoc in such fashion
as to persuade Dickey he was going north to join Forrest. In
stead, he turned straight for Holly Springs, near where his men
dismounted and waited through the night of December 19 until
dawn. Then they advanced on two roads, the First Mississippi
cavalry going in on the northeast, ignoring the infantry, and pres
ently clashing with the 2d 111. cavalry, near the fair grounds. It
was a great fight, but the Confederate revolvers were more ef
fective than the Federal sabers. The Federal infantry was panic
stricken, and 1,500 gave their paroles. VanDorn destroyed mili
tary supplies and provisions, which he estimated to be worth
about $1,500,000, but which Grant placed at the more conservative
estimate of $400,000. VanDorn also attacked Davis Mills, but
was repulsed. He brought back his command to Grenada, on the
28th, with little loss.
This cutting of communications by Forrest and VanDorn com
pelled Grant to abandon his forward movement. Instead of
attacking at Grenada he fell back to Holly Springs, and thence
slowly retreated" to Memphis, his troops living from the country.
"This relief in favor of the Confederate side was not known at the
time the troops were being moved to reinforce Vicksburg, and did
not really become known until the crisis was over at Vicksburg.
It was thought strange that General Grant did not attack at
Grenada at the time." (S. D. Lee.)
Gen. Bragg had sent to Pemberton's help from Tennessee the
Georgia brigade of Seth M. Barton, the Tennessee brigades of
John C. Vaughn and John Gregg, and the Alabama brigade of E.
D. Tracy. They were held in readiness to use where most needed,
until December 24, when they were ordered to Vicksburg. There
Gen. M. L. Smith was yet in command, with about 6,500 men, in
cluding outpost cavalry. About one thousand were artillerymen
in the batteries. In the Yazoo river were the Federal gunboats,
picking up torpedoes and clearing the way for the great fleet that

MISSISSIPPI 879
was known definitely, December 23d, to be approaching. Stephen
D. Lee, one of the ablest artillery officers of the Army of North
ern Virginia, had been promoted to brigadier-general to take com
mand of the artillery defense of Vicksburg. On Christmas Day,
when Sherman's expedition arrived at the mouth of the Yazoo,
Lee was given command of the line of defense from Vicksburg to
Snyder's Mill on the Yazoo, where it was evident that Sherman
would attempt to make a landing and establish his base for an
attack on Vicksburg. Included in Lee's command were the 3d,
4th, 13th, 35th and 46th Miss, infantry regiments, 3d battalion
State troops, Johnston's cavalry company, Ward's light artillery,
and the batteries of Capts. Robert Bowman, J. L. Wofford, N. J.
Drew, and Lieut. Frank Johnston. Lee set about fortifying the
bluff line with hasty rifle pits. It was not necessary to fortify it
all, for near Vicksburg the approach from the flats in front was
made practically impossible by the felling of trees, and the im
passable swamps and lakes of the old river bed in front of the bluff
left only two dry crossings, one at the mound, four miles from the
> city, and another at Chickasaw Bayou, six miles from the city.
On the 26th Sherman landed Steele's division beyond the bayou
and the remainder of his army on the island of low land cut off by
the lake and bayou from the Confederate position on the bluff, and
immediately moved forward, sending two divisions toward the
race-track crossing near the city and the mound crossing, and two
on each side of the bayou, on the' Yazoo side of which there was
a levee.The first fighting was down in the flat, on the west side of the
bayou, on the 26th, Col. W. T. Wither's command against the ad
vance of Morgan's division. Withers had the 17th Louisiana, two
companies of the 46th Mississippi, and a section of Wofford's bat
tery. Wofford fired the first gun. Next day Withers was forced
to fall back, and he was put in command at the levee, where he
checked the advance of Steele, Lee reporting "the Forty-sixth Mis
sissippi and two Napoleon guns under Lieutenant Johnston doing
admirable work." Steel found an advance in that direction im
possible, and was brought back to support Morgan. Sherman had
determined to try an assault at the bayou crossing. There had
been fighting there on the 27th and 28th, one Louisiana regiment,-
intrenched, sufficing with batteries to hold the narrow path. Lee
was forced, by a concentration of artillery, to withdraw this out
post, early on the 29th, leaving Sherman to move what troops he
would through the abatis, the mucky shallow at the head of the
bayou and the tangled marsh, to the dry plateau on which the
Confederate line was waiting.
The assault was to occur on the 29th, by two Federal brigades.
Sherman ordered it over the protest of Morgan, deciding to risk
the loss of five thousand men for the chance of gaining the bluff.
An attempt to pontoon the lake miscarried under the Confederate
artillery fire, and the two assaulting columns, about six thousand
strong, advanced through the passes. "The troops moved forward

880 MISSISSIPPI
handsomely, in spite of all obstructions, came over the steep bank
of the lake and bayou and formed on the plateau beyond under
a withering fire from eight pieces of artillery and several regiments
of infantry. After partially forming they moved on a double quick
towards the Confederate position. As soon as they began to get
close to the Confederate line they were literally mowed down by
the fire of the infantry in their front and on both flanks. . . .
The assault failed, many recrossing the lake at the dry crossing,
many lying down to avoid the terrible storm of bullets." (S. D.
Lee.) Two Louisiana regiments were doublequicked on the field
to gather up the remnants. Two hundred dead were counted.
Over three hundred prisoners were taken and four stand of colors.
The assault was not renewed. The Federal report of loss was
154 killed, 757 wounded, 528 missing; in all, 1,439. Lee's loss was
36 killed, 78 wounded. The troops under Lee at this battle of
Chickasaw Bayou were ten regiments of infantry and three bat
teries. "The following troops from Mississippi were in the bat
tle: the 3d, 4th and 46th regiments, companies A, D, E and G of
Withers' artillery and Ward's artillery battalion." (S. D. Lee.)
At the mound, defended by Louisianians and Georgians, under
Gen. Barton, there were some efforts to obtain a lodgment on the
plateau, but, says Lee, only one regiment, the 6th Missouri,
crossed the lake, and it could not do much alone. At the race
track the Confederate skirmishers were not driven in. There was
a bombardment of the batteries at Snyder's bluff, but this was in
effective. Reinforcements came in for the Confederates on the
29th and 30th. Gen. C. L. Stevenson, commander of the division
from Bragg's army, arrived and took command of the forces in the
field, as he was senior to Gen. Smith.
The fire along the whole line grew weaker on the last two days
of the year. On the morning of the 31st Morgan requested a
truce of four hours to bury the death, which was granted. Sher
man arranged for a night assault at Snyder's mill, but weather
conditions made this impracticable. Grant having retreated, the
Confederates were becoming strong enough at Vicksburg to attack
Sherman in his dangerous position. Reconnaissances by Lee and
Withers showed that he was about to re-embark. Lee pursued
with part of his command, and his advance line of skirmishers
fired upon the departing transports January 2. The total loss in
killed, wounded and captured along the line was, Federal, 1,929;
Confederate, 206.
Vicksburg, Siege of, May 18 to July 4, 1863. At the close of the
Vicksburg campaign of 1863 (q. v.) Lieut.-Gen. John C. Pember
ton brought into the intrenched line around Vicksburg the rem
nant of an army that had been badly defeated, with a narrow
escape from capture, but was yet heroic. There was a garrison
in Vicksburg, the artillery command of Col. Edward Higgins,
about 700 men, in charge of 31 heavy guns and 13 field pieces,
along the river front for two miles, infantry supporting the artil
lerymen and a large representation of the non-combatant part of

MISSISSIPPI 881
an army, as well as the men in hospital, who were greatly increased
as the crippled troops that had escaped from Champion's hill
poured into the city. The garrisons at Snyder's bluff and War
renton were called in, swelling the number of Confederates on all
duty, to. over 30,000. But, besides the men in the river batteries,
Pemberton was able to put only 18,500 in the intrenchments and
in close support. These intrenchments surrounded the city on
the line of a ridge, about eight miles in length, and consisted of a
system of detached works, redans, lunettes and redoubts, on the
prominent and commanding points, connected by intrenched lines
and rifle pits. On this line were mounted 102 cannon.
Stevenson's division was stationed on the south end of the line,
partly on the river front, and curving around along the ridge as
far north as the railroad, about five miles, Lee's brigade extending
to the railroad cut. From the railroad north to the Graveyard
road, about two miles, lay Forney's division, lately commanded
by Maury. Smith's division, and the State troops with him, com
pleted the curve back to the river, on the north of the town.
•Bowen's division and Waul's Texas legion, in all about 3,000 men,
were held in reserve to throw to any part of the line as needed.
(For the Mississippi troops, see Vicksburg, Campaign of 1863.)
The first move of General Grant, as he brought his troops
across the Big Black river, was to open up a new base of supplies.
Sherman was sent to occupy Snyder's bluff for this purpose, a po
sition that he had vainly sought in the previous December. Com
munication was not fully opened with the supply ships in waiting
until the 21st, but Grant did not wait for this, hoping to be able to
deliver an assault on the Confederate line before there could be a
recovery from the recent disasters. In this he was disappointed,
though his attempt was as prompt and determined as could be ex
pected, his troops also being jaded by long marches, severe fight
ing, and insufficient food.
Pemberton's men, had scarcely been assigned position and
settled, when the advance of Grant's army appeared on the Grave
yard, Jackson and Baldwin's Ferry roads, and began skirmishing
with the Confederate pickets. This was May 18, just one year to
the day since the Federal fleet first appeared before Vicksburg
and demanded its surrender. On this day Pemberton received a
despatch from Gen. Johnston, "to the effect that as he had evacu^
ated Snyder's bluff, Vicksburg, if besieged, was untenable and
must finally be surrendered, and he should evacuate the city,
march to the northeast and save the army." (S. D. Lee.) Pem
berton called a council of war, which decided it was too late to
attempt such a movement. It had been forestalled by Grant's
prompt occupation of the only exit to the northward. Pemberton
settled down to hold the line as long as possible, hoping that a
Confederate army would be sent sufficient to relieve the siege.
This hope was, however, in vain. Grant, having established bases
of supply at Grand Gulf and Snyder's bluff, with the river full of
transports and gunboats, 150,000 troops in his department to draw
56-11

882 MISSISSIPPI
from, and the Big Black forming a strong defensible line in his
rear, could defy the Confederacy to loosen his grip on Vicksburg.
As it turned out, his position was so strong that he did not need
half the men available, and troops could be spared from the West
to save the panic-stricken East when Lee marched to the Susque
hanna. He rapidly put his troops as close as -possible along the in
trenched line. The Missourians inside and Missourians outside
were near enough to exchange news of home before they met in
deadly fight. (J. H. Jones, M. H. S. Publ. VII.) On the 19th an
assault was made at the Graveyard road, at the junction of Smith
and Forney. The effort was determined, at the cost of nearly a
thousand men killed and wounded, and the loss of two flags. But
the line was impregnable. Still hoping for success from a general
assault, for McPherson and McClernand had not been vigorous in
this one, Grant prepared for another and more concerted effort
on the 22d. Lauman's division was brought up from Grand Gulf,
swelling the apparent strength of Grant's command to about 50,-
000. But he also had suffered heavy losses since leaving Bruins
burg, and the killed, wounded and sick must have aggregated a
large percentage of his numbers.
Admiral Porter's mortars ' bombarded the city on the 20th, and
there was an almost continuous fire from the gunboats in the river,
and from the batteries Grant had planted upon the nearby hills.
On the morning of the 22d the cannonading for over two hours
along the entire front of Grant's line was incessant and fierce, the
thunder of the guns being accompanied by the steady cracking of
the sharpshooters' rifles. From army and navy together it was
the greatest bombardment of the great war. The Confederates
knew from this that an assault was coming, and they waited in
silence, making no reply of artillery or infantry, but preparing for
a desperate defense, conscious that some weak spot might be found
through which they could be overwhelmed, but all resolved that it
should not be where they stood. About half past ten in the morn
ing every gun stopped on Grant's line, though the fire from the
fleet increased in intensity.
The almost appalling silence that came so suddenly along the
Federal line Was followed by the appearance of dense masses of
men in blue, in numerous columns of attack, rushing with loud hur
rahs toward every advanced position of the Confederate line. They
had not far to run, as their lines had been advanced under cover.
to distances varying from 100 to 500 yards. The advance, 30,000
along the whole line, was a grand and thrilling spectacle, but the
bravery of the men in blue was equalled by the grim tenacity of
the men in gray. The attacking column was met by a fierce fire
of artillery and musketry that no troops in the world could stand
before. Falling back stubbornly to shelter, there began again the
roar of the batteries. The assault was not evenly distributed.
On the south end of the line it was feeble. The hard fighting was
along the three and a half miles, beginning with Lee's brigade and

MISSISSIPPI 883
northward. Along this line, as the Federals approached, 10,000
Confederates rose and stood in the trenches, pouring volley after
volley into the line of assailants. Thirty-three field guns and how
itzers hurled grape and canister. "But even the terrible slaughter
could not stop all the valiant Federals. Some of them made lodgment
in the ditches of the redans, at some points on the Graveyard road,
Jackson and Baldwin Ferry roads, and also in the ditch of the fort,
on the railroad cut. They even at this latter fort entered through
the breach made by the Federal artillery before the assault, cap-
turd a few prisoners and killed or drove out the small garrison."
(S. D. Lee.) But only one of the twenty Federals got out alive.
They were soon forced to surrender by a rescue party of Alabam-
ians and Texans led by Col. Pettus, of Alabama. Before this was
done two Union flags waved from the fort for three or four hours.
When Pettus regained possession a terrific artillery fire was opened
upon the fort, but without serious damage. That ceasing, the
Confederates pitched hand grenades over the parapet and compelled
the Federals holding the ditch to surrender.
» General Badeau says: "This assault was in some respects un
paralleled in the wars of modern times. No attack on fortifications
of such strength had- been undertaken by great European cap
tains, unless the assaulting party outnumbered the defenders by at
at least three to one." In this case, according to the statement
of each general, Grant had 30,000 in all his columns, on the
whole line, and Pemberton 18,500. But the number engaged
in the three miles of hard fighting was smaller than these
figures, arid possibly, in those three miles, there was the proportion
of three to one. Confederates and Federals alike demonstrated
the magnificent endurance of American soldiers, and admired each
other's heroism. The gallant recapture of the railroad fort, memor
able in Confederate traditions, was counterbalanced, writes Gen.
S. D. Lee, by the equally heroic assault, and "the- magnificent con
duct of the officers and men of the 22d Iowa, not surpassed by any
incident of the war on either side." Grant was humiliated by the
loss of 3,199 men killed, wounded and missing. At the close of the
22d his casualties had been 4,380 before the Vicksburg lines. Mc
Clernand, being blamed for much of this, as well as the failure to
capture Pemberton's army at Baker's Creek, was relieved of com
mand. After the assault the Federal army settled down to a regular
siege, "pushing up their troops by means of running saps, opening
ditches and establishing new lines of rifle pits and road coverings
for protection of the approaches; and when near .the Confederate
lines on June 25th they began to explode their mines and blow up
the forts." Constantly, everything was done to wear out the Con-
federate garrison. The smallest object that came in sight on the
intrenchments was shot at. The artillery fire was incessant, grad
ually dismounting and making useless the Confederate guns which
were visible. On June 30 the Union line of batteries was 12 miles
long. Two hundred and twenty guns had been mounted, besides

884 MISSISSIPPI
13 guns of the heaviest caliber from the navy, and the Union force
facing Vicksburg, the Big Back, and Yazoo was increased to 75,-
000 men. The main part of Grant's army was stationed to meet
the expected army of relief. At the same time Admiral Porter was
frequently giving battle to the river batteries, and constantly throw
ing shells within the Confederate lines. His estimate of the num
ber of shells thrown upon the city and its defenses during the siege
was 16,000, or an average of one every four minutes for 47 days.
On the Mississippi river and its tributaries the LTnited States navy
had 533 vessels, and had chartered 1,750 more, mainly tributary
to the campaign against Vicksburg, transporting soldiers, supplies
and munitions of war. It was the greatest concentration of military
and naval strength against one besieged city that had been recorded
in history.
The Confederates meanwhile held their lines, digging more com
fortable places for the men in the trenches, providing head logs
and sand bags for protction from sharpshooters and blanket shades
from the sun. Pemberton was rather too careful of his ammuni
tion, it appears, and there was not so much reply of artillery and
musketry as might have been effective. There was a scarcity of
caps for the rifles, but Lamar, Fontaine, Walker, Sanders and other
couriers, brought in several million caps by floating down the
river on logs through the Federal fleet. Messages also were ex
changed between Johnston and Pemberton.
In the trenches the men had to work every night repairing the
damages made by artillery during the day. The same men were on
duty from day to day. At night there were three reliefs for senti
nel duty, and an hour before day the whole force was aroused and
ready to repel assault. The supply of water was limited, even for
drinking. There was little for washing, and the vermin swarming
from the soil became almost unendurable. After the tenth day of the
siege, the men were put on half rations, and this was more reduced
in the last few weeks. Some soldiers sent a letter to Pemberton,
June 28, saying that if they could not be fed, surrender was better
than desertion or mutiny. "Our rations have been cut down to one
biscuit and a small bit of bacon per day." Pea bread, horse and
mule meat were tried, but did not meet with favor. Not until the
last were rations of mule meat actually issued. Women and chil
dren had remained in the city, some having taken refuge there from
Jackson and other points during the preliminary campaign. They
learned to walk the streets when shells were falling, and few were
hurt. When houses became untenable they took refuge in caves.
Their food was even more meagre than that of the soldiers.
June 25 occurred the first mine explosion, under the salient of
the redan of the 3rd Louisiana on the Jackson road. A ton of pow
der blew up a crater, and buried alive six men of the 43d Missis
sippi, who were countermining. A tremendous fire was -opened
along the Federal line, and an assaulting column entered the crater,
but was stopped there by a deadly fire from the interior Confed
erate lines. Mining was resumed, and there was another explosion

MISSISSIPPI 885
July 1, completely destroying the redan. Many men were killed
in these operations, which made it apparent that the line must soon
be forced.
July 1 Pemberton addressed a letter to each of his division com
manders, regarding the necessity of evacuation soon if some relief
were not given. Most of the generals replied that their men were
too worn and weak to fight their way out, and Smith and Bowen
recommended capitulation at once, in the hope of better terms.
Lee and Baldwin, two of the brigade commanders, were in favor
of holding out longer. Pemberton on July 3 sent Bowen with a
note to Grant proposing an armnstice and arrangement of terms of
capitulation. Grant replied that his only terms were unconditional
surrender, also saying, "Men who have shown so much endurance
and courage as those in Vicksburg will always challenge the respect
of an adversary, and I can assure you will be treated with all the
respect due to prisoners of war." There was a conference on the
lines at 3 p. m, between Pemberton, accompanied by Bowen and
Capt. L. M. Montgomery, and Grant and seven officers. Bowen
and Montgomery, McPherson and Smith, acted as commissioners
and recommended that the Confederates be allowed to evacuate
with the honors of war, the Federals to take possession of the forti
fications, siege guns and public property. Grant promptly rejected
this, and at 10 o'clock that night sent Pemberton his written terms,
that one Federal division would march in in the morning of July
4th, and as soon as all the garrison were paroled, they could march
out, the officers taking side arms, but the men leaving their guns.
It was finally agreed that the Confederates might march out at
10 in the morning and stack arms, and return to be paroled, before
the Federals entered the lines. The parole lists indicated 29.491
men in the Vicksburg lines, of whom 23,233 were privates. Of
these 3,084 were paroled in hospital. The men were marched out
after being provisioned, and their slow and painful progress indi
cated the extremity which had compelled surrender. They were
taken to Demopolis and put in camp as paroled prisoners under
charged of their own provost marshals, and there remained until
exchanged, when many of them went on active duty again in the
Atlanta campaign.
Two brigadier-generals lost their lives during the siege — Isham
W. Garrott, killed June 17, and Martin E. Green, killed June 27.
Brig.-Gen. Edward T. Tracy had been killed at the opening of the
campaign, at Port Gibson, May 1, and Lloyd Tilghman at Baker's
Creek, May 16.
Victoria. An abandoned town of Ppntotoc county, which flour
ished during the 30's. It was situated a short distance to the north
west of the present town of Pontotoc. Little is now left to mark
the site of the old place. When the present town of Ponotoc was
founded in 1834 by Mr. McMackin, the celebrated hotel keeper, it
proved to be much more eligibly located than Victoria, and the
latter town was soon vacated.
It is said to have had a population of about 300 at the time of

886 MISSISSIPPI
its greatest prosperity. The following men were among its citi
zens : "Squire" Watt, Barnard Franklin, John W. Thompson,
Aaron Roote, Benjamin D. Anderson, and James Hodges.
Victoria, a post-hamlet and station of Marshall county, on the
Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R, 13 miles northwest of
Holly Springs, the county seat, and nearest banking town. Popu
lation in 1900, 30. It has a church and a steam gin.
Villa Gayoso. When Ellicott and Pope came to Natchez in 1797
Governor Gayoso asked them to reside at Villa Gayoso. The same
request was made to Captain Guion, while he was yet at Chickasaw
Bluffs, to which he replied that he would select his own headquar
ters when he arrived.
In September, 1798, when Governor Sargent made the first divi
sion of the Territory, north and south of Fairchild's creek, he selec
ted the Villa Gayoso as the seat of government of the upper dis
trict, afterward named Pickering county. This property, 200 acres,
the seat of a military post, was understood to be Spanish property,
but claim was laid to it by Thomas Green. There was a church,
commandant's and priest's house, kitchen, etc, all rough frame
buildings. After some delay, Gen. Wilkinson permitted the use
of the church as a court house, in 1799. But the situation was
deemed unhealthy, and the inhabitants desired another location,.
the matter being left by the governor to Secretary Steele for inves
tigation. The station seems to have been a midway point between
Natchez and Walnut Hills.
According to testimony before the subsequent United States land
commissioners, Governor Gayoso went up to Walnut Hills early
in 1791 to settle a garrison there, and found a cabin at Watkins
creek in a deserted field, which it was understood by the governor
and Col. John Girault was claimed by Garrett Rapalji, but was the
remains of a settlement in 1775 by one Watkins. The governor
took possession in the name of the king and wrote upon one of the
joists, "Casa Gayoso."
Villanova, a postoffice of Warren county, 15 miles northeast of
Vicksburg. Vimville, a post-hamlet of Lauderdale county, 5 miles east of
Meridian. Violet, a postoffice of Jefferson county.
Virgil, a post-hamlet in the extreme eastern part of Rankin coun
ty, 18 miles southeast of Brandon, the county seat. Population in
1900, 20.
Virlilia, a postoffice of Madison county, 6 miles west of Canton,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Vixen, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Lawrence county,
about 20 miles northeast of Monticello, the county seat. Prentiss
is the nearest banking town.
Volney's Visit. C. F. Volney, French scientist, author and
statesman, came to the United States in 1795 and spent three years
in this country; travelled extensively, and among other sections
visited Louisiana and the region now embraced in Mississippi.

MISSISSIPPI 887
He published his impressions in a work entitled "Tableau du Cli-
mat et du Sol des Etats-Unis d'Amerique" 2 vols, Paris, 1803 —
English translation by C. B. Brown, Phil. 1804. Of that portion of
the Lower Mississippi valley which embraces Mississippi he says:
"This region is distinguished by a flat, sandy, and sterile coast ; by
marshes which advance far into the country, and which are partic
ularly rich and fertile on the banks of the rivers, where maize and
rice flourish greatly. A stone of two or three pounds weight, is
here scarcely to be found, for thirty or forty miles from the coast.
As you recede from the coast, the surface begins to ascend, and to
become uneven and irregular; the soil becomes stony, and its fer
tility greatly declines, as is evident from the nature of the forest
trees. It abounds with the ILEX, pine, fir, black and white oak,
magnolia, red and white cedar, cypress, and innumerable shrubs,
natives of the warm climates. Bartram, an American traveller and
botanist, draws a very glowing picture of this country, of which he
has made a terrestrial paradise: but without regarding his exag
gerated and poetical descriptions, it will be sufficient, to compare
it generally with Portugal and the coast of Barbary, in which com
parison it has certainly much the advantage."
Vosburg, a village in the southeastern part of Jasper county, on
the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 10 miles southwest of
Paulding, the county seat, and about 20 miles southwest of Enter
prise. Heidelberg is its nearest banking town. It has a money order
postoffice and an express office, four stores, one church, a school, a
cotton gin, a good hotel and is noted for its mineral springs, which
furnish large shipments of water to all parts of the United States.
At the Stafford springs is erected a large and commodious hotel,
equipped with modern conveniencies, for the accommodation of
those desiring the use of the spring water. The Vosburg Lithia
spring is another valuable spring much patronized.
Vose, Henry, who died near Woodville, April 17, 1837, during
the smallpox epidemic, was a native of Massachusetts and a grad
uate of the military academy at West Point, who made his home in
Mississippi, and was prominent as a journalist and statistician.
He was a brilliant mathematician, and wrote on geographical and
historical subjects; was an ardent investigator and theorizer, and
quite negligent of financial profit. He was the author of "Topog
raphy of the State of Mississippi," Natchez, 1835.
Vousdan, William, one of the settlers of Natchez district under
the British dominion, was granted 200 acres on Bayou Pierre in
September, 1777, and 500 on the same stream in 1779. Under
Spanish government he received 550 arpents on Buffalo creek in
1788, 1,000 on Cole's in 1789, and 10 in Natchez, 1795. Another
claim for 2,000 on Bayou Sara, was under suspicion of being ante
dated after the date of the treaty of 1795. He was the public sur
veyor of the- district under the Spanish government for several
years, being succeeded by William Dunbar. In January, 1802, he
declined appointment by Governor Claiborne as treasurer-general
of the Territory, to succeed Bernard Lintot. Governor Claiborne

888 MISSISSIPPI
advised Samuel Brooks, chairman of the Adams county court,
September 9, 1802, that a successor should be appointed to Mr.
Vousdan, lately deceased, for making the tax list in that quarter.
Vowell, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of "Winston
county, about 18 miles from Louisville, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 35.
Voy, a hamlet of Itawamba county, 10 miles northeast of Fulton,
the county seat. It has rural free delivery from Eastman.
Vrue, a postoffice of Jasper county, 8 miles southwest of Paul
ding, the county seat.
Waco, a hamlet in the south-central part of Smith county, 8
miles south of Raleigh, the county seat. The postoffice at this
place was discontinued in 1905, and mail now goes to Mize, 3 miles
southwest, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. Taylorsville is the
nearest banking town. The town was named for a tribe of In
dians, the name meaning, "heron." Population in 1900, 51.
Waddel, John N, was born April 2, 1812 at Willington, Abbe
ville district, S. C. ; moved with his parents to Athens, Ga, 1818;
graduated at the University of Georgia, 1829 ; began teaching school
in his native town, March 1, 1830; became a farmer; removed to
Greene County, Ala, 1837; studied for the ministry and removed
to Jasper County, Miss, 1840; established Montrose academy;
was appointed a trustee of the University of Mississippi at its orga
nization, and was elected to the chair of ancient languages at the
LaGrange (Tenn.) college, October, 1858, where he remained until
the Federals took possession of the town in 1862. He escaped
through their lines ; was appointed agent of the Confederate Bible
Society for the West ; was appointed commissioner of missions in
the Mississippi army, 1863 ; passed through many perils ; returned
to Oxford, Miss, after the war and was elected chancellor of the
university. In this position he did much to sustain the institution
through the years of depression that followed the war. He resigned
in 1874 to accept the position of secretary of education to which he
had been chosen by the general assembly of his church. He was
made chancellor of the Presbyterian University at Clarksville,
Tenn, 1879.
Wade, a post-hamlet of Jackson county, 18 miles north of Pasca
goula, the county seat. Population in 1900, 32.
Wadesboro, a postoffice of Jasper county.
Wahalak, a post-village of Kemper county, on the Mobile & Ohio
Railroad, 15 miles south of Macon, and 7 miles south of Shuqualak.
Scooba is the nearest banking town. Valuable forests of ash and
white oak are in the vicinity. It has a church and a school. Pop
ulation in 1900, 115.
Wahalak, (Old.) An extinct town in Kemper county, which
flourished before the construction of the Mobile & Ohio R. R.
a few miles to the west. It was situated on Wahalak creek, a trib
utary of the Noxubee river, about 3 miles south of east of the pres
ent station of Wahalak. Victor Welsh laid off the town in 1837,
and Loomis Brothers were its first merchants. It was an educa-

MISSISSIPPI 889
tional center of note before the war, with a flourishing school for
boys, and another for girls. It had a number of business houses,
including a prosperous bank, and is an exception to most of the
early settlements in the State in that it never had a grog shop.
Wailes, Benjamin L. C, was a native of Georgia and married a
daughter of Gen. Leonard Covington. He was register of the
land office at Washington, Miss, and a representative of Adams
county, 1825-26. In January, 1852, he was appointed "State geolo
gist," a position which was, actually, that of assistant professor of
geology in the State university. At the time he was a member
of the faculty of Washington college, and had made a careful
study and a large collection of the rocks and fossils of southwest
Mississippi. In his new office he travelled in the southern and
eastern part of the State, mainly, with his own team and outfit,
making collections for the university and the State geological so
ciety. He presented his report to the legislature iri 1854, and it
was ordered printed. This volume, entitled "Report on the Agri
culture and Geology of Mississippi, embracing a Sketch of the So
cial and Natural History of the State," was published at Philadel
phia, where Wailes spent most of the year 1854, overlooking the
engraving and printing. The agricultural and geological matter
is prefaced by a sketch of State history, the facts for which were
derived from the works then published of Martin, Stoddard and
Gayarre, Ellicott's Journal, as well as William Dunbar's manu
script and the Spanish archives. He was aided in his geological
matter by Profs. Agassiz, Baird, Conrad and Leidy. The illustra
tions are lithographs from his own drawings. Dr. John Millington
had been chief professor of geology at the university, and at his
resignation in 1853 Wailes expected to be advanced to the full
honors of the place in which he had done the practical work, but
the honor was given to Lewis Harper, and Wailes immediately
resigned. J. F. H. Claiborne said of him: "In literature and
science he was the foremost man in the State, and would have
achieved the greatest eminence had his life been spared."
Waits, a post-hamlet and station in the eastern part of Marshall
county, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R, 6
miles southeast of Holly Springs. Population in 1900, 24.
Wakefield, a post-hamlet of Tate county, about 20 miles north
east of Senatobia, the county seat. It has two stores, a church,
a school, a cotton gin and a saw mill. Population in 1900, 45.
Waldo, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 10 miles west of Phila
delphia, the county seat. It has a money order post office. Popula
tion in 1900, 55.
Walker, Duncan S, a native of Pennsylvania, was in his day one
of the most eminent lawyers of Mississippi. He was well-educated
before coming to Natchez. When a youth in college, he enlisted
in the militia for the defense of Baltimore in the war of 1812-15.
He had been for some years a resident of Natchez, and a partner of
Judge Turner, when, upon the elevation of the latter to the bench,
he invited his brilliant younger brother, Robert J. Walker, to join

890 MISSISSIPPI
him in Mississippi. Duncan S. Walker represented Adams county
in the legislature; was for several years an officer, and for a time
a commander, of the Natchez Fencibles, and served several years
as judge of the Criminal court.
In the summer of 1834, for the sake of his health, he visited
Texas, resolved to settle there, and went on to Mexico City; but,
on starting back to warn the Texans of the proceedings against
Moses Austin, was taken and thrown in prison, where, during a
confinement of several months, his health was fatally impaired.
In the hope of recovery, after returning to Mississippi, he made a
voyage to Santiago, Cuba, but died off that port, December 31,
1835, in his 42d year.
Walker, Peter. Peter Walker had charge of Concord after Gayoso
departed. He reserved an apartment when Governor Sargent lived
there, and Gayoso wrote him in 1799 to make arrangements for
General Wilkinson to have the place for a residence for his wife.
Wilkinson had asked Daniel Clark to request Gayoso to give him
the plantation in payment of a debt of the Spanish government to
him, on his salary or pension. He was the first clerk of the Adams
county court, and resigned in 1802.
Walker, Robert John, was born at Northumberland, Pa, July
23, 1801; graduated from the university of Pennsylvania in 1819;
studied both law and medicine, and began the practice of law at
Pittsburg in 1821. He was the grandson of William Walker, who
came from England about 1710. His father, Jonathan Hoge
Walker, a soldier of the Revolution, retired from the office of
judge of the United States district court in Pennsylvania to seek
better health at Natchez, where he died in 1824. The latter was
accompanied by his sister, aunt of Robert J, who married Stephen
Minor, of Louisiana. Duncan S. Walker, (q. v.) an elder brother
of Robert J, also sought the promising field of law practice at
Natchez, and became the partner of Edward Turner. When Tur
ner was elevated to the supreme bench Duncan asked his brother
to join him as partner. Robert J, meanwhile, had married Mary
Blechenden Bache, a great-grand-daughter of Benjamin Franklin,
grand-daughter of A. J. Dallas, and daughter of the famous Pro
fessor Bache. He had gained some prominence at the Pittsburg
bar, and demonstrated a remarkable grasp of common and statu
tory law. As chairman of the State Democratic committee at
twenty-two years of age, and a brilliant public speaker on politics,
he claimed the distinction of bringing forward Andrew Jackson as
a candidate for the presidency in 1824. With this prestige he
joined his brother at Natchez in 1826. After four or five years'
residence he was one of the most prominent lawyers of that famous
town, and the death of Griffith, Reed and Adams in 1831-33, gave
him a more exclusive field. He collected and annotated the first
volume of reports of decisions of the Mississippi supreme court,
1818 to 1832. Pennsylvania had had its "nullification" and "rebel
lion" in the days of George Washington, and this son of Pennsyl
vania, in the tifne of the nullification excitement of 1832, was a

MISSISSIPPI 891
firm supporter of Jackson, and sent out an eloquent address in op
position to Calhoun. In 1835 he obtained the opportunity to at
tend one of the banquets to Senator Poindexter, at Raymond, and
immediately after Poindexter's attack upon Jackson, delivered a
speech of great power in defense of the president and in opposition
to the theories that led to disunion. Henry S. Foote proposed then
and there that he should be a candidate for the senate in opposition
to Poindexter, the strongest man of the State. He and Foote then
began a canvass of the State. The campaign was protracted from
various causes for nearly two years, and resulted in the election of
Walker to the United States senate.
J. F. H. Claiborne wrote of the senatorial campaign : "With
some reluctance the Democracy accepted Mr. Walker. It was
not easy for those who had seen their printing -offices assaulted,
and their public meetings dispersed by violence and bloodshed, to
accept as their leader in the impending struggle, one who had gone
to the enemy on the field of battle, and had witnessed these out
rages in the community in which he resided, without any overt
sign of disapprobation." Claiborne wrote with personal feeling,
the anti-bank people having used him roughly. He adds that
Walker bought a plantation on Pearl river, above Jackson, and
made his home there, to avoid the prejudice against a Natchez
candidate. By a strange reversal, while his first campaign for the senate was
against the veteran Poindexter, his second was against Seargent
S. Prentiss, who began his career as a lawyer in Walker's office.
Prentiss was the greatest orator of his time, but he was the Whig
candidate and favored the payment of the Union bank bonds, and
again Walker triumphed.
Walker, made his maiden speech in the senate in March, 1836,
on the reception of memorials for the abolition of slavery in the
district of Columbia. He opposed the reception as an abuse of the
right of petition ,and denounced the abolitionists as incendiaries,
seeking to excite insurrections. .He said: "Our peculiar institu
tions will yield only at the point of the bayonet ; and in a struggle
for their defense we would be found to be invincible. This is not
the language of a Nullifier or Secessionist. No, it is the opinion
of one who ever has opposed, and will continue to oppose those
doctrines, as fatal to the perpetuity of the American Union. It is
the language of a man whose love of this Union is as warm as the
vital blood that gushes from his heart ; who values his own destiny
here as less than a bubble bursting on the ocean's surge, compared
with the duration of this government, and life itself as utterly worth
less were this Union dismembered." He called on Daniel Webster
to restrain the abolitionists, and John C. Calhoun to "prevent the
formation of a southern sectional and geographical party, which
must prove fatal to the permanence of this confederacy." As a
Pennsylvanianand Mississippian he perhaps exerted a greater in
fluence than any other man to postpone the "inevitable conflict."
He brought forward the first Homestead bill, in 1836, unsuccess-

892 MISSISSIPPI
fully. The Pre-emption act that he originated in 1841 became a
law in 1844, giving the first settler on land the first privilege as a
purchaser. These laws have become settled principles in the law
of the land. In 1836 he made a famous speech on this subject,
defending "squatters." In this debate and others at this time he
met Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun and Henry Clay, and dem
onstrated remarkable resourcefulness in argument.
In the senate he generally, as the changing issues permitted,
deprecated sectionalism, and expressed admiration of Henry Clay.
In this attitude he was associated with Rives, of Virginia. But he
was in no wise disloyal to the South, cemented as it was, by the
peculiar industrial system. He introduced in congress a bill to
appropriate the 2 per cent, fund for the benefit of Miss, which
passed the senate in 1840, and carried a grant of land that would
build the railroad from Brandon to the Alabama line, and insure
the union of the Atlantic and the river. He had also introduced a
bill to make two States out of the present Florida, with slavery,
as a condition precedent to the admission of the great and populous
domain of Iowa, without slavery. Walker was loyal to the leader
ship of Thomas H. Benton long enough to expunge the obnoxious
censure of Jackson, and then broke with him, and led the revolt
against Benton's dictatorial methods. When Benton was trying
to get his army bill up for consideration, Walker had the unpardon
able audacity to sidetrack him with his bill for recognizing the
independence of Texas.
He was a slaveholder himself and defended slavery, but not as
a permanent condition. When nominated in 1844, for the vice-
presidency, by the Democratic party of Tennessee, he wrote his
famous Texas Letter, in which he proposed the policy that was
afterward followed, except in regard to slavery, for which he rec
ommended gradual abolition in the new State, his theory being
that such a State, with Mexico beyond it, would gradually attract
the negro population into the latter country, and free the United
States for a white population. When the city of Mexico was cap
tured he openly advocated the annexation of that country to the
United States, in the interests of humanity. He was an enthusi
astic believer in the beneficence of American institutions. Senator
Walker was credited with great influence over President Tyler,
the accidental successor of General Harrison, and to the Natchez
lawyer was ascribed the veto -of the bill rechartering the national
bank, which caused the rupture between Tyler and the party that
elected him. Because of his help in the election of Polk over
Henry Clay, Walker was promised the office of attorney-general ;
but he preferred that of secretary of the treasury, and obtained it.
It was in this cabinet position that he achieved his greatest fame.
¦ The Walker tariff of 1846 is still the theme of orators when tariff
is a campaign issue. His treasury reports found great favor in
England and were reprinted there by the government. The ware
housing system in the customs service, was originated in his ad
ministration of the finances. When Pierce was elected president

MISSISSIPPI 893
he tendered Mr. Walker the mission to China with the title of
Commissioner, and though private reasons prevented his going to
the east, he prepared a statement of the policy of the United States
in the Orient that attracted favorable attention. In 1857, when the
war was on for the extension or restriction of slavery in the West,
President Buchanan, having refused to appoint him secretary of
state, persuaded him to become governor of Kansas. Harper's
Weekly commented: "Mr. Walker may be regarded as the foster-
father of Texas ; may he be equally fortunate with Kansas. He is
in the prime of life; just fifty-six, he can afford to disdain the
promptings of mere ephemeral ambition; his fortune, we presume
is ample; his fame is catholic. . . . Let us suppose he will put
an end to the sempi-eternal squabbles of the Free-State men and
the Pro-Slavery men, armed invaders and border ruffians, Sharps
rifles from the east and bowie-knives from the west, and let us
contemplate him — this great work achieved . . . what reward
would be too high for such a man?" But he was put into a bedlam,
expected to bring order out of chaos, and the administration refused
to support his policy. All he could do was to resign. But he at no
time lost that dignity and intrepidity that characterized him.
He was consistent with his previous record, when he opposed
secession in 1861 ; but he was not then a resident of Mississippi.
In 1863 he was editing the Continental Monthly at New York, as
an organ of his political and financial views, and maintaining a
high place among the lawyers of the nation, when President Lin
coln sent him to Europe as financial agent. He would accept no
salary, only his expenses, and did the work assigned him with
great success.
His closing years were passed at Washington, practicing law be
fore the United States supreme court. He died at that city, No
vember 11, 1869. He was in the 30's conceded to be the first law
yer of the State. His education in all departments was as com
plete as the schools of that day afforded. He was a facile writer
of poetry, and possessed a marvelous memory. The wonderful
fact was known to many that he could write or dictate a long speech
and then repeat it verbatim without the aid of the notes. As a
speaker he was not flowery, and he did not, often resort to appeals
to passion or imagination. He was "a man of strong and generous
instincts, of great simplicity and kindness of heart, of a most char
itable and confiding temper." He was very quick to defend his
dignity and did not hesitate to attack the most formidable adversa
ries. In the course of the litigation regarding the Almedon quick
silver mine, he challenged the famous Jere S. Black, attorney-gen
eral under Buchanan. His person was well-proportioned, but de
cidedly diminutive; "his features were as delicate and gracious as
those of a woman." He had eight children, the eldest of whom
was Gen. Duncan S. Walker, of New York. Financially he was a
speculator, made a fortune by land ventures in addition to his prac
tice, in Mississippi, and lost it in the collapse that began in 1837.
He was chief officer of a company to build a transcontinental rail-

894 MISSISSIPPI
road in the early 50's, involving such land transactions as were
afterward common. In later life he acquired and lost another
fortune. Walkers Bridge, a small hamlet in the south-central part of Pike
county, on the Bogue Chitto, 12 miles east of Magnolia, the county
seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. The population in
1900 was 52.
Walkiah, a former postoffice in the western part of Hancock
county.- Mail now goes to Picayune.
Wall, a postoffice of Tishomingo county.
Wallace, a postoffice of Panola county, 13 miles east of Bates
ville, the seat of justice for the southern district of Panola county,
and the nearest railroad and banking town.
Wallerville, a village of Union county, on the Kansas City, Mem
phis & Birmingham R. R, 5 miles southeast of New Albany, the
county seat, and nearest banking town. It has a church, several
stores and a money order postoffice and express office. Population
in 1900, 184.
Wallhill, an incorporated post-town in the western part of
Marshall county, 17 miles west of Holly Springs, the nearest rail
road and banking town. The place was named for William Wall.
It has a church and a mill. Population in 1900, 65.
Walnut, a post-hamlet and station of Tippah county, on the Mo
bile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R, 16 miles north of Ripley, the
county seat, and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 72 ;
in 1906 the population was estimated at 150. It is located in the
midst of a fine farming section, and has 3 churches, several stores,
a cotton gin, a saw mill, and a heading factory. The town supports
a very good school.
Walnutgrove, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern
part of Leake county, 17 miles north of Forest, the nearest railroad
station and banking town, on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R. It
is located in a good farming section, and has a large trade from the
surrounding country. It has two churches, an excellent school,
known as the Mississippi Central Normal School, a steam mill,
several mercantile establishments, and a newspaper, — the Dawn of
Light, — a Democratic weekly, established in 1885, and now owned
and edited by G. S. Ellis. Population in 1900, 207.
Walter, Harvey W, was born in Fairfield county, O, May 21,
1819., His parents were Virginians, and he removed with them
to Michigan at an early age. He was thrown on his own resources
at the age of fourteen, his father's wealth being swept away. He
went to work ; taught school and paid for a course in college, and
came to Mississippi about 1838. He taught a school at Salem,
Tippah County, and read law. In 1840 he was admitted to the
practice of law; located at Holly Springs, and soon became pre
eminent at a bar which had few equals in the South. He was
public spirited and identified with every enterprise for the advance
ment of his community and State. The Mississippi Central rail
road was projected and completed mainly through his efforts. He

MISSISSIPPI 895
took great interest in education, and was the patron of every moral
and religious movement. He was made grand master of the State
lodge of Masons in 1844. He was a candidate for governor against
John J. Pettus in 1859, opposed secession, was a member of the
convention of 1861 ; entered the Confederate service ; became a lieu
tenant of infantry, but was transferred to the staff of Gen. Bragg,
and served as judge advocate till the close of the war. He then
resumed the practice of law at Holly Springs. When the yellow
fever broke out in 1878 he threw open his doors to the refugees
from Grenada. He sent his wife and daughters away, but he and
his three sons met their death while heroically ministering to the
sick and the dying.
Walters, a postoffice of Smith county, 15 miles northwest of
Raleigh, the county seat. Forest is the nearest banking town.
Walthall, the capital of Webster county, is an incorporated
post-town, .30 miles northeast of Winona, and 6 miles north of
Eupora, the nearest railroad, telegraph and express station, on
the Southern Ry. It was named in honor of Gen. Edward C.
Walthall, the distinguished Confederate leader. The original
county seat for Webster county was located at the old town of
Greensboro, a few miles to the southwest of Walthall, and for
many years the county seat of Choctaw county. The courthouse
at Greensboro was burned in 1871, and the town rapidly fell into
decay. In 1876, the site of the present town of Walthall was
chosen for the county seat, and the county records were moved
there on May 11 of that year, and a prosperous little town soon
grew up. Unfortunately, when the Georgia Pacific, now the South
ern Railroad, came through this section in 1889, Walthall was
left about five miles to the north, and the town has not grown
very rapidly in consequence. It is located in a good farming
region. A Democratic weekly newspaper is published here, the
Warden, established in 1881, and now owned -and edited by Troy
Langston. Population in 1900, 170. The Walthall Normal School,
a co-educational and non-sectarian institution, was established
here in 1887; E. Morgan Shaw is the Principal.
Walthall, Edward Gary, was born at Richmond, Va, April 4,
1831, and when ten years of age accompanied his father, Barrett
White Walthall, to Holly Springs, which became the new home of
the family. Here he received his literary education, mainly in the
noted classical school, St. Thomas Hall. He read law with his
brother-in-law, George R. Freeman, of Pontotoc, for one year, and
continued the study while deputy clerk of the court at Holly
Springs, until admitted to the bar in 1852, when he removed to
Coffeeville, and formed a law partnership, with Judge Cheves.
Four years later he was elected district attorney, an office he re
tained until the war. His first oration was delivered, within this
period, at a reunion of the St. Thomas debating society at Holly
Springs. He was married in 1856 to Sophie Bridgies, who died in
the same year, and in 1859 to Mary Lecky Jones, of Mecklenburg
county, Va. Among the volunteer companies organized in 1860-61

896 MISSISSIPPI
was the Yalobusha Rifles, of which F. M. Aldridge was elected
captain and Walthall first lieutenant. They rendezvoused at Union
City, and were assigned to the 15th infantry, Col. W. S. Statham.
June 15, about ten days after the organization of the regiment,
Lieut.-Col. J.W. Hemphill resigned, and Lieut. Walthall was elected
to the vacancy. The first service of the regiment was at Cumber
land Gap, whence they advanced into Kentucky under Gen. Z-ol-
licoffer, in the winter of 1861-62. There was a disastrous encounter
with George H. Thomas at Fishing Creek, and a terrible experience
of rout and misery. But the steadfast heroism of Walthall and his
regiment shone out all the more brilliantly with such a setting,
and he became at once famous throughout the Confederacy. At
the organization of the 29th regiment, at Corinth, Walthall was
elected colonel, April 11, 1862. In this capacity he served under
Beauregard at Corinth and in the retreat to Tupelo, and, in Chal
mers' brigade, accompanied Bragg in the movement to Chatta
nooga, and the advance into Kentucky, where Chalmers' brigade
made the famous assault at Munfordvilfe. In November Bragg rec
ommended him for promotion, and he was commissioned brigadier-
general, to date from June 30. At the organization of the Army
of Tennessee (q. v.) he was given command of a Mississippi bri
gade. Sickness kept him out of the battle of Murfreesboro, and his
next great field was Chickamauga. Here, part of the army had the
good fortune to strike Federal regiments on the line of march, and
without great difficulty achieved a victory. But it was Walthall's
duty to attack a line partly protected by log breastworks, and here,
again, he met George H. Thomas. His brigade lost 32 per cent.
in killed and wounded, but he siezed and held the main road to
Chattanooga. In mid-November, with a brigade worn down to
1,500, he was ordered to hold Lookout Mountain, the point of great
est danger on Bragg's line investing Chattanooga, the Confederates
being menaced by another Federal army brought from Vicksburg
and Virginia. Assailed by Hooker's force of 10,000 men, Walthall
fought the famous "battle above the clouds." Says a Northern
writer, "Situated as he was, Walthall and his Mississippians made
•one of the bravest defenses that occurred anywhere at any time
during the war. It was sublimely heroic under fearfully exasper
ating circumstances." The greater part of his brigade was cut off
and captured. With the remnant he made a gallant fight on Mis
sionary Ridge, next day. When confusion and disorder reigned,
Walthall, though painfully wounded, kept the field, held the enemy
In check, and when the army was safe across the Chickamauga
was lifted from his saddle unable to walk. At the opening of the
great Atlanta campaign he was given another important duty, the
bolding of Resaca, essential to the safety of Johnston's army.
Polk's army did not arrive in time to make this possible, but Wal
thall held his ground two days under the attacks of McPherson.
He was promoted to major-general, and given command of Cantey's
division of Polk's Army of Mississippi. He was an important "fac
tor in -the repulse of Sherman at Kenesaw mountain, in the assaults

'MISSISSIPPI 897
at Peachtree Creek and Ezra Church, and the defense of Atlanta.
When Hood advanced into Tennessee, Walthall had two horses
shot under him in the bloody assault at Franklin. After the first
day's fight at Nashville, where Thomas attacked Hood, he was
given command of French'stdivision as well as his own, and on the
retreat he commanded the flower of the army, eight brigades,
forming the infantry rearguard, to cooperate with Forrest's cavalry.
After great suffering he finally reached the vicinity of Tupelo with
a remnant of his command numbering less than one of its brigades
eight months before. At Bentonville, N. C, in April, 1865, com
manding a division of Georgians and Tennesseeans, he gave
his last battle orders, cheering to a last charge brave men
who knew there was no hope of victory, only a chance to
die. At this time his reputation as a soldier was secure. He
and Nathan Bedford Forrest and John B. Gordon were the most
famous volunteer leaders of the South. A distinguished Missis
sippian once said in the presence of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston that
he regarded Walthall as the greatest man he ever knew; to which
Johnston replied, "If the Confederate war had lasted two years
longer General Walthall would have risen to the command of all
the Confederate armies." (Mayes' Lamar, p. 120.) His advance
ment was rapid, but not as phenomenal as it might have been, had
not his modesty and generous consideration of others intervened.
On the death of Bishop Polk he might have gained command of the
Army of Mississippi, but he recommended his senior in age and
experience, A. P. Stewart. Returning to Coffeeville in 1865 he re
sumed his law practice, as a partner of Col. Lamar. In 1871 he re
moved to Grenada. He was a leader in the civil struggle for good
government," and took a prominent place in the councils of the
Democratic party, being chairman of the State delegation in the
national conventions of 1868, 1876, 1880 and 1884. Lamar wrote
to him in 1868 : "Do you know that but for you I could not keep
up? I would have given up long ago, and never made an effort."
When Lamar resigned from the United States senate to become
secretary of the interior, Walthall was appointed to the vacancy,
and took up Lamar's mantle as the great leader of manly reconcil
iation. At his death, Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, said of him:
"I utter a conviction, born of a consciousness of the influence which
his candor and breadth and frankness and the earnest hope, often
expressed by Senator Walthall, for renewed friendship and fra
ternity between the sections of our country, had upon my own
thought and feeling, when I say that to him and to his presence,
more than to any other, is due, in my judgment, the obliteration
here of sectional animosity, and the restoration of that amity and
confidence so essential to the prosperity and the strength of the
Republic." His service in the senate began in December, 1885,
and continued until his death, a period of more than twelve years.
Senator Spooner noted that he soon, in an unostentatious way and
without effort, became a leader of peculiar power and influence
on the Democratic side. It was the tribute unconsciously and nat-
57-11

898 MISSISSIPPI
urally paid to him by appreciative colleagues because of the nobil
ity of his character and the wisdom of his judgments. He was an
able and erudite lawyer. . . . He possessed in a wonderful
degree the elements which would have made him a great judge.
He was essentially reflective, with fine- power not only of analysis
but of generalization, and of rare judgment. . . . He was usual
ly discriminating and with profound and nice ethical sense; a safe
man to consult with the utmost confidence when any one had any
doubts upon a question of honor or propriety of conduct. . . .
He seldom participated in a debate, although able to cope with any
antagonist; but I remember that his first speech, to which the
senate listened intently, won universal commendation, although
upon a sectional subject, by the temperate spirit which pervaded
it." In closing Senator Spooner said he would not for the world
pronounce a eulogy, yet he had said nothing of any fault. "I knew
him long and well, but I did not know him long enough or well
enough to discover any fault or weakness in his character." Sena
tor Gray said, "If to be chivalrous is to be high-minded, magnan
imous, courageous, unselfish, gentle and true, preferring death to
dishonor, then Walthall was the embodiment of chivalry. He never
loWered his standard, never- compromised his convictions of duty ;
and all this rigidity of moral principle was covered with the mantle
of his affectionate and kindly personality, which drew men to him
and made him his friends. He was a gentleman in the best accep
tation of the word, and I have sometimes thought that the best
way to define the word was to point to him as the embodiment of
all that it meant." In his last illness he came to the senate, despite
the remonstrances of his friends, to pay a tribute to the memory
of his great colleague, Senator George, whom he followed in death,
two weeks later, on the evening of April 21, 1898. He was buried
at Holly Springs, beneath a multitude of flowers that came from
almost every town and village in Mississippi. His intimate friend,
Senator Berry, said that as he stood there, "the thought came to me '
that no man could have been intimately associated with General
Walthall without being a better man, that no man could have
known him well without having a higher and better opinion of
human nature, and that in the mysterious and unknown life beyond
the grave the Great Ruler of us all would do most for him there
who had done most for his fellow men here."
When Lamar was yet living, he said: "Of all the splendid men
that Mississippi has ever presented to the nation, General Walt
hall is the one beyond all competition in moral purity, strength of
mind, heroism of soul, and commanding influence upon men."
Walton, a postoffice of Lafayette county, 17 miles east, north
east of Oxford, the county seat.
Wamba, ,a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Attala county,
on Yellow creek, a tributary of Pearl river. It is 12 miles south
east of Kosciusko, the county seat, and nearest railroad and bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 34.

MISSISSIPPI 899
War of 1812-15. As the prospect grew of war between the United
States and Great Britain, there was speculation as to the attitude
of the South, particularly among the European nations which
wished to see the Union divided. Luis de Onis, minister from
Spain, wrote to the captain-general at Caracas, February 2, 1810:
"If England should display her energy, in however small a degree,
and if, on our part, some vessels should be sent to their coast, and
some troops should be drawn near to Louisiana, there is reason to
believe that we should see these provinces separate and divide into
two or three republics, and, consequently, they would remain in a
state of perfect nullity. We should soon have from the republic
of the north, which would be our friend, all the supplies which are
now drawn from the others, who would perish from poverty and
quarrels among themselves." But the sentiment of Mississippi Ter
ritory in July, 1812, was thus expressed in the letter of Governor
Holmes to Secretary Monroe : "The intelligence of a declaration
of war by the United States against Great Britain [June 18th]
was received by the citizens of this part of the country with great
satisfaction, from a thorough belief that no other course would se
cure the government from degradation. You may rest assured,
sir, that the measure will meet with all the support that the people
of the Mississippi Territory are able to give it. It is true that from
obvious causes we cannot promise much, but we will cheerfully
exert the physical force of the country as far as it may be practi
cable, and upon any occasion that shall be approved by the general
government." The governor gave the declaration of war official proclamation
at the same time, July 14, calling for a detail from each of the 13
regiments of militia (except the four drawn upon to meet the
Creek danger) to form a regiment to be held in readiness for active
service. The cavalry was instructed to be prepared en masse.
F. L. Claiborne, recently appointed brigadier-general of militia,
was entrusted with the execution of this order. To General Wil
kinson at New Orleans the governor wrote that to draw any large
force from the Territory "might hazard our domestic safety," yet
he was confident he could furnish as many men as the general
thought it prudent to require. The militiamen were almost totally
destitute of arms and ammunition, and the general was called
upon for six hundred guns and adequate ammunition. A new order
of things had just begun on the river. Wilkinson was asked to
send the guns by "the steamboat."
Gen. Claiborne reported August 18 that the various regimental
commanders had their detachments ready to march to the rendez
vous at Washington. The counties of Wilkinson, Jefferson, Clai
borne, Warren and Marion had no occasion to resort to a draft.
Amite and Franklin drafted but a few privates. Adams was com
pleted by a draft principally. All await your orders with solici
tude. ... I am confident they will march when ordered with
great promptitude, and in all situations will discharge their duty
with fidelity and zeal." Three troops of forty each was the limit

900 MISSISSIPPI
of the cavalry force. A battalion would be organized in the Mobile
district under Col Carson as major. A company was formed at
Natchez by men legally exempt from military service, who offered
their services to the governor, which he accepted with hearty rec
ognition of their patriotism. They were ordered on patrol duty.
The steamboat arrived at Natchez with the arms and camp equip
age Sept. 19, and the regiment began to assemble at Cantonment,
Washington. About 600 men were in camp in the latter part of
September, when a further detail of about 300 was ordered. The
troops understood that they were called to six months service.
They were formed into two battalions. Gen. Claiborne accepted
the command of the regiment with the rank of colonel. Capt. A.
H. Holmes, of the United States army, was detailed as inspector.
Lieut. Benjamin Salvage was quartermaster.
The Mississippi regiment began the march to Baton Rouge,
November 3. It was held there, in readiness to meet an attack
on New Orleans, but had no occasion for active service.
Claiborne wrote from Baton Rouge, December 30, 1812, to
Cowles Mead, speaker of the house, in acknowledgement of resolu
tions of the legislature regarding the detachment of Mississippi
militia in the service of the United States : "Every citizen soldier
felt as he should when the resolutions were read, and. . . .
with one look manifested a determination to deserve well under
any circumstances, and if an opportunity should occur in the field
to do honor by their prowess to the standard presented them, as
Americans united to maintain the best interests of their country."
He asked that the thanks of the Mississippi regiment.be tendered
to the assembly. Governor Holmes wrote of this regiment July 6,
1813 : "When their term of service was near expiring a considerable
number of them, with many others from the same district of coun
try, entered the volunteer corps. This has very much reduced our
militia force." The service of the regiment probably corresponded
to Col. Claiborne's service, Sept. 6, 1812 to Feb. 28, 1813.
The organization was begun in January at Baton Rouge, of the
First regiment Mississippi infantry, U. S. V, of which Joseph
Carson was commissioned colonel. There was also a Louisiana reg
iment, forming a brigade, to command which Col. F. L. Caliborne
was commissioned brigadier-general, U. S. V, in March. This
brigade was ordered, in the latter part of June, to march to the
Tombigbee. There was a panic on account of the activity of the
Creek Indians. (See War with the Creeks, 1813-14.)
No British fleet was in sight during 1813, and the War with the
Creeks (q.v.) absorbed the attention of the people of Mississippi, ex
cept as they read with patriotic anxiety of the battles on the Cana
dian frontier, where Brig.-Gen. Zebulon M. Pike, who had been on
duty at Fort Dearborn, fell in Gen. Dearborn's ill-starred campaign,
and Brig.-Gen. Leonard Covington, who had recently gone north
from the Natchez, lost his life in the miserable campaign under
Gen. Wilkinson, who had been called north because the government
was afraid to trust him at New Orleans. New counties were cut

MISSISSIPPI 901
off from old ones and named for Pike and Covington, and a few
years later another county was named for Lawrence, of "Dont give
up the ship" fame, who fell in this same mournful year of 1813,
These counties lie in a crescent in southern Mississippi, commemo
rating a strange, unfortunate and fortunate war, now long forgotten.
Mobile way, is another group of names of this period (Jackson,
Harrison and Perry) amidst a galaxy of heroes of the Revolution.
Toward the close of the Creek war, there was another regiment
of Mississippi militia in the service of the United States, put in
the field in the Tombigbee country, under the command of Col.
George H. Nixon. They marched from the Alabama river July 16,
1814, with a part of the 39th regulars, under Col. Thomas H. Ben
ton, to hunt out the remnant of the hostile Creeks on the Escambia
river. A few days later Jackson made a treaty with the Creeks,
in which they were compelled to surrender the territory shielding
Pensacola from the United States, some British war ships arrived
at Pensacola,' and Maj. Edward Nicholl landed, began organizing
the Indians that had fled from Jackson's army, and sent out a call
for the people of Louisiana and Kentucky to join him in war on
the United States. Before this, Jackson had started his troops down
the Alabama to Mobile, which he had learned was the first point
pf attack of the British fleet that had been sent to the Gulf region.
Under the call of 1814 for 93,500 militia, the quota of Mississippi
was 500 infantry. Accordingly the governor called for five com
panies to be made up by volunteering or draft, to rendezvous at
Washington, Liberty and John Ford's on the Pearl, September
25, to march to Mount Vernon. He also promised Jackson four
troops of dragoons, and infantry and cavalry were sent for in haste,
September 14. The enemy's fleet was even then off Mobile Point,
into which Jackson had put a garrison under Maj. Lawrence.
The attack had begun when the general wrote, the ships assisted
by a land force of Indians and marines. Next day, the 15th, Law
rence repulsed the enemy, destroying one of the ships, the Hermes.
On the 30th of the same month Jackson wrote the governor, ten
dering his thanks "for the promptitude with which you have as
sembled and marched your quota of troops. Capt. Doherty's [Jef
ferson] troop is composed of fine young men calculated to endure
hardship. ... I have received the degrading news of the
burning of our capital by the enemy previous to the receipt of your
letter, and although I, like every American, felt much mortification
at an event so well calculated to show the imbecility of our military
preparations, and I might add the general measures adopted for the
protection of the country, as well as the general apathy which has
prevailed in the greater section of the Union ; yet I am well as
sured that it will have the happy tendency to arouse the people
to a vigorous and united effort in the defense of the country ; that
it will render the war popular, and that such men will be selected
as are calculated to, and determined on, discharging the duties as
signed them regardless of interests or popular motives. We may
then look forward to a termination of the war upon terms honorable

902 MISSISSIPPI
and advantageous to our country and not until then. I sympathize
with you most cordially in the afflicting loss of your brother, Major
Holmes." The governor's twenty-two year old brother, Maj. An
drew Hunter Holmes, was killed at Fort Mackinac, August 4, 1814.
He had seen his first service against the Lafitte brigands, near
New Orleans.
The Mobile danger passed, Jackson turned to Pensacola, which
he had said was his objective of campaign, a year before. At
Mims' ferry, the Mississippi dragoons and other mounted men left
their horses, to march the rest of the way on foot. The soldiers
forced an entrance into the town November 7, the British fled to
the ships and blew up Fort Barrancas next day, and on the 9th
Jackson destroyed the remaining fort and set his army in motion
for Fort Montgomery, on the Perdido. The Dragoons did good
work in the Pensacola campaign, and in the command of Majors
Blue and Kennedy was a party of Choctaw warriors. The move
ments of this little army in this campaign and the return to Mobile,
through a wild and almost pathless wilderness, were as well-con
ceived and brilliantly and rapidly executed as anything in the his
tory of Napoleon, or the records of Jackson in the Valley or Grant
in Mississippi. Yet historians have never done the campaign jus
tice, misled by the stupid comments of bureau officials at Wash
ington. The capture of Pensacola, defense of Mobile and battles
of New Orleans, were part of one masterly campaign by militia
infantry, without railroads, against British veterans transported
by the British navy.
What Natchez and the coast had to fear from British invasion
may be inferred from the following extracts from British letters
regarding the subsequent operations on the Georgia coast, captured
on the ship St. Lawrence : "We had some fine fun at St. Mary's ;
the bombs were at the town and had plenty of plunder. How are
you off for tables, chests of drawers, etc ?" Concerning the taking.
of Cumberland island — "Part of the black regiment employed on
this service acted with great gallantry. Blacky had no idea of giv
ing quarters, and it was with difficulty the officers prevented their
putting the prisoners to death."
Jackson hastened on to New Orleans and prepared for defense,
calling to his assistance all who could carry a gun, militia of all
sorts and conditions, Lafitte's pirates and "men of color" even from
Mobile. The naval engagements at Bay St. Louis and Malheu
reux islands, December 13-14, left Lake Borgne exposed to the
enemy's small boats from the naval station at Ship Island. (See
Miss. Sound.) Tennessee militia, 2.700 strong, reached Natchez,
December 13, under Gen. Carroll, whom Judge George Poindexter
joined as an aide. The Dragoons (q. v.), under Maj. Hinds, arrived
at New Orleans just in time to take part in the first battle, Decem
ber 23. The Natchez Volunteer Riflemen organized under Capt.
James C. Wilkins, reached the city on the day of the battle of Tan-
uary 8, 1815, and took position on the field. Maj. Chotard, a gallant
Mississippian, served on the staff of Jackson, and was wounded by

MISSISSIPPI 903
a shell near the Villere mansion. During the great battle of Janu
ary 8 Sam Dale arrived after a ride of eight days, horseback, cross
country from Georgia, bearing despatches from the war depart
ment. Dale carried back with equally remarkable speed, the glo
rious news of victory. The British prisoners taken at New Orleans
were held at Cantonment Washington, and on March 1, they were
marched to Natchez to embark, escorted by a company of militia
under Capt. James Green. British ships were not far off, for they
had made another attack on Fort Bowyer, and captured it February
11, just two days before news of the treaty of peace came from
Jamaica. The British fleet sailed away in March, after having
ruled the Mississippi sound for many months.
The total contribution of the Mississippi Territory to this war
was as follows : Cavalry, officers, 44, men, 442 ; mounted infantry,
officers 51, men, 738 ; riflemen, officers 21, men, 326 ; spies, officers
1, men, 13. Total 1,667. Such was the record of the war depart
ment of the United States. Of course many more performed mil
itary duty of more or less importance and danger. But the list
above given exceeds that of South Carolina or North Carolina, and
surpasses that of Massachusetts in all items except that a large
number of artillerymen were recruited in that State. Massachu
setts' total list, including 2,700 artillerymen, was only 3,350.
Mississippi Territory was the principal gainer by the war of
1812-15, which nearly everywhere else was the occasion of humil
iation. The Territory gained the Gulf coast ; the Spaniards at
Pensacola were deprived of their military strength; the Indians
were thoroughly subdued. The belt of country along the south
open to settlement was extended to the Chattahoochee, and the
patriotism of the people was enriched by memories of the wonder
ful victory at New Orleans.
War of 1861-65. (See Army, C. S, Army of Miss, and Pettus Adm.)
The first hostilities in the Gulf States were the occupation of the
Mt. Vernon arsenal and Fort Morgan by the State troops of Ala
bama January 4, 1861. On the 10th Louisiana troops took posses
sion of the Baton Rouge arsenal and the forts on the river. Ala
bama was sending troops to occupy Pensacola, where the navy
yard and- mainland forts were taken, but a small garrison of United
States troops held out at Fort Pickens, on the island. It was on the
same day that the Mississippi ordinance was passed, January 9,
that the steamship Star of the West, carrying food to the United
States garrison at Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, was fired
upon by the South Carolina batteries and turned back. Governor
Pettus ordered seven companies, from the counties of Chickasaw,
Lowndes, Noxubee and Clarke, on the line of the Mobile & Ohio
railroad, to Mobile and Pensacola, to aid Alabama. The Missis
sippians at Pensacola were held inactive, else there would have
been a battle there in January. Before the forts in Louisiana were
taken, Governor Pettus, on the request of the governor of Louis
iana, "sent Capt. Kerr with 16 of the Jackson Artillery, and ordered
Capt. H. H. Miller to call out the volunteer companies of Vicksburg,

904 MISSISSIPPI
and take such position as would enable him to prevent any hostile
expedition from the Northern States descending the river." Kerr
arrived at Vicksburg, January 10, and with the Vicksburg South
rons, Capt. Moore, the Sharpshooters, Capt. Miller, and the War
ren Guards, Capt. Brown, encamped and fortified at Fort Hill.
Next day a steamer from Cincinnati, on passing by, was fired upon.
But there was no hostile move from the North, and the State
hastened to disavow any intention to obstruct the river to com
merce. This assurance was formally renewed from time to time,
notably in 1862, when the legislature asked that the commanders of
the armies marching to the Ohio river proclaim that the Mississippi
river should remain free to commerce. The workmen engaged in
the United States government works at Ship Island were visited
by armed parties of Mississippi militia January 13, who declared
their intention to take possession, acting on their own authority,
and a flag was hoisted. There was no interference, however, until
another party arrived on the 20th and took forcible possession of
the works and engineer property. Lieut. F. E. Prime, the officer
in charge, reported that it was rumored at Biloxi that Governor
Pettus had not directed this. It was, however, fully sanctioned by
him. By his order the engineer property was sent to New Orleans,
and sold for $900, which was invested in powder. The next military
operations in which Mississippi troops engaged were those against
Fort Pickens, Pensacola harbor, (q. v.) After the capture of
Fort Sumter troops were sent to Virginia, which later were orga
nized in the army of Northern Virginia (q. v.)
In April, 1861, Wirt Adams, of Mississippi, to whom President
Davis had offered a cabinet office, suggested the danger of a naval
attack on New Orleans. The president replied that the subject
had been considered, and such an attack was "improbable politi
cally," and the capture of New Orleans was a "physical impossi
bility." A. M. Clayton, at Montgomery, in May received a letter
from Charleston advising him : "I hope you will not let our gov
ernment lose sight of the vast interests at stake in the Mississippi
valley, and by all means urge the keeping open the navigation of
the Mississippi river and the possession of Saint Louis at all
hazards." In June, the mouth of the Mississippi river was blockaded by
Federal war ships, and the launches from these ships began raid
ing Mississippi sound, where a Confederate patrol had been estab
lished. Capt. Higgins, with two armed lake steamers, under Cap
tains Myers and Warley, sailed out July 6, and left a garrison at
Ship Island, while one of the boats went back to obtain supplies
at New Orleans. Warley, left in command on the island, was at
tacked by the U. S. Steamer Massachusetts, and held out until
Higgins returned, when the enemy was driven off. The Confeder
ates were reinforced by three companies from Mississippi City,
under Col. H. W. Allen, and fortification was begun. One Missis
sippi regiment was on the island a short time, and a Mississippi
battery of heavy artillery was stationed there. But the garrison

MISSISSIPPI 905
was withdrawn, on the recommendation of Col. J. K. Duncan,
September 26, just in time to escape an attack from the United
States navy. The island was occupied by a New England brigade
December 8. There were then on the coast only one scant regiment
of Mississippi troops and two batteries with six light guns. It was
impossible to defend the coast, except with a navy.
After the rout of the Union army at Manassas, (q. v.) which per
suaded many that peace would follow, the leading men in Missis
sippi were not deceived. It was evident that the main effort of
the United States government was to gain control of the Missis
sippi river, which would make the independence of the South a
physical impossibility. A determined effort was made to bring
Missouri into the Confederacy, but it failed. The main part of the
military strength of the State went into the Union army, and St.
Louis was Union headquarters in the West. The fight for the
Mississippi must be made south of the Ohio. Meanwhile, the
transfer of the Confederate capital to Richmond gave the impres
sion that the post of honor for a Confederate soldier was in Vir-
* ginia. August 30, 1861, congress authorized President Davis to
provide "floating defenses" of the river, "against a descent of iron-
plated steam gunboats." Albert Sidney Johnston, regarded as one
of the ablest soldiers of America, was assigned to command west
of the Alleghanies. In September he began the concentration of
troops in Kentucky, but it was too late. (See Armies of Kentucky
and the Mississippi.) The first Confederate position on the Mis
sissippi river, north, was Columbus,- Ky. Grant's victory at Fort
Donelson compelled the immediate abandonment of Columbus.
The next stand was at Island No. 10 and New Madrid, which ended
in surrender, at the same time as the battle of Shiloh, April 7th,
almost on Mississippi soil. The Confederate government was
building two ironclad rams at Memphis, the Tennessee and Arkan
sas, (q. v.) and upon the fall of Island No. 10, the Tennessee was
burned and the Arkansas brought down the river and up the Yazoo
to Greenwood, for completion. There was nothing but disaster.
Early in June both Corinth and Memphis were in the hands of the
United States troops. (See Army of the Mississippi).
While 200,000 men were in hostile camps in northeast Missis
sippi, the coast was not without its excitement. April 3, 500 Fed
erals were landed at Biloxi and Gen. Lovell, late captain of the
Quitman artillery, sent Col. Deason with 7 companies of the 3d
Mississippi, (stationed at Pass Christian) against them by land,
and three armed vessels. But the Federals re-embarked their men,
beat off the Confederate boats, and then landed a force at Pass
- Christian which overpowered the companies left there, and burned
their camp. Soon after this the 3d regiment was called to New
Orleans, and the coast abandoned by Confederate troops. Com
modore Farragut, son of the captain who took possession of the
coast for the United States in 1811, had a formidable fleet off the
coast, part of which anchored at Ship Island. Gen. B. F. Butler
arrived there March 21, and there embarked 6,000 men on the

906 MISSISSIPPI
29th to support the naval campaign against New Orleans. The
3d Mississippi was among the last Confederate troops to leave
that city, which went into Federal possession April 24. The Fed
eral fleet advanced up the river, and reached Natchez, May 12.
Col. C. G. Dahlgren was there with a small body of State troops,
and fell back to Washington. The city was surrendered by the
mayor. When the boats had passed, Dahlgren resumed posses
sion. The Mississippi river, northward, was defended by a flotilla
of eight Confederate rams, fitted up from tow boats at New Or
leans, in January to May, 1862. They were under the command
of Capts. J. E. Montgomery, W. H. H. Leonard, J. E. Henthorne,
Isaac D. Fulkerson, W. W. Lamb, J. H. Burke, J. C. DeLancy,
and J. H. Hurt. Fulkerson's boat was called the VanDorn,
Burke's the Thompson, DeLancy's the Lovell. Montgomery was
the commodore. They took position at Fort Pillow, north of Mem
phis. May 10 they sunk one Federal ironclad and ran another to
shore. When Fort Pillow was evacuated June 4, they dropped
down to Memphis, where they fought a splendid naval battle June
¦6. But the Federal ironclads had been reinforced with seven rams,
and all the Confederate boats were destroyed but the VanDorn,
and the supply boat, Paul Jones, which took refuge at Greenwood.
This was the first fight of steam rams in the history of the world.
Now the river was open to the Federal navy from both the north
and south against Vicksburg, where a naval bombardment was
begun May 26, 1862, and continued for 67 days. (See Vicksburg,
First defense.)
The naval expedition against Vicksburg, the battle of Shiloh
and the siege of Corinth, were parts of the first Mississippi cam
paign. The armies then arrayed in northeast Mississippi were the
greatest ever collected on the soil of the State, but they were
speedily dissipated. The Federals threw out their left and right
wings to Memphis and Chattanooga. The Confederates made a
like move toward Vicksburg and Chattanooga. Bragg found he
was able to turn the Federal left flank along the Cumberland
mountains, and made the famous raid toward Louisville, that
carried the bulk of the Federal troops, under Buel, back with him
into Kentucky. This, for a time, relieved the pressure towards
Vicksburg. Gen. Earl VanDorn was assigned to command of the District
of the Mississippi, embracing all the State west of Pearl river and
the Central railroad. Gen. John H. Forney was given command
of the coast region, as far east as the Chattahoochee river, and
north as far as Quitman, in Mississippi. July 4, 1862, VanDorn
issued General Orders No. 9, declaring martial law, forbidding
trade in cotton with the Federals under pain of death, requiring
the acceptance of Confederate money, regulating newspapers and
prohibiting exorbitant prices. The provost-marshal general and
provosts in each county were charged with the execution of the
order. This raised a storm in Mississippi, and the newspapers
alluded to the general as a "military tyrant." VanDorn had a plan

MISSISSIPPI 907
for driving the Federals out of New Orleans with the aid of the
ram Arkansas, but this was checkmated by the occupation of
Baton Rouge by Gen. Williams, with the troops withdrawn from
opposite Vicksburg. Breckinridge was sent by VanDorn to drive
Williams out, but failed to capture Baton Rouge (q, v). Breckin
ridge began the fortification of Port Hudson, which became a
strong support of Vicksburg on the South. Breckinridge, and the
troops with him, did not get back to Jackson until August 17.
Gen. Joseph Wheeler, who succeeded Chalmers in cavalry com
mand, before Tupelo, went on his first raid, in the latter part of
July, to Bolivar and Jackson, Tenn, Pinson's regiment forming
part of his force, and fought eight battles and destroyed the rail
road bridges and much Federal property, and cotton. Other raids,
by Adams and Falkner on the Confederate side, and like ma
noeuvres on the part of the Federals, continued through July and
August. Some mounted Mississippians were with Armstrong, in
a raid from Holly Springs, August 26, to Denmark, and some of
Pinson's men and other companies met Grierson's raid from Mem
phis at the Coldwater railroad bridge a little later.
VanDorn, after the failure of the Baton Rouge expedition and
the loss of the ram Arkansas, went to the support of Price in north
Mississippi. On the assurance that VanDorn would move from
Holly Springs to join him, September 12, Price advanced on luka
and encamped there, seeking a battle with Rosecrans. VanDorn,
with his 10,000, instead of joining Price, moved to Grand Junction,
Tenn, where Hurlbut engaged his attention, while Grant, at
Burnsville, set two columns in motion against Price, Rosecrans
with 9,000 from Jacinto, and Ord with 8,000 north of the railroad.
He hoped to destroy or capture Price's entire army. Thus resulted
the battle of luka (q. v.). Price narrowly escaped from the trap,
and he and VanDorn united their forces at Ripley, September 28,
VanDorn taking command under orders from the war department.
The troops from Vicksburg formed a division under Gen. Mans
field Lovell. The army thus formed was 22,000 strong. VanDorn
was confronted by Grant, his headquarters at Jackson, Tenn, with
6,500 men under Sherman at Memphis, 18,000 at Jackson and
Bolivar under Ord, and 23,000 under Rosecrans, at Corinth, Rienzi,
Burnsville, Jacinto and luka. VanDorn made the fatal resolve
to attack Rosecrans at Corinth, planning to surprise and defeat
him before he could bring in his outposts. The battle of Corinth,
(q. v.) that resulted, was one of the bloodiest of the war, and
badly crippled VanDorn's army, which retreated to Holly Springs.
October 12, Lieut-Gen. John C. Pemberton took command of
the department of Mississippi and East Louisiana, VanDorn con
tinuing for a time in command of the troops in the field. In the
reorganization that followed, the Mississippi infantry in the army
was concentrated in a brigade of Maury's division consisting of
the 35th, 36th, 37th, 38th, 40th and 43d regiments and 7th battalion.
On November 1 began the second campaign against Vicksburg,
(q. v.) which absorbed the military activity of the State until the

908 MISSISSIPPI
close of the year. The retreat of Grant from Oxford, and the de
feats of Sherman at Chickasaw Bayou, of Rosecrans at Murfrees
boro, and of Hooker at Fredericksburg, all in December, marked
the real "high tide of the Confederacy." In these successful ef
forts of the South, her strength was well-nigh exhausted, while
the North and West had hardly begun to feel the stress of war.
The Union armies halted for breath and recruits, and then in 1863
it was, On to Vicksburg, while in Tennessee and Virginia there
was feinting, and sparring and raiding, each side trying to hold
the other from reinforcing the armies in Mississippi. At Chan
cellorsville it was demonstrated that without Longstreet's corps,
Lee's army was adequate for defense. Later in the year Longstreet
was spared to fight at Chickamauga, where many Mississippians
died in vain. But in the spring the Union strategy prevailed.
Even the invasion of Pennsylvania was too late to save Vicksburg,
and resulted in the destructive carnage at Gettysburg. Unfortun
ately for the South, she could not, at least did not, spare an ade
quate force to aid Mississippi, and Vicksburg fell, deciding the
fate of the Confederacy. The power that could hold the Missis
sippi river was the power that could command the credit of
Europe. The power that could hold the Mississippi river must
control and unify the great Mississippi valley, the heart and lungs
and trunk of the continent.
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston was from November, 1862, at the head
of the Confederate operations for the defense of the river, with
headquarters at Chattanooga, and in command of all the country
between the Carolina coast and the great river. Under his com
mand, Gen. Pemberton continued in charge of the army in Mis
sissippi. On the other side, Gen. U. S. Grant was given command
of all the military forces on the Mississippi, in January, 1863.
Grant was so well supplied with troops that he could leave 30,-
000 to hold the line of the Memphis & Charleston railroad, east to
Corinth, whence frequent raids were made into the State. He
collected troops to join with Sherman, at Young's Point, on the
Louisiana side. The defenders of Vicksburg had fortified from
Haynes' bluff, on the Yazoo, down past Vicksburg to where the
bluffs recede from the river. The river between Port Hudson and
Vicksburg was in the hands of the Confederates. Commander
Ellet, with the ironclad Queen of the West, ran the Vicksburg bat
teries, and captured two Confederate steamers, but he in turn was
captured by Gen. Richard Taylor, who took the ironclad and sunk
the Indianola, which Col. Wirt Adams made an unsuccessful ef
fort to raise and add to the Confederate navy. Grant's efforts to
find a passage through the Yazoo delta were carried on while he
had large forces of men at work opening up three passages through
the bayous in Louisiana opposite Vicksburg through which he
could transport his army south of the Confederate works. Hence
the Yazoo campaign must be taken as an effort to mislead Pem
berton, rather than a hopeful undertaking. He cut the levees at
Yazoo pass, nearly opposite Helena, and by that inlet sent an

MISSISSIPPI 909
expedition down the Coldwater and Tallahatchie, led by the iron
clad Chillicothe. Gen. Loring, from Bragg's army, built Fort
Pemberton with cotton bales covered with earth, near Greenwood,
and obstructed the river. He had with him some Louisiana
troops and the 20th and 26th Mississippi regiments. The Federal
gunboats attacked March 12, were repulsed, and returned with
reinforcements for another attempt. Meanwhile Loring was re
inforced by' Gen. Maury with Featherston's brigade and six guns.
There was a three days' bombardment, and then the expedition
was withdrawn April 4.
In the same period, Admiral Porter^ supported by Sherman's
corps, attempted to open up a passage by way of Steel's bayou,
Black's bayou, Deer Creek, Rolling Fork and Sunflower river, into
the Yazoo. Gen. S. D. Lee fortified lower Deer Creek and would
have been able to give the expedition a warm reception if Col.
S. W. Ferguson, with 250 sharpshooters, reinforced by Feather
ston's brigade, had not stopped the fleet at the mouth of Rolling
Fork, where there was" brisk fighting on the 20th and 21st of
March. These movements kept the Confederate forces widely scattered
along a line from Greenwood to Grand Gulf, where Bowen's bri
gade was stationed March 11. At the same time the Federal
activity in the north part of the State led to the transfer of Rust's
Arkansas brigade and two regiments under Gen. Buford from
Port Hudson to Jackson. Gen. Chalmers, disabled by wounds re
ceived at Murfreesboro, was put in command of the Fifth mili
tary district of the State, comprising the northern counties, but
the troops at his command were very few. Port Hudson was be
sieged, and Farragut came to the support of Grant, losing one
vessel under the guns of Port Hudson', but carrying two through,
which shelled the batteries at Grand Gulf and "Warrenton, and
were joined below Vicksburg by one of Porter's boats which ran
the Vicksburg batteries. Another ironclad, attempting to run
past, was destroyed by the Confederate batteries, about March 20.
April 4, Grant sent wbrd to Washington that he had decided to
ruri Porter's fleet past the batteries, while a part of his army
would be conveyed by small boats and barges through the Louis
iana bayous to some point below Vicksburg. This was, of course,
unknown to the Confederate authorities. Grant, risking all on his
plan, sent the transports back to Memphis, and this persuaded
Pemberton, as Bragg was calling for help in Tennessee, to put
three brigades at Jackson and vicinity under orders to proceed to
Tullahoma. McClernand's corps, of Grant's army, on April 2 oc
cupied Richmond, La, and was pushing its outposts toward New
Carthage, on the river. Bowen, at Grand Gulf, had a picket line
west of the river, and he asked permission of Pemberton, April 8,
to cross and meet the Federal advance which was rumored.
Pemberton replied that he did not consider the Federal operations
in that quarter important enough for Bowen to run the risk of
being cut off by Farragut. On the 15th Gen. S. D. Lee reported

910 MISSISSIPPI
after a reconnoissance that the Federal army was yet in force
opposite Vicksburg, but there were indications of a flank attack
at Bayou Pierre. On the night of the 16th there was the first open
evidence of Grant's intentions, by the running of the Vicksburg
batteries by Admiral Porter, with eight gunboats, three transports
and barges. There was a spectacular bombardment of the silent
shadows that flitted past, but no serious damage was done to them
except the sinking of one transport. Bowen immediately with
drew his outpost in Louisiana, and the 6th Mississippi, the 1st Con
federate, and a field battery were sent to Grand Gulf, and Green's
brigade from Jackson to Vicksburg.
Simultaneously with this movement began Grierson's raid (q.
v.) from LaGrange, Tenn, to Baton Rouge, which occupied the
Confederate cavalry in central and Southern Mississippi while ,
Grant was making his crossing. Chalmers was kept busy in north
west Mississippi by an infantry expedition from Memphis, which
brought on a severe little battle at Hernando, April 18, in which
Col. W. C. Falkner lost 40 killed. Another fight followed as the
Federals advanced, toward Coldwater, and Chalmers scored a vic
tory, compelling the enemy to retreat. The cavalry command of
VanDorn had been ordered to Tennessee, to assist Bragg against
Rosecrans. Under all these circumstances, skilfully planned to
confuse the Confederate commanders, Grant made his lodgment on
Mississippi soil south of Vicksburg. On the 29th he had 10,000
men at Hard Times landing, on the Louisiana side, and Porter,
with seven ironclads, attempted to silence the Grand Gulf bat
teries so that the transports could be used. Porter failed to do this,
whereupon Grant disembarked his infantry, marched them down
to De Shroon's landing, and the transports were brought down to
them, under cover of another attack on the batteries. He was now
beyond the last Confederate fortifications on the south, and on
April 30 he landed 20,000 men at Bruinsburg. Then followed the
Vicksburg campaign of 1863 (q. v.). On May 18 began the siege
of Vicksburg (q. v.).
The first aggressive operations on the outside were by the Fed
erals. McPherson marched in the latter part of May, with the
object of making the region between the Yazoo and Big Black
unavailable for occupation by Johnston. He burned 500,000
bushels of grain and immense quantities of bacon, destroyed every
grist mill in the valley, drove away 1,000 head of cattle, several
hundred mules and horses, and brought back "an army of negroes
equal to the number of men in the command." Col- Wirt Adams
and Gen. John Adams met the foragers at Mechanicsburg and
stopped their advance.
Gen. Johnston collected troops at Jackson for the relief of the
besieged garrison. After he had been joined by Loring's division,
containing the bulk of the Mississippi regiments, and by the divi
sions of Gens. Tohn C. Breckinridge, S. G. French and W. H. T.
Walker, he had at his command, June 25, according to the enroll
ment, 54,747 men. There were present for duty 2,657 officers and

MISSISSIPPI 911
28,569 men. At the same time about 30,000 men were shut up
around Vicksburg. United, they would have closely approached,
in sufficient numbers, the armies of Lee and Bragg. Breckinridge
moved forward to Clinton June 30 and July 1 Johnston encamped
his army between Brownsville and the Yazoo. Col. Wirt Adams,
who led a cavalry reconnoissance to Edwards, reported that the
situation was hopeful if the' garrison could hold out three weeks.
Johnston could expect no help from the Trans-Mississippi army,
and half of Grant's army near Vicksburg lay in a line between the
Yazoo and Big Black, and another large part defended the ap
proaches across the Big Black. With the force at his command
Johnston could not expect to make much of an impression. But
he sent word to Pemberton July 3 that he would soon attack, and
he was making reconnoissances south of the railroad when news
came of the surrender. Johnston then fell back, reaching Jackson
on the 7th, and two days iater Sherman, with three corps of the
Federal army, appeared before the entrenched line surrounding
Jackson, and began intrenching and planting batteries. There was
' spirited skirmishing on the 11th and next day a heavy cannonade,
and an assault on the line held by Breckinridge, which was re
pulsed, the Federals losing about 500 men, and three battle flags.
The bombardment was kept up in the following days, and the
investing lines were extended to Pearl river north and south of
the city. On the night of the 16th Johnston evacuated, leaving
the heavy' guns and withdrawing his army to Meridian. His loss
during the siege of Jackson, July 9-16, was 71 killed, 504 wounded,
25 missing. Sherman's loss was 130 killed, 762 wounded and 231
missing. Both armies were in bad condition as a result of cam
paigning in July. Sherman occupied the town, and endeavored to
make it untenable by Confederate forces by destruction of public
and private property. On the 18th he reported to Grant: "We
have made fine progress today in the work of destruction. Jackson
will no longer be a point of danger. The land is devastated for
thirty miles around." But Grant, on the request of Sherman, sent
over 200 barrels of flour and 200.000 pounds of pork, for the starv
ing inhabitants. After an expedition to Canton, Sherman's army
was withdrawn to Vicksburg.
July 13 another Federal expedition arrived at Yazoo, by river
transportation, escorted by gunboats. Capt. Isaac N. Brown was
there, with a little fleet of gunboats he had been contriving. He
repelled the Federals at first, and one ironclad of 13 guns was
blown up by a torpedo, but he was forced to destrov his boats
and retreat. On the same day an expedition occupied Natchez and
began raids to destroy military, railroad and manufacturing prop
erty at Liberty and Woodville.
Throughout the siege there bad been raids in the northern part
of the State. Wirt Adams fought an artillery battle with Federal
gtmboats at Liverpool landing May 20-23 d. McCulloch's cavalry
engaged an expedition from LaGrange in the Senatobia swamo,
May 23. At the same time Slemons fought with a cavalry expedi-

912 MISSISSIPPI
tion that burned the town of Austin. June 13-22 there was another
raid from LaGrange, Tenn, that was worsted by Barteau's cavalry
near Rocky Ford, on the Tallahatchie. Chalmers' command,
which had. been stationed on the river, bombarding Federal
steamers as they passed Dale's point, routed another expedition
from Tennessee at Hernando June 18, and at Hudsonville another
attack was made by Col. McQuirk. June 21 Col. R. C. Wood had
an encounter at Jones' plantation, and on the 25th there was an
affair at Brookhaven. Sherman sent Col. Winslow, with orders
that supplies should be paid for, and that "it is now to the inter
est of the government that plundering and pillaging should cease."
Winslow met an expedition from LaGrange, Tenn, that had occu
pied Grenada, August 17, and was burning cars and buildings.
On its retreat there was a fight with Chalmers on the Coldwater.
After this there was comparative quiet, except skirmishes at
Jacinto and Holly Springs, September 7, and battling with a land
expedition to Yazoo City, until October.
Atlanta had now become the objective of Federal movements,
and troops were concentrated toward Chattanooga. Many of the
officers and soldiers of the Vicksburg army were already ex
changed. In August Gen. S. D. Lee was given command of all
the cavalry in Mississippi, including the brigades of Jackson,
Starke, Chalmers and Richardson, and preparations were made for
aggressive operations to clear the State of Federal troops. Chal
mers raided the Memphis & Charleston railroad and fought a
considerable battle near Salem, October 8. Following. up the re
treating Federal cavalry, he attacked Collierville, Tenn, October
11, which Gen. Sherman and staff had just entered. Sherman took
command of the 500 men, refused a demand to surrender, and
after a four hours' fight, Chalmers was compelled to withdraw.
At Wyatt, October 13, Chalmers had another serious encounter
with the enemy. Under cover of this movement Lee made a cav
alry expedition into Alabama to cut the railroad between Chatta
nooga and Nashville. October 14, Gen. McPherson, who had been
left in command at Vicksburg, started on an expedition toward
Canton with 6.500 infantry and a cavalry brigade ; but he was
stopped by Col. Wirt Adams, with Cosby's and Logan's cavalry,
on Bogue Chitto. October 26 Gen. S. F. Ferguson, with a small
command, routed a body of colored troops at Bay Springs.
Grant was now in supreme command of the Union armies in the
west, and was hurrying Sherman from Memphis to Chattanooga,
for the relief of Rosecrans, besieged by Bragg at Chattanooga.
Gen. J. E. Johnston, the Confederate commander in chief, ordered
Chalmers to harass the rear of Sherman's columns, and destroy
the railroads. Richardson and Gholson's State troops, cut the
railroad between Corinth and LaGrange, while Chalmers attacked
Collierville again, but found the place reinforced. Col. J. Z. George,
leading the advance of Slemon's brigade, was captured in the
town, and there was a heavy loss in killed and wounded. Novem
ber 22 Maj. Ham's battalion of State troops skirmished with the

MISSISSIPPI 913
First Alabama (U. S.) near Corinth. Early in December Chalmers
again entered Tennessee and fought near Moscow. About the
same time Gen. S. D. Lee, with the brigades of Ferguson and
Ross, moved eastward and united with the forces of Gen. N. B.
Forrest, who had been assigned to command in west Tennessee.
As the winter came on, and hopes, revived after the overwhelming
disaster at Vicksburg by the defeat of Rosecrans at Chickamauga,
had been dashed again by the rout of Bragg by Grant at Mission
ary Ridge, the Federal occupation of Mississippi was by 4,000 men
at Corinth, about 16,000 at and near Vicksburg, 2,500 cavalry at
Hebron, and 150 at Nachez. Wirt Adams, promoted to brigadier-
general, made a demonstration against Natchez early in December
causing an increase of garrison.
On the Confederate side, Loring's division, including the Mis
sissippi brigades of Featherston and John Adams (lately Tilgh-
man's) had headquarters at Canton. French's division was also
in the State, and Baldwin's brigade of Mississippians in Forney's
division had been exchanged and armed. . Other Mississippi com-
' mands were exchanged or yet in camp under parole. The cavalry,
including Tennesseeans, Arkansans, and Texans, as well as Mis-
sissipians, was organized in two divisions by Gen. Lee, under Gens.
W. H. Jackson and J. R. Chalmers. In Jackson's division Col.
Peter B. Starke commanded a brigade including the following
Mississippi regiments : his own, the 28th ; Col. J. G. Ballentine's regi
ment and the First, Col. R. A. Pinson. Gen. Wirt Adams' brigade
contained these Mississippi commands: his own under Col. R. C.
Wood, 2d, Maj. J. L. Harris, Maj. T. R. Stockdale's battalion, and
Capt. Calvit Roberts' battery.
Col John McQuirk's regiment of State troops, the 5th cavalry,
Col. J. Z. George, and Capt. J. M. McLendon's battery, were in
Siemens' brigade of Chalmers' division. In McCulloch's brigade
were the First partisans, Lieut.-Col. L. B. Hovis ; A. H. Chalmers'
battalion, and the Buckner battery, Lieut. H. C. Holt. The 12th
cavalry, Col. W. M. Inge, was operating in northern Mississippi.
The State troops were under command of Maj.-Gen. Samuel J.
Gholson. In November, 1863, Governor Pettus said he had kept constantly
in the field all the volunteer State cavalry that could possibly be
raised, and these rendered much important service in protecting
the country from raids at a time when there were no Confederate
troops to spare for that purpose. They were mostly unattached
battalions and companies, well acquainted with the roads and by-
Ways of the country where they served, and were able to more
effectively oppose the enemy than larger bodies of troops could
have done. Some idea of the romance as well as danger of this
service is preserved in Cabell's famous masterpiece, "The Cava
lier." The governor complained that his efforts in this direction
were much embarrassed by the opposition of a part of the press
of the State to the militia law passed in the winter of 1862-63.
Throughout the northern and river counties, the negro popula-
58-11

914 MISSISSIPPI
tion deserted the plantations to a considerable extent to go into the
Federal lines, where many were organized into regiments. Said
Governor Pettus in November, 1863, "already marauding bands of
these freed negroes are desolating neighborhoods in the valley of
the Mississippi." He advised laws for the removal of the negroes
from the exposed districts.
The divisions of Loring, French and Forney, and the cavalry
corps of Lee, formed the Army of the Mississippi, reorganized
under the command of Lieut. -Gen. Leonidas L. Polk, who was as
signed to this post October 23. He made his headquarters at
Meridian, and had an effective force of about 16,000 men, of which
the strongest parts were Loring's division, about 5,500 effectives,
and Lee's cavalry, about 7,500. This was after Forney's division,
including Baldwin's Mississippi brigade (4th, 35th, 39th, 40th and
46th regiments), had been transferred to Gen. Maury at Mobile.
Forrest came down to Cosmo from Tennessee with 3,000 men he
had picked up within the Federal lines, and was calling in Mis-
sissipians to fill his new command. He had full command in north
Mississippi, with unusual powers, and Gen. S. D. Lee had com
mand in southern Mississippi and east Louisiana, with headquar
ters at Jackson.
Grant, in January, was preparing an important campaign against
Meridian, also Mobile, if it should be practicable. Sherman was
sent back to Vicksburg to command the army of invasion. Gen.
Hurlbut, at Corinth, evacuated that town and burned it, and ar
ranged to cooperate with Sherman, who was to march from Vicks
burg with 25,000 men, while Gen. Sooy Smith advanced from'
Memphis with 6,500 cavalry by way of Pontotoc. Lee could do
no more than skirmish with Sherman. Ross' Texans guarded the
Yazoo, Starke was posted at Brownsville and Wirt Adams at
Raymond. The Federals made a demonstration with infantry,
cavalry and gunboats up the Yazoo in the last days of January,
which Ross gallantly struggled against, and under cover of that,
Sherman marched his two corps across the Big Black and rapidly
advanced toward Clinton. Wirt Adams, with his small brigade
of 800 troopers, fought the advance of one corps between Baker's
Creek and Edwards, and fell back fighting, making another notable
stand at Clinton on February 4. The advance of the other corps,
north of the railroad to Jackson, was contested by Starke's bri
gade. On the 8th, finding that Sherman was crossing Pearl river
toward Meridian, Lee disposed part of his command to cover Lor
ing's infantry,- and sent Jackson, with the brigades of Adams and
Starke, to attack the flank of Sherman's column. But Sherman so
carefully protected his line of march that Adams was able to do
very little damage. French, joining Loring, formed line of battle
near Morton on the 8th, but was not seriously attacked. Sherman
occupied Meridian February 14, 1864, and Polk fell back to De-
mopolis, Ala. Sooy Smith's cavalry column delayed ten days in
starting, which was fatal. He was defeated by Forrest near Oko
lona (q. v.), and driven back to Memphis. But this served to

MISSISSIPPI 915
draw Lee from the vicinity of Meridian, where the railroads were
destroyed by Sherman for sixty miles to the north and east. Of
the city itself Sherman reported: "For five days 10,000 men
worked hard and with a will in that work of destruction with axes,
crowbars, sledges, clawbars, and with fire, and I have no hesitation
in pronouncing the work well done. Meridian, with its depots,
storehouses, arsenals, hospitals, offices, hotels, and cantonments,
no longer exists." Smith's cavalry having failed to arrive, Sher
man started back toward Vicksburg on the 20th, and was across
the Big Black on the 4th of March. At Sharon, Starke's brigade
attacked his foraging parties and occasioned him considerable
loss. The Federal garrison at Yazoo City, partly negro troops, was
attacked by the brigades of Ross and Richardson March 5, and a
desperate fight was carried on in the streets for four hours. The
Federals held their main fortification, but evacuated the town soon
afterward. In the latter part of March Forrest made a famous campaign
in west Tennessee, and captured and held for two days the town
of Paducah, Ky. This was followed, April 12, by his famous cap
ture of Fort Pillow, Tenn, in which he was assisted by a part
of Chalmers' command. Ampng the Confederate wounded was
Col. Wiley M. Reed, of the 5th Mississippi. Lieuts. Barton and
Hubbard were killed at his side in the rifle pits. Chalmers1, on his
return to Oxford, issued a congratulatory address to his division :
"In a brief space of time we have killed 4,000 of the enemy, cap
tured over 1,200 prisoners, 800 horses, . . . destroyed millions
of dollars worth of property . . ." As Forrest returned to Mis
sissippi, an expedition of 3,000 cavalry and 3,500 infantry, under
Gen. S. D. Sturgis, moved out from Memphis to intercept him,
but he evaded Sturgis, and the latter followed no further than
Ripley. During Forrest's absence there was another expedition
to Yazoo City, which Was defeated by Wirt Adams. Col. Griffith
captured and burned the gunboat Petrel.
Early in May, 1864, Polk united his infantry, including the sur
vivors of the Vicksburg campaign, with the forces under Johnston
in the Atlanta campaign (see Army of Tennessee), and Stephen
D. Lee was given command of the department of Alabama, Mis
sissippi and East Louisiana, and commissioned lieutenant-general
Forrest continued in command of North Mississippi, with the duty
of defending that country and the adjacent part of Tennessee, as a
source of recruits and supplies for the Confederate armies in Geor
gia and Virginia, where Johnston and Robert E. Lee were about
to make the last great campaigns of the war, with Grant and Sher
man, who had gained fame in Mississippi, as their antagonists.
Grant was then in immediate command of all the Union armies,
but Lee had not yet received a like honor from the Confederate
government. In Forrest's little army of mounted men, Gen. James R. Chal
mers commanded a division made up of Neely's Tennessee bri-

916 MISSISSIPPI
gade; McCullough's brigade, including the 1st partisan rangers,
Col. S. M. Hyams (later 7th regiment, Col. Falkner) ; 5th regi
ment. Lieut.-Col. N. Wickliffe; Hudson's battery, Lieut. E. S. Wal
ton, and commands from other States; and Rucker's brigade, in
which were the Mississippi regiments of Duff and A. H. Chalmers.
Gen. Abraham Buford's division included a Kentucky brigade and
Bell's Tennessee brigade.
Brig.-Gen. Wirt Adams was in command of the Southern dis
trict, and of a division of three brigades. Col. Scott, of Louisiana,
commanded one brigade, made up of his Louisiana regiment, and
the commands of Wingfield, Powers, Gober, Ogden and Lay.
Adams' regiment and Moorman's battalion were brigaded under
Col. Robert C. Wood. Gen. S. J. Gholson commanded a brigade
of State troops that had been turned over to the Confederate serv
ice, the regiments of Cols. T. C. Ashcraft, T. W. Ham, W. L.
Lowry and John McGuirk. Mabry's brigade included Dumon-
-teil's, Col C. C. Wilbourn's and Col. Isham Harrison's cavalry, and
Col. Brent's 38th infantry, mounted. These commands were gen
erally very small. Forrest's corps, in June, swelled by a brigade
of Roddey's Alabama cavalry, numbered for duty about 8,000, and
Wirt Adams had less than 5,000. There were 16 pieces of artil
lery with Forrest and 41 with Adams.
In June a Federal expedition of near 10,000 men, under Gen. S. D.
Sturgis, invaded the State for the purpose of scattering Forrest's
command and destroying the Mobile & Ohio railroad, which had
been rebuilt to Corinth. Forrest defeated this force in the famous
battle of Brice's Crossroads or Tishomingo Creek (q. v.). From
Grant before Petersburg came orders to Sherman that A. J. Smith,
just returned from the unsuccessful campaign on Red river, must
find Forrest, whip him and follow him as long as his command
held together. While Smith was preparing to attempt this, Gen.
H. W. Slocum marched 3,000 men from Vicksburg to Jackson,
making the fourth occupation of the capital by the Federals. This
was for the purpose of destroying the railroad bridge, which had
been rebuilt. Wirt Adams resisted the advance of Slocum and
made a brilliant attack, as he withdrew from Jackson, on the morn
ing of July 7. He caused a Federal loss of 220. Gen. Gholson was
wounded. A. J. Smith's expedition entered the State from Tennessee in
July, and was met by Lee and Forrest combined at Harrisburg
(q. v.) in a fierce battle, July 14, 1864, in which the Confederate
strength was badly shattered.
July 26, Mississippi was made part of the department of Gen.
Dabney H. Maury, commanding at Mobile, that the strength of
the State might be drawn on to defend that port, attacked by Far
ragut. Gen. S. D. Lee was called to Atlanta, to take command
of one of Hood's army corps.
In August Gen. A. J. Smith entered the State again, Gen.
Chalmers making a stubborn resistance, and attacking with great
intrepidity at the Tallahatchie river, Oxford, Lamar, Hurricane

MISSISSIPPI 917
creek and Abbeville. At Oxford, a Confederate military post, July
24, Smith burned the public buildings and business portion of the
town and a few residences. While Smith was advancing, Forrest,
with some of the fragments of his army, including A. H. Chalmers'
battalion, made the famous dash into Memphis early in- the morn
ing of August 21, creating a great panic and very nearly capturing
the Federal generals there. This was the only way in which he
could compel Smith to retreat. The sacrifices at Harrisburg had
practically destroyed his little army, and he was himself wounded.
August 24 Gen. Maury telegraphed Forrest, "You have again
saved Mississippi. Come and help Mobile. Fort Morgan was oc
cupied by enemy yesterday." Early in September part of McCul
loch's brigade was sent to Mobile, where Capt. George F. Abbay's
battery had been on duty. Lieut.-Gen. Richard Taylor took com
mand of the department, including Mississippi, with headquarters
at Meridian, September 6, 1864. Forrest then began his brilliant
raid in middle Tennessee and north Alabama in support of Hood's
northward movement after the fall of Atlanta. He took with him
' the Pettus Flying artillery, under Lieut. E. S. Walton, which ren
dered valuable service. Gen. Chalmers, meanwhile, was on guard
in north Mississippi. At the same time there were Federal raids
in southwest Mississippi, and Col. Scott's command skirmished
near Woodville and the Homochitto.
While Sherman was preparing to march from Atlanta to Savan
nah, Tennessee was a comparatively easy field for the raiders, who
couid embarrass but not seriously impede the great events that
were bringing the war to a close. Forrest entered west Tennessee
again from Corinth, October 20, and was joined by Chalmers at
Jackson. Chalmers and Buford captured and burned a number
of Federal steamers passing the scene of the Fort Donelson cam
paign of 1862. The Pettus artillery was with Forrest in his fam
ous attack on Johnsonville, where he burned a vast amount of
military property, and obtained abundant supplies of clothing.
This was the last of Forrest's operations on the border. He was
called to command the cavalry of Hood's army in the campaign
against Nashville, and took with him Chalmers and the main part
of his cavalrymen. W. T. Martin, now a major-general, was left
in command of the northwest part of the State. He took a posi
tion toward Memphis, with Col. Denis' reserves and some State
troops. Gen. Beauregard was given chief command in the west with Gen.
Taylor in department command as before, and Gen. Franklin
Gardner commanding the district of Mississippi and East Louis
iana. Gen. G. B. Hodge was in command of the subdistrict of
south Mississippi, and on November 16 his headquarters at Lib
erty was surprised by a Federal column from Baton Rouge, and
most of the staff and escort captured. Brookhaven and Summit
were likewise surprised and garrisons captured, with much de
struction of property. Col. Scott fought with this expedition tft
Liberty, October 18. Gen. E. R. S. Canby, commanding the small

918 MISSISSIPPI
Federal garrison at Vicksburg, sent out an expedition in Novem
ber to destroy the Big Black railroad bridge. A few citizens de
fended the bridge on the approach of the raiders, and being
reinforced by a detachment under Capt. W. S. Yerger, the bridge
was saved from serious damage. Col. John Griffith, in command
of this district, made a successful attack upon the expedition at
Concord Church.
The defense of Mobile was now the controlling factor in the
war, as affecting Mississippi. Forrest and Chalmers were with
Hood before Nashville, but this was only a last desperate attempt
to divert the onward sweep of Union success, which had already
swept past the interior to the coast. Mississippi was almost de
fenseless. Martin had a few hundred men near Memphis; Scott
and Wilbourn had about 800 in the coast region; Mabry had a
small command at Corinth and Macon ; Gholson was collecting
stragglers at Cotton Gin Port. A Federal cavalry column advanc
ing from Baton Rouge, crossed the Chickasawhay to cut the railroad,
but was defeated by the 2d Missouri and Willis' battalion Decem
ber 10. This raid brought south King's battery and 500 men under
Col. W. W. Weir (37th regiment) from Corinth. December 19
a Federal cavalry expedition, 3,500 strong, led by the famous Grier
son, set out from Memphis. Under the impression that it was
headed for Corinth, a train loaded with 700 infantry and King's
battery was started for that place from Mobile. At West Point
they learned that Grierson was near Okolona, confronted by Ghol
son with 200 cavalry without ammunition. A detachment was
sent to aid Gholson and this advance guard fell back on the main
Confederate force at Egypt, reinforced by Col. Weir from Meri
dian. A severe engagement was fought December 28, at Egypt,
with heavy loss to the Confederates, Gen. Gholson being reported
mortally wounded, and several hundred men captured. January 2,
at Franklin, a detachment was attacked by Gen. Wirt Adams,
with the commands of Wood and Griffith. Grierson's column
reached Vicksburg soon afterward, having wrecked a large part
of two railroads, destroyed a great amount of property, and recap
tured most of the wagons taken by Forrest on the Tishomingo,
and destroyed the artillery ammunition with which they were
loaded. Forrest returned to Mississippi after the Nashville disaster, and
promoted to lieutenant-general, on January 24, 1865, assumed com
mand of the district of Mississippi, east Louisiana and west Ten
nessee. He was in effect the supreme power in the State. He
issued orders giving the army police duties as well as military, and
directing the suppression or extermination of the prowling bands
of irregular home guards. Reorganization of the cavalry was
begun by Chalmers at West Point, and by Lowry of Gholson's
brigade and by Henderson of McCulloch's, at Palo Alto. Gover
nor Clark proposed to organize more militia, but he had only
2,t)00 stand of arms and 15 rounds of ammunition, and no more
was to be had. Early in February Gen. Marcus J. Wright was

MISSISSIPPI 919
assigned by Forrest to immediate command in North Mississippi
and Gen. Wirt Adams to south Mississippi and east Louisiana.
Gen. Chalmers was given command of all the Mississippi cavalry,
which was organized in the following commands, each being but
a fragment: Gen. F. C. Armstrong's brigade: 1st regiment, Col.
R. A. Pinson; 2d, Col. E. Dillon; 7th and Ballentine's, Col. Bal-
lentine; Ashcraft's regiment; 8th, Col. T. W. White; parts of the
5th and 12th regiments. Gen. Wirt Adams' brigade: regiments of
Colonels Wood, Brent, McGuirk, Dumonteil, Powers, H. H. Miller
(9th), and 23d battalion. Gen. P. B. Starke's brigade: Wilbourn's
4th regiment; 6th, 9th, 10th and 8th Confederate, Col. W. B.
Wade; 28th, Major McBee; part of George's regiment and f8th
battalion, Col. A. H. Chalmers.
The two Mississippi brigades of Hood's army, under Sharp and
Brantley, were at Meridian, but were sent east. All the Missis
sippi valley, east of the river, was stripped of Confederate infantry
to make an army with which Johnston might prevent Sherman
from marching north through the Carolinas to unite with Grant.
Beauregard informed Gen. Taylor, March 9, that he could expect
no help at Mobile, nor could any money be sent to pay the men.
As desertion was becoming epidemic he advised Taylor to remove
everything valuable to Macon, Ga.
Early in March a Federal cavalry brigade marched through
northern Mississippi without opposition. Later in the same month
Gen. George H. Thomas, whose headquarters were at Eastport,
sent Gen. James H. Wilson with 10,000 cavalry on a raid through
Alabama and Georgia. Forrest led his whole command to meet
him, and on April 2, the day Lee evacuated Richmond, fought
the battle of Selma, in which 2,700 of his men were made prisoners.
With the remnant he returned to Meridian.
In the lines of Mobile the remnant of Sears' brigade of the army
of Tennessee, under Col. Thomas N. Adair, was on duty in March
and April, and upon the evacuation, also fell back to Meridian,
Taylor's headquarters. After the news arrived of the surrender of
Lee and Johnston, Gen. Taylor and Gen. Canby met at Citronelle,
and arranged the last important capitulation, May 4, 1865. The
men at Meridian were paroled, and boys in gray and blue met in
friendship. Taylor's advice was asked and followed by Canby,
regarding the disposition of troops to restore order and promote
the revival of industry. "What years of discorrJ, bitterness, injus
tice and loss would not our country have been spared," wrote Gen.
Taylor, "had the wounds of war healed by the first intention under
the gentle ministration of the hands that fought the battles."
The official records show the following, list of hostilities in Mis
sissippi in 1865 : Jan. 2 — engagement at Franklin, skirmish at
Lexington; Jan. 3- — skirmish near Mechanicsburg; Jan. 4 — skirm
ish at The Ponds ; Jan. 19 — skirmish at Corinth ; May 3-6 — opera
tions about Fort Adams ; expedition Rodney to Port Gibson. The
latter was a mpvement by Col. G. W. Jackson with 335 men of
the 9th Indiana, which, according, to the report, charged into Port

920 MISSISSIPPI
Gibson, killing one man and taking two prisoners, on the 3d.
Raiding parties were sent out, that skirmished with "Owen's
scouts." On the morning of the 5th, Capt. Walker, of Gen.
Tucker's staff, and Capt. William Thompson, commanding the
picket line, at Fayette, came in with a flag of truce, and informed
Jackson of the armistice made by Generals Taylor and Canby.
Their authority for this was a dispatch from Gen. Martin at Brook
haven, who learned the news from Taylor's dispatch to Hum
phreys, May 2. This fighting about Port Gibson was on the same
day as the capitulation at Citronelle, May 4.
A complete list of the engagements within the State during the
war, and an index to the Official Records relating to the same, was
contributed by Gen. S. D. Lee to Volume VIII of the Historical
Society publications. The list shows over five hundred dates on
which Federal and Confederate forces were in collision, of suffi
cient importance to be given a place in the official reports. These
actipns were within a space pf three years, from the spring of
1862 to the spring of 18.65.
War, Seminole. In December, 1835, occurred the Dade massacre
in Florida, the first startling event in Indian affairs in the South
since the massacre at Fort Mims. Gen. E. P. Gaines, in command
at New Orleans, called for volunteers from the militia of the ad
joining States, including Mississippi, and organized a regiment in
Louisiana, with which, and a battalion of regulars, he sailed to
Tampa in February, 1836, advanced to the Withlacoochee river, and
was there besieged for a fortnight by the Seminoles, until relieved
by Gen. Clinch. Undoubtedly some Mississippians were with this
command, though the newspapers of the period are singularly
silent. Alexander Bradford was known afterward as "the hero of
Withlacoochee." Several companies were organized which did not
go, as Gaines' movement was unauthorized, and resulted in a
famous battle of words between him and Gen. Winfield Scott, and
a court martial. One company of sixty was organized in Yalobusha
county and marched to Vicksburg, where they were disbanded by
order of the president. The State expended $6,135 in calling out
volunteers in compliance with the requisition of General Gaines,
and congress declined to respond to the appeal of the State for
refunding as late as 1848. There was in the affair something of
politics, associated with the movement to organize two States in
Florida, which created greater enthusiasm to hunt the Seminoles
through the swarflps than existed further North ; b.ut Mississippi
does not appear to have been excited on the subject, the Alamo
being the principal focus of attention at that time.
War with Creeks, 1813-14. The sanguinary struggle known as
the Creek War of 1813 and 1814, took place in what is now
southern Alabama, but was then the eastern part of Mississippi
Territory. It formed, as it were, a stirring side issue to the greater
conflict then raging — the War of 1812 between Great Britain and
the United States. Begun by the war party of the Creeks in the
effort to crush the large and growing settlements of white pioneers,

MISSISSIPPI 921
along the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, it developed into a war,
almost of extermination, against the Creeks themselves.
The Creeks ranked first in military prowess and political sagacity
among the tribes of Southern Indians forming the great Choctaw-
Muscogee family. Their famous political Confederacy had its origin
in remote times, embracing numerous subjugated tribes, as well as
fugitive tribes that had applied to the Creek nation for protection.
At the time of the war the region embraced by the Creek Con
federacy extended from the Oconee river in Georgia to the Alabama
river. Indeed, the western members of the Confederacy, the Ali
bamos, claimed to the banks of the Tombigbee. The country of
the Upper Creeks lay along the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers, and
that of the Lower Creeks along the Chattahoochee. Most of the
Upper Creek towns (with which are included the Alibamos), were
hostile to the Americans, while the Lower Creeks, strongly influ--
enced by the government agent, Col. Hawkins, were for the most
part friendly. Before it ended, the war was waged by the Creeks to
maintain their homes, their hunting grounds, their burial places
and the land of their ancestors, and the Indians fought with a
desperation that "has hardly a precedent in Indian contests." For
nearly ten months this powerful Confederacy was able to offer a
successful resistance to trained American soldiers, and even
jeopardized the very existence of the pioneer white settlements
along the Mobile, Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. The Creeks ap
pear to have had at this time about fifty towns and some 10,000
members, including the women and children. The white settle
ments embraced about 2,000 whites, and a nearly equal number of
blacks, and were thinly scattered along the western banks of the
Mobile and Tombigbee for more than seventy miles, while they ex
tended nearly seventy-five miles upon the eastern borders of the
Mobile and Alabama. It is difficult to conceive the almost complete
isolation of these white settlements ; on their south were the Span
iards ; on the east, separating them from Georgia, were the Creeks ;
on the west was the broad country of the Choctaws, between them
and older white settlements at the Natchez and the Yazoo ; and on
the north were the Creeks and Chickasaws, dividing them from the
settlements in the bend of the Tennessee river. Many causes had
combined to draw the whites to this region at an early period, and
the French, British and Spanish had all made treaties with the
Indians which opened up the country. The policy of the United
States when it came into control of the Mississippi Territory was
sufficiently aggressive. March 28, 1797, Washington made a treaty
with the Creeks by which that nation ceded lands for government
trading posts, and Col. Benjamin Hawkins was shortly after ap
pointed government agent among the Creeks. May 5, 1799, Ameri
can troops from Natchez, under Lieut. John McClary, marched
across Mississippi and occupied St. Stephens. A few weeks later
these troops moved south and built Fort Stoddert at Wards Bluff,
a' few miles above the boundary line between the Spanish province
of West Florida and the American territory of Mississippi ; it was

922 MISSISSIPPI
three miles below the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee, and
about 50 miles above Mobile. In 1802 a treaty was made with the
Choctaws and a tract of land was ceded to the United States, which
is said to have called forth this protest from "Mad Wolf," a Creek
chief: "The people of Tombigbee have put over their cattle in the
Fork on the Alibamo hunting grounds, and have gone a great way
on our lands. I want them put back. We all know they are
Americans." In 1805 some thirty Creek chiefs and warriors, then •
in Washington, through pressure brought to bear upon them there,
had taken on themselves the right to cede the use of a horse path
through the Creek country ; and the same year the Choctaws, by the
treaty of Mt. Dexter, ceded 5,000,000 acres of their land to the
United States, which embraced the Creek claim west of the water
shed. In 1811, the grant of a "horse path" became the much used
Federal Road, which was cut from a point on the Chattahoochee
river to Mims' Ferry on the Alabama, and the Creeks were much
stirred up by the constant stream of white emigrants moving to the
western settlements from the Atlantic seaboard. The white settle-
merits tended to encroach more and more on the Alibamo hunting
grounds. In the fall of 1811, or the spring of 1812, came from the
North the persuasive and eloquent chief, Tecumseh, to the Creeks
assembled at Tookabatcha. Tecumseh was making the grand
circuit of the Indian tribes, and he made every effort to induce the
Southern Indians to join his great confederacy, urging that "the
Creeks could thus recover all the country that the whites had taken
from them ; and that the British would protect them in their rights."
His efforts, followed by those of his prophet emissaries, aroused a
war spirit among the Creeks before which the friendly Indians fled
for safety. The great trade center of the Spaniards was at Pensa
cola ; they looked with growing disfavor on these river settlements.
The Indians were constantly coming and going among them, and
the Spaniards took great pains to stir them to further discontent.
After the War of 1812, the British exerted all their influence to
provoke the Indians to hostilities. The great exciting cause of the
Creek war is thus seen to be "the large and growing settlements of
white pioneers along the Tombigbee and the Alabariia rivers. En
croachments upon the Indian hunting grounds and rights were of
necessity made. The great wagon road was an encroachment ; the
presence of so many white families with their cattle and hogs and
horses was an encroachment. It needed not Tecumseh's stirring
words to assure them that they must before long give up their
Indian life, cultivate the ground, and accept the white man's civili
zation ; or they must migrate ; or they must break up this settlement
of sturdy frontier families on their western borders. Their pro
posed attempt thus to do, encouraged by the Spaniards, by Te
cumseh and the British, brought on the disastrous Creek War."
(The Creek War, Halbert and Ball.)
It is in evidence that the Creeks, in July, 1813, endeavored to
persuade the Choctaws at Pushmataha (in present Choctaw county,
Ala.) to join them in a war against the whites, but were unsuccess-

MISSISSIPPI 923 *
ful, as Tecumseh had been before them. The whites were aware of
the growing war spirit, and were further alarmed by occasional
outrages perpetrated by the Indians against white settlers, such as
the abduction of Mrs. Crawley from her home near the mouth of
the Tennessee river, and afterwards brayely rescued by "the daring
backwoodsman," Tandy Walker, and brought to St. Stephens.
Alarmed by the rising war-cloud, the settlers on the Mobile and
Tensaw arid the Alabama and Tombigbee, hastily improvised a line
of stockades or forts, which stretched across the neck of Clarke
county from river to river. Altogether there were in the summer of
1813 some twenty of these so-called forts, including those erected at
an earlier day such as Fort St. Stephens, Fort Stoddert, Fort Madi
son, and the two forts and U. S. arsenal at Mount Vernon. Farther
west, in what is now Wayne county, Miss, were also Patton's Fort
at Winchester and Roger's Fort, six miles above. Gen. Wilkinson
and a force of United States troops had captured Mobile in April,
1813, and here was the fine old Fort Charlotte, built by the French,
and now manned by an American garrison ; also the new Fort
Bowyer, built by the Americans at the mouth of Mobile Bay. As
the alarm spread, plantations were deserted, and refugees filled the
forts. Ill-fated Fort Mims was situated on the east side of the
Alabama, a short distance below the "cut off," and about a quarter
of a mile from the Tensaw Boat Yard. According to the historian
Pickett, there were in this fort or stockade in August, 1813, 553
human beings, made up of white settlers, a few Spaniards, colored
people, and half-breeds; of these 265 were soldiers, including 70
home militia commanded by Capt. Dixon Bailey,' a detachment
from Mount Vernon under Lieut. Osborn, and 175 Mississippi vol
unteers under Major Daniel Beasley. Major Beasley was in general
command of the fort. General F. L. Claiborne, with a force of
regulars, was in command at Fort Stoddert and Mount Vernon;
Col. Joseph Carson was the military commander between the Tom
bigbee and Alabama; Col. James Caller, of Washington county,
was the senior militia officer on the frontier; Gen. Wilkinson had
been ordered to the Canadian border, and Gen. Flournoy succeeded
him in general command of the Southwest at Mobile and New
Orleans. In July, 1813, news came that- a force of hostile Creeks led by
Peter McQueen had gone to Pensacola to obtain arms and ammu
nition from Governor Manique. On receipt of this information,
Col. Caller, at St. Stephens, raised a force of about 180 militia,
mounted and armed, and intercepted the Indians, or at least a
portion of them, at Burnt Corn on July 27. The whites were poorly
organized and disciplined, and though they surprised the Indians
and gained an initial success, they were ultimately routed with loss
and completely dispersed. The worst feature of this first battle
was the loss of. white prestige which followed, and it was at once
followed by more serious depredations on the part of the Indians,
including the terrible massacre at Fort Mims. It is only fair to say
that neither Col. Hawkins, the government agent living among the

924 MISSISSIPPI
• Creeks, nor Gen. Flournoy, who was doubtless influenced by the
former, believed that the war party in the Creek nation would
prevail. Hence we even find Flournoy writing Gen. Claiborne
August 10, 1813, after the Fort Mims' affair, "Your wish to pene
trate into the Indian country, with a view of commencing the war,
does not meet my approbation, and I again repeat, our operations
must be confined to defensive measures." It is the belief of many
candid historians, such as Halbert, that strict adherence to the
policy of Gen. Flournoy, would have prevented the disasters at
Burnt Corn and Fort Mims, and very possibly have prevented a
serious war at all. Says Brewer : "The savages highly incensed at
the attack on them at Burnt Corn, July 27, 1813, resolved to avenge
themselves on the Tensaw and Tombigbee settlers." Thus one
vengeance succeeded another.
The following account of the events succeeding Burnt Corn is
abridged from Hamilton's excellent chapter on the Creek War:
"It was at noon on the 30th of August, while dancing was going on,
and a negro was about to be whipped for giving what was deemed
a false alarm of Indians coming, that McQueen and Weatherford
and their thousand savages dashed through the open gate of the
palisade surrounding the house of Samuel Mims on the Tensaw.
Major Beasley redeemed his carelessness by dying sword in hand,
and the noble half-breed Dixon Bailey bravely led on the whites
in defense of the women and children. But the odds were too
great, and at last fire aided the butchery by the savages. Even
Bailey was mortally wounded, and hardly two dozen escaped of
the five hundred and fifty men, women, and children in that stock
aded acre of ground. God's acre it was, for, when a relief corps
came, it was only to find ashes, and mangled and burning dead.
Neighboring Fort Pierce was abandoned during that battle and
Lieutenant Montgomery led its pebple to Mbbile; while-, among
other fugitives from Fort Mims, David Tate and some of his family
escaped with the two Pierces on a flatboat down to Fort Stoddert."
The tragedy enacted at Fort Mims aroused the whole country and
steps were at once taken to invade the Creek country from the
north, west and east, with the purpose of annihilating the Creeks
as a nation. Chiefly through the efforts of Capt. George S. Gaines
and .Col. McKee, the friendly cooperation of the Choctaws and
Chickasaws was secured, and a battalion of about 150 Choctaw
warriors, under Pushmataba, fought with Gen. Claiborne at the
Holy Ground. Later in the war, another force of 53 warriors, com
manded by Pushmataha, with Moshulitubbee as . second in com
mand, formed part of»Maj. Blue's detachment, and materially aided
in bringing the war to a close; indeed, the whole record of the
Choctaw warriors throughout the war was an honorable one and
showed the nation was truly loyal to the United States.
Inflamed by the news from Fort Mims, Andrew Jackson and his
brigade of mounted volunteers came down from Nashville, Tenn,
and joined by Cherokees, and friendly Creeks, "captured Tallese-
hatche, founded Fort Strother, and on Nov. 9 (1813) won the battle

MISSISSIPPI 925
of Talladega. . . . From the east, too, the Georgians under
Floyd defeated the Creeks at Autose, but had to retire from lack of
provisions. General Claiborne fortunately construed the 'defense
of Mobile' broadly, and in November, 1813, from the west he also
marched into the enemy's territory. Above the site of the Canoe
fight (where Nov. 12, 1813, Sam Dale, Jeremiah Austill and James
Smith engaged in their daring hand-to-hand conflict with nine
Indians and slew them one by one), Fort Claiborne at Weather-
ford's Bluff was built as a base of supplies, and his square fort
can still be traced on the bluff of the Alabama river. His objective
was Econachaca, the Holy Ground, on a bluff of the Alabama in
what is now Lowndes county. , It had been built by Weatherford
as a place of safety, where plunder was secured and white prisoners
burned. Impregnable, the prophets said, but Claiborne stormed it
on December 23, and drove into the water those savages who were
not killed outright, for there was little quarter in this war. Weather
ford himself fled, and with characteristic daring leaped his gray
horse Arrow over into the river. The town was burned to the
ground, after the army reserved some supplies and the plunder had
been turned over to Pushmataha." This battle practically ended
the participation of the Mississippi twelve months' volunteers in
the Creek war, as their term of service had ended, and Claiborne's
army soon disbanded. It is not our purpose here to trace in detail
the closing scenes of the war. Suffice it to say that the country
of the Creeks was overrun and devastated from three directions by
forces from the north, east and west. Though the Creeks fought
with the courage of desperation, the struggle was too one-sided and
could not long endure. The great decisive battle was fought at
the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa river March 27, 1814, be
tween Jackson and his Cherokee allies, and some twelve hundred
Creeks gathered here for a final stand. The battle was little more
than a slaughter, and barely two hundred Creek warriors escaped
alive, while the loss to the American troops was nominal. The
final treaty of peace was not concluded, however, until August 9,
1814, between Jackson and the defeated Creeks. In this treaty
they surrendered to the United States all their lands, except the
part east of the Coosa river and of a line drawn southeastwardly
from Fort Jackson (the old French Toulouse) ; the Creeks were
forbidden all communication with British or Spanish posts ; and the
United States were given the right to establish military posts,
roads and free navigation of waters within the territory guaranteed
the Creeks. The war was fatal to the Creeks, and their formidable
strength was forever broken.
War with Spain, 1898. Mississippi was first involved in the cir
cumstances of a Cuban revolution in the administration of John A.
Quitman (q. v.). There was a Mississippian among the revolu
tionists executed at Santiago in 1848, with Lopez, (q. v.) The
final revolution began in February, 1895, under the leadership of
Maceo and Marti, who sailed to the island from ' Fernandina, Fla.
In 1896, when the revolution was at its height, and Gen. Weyler

926 MISSISSIPPI
hadnot yet taken command, the legislature of Mississippi adopted a
resolution extending sympathy to the Cuban people in their strug
gle for freedom and independence, adding, "we call on the Con
gress and the president of these United States and request them
to grant belligerent rights to the Cuban Republic." In January,
1898, upon information of the condition of the island under the
Weyler administration received from Maj. George L. Donald, the
legislature resolved that "we believe it to be the duty of the United
States government to at once intervene, peaceably if it can, but
forcibly if it must, to save the people of Cuba from the cruel fate
of annihilation by the barbarous and inhuman methods of the
Spanish government." The representations of the United States
government in the first year of the McKinley administration led
to the recall of Weyler, arid the proposal of Cuban autonomy.
But the revolution continued, and on February 15, 1898, the bat
tleship Maine, sent to Havana harbor on the request of Consul
Fitzhugh Lee, was destroyed by an explosion. This was followed
by a popular demand for war, but the government restricted itself
to proposals of intervention and demand for an armistice. At
tempts to form an European coalition against the United States-,
and preparation in the United States for war, followed, until war
was declared in April, upon which the president called upon the
States, April 21, for 125,000 men. '
The quota of Mississippi was two regiments, and Governor Mc
Laurin on April 29, 1898, called for volunteers. The State had no
funds on hand, but as all expenses were to be borne by the United
States, individual credit sufficed. After the war, Col. Jones S. *
Hamilton, as agent of the State, received $34,469 from the United
States treasury, and disbursed the same to claimants. Camp Pat
Henry was established near Jackson, under command of Col-
George C. Hoskins, May 10, and the Capital Light Guards was
the first company to go into camp there, rapidly followed by other
companies of the National Guard, which furnished over half the
men enlisted.
The First regiment Mississippi volunteer infantry, was mus
tered in at the camp May 26, 1898, and left for the United States-
army camp at Chickamauga park, May 30. The principal officers
of this regiment were as follows : Col. George M. Govan, Lieut.-
Col H. O. Williams, Majors George L. Donald, D. Price Porter,
Surgeon Robert L. Turner, Assistant Surgeons H. L. Bauer, F. M.
Shepperd; Adj. George S. Yerger, Quartermaster William Henry,
succeeded by R. H. Campbell ; Chaplain Frank M. Keene, Chief
Musician Carl Leake. Captains — Co. A, Thomas H. Shields,
Vicksburg; Co. B, Edgar N. Coffey, Fayette; Co. C, Frank L.
Bahin, Natchez ; Co. D, Edgar R. DuMont, Scranton ; Co. E,
Henry E. Ramsey, Hazelhurst ; Co. F, James O. Fuller, Jackson ;
Co. G, William F. Scales, Wesson ; Co. H, Daniel D. Ewing, Fern
wood ; Co. I, Charles W. Schamber, Meridian ; Co. K, R. M.
Dease, Hickory; Co. L, Archie Fairley, Hattiesburg; Co. M,
Charles R: Shannon, Ellisville.

MISSISSIPPI 927
The Second regiment was mustered at the Jackson camp June 9,
1898, about the time the first army sailed from Tampa. The prin
cipal officers of this regiment were : Col. William A. Montgomery,
Lt.-Col. Devereaux Shields, Majors George C. Hoskins, John P.
Mayo; Adj. Joseph M. Jayne, Jr., Quartermaster Hiram Cassedy,
Jr., Surgeon (major) M. W. Hamilton, Surgeon (captain) Henry
C. Kent, Chief Musician Hiram K. Ford succeeded by W. G.
Leslie, Chaplain E. D. Soloman. Captains — Co. A, Ellis Crom
well, West Point; Co. B. Edgar H. Woods, Rosedale; Co. C,
Henry T. Ireys, Greenville ; Co. D, Cicero L. Lincoln, Columbus ;
Co. E, John W. Henderson, Tunica; Co. F, Lewis M. Southworth,
CarroUton; Co. G, Harvey J. Jones, Water Valley; Co. H, Eugene
Montgomery, Natchez; Co. I, James S. Butler, Yazoo City; Co.
K, Edmund F. Noel, Lexington ; Co. L, John B. McFarland, Aber
deen; Co. M, James A. Glover, Friar's Point. Company M was
from Memphis and there was a sprinkling of recruits from West
ern and other States in both regiments, but mainly in the Second.
Under the second call by the President, in which the quota of
\ Mississippi was six companies, the Third regiment was organized
at Camp Henry and mustered-in August 4, with the following
principal officers : Lt.-Col. Robert W. Banks, Majors Robert L.
Crook, Jr., Washington D. Gibbs, Jr., Assistant Surgeons P. A.
Scale, R. A. Anderson, D. S. Humphreys, Chaplain John A. Ran
dolph. Captains : Co. A, Samuel L. Gwin, Greenwood ; Co. B,
W. E. Hopkins, Hickory ; Co. C, Charles G. McGhee, Columbus ;
Co. D, Alden Trotter, Lexington ; Co. E, Robert L. Butler, Mead-
ville; Co. F, F. T. Raiford, Senatobia. Some of these companies
were almost entirely enlisted in Chicago and New Orleans ard in
various States outside of Mississippi. The regiments incl-.ded
some of the finest young men of the State, and their colonels were-
veterans of the Confederate army. It was not the fortune of these
commands to reach the field of battle. They were part of that
"mighty army in camp, ready and eager for the field," in the words
of President McKinley, that "should be given equal credit with
those who participated in the short but decisive campaigns in
Cuba. It was their presence, ready at an hour's notice for any
emergency, that taught the enemy that further resistance would
be hopeless." The 1st regiment was mustered out at Columbia,
Tenn, December 20, 1898 ; the 2d at the same place on the follow
ing day, and the 3d at Albany, Ga, March 17, 1899. Col. Govan
died not long after the war.
Another command formed in the State was the 5th Immune regi
ment, U. S. volunteers, mustered in at Columbus, composed of
enlistments from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and com
manded by Col. H. D. Money, Jr., of Mississippi. James K. Var
daman, of Mississippi, was one of the majors. This regiment was
one of those that relieved the army of Gen. Shaffer at Santiago,
when courage was required to face the danger of pestilence, and
did garrison duty from August, 1898, to March, 1899.

928 MISSISSIPPI
Ward, Benjamin F, is a native of South Carolina, the youngest
child of William F. Ward arid Martha (Mecklin) Ward, both of
whom were of Irish ancestry. Dr. Ward's father died when he
was an infant, and in 1846 he was brought by his mother to Mis
sissippi. He is principally self educated. When a young man he
went to Carroll county, where he taught school and began the
study of medicine. He took medical courses in the University of
Louisiana and the Atlanta Medical College, graduating from the
latter in 1859. He located in Carroll County, where he practiced
his profession until the outbreak of the war. In 1861 he enlisted
in the Confederate army as a private, but was soon promoted to
the position of surgeon, and afterwards to that of brigade surgeon
of Gen. Joseph R. Davis' brigade. He was made a member of the
army medical board of health, serving through the campaigns in
Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Dr. Ward was taken pris
oner at Gettysburg and held for five months at Ft. McHenry, Bal
timore. He was exchanged, reentered the service, and surren
dered with Lee at Appomattox. After the war he located at
Winona, where he has been actively and successfully engaged in
the practice of medicine. He soon rose to eminence, not only in
his profession, but as a writer and public speaker. In 1886 he pub
lished an article on the Old South that was regarded as a very able
production, and was commented on throughout the nation. He
has never been a candidate for office, but has long been one of the
most eminent and influential men of the State. Dr. Ward was
married June 3, 1886, to Miss Mary H. Hardeman. He has long
been a member of the State Medical Association, and is president
of the State Board of Health.
Ward, William, was born in August, 1823, at Litchfield, Conn.
At the age of 16 he located at Columbus, Miss, and while there
was a contributor to the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. He re
moved to Macon in 1850. In 1870, after refusing office from the
reconstruction government, he became editor of the Macon Beacon
and an ardent Democrat. He died December 27, 1887. Among
his best known poems are, "Gettysburg," "The Dying Year," and
"The Ride of the Ku Klux Klan."
Wardwell, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Calhoun
county, on Tupashaw creek, about 10 miles from Pittsboro, the
county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Ware, Nathaniel A, last Territorial secretary, was born in Mas
sachusetts about 1789 ; went to South Carolina in early manhood
as a teacher ; read law and began the practice ; and thence removed
to Natchez, where he became a major of militia and amassed con
siderable wealth by transactions in land. He was appointed sec
retary of the Territory to succeed Daingerfield, deceased, June 7,
1815, and served until the inauguration of Governor Holmes as gov
ernor of the State, in October, 1817. He was acting governor in
the absence of Holmes, from April, 1815, to May, 1816. As presi
dent of one of the banks in 1839 he was the first signer of the
famous address to the Southern people (see Macon Convention).

MISSISSIPPI 929
Major Ware travelled extensively, and was known for his attain
ments in botany, geography and the natural sciences. In later years
he lived at Cincinnati and Philadelphia and published "Views on
the Federal Constitution" and "Notes on Political Economy," and
a work on education. He married a daughter of Capt. Charles
Percy, of the British navy, an inhabitant of Louisiana. Two of
their daughters were noted in the popular, literature of 1844 to 1877
— Catherine Ann, born at Natchez, June 6, 1816, who married Rob
ert E. Warfield, of Lexington, Ky, and Eleanor Percy, born at
Washington, Miss, in 1820, who married Henry Lee, and died
at Natchez in 1849. The two sisters published books of poems
in 1844 and 1846, and Catherine published ten novels, beginning
with "The Household of Bouverie" in I860, and ending with "The
Cardinal's Daughter," 1877, in which year she died in Kentucky.
Warfield, Catharine. See Ware, N. A.
Warren County was established by act of the General Assem
bly December 22, 1809, which declared that "All that part of the
Mississippi territory which lies north of the river Big Black, is
* hereby erected into a new county, which shall be hereafter called
and known by the name of Warren." It was named in honor of
Gen. Joseph Warren, officer in the Continental army, who fell at
the battle of Bunker Hill. It formerly included within its limits
a part of old Washington, (q. v.) and the present counties of Is
saquena and Sharkey. The Mississippi river forms its entire
western boundary, the Big Black river divides it from Claiborne
county on the south and Hinds county on the east, and the Yazoo
river forms part of the irregular boundary line between it and
Issaquena county on the north. The northeastern boundary line
between Warren and Yazoo counties was the subject of repeated
legislation prior to the year 1850, (see Yazoo County) and as now
established, is a jagged line connecting the Big Black and Yazoo
rivers. The county now has an area of about 601 square miles. It
comprised the northernmost part of the old "Natchez District" and
the whole region is replete with historic interest. As early as
1718, the Mississippi Company, chartered by France, which was
then in possession of the Mississippi valley, attempted to locate
settlers on the Yazoo river by making extensive land grants along
that stream. When the eighteenth century closed, a few inhabi
tants were distributed near the Walnut Hills, and near the Big
Black river, in the present county of Warren. With the opening
of the Natchez Trace (q. v.) a considerable emigration from the
States of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and western Pennsylvania,
composed of men of capital and enterprise, began to stream into
the Natchez District and the settlements in the region of War
ren county were largely augmented. In 1803, a land office was
established at Washington in Adams county, which adjudicated
private claims to a large portion of the lands within the limits
of the white settlements near the Mississippi, claimed and occu
pied in large part by virtue of grants or titles derived through the
authorities of England, Spain and the State of Georgia. The com-
59-11

930 MISSISSIPPI
mission of the land office at Washington concluded its labors in
1807, after recording two thousand and ninety claims, and thus
were settled many of the early titles along the Yazoo, Big Black
and Mississippi rivers, in Warren county. (See "Land Titles.")
Until the year 1798, the Spaniards maintained a fort and garrison
at the "Walnut Hills," just north of the present city limits of
Vicksburg, but never made any serious effort to colonize the
region. By the year 1837, the county had attained a population of
5,265 whites, and 9,686 slaves. In 1890 the population was 33,164,
and in 1900 40,912, and is increasing at a rapid rate. Some of the
county officers during the years 1818-1827 were John Turnbull,
Isaac Rapalje, Francis Griffin, John Jenkins, Thos. K. McElrath,
John Templeton, Jacob Hyland, Justices of the Quorum ; Henry D.
Downs, John Dana, James Knowland, Thos. B. Tompkins, Foster
Cook, Wm. Whitefield, Allen Sharkey, Chas. S. Spann, James
Gibson, Jos. Templeton, Robert L. Matthews, James Bland, Alex. '
M. McCulloch, Ch. Gee, Ch. Henderson, Wm. B. Cook, Richard
Featherston, Lewis McLemurry, Stephen Howard, Isaac W. Davis,
Hartwell Cocke, Nelson Jackson, Henry Maynadier, Daniel Whit-
taker, Hartwell Vick, Samuel Cox, Paul C. Abney, Joseph Hough,
Jas. M. Bitner, Jas. R. Blunt, John Bobb, Sinclair D. Gervais,
Bennet M. Kines, Justices of the Peace; Andrew Glass, Henry D.
Downs, Jr., Sheriffs; John Hyland, Tho. Evans, Jordan Gibson,
Anthony Durden, Assessors and Collectors; Thos. Griffin, Andrew
Haynes, Treasurers; John Blanchard, Foster Cook, County Sur
veyors; Benj. C. Lamdell, Inspector and Keeper of Weights and
Measures; Samuel Blanchard. Jesse Barfield, Coroners; James Gib
son, Judge of Probate; Robert Armstrong, Auctioneer of the
County; Francis M. Beckwith, President of Selectmen, Vicks
burg ; Russel Smith, Wiley Bohanon, Associate Justices. Jacob
Hyland, Wm. L. Sharkey, Francis Griffin and the families of
Glass, Pace, Rawls, McElrath, Hicks, Griffin, Lewis and Haynes
were very early settlers in the southern part of the county. (See
Lowry & McCardle, History of Mississippi, for an excellent list
of the early settlers of Warren County.) In the central part is a
neighborhood called the "Gibson Settlement," settled at an early
day by the Rev. Tobias Gibson, an early Methodist missionary to
Mississippi, and his brother, Rev. Randall Gibson, prominent citi
zens and related to many of the best families of today. Near the site
of the National Cemetery was an early settlement, where lived
H. P. Morancy, Dr. John Jenkins, the Fergusons, Turnbulls, Throck-
mortons and Samuel A. Davis, brother of President Jefferson
Davis. In a region, about seven miles northeast of Vicksburg, was
a settlement in the early days known as "Open Woods",, surveyed
by Foster Cook, and entered by him for four of the Vicks and four
of the Cook families. The Cook home was a stopping place for
many of the distinguished men of the State. (For a list of some
of the early settlers of Vicksburg, see title "Vicksburg") The
early county seat of Warren was at Warrenton, (incorporated in
1820), 12 miles down the river from Vicksburg, which as late as

MISSISSIPPI 931
1861 had a population of six to eight hundred, but has only 40
people now. It was not until 1824 that the present city of Vicks
burg was laid out, and a charter was obtained in 1825, and not until
1836 that the seat of justice was changed to Vicksburg by a vote
of the people. The founder, Rev. Newitt Vick, gave his name
to the city that was to be, but it was not surveyed into lots
until after his death. Then his son-in-law, Rev. John Lane, the
administrator with the will annexed, after a legal contest, cafried
out Mr. Vick's intentions. The site of Vicksburg\at the junction
of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, and the first high land on
the east bank of the Mississippi river for over four hundred miles,
was meant by nature for a large commercial centre. Here has
grown up a city of 14,834 inhabitants (census of 1900), the largest
city in the State and the third in number of manufacturing estab
lishments and capital invested. In the old days the city was a
social centre for the planting aristocracy, while the many magnifi
cent steamers, which plied the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers,
brought rich tribute to its port, from the fertile Yazoo-Mississippi
, Delta above it, and from the rich alluvial lands of Louisiana on
the south. The city has had a stormy and checkered career. It
emerged undaunted from the horrors of the long siege and bom
bardment in the War between the States, only to suffer a disas
trous fire in 1866 ; a cut off by the river in 1876, a decimating
scourge of yellow fever in 1878, and another large fire in 1883,
while its citizens lost more than a million dollars in the collapse
of the Mississippi banks. In the light of these facts it makes an
excellent showing in 1900 with $1,360,890 invested in manufac
tures, and a total output valued at $1,871,843, the second largest
in the State. The Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, the Alabama &
Vicksburg, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific railroads,
together with the largest fleet of river craft south of St. Louis,
provide the city with splendid shipping facilities. There are no
Other cities of importance in the county. The Yazoo & Mississippi
Valley R. R. traverses the county from north to south, and Vicks
burg is the terminus of the Alabama & Vicksburg. The topog
raphy of the county is of the most varied character, including
large areas of rich alluvial lands in the Mississippi, Yazoo and Big
Black bottoms, and a still larger area of uplands. These highlands
attain their greatest altitude near the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers,
and slope toward the Big Black, the eastern boundary of the
county. The soil is of a rich, brownish loam, intermixed with
sea shells, and is of great fertility. At one time these hills were
densely covered with immense walnut trees, from which fact the
name "Walnut Hills" was derived. About one half of the land
is open and the balance is extensively timbered with hardwood for
the most part, consisting of white, red and black oak, poplar, ash,
locust, elm, magnolia and some walnut. On the bottoms are found
gum, cottonwood and immense cypress brakes. In 1900 there were
116,942 acres of improved farm lands in the county, producing
cotton, corn, sorghum, oats, a great variety of grasses, and an

932 ' MISSISSIPPI
abundance of fruits and vegetables. The bluff formation here
seems to be the home of the grape and the pear. As is natural in
a region which is the watershed between three great rivers, it is
well watered by an abundance of streams both large and small.
This is an excellent stock country and the live stock are now val
ued at nearly three quarters of a million dollars. The herd of
Jersey cattle owned by Dr. W. E. Oates is known to breeders
everywhere. The climate is mild and equable. An imprpved
water supply and an efficient quarantine system have minimized
the dangers from malaria and yellow fever.
The following statistics for the county were taken from the last
United States census for 1900, and relate to farms, manufactures
and population : — Number of farms 4,058, acreage in farms 221,-
851, acres improved 116,942, value of the land exclusive of build
ings $2,176,090, value of the buildings $627,210, value of live stock
$706,581, total value of products not fed to stock $1,794,695. Num
ber of manufacturing establishments 133, capital invested $1,682,-
805, wages paid $597,592, cost of materials $l,l302,307, total value
of products $2,404,797. The population of Warren county in 1900
was whites 10,346, colored 30,566, total 40,912, increase over the
year 1890, 7,748. The total assessed valuation of real and personal
property in Warren county in 1905 was $7,695,530 and in 1906 it
was $8,941,060, which shows an increase of $1,245,530 during the
year. Warrenton. This was an important river town of Warren
county during the first half of the last century. When that county
was first organized in 180'9, Warrenton was made its county seat,
and it was not until 1836, as the result of a plebiscite, that the seat
of justice was transferred to Vicksburg. Its location was about
twelve miles below Vicksburg and the place was incorporated by
the Legislature in 1820, several years before Vicksburg was even
laid out. The loss of the county seat was a severe blow to its
prosperity, but it continued to be a place of importance down to
1861, at which time it still had a population of several hundred
people. We are told that it was here "the first company was
formed in 1819 for the purpose of constructing local lines pf levees
to protect the adjoining plantations from the overflows of the
Mississippi river. In 1812 "large quantities of cotton were ex
ported from Warrenton." The old town has almost disappeared
as the river changed its course just above the town, so that boats
could no longer touch at its landing.
Warsaw, a postoffice of Marshall county.
Washington. This ancient capital of the Territory and State,
rivals Natchez both in age and the richness of its historic associa
tions. It was laid out and named near the close of the eighteenth
century by Andrew Ellicott, who came to Natchez in 1797 as U. S.
Boundary Commissioner to meet the representative of Spain. No
sooner were the Americans in recognized control of the Missis
sippi Territory than they proceeded to make treaties with the
Indians and open up public roads through the Indian country to

MISSISSIPPI 933
the white settlements on the east and north. In 1808 the great
public road, known as the Natchez and Nashville Trace, was
thus established. Along this road were provided numerous sta
tions for the convenience of travellers, and the first station out of
Natchez was Washington. It is recorded that Ellicott and his
military escort, pending the Spanish evacuation of the Natchez
District, camped on St. Catharine creek by the side of a lovely
spring that still bears his name, and just inside the present grounds
of Jefferson College at Washington. The site of the town which
was "compactly built for a mile or more east and west," says Col.
Claiborne, is in the midst» of a picturesque and elevated region,
surrounded by many beautiful eminences. On February 1st, 1802,
by act of the Territorial Legislature, Washington was selected as
the capital of the Territory, and retained the distinction until Nov.
20th, 1820, when the Legislature made Jackson the future capital
of Mississippi. As the capital in the early Territorial days, Wash
ington was the center to which all men were attracted. Within its
borders and in its immediate vicinity dwelt a distinguished com-
> pany of early Mississippi pioneers. Jefferson College, founded in
1802, was located here, and is the oldest endowed institution of
learning in the southwest. Here also was located the Elizabeth
Academy for girls, chartered in 1819, noted as the first school de
signed exclusively for young women, and of collegiate rank, to be
incorporated by either the Territorial or State Legislatures. Not
only was the old town celebrated as a political center, but it was
also a great literary center, — largely due to the influence of its
colleges and the Mississippi Society. Monette, the historian, and
Wailes, the geologist, Were residents of the town, and their homes
are still in evidence. Claiborne, the historian, lived a few miles
distant, and Ingraham, the author of the "Pillar of Fire", was a
professor in Jefferson College. In and about the old capital also
dwelt the cultured families of the Covingtons, Graysons, Chews,
Calvits, Wilkinsons, Free lands, Bowies, and Magruders, emi
grants from Maryland and the Winstons and Dangerfields from
Virginia. Dr. Daniel Rawlings, a native of Calvert county, Mary
land, was a distinguished representative of the medical profession.
It was the location of the U. S land office, the Surveyor-General's
office, the office of the Commissioner of Claims ; the U. S. Courts
also sat here. The prominent Territorial officials made it their
residence, and it possessed three large hotels. During this period,
1802-1820, it was a "gay and fashionable place," where the "punctilio
and ceremony, parades and public entertainments" held forth.
In close proximity to the old town was Fort Dearborn, perma
nently garrisoned by a force of United States troops. A number
of British prisoners, captured at the great battle of New Orleans
were confined in this fort for some time. The old brick church,
which was founded by Lorenzo Dow, was also used as a state-
house, and within its walls sat the constitutional convention of
1817. When Aaron Burr was arrested in January, 1807, near the
mouth of Coles creek, he was conducted to Washington, and the

934 MISSISSIPPI
first investigation of the serious charges preferred against him
took place in the old brick church. The ruins of this historic build
ing have now been torn down and sold. It was expected that
Washington might remain the permanent seat of government for
Mississippi, and with that end in view, we find Silas Dinsmoor, on
the 23rd day of November, 1810, addressing the Territorial Legis
lature as follows: "Silas Dinsmoor begs leave to offer and prays
your honorable body to accept a square of ground in the town of
Washington equal jn area to a square of three hundred feet, on
the sole condition that the said square be appropriated as the site
of the public buildings for the said Mississippi Territory and for
the county of Adams, to which square of ground marked No. 5 in
the annexed plat, a good title shall be given in such manner as to
your honorable body may deem proper." The proposed donation
was a square on the north side of Main St., between Claiborne and
Montgomery Streets.
The glory of the old town, has now passed away and its former
greatness is but a memory. With the departure of the capital, it
lost its importance, and is now a small village of about two hun
dred and fifty inhabitants.
Washington County was created January 29th, 1827, by an act
which recited that "So much of the counties of Yazoo and Warren
as lies west of the Yazoo river, beginning on the right bank of
said river, where the Choctaw boundary line strikes the same;
thence along said boundary to the Mississippi river; thence down
the said river, to a point on the said river, where the east and west
line between townships seventeen and eighteen strikes the same;
thence along said line, to where the same strikes the Yazoo river;
thence up the said last mentioned river, to the place of beginning,
shall constitute a county, which shall be called the county of Wash
ington." This created a triangular area, with, the base on the Mis
sissippi river and the apex on the Yazoo river. Sections two
to nine of the same act organized the county. An act of Feb. 12,
1828, declared the line between Warren and Washington counties
to begin on the east bank of the Mississippi, "at the upper end of
the plantation of Nerry Henly, and run so as to intersect the line
between the counties of Warren and Yazoo, where the same
strikes the Yazoo river", and appointed commissioners to run the
line. February 9, 1839, the line between the said counties was
defined again as follows : — "commencing at the point on the Yazoo
river, where the southern boundary of township nine, range six,
west of the Choctaw district, intersects it ; thence running west on
the southern boundary of township nine, range six, seven, eight,
and nine, west to the Mississippi river." January 23, 1844, all that
part of Washington county south of a line commencing on the Mis
sissippi river between townships 13 and 14, and running east,
between said townships, to the western boundary of Yazoo county,
was taken to form the county of Issaquena. It later surrendered
small portions of its territory to Bolivar and Sunflower counties
and finally, on March' 29, 1876, it surrendered another portion to

MISSISSIPPI 935
help form the new county of Sharkey. As now constituted it is an
irregular area of land, with a surface of 925 square miles. It is
bounded on the north by Bolivar county, on the east by Sunflower
and Holmes counties, the Yazoo river forming the boundary line
between Holmes and Washington, on the southeast by Yazoo
county, on the south by Sharkey and Issaquena counties, and on
the west by the Mississipppi river. It was named for President
George Washington and was one of the numerous counties formed
from the so-called "New Purchase", acquired from the Choctaws
by the treaty of Doak's Stand, Oct. 20, 1820. The county lies
wholly within the fertile Yazoo Delta, and many settlers of char
acter and wealth were attracted to the rich region before its or
ganization, and during the 30's and 40's, coming from the States
of Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and the older parts
of Mississippi. From South Carolina came Col. Wade Hampton,
the son of Major-General Wade Hampton, and his two sons, Gen.
Wade Hampton, afterwards Senator from South Carolina and
Christopher Hampton, Robert J, Andrew and Dr. Charles Turn-
bull, Andrew and Ambrose Knox, and Thomas B. Kershaw; from
Kentucky came Elisha Warfield, Thomas B. Warfield, Albert Met-
calf, Captain Henry and Edward P. Johnson, George W. and Junius
Ward; from Mississippi came Howell Hinds, sori of Gen. Thos.
Hinds, Col. Henry W. Vick, Capt. John Willis, and Benjamin
Smith, an old resident of Claiborne county. Other early settlers
were William B. Prince, who gave his name to the old town of
Princeton and was the first Representative of Washington county
in 1828; William Blanton, whose plantation embraced part of the
site of Greenville; Hon. Jacob S. Yerger, Wm. F. Jefferies, sher
iff, A. Knox, J. Y. Daster, Wm. Hunt, Andrew A. J. Paxton, and
Samuel, Isaac and Dr. William Worthington. Another prominent
settler was Wm. A. Percy, of Greenville, soldier, lawyer and pub
licist, whose untimely demise was a distinct loss, not only to the
Delta but to the whole State. A list of the county officers of Wash
ington for 1827, the year of its organization, follows : Wm. B.
Cook, Judge of Probate; Philip A. Gilbert, Thomas Marney, As
sociate Justices; William Prince, Assessor and Collector; Philip
A. Gilbert, County Treasurer; Geo. Shanks, William Brittain,
Peter H. Bennett, Nimrod Selsor, Joseph McGuire, Hiram Miller,
James Bayne, Peter Wilkinson, Justices of the Peace.
Princeton, the first county seat, was at one time the chief town in
the county. It Was situated on the Mississippi river, about ten miles
above the present southern boundary, and once had a population
of about 600 people. After the county seat was removed tp Green
ville, Princeton rapidly declined, and is now entirely extinct. The old
town of Greenville was a mile south of the present flourishing town
of that name, but having been partially destroyed during the war
and inundated by the river, the county seat was removed to the pres
ent point on the river. Greenville is one of the largest and most
prosperous towns in the State ; it had a population in 1900 of 7,642,
and is the center of the network of railroads now covering the

936 MISSISSIPPI
Delta. Located also on the Mississippi river, its shipping facili
ties are unsurpassed and the town is growing at a rapid rate. It
is the center of trade for the rich country about it and has become
a manufacturing town of importance. The town of Leland, a few
miles to the east, is also a growing place of 762 (1900) people, pos
sessed of unusually good railway facilities. Other towns in the
county are Hampton, Pettit P. O. or Avon Station, Winterville,
Stoneville, Tralake, Moore, Glenallen and Hollandale. The whole
county is intersected by numerous lines of railway belonging to
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, and the Southern Railway sys
tems. Besides the Mississippi river on the West and the Yazoo
on the east, Deer creek, Bogue Phalia and Black bayou flow south
though the length of the county, and with Lakes Lee, Swan, Sil
ver, Washington and Jackson constitute the principal waters. The
census for 1900 rates Washington county first in the value of its
lands and ninth in the value of its manufactured products, among
the counties of the State. Out of 560,000 acres in the county, not
quite 200,000 were improved in 1900. Of the remaining unim
proved land, a very large proportion of it is covered with an im
mense growth of timber composed of various kinds of oak, ash,
gum, hickory, walnut, pecan and large cypress brakes. This tim
ber is a source of great present and future wealth to the county, is
almost inexhaustible in quantity, and, when the lands are stripped
of their valuable forest growth, they will yield a full tide crop, the
second year. Not all this valuable timber is being cut and ex
ported, but more and more is being worked up into finished lumber
by the planing mills, and by the many small wood-working shops
and factories which are springing up in the region. The soil is
a rich alluvial loam of great depth and will produce from one to
two bales of cotton and from fifty to eighty bushels of corn per
acre. Besides these great staple crops, it produces wheat, oats,
rye, barley — the three latter crops being chiefly grown for their
value as winter pasture for stock, — sorghum, rice, and all the fruits
and vegetables common to the latitude and region. The native
nut tree of the Delta is the pecan, and its nuts are a valuable food
for swine, and are also gathered for the market in great quantities.
The larger Texas variety of the pecan has been introduced here
and is perfectly at home in the climate. Horses, cattle and hogs
are bred here in great numbers, and the pasturage is good both
winter and summer. Perhaps no country in the world can produce
pork as cheaply as the Delta and this fact is being more and more
generally recognized by the inhabitants of this favored region.
Some attention is paid to sheep husbandry, but the flocks are small
and are chiefly raised for mutton. The census of 1900 values the live
stock higher than any county in the State. Church and schood ad
vantages for both races are found throughout the county. The
region now compares favorably with other parts of the State in
point of health, since the great underlying artesian basin has been
tapped for supplies of pure, cold water.
The following statistics, taken from the United States census

MISSISSIPPI 937'
for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population: — Number
of farms 6,853, acreage in farms 265,138, acres improved 197,-
896, value of the land and improvements, excluding buildings
$6,767,530, value of the buildings $1,557,240, value of the live stock
$1,372,594, total value of products not fed to stock $3,944,632.
.Number of manufacturing establishments 128, capital invested
$1,391,968, wages paid $196,850, cost of materials used $744,579,
total value of products $1,473,739. The population in 1900 con
sisted of whites 5,002, colored 44,214, total 49,216, increase of 8,802
over the year 1890. The total assessed valuation of real and per
sonal property in Washington county in 1905 was $7,207,939 and in
1906 it was $7,915,735, which shows an increase of $707,796 during
the year.
Washington County, Territorial. The Spanish boundary, estab
lished in 1798-99, separated from Mississippi Territory all the
coast settlements including Mobile, but some settlements had been
made on the Tensas and Tombigbee rivers, under English and
Spanish grants, and there were a number of "squatters" established
in that quarter by the year 1800. Governor Sargent decided he
must visit the region, and in April, 1800, asked the commandant
at Natchez for a military escort. In the act of congress May 10th
it was provided that the eastern settlements should have one rep
resentative in the general assembly of the Territory, then ordained.
June 4, by proclamation the governor established the county of
Washington, embracing all the territory east of Pearl river. This
reduced the older counties of Adams and Pickering to the region
between the Mississippi and Pearl. The north line of the Terri
tory was then the line east from the mouth of the Yazoo, and the
eastern limit was the Chattahoochee river. The county seat was
to be at Mcintosh's Bluff. The following officers "were appointed :
Justices of the courts of quarter sessions and common pleas, James
Fair, John Johnson, John Chastain, John Caller, Joseph Thompson
and Flood McGrew; John McGrew, coroner; Samuel Mims, treas
urer; James Fair, judge of probate; Wilson Carman, sheriff; Sam
uel Clark, clerk of the courts and recorder. The militia appoint
ments were Adam Hollenger and Joseph Stiggens, captains ; Flood
McGrew and William Pierce, lieutenants ; Daniel Johnson and John
Lindor, ensigns. Judge Daniel Tilton and Capt. Bartholomew
Schaumberg were deputed to administer oaths to the new officials.
Wilkinson, Hawkins and Pickens reported in December, 1801, that
"unlicensed settlements" had been made on the western banks of
the Mobile and Tombigbee for more than seventy miles, and a less
distance on the east bank and been formed into a county by the
late governor. The population was estimated at five hundred
whites and half as many negroes. Governor Claiborne's estimate
in 1802 was 1,200. The only lands open to settlement were those
of the old English district of Mobile, north of the 31st parallel,
of which the boundary was re-established under the treaty of Fort
Confederation. In 1801 and 1802 the United States government endeavored to-

;j38 MISSISSIPPI ,
obtain for the citizens of Washington county, free navigation of the
Mobile waters, as had been granted on the Mississippi. This was
before there was definite information about the treaty of San Ilde
fonzo. In March, 1803, Governor Claiborne sent to Washington
the memorial and petition of the house of representatives, "upon
the subject of the free navigation of certain navigable rivers falling
into the bay of Mexico, from the territories of the United States
and passing through the dominions of his Catholic Majesty." After
the purchase of Louisiana from France, the United States claimed
the gulf coast east to the Perdido as a part of Louisiana. Accord
ingly, as if Mobile were United States territory, Congress provided,
in the act to carry into effect the Louisiana purchase, that the pres
ident, "whenever he shall deem it expedient," might constitute
a separate revenue district to include "the shores, waters and in
lets of the bay and river of Mobile, and of the other rivers, inlets
and bays emptying into the gulf of Mexico, east of the said river
Mobile, and west thereof to the Pascagoula, inclusive." Spain duly
protested against such a forcing of the question of boundary, and
proposed to contest the validity of the cession of Louisiana. There
upon the Jefferson administration declared that the problem of
eastern boundary would be left to peaceful negotiation. Spain
withdrew her protest, and Jefferson proclaimed May 30, 1804 that
he had decided that all the above shores and streams, "lying within
the boundaries of the United States, shall constitute and form a
separate district, to be denominated the district of Mobile," and
designating Fort Stoddert as the port of delivery and entry.
The inhabitants of this district were greatly oppressed. They
were surrounded by powerful Indian nations, in possession of all
the country north of the Tennessee river; the Spaniards held the
coast and the mouths of the rivers. To ship products to any Amer
ican port they must pay the king of Spain a duty of twelve per
cent. ; frequently by the joint operation of the American and Span
ish tariffs they were compelled to pay a duty of 42 to 47 per cent.
ad valorem on imports, and they were subjected to continual vexa
tious searches and seizures. So they complained in 1807, in resolu
tions drawn up by their United States judge and postmaster, Harry
Toulmin ; but they declared they were ready to fight for the United
States against England, and they were loyal to Mr. Jefferson, not
withstanding his temporizing policy. After the Baton Rouge in
surrection of 1805, and during the Sabine river movements of 1806,
the inhabitants meditated a war of their own against Spain.
Capt. Thomas Swaine, of the Second U. S, wrote Cowles Mead,
from Fort Chambers, August 15, 1806:
"The militia under the orders of Col. John Caller contemplated
an attack upon Mobile, and had carried on their plans in so secret
a manner that the least hint had not transpired. It luckily got to
the knowledge of Judge Toulmin, who, with some difficulty per
suaded the colonel to desist. I make no doubt, although success
was not to be expected, but they would have gone down, as every
thing was in readiness. Since then, another scheme has been in

MISSISSIPPI 939
agitation, for thirty men to proceed to Mobile and destroy the town
by fire. This was also discovered and prevented. It has had great
influence on the minds of the Spaniards and in consequence of it
a reinforcement of troops has been sent from Pensacola, and nightly
paroles are kept up in the vicinity of Mobile."
Caller himself said that when war with Spain was feared, Gov.
Williams gave orders to liven up the militia. Some of the officers
and men declared themselves in sympathy with Spain and a few
went over into the Spanish territory. In the summer of 1807 Gov
ernor Williams authorized the formation of a battalion of volunteer
militia in Washington county, of three companies under the com
mand of Maj. James Caller.
November 25, 1803, Delegate Lattimore presented to Congress
the petition of inhabitants of the Alabama, Mobile and Tombigbee
rivers, asking for a division of the Territory, and a separate govern
ment for Washington district. A similar petition was joined in by
the inhabitants east of Pearl river, and presented to Congress June
12, 1809. (See Statehood.)
The situation continued so that the secretary of state wrote in
1810 that it was understood the Spanish at Mobile had continued to
exact, with dccasional relaxation, a duty of twelve per cent, on
products of United States territory shipped to and fro between
New Orleans and the Tombigbee settlements. The disposition of
the inhabitants to relieve themselves also continued and Governor
Holmes was impelled to warn Colonel Caller in July, 1810, that any
aggressions within the territory of West Florida would ruin the in
dividuals who might engage in it and be productive of much mis
chief. After 1809, when the first Choctaw purchase was completed, the
county of Washington was reduced by the creation of Wayne
county, which extended, north of the Spanish boundary, from the
Pearl river to the trading road running from Mobile northwesterly.
Where this trading road crossed the Choctaw line is "the north
west corner of Washington county," which was the one fixed point
in the eastern boundary of the State of Mississippi, (except the
mouth of Bear creek, on the Tennessee river) when the boundaries
were defined by Congress. After this, Washington county lay out
side the present limits of the State of Mississippi. It was subjected
to another division in 1812, the country in the forks of the Tombig
bee and Alabama being organized as Clarke county, and after the
Creek treaty of 1814, the country southeast of the Alabama was
organized as Monroe county.
Washington Monument. "By an act of the legislature, passed
on February 19, 1850, the governor was authorized and required to
purchase a block of stone, of apt and suitable dimensions, for the
Washington National Monument, to be suitably inscribed, and pre
sented in the name of the State to the National monument society.
This duty has been promptly and cheerfully performed by my
predecessors (Quitman and Guion). The stone has been prepared
and forwarded in the name of the State to the president of the

940 MISSISSIPPI
society, with the following engraved upon it, in deep Roman let
ters : "The State of Mississippi to the Father of his Country, A.
D. 1851," and also the coat of arms and great seal of the State.
Thus has the State of Mississippi, beside her sister States of the
Confederacy, contributed to rear a monument to the memory of
George Washington." (Message of Governor Whitfield, 1852.)
The State geological society, of which Governor Matthews was
then president, first procured a fine specimen of white siliceous
sandstone from Tippah county, but the stone cutters were unable
to work it. A block of the Vicksburg limestone, from a quarry on
the Yazoo river, was substituted.
Waterford. A little west of the present station of Waterford,
in Marshall county, was located the old village of that name, now
extinct. The Legislature gave it a charter in 1838, and it was
selected as the place of muster for the militia brigade, commanded
by Brigadier General Guy, where the troops were annually re
viewed. Dr. Thomas J. Malone, Shaderick Wooten, Robert H.
Malone, Alfred Brooks, Mr. Sherman, Samuel Cole, John Killough,
John W; Mooring, Dr. Jones, and James Cherry were citizens and
planters of importance in the neighborhood. Two grist mills,
Sumpkin's and Ford's, were once located here on Spring creek.
The present town of Waterford is a small station with 128 in
habitants, situated in the southern part of Marshall county, on the
Illinois Central railroad. Its first settler was Dr. Thos. J. Malone,
who came here prior to the organization of the county in 1836.
Among the other pioneers of the town are James Mooring, Wilcox
Jones, John and Elijah Bordneau, Jack Peace, John and George
Sherman, Harris O. Allen and James Greer. It has two churches,
a Methodist and Presbyterian, and a money order postoffice. The
town was named on account of the volume of water contained in
Spring Creek.
Waterhole, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Pike county, 26
miles east of Magnolia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 30.
Water Valley is a thriving city of Yalobusha county, and an
important station on the Illinois Central R.R, 17 miles south of
Oxford, and 29 miles northeast of Grenada. It is one of the two
seats of justice for the county, and is surrounded by a rich coun
try devoted to cotton growing and truck farming. It has telegraph,
express and banking facilities, has several manufacturing estab
lishments, and does a large shipping business. .The Bank of
Water Valley was established here in 1882, and the Mechanics
Savings Bank in 1892. The machine shops and car-works of the
railroad company are located here, and the town has manufactures
of ploughs, sash, doors, twine, iron, ice, soda water, cotton, engine
and boiler works, foundry, etc. ; it has an excellent system of
schools, a college, three newspapers, and a large number of pros
perous mercantile establishments. The North Mississippi Herald,
and the Progress are both Democratic weeklies ; the former was es
tablished in 1888 and is now owned and edited by- J. D. Peacock; the
latter was established in 1882, and is edited and published by S. B.

MISSISSIPPI 941
Brown; the City Itemizer is issued as a local Democratic weekly;
it was established in 1894; H. A. Lee is the editor, publisher and
proprietor. There are three good hotels ; the city debt is $70,000 ;
assessed valuation of property, $7,000,000 ; tax rate 15 mills ; popu
lation about 5,000. The city owns the electric light plant, water
works and sewerage system. There are eleven churches, embrac
ing nearly every denomination, a fine system of public schools
accommodating more than 600 pupils.
The country adjacent to Water Valley is well adapted to all
kinds of farming and fruit growing. About 9,500 bales of cotton
are annually shipped from this station. Large bodies of hardwood
timber are found contiguous to the town, which renders it an ex
cellent point for the establishment of wood working industries.
There is also a large amount of a superior quality of clay, adapted
to the manufacture of earthenware, tile and fire-brick. An arti
ficial stone factory is located here for the manufacture of sand and
cement building blocks. Among the pioneer settlers of Water
Valley were Josiah Shipp, who owned the land on which the south
ern part of the city was built and a Mr. Fortner, who owned the
land on which the northern portion of the town was built. Both
of these pioneers secured title to their land from the government:
also W. A. Oats, W. A. Carr, and Rasha Robison. The first Mer
chant and postmaster was Pinckney Woods. W. E. Robison
owned the first retail grocery. W. A. Carr owned the stage stand.
A Dr. Woods was the first physician. It is said that the Presby
terians were the first religious denomination to erect a church and
that the first minister was Rev. Angus Johnson.
Watson, a postoffice in the western part of Marshall county, 15
miles from Holly Springs, the county seat and nearest banking
town. Watson, John W. C, was born in Albemarle county, Va, Febru
ary 27, 1808, was graduated in law at the University of Virginia,
and soon after his admission to the bar was married in 1831, to the
sister of his law instructor, Prof. J. A. G. Davis. He practiced at
Abingdon, Va, from 1833 to 1845, and was a Whig candidate for
congress against John B. Floyd. He removed to Holly Springs in
the latter year and won high standing among the lawyers of the
State. He was one of the most prominent members of the consti
tutional convention of 1851 ; opposed secession then and again in
1860, canvassing the State in the latter year. After the secession
ordinance was adopted he obeyed the popular will with such loyalty
that he was elected to the senate of the Confederate States, where
he served in 1863-65. Two of his sons fell in battle. In 1865 and 1868
he was a member of the reconstruction constitutional conventions,
but resigned from the latter one when the proscriptive qualifications
were adopted, and canvassed the northern part of the State against
the constitution, which was rejected. After that he appeared be
fore the congressional committee and endeavored to present to that
body the wishes of the State. He supported the revolution of 1875,
and in May, 1876 was appointed to the circuit bench, where he

942 MISSISSIPPI
served for six years. When the. Railroad Commission law was
enacted in 1884, and its constitutionality was assailed in the courts,
he was chosen by Governor Lowry to represent the State. He
argued the case before the supreme court in October, 1885, and
finally won a complete vistory in the opinion, pronounced by Chief
Justice Waite, sustaining the law in all respects. Judge Watson
was a zealous temperance worker. It was through his invitation
that Miss Willard first visited Mississippi and was given a hear
ing by the legislature. He died at Holly Springs, September 24,
1900. Waugh, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Attala county,
on Seneasha creek, a tributary of the Big Black river, 15 miles
from Kosciusko, the county seat.
Wautubbee, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Clarke
county, on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 10 miles from
Quitman, the county seat. Enterprise is the nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 40.
Waveland, an incorporated post-town and station of Hancock
county, on the Louisville & Nashville R. R, and on Mississippi
Sound, 48 miles from New Orleans, and 4 miles from Bay St.
Louis, the county seat and nearest banking town. This is a pleas
ant little watering place with a good hotel, fine sea bathing, and
several stores. Population in 1900, 520.
Waverly, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Clay county, on
the Tombigbee river, and a station on the Southern Railway, about
6 miles northwest of Columbus, and 10 miles east of Westpoint,
the county seat. It has a church, a saw mill and a grist mill.
Population in 1900, 82. It has rural free delivery service from
Westpoint. Way, a hamlet of Madison county, on the Big Black river, and
a station on the Illinois Central R. R, 7 miles north of Canton,
the county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population in
1900, 36.
Wayne County, as originally established December 21, 1809, by
act of the General Assembly of the Mississippi Territory, embraced
the western, or Mississippi portion, of the old county of Washing
ton, created in 1800 by proclamation of Governor Sargent, and
perpetuated in the present county of that name in Alabama. The
county has a land surface of 788 square miles. The act creating
Wayne recites that Washington shall be divided as follows: —
"beginning on the line of demarcation, where the trading road
leading from the Choctaw nation to Mobile crosses the same,
thence along said trading road to the present Choctaw boundary
line, thence along said boundary line to Pearl river, thence down
the same to the line of demarcation, and with the same to the
place of beginning"; all to be called the county of Wayne. Out of
this vast region have been subsequently carved the counties of
Greene, Covington, Jones, Perry, Lamar, and those portions of
Lawrence and Marion lying east of the Pearl river. Finally, the
act of December 23, 1833, which divided the Choctaw cession of

MISSISSIPPI 943
1830 into counties, declared that "all the territory south of Clarke
county, known as the Higoowanne reserve, be, and the same is
attached to, and shall constitute a part of Wayne county." The
present county of Wayne thus lies on the southeastern border of
the State, with the old Choctaw boundary of 1805, for its northern
line, dividing it from the county of Clarke, the State of Alabama
on the east, Greene and Perry counties on the south and Jones
county on the west, and embraces an area of about twenty-one
townships. The county received its name in honor of the revolu
tionary hero. General Anthony Wayne, as did its county seat
Waynesboro. The following is a list of pioneer residents and
county officers during the years 1818-1827: James Patton, Josiah
Watts, Clinch Gray, William Houze, Obadiah Hand, David Will
iams, Justices of the Quorum ; Tristram Thomas, Alexander Powe,
Collins L. Home, Edmund Gray, James B. McRae, James Will
iams, James Huntley, Assessors; Edmund Gray, James B. McRae,
James Williams, Sheriffs; Iridell L. Phillips, County Surveyor;
Reuben Grayson, Elijah Trim, John F. Crawford, Sam'l Fulton,
Amos McCarthy, James Clark, Sam'l Grayson, Joshua Terrell,
Constables ; Willis Lang, William Patton, Rangers ; Thomas A.
Willis, Thos. S. Sterling, County Treasurers; William Houze,
James Patton, Judges of Probate ; Obadiah Hand, William King,
Associate Justices; William Webber, William B. Graham, Cor
oners. Among the earliest settlers of Wayne county were the
McRaes, McArthurs, McDougalds, McLaughlins, McDaniels, Mc
Donalds and McLaurins, conservative and industrious Scotchmen
from Virginia and the Carolinas, who settled along Buckatunna
creek not far from the place now known as the Philadelphia Pres
byterian church. Other early settlers in Wayne along this creek,
the Chickasawhay river and near the larger streams in the county,
were Alexander Powe and William Powe, and the Slays and
Sumralls, from Chesterfield district, South Carolina, General James
Patton, William Patton, Joseph Patton, William Webber, Zach
ariah Rogers, Captain George Evans and John Evans. Winches
ter, incorporated 1818, near which Patton's fort stood, was the
early county site, until 1867, and a place of importance in the ter
ritorial and early statehood period. It is said at one time to have
contained more than thirty business houses. It numbers among
its early residents many distinguished men. Among them were
John McRae, father of Gov. John J. McRae; General James Pat
ton, who had charge of the fort above mentioned at the time of
the Fort Mim's massacre, and was, with Clinch Gray, a member
of the constitutional convention of 1817, for Wayne county, and
afterwards lieutenant governor of the State; Judge Powhatan
Ellis, U. S. senator and minister to Mexico; Judge Thomas S.
Sterling; John A. Grimball, secretary of state; James Mayers of
Richmond, Virginia; Gen. Wm. Lang; Willis and Stephen Lang;
John H. Mallory ; auditor of. public accounts ; Thos. L. Sumrall ;
Samuel W. Dickson; Gen. Thomas P. Falconer; Judge John H.
Rollins ; John H. Horn and Collins Horn.

944 MISSISSIPPI
The Creek Indians, during the War of 1812, were a constant
source of menace to the early settlers of Wayne, which fact led to
the erection of Patton's Fort at Winchester, and Roger's Fort,
about seven miles north of that place. The old ditches of Patton's
Fort may still be readily traced. The old town of Winchester has
quite disappeared, except for the court house building built in 1822,
which was still standing a few years ago, solitary and untenanted,
a sad reminder of the old glory of the town. The name survives
in the town of the same name on the Mobile & Ohio R. R. near
the old site. It is said that the last of adequate hotel accommoda
tions during the terms of court, led to the removal of the county
seat to Waynesboro a few miles to the north on the railway. It is
an interesting fact that in these earliest settlements on Buckatunna
creek and at Winchester, and in the first school esablished about
1812, the Gaelic language was exclusively spoken and remained
the vernacular until the early 20's, when the influx of English
speaking settlers caused its disuse. Wayne county is rather
sparsely settled and there are no large towns within its borders.
Waynesboro, containing 800 people, and the present county site,
is the largest town. Stateline (pop. 500), and Bucatunna (pop. 300),
both stations on the line of the Mobile & Ohio R. R. are the next
largest settlements. Hiawannee, Whistler, Henderson, Eucutta,
West End, Matherville, Summit, Boyce, and Amazon, are all small
villages distributed over the county. The Mobile & Ohio R. R.
runs through the county from north to south, and a small
branch road runs from Robinson Junction, on the M. & O,
to Stevens and West End, near the southern boundary. The larg
est streams in the county are the Chickasawhay river, Bucka
tunna and Thompson's creeks, which, with their numerous tribu
taries, Eucutta, Shiloh, and many others, provide the region with
splendid water power. The general surface of the county is
undulating, and the soil varies from rich, dark prairie to poor
pine woods and sandy soil. There were in 1900 40,266 acres of
improved lands, much of the balance being covered with long-
leaf or yellow pine. On the river and creek bottoms are found
magnolia, hickory, water oak, beech, etc. Many rich marl beds
are found scattered over its area, and fertilizers to the value of
$18,426 were used on the farms in 1900. Fertilized lands produce
good crops of cotton, corn, sugar-cane, potatoes and rice. The
woods pasturage for sheep and cattle is especially good and con
siderable attention is being given the industry of live stock raising,
and many improved breeds have been introduced. Peaches, pears,
figs and all the small fruits do well and there is a large nursery
of fruit trees and plants at Stateline. Many large saw mills are in
operation within the county. Wayne has a mild and salubrious
climate, and the school and church advantages are fairly good, par
ticularly in the farming districts.
The following statistics were taken from the twelfth United
States census for 1900, and relate to farms, manufactures and pop
ulation : — Number of farms 1,790, acreage in farms 207,212, acres

MISSISSIPPI 945
improved 40,266, value of the land and improvements, exclusive
of buildings $471,900, value of the buildings $287,410, value of the
live stock $322,677, total value of products not fed to stock $464,-
661. Number of manufacturing establishments 55, capital invested
$287,684, wages paid $80,646, cost of materials $341,610. total value
of products $484,084. The population in 1900 consisted of whites
7,481, colored 5,058, total 12,539, increase over the year 1890, 2,722.
The population in 1906 was estimated at 15,000. Artesian wells
are in use at Waynesboro. The total assessed valuation of real and
personal property in Wayne county in 1905 was $1,754,187 and in
1906 it was $3,129,712, which shows an increase of $1,375,525 during
the year.
Waynesboro, the capital of Wayne county, is an incorporated
town and station of Wayne county on the Mobile & Ohio R. R,
52 miles south of Meridian. It has a money order postoffice, an ex
press office, a telegraph office, a bank, one newspaper, two turpen
tine distilleries, four churches and a good school. It has several
good general stores, an excelcior factory, cotton gin and good hotels
and livery stables. The town lies in a farming, grazing and lumber
district, is the trade center for a large section of country, and is
a shipping point of importance. Lumber and naval stores are the
important products. The lands along the Chicasawhay river were
settled early in the last century by a hardy class of pioneers from
the Carolinas and Georgia, and the old town of Winchester, (q.
v.) once a flourishing town, and long the county seat of Wayne,
was located about seven miles to the south. Insufficient hotel ac
commodations during the terms of court, caused the removal of the
county seat to Waynesboro on the M. & O. R. R, about forty years
ago. The Bank of Waynesboro was established in 1902 with a
capital of $18,000. The Waynesboro News is a Democratic weekly,
established in 1898, J. J. Haynie, editor and proprietor. Population
of the town in 1900 was 436. The population in 1906 was estimated
at 600.
Wayside, a post-hamlet of Washington county, on the Riverside
division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 10 miles south of
Greenville, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population
in 1900, 65.
Weathersby, a post-town and station of Simpson county, on the
Gulf & Ship Island R. R, three miles southeast of Mendenhall,
the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, tele
graph, telephone and express offices, several stores, a saw mill,
a cotton gin, a good school and a church. Richard A. Whitfield
of this place has a large bee apiary which has proven bee culture
to be a successful industry in that locality.
Webb, an incorporated post-town in the western part of Talla
hatchie county, at the junction of a branch of the Southern Ry.
with the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 20 miles southeast of
Clarksdale. The Bank of Webb was established in 1902, and has a
capital and surplus of about $10,000. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 128 ; present population, about 250.
60-11

946 MISSISSIPPI
Webb, W. S, was born in LeRoy, New York, November 14,
1855, son of Benoni and Betsy (Phillips) Webb, of Welsh and Ger
man descent, and natives of Massachusetts. He graduated at Col
gate University, in 1849 ; taught school near Murfreesboro, Tennes
see for a brief period, and was then chosen president of a female
school at Grenada, Miss, in 1851. In this school he was very suc
cessful. The attendance more than doubled, and the large brick
building now occupied by the Grenada Female College was built
under his direction. He was pastor of the Baptist church at West
Point. In 1864 he took a prominent part in establishing the Con
federate Orphan's Home, and was corresponding secretary for the
board of trustees. In 1872 he accepted a call from Clinton to be
pastor of the Baptist church and deliver lectures to the theological
students ; was chosen president of Mississippi college, 1873. Under
his charge the institution grew and flourished, and he continued
his arduous duties until 1891, when he resigned and accepted ap
pointment as emeritus professor of psychology and ethics. There
are said to be but four such professorships in the world, and this
was the first time such an honor had ever been bestowed by a Bap
tist institution of learning. The title of D. D. was conferred upon
him in 1882 by the University at Oxford.
Mississippi College had no endowment when Dr. Webb became
president. Besides, the country was impoverished and at times
scourged by pestilence. In meeting these conditions and overcom
ing them was shown a courage and ability of a high order. His able
and efficient management not only made the school a success, but
gave it a national reputation and secured an endowment of about
$60,000. Dr. Webb has been married three times, and is the father
of a number of children, some of whom are prominent in this and
other States. He is spending his declining years at the home of
his son-in-law, Dr. R. A. Venable, pastor of the First Baptist church
at Meridian.
Webster, a post-hamlet of Winston county, situated in the ex
treme northeastern corner on Jones creek, 8 miles northeast of
Louisville, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 31.
Webster County was established April 6, 1874, under the name. of
Sumner county. Its name was changed to Webster by act of Jan.
30, 1882, in honor of the great statesman Daniel Webster. The
county has a land surface of 409 square miles. It was carved
from Choctaw county, north of the Big Black river, and part of
Montgomery county. The act, creating it, established its bounda
ries as follows: — "Beginning at the northwest corner of township
21, range 8 east; thence east on township line to the northeast
corner of township 21, range 11 east; thence south to the southeast
corner of township 20, range 11 east; thence west on township line
to within one mile of Big Black river; thence southwest, parallel
with Big Black river, to a point one mile south of where said river
intersects the range line between ranges 7 and 8 ; thence north on
said range line to the point of beginning ; provided that no territory
shall be taken from Oktibbeha county." The old boundary line

MISSISSIPPI 947
between the Choctaw and Chickasaw cessions cuts across its north
east corner, and Calhoun and Chickasaw counties lie on the north,
Clay county on the east, Choctaw county on the south and Mont
gomery and Grenada counties on the west. By the act creating
the county as above, the Governor was authorized to appoint and
commission five persons to act as a Board of Supervisors, who shall
proceed at once to organize the new county, and was also em
powered to appoint the usual county officers. The following offi
cers were appointed by Governor Ames in compliance with the
foregoing provision : Ira McDowell, President, David Nowlin, G.
W. Pollan, J. W. Starnes, Aaron Smith, members of the Board of
Supervisors ; J. W. Holland, Sheriff ; Dr. W. A. F. Caldwell, Clerk
of the Chancery and Circuit Courts; Aaron Hutto, Treasurer; R.
F. Holloway, Superintendent of Education. The act further re
cited that the county site should be determined by a vote of all the
people of the new territory, which placed it at Walthall, near the
geographical center. Meanwhile courts continued to be held at
Greensboro, the old county seat of justice for Choctaw county until
1876. This old town was located in section 8, twp. 19, range 9,
east. It once had about 250 inhabitants and some ten business
houses. Its courts were attended by such men as J. Z. George,
Reuben Davis, E. C. Walthall, Wiley P. Harris arid Bob Hudson.
Its most prominent citizens in the early days were J. V. Steen,
"Wiley Marshall, Frank Liddell, T. N. Davis, John Nolen, Capt.
J. B. Dunn, Col. Wm. Brantley, and J. J. Campbell. It was a
favorite stopping place for legislators en route to Jackson 120 miles
away, via the old Natchez Trace. The old town was burned during
the war, and the court house in 1871, when the place began to
rapidly decay, and became a noted resort for criminals of a desper
ate character. The old log jail, built in 1839 or 1840 now stands,
an interesting relic of bygone days, but all else is ruin and dilapi
dation. Among the early representatives of the county in the Legis
lature were M. A. Metts, (1876-1878) J. E. fridges, S. M. Roane,
T. N. Davis and S. E. Parker. The county'site is Walthall above
mentioned, named for Gen. E. C. Walthall, and it contains a popu
lation of 170. There are no large towns in the county, Eupora,
with 1,200 people being the largest settlement. Other railroad
towns are Mathiston (pop. 600), Grady, Sapa and Tomnolen. In
the interior are Bellefontaine, Fame, Qarkson and Lerma. Two
railroads furnish the county with excellent transportation facilities :
— The Southern, which traverses the southern border of the coun
ty, and the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R, which traverses
the county along the eastern border from north to south. The
Big Black river and its tributaries, L. Black and Sand creeks ; and
Sabola, Shutispear and Tupashaw creeks, tributaries of the Yalo
busha river, are the principal water courses. Webster is termed a
hill county, but the land is level on the bottoms, and portions are
undulating. The black-jack and pine lands are poor, the bottom
soils very good, and the undulating lands of average fertility.

948 MISSISSIPPI
There are 80,511 acres of cleared land and much of the balance is
timbered with pine, various kinds of oak, hickory, poplar, beech,
ash, black-jack, and sweet and black gum and cypress on the bot
toms. The soil produces cotton, corn, wheat, oats, sweet potatoes,
peas, and most of the fruits and vegetables. Extensive pasturage
is to be found and the live stock of the county is valued at $438,-
782. A good deal of attention of late years has been paid to breed
ing a good grade of work horses. The climate and health of the
county are very good, and the school and church privileges of the
region are reported good. Numerous small mills and factories are
in operation, but none are of any great importance.
The following statistics, taken from the United States census
for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : — Number
of farms 2,262, acreage in farms 240,567, acres improved 80,511,
value of the lands and improvements, exclusive of buildings $711,-
220, value of buildings $313,430, value of the live stock $438,782,
total value of products not fed to stock $755,504. Number of man
ufactures 57, capital invested $97,908, wages paid $18,687, cost of
materials used $58,557, total value of products $147,332. The pop
ulation in 1900 was whites 9,694, colored 3,925, total 13,619, in
crease of 1,559 over the year 1900. The population in 1906 was
estimated at 15,000. Land values have increased rapidly in the last
5 years and have more than doubled in that length of time. Arte
sian water has been found in various parts of the county. The
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Webster
county in 1905 was $1,344,101 and in 1906 it was $1,504,970, which
shows an increase of $160,869 during the year.
Weeks, a postoffice of Attala county, 9 miles west of Kosciusko,
the county seat, and 3 miles north of Sallis, the nearest railroad
station. Weems, a hamlet in the southeastern part of Jasper county, on
the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R, 38 miles southwest of
Meridian, and 21 miles from Enterprise. Heidelberg is its nearest
banking town. Weems is 10 miles southeast of Paulding, the county
seat. Population in 1900, 42.
Weir, an incorporated post-town and station of Choctaw county,
on the Aberdeen division of the Illinois Central railroad, six miles
southwest -of Ackerman, the nearest banking town. It is located
in a fine farming and stock raising region. It has a money order
postoffice, and 4 rural mail routes emanate from here. Population
in 1900, 91 ; in 1906 the population was estimated at 300. A large
saw mill and a fine cotton gin are located here.
Welford, a postoffice of Greene county.
Wellman, a hamlet of Lincoln county, 10 miles south, southeast
of Brookhaven, the county seat, and nearest banking town. It
has rural free mail service from Bogue Chitto.
Wells, a post-hamlet of Attala county, 6 miles north of Kosciu
sko, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Pop
ulation in 1900, 29.

MISSISSIPPI 949
Wells, Guilford Wiley, was born in Livingston county, New
York, February 18, 1840. After graduating in law from Columbian
college, Washington, he served in the Union army during the war,
and was mustered out as lieutenant-colonel He was appointed
United States attorney for the northern district of Mississippi, and
in 1875 was elected to the 44th congress as an Administration Re
publican. Wenasoga, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Alcorn county,
near the Tennessee boundary line, and a station on the Southern
Railway, 6 miles northwest of Corinth. Population in 1900, 43.
Wesson, a thriving city in the extreme southern part of Copiah
county, nine miles north of Brookhaven. It is an important man
ufacturing and shipping point -on the Illinois Central R. R, and
the seat of the Mississippi Cotton and Woolen Mills, which
only partially utilizes the fine water power of the place. This plant
was first established in 1871 and has developed into what was said
in 1892 to be the largest industry of the kind in the South. These
mills have an excellent reputation and their product goes into
nearly every State and Territory of the Union. The product is of
great variety, and includes cassimeres, jeans, doeskins, tweeds,
linseys, flannels, wool and cotton knitting yarn, cotton rope, cotton
warp, yarn, cottonades, flannelettes, gingham plaids, cheviots,
checks, plaids, stripes, hickory, brown sheeting, shirting, drilling,
eight ounce osnaburgs, ticking for feathers and mattresses, sewing
thread, sewing twine for bags and awnings, wrapping twine, honey
comb towels, awning, balmoral skirts, etc. The plant is equipped
with an excellent system of water works, has an immense cotton
warehouse, with a capacity of 1,000 bales of cotton, and storage
capacity for two million pounds of wool In 1904 it manufactured
3,737 bales of cotton. Among the other industries of the place are
an oil mill and two cotton gins. The Bank of Wesson was estab
lished here in 1893 with a capital of $30,000. The Enterprise, a
Democratic weekly newspaper, was established in 1899, and is
owned and published by W. W. Robertson. The city is lighted
by electricity, has a telephone system, two hotels, eight churches,
and an excellent school ; it has a prosperous and law abiding popu
lation. The land on which the city is built is rolling and of a
high altitude, being about 500 feet above sea level.
There is no city indebtedness ; the assessed valuation of property
in Wesson is $1,038,000 ; the tax rate is iy2 mills ; population in
1900, 3,279, and was estimated in 1906 at 3,500.
Wesson Tornado. In April, 1883, a tornado swept across a part
of the State, destroying much property and causing loss of life at
Wesson and Beauregard.
West, A. M, was born in Alabama in 1818 ; was educated in pri
vate schools ; became a planter in Holmes county in 1-837 ; married
Carrie O. Glorer, of Alabama, in 1835 ; was elected to the legisla
ture as a Whig in 1847, and afterwards to the State senate. He was
opposed to secession, but after the State left the Union, was made
brigadier-general of State troops; was quartermaster general, pay-

950 MISSISSIPPI
master general and commissary general. He became president of
the Mississippi Central railroad in 1864. At the close of the war
this road was a wreck, the rolling stock unfit for use, and the com
pany without money. The rebuilding of the road, under such cir
cumstances, was his greatest work. He was president of the Mis
sissippi Valley company, composed of Northern capitalists, who
founded McComb City (see Railroads) ; was president of the State
board of Centennial commissioners, 1876, and delivered at Philadel
phia an able address on the history of the State. He was an elector
for the State at large on the Tilden ticket in 1876 ; was the nominee
of the National party for vice president of the U. S. in 1880, and of
the Anfi Monopoly party in 1884. He removed to Holly Springs
after the war, where he died.
West, Cato, was a native of Fairfax county, Va, and of an in
fluential family. He married a daughter of Thomas Green, and
after emigrating to Georgia, came with Green and his sons to
Natchez district in 1782. The lands he claimed in later years were
1,500 acres granted by the Spanish government in 1789, and 246
acres against which there was the adverse British claim of Col.
Augustine Prevost, all on Cole's Creek. He was among the promi
nent inhabitants in 1797, when he was chosen as a member of the
first committee, which made a convention with Governor Gayoso.
He was opposed to the appointees of the Adams administration,
Commissioner Ellicott and Governor Sargent, but accepted from
the latter the office of lieutenant-colonel commanding the militia
of the northern district, known as Pickering county, and served in
1798-99. Subsequently, however, he was a leader of the opposition
to Governor Sargent and of the movement for securing the privi
lege of a delegate to congress, and was chairman of the committee
of 1799, whose memorial to congress was known as "the petition
of Cato West and others." Upon the expiration of the term of
John Steele, as secretary of the Territory, he was appointed to that
office by President Jefferson, and commissioned after confirmation
by the senate March 3, 1803. When Governor Claiborne left the
Territory to assume the administration of the province of Louisiana,
in December, 1803, Col. West became acting-governor, which
function he exercised until Governor Robert Williams assumed
office in 1805. He was a candidate for delegate in December, 1804,
to succeed William Lattimore, and was also a candidate for ap
pointment as governor. In 1806 Mr. West was president of the
Franklin society, which established Franklin academy at Green
ville. West's Administration. Col Cato West, secretary of the Mis
sissippi Territory, began to exercise the functions of the governor
upon the absence of Governor Claiborne, who left Washington town
in November, and the Territory in December, 1803.
The United States land office was opened at Washington Decem
ber 1, 1803, bringing to the Territory Thomas Rodney of Delaware
and Robert Williams of North Carolina, commissioners on land
titles, and Edward Turner, register. Rodney was also appointed

MISSISSIPPI , 951
Territorial judge. The officials for Washington county were sta
tioned at Fort Stoddert. (See Land Office). For several years
these 'officials heard the evidence brought forward to substantiate
the land claims of those inhabitants whose titles were defective.
The election of 1804 was the occasion of a memorial to Secre
tary West, stating that the subscribers exercised the right of peti
tion regarding a public grievance. "We allude to the late election
held for the county of Adams. The intrigues and the frauds prac
ticed in the county of Adams on that occasion deprived the consti
tutional electors of Adams and Wilkinson counties of their repre
sentatives in the legislature. The legitimate voters are completely
disfranchised. A system corrupt in the extreme was openly planned
and executed, derogatory to the citizens of the Territory, injurious
to their interests, and fraught with evils too heavy to be patiently
endured." The fraud complained of was the giving of deeds to fifty
acres of land to anybody who would agree to vote for certain
candidates, by which means "upwards of one hundred persons who
so far from having any interest had not even a residence in our
Territory; persons who were merely floating through the com
munity to some other port," were permitted to vote. This is sug
gestive of the origin of the modern word, 'floater." "If such eva
sions of the constitution be sanctioned," said the memorialists, "a
few wealthy freeholders with their cart loads of hired voters will
usurp the power and give the laws to the Territory."
In August, 1804, the justices of the peace of Adams county (Sam7
uel Brooks, John Henderson, Ferdinand L. Claiborne, James Ter
rall, James Neilson) represented to the acting-governor that the jail
of Adams county was not sufficient for the safe-keeping of the
prisoners confined or who might be confined, "and as the recent
circumstances which have happened require a force or guard suf
ficient to guard said jail or prison, and whereas the jailor or sheriff's
accounts are not passed by the courts of the Territory, we the un
dersigned humbly pray that your excellency will order a guard to
attend the said jail," etc. The Territorial treasurer, Abner Green,
reported in November, . 1804, that the collection of revenue under
the act of 1803 had been "extremely partial." In the counties of
Adams and Jefferson the taxable property had been listed under the
law "and the amount of tax from Adams county is $5,393.74, which
has been collected and paid into the treasury, and the sum of $1,-
817.48 has been returned from the county of Jefferson ; of this sum
$1,336 has been paid." Wilkinson had paid in $700 out of $868.40
assessed, and Claiborne $448.41 out of $474.14 assessed, but in those
two counties the assessments had not been made under the last-
act of the assembly. From the county of Washington there was no
return. Acting-Governor West addressed the general assembly when it
convened, December 4, 1804. He said the act for the inspection
of cotton was not yet in force, except at Natchez ; the new public
buildings for Adams county were in a state of forwardness, but the
justices of the county court having declined to levy a tax to pay

952 MISSISSIPPI
for them, it would be well for the legislature to come to the relief
of the builders. "A marriage act is greatly wanted, the inconven
ience to those citizens residing at a distance from the seat of the
executive who have occasion for marriage license is considerable,
for the mode by publication few -are willing to resort to." (Divor
ces at this time were granted by the general assembly, only, by
special act.) A better act for the government of slaves was man
ifestly demanded. The "gaol of Jefferson county having been lately.
demolished," prompt steps to secure the erection of a new prison
were recommended (See Territorial Legislature). Of this session
Governor Williams, then present on the land commission, wrote
in 1808 : "The present council was raised from a nomination made
by nine representatives, two of whom were admitted and held their
seats in consequence of the improper conduct of the sheriff against
two who had a clear and considerable majority of the whole votes ;
that nomination when made was so influenced by party vote that
principle was totally disregarded. To such a pitch did that assem
bly carry opposition to each other, that it rose after a session of near
four months, without performing one of its most important and
constitutional duties."
In October, 1804, the act of congress went into effect creating the
Territory of Orleans, of which Governor Claiborne was made gov
ernor, terminating his association with the administration of Mis
sissippi Territory. Robert Williams, one of the land commissioners,
was appointed governor of Mississippi Territory, and took office
May 13, 1805. (See William's Adm.)
Western Company. The monopoly of Crozat was terminated by
its surrender. He had lost a large sum of money in the effort to
make a< profit from the exclusive trade privileges in Louisiana,
granted him in 1712. When he was permitted to resign control of
the colony in 1717^ his charter still had ten years to run. The
colony had been advanced but little under his private control, but
France was not yet ready to resume direct control of it. She was
suffering from a load of debt, which exceeded two thousand mil
lions of livres, an inheritance from the wars and extravagance of
the reign of Louis XIV. John Law had just established his cele
brated bank in May, 1716, and now proposed to the regent, the Duke
of Orleans, a credit system which should liberate France from the
enormous burden of debt. Under the auspices of Law a new com
pany was formed in August, 1717, under the name of the Western
Company, but was better known as the Mississippi company. The
exclusive commerce of Louisiana and certain other extraordinary
privileges were granted the company for the term of twenty-five
years. The failure of Crozat to find gold and silver had largely un
deceived France concerning the reputed riches of the colony, but
Law and his associates, and particularly the Western Company,
took advantage of the wonderful advance of credits in France, to
still farther strengthen their system by reviving the attractive tales
of gold and silver in the Mississippi country. Even ingots of gold
and silver were falsely exhibited in Paris as the products of Louis-

MISSISSIPPI 953
iana. Here was tangible evidence of the fabulous wealth and re
sources underlying the Law monetary and credit system, which had
now been adopted by the French government. The plan of the
Western company was not unlike that of the British East India
Company, and it possessed powers and privileges nearly equal.
The Louisiana colony was made one of the important props of
Law's system, and the enormous paper issues of his bank were
partly based on the reputed gold and silver, the fur trade, and pro
ducts of the soil, of the great Mississippi Valley.
In addition to the exclusive trade of the great Province of Louis
iana, the company was given the following important privileges :
The exclusive right to all the beaver, fat and dry, traded for by
the inhabitants of Canada, from the 1st day of January, 1718, until
and including the last day of December, 1742. (The contract made
with Messrs. Aubert, Neret, and Gayot, on the 10th of May, 1706,
for the trade in Beaver in Canada, expired in December, 1717.)
It was given all the coasts, lands, ports, havens and islands of the
province, after the manner they had been granted to Crozat (q.
v.). It was authorized to make treaties with the Indian tribes;
to declare and prosecute war against them in defense of the colony ;
to convey lands both by lease and in fee ; but settlers holding under
previous grants, or actually engaged in cultivating lands without
any special grant, were not to be disturbed in their possession.
It could nominate and present men for the office of governor, and
for commanders of the troops, and commission the latter subject
to the king's power of removal ; remove inferior judges and civil
officers ; build and equip ships of war ; erect forts ; levy troops ;
raise recruits ; open and work all mines of precious metals which
might be discovered; and it was granted the use of all the forts,
magazines, guns, ammunition, and vessels, pertaining to the prov
ince of Louisiana; justice was to be administered according to the
laws and statutes of the kingdom, particularly "according to the
common law of the provosty and viscounty of Paris, which shall
be followed in all the contracts the inhabitants shall pass, and no
other law shall be allowed to be introduced to avoid variety." The
company was also allowed to adopt a coat of arms to use on its
seals, buildings, guns, vessels, and whereyer it saw fit.
Among the obligations imposed on it was the stipulation to in
troduce into Louisiana during the term of its charter, 6,000 white
persons, and 3,000 negroes; to use only vessels belonging to the
company or to French subjects, in its trade, said vessels to be
fitted out in the ports of the kingdom and manned with French
crews, and bound to return to French ports; and to protect the
colonists from Indian outrages. One clause of the charter was
devoted to religion, and reveals the close union of Church and
State: "Whereas, in the settlement of lands granted to the said
company by these present letters, we have chiefly in view the
glory of God, by procuring the salvation of the Indian savage and
negrp inhabitants, whom we wish to be instructed in the true re
ligion, the said company shall be bound to build churches at her

554 ' MISSISSIPPI
¦expense in the places of her settlements, as likewise to maintain
there as many approved clergymen as may be necessary, either
as vicars, or under any other suitable title, to preach the holy Gos
pel, celebrate Divine service, and administer the sacraments under
the authority of the bishop of Quebec, the said colony remaining
as heretofore in his diocese, the livings of the vicars and other
clergymen, maintained by the company, being in his gift and ad
vowson." The stock of the company was divided into 200,000 shares of
500 livres each, to be paid for in any certificates of the public debt.
The shares were made small in order that as many people as pos
sible might become interested in the company, and even foreigners
were invited to take stock. The great Mississippi Valley was
represented as the richest part of the world; "Pearls" said they,
"could be fished there in abundance ; the streams which watered it
rolled on sands of gold, and that precious metal was found on the
surface of the earth without any need of profaning its bosom."
With this appeal to avarice, the company readily sold its shares.
Immense grants of land were sold to the wealthy men of France
at extensive prices. These lands were indeed immensely rich and
fertile, but their greedy owners were more interested in the dis
covery of gold and silver, than in the cultivation of the soil. The
stockholders at once flattered themselves with large profits, and the
Directory soon declared a dividend of two hundred per cent. The
delusion was now complete, and the stock rose to sixty times its
value. In 1719 the Bank of Law became the Bank of France, and
Law was looked upon as the greatest man of his age. In 1720 the
public began to lose confidence in the system of Law, and when,
in May, the value of his notes was reduced one-half by a decree
which spelled bankruptcy, Law fled to England, and the credit
system he had reared collapsed. It was a disastrous experience
for the French people, but the Mississippi Valley received a tre
mendous advertisement, and a great impetus was given to the suc
cessful colonization of its territory.
From the 25th of October, 1717, to the 25th of May, 1721, a total
of 7,020 persons were sent to the colony in 43 vessels. At the latter
date there remained in the colony 5,240 persons, the others having
deserted, returned to France, or died. Grants of land had been
made and plantations opened upon the Yazoo, at Natchez, on Red
river, above the Natchitoches ; at Point Coupee ; at the Tunicas ;
at Baton Rouge; at Bayou Manchac; at the Bayagoulas; at the
Tchoupitoulas ; at Cannes-brule ; on the Black river ; on the Pas
cagoula; at the Bay of St. Louis and Old Biloxi; on the Ouachita;
at the Houmas; and one 16 leagues square, on the Arkansas, to
Law, which he desired to erect into a great Duchy. Of course,
with Law's failure, colonization was checked, and improvements
largely ceased, upon many of the concessions. Some of the out
lying concessions, such as Law's were altogether abandoned and the
colonists joined the people on the others. Comparatively few re
turned to France. The actual settlers now felt that they must

MISSISSIPPI 955
shift for themselves, and began to apply themselves exclusively
to the cultivation of the ground, and ceased the futile search for
precious metals. Many, especially formed settlements on the allu
vial banks of the Mississippi, where, during the years 1718-20,
Bienville had founded the city of New Orleans. In 1722, it became
the capital of the colony. From 1718 on the slave trade was under
full headway. Each year the company brought over from three to
five hundred blacks, in compliance with the terms of its charter.
These were distributed among the plantations, and soon formed
an important element in the colony. They had become numerous
enough in 1724 to call for special laws. Governor Bienville promul- ¦
gated the famous "Black Code" in that year, which remained in
force for nearly eighty years with few alterations in Mississippi
and other portions of the province.
In 1723 the Royal Indian Company succeeded to the rights of
the Western Company in Louisiana. The financial crash which
ensued when Law's credit bubble burst, had, as we have seen,
checked colonization and improvements in the colony. Neverthe
less the company persisted in its plans, and many colonists contin
ued to arrive. Most of these were brought over at the expense of
the company. They were largely drawn from the poor, mendicant
and criminal classes. They formed the laborers sent to work the
various concessions. Many were unfitted for farming, or any
laborious life, and some returned to France to spread evil reports
of the Mississippi. Nevertheless many stayed and the colony con
tinued to grow. On some of the plantations indigo was being suc
cessfully cultivated. The company enjoyed a monopoly of the
tobacco trade in France, and drew much of its supply from Louis
iana. An especially good quality of tobacco was raised at Natchez,
and the district was capable of raising all that was needed to sup
ply France. Says Dumont in his history of Louisiana: "The fer
tility of this country presented important objects of culture; that
of tobacco alone sufficed to indemnify the French company for all
its expenses in colonization, if, in consequence of the pride which
had ruined it, it had not sought to extend its possessions and as
sume everywhere an air of sovereignty which never sits well on a
company of merchants, whose attentions should be exclusively di
rected to the means of extending commercial relations and increas
ing the number of articles of trade. If the company, instead of
building forts at excessive prices, keeping up considerable bodies
of troops, raising buildings which only served to gratify vanity
and give a vain idea of its greatness and power, and furnishing its
agents every means of increasing the expenditure, had confined
itself to the culture of articles of which they knew the importance,
we should not now see all good citizens of France sighing over the
failure of the attempts to establish a colony, whose fertility is ad
mired and importance felt."
In 1725, Governor Bienville, who had served the company con
tinuously since 1718, was recalled to France, and pending the ar
rival of M. de Perier, his successor, in August 1726, M. de Bois- i

95G MISSISSIPPI *
briant was summoned from his station at Fort Chartres to fill the
interim. Bienville had served the company long and faithfully,
but was nevertheless recalled, owing to the accusations and calum
nies of his enemies. He had handled the Indians especially well,
and conciliated them by diplomacy, or, if necessary, made them
feel the weight of his sword. He had vainly recommended the cul
tivation of the soil as the only true basis of colonial prosperity,
and for this reason had caused the chief establishment to be fixed
on the fertile banks of the Mississippi. His successor Perier, also
gave great encouragement to agriculture, and urged the policy up
held by his predecessor, of strong garrisons, prompt retaliation,
and incessant vigilance against the Indians. They had become
discontented and threatening after the departure of Bienville, whom
they dreaded. From this time on the company was put to enor
mous expense on account of the long wars with the Natchez, Chick
asaws and other hostile tribes. In 1729 occurred the dreadful mas
sacre of the French, which wiped out the prosperous French posts
at the Natchez and the Yazoo and imperiled the existence of the
whole colony. The Natchez were persistently followed by the
vengeance of the company, until they were almost exterminated,
and the few survivors after years of struggle, took refuge with the
Chickasaws and other friendly tribes, and lost their identity. Many
were captured and confined at New Orleans, whence they were
taken to St. Domingo and sold as slaves, and the proceeds turned
into the treasury of the company.
Of the state of the colony at this time, Beauchamp, who com
manded at Mobile, thus wrote the French Ministry: "You see to
what a state of things is reduced this colony, which has so long
groaned under a harsh command (de Perier's). The colonists are
in a miserably wretched condition, and are ill supplied with the
provisions and the merchandise they want. When flour is sent
here the heads of the colony take hold of it, as they do with all the
brandy and the cordials which are imported, and they do not part
with these articles, except at exorbitant prices. It is, after all, what
they do for every sort of merchandise." Of the Indians he wrote:
"Since the departure of Bienville all the Indians are spoiled. In
spite of the augmentation of merchandise we have to supply them
with, and of the reduction in the quantity of furs which they give
us back in return, they are not satisfied. On the contrary, they are
insolent and less tractable." He was emphatic in requesting the
return of Bienville, and further wrote : "The evil is now without
a remedy unless M. de Bienville could come back. Perhaps he
could succeed in changing the state of things, on account of the
consideration which the Indians have always had for him, and of
the services which he has rendered them, particularly to the Choc
taws." From 1717 to 1731, the company had spent the sum of $3,700,000
in the vain effort to make a profit from its monopoly. January
23, 1731, it petitioned for leave to surrender its charter, which had
still ten years to run. The request was granted, and two commis-

MISSISSIPPI 957
sioners, Bru and Brusle, were sent to the colony by the king to
settle the accounts between the company and the government.
Its affairs were slowly wound up, and the French government as
sumed the direct management of the colony. (See Crozat Grant;
also the Land Grants, French.)
West Florida, see British West Florida ; Boundary on 31° North
Latitude ; Johnstone, George ; Louisiana Relations ; Mobile, County
of; Charlotte County; Spanish Dominion, etc.
West Fulton, an old extinct town in Itawamba county which
flourished before the war. It was situated on the west side of the
Tombigbee river about two miles from Fulton, the county seat.
Col. D. N. Cayce was a merchant of the place.
Westonia is a post-village in Hancock county, about 17 miles
northwest of Bay St. Louis, the county seat. It is on the H. Wes
ton Lumber Co.'s R. R. extending from Pearl river to Caesar, with
a branch road running to Pickayune. The R. R. Co's shops are
located at Westonia.
West Point, the county seat of Clay county, is situated in a fer
tile and healthful region, at the crossing of the Illinois Central,
Mobile & Ohio, and the Southern railways, 16 miles northwest of
Columbus. The original town was a little hamlet, about one half
a mile west of the present town. When the Mobile & Ohio railroad
was completed through this section a few years before the War,
1861-65, the business of the town moved to the railroad. It was
incorporated November 20, 1858. When Colfax county was formed
in 1871. it became the county seat, and when the name of the
county was changed to Clay it was continued as the county seat,
and is now one of the most flourishing towns in northeastern
Mississippi. It has about 125 business houses, two good hotels,
fitted with all the modern conveniences, and is located within
forty miles of the rich coal fields of Alabama, and only 100 miles
from where iron is mined. Among its prominent manufacturing
enterprises may be mentioned, a cotton mill, furniture factory,
electric lighting plant, a $75,000 system of water works owned by
the city, with fine artesian water, a brick and tile works, an ice
factory and soda bottling works, two oil mills, a cotton compress,
machine shops, two planing mills, a stove factory, a steam laundry,
an artificial stone factory, handle factory, heading factory, and
wagon and carriage shops. A street car system is contemplated
in the near future. There are four banking institutions, the
First National Bank, established in 1883, capital, $100,000; the
Bank of West Point, established in 1896, capital $50,000 ; the First
Savings Bank, established in 1902, capital $25,000, and The Citizens
Bank, established in 1905, capital $50,000. There are eight
churches, all the principal denominations being represented. It
is the seat of the Southern Female College and has two graded
schools; also the Mary Holmes school (Presbyterian) for colored
girls. The first newspaper published in West Point was the Broad
Ax, published by W. Ivie Westbrook, from about 1858 to 1860.
The following newspapers are now published here: The Leader,

958 MISSISSIPPI
a Democratic weekly established in 1881, L. T. Carlisle, editor and
publisher; the Dixie Press, established in 1892 as a Democratic
weekly; The Times, established in 1899, a Democratic weekly;
The West Point Advertesir, a Democratic weekly established in
1906 ; the Conservative (colored) established in 1902 as a weekly.
The country within a radius of ten miles is filled with a thriving
population, engaged in growing cotton and grain, and in stock
raising. The city's debt in 1906 amounted to $78,000, in 30x and 40
year bonds ; its assessed valuation is $1,250,000 ; tax rate is 15 mills.
The population in 1900 was 3,193, which has materially increased
since that date, and in 1906 was estimated at 5,000. The contract
for the erection of a fine high school building was let in 1906.
West Port. An extinct town of Lowndes county, situated on the
west bank of the Tombigbee river, a mile above Columbus, which
flourished before the War between the States. Dr. W. L. Lips
comb, in his History of Columbus and Lowndes County says:
"* * * Just as soon as the Choctaw lands began to produce
crops of cotton, there sprang up a village called by the early
settlers West Port, and built to accommodate the planters of wes
tern Lowndes, and the adjacent countries, in the shipment of their
cotton, and in the reception of their plantation supplies to and
from Mobile, Ala. They thus avoided- the payment of the ferriage
across the river and had good camping grounds for their wagons
and teams.
M. M. Carrington, relative of Col. John W. Burn, Sheriff of Lown
des county in 1835, built its first store and warehouse. He was fol
lowed by Messrs. Haskins, Brownrigg, Hale and Murdock, Dick
Jones, Foster, Alexander and others. A town was regularly laid
off, good residences, fine hotel, stores with large stocks of goods,
and immense cotton sheds were erected, with all the appointments
of a prospective town. The shipment of cotton reached 30,000 or
40,000 bales annually, but in 1840 a fine bridge was built across the
Tombigbee, free to all Lowndes county citizens, which soon di
vided the storage of cotton and brought thousands of bales to the
warehouses of Columbus. The great high water in 1847 deluged
the town, swept off some of its warehouses, and destroyed much
of the sandy bluff on which it was situated. In 1861 the Mobile &
Ohio railroad completed its branch to Columbus, and West Port
succumbed to the inevitable and is now a desert of white sand on
which Daniel Davis (colored) with his blacksmith shop and little
farm hard by resides, its only occupant."
Westside* a hamlet in the southwestern part of Claiborne county,
about 10 miles from Port Gibson, the county seat, and nearest rail
road and banking town. It has a money order postoffice.
West Station, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part
of Holmes county, on the Big Black river, and a station on the
Illinois entral R. R, 43 miles south of Grenada, and 10 miles
north of Durant. There are 2 banks established here. The town
was named for A. M. West, a prominent citizen, and' president of

MISSISSIPPI 959
the Mississippi Central R. R. at the time of the War, 1861-5. Pop
ulation in 1900, 196; population in 1906 estimated at 225.
Westville, a post-town in the southwestern part of Simpson county,
near the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship Island railroad, about 8
miles southwest of Mendenhall, and 35 miles south of Jackson. When
Simpson county was formed in 1824, the county seat was located
at the present site of Westville, and the town which subsequently
grew up was named for Col. Cato West. The following informa
tion about Westville is taken from Goodspeed's Memoirs of Miss
issippi, vol. 1, p. 21 lj "Franklin E. Plummer, then residing there
and the only congressman who ever lived in the county, assisted
in laying off the town, which was then only a crossroad place,
where a grocery was kept and a store and tanyard were owned
by Nathaniel O. Freeman, one of the pioneers. The first courts
were held in a log cabin about twenty feet square, subsequently
converted into a blacksmith shop. Soon afterward a frame court
house was erected on the present site, which was destroyed by a
fire in 1844, which was supposed to be the work of an incendiary..
In 1846 a brick courthouse was built, which was also burned on
the night of May, 9, 1872. About a year after this the jail, a wooden
structure, was burned at night and a mulatto, incarcerated for
murder, was burned in it. In 1874 the brick courthouse still stand
ing was built at a cost of about $13,000." The county seat for five
years was removed to Miendenhall on the Main line of the Gulf &
Ship Island R. R, but by an order of the Supreme Court of Miss
issippi it was re-located at Westville in January, 1905, and remained
the county seat until July 12, 1906, when at an election called for
the purpose the citizens of Simpson county selected Mendenhall
as the permanent county seat. Westville has two churches and a
good school. Population in 1900, 200.
Whaley, a postoffice of Carroll county, 20 miles northwest of
CarroUton, the county seat.
Wharton, Thomas J, was born at Nashville, Tenn, May 18, 1817.
He was the son of Jesse Wharton, a lawyer, who served in both
houses of congress. He graduated at the University of Nashville ;
was admitted to the bar of Mississippi in 1837; practiced law at
Clinton and Raymond ; removed to Jackson in 1849 ; elected attor
ney-general in 1857 and held this position until he was removed
by the military in 1865. He was a strong supporter of the Confed
erate government. In 1882 he was appointed circuit judge by-
Governor Lowry.
Wheat, a postoffice of Pearl River county, situated on the Pearl
river, 13 miles west of Poplarville, the county seat, and nearest
railroad and banking town.
Wheeler, a post-hamlet of Prentiss county, on the Mobile &
Ohio R. R, and on 20 Mile Creek, 6 miles south of Booneville, the
county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order post-
office. Population in 1900, 70.
Wheeling. This was an old town in Itawamba county situated
on the Tombigbee river a few miles below the old village of Van

960 MISSISSIPPI
Buren. It was founded soon after the sale of the Chickasaw lands
and its life was very short, as its business was absorbed by the
latter town, just then rising into prominence. Its one hotel was
owned by Jefferson Foster. Its merchants were Jowers & Hol
comb, and R. P. Snow.
Whistler, a postoffice of Wayne county, 10 miles west of
Waynesboro, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking
town. Whitaker, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Wilkinson
county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 5 miles south of
Centerville, the nearest banking town, and 14 miles southeast of
Woodville, the county seat.
Whiteapple, a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R.
in the western part of Franklin county, 10 miles from Meadville,
the county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population in
1900, 53.
Whitefield. An abandoned town of Oktibbeha county, located
in the southwestern part of the county, just north of the present
station of Sturgis on the Illinois Central railroad. One Smith
was its first settler in 1854. A few of its most important citizens
were Dr. John Barron, Dr. W. W. Edwards, J. M. Cain, 
Tumlinson, and  Carpenter. Its business firms were
Barron & Neal, Hannah & Company, Hunt Brothers, and Walker
Brothers. It was absorbed by Sturgis when the railroad came
through. Whites, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Rankin county,
16 miles south of Jackson. Terry, in Hinds county is its nearest
banking town.
Whitesand, a post-hamlet and station of Lawrence county, on
the Mississippi Central R. R, 12 miles northeast of Monticello, the
county seat. Silver Creek is the nearest banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 60, and in 1906 was estimated at 200. There are
two saw mills located here.
Whitestown, a postoffice of Oktibbeha county, 7 miles south of
StarkviUe, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.
Whitfield, James, acting governor for a few weeks in 1851-52,
was born in Elbert county, Ga, December 15, 1791, and came to
eastern Mississippi, as many Georgians did, to attend the land
sales at Columbus, when that place was a small village. Locating
there, he conducted a mercantile business in addition to his inter
ests as a planter in the adjacent prairie country of Lowndes county.
He was a representative in the legislature from Lowndes in 1842-
48, and was elected to the senate in 1851. He was honored with
election as president of the senate in November (see Guion-Whit-
field Adm.), and as such was acting governor until January 10,
1852. Later in the same year he became president of the Columbus
insurance and banking company, and this business he conducted
until his resignation in 1870. This was one of the very few banks
in the State, and in the South, that maintained its credit during the
war, and redeemed its circulation after the war. In 1858 he was

MISSISSIPPI 961
again a member of the legislature. He was successful in business,
and accumulated quite a fortune, which however, was greatly re
duced in 1861-65. He is remembered as a man of pure character
and kindly impulses, to whom rich and poor alike could resort
for counsel. Governor Whitfield died at Columbus, June 25, 1875.
Whitfield Administration. See Guion-Whitfield.
Whiting, William Henry Chase, was born at Biloxi, Miss, March
22, 1824, of Northern parentage. His father, Levi Whiting, a
native of Massachusetts, was for forty years an officer of the
United States army, and died lieutenant-colonel of the First artil
lery. The younger Whiting was graduated at West Point in 1845,
and served in the engineer corps until his resignation in February,
1861, at which time he was a captain. In the Confederate army
he was first in the Georgia service, next an officer of engineers at
Charleston and Harper's Ferry. After the battle of First Manas
sas, he was promoted to brigadier-general, and took command of
Bee's brigade, including Falkner's regiment. He was greatly dis
tinguished in the campaign against McClellan before Richmond,
commanding a division and advising the successful strategy of the
campaign. After this, for some reason, he was practically shelved,
in command of the district of North Carolina, though J. E. John
ston asked his promotion to lieutenant-general. He was promoted
to major-general in 1863. When the main defense of Wilmington,
Fort Fisher, was actually assailed, by a great armada, in January,
1865, he was superseded by Bragg, and went into the fort, saying
to Colonel Lamb, "I have to share your fate, my boy. You are to
be sacrificed." In a hand-to-hand fight in defense of the fort, he
fell with two wounds. Carried as a prisoner of war to Governor's
Island, N. Y, he died there March 10, 1865.
Whitworth Female College. The Whitworth College for girls
is located at Brookhaven, Lincoln county. It was established by
the M. E. Church South, in 1859, much being due to the generosity
of Rev. M. J. Whitworth. The college opened under the leadership
of Rev. J. P. Lee, with 57 students and proved very popular. During
the years of the Civil war it was found necessary to close it, and
the buildings were occupied by a detail of the Confederate army
as a hospital. When peace was restored, the college was reopened
with Rev. H. F. Johnson as president and grew rapidly. The first
buildings were the frame buildings known as "Old College," Calis-
thenio Hall, and Music and Art Halls. President Johnson donated
to the college Margaret Hall, named after his wife, together with
the ground upon which it stands. It is a handsome, steam heated,
brick dormitory, and cost in the neighborhood of $15,000. At the
same time Col. W. L. Nugent gave the generous sum of $1,000 to
the college, and Maj. R. W. Millsaps, $3,000. President Johnson
then built and donated the institute, a building worth probably
$30,000, with its grounds. The college property was appraised in
1901 at $80,000, and its annual income at $15,000. The tuition is
$50 per year.
President Johnson's death in 1886 was a great loss, but his suc-
61-11

962 MISSISSIPPI
cessor Prof. Lewis T. Fitzhugh has carried on the work very suc
cessfully, and the college has about 200 students. Elimentary, pre
paratory and collegiate courses are offered, and in addition, music,
art, pedagogy and stenography are taught. The college has a small,
but well selected library of about 1,000 volumes. Its collegiate
courses lead to the degrees of A. B. and B. L.
Whynot, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Lauderdale
county, 13 miles from Meridian, the nearest railroad and banking
town. Population in 1900, 32.
Wiggins, a village in the northern part of Harrison county, on
the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, 35 miles by rail north of Gulfport,
the county seat. Its business interests are represented by a bank
which was established in 1905, several stores, a number of turpen
tine distilleries, and a large saw-mill It has an excellent school,
and a money order postoffice, and is considered one of the pros
perous towns in the county. Its population in 1900 was 230. It is
growing rapidly and the population was estimated at 1,200 in 1906.
Wilcox, John A, born in North Carolina, April 18, 1819, and came
to Tennessee with his parents; he was educated in the common
schools ; moved to Mississippi and located at Aberdeen ; was secre
tary of the State senate; lieutenant and adjutant of the Second
regiment in the Mexican war, and is credited by Reuben Davis
with securing his election as colonel ; was chosen lieutenant-colonel
after the resignation of Davis ; in 1851 was the Union Whig candi
date for congress against W. S. Featherston and was elected. In
1853, he was defeated by W. S. Barry for reelection and then moved
to Texas; represented that State in the Confederate congress, and
died at Richmond, Va, of apoplexy, February 7, 1864.
Wilczinski, a postoffice of Washington county, and a junction
point on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 4 miles by rail
northeast of Greenville, the county seat.
Wildwood, a hamlet of Lamar county, situated on Black creek,
9 miles northwest of Purvis, the county seat. The postoffice at
this place was discontinued in 1905, and mail now goes to Oloh.
Population in 1900, 37.
Wilkes, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Yazoo county,
about 12 miles from Yazoo City.
Wilkesburg, a post-village near the boundary line between Mar
ion and Covington counties, 12 miles north of Columbia, the county
seat of Marion county, and nearest banking town. It has a money
order postoffice. Population in 1900, 125. The town is in Cov
ington county and the postoffice is in Marion county.
Wilkins, James Campbell. Thomas Wilkins and John Wilkins,
Jr., were land owners in the Natchez district in 1788, the latter as
sociated with Stephen Minor. Doubtless they were descendants
or kin of John Wilkins, one of the pioneers of Pittsburg, whose
son, William, was congressman, United States senator, minister to
Russia, etc, and influential in the extension of the Pennsylvania
railroad west to Pittsburg. James C. Wilkins, of this Pennsylva
nia family, born at Pittsburg, came to Natchez early in the Territor-

MISSISSIPPI 963
ial period, and married into the Bingaman and afterward into the
Minor family. His life was devoted to business enterprises, but
he was active in politics and military affairs. When Andrew Jack
son was calling for help to defend New Orleans against the British
he raised a company of volunteer riflemen at Natchez, and took
them to the assistance of the general. He represented Adams
county in the. last general assembly of the territory, 1815-16, and
was a member of the constitutional convention of 1817. He was
colonel on the governor's staff in 1822 ; was appointed by the gov
ernor United States senator to succeed Powhatan Ellis in 1832, but
declined, and was a candidate for the same' office in the dead-lock
in the legislture in 1833. He was the United States pension agent
at Natchez.
When the Planters bank was established upon the credit of the
State, Mr. Williams was its president. For the history of this en
terprise, see "Banking." As its head, Wilkins was the business
and political opponent of the adherents of the old Bank of Missis
sippi, as well as of the wilder banking schemes that followed and
rapidly degenerated into wholesale repudiation of obligations. His
bank went down in the wreck, and the credit of the State soon fol
lowed. Mr. Wilkins died at Louisville, Ky, in April, 1849.
J. F. H. Claiborne wrote of him : "In connection first with Wil
liam Kenner, and afterward with John Linton, (New Orleans and
Natchez) he controlled for a long time the commerce of the Missis
sippi and nearly all the cotton it produced. He was very prompt —
rapid in his decisions, brusque and incisive in manner, somewhat
imperative, impatient of opposition, but with a heart as tender and
a sensibility as delicate as a woman's. Of all men whom I have
known he was the most impulsive, generous and forgiving. He was
the counselor of the old, and the guardian and patron of the young.
The widow in her distress, the debtor when pressed by embarrass
ments, the enterprising when they saw an opportunity that only
needed a little aid to make them independent, the orphan left deso
late and destitute — all found in him an unfailing resource. . . .
No man now living knew the wide sweep of his charities, and the
many fortunes he built up for others by giving them the use of
his means and his credit. He was impatient of thanks and would
not listen to them."
Wilkinson, a post-hamlet in the north-central part of Wilkinson
county, situated on Buffalo Bayou, 10 miles north of Woodville,
the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Popula
tion in 1900, 56.
Wilkinson Colony. Gen. James Wilkinson, when it became ap
parent that the inauguration of George Washington as president of
"a more perfect union," would check the Kentucky movement in
favor of Spain, wrote to Governor Miro, from Lexington, February
12, 1789 : "You will be surprised at being informed that lately I
have, jointly with several gentlemen of this country, applied to Don
Diego Gardoqui for a concession of land, in order to form a set
tlement on the river Yazoo. The motive of this application is to

964 MISSISSIPPI
procure a place of refuge for myself and my adherents, in case it
should become necessary for us to retire from this country, in order
to avoid the resentment of Congress. It is true that there is not,
so far, the slightest appearance of it, but it is judicious to provide
for all possible contingencies."
His letter two days later is a further explanation, that the appli
cation to Gardoqui would serve to gain his confidence and defeat
his project of organizing colonies in the upper valley. Major Dunn
had been sent to visit Gardoqui. "The Major carries with him a
petition to obtain, on the Yazoo and the Mississippi the conces
sion of land to which I alluded in my last letter. It is the most
advantageous site to form a settlement above Natchez. That peti
tion is signed by Innes, Sebastian, Dunn, Brown and myself. Our
intention is to make an establishment on the ground mentioned in
my communication of the 12th, and with a view to destroy the plan
of a certain Colonel Morgan." Morgan was an old Indian agent
and trader, who had been sent by a New Jersey company of specu
lators to buy western land from Congress, and found he could
make better terms with Gardoqui. He obtained an enormous con
cession west of the Mississippi, where he proposed to found a col
ony, with New Madrid as the capital. Wilkinson professed a de
sire to ruin this plan, because the Morgan settlers would "continue
to be Americans," and probably "destroy the noble fabric of which
we (Miro and Wilkinson) have laid the foundation." This episode
is of interest in connection with the relations of Wilkinson, Burr
and Morgan at a later day, and illustrates the two distinct lines of
Spanish intrigue, for expansion and immigration.
Wilkinson County was established January 30, 1802, during the
administration of Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne, and was the fifth county
to be erected in the new Territory. It received its name in honor
of General James Wilkinson of Maryland, in command of the
United States troops during the early territorial era of Mississippi.
It was created by act of the General Assembly, which recited that
"The county of Adams shall be divided as follows, to-wit : Begin
ning on the river Mississippi at the mouth of the Homochitto river,
thence running up the Homochitto river to Richards ferry, thence
by a line running due east to the western boundary of Washington
county ; and all that tract of country south of the above described
boundary, to the line of demarcation, shall compose a county,
which shall be called Wilkinson." From its territory lying east of
a line drawn due north from the thirty mile post, east of the
Mississippi river, were subsequently carved the counties of Amite,
Pike and the portion of Marion lying west of the Pearl river. June
29, 1822, the river Homochitto was declared to be the dividing line
between the counties of Adams and Wilkinson, from its mouth to
its intersection with the basis meridian line ; and from thence the
said river was made the line of demarcation between the counties
of Wilkinson and Franklin, as far as the mouth of Foster's
creek. In 1846, the north channel of the Homochitto, where it
forms an island below the lower or western Natchez and Wood-

MISSISSIPPI 965
ville road was declared to be the boundary between Wilkinson
and Adams, and Tanzy Island was embraced within the limits of
Wilkinson. As now defined it is the southwestern county of the
State and has an area of about 17 townships, or 664 square miles.
This historic region composed the southern part of the old Natchez
District, and contained some of the earliest settlements of white
people in the State. During the latter part of the eighteenth cen
tury, several large settlements had been made in Wilkinson county,
along the Homochitto river, Buffalo Bayou and in the vicinity of
the Mississippi river. The whole interior of the present State of
Mississippi, with the exception of a small district on the Tombig
bee river, was at this time in the sole and undisputed possession
of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. Many of these early settlers
were Anglo-Americans, and some were of Spanish and French
descent, due to the successive occupancy of the region by France,
England and Spain. Others had emigrated to the district from
the United States after the close of the Revolutionary war, under
the inducements held out by the Spanish authorities. After the
treaty of San Lorenzo in 1795 many more came from the western
States, and from the Carolinas and Georgia. The census of 1810
shows that Wilkinson had attained a population of 5,068, and by
1837 it had a total population of nearly 13,000 including slaves.
The year after General Wilkinson came to Natchez, in the summer
of 1798, he erected a military post at the first highland point on the
Mississippi, a few miles above the Spanish line of demarcation,
and called it "Fort Adams." The historic old place is now a village
of 240 people. A few of the early settlers of Wilkinson county at
the beginning of the last century were George Poindexter, Daniel
Williams, Abram M. Scott, John Joor, Gerard C. Brandon, Joseph
Johnson, all members of the Constitutional Convention of 1817,
and elsewhere mentioned in this work; Judge Edward McGehee,
Peter Smith, father of Coteworth Pinckney Smith, Chief Justice
of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, John Dunkley, Thos.
Kirkham, John L. Lewis, Archibald McGehee, Landon Davis,
Hugh Davis, Douglas Cooper, Gen. Wm. L. Brandon, and Wm.
and James A. Ventress. Few, if any counties in the State, can
furnish a roll of names as distinguished in the annals of the com
monwealth and the above list might be indefinitely extended. The
following men were commissioned Justices of the Peace, February
2nd, 1802 : John Ellis, Hugh Davis, John Collins, Richard Butler,
William Ogden and Thomas Dawson. Courts were first held at
Fort Adams and Pinckneyville, and a little later the seat of jus
tice was moved to the present county site of Woodville, which was
incorporated in 1811. Woodville is now a place of 1043 inhab
itants, situated in the south central part of the county at the ter
minus of the Bayou Sara and Woodville branch of the Y. & M. V.
R. R. This old railroad is noteworthy as one of the first railroads
to be built in the United States, and is the oldest line in Missis
sippi. It was incorporated by Woodville people in 1831, under the
name of The West Feliciana Railroad Company. Judge Edward

966 MISSISSIPPI
McGehee was one of the active promoters of the road. Centerville
is a place of some importance in the southeastern part of the
county on the railroad, and has a population of 590 people. Ro
setta, Wilkinson, Perry-town, Darrington, Pinckneyville, and Turn-
bull are all small villages. Besides the line of railroad to Wood
ville above mentioned, the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R.
crosses the extreme southeastern corner of the county, and enters
the county again at the extreme northeastern corner. Though the
first county in the state to build a railroad, it is rather poorly sup
plied with railroad facilities today. Besides the Mississippi and
Homochitto rivers on its western and northern borders, the prin
cipal streams are Buffalo, Percy, Smith, Big Pine and Fords
creeks, and Bayou Sara. The portion of the county lying west of
Woodville, or the Bayou Sara country as far as the Mississippi
river, is of great fertility, with a warm, loamy and generous soil.
The natural timber growth is cypress on the bottoms, and oaks,
poplar, lind, magnolia, ash, black walnut, hickory. That section
of the county lying north of a line drawn due east from Woodville
to Amite county line is generally poor in soil and products. The
natural timber consists of pine, poplar, ash, beech, catalpa, hickory,
oaks, etc. The third division of the county lying south of the
line drawn east from Woodville, is a fine agricultural country,
gently undulating, and possesses a soil only a little less fertile
than the first or western section. The forest growth consists of
pine, poplar, hickory, oaks, ash, elm, beech, magnolia, and abounds
in enormous wild grape and muscadine vines. The eastern half of
the county lies in the Long Leaf Pine region and the western half
in the Bluff Formation of the State. The products of the county
are cotton, corn, oats, sugar-cane, sorghum, peas, peanuts and all
the grasses. Fruits, especially grapes and all the vegetables grow
in great luxuriance and abundance. Pasturage for stock raising and
sheep husbandry is very extensive, the live stock of the county
being valued at nearly $600,000. Excellent schools are to be found
throughout the county. The Woodville Female Academy, incor
porated in 1840 by the M. E. church, was founded by Judge Ed
ward McGehee and Colonel and Mrs. Lewis, and was known as
one of the best in the country. It was burned in 1849. The Mc
Gehee college for girls, formerly known as the Woodville Female
Seminary, was chartered in 1861 and is still in a prosperous con
dition. The following statistics, taken from the last United States cen
sus for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population: Num
ber- of farms, 2,687, total acreage in farms 268,548, acres improved
109,247, value of land and improvements, exclusive of buildings
$1,337,840, value of buildings $484,730, value of live stock $578,595,
value of products not fed to stock $1,196,863. Number of manu
facturing establishments 40, capital invested $89,247, wages paid
$9,282, cost of materials used $21,198, total value of products $62,-
215. The population of the county in 1900 was whites 4,384, col
ored 17,069, total 21,453, increase over the year 1890, 3,661. The

MISSISSIPPI 967
total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Wilkinson
county in 1905 was $2,570,564 and in 1906 it was $2,881,652.60,
which shows an increase of $311,088.60 during the year.
Wilkinson, Edward C, a native of Virginia, who became a lawyer
at Natchez in early manhood. Henry S. Foote met him there in
1831, and they were friends until the death of Wilkinson a few
years before 1861. Foote referred to him as "a consummate scholar,
an erudite lawyer and an upright and pious gentleman. After hav
ing achieved much success in his profession, and after having sur
rounded himself with multitudes of friends and admirers, he became
involved in a tragic affair in the city of Louisville, Ky, of most
melancholy import, which resulted in his being tried for murder,
amid the raging of a furious local excitement, and in his being, in
the end, honorably acquitted/' In defense of Judge Wilkinson,
Si S. Prentiss made one of the ablest speeches of his life. After
1831 Wilkinson made his home at Yazoo City, "where his memory
is yet profoundly respected." (Lynch, Bench and Bar, 138.) He
was the uncle of Senator Walthall, who was named for him.
Wilkinson, James, was born in Maryland in 1755, and had com
pleted a course of study in medicine when the War of the Revolution
drew him to the army. Being commissioned a captain he went
with Benedict Arnold on the expedition to Canada in 1775. Through
successive promotions he became a colonel and adjutant-general
on the staff of General Gates. He was chosen by Gates to carry
to Congress the news of Burgoyne's surrender, and though phenom
enally slow in the journey, Congress gave him a brevet as brigadier-
general, and he was appointed secretary of the board of war, of
which Gates was president. Subsequently, in a moment of con
viviality, he revealed the plot to retire General Washington from
command, known as the Conway cabal. He was compelled to re
sign his brevet, and was no longer in active service during the
Revolution. After the war he removed to Kentucky and in 1787
embarked on the great intrigue which formed his chief notoriety.
Wilkinson arrived at New Orleans first in June, 1787, and then
began his acquaintance with Daniel Clark, Sr, whose nephew was
afterwards his bitter enemy. According to his own story he was
anxious to arrange for colonization of the Natchez district, and
secure an outlet for Kentucky produce. He admitted that he oper
ated upon "the fears, the avarice and the ambition of those with
whom I negotiated, before I could hope for any prospect of suc
cess." But his triumph was complete. He first obtained a permit
from Miro to introduce $35,000 worth of Kentucky produce into
New Orleans. This was a monopoly ; not, as he coolly observes in
his Memoirs, a favor to the people of Kentucky. As to What he
paid for the monopoly the Memoirs are silent; but the Spanish
archives are eloquent.
After this he was the recipient of a pension from the Spanish
government, and was regarded by the governor of Louisiana as
special agent. He continued in the river trade until 1791 when he
applied for a commission in the United States army, and was made

968 MISSISSIPPI
a lieutenant-colonel, on the strength of advice that he would in that
situation be less dangerous to Kentucky. Upon the sudden death
of General Wayne he became brigadier-general in command of the
army. He came to Mississippi territory in 1798, bringing with him
a luxurious coach and four horses. (See Occupation.) Of this
period of his life the historian Pickett wrote : "General Wilkinson
deserves to be remembered for many important public services,
among which are the treaties which he made with Indian tribes,
and the military organization of new counties. He wrote with
astonishing ease, and always expressed himself well. He was,
unquestionably, a man of genius, as well as of much usefulness ; yet
he had always been suspected of allowing personal considerations
to control much of his military and official conduct. However,
now acting with great zeal and fidelity, he stationed troops at dif
ferent points on the line of demarkation, from Fort Adams, upon
the Mississippi, to Pearl River, and caused Fort Stoddert to be
built. While his headquarters were at Natchez, he made an ad
vantageous treaty with the Chickasaws, obtaining their consent,
among other things, to the cutting of a road, to remain as a high
way, extending from the Cumberland district to the American set
tlements of Natchez. He made another treaty, with the Choctaws,
for a road from Fort Adams to the Yazoo river. The old boundary
between the British and Choctaws was also confirmed by him and
marked anew. He likewise repaired to the distant Oconee, and,
near a fort named in honor of him, made a treaty with the Creeks.
. . . The fearless, wise and patriotic agents, Benjamin Hawkins
and Andrew Pickens, were associated with General Wilkinson in
all these treaties, and, with him, travelled from the Chickasaw bluff,
backward and forward, over this Indian world, encountering its
dangers, and sharing in mutual hardships." (Alabama, II, 180.)
When Wilkinson was at Fort Adams in 1803, after surveying the
Natchez boundary, he received a letter from Thomas Power, re
garding the proposed French occupation of New Orleans, saying:
"The prefect has on several occasions, in talking of you, made use
of very illiberal language, and that not in private, but in public
and numerous company. He has said, among other things, that
your character was perfectly well understood in France ; that your
principles were not at all enigmatical ; that you had tricked and
deceived the Spanish government." Turreau, the French minister,
wrote to Talleyrand in 1805 : "General Wilkinson is forty-eight
years of age. He had an amiable exterior. Though said to be well
informed in civil and political matters, his military capacity is
small. Ambitious and easily dazzled, fond of show and appearances,
he complains rather indiscreetly, and especially after dinner, of the
form -of his government, which leaves officers few chances of for
tune, advancement and glory. . . He seems to hold to the
American service only because he can do no better. General Wil
kinson is the most intimate friend, or rather the most devoted
creature of Aaron Burr." It was because President Jefferson de
sired the support of Burr to offset the attacks of John Randolph

MISSISSIPPI 969
on the Madison plan for settling the Yazoo fraud claims, that the
president violated the Jeffersonian principle of separating civil and
military power, in 1805, by appointing General Wilkinson gover
nor of the Territory of Louisiana, north of Claiborne's Territory
of Orleans.
Next, in the general's career, came his spectacular exposure of
Burr's "treason." But the political ramifications and moral aspect
of this affair interested John Randolph. In his memoirs Wilkin
son wrote (1815) "I can distinctly trace the source of my perse
cutions, for the last eleven years, to the celebrated John Randolph
of Roanoke, who is entitled to all the credit to be derived from the
cunning, zeal, perseverance and perfidy displayed in his complot-
tings against the character of a man whom he feared and hated."
He said he merely happened to meet Randolph, "from the vortex
of whose malevolence it was impossible I should escape." Ran
dolph sought his indictment for misprision of treason, but failed.
Whereupon the Virginian wrote: "The mammoth of iniquity es
caped; not that any man pretended to think him innocent, but
upon certain wire-drawn distinctions that I will not pester you
with. Wilkinson is the only man that I ever saw who was from
the bark to the core a villain." "What seemed to be the indictment
and trial of Burr became, in a political point of view, the trial
of Wilkinson, with John Randolph acting as accuser and President
Jefferson as counsel for the defence, while Chief Justice Marshall
"presided in judgment." (Henry Adams, Hist. TJ. S, III, 343).
During the Burr trial Andrew Jackson denounced Wilkinson on the
streets as a traitor. Swartwout jostled the general on the sidewalk
and posted him as a coward when he refused to fight. Wilkinson
challenged Randolph December 29, 1807. Randolph refused to
meet him, whereupon the general posted the congressman. The
administration party in Congress was compelled to support Wil
kinson, on account of the attitude of Randolph. Daniel Clark,
whom the general had endeavored to ruin in connection with the
Burr affair, feeling that the crisis had come, put in Randolph's
hands copies of letters that had been previously withheld, one of
which was the cipher letter Philip Nolan was said to have brought
to Gayoso at Natchez, February, 1797; also Carondelet' s order to-
hold $9,640. subject to Wilkinson's order, dated January 20, 1796.
Gen. John Adair, after the Burr trials, returned to New Orleans
and sought an interview with Wilkinson, at his headquarters, and
being denied this, published a statement in the newspapers, saying,
"There is not a man living, who, to my knowledge, has been en
gaged in any treasonable project, or received a pension for treason
able purposes from any foreign government, Gen. James Wilkinson
excepted ;" also, that the general was a coward and merited no
weapon but a horsewhip. The situation in Congress was intensified
by a letter from Col F. L. Claiborne to Delegate Lattimore. Nev
ertheless, Wilkinson was assigned to command at New Orleans
when war was feared in 1809. Then came the Terre aux Boeufs
scandal, reports of the terrible sufferings of the soldiers whom he

970 MISSISSIPPI
had encamped in a swampy place near New Orleans, with the re
sult that they were taken with the fever. There was a great furore
and the government ordered a transfer of the troops to Mississippi.
It took Wilkinson about three months to obey this order, but fin
ally, in October, 1809, the army was encamped at Columbian
Springs, Fort Dearborn, and other points, with headquarters at
Washington. Of the two thousand men, 795 died and 166' deserted.
Brig.-Gen. Wade Hampton was put in command of the department
in December, and Wilkinson was ordered to Washington to answer
charges, but did not depart until February.
The famous court martial of Gen. Wilkinson convened at Fred-
erickstown, Md, September 2, 1811, and, after several adjourn
ments, was concluded early in 1812. Nine payments of_ money to
him by the Spanish government, upon the pension which it was
alleged he received, were specified, in amounts of $6,000, $10,000,
"two mule loads," etc. One item was $9,640 sent by Governor Car
ondelet in January, 1796, to New Madrid, and in the summer of that
year delivered by Thomas Power to Philip Nolan for Wilkinson;
another of $10,000 paid at New Orleans, between December 7,
1803, and April 21, 1804. It was also charged that in a conference
with Daniel Clark, at the camp at Loftus Heights, in October, 1798,
Wilkinson asserted a claim against the Spanish government on
account of his pension, and asked Clark to propose to Gayogo that
he should transfer to him the famous plantation near Natchez,
known as Concord, in payment of the obligation. He was charged
in a number of counts with treasonable negotiations with Power,
Leonard, Armesty, 'Carondelet and Gayoso; with associations with
Aaron Burr; with maladministration regarding the transfer of
troops to Natchez in 1809, and some minor offences. The court
found that Wilkinson had no relations with the Spanish governors
but a trade concession at New Orleans, on account of which the
payments were made; that he had been incorruptible since his
appointment as general; and in brief, that "General Wilkinson ap
pears to have performed his various and complicated duties with
zeal and fidelity, and merits the approbation of his country."
He was ordered to New Orleans to take command of the Terri
tories of Orleans and Mississippi, in April, 1812, and early in 1813
he took possession of Mobile, the Spanish commandant afterward
being denounced by his countrymen as a traitor. In the summer
he was promoted to major-general and called to the Canadian fron
tier, his first military command of any consequence. His campaign
there was a miserable failure, but he was not entirely to blame
for that. In January, 1815, he was called before a court martial at
Troy, N. Y, on charges of neglect of duty, drunkenness and con
duct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, and was found not
guilty and honorably acquitted of all charges. Retiring from the
army, he published his memoirs in three volumes in 1815. Subse
quently he removed to Louisiana, and thence to Mexico, where he
died, December 28, 1825.
The proof of his connection with Spain was not available until

MISSISSIPPI .971
search was made in the Spanish archives. The Spanish governors
retained copies of his letters, and sent the originals to court. Elli
cott had a theory that the general and the Spanish governors were
in a conspiracy against both Spain and the United States to estab
lish an independent empire. If so, the Aaron Burr conspiracy was
a mere echo of the original enterprise. Possibly Wilkinson had
different motives at different periods. That which was invariable
in his policy was selfishness, falsehood and treachery. ,He was a
soldier on "business methods."
Willet, a postoffice in the southern part of Washington county,
3 miles west of the Big Sunflower river, and 7 miles east of Hol
landale, the nearest railroad and banking town.
Williamsburg, the capital of Covington county, is located at the
geographical center of the county, 65 miles southeast of Jackson,
and three miles west of the main line of the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R. Ora station, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R, is the nearest
railroad point, and Collins, 5 miles to the north, is the ' nearest
banking town. It became the county seat at the time of the or
ganization of Covington county in 1819 and is located in a farming,.
grazing and lumbering district. It has two churches, and a good
school. Population in 1900, 475. In 1904 the court house was de
stroyed by fire and has not been rebuilt. (The above sketch of
Williamsburg was written in May, 1906, and in October, 1906,
the county seat was changed from Williamsburg to the thriving
little city of Collins on the main line of the Gulf & Ship Island
R. R.)
Williams Case. "One the 9th of November, 1897, the case of
Williams against the State, then pending in the supreme court, on
appeal from the circuit court of Washington county, wherein Wil
liams had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death, was
affirmed and a day named by the supreme court for the execution
of the death sentence. Williams, being a man of African descent,
denied, through his counsel, the right of the court, organized under
the present constitution of the State, to try him, because, he alleged,
the constitutional convention was illegally organized, in not ad
mitting Hon. Wheat, a delegate elected from Pearl River county,
to a seat in the convention, and hence the1 constitution framed by
it was invalid. Williams appealed to the supreme court of the
United States. There has been no more important case before the
supreme court of the United States carried from this State since its
admission into the Union in 1817." (Message of Gov. McLaurin,
1898). The governor appointed C. B. Mitchell to represent the
State as special counsel. The question presented to the court was,
"Are the Provisions of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi
and the Laws Enacted to Enforce Them Repugnant to the Four
teenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States?"
The court held that there was no conflict and no discrimination
between the races. It was decided that equal protection of the laws
was not denied to colored persons by a State constitution and laws
which make no discrimination against the colored race in terms,

972 MISSISSIPPI
but which grants a discretion to certain officers which can be used
to the abridgment of the rights of colored persons to vote and serve
on juries, when it is not shown that their actual administration is
evil, but only that evil is possible under them.
Williams, John Sharp, of Yazoo City, the representative of
the Eighth Mississippi district in the Congress of the United
States and Democratic floor leader of the House of Representatives,
was born July 30, 1854, at Memphis, Tenn. He is a son of Christopher
Harris and Ann Louise (Sharp) Williams. A paternal ancestor,
John Williams, was a lieutenant-colonel of the Hillsboro Minute
Men and afterward colonel of the Ninth North Carolina regiment
of the Continental army in the American Revolution, and the grand
father, Christopher Harris Williams, was for ten years a member
of the national House of Representatives from Tennessee. On the
maternal side John M. Sharp, the grandfather, was captain of Com
pany A, First Mississippi Rifles, under the command of Col. Jeffer
son Davis, in the Mexican War. The father of the subject of this
sketch was colonel of the Twenty-seventh Tennessee infantry of the
Confederate army and was killed at the battle of Shiloh. When the
Federal army was about to occupy the city of Memphis, the Williams
family removed to the mother's home in Yazoo county. John Sharp
Williams, after due preliminary discipline in the public schools of
Memphis and Yazoo City, attended successively the Kentucky Mili
tary Institute near Frankfort, the University of the South at Se-
wanee, Tenn, the University of Virginia and the University of Heid
elberg, at Baden, Germany. Subsequently he took a course in law
at the University of Virginia under Professors Minor and Southall,.
and completed his studies in the office of Harris, McKisick & Turley,.
of Memphis. He was admitted to practice in March, 1877, and in1
December, 1878, he engaged in his labors in Yazoo City. Since that
time he has been following that and the varied pursuits of a cotton
planter with great success. He was one of the delegates from
Mississippi to the national Democratic convention at Chicago which
nominated Grover Cleveland for president, and in 1904 was made
chairman of the convention which nominated Judge Alton B. Parker
for the presidency. His first election to the national legislature was
to the Fifty-third Congress, and he has been successively re-elected
to every session since. He is a communicant of the Episcopal
church and in a fraternal way is a member of the Free and Accepted
Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks. On October 2, 1877, Mr. Williams was united in
marriage at Livingston, Ala, to Miss Bettie Dial Webb, daughter
of Dr. Robert Dickens and Julia (Fulton) Webb, of Livingston, Ala.
The children of Congressman and Mrs. Williams are eight in num
ber — Mary (Williams) Holmes, Robert Webb, John Sharp, Jr., Julia
Fulton, Allison Ridley, Sallie Shelby and Christopher Harris.
Williams, Robert, third governor of Mississippi Territory, was
born in Surry county, N. C, July 12, 1773. He was the eldest son
of Col. Joseph Williams, a patriot partisan who was active in sub
duing the tories. After receiving a liberal education, Robert studied.

MISSISSIPPI 973
law and was admitted to practice. He also embarked in politics,
and was elected to Congress three times, serving 1797-1803. He was
a member of the Congress that provided the land commission for
the Territory, and was appointed a member of that commission
by President Jefferson in 1803, and in 1805 was also appointed gov
ernor. He performed the duties of both offices until the work of
the commission was closed in 1807. His service as governor began
May 10, 1805, and ended March 3, 1809, when he resigned. This
period was marked by stirring events, and considerable discontent
and opposition, led by the secretaries Cato West and Cowles Mead.
The governor twice dissolved the general assembly, and established
the precedent, theretofore unknown, that a Territorial governor
might revoke a presidential appointment of members of council.
In October, 1808, he wrote to Secretary Madison: "I have been
disappointed as respects certain characters here whose objects are
embarrassment. Precedent has no influence with them. What
they tolerate in one they hold criminal in another. Acts they ap
prove today they condemn tomorrow. Their doctrine is that the
end justifies the means. Nothing but an incorrect and partial ad
ministration can attack such men, and then no longer than it will
be subservient."
His public character is criticised in various histories of the
State. His public papers indicate that he was business-like, direct,
prompt, fearless, and clear-minded ; but he took no pains to con
ciliate, and tested the unknown extent of the absolute powers of
a Territorial governor. Monette, the original Mississippi historian,
says of him : "He rendered himself odious to his political op
ponents and scarcely respected by his friends. Destitute of refined
sensibility and generous feeling, and governed in his official inter
course by a narrow and selfish policy, he knew not how to concil
iate his enemies or to secure the attachment and esteem of his
friends." This author also speaks of his "strong prejudices, un
cultivated mind, disregard of the courtesy due from a statesman,
and his arbitrary disposition," expressions apparently derived from
the partisan publications of his day. He was, says an eminent au
thority (Wheeler's North Carolina) "a man of distinguished at
tainments, great research and acute intellect."
A very unpleasant affair in the fall of 1808 embarrassed the
governor, whatever the merit of the attack on him. In the cam
paign for representatives, in the summer previous, there had been
handed around copies of letters from J. W. Bramhall, a young law
yer who came on with Judge Leake, addressed to Col. Thomas M.
Randolph and John W. Eppes, of Virginia, and containing the
charge that Williams sought to appoint the enemies of Jefferson to
office. Bramhall accused the governor of giving the letters to the
public, and after some negotiation the governor stated that he
received copies of the letters from William Turner, whereupon
there was published Turner's statement that he gave the gover
nor the copies after the governor had given him the originals.
William Thompson, acting as Bramhall's agent, in conferring with

974 MISSISSIPPI
the governor, was told of the latter's intention to resign, and this
was published as if it were a result of this imbroglio. He also lost
favor with some by refusing to fight a duel with Poindexter. In
December, 1808, he was threatened with personal assault on the
street by John F. Bowie and Cowles Mead. (Natchez Chronicle.)
His wife, Elizabeth, died at his residence near Washington, M.
T, July 25, 1814. Some time during the War of 1812-15, he was ad
jutant-general of North Carolina, according to Wheeler's history.
He died in Ouachita, La, January 25, 1836, and was buried on his
plantation near Monroe, La. In Tennessee were his brothers, Col.
John Williams, of the Thirty-ninth infantry, in the Creek war,
under whom Thomas H. Benton was lieutenant-colonel; Thomas
Lanier Williams, chancellor of the State ; Dr. Alexander Williams,
and a sister, Mrs. John P. Irwin, of Nashville. Another brother,
Lewis Williams, served in Congress from North Carolina, 1815-
42, and was known as the Father of the House. A cousin, Marma-
duke Williams, succeeded Robert in Congress, serving six years,
and then removed to Madison county, M. T, in 1810. He was a
member of the first constitutional convention of Alabama, the
Madison county candidate for governor, and eleven times elected
to the legislature.
Williams' Administration. Robert Williams, of North Carolina,
was appointed governor of the Mississippi Territory by President
Jefferson, the appointment being confirmed March 1, 1805. Mr.
Williams was at the time one of the commissioners for adjusting
land titles west of Pearl river. "It was not a position to add to
one's popularity, and Mr. Williams was not a man of conciliatory
address. He was rather repulsive and peremptory, to please the
courtly and refined people among whom he resided. The Republi
cans in the Territory had strongly recommended Col. Cato West,
secretary of the Territory, and its most efficient party leader. ' But
Mr. Williams belonged to a very influential family of Jeffersonian
Republicans in North Carolina, a State that required some nursing
at that juncture, and it was deemed expedient to confer on him the
appointment." Such is the comment of the historian J. F. H. Clai
borne, whose observations are from one standpoint.
Williams had been the associate of Judge Rodney on the land
title commission, sitting at Washington town since December 1,
1803. The historian, Monette, quotes a Natchez newspaper of
June 7th to the effect that the governor arrived at Washington
January 26, 1805, and was greeted with a public dinner by the citi
zens, Judge Rodney being president of the gathering, and Thomas
H. Williams, the clerk of the commission, now appointed register
of the land office, vice-president. It is possible that the new gov
ernor was returning from a trip to North Carolina, upon this ar
rival. His commission as governor was dated March 1, 1805, and he was
sworn in by Judge Rodney May 10, upon the arrival of the docu
ment. The new governor had witnessed a turbulent session of the
general assembly, begun in December, 1804, which came to a close

MISSISSIPPI 975
in March. The Territory was thrown into confusion through one
of its enactments. This was a voluminous act regulating judicial
practice, one section of which Secretary West construed as vaca
ting the commissions of all the justices.
Colonel West, the unsuccessful candidate for the favor of Mr.
Jefferspn, had the records and seal of the Territory at his residence,
sixteen miles from Washington, and when the governor sent a note,
asking the secretary to call at the capital, also to inform him when
it would be convenient to have the records and public documents
removed to the seat of government, West replied to Parke Walton,
who carried the note, that he would not answer Mr. Williams in
writing, as it might lead to serious embarrassments, that Mr. Wil
liams had promised to be at his office, and Mr. Williams could do
as he pleased and he would do likewise. The governor then re
quested him to attend the seat of government with the seal. But
the secretary remained at home and sent the seal.
To meet this emergency, and the action of the secretary regarding
the commissions of officers, the governor issued a proclamation,
May 29, calling a special session of the legislature on the first Mon
day of July.
On June 5th Attorney-General George Poindexter advised Gov
ernor Williams that all the commissions should be renewed. He
added, "I take the liberty to remark that the construction put upon
the statute above cited does not comport with my opinion, nor do
I think the legislature intended the section to have that operation."
The governor asked the assembly, when it convened, to elect a dele
gate to congress, which the former session had failed to do ; also
to designate some place at which the public offices of the Territory
should be concentrated, instead of being scattered about where the
officers might reside. "I can but express my regret at the want of
harmony, heretofore, between the different branches of the legis
lature and its members ; which tended greatly to protract the de
spatch of publick business, and which has rendered this call indis
pensable. Nothing will afford me more satisfaction than to witness
a different temper in future, of which I have the greatest confi
dence. No exertion on my part shall be wanting to heal those poli
tical distractions so inimical to the general good and to promote
unanimity and concord in every branch of the government." July
25, 1805, the governor informed the assembly that he could not
carry out its regulations regarding the distribution of the laws
because they were in the hands of the secretary of the Territory,
and it would not be consistent for him to make further attempts
to obtain them. "It remains for the wisdom and independence of
the general assembly of the Territory to secure obedience and re
spect to its laws and provide that they should not be violated with
impunity." The legislature passed an act to cover the case, and
upon formal demand under this law, by Governor Williams through
his secretary William B. Shields, the records and public documents
were delivered, July 30. A few days later, notice of the trouble
having been sent to the secretary of state, an appointment arrived

976 MISSISSIPPI
of Thomas H. Williams as secretary of the Territory, which he ac
cepted conditionally. The governor reported: "Colonel West has
had his political frolic and all things are quiet." The political com
motion is probably also evidenced by the governor's action in June,
when he relieved Charles B. Howell as auditor of public accounts
and appointed Beverly R. Grayson. John Shaw, "justice of the
peace and of the quorum and chief justice of the orphans court for
the county of Jefferson," was peremptorily removed from office for
wilfully refusing to hold court. Jacob Stamply, and Eli K. Ross,
judges of the county court, were likewise removed.
One of the first memorable events in the Williams administration
was the Kemper affair, an outbreak of hostilities between the White
inhabitants of the Spanish territory and the frontier of the Natchez
district. Since the cession of Louisiana, Spain had held the Baton
Rouge and Manchac districts, between the island of Orleans and
the Natchez district, as well as the coast region formerly under the
government of Mobile. All this was originally part of French
Louisiana, including Mobile, and the American government was
making a serious claim to it as a part of the cession of Louisiana.
Whatever the merit of the arguments made use of, the Baton
Rouge country was mainly American in population and was bound
to become a part of the United States, and the Kemper affair was
the beginning of the disorder that finally furnished some actual
warrant for taking possession. The movements of the Kempers,
the revival of Spanish intrigue with the Indians, the plot of Colonel
Caller, of the Tombigbee district, to capture Mobile, the Sabine
expedition, the operations of General Wilkinson, and the descent
of Aaron Burr, were all intimately connected, and served to involve
the Mississippi Territory in disturbance and mystery during the
years 1805-7.
The governor was anxious to go to North Carolina and bring
his family, but the perplexing land commission business kept him
busy until November, 1805, when word from Governor Claiborne
regarding a prospect of trouble with Spain compelled delay till
Congress should meet. At the same time he had the satisfaction
to inform the government "that there is at present more unanimity
and concord amongst the people of this Territory than at any other
period since the American government, and perhaps as much if
not more harmony towards the General Government than in any
other quarter."
Governors Claiborne and Williams were worried in the fall of
1805, by reports of 4,000 Spanish troops being forwarded to Florida,
500 to be stationed at Baton Rouge, while in the west there was
military activity between Natchitoches and the province of Texas.
Governor Williams reported in the spring of 1806 that the feeling
in the Tombigbee district had greatly intensified since the closing
of the port of Mobile and the people were likely to take matters
in their own hands, to force their way to New Orleans. The Span
iards were said to be tampering with the Choctaws, especially the

MISSISSIPPI 977
Six towns, "who are great rascals, and have always been pretty
much of Spaniards."
His message to the regular session of the general assembly,
December 2, 1805, was a plea for such credential self government
as would dispose the general government to more speedily increase
the grants of local powers ; for the extension of opportunity for
higher education by the public to those not enabled by wealth to
obtain it; for moderation and justice in the laws, for "sanguinary
laws are not congenial to the principles of a free government, nor
adapted to the genius of the American people ;" for efficient sup
port of the militia; for "as few laws as possible," because many
laws indicate the depravity of society ; the preparation of a digest
of existing statutes ; the enactment and enforcement of compulsory
laws for keeping up the highways, and provision for the payment of
the public debt, which was in a fair way to be soon wiped out.
The commission of Cowles Mead as secretary of the Territory
was received by Governor Williams, March 25, 1806, at which time
Mead had not yet arrived. The governor started for North Caro
lina April 22, 1806, by way of New Orleans, leaving Secretary Wil
liams at the head of government. One of the acts of Secretary
Williams after his departure was to acknowledge the exequatur
of Citizen Martel, as commercial agent of the French Republic at
Natchez. Mead arrived at Natchez May 31st, and soon afterward
became acting governor. (See Mead's Administration.) Wil
liams returned, arriving at Natchez January 26, 1807, to be present
during the special term of court called to try Aaron Burr for treason
against the United States. When Burr took his departure, seeking
refuge with Colonel Caller and the other enemies of the Spanish
on the Tombigbee, the governor offered a reward that induced his
arrest. The legislature in February, 1807, by resolution fixed the
time of adjournment at the 7th of that month, and the time of
reconvening the first Monday of November. George Poindexter,
attorney-general of the Territory, was elected delegate over Cowles
Mead and Thomas H. Williams, in -January.
In August, 1807, meetings at Natchez and on the Tombigbee
adopted resolutions of indignation over the Chesapeake outrage,
which threatened war with England.
The Burr episode left a train of bitter dissension. The gov
ernor and Mead accused each other of sympathy with Burr. Ter
rell's newspaper at Natchez, the Mississippi Messenger, supported
Mead and openly charged Williams with Burrism and disloyalty to
Jefferson. The outbreak began in June, with the Messenger's declar
ation: "Governor Williams has never patronized the Messenger,
the Republican paper, even so far as his personal subscription w°uld
have gone, but on the contrary has given his subscription and sup
port to the Herald, the warmly Federal press." The Messenger
was unrestrained in its lampooning of the governor from this time.
Andrew Marschalk's Herald responded on behalf of the governor.
Monette and later historians preserve only the intemporate state
ments of one side, against Williams. The Wilkinson question also
62-11

978 MISSISSIPPI
entered into the dispute. Old soldiers, and the officers on duty,
took sides, the opponents of Wilkinson reviving the adoration of
"Mad Anthony" Wayne, the hero of the Federalists. Several duels
were fought, that between Governor Claiborne and Daniel Clark
being the most famous.
The governor, perhaps because of Mead's unconcealed hostility
to Wilkinson, secured his removal from the secretaryship. Thomas
H. Williams was reappointed June 1st. A campaign came on for
the election of four representatives to fill vacancies and it was hotly
contested between the two parties. Mead was a candidate, and the
result was a victory for the opposition to the governor, but the re
turns showed that sentiment was pretty evenly divided, the majori
ties in most cases being slight. The stronghold of the "Meadites"
was in Jefferson district. Mead, by communications to Poindexter,
involved the governor and delegate in a bitter quarrel. Poindexter
took the initial steps for a duel, but the governor replied to Captain
Voss that he would not "involve either his public or private char
acter with such a man," and when Voss made public the fact' that
a challenge was intended, in violation of law, the governor removed
him from his office of justice at Natchez. Col. F. L. Claiborne
reported that Voss demanded a court of inquiry as a captain of
militia ; the governor responded that the civil authority was not
subject to supervision by the military. Captain Marschalk furn
ished charges against Claiborne, that he had declared he would make
the cavalry of Adams county obey his orders by force of arms,
and on October 16, Governor Williams revoked his commissions
as justice of the peace and quorum, and lieutenant-colonel com
manding the Fort regiment. The governor directed the new at
torney-general to prefer indictments for libel against Mr. Poin
dexter, Col Joshua Baker, and John Shaw, one of the editors of the
Messenger. Captain Voss began suit against the governor for $10,-
000 damages by defamation. The commission of Abner Green as
territorial treasurer was also revoked in October, and Samuel
Brooks, mayor of Natchez, appointed in his stead.
Cowles Mead seems to have rallied the forces of discontent with
the Territorial form of government, which had embarrassed pre
vious governors of Mississippi Territory, and given Claiborne much
trouble at New Orleans. To Robert Tanner, who indignantly re
fused a cofnmission in 1807, as others had refused them from Sar
gent in 1798, because it was a commission at the pleasure of the
governor, Williams replied : "You censure the Ordinance ; say it
-verges on despotism, and is derogatory to a free and enlightened
people, and invoke my aid and that of the good people of the Ter
ritory to have it altered. Without intending to impeach or admit
the correctness of your remarks on this occasion, I will observe
that I never have been an admirer of Territorial governments nor
have my opinions been secreted. Nevertheless, it is my duty, as
well as every other officer, to administer the government as it is,
and not as we may wish it, and every good citizen should give his
aid in the same way, thereby showing that we are ripe for self gov-

MISSISSIPPI 979
ernment and one that is better and more free. You will excuse me
for observing that I presume your remarks on the present form of
government were made without due reflection and that considera
tion which the importance of the occasion required and your own
intentions warrant. The sages of Seventy-six, whose wisdom,
valor and patriotism broke the iron band of tyranny, emancipated
a world, and secured both civil and religious liberty for millions
unborn, formed that very instrument, the Ordinance, which you
now reproach with the epithet of despotism." Alexander Mont
gomery, in Nov, 1807, declining a justiceship of Gov. Holmes, said
there was not a commissioned officer civil or military in the district
of Adams.
Governor Williams refused to recognize the assembly as legally
in session when it met in November. He addressed the two houses
a message setting out that the session was set in disregard of the
law of Congress and without the consent or knowledge of the gov
ernor ; that on account of disagreement between the members there
was little prospect of any good being done before the time of regu
lar meeting; that the two houses had not been enabled during the
nine days session to communicate with each other officially or with
the governor, composing also one branch of the legislature; that
a number of members had withdrawn, destroying the quorum ;
that the governor could not recognize the organization of the house
and communicate with it regarding three vacancies and what had
been done to fill them, nevertheless, the persons elected to fill
those vacancies had been admitted to seats, therefore he exercised
his authority to prorogue the general assembly.
In his message of December 4, 1807, Governor Williams gave
considerable space to a warning against the tumultuous assertion
' of individual notions of right and justice by people assembled from
many different States and communities. He also took "the liberty
to remark, that in a republican government, existing by the will
of the people, where law is sovereign, nothing can be more incor
rect and impolitic than to advocate the physical powers of the peo
ple and their natural rights in opposition to those which are legal
and constitutional. . . . Extreme liberty is anarchy. In socie
ties governed by laws, liberty does not consist in doing whatever
we please, but that which is agreeable to law, the rules of morality
and our associated rights." While saying this, the governor was
wise enough to rebuke the law-smith, as pestiferous then as now :
"Permit me, gentlemen, to suggest that the happiness of any com
munity does not depend so much on the, number of its laws, or the
frequent alteration of them, as on their correctness and certainty
of execution. It is generally true that the paucity and simplicity
of laws indicate the correctness and simplicity of manners in so-
ciety." He rejoiced in the proof given in the past months that the
people of the Mississippi country were not wavering in allegiance
to the United States or seeking an opportunity for secession. Mis
taken notions of the reverses need no longer deter immigration.
He expressed confidence that partisan misrepresentation and licen-

980 MISSISSIPPI
ti-ous publications could do no permanent harm. "The people, will,
after a while, determine right and act correctly; for it is impossible
the people at large can wish to remain deceived or to act wrong,"
and it were better that discontent should evaporate freely than be
hidden to poison in secret. Regarding the criminal laws, he sug
gested that the penalties for duelling were too severe to be en
forced, and that more solemnity and formality in the trial of slaves
for crimes involving the death penalty would better accord with the
principles of the constitution and genius of government.
The opposition in the assembly began preparing a memorial to
the president, against the reappointment of the governor, stating
that "from the imperfect nature of our government we are made
liable to abuse and oppression; therefore it is, that a^ the terri
tories have been so troublesome," and accusing Williams of "of
ficial criminality" in the following particular : "political apostacy,
that he has forsaken his first political friends and principles and
attached himself to the most violent Federal men and measures."
The instances given were the removal of Green, territorial treas
urer; Ellis, county judge, and Colonel Claiborne, of the Adams
-county regiment, the appointment in their places of a Federal
ist, a "monarchist", and a man who had drunk "success to Burr."
The governor had also, said the memorialists, appointed an attor
ney-general who was an enemy to Jefferson; his aides were all
Federalists; he had tried to have Federalists judges of elections;
he had himself said that "Burr was an honest and unfortunate
man." The climax of "criminality" was, that when this memorial
was announced, to be signed as soon as some members sick could
return, the governor prorogued the assembly, December 24, until
the next February. This was signed by Joshua Baker, president
of the council, and Joseph Sessions, one other councilman, and by
John Ellis, speaker, and four other representatives : Cowles Mead,
Alexander Montgomery, Micajah Davis and William Snodgrass.
The assembly met iri February, 1808, and on March 1st the gov
ernor dissolved it absolutely. He took the position that this dis
solution operated to end the council then in office, as well as the
house of representatives. He informed the secretary of state that
the council had been chosen from nominees of a legislature that
was divided by faction to such an extent that it could not elect a
delegate to Congress in a four months session; that he had con
vened the assembly to perform this duty as soon as he assumed
office, and the election was then made only on his threat of disso
lution. He considered the council at fault because it was selected
partly "with a view to embarrassment, opposition and disappoint
ment" to the hostile factions. "I do not believe that one-third of
the citizens will vote at the next general election (1808) if they
have not a prospect of a new council. At the last general election'
and those to fill some vacancies during the past summer, where
there are six or seven hundred voters, from eighty to one hundred
elected a member. Knowing the character of the council they
would not turn out to the election, consequently those of similar

MISSISSIPPI 981
dispositions were elected to the house of representatives. Noth
ing is more common than for the two houses to pass bills know
ing them to be i in violation of the ordinance and laws of Congress,
embracing popular objects, in order that the governor should be
under the necessity of disapproving them and thereby afford them
grounds to clamour. To give you an instance, they passed a bill
apportioning the representatives in part of the Territory, although
they had previously memorialized Congress on the subject, which
the present session of Congress has acted on and granted." '
Delegate Poindexter had failed to persuade both houses of Con
gress to extend -the elective franchise, but a bill passed January 9,
1808, enabling the general assembly to apportion the representation
in the house, and permitting an increase of the membership to
twelve. At the same time the election of the delegate to Congress
was committed to popular vote. Hand in hand with this greater
recognition of American citizenship, came the ratification of the
Choctaw cession of 1805, that President Jefferson had so long
withheld, and the passage of a bill for the opening of a land office
so that immigrants would at last have new land upon which to
settle. This promised the removal of the Indians from the strip
of country between the Natchez and Tombigbee settlements, and
some sort of consolidation of the two "outposts of civilization" by
intermediate settlements. The right of preemption, also, was ex
tended to actual settlers March 3, 1807. "I therefore hope," wrpte
Delegate Poindexter, in his announcement of these results, "that
every fear, with respect to the justice of the government, towards
our distant and isolated country, will be dispelled, and that these
measures will inspire the most perfect contentment and satisfac
tion." (Claiborne's Miss, 364.)
After the passage of the preemption law of 1808, "a rage for
similar settlements in Orleans Territory" seized the people of
Natchez district, and settlements were made across the river with,
said Governor Williams, unexampled rapidity. These settlements
were generally made on the high and fertile lands north of Red
river, along the Mississippi, Tensas, Boeufs and Ouachita rivers,
where, in many places, a plantation could be cleared by setting
fire to the grass and cane. This may be taken to mark the begin
ning of westward emigration from Mississippi, when hardly a
foufth of the area of the present State, itself, was open to settle
ment. Governor Williams was nominated by President Jefferson for a
second term, and commissioned of date March 14, 1808. An elec
tion of a new house of representatives was held in July, and the.
opponents of the governor secured a majority, Adams county
electing Ferdinand L. Claiborne, William B. Shields and Cowles
Mead to lead the fight. At the same time George Poindexter was
elected delegate to succeed himself. The house was convened in
September, and there was a great debate upon the proposition to
nominate men for a new council. The motion to do so was made
by Mr. Bullock, and supported by Henry, Smith and Downs.

982 , MISSISSIPPI
Mead objected, declaring it absurd to suppose that the governor
could remove the council appointed by the president. Shields and
Hunter spoke in the same strain. Delegate Poindexter, being
present, was asked for his opinion, whereupon he said that he
had not lately talked with the president about the acts of the
governor, as the governor had misrepresented him, but he had
been reliably informed that though Mr. Jefferson had said, "Is it
possible that the governor will undertake to vacate my commis
sions," he also said, "I suppose by the ordinance he has the power."
Mead thereupon declared he would not give up his opinion for any
body ; that the governor had committed the most flagrant violation
of the rights of the people ; that the president was affected by a
"Sun pain;" that Madison, the secretary of state, was "a weak,
debilitated man ;" the whole conduct of the general government
was "inimical to the best interests of the Territory." Shields sug
gested "a new declaration of independence." The motion carried
by the support of Claiborne and others opposed to the governor,
and thereupon nominations for the council were made as follows:
Washing-ton : John Flood McGrew, John Hanes ; Jefferson : Jacob
Stampley, Thomas Calvit; Wilkinson: Joshua Baker and James
Lea; Adams: Alexander Montgomery, Joseph Sessions; Claiborne:
Daniel Burnet, Francis Johnston. These were all opposed to the
governor, as the house stood about seven to five in opposition.
Cook declared he did not know who Johnston was; it was denied
that he was a citizen or a landholder; but the majority refused
to make any change. Johnston, a captain in the regular army,
settled that dispute by dying in the following February. The
house of representatives, the same month, resolved that the courts
be requested to suspend writs of execution during the continuance
of the embargo.
Beverly R. Grayson was removed from office as auditor of pub
lic accounts, clerk of the supreme court, and justice of Adams
county, October 7, 1808. Parke Walton was appointed auditor,
but the governor was compelled to make a formal demand before
the records of the office were turned over. In the same month
he removed Theodore Starke, his former appointee as clerk of the
circuit court of Adams county, and appointed James Dunlap. The
court (Rodney and Leake) ruled that such action was not within
the powers of the governor under the Ordinance of 1787. The
governor thereupon issued a proclamation that Starke was not
authorized to perform the duties of the office. Writing to the sec
retary of state, he said that notwithstanding his very great respect
.for the judiciary, he did not "for a moment hesitate to declare my
total disregard to the opinions and decision of the judges on this
occasion, and shall continue to act accordingly until otherwise
advised from a superior tribunal, and one competent to take cog
nizance of and control the executive and superior department of
this government."
Delegate Poindexter introduced a bill in Congress to deprive
the governor of the right to dissolve the general assembly, but

MISSISSIPPI 983
Troop of Georgia insisted that the ordinance of 1787 was a com
pact not to be trifled with, and the bill was killed.
While the appointment of a new council was pending, the reg
ular time of meeting passed. Consequently the governor called a
session on the first Monday of February, 1809. His address at the
opening of this session was a plea for tolerance of the differences
of men of "thinking, and manner of doing the same thing, though
intended to effect similar objects. These differences ought not
always to be attributed to improper motives. Men more fre
quently differ when acting under the influence of correct princi
ples, and proper motives, than otherwise." He embraced the first
opportunity in his second term to address the assembly to say
that he was not "insensible some acts of my administration have
been disapproved of even by those to whom I am immediately re
sponsible," but he felt conscious that all he had expected at the
beginning of his administration had been fulfilled, except that
be had held office longer than he expected ; and that all his
acts had been for the good of the people, and he was not disposed
to think, that disapprobation or legal opposition to his acts were
based on motives less pure. After a discussion of the foreign rela
tion, that had caused great hardship to the people on account of
the embargo and warfare at sea, he again recommended support
of education, militia and roads. The public debt due the Territory
January 1st, he said, was $11,185.34, of which sum $2,848 remained
in the hands of delinquent officers, leaving only a little over $6,000
actually due.
December 14 the governor wrote the secretary of state that the
accumulation of business, and the necessity to attend the public
sale of lands in Madison county, prevented him from going to
North Carolina on private business, and that perhaps no man ever
made a greater sacrifice than this for the public service. March
3, 1809, he notified the assembly that he should not "continue to
act as governor of the Mississippi Territory after this day ; and in
order that my successor may come into office under the most fav
orable circumstances which the nature of the case will admit of,
and meet the full suffrages of the people in their representative
character, unbiased by the various motives and dispositions under
which the representation constituting the present general assem
bly may have been influenced ; and inasmuch as a great portion
of the citizens of this Territory has no share in the present repre
sentation, I do therefore dissolve the present general assembly of
the Mississippi Territory."
On the next day, Thomas Jefferson retired from the presidency,
and one of his last appointments, ratified by the senate just before
the close of his term, was of David Holmes, of Virginia, to be
governor of the Mississippi Territory. It was understood by the
governor and secretary in Mississippi that an appointment was
to be made, and Secretary Williams, writing March 4, giving no
tice of the governor's retirement, said he would not urge the imme
diate necessity of the appointment of a successor, "from a thorough

984 MISSISSIPPI
persuasion that the general government has already taken the
necessary measures to meet this case."
Williams, Thomas Hill, was born in North Carolina about 1780,
and received a liberal education; he afterwards became a lawyer.
He was clerk for Rodney and Robert Williams, the land-claim com
missioners, in 1803, and in 1805 was appointed register of the land
office at Washington, M. T, being commissioned March 3d. June
1 he was also appointed secretary of the Territory, an office he
did not desire, but accepted temporarily on account of the trouble
between the governor and the late secretary, Cato West. He
acted as governor in the absence of Robert Williams, April 22,
1806, until July 3d, when Cowles Mead succeeded him as secre
tary. After the governor returned in January, 1807, Mead became
hostile, and Register Williams was again appointed secretary,
June 1, 1807. Upon the governor's resignation, he was again act
ing governor from March 4th, 1809, until the arrival of Governor
Holmes about the first of July. He had charge of the opening of
the first Choctaw purchase to settlement, and advertised the first
sale of public lands at Washington, the second Tuesday of Janu
ary, 1809. He was appointed collector of the port of New Orleans
in February, 1810. He had not yet accepted in June, but it appears
that he paid little or no attention to the office of secretary after
the arrival of Governor Holmes.
In 1817 he was a citizen of Mississippi Territory and was elected
one of the United States senators by the first State legislature. He
took his seat December 11, 1817, and served, by reelection, until
March 3, 1829. Afterward he removed to Tennessee, where he
died, in* Robertson county, about 1840.
Williamsville, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Grenada
county, about one mile south of the Yalobusha river, and 16 miles
east of Grenada, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking
town. Population in 1900, 60. It has a cotton gin, a church and
an excellent school.
Willing, a postoffice of Copiah county.
Williston, a post-hamlet of Leake county, near the south bank
of the Pearl river, 7 miles east by north of Carthage, the county
seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Willmore, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Copiah county,
on Bayou Pierre, 18 miles distant from Hazelhurst, the county
seat. Willows, a postoffice of Claiborne county, 12 miles northeast of
Port Gibson, the county seat. Hermanville is its nearest bank
ing town.
Wilmot, a postoffice and station of Washington county, on the
Deer creek branch of the Southern railway, and on Deer Creek, 8
miles south of Leland, the nearest banking town.
Wilsonville, a post-village in the eastern part of Claiborne county,
one mile north of Bayou Pierre, and 14 miles east of Port Gibson,
the county seat. Hermanville station is the nearest railroad and
banking town.

MISSISSIPPI 985
Winchester. The old town of Winchester was located in the
eastern part of the county of Wayne, near the present railroad
station of the same name. It was the county seat until 1867, and
its old court house, built in 1822, is still standing. It had a beauti
ful site, covered with shade trees, not far from the Chickasawhay
river, and a few miles north of the old road which ran from Geor
gia and the Carolinas to Natchez, via St. Stephens. Dr. Riley, in
his sketch of this extinct town, Pub. Miss. His. Soc, Vol. V, page
378, states that the town was on this old thoroughfare, but Wil
liam Darby's map, 1817, shows Winchester several miles to the
north of the road, on the Chickasawhay river. We are told that
the "want of hotel accommodations" brought about the removal of
the county seat to Waynesboro in 1867. A list of the early resi
dents of the town will be found in the sketch of Wayne county.
The historian Claiborne, speaking of Gen. James Patton, the most
distinguished resident of the old place, says : "He resided in Win
chester, then a beautiful village, which he made a center of po
litical influence, second only to Natchez. Judge Powhatan Ellis
and Judge John Black, who both became U. S. Senators, com
menced life there under his auspices, as did several other promi
nent men." The present town has two churches, a school, several
stores, two saw mills, a grist mill, a cotton gin and a turpentine
distillery. It has a population of 200.
Winchester, George, was a native of Massachusetts, educated at
Harvard and a student of law under Judge Story. Coming to
Mississippi he established himself at Natchez, and attained high
standing in his profession. He was judge of the criminal court of
Adams county; was a candidate for judge of the supreme court
in February, 1827, to succeed Hampton, but the vote was 19 to
16, for William B. Griffith. When the latter declined, the governor
appointed Judge Winchester. But the legislature, at its next ses
sion, gave the office, by a majority of one, to Harry Cage. George.
Winchester for governor and A. M. Scott for lieutenant-governor,
was the Whig ticket in 1829. He was elected to the State senate,
in 1836, but resigned in April, 1837, upon the seating of twelve
representatives not provided for in the apportionment law, a pre
vious senate having refused to recognize the house after a similar
act. One of the foremost Whigs of the State, he was chairman
of the committee that made the address of 1839, preparatory to
the great campaign of 1840. In 1844 he was a representative of
Adams county, but his politics, being a member of the party usu
ally in a minority, did not afford him many official honors. For
his attitude in 1849, see Convention of that year. He was never
married. Upon the occasion of his death the bar of Adams county,
February 5, 1851, adopted resolutions testifying to his "calm, clear
sighted understanding," and endearing virtues as a man. Foote
wrote of him : ' "He was not an orator ; but he spoke always in
refined and polished language, and with impressive kindness and
urbanity. I do not suppose that a single word of personal incivil
ity, or of coarse revilement, ever passed his lips at the bar."

986 MISSISSIPPI
Windham, a post-village in the extreme northern part of Jones
county, 3 miles west of Mico station on the Mobile, Jackson &
Kansas City R. R, and 8 miles north of Laurel, the nearest bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 150.
Wingate, a post-office and station on the Mobile, Jackson & Kan
sas City R. R, in the east-central part of Perry county. It is 3
miles southeast of New Augusta, the County seat. It has two
large saw mills, several good stores and a good school. It has a
population of 400.
Winona is the county seat and metropolis of Montgomery
county. It is a handsome city of 2,455 inhabitants (census of
1900), and is growing at a rapid rate. During the decade, 1890-
1900, the increase in population was nearly 1,000, and the last five
years has shown an even larger rate of growth, the population in
1906 being estimated at 3,500. It is possessed of excellent railroad
connections, as the Illinois Central and the Southern railways
cross at this point. Churches of several denominations are to be
found here, and it supports a fine public school and two private
schools. Its chief industries are a cotton seed oil mill, a cotton
factory which is on a good paying basis, a brick and tile factory,
a stave and heading factory, a large cotton compress, several public
gins, and a spoke factory. It is the local market for the rich farm
ing country which surrounds it, and is an important shipping point
for cotton, strawberries, etc. The city has an electric light, ice
and water plant. There are three banks — The Citizens Bank,
Bank of Winona and the Purnell Savings Bank. There is one
weekly newspaper, "The Winona Times," edited and published
by G. W. Williams. The county has recently erected a fine new
court house here at a cost of $60,000. The graded schools of
Winona rank among the very best in the State. A "Presbyterian
Female College" will soon be in operation. The city debt of
Winona is $65,000; assessed valuation of property $1,100,000; tax
rate 2 per cent.
Winston, a post-hamlet in the extreme northeastern part of
Winston county, on Jones creek, about 18 miles from Louisville,
the county seat. Population in 1900, 31.
Winston County was established December 23rd, 1833, and was
one of the numerous counties formed in that year from the terri
tory acquired from the Choctaws, by the treaty of Dancing Rabbit,
in 1830. The county has a land surface of 577 square miles. It
was named in honor of Colonel Louis Winston. The original act
declared that it should embrace the following territory: Town
ships 13, 14, 15, and 16 of ranges 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. By an act
of the legislature in 1875, townships 15 and 16, range 10, and town
ship 16, range 11, were added to Choctaw cpunty and about the
same time the north half of sections 2 and 3, township 12, range 13,
were taken from Neshoba county and added to Winston. It is
situated in the east central part of the State in the so-called Yel
low Loam Region, and is bounded on the north by the counties of
Choctaw and Oktibbeha, on the east by Noxubee county, on the

MISSISSIPPI 987
south by Neshoba county and on the west by Attala and Choctaw
counties. Shortly before and after its organization, a strong tide
of emigration set in toward this section of the State from the
older parts of Mississippi, and from the States of Georgia, Alabama
and Tennessee, and by the year 1837 the population of the county
was whites 2,193, slaves 959, and by 1840 the population had
reached 4,650, including slaves. Some of the earliest settlers in
the county were S. R. McClanahan, Jonathan Ellison, Wm. C.
Coleman, Darken T. Turner, Henry Fox, Judge Felix M. Ellis,
Judge of Probate, John H. Hardy, sheriff, Leroy H. McGowan,
Josiah Atkinson, George W. Thomason, first county surveyor,
Amos C. Morris, first sheriff, James Phaga'n, first Circuit clerk,
James Bevill, first Probate Judge, and J. M. Field, Isaac Jones,
John H. Buckner, Wm. McDaniell, Geo. B. Augustus, and Joseph
Bell early members of the legislature from the county.
Louisville is the county seat named for Louis Winston and
platted on a tract near the center of the county, donated by Jesse
Dodson. It was on the great mail route from Nashville to New
Orleans, and the terminus of five mail routes in the early days.
Incorporated in 1836, it now contains a population of 1,200. Near
here are the well known Chalybeate Springs, on section 3, twp.
15, range 12, said to possess valuable medicinal properties. Noxa
pater, Hathorn, Plattsburg, Fearns Springs, and Betheden are the
largest settlements in the county outside the county seat. Until
recently Winston county has been without railroad facilities ; the
Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R. passes through the county
from north to south and the line is now in operation from Mobile
to Middleton, Tenn. Numerous small creeks, headwaters of the
Pearl river, and a number of small streams, tributaries of the
Noxubee river, provide every section of the county with water. The
soil of Winston county is generally of a very fair quality — sandy on
the hills, easy to cultivate, and, when fresh, very productive. The
bottom lands on the streams are stiff and very fertile. The prod
ucts are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, field-peas, ground-peas, sweet
and Irish potatoes, sorghum, ribbon-cane and rice. The uncleared
portions of the land are well timbered with pine, the various kinds
of oaks, poplar, gum, beech, walnut, cherry and cypress. Consid
erable attention is now being paid to the raising of live stock,
many improved breeds of cattle, horses and sheep having been in
troduced. Quarries of lignite, silicate of alumina, and some good
specimens of iron ore and bituminous coal have been found in
the county. Some, of the highest hills in the county are 1,500 feet
above tide water in the Gulf of Mexico. Very little manufacturing
is done in the county, though 30 establishments were listed by the
last census, which have more than doubled within the last five
years. The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population :
Number of farms, 2,592, acreage in farms, 294,370, acres improved
98,319, value of land and improvements, exclusive of buildings

988 MISSISSIPPI
$800,900, value of buildings $351,890, value of live stock $425,348,
total value of products $909,761, expenditure for labor $26,490, for
fertilizers $16,220. The number of manufacturing establishments
30, capital invested $49,074, wages paid $4,999, cost of materials
used $20,111, total value of products $40,066. The population in
1900 consisted of whites 8,192, colored 5,932, total 14,124, increase
over 1890, 2,035. Since the last census returns the population has
rapidly increased and in 1906 was estimated at 17,000. The in
crease in land values have been wonderful and, in the' last 3 years
real estate values have increased fully 400 per cent. The total
assessed valuation of real and personal property in Winston county
in 1905 was $1,292,682 and in 1906 it was $2,551,968.50, which shows
an increase of $1,259,286.50 during the year.
Winston, Fountain, of Adams county, a prominent public man,
was elected lieutenant-governor in 1831, and was a member of the
State senate from Adams county from 1826 until his death at
Natchez, November 30, 1834.
Winston, Louis, in honor of whom the county of Winston and
town of Louisville are named, first appears in the records of Mis
sissippi Territory as attorney-general for the Tennessee river
country when it was organized as Madison county. In that region
there was a vigorous planting of the Winstons, already noted in
the affairs of Virginia and North Carolina, where a town is named
for Joseph Winston, a famous patriot partisan during the Revolu
tion. A grandson of one of the original Winstons in Madison
county became a well-known governor of Alabama. Louis Win
ston evidently became a resident of western Mississippi, as he was
secretary of the constitutional convention of 1817, and in January,
1821, was elected judge of the Second circuit and of the supreme
court, to succeed Judge Taylor, deceased, Bela Metcalf being his
unsuccessful opponent. This office he held for four years. He was
afterwards a circuit judge under the constitution of 1832.
Winterville, a post-village and station in the northwestern part
of Washington county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi R.R, 6 miles
due north of Greenville, the county seat. It has a money order
postoffice. Population in 1900, 100.
Wisdom, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Harrison county,
4 miles east of the Gulf & Ship Island R.R, and 30 miles north
of Gulfport, the county seat. Wiggins is the nearest banking town.
Population in 1900, 63.
Women Colonists, First. On the 24th of April, 1704, the ship
Pelican, of fifty guns, arrived in Mobile Bay with troops and pro
visions for the colony, and having on board, two grey nuns, and
twenty-three poor girls, the first women who had come to Louis
iana. The girls were under the special care of Father Huet, and
were certified by the French minister to be of irreproachable char
acter. They were very modest and virtuous, and were married
within a month to different Canadians. The descendants of these
pioneer women still inhabit the seaboard of Alabama and Mis
sissippi. Their names were Francoise de Boisrenard, Jeanne Cath-

MISSISSIPPI 989
erine Berenchard, Elizabeth le Penteau, Marianne Decpudreaux,
Marie Noel, du Mesnil, Gabrielle Sanart, Marie Therese Brochou,
Angelique Fayard, Marguerite Fayard, Marguerite Tavenier, Eliz
abeth Deshays, Marie Philippe, Louise Housseau, Madeline
Douane, Marie Dufesne, Marguerite Geuchard, Reine Gilbert,
Francoise La Fontaine, Gabrielle Binet.
Women Immigrants of 1721. Every effort had been made by
the Western Company since its organization in 1717 to establish
the French settlements of Louisiana on a permanent basis. Thou
sands of colonists had been transported at the expense of the com
pany, and enormous quantities of supplies. There was a great
dearth of women, however. We find the priests complaining of
the propensity of the colonists, particularly the Canadians, for
Indian 'wives. On the 5th of January, 1721, the ship la Baleine
arrived at Biloxi, and among her passengers were 81 young
women, who were sent over at the request of the directors of the
company. They had been selected by the bishop of Paris from
one of the public institutions of that city, the Salpetriere, where
they had been reared and educated from childhood. They arrived
under the charge of Sisters Gertrude, Saint Louise and Marie.
Each one was provided with a marriage outfit, and none was to
marry without the consent of Sister Gertrude. On their arrival,
a sentinel was placed at the door of their lodging, and suitors were
permitted to see them by day and make a selection. All were soon
provided with husbands, as their numbers failed to satisfy the
demand for wives.
Women, Rights of. "One of the most unique cases in our early
reports is that of Fisher vs. Allen (2 Howard, 611), in 1837, in
volving the question of the right acquired by the husband of a
Chickasaw Indian woman to property she owned at the time of
her marriage. It was held that as the marriage in that instance
had taken place before the act of the legislature of 1830, which
abolished the tribal customs of the Indians, had been passed, the
rights of the parties were governed and fixed by the tribal cus
toms. By these, the husband acquired no right to the property
of the wife, which she owned at the time of the marriage, or to
the subsequent acquests and gains, and that no part was subject
to the debts of the husband." (A. M. Clayton.) This was in ad
vance of the laws of civilization, which perpetuated the patriarchal
relations. Two years later, February 15, 1839, the legislature
passed an "Act for the protection and preservation of the rights
of married women," which tradition ascribes to the persuasive
efforts of Mrs. T. B. J. Hadley, wife of a prominent state officer
of an earlier period, the same eminent authority also preserving
a suggestion that a prominent member of the legislature, who was
heavily in debt, was anxious to marry a wealthy lady without in
volving her in his own financial ruin. "The statute provided that
any married woman might become possessed of property in her
own name and as her own property and free from liability for her
husband's debt, provided the same should not come from her hus-

990 MISSISSIPPI
band after marriage. ... An act of February 28, 1846, se
cured to her the profits of her lands and the production of her
slaves. Afterward, the supreme court having decided that the
terms of the statutes were not such as to secure to her the fruits
of her personal labor and skill, in 1871 that was done by law."
First in the constitution of 1869, and later in the constitution of
1890, it is provided "that the legislature shall never create by law
any distinction between the rights of men and women to acquire,
own and enjoy property of all kinds."
The above act of 1839 was the first on that subject passed by
any of those States of the Union that adhered, like Mississippi,
to the ancient common law methods. Maine took a similar step
forward, two years later.
The independent right of married women to make contracts was
recognized first, in a limited way, by an act of legislature in 1846,
in connection with the ownership and management of slaves. The
act of 1857 further recognized this right of individuality in the
woman, and validated her contracts for "family supplies and neces
saries, education of her children, carriage and horses, buildings
on her lands and materials therefor, or for work and labor done
for the use of her separate property;" but only her estate was lia
ble. In 1871, and more completely by the act of 1880, she was put
on the same footing as a single woman or a man in the making of
contracts of any kind and liability thereunder. (Mayes, Legal and
Judicial History, Memoirs of Miss, I, 123.)
The constitution of 1900 provides : "The legislature shall never
create by law any distinction between the rights of men and
women to acquire, own, enjoy and dispose of property of all kinds,
or their power to contract in reference thereto. Married women
are hereby fully emancipated from all disability on account of
coverture. But this shall not prevent the legislature from regulat
ing contracts between husband and wife ; nor shall the legislature
be prevented from regulating the sale of homesteads."
Woodburn, a village in the southern part of Sunflower county,
situated on the Big Sunflower river, 7 miles south by west of
Indianola, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
It has a money order postoffice, and -telephone service. Population
in 1900, 300.
Woodland, a post-hamlet and station of Chickasaw county, on the
Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R.R, 10 miles south of Houston,
one of the county seats of justice. It has a saw and grist mill, a
cotton gin, 2 churches, and a good school. In 1906 the population
was estimated at 200.
Woodlawn, a postoffice of Yazoo county, 7 miles east of Yazoo
City. Woodruff, a postoffice of Washington county.
Woods, Thomas H, was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1838.
His father, Rev. Hervey Woods, moved to Kemper county, Miss.,
in 1848. This was Judge Woods' home till 1872, when he moved
to Meridian. He was educated at Williams college, Mass, and

MISSISSIPPI 991
began the practice of law in 1859, at DeKalb, the county seat of
Kemper. He was the youngest member of the secession conven
tion of 1860 ; enlisted as a private in the first military company
raised in Kemper county ; became captain of his company, and was
severely wounded at Malvern Hill. After the war he was attor
ney for the Third district, was removed by the reconstruction
officials, again elected in 1871, and reelected in 1875, but resigned
in 1876 to devote himself to his large practice. He was elected to
the legislature in 1881, but declined reelection, and also declined
an appointment as United States district attorney, offered by
President Cleveland. In 1889 Gov. Lowry appointed him associate
justice of the Supreme court to fill out an unexpired term, and in
1891 Gov. Stone reappointed him for the full term of nine years.
At the close of this term he retired to private life, and is now liv
ing at Meridian.
Woodville, the county seat of Wilkinson county, is situated at
the highest point in the county on a perfect water shed, 15 miles
west of the main line of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R.R, and
connected with it at Slaughter, La, by a branch road of the same
line 42 miles long, of which it is the northern terminus. It is 145
miles from New Orleans, 35 miles south of Natchez, and 15 miles
east of the Mississippi river. It is 460 feet above sea level, and is
8 miles north of the Louisiana state line. It is an incorporated
post-town, with telegraph, express and banking facilities.
When Wilkinson county was established in 1802, the county
court was first held at Fort Adams, but was moved a little later to
Pinckneyville, and finally to Woodville, a few years later. In 1831,
only three years after the first railway in the United States was
in actual operation, the citizens of Woodville incorporated the West
Feliciana Railroad Company to build a railroad from Woodville to
St. Francisville, or Bayou Sara, on the Mississippi river in Louis
iana. This was the first line of railroad constructed within the
borders of the State, and the first railroad shops were located at
Woodville. There is a large sandstone quarry near Woodville,
which was first opened up by Judge McGehee, in 1832, when the
courthouse was built. Here, before the war, was located one of
the largest and most complete cotton mills in the State, the Edward
McGehee Mill, destroyed by the Federal forces during the war.
Here, also, were located a number of famous schools in the early
history of the State : Wilkinson Academy, located near the town,
and not far from the site of the old cotton factory, was a prominent
school, where Jefferson Davis received his early education, as did
many of the early settlers. The Wilkinson Female Academy was
incorporated here in 1819, and the Misses Ann Theodosia and
Amanda Calder taught here for many years in a log house. The
Woodville Classical School for boys was incorporated in 1839, Mr.
Chapman being the teacher. The following year the Woodville
Female Academy was incorporated by the Methodist Episcopal
church. William H. Halsey and Mrs. Halsey were the teachers.
The Woodville Female Seminary was chartered in 1861. The

992 MISSISSIPPI
present building was purchased in 1862 by Judge McGehee, and
the name of the institution has been changed to the McGehee
College for girls. During a portion of the war the college building
was used as a hospital.
The Bank of Woodville was established in 1900 with a capital
of $20,000. The Republican, one of the oldest newspapers in the
State, and the oldest in the county, is published here. It is a
Democratic weekly, and its first issue was Saturday, Dec. 2, 1823,
W. A. A. Chisholm, editor and proprietor. It is now owned and
published by Robert Lewis. The Wilkinson County Appeal (col
ored, Methodist), was established here, in 1902. Woodville has a
system of water works, four hotels, two good schools, seven
churches (two colored), an oil mill and cotton seed delinter, and
a carriage factory. The city debt is $20,000, assessed valuation of
property, real, $1,420,775 ; personal, $859,730 ; the tax rate is 12 and
one-half mills ; population in 1900, 1,043.
Wool Market, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Harrison
county, on the Biloxi river, 10 miles northeast of Gulfport, the
county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Population
in 1900, 60, and in 1906 it was estimated at 200. There is a large
turpentine distillery here.
Wooten, a postoffice of DeSoto county, 5 miles northeast of
Hernando, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking sta
tion. Word Thomas J, a native of Surry county, N. C, and a mem
ber of the house of representatives of that State in 1832, moved to
Mississippi and located at Pontotoc ; he was elected to the 25th
congress as a Whig (see Congressmen) ; was appointed by the
Choctaw Indian commissioners in 1843 to investigate the Choc
taw land claims, and was counsel of the United States during the
investigation. World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Under the act
of Congress of 1890, Robert L. Saunders, Jackson, and Dr. Joseph
M. Bynum, Rienzi, were appointed members of the National Com
mission from Mississippi ; Fred W. Collins, Summit, and Joseph
H. Brinker, West Point, were named as the two alternates. On
the National Board of Lady Managers from Mississippi were :
Mrs. James W. Lee, Aberdeen; Mrs. John M. Stone, Jackson; al
ternates, Mrs. George M. Buchanan, Holly Springs ; Miss Varina
Davis, Beauvoir. As the Legislature failed to pass the necessary
appropriation bill, Mississippi had no State building and no State
Board of Commissioners, though an appropriation of $25,000 was
made for exhibits.
Worth is a postoffice in Neshoba county, 7 miles west of Phila
delphia, the county seat.
Wortham, a postoffice and station in the south-central part of
Harrison county, on the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad, 14 miles
by rail north of Gulfport.
Wren, a hamlet in Monroe county, 13 miles northwest of Aber
deen, the county seat. It has 3 stores and an excellent high school.

MISSISSIPPI 993
Wren, Woodson, was postmaster at Natchez in 1837, the time
of the general suspension of specie payments by the banks. Or
ders were sent out by the postmaster-general requiring the pay
ment of coin for postage stamps, and when notice was duly given
at Natchez, a public meeting was held and a committee, of which
Stephen Duncan was chairman, was appointed to treat with the
postmaster. Wren replied that all he would ask would be cur
rency that the mail contractors would accept of him, and this not
being promised, he maintained the rule of the departments, where
upon the meeting resolved to make arrangements with the post
master of some neighboring town. The postmaster at Grand Gulf
printed his own paper money to make change with, promising
payment in Mississippi bank paper.
Wright, a post-hamlet and station of Bolivar county, on the
Riverside division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad, 3
miles by rail north of Rosedale.
Wright, Daniel W, one of the first members of the High court
of errors and appeals, was born in eastern Tennessee and reared
near Huntsville, Ala, where his father was a pioneer settler. He
began the practice of law in that region, and about 1822 removed
to Mississippi and settled at the town of Hamilton, Monroe
county. He was said by Reuben Davis to be "profoundly read as
a lawyer and really a brilliant speaker." His election to the high
court was in 1833, and he served until 1838, when he resigned.
His wife died about this time and he retired also from the practice
and made his home with a daughter at Pontotoc until his death
a year or two later. It appears that he was not so distinguished
on the bench as he had been before the jury. He also had an un
fortunate experience in connection with the Choctaw land frauds.
In January, 1836, he asked the legislature to investigate the
charges that "alleged frauds and perjuries to an enormous extent
had been recently committed in the purchase by various indi
viduals of claims to Indian reservations" under the treaty of
Dancing Rabbit, he being charged with complicity in the same.
While awaiting investigation he would vacate his seat on the
bench of the High court. After investigation, a committee of the
house reported that there was no testimony that he "had any
knowledge of the frauds attempted to be practiced by his partner
Colonel Fisher, in purchasing Indian floats."
Wyatt. This was an early boom town in Lafayette county, thir
teen miles north of Oxford, at the supposed head of navigation of
the Tallahatchie river, but was unable to long survive the financial
panic of 1837. (See Lafayette county.) Its early settlers foretold
a city that would outrank any other in northern Mississippi and
would rival Memphis in importance. They expected it to be made
a port of entry and had it incorporated in 1838. It was named for
Wyatt Mitchell, one of its enterprising promoters. Says Dr. F. L.
Riley: "A. Gillis and Thomas H. Allen organized at this place a
real estate banking company which surrounded the surrounding
country with its shin plaster issues. We are told that the expres-
63-11

994 MISSISSIPPI
sion 'as good as A. Gillis's bill' was for a time a synonym of all
that was sound and stable in business transactions." The town
was for a while an important shipping point, and boats plied be
tween it and New Orleans. Speaking of its volume of business,
Dr. T. D. Ison of Oxford, Miss, related that in 1835 he saw its
streets "as much crowded by trade wagons as is now the Front
Row of Memphis in the cotton season." In its palmiest days it
contained fourteen business houses and a large and pretentious
hotel The river was bridged at this point and a turnpike built
across the river swamp.
The "battle of Wyatt", a cavalry skirmish, occurred- here in 1864.
Besancon wrote thus of the town in 1838 : "Wyatt is a flourish
ing, healthy town, situated about twelve miles from Oxford, on the
northern bank of the Tallahatchie, in the direction of Holly
Springs. This is as high, it is supposed, as steamboats will ever
be able to ascend the Tallahatchie."
Wyatte, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Tate county, 16
miles east of Senatobia, the county seat, and nearest railroad and
banking town. It has one store, two churches and a school. Pop
ulation in 1900, 42.
Yale, a post-hamlet of Itawamba county, 11 miles northeast of
Fulton, the county seat. , Population in 1900, 21.
Yalobusha, a post-hamlet of Yalobusha county, 6 miles southeast
of Coffeeville, the county seat, and the nearest railroad and bank
ing town. Population in 1900, 18. There is a fine mineral well here
and its waters are highly complimented for their curative qualities.
There is a good hotel for the accommodation of guests.
Yalobusha County was established December 23rd, 1833, and
most of its area lies within the territory acquired from the Choc
taw Indians in the treaty of Dancing Rabbit, 1830. The original
act defined its boundaries as follows : "Beginning on the line be
tween townships 21 and 22, at the point at which the line between
8 and 9 east crosses the line between townships 21 and 22, and
running from thence north, with the said line between ranges 8
and 9 east, thirty miles ; from thence west, to the line between
ranges 3 and 4 east; from thence south with said line between
ranges 3 and 4 east, to the line between townships 21 and 22, and
from thence east to the place of beginning." It was originally a
-large county, containing an area of 25 townships or 900 square
miles, but surrendered part of its territory to Calhoun county in
1852, and a large part of its southern area to Grenada, when that
county was created in 1870. It now contains an area of 501 square
miles, and is bounded on the north by Panola and Lafayette coun
ties, on the east by Calhoun county, on the south by 'Grenada
county and on the west by Tallahatchie county. The old bound
ary line between the Choctaw and Chickasaw cessions bisects it
from northwest to southeast. Its name "Yalobusha" is an Indian
word, meaning "tadpole place", and was suggested by the river
of the same name which waters it's territory. Emigration was
rapid into this region during the 30's and early 40's, from the older

MISSISSIPPI 995
states on the east and north and from the older settled parts of
Mississippi. By the year 1837, Yalobusha had attained a popu
lation of 4,355 whites, and 4,215 slaves ; by the year 1840, there
were 12,248 people in the county including slaves, and 17,258 in
1850. The first white child born in the county was James D.
Haile, recently deceased. Three of the earliest settlements in the
county were at Hendersonville, Sardinia and Preston, all of which
are now extinct. Hendersonville was four miles south of Coffee
ville on the site of an old Indian village. Says Captain Lake, who
lived there in 1834, "It was here that Col T. C. McMacken, the
celebrated hotel keeper, in the early history of Mississippi, began
his career. The mercantile firms of this town in 1834 were : Mar
tin, Edwards & Co, John H. McKenney, Armour, Lake & Bridges,
H. S. & W. Lake, and McCain & Co. The physicians were Thomas
Vaughn, Robert Malone, and  ¦ Murkerson. The following
citizens were then living at that place: Thomas B. Ives, Murdock
Ray, justice of the peace ; Stephen Smith, blacksmith ; Alfred Mc-
Caslin, blacksmith, and Joshua Weaver, Constable." Beaten by
Coffeeville in its efforts to become the county seat, the town rap
idly decayed. Sardinia, on the Craig plantation near the Yacona
river, one mile north of the present church of Sardinia, was once
a place of about 150 people. Flere lived in the early days, the
Bradfords, Kuykendalls, Bensons, Craigs, Carringtons, Reeds, and
Dr. Moore. The town had become dead by 1856, owing to the
rivalry of the towns along the railroad. Preston was located near
Scobey, and about fourteen miles north of Grenada. Settled in
1835, it once had about 250 people and was incorporated in 1840.
Here lived the Simmons family, the Harpers, Bridgers, Townes, ,
Calhoims, Doctors Sutton, Payne, Neville, and the Rev. Hayward;
Duke & Co, and Evans & Co. were mercantile firms. When the
station pf Garner sprang up on the railroad in 1858, most of Pres
ton's inhabitants moved there, and the Simmons residence is the
only reminder left of the old place. A few of the earliest settlers
of Yalobusha county, besides those above mentioned, were Wm.
W. Mitchell, Green D. Moore, Grief Johnson, Stewart Pipkin,
Charles J. F. Wharton, Rev. Wm. A. Bryan, John Lemons, Wm.
Metcalf, Dr. W. B. Rowland, Dempsey H. Hicks, William Win
ter, Robert Edsington. Some of the early County officers were:
David Mabray and James H. Barfield, sheriffs ; Matthew Clinton
and John W. McLemore, judges of the Probate Court; Davidson
M. Rayburn, clerk of the Probate court; Robert C. Malone and
Murdoch Ray, county treasurers; Virgil A. Stewart, Thos. .B.
Ives, Wm. B. Wilbourn, Robert Edrington, Allen Walker, James
Minter, George Thompson, and L. R. Stuart were all early mem
bers of the legislature for Yalobusha county.
The county seat was located at Coffeeville, March 27, 1834, and
the place received its name in honor of General John Coffee. The
first county court was held the same year, presided over by Judge
Matthew Clinton. It is now a town of about 600 inhabitants, on
the line of the Illinois Central R. R, and has a fine brick court-

996 MISSISSIPPI
house, costing about $25,000. The largest town in the county is
Water Valley (pop. in 1900, 3,813), situated in the northeastern
corner on the line of the Illinois Central R. R. The city is grow
ing at a rapid pace and forms a second circuit and chancery court
district for the county. It has an abundance of fine brick and
earthenware clay, and a large amount of valuable timber in its im
mediate neighborhood. It is a manufacturing place of importance,
containing railroad machine shops, Yocona cotton factory and
Shaw's foundry and Agricultural Implement Works, etc. Oak
land, in the extreme western part of the county on the I. C. R. R,
is one of its oldest and best towns. It was incorporated in 1848.
Its population (Census of 1900) was 209. The Oakland Academy
was incorporated in 1841. Tillatoba (pop. 115) and Scobey (pop.
146) are stations on the Memphis division of the I. C. R. R. The
taain line and the Memphis division of the I. C. R. R. provide the
county with excellent shipping facilities. The county is well
watered by the Yocona and Schoona. rivers and their numerous
tributary creeks, and numbers of good mill sites are available.
The general surface of the region is undulating and hilly, level on
the river and creek bottoms. It is on the western edge of the
Yellow Loam section of the State, and the soil is a mixture of
clay and sand and fairly productive, but very fertile on the bottom
lands. The products are corn, cotton, oats, sorghum, wheat, rye,
sweet and Irish potatoes ; the various fruits and vegetables, com
mon to this section of the State, are raised both for home con
sumption and for the northern markets. Pasturage is good
throughout the year and the live stock of the region is now valued
at more than $500,000. Some lignite or brown coal has been found
in the county. There are about 100,000 acres of improved lands
and on the balance are to be found valuable tracts of timber, con
sisting of the various kinds of oak, hickory, beech, poplar, gum,
cypress, etc. Manufactures have attained considerable develop
ment, a total of 57 establishments being listed by the last census.
- The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States
census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : —
Number of farms 2,743, acreage in farms 251,330, acres improved
96,581, value of the land and improvements, exclusive of buildings
$1,218,360, value of buildings $432,380, value of the live stock
$521,320, value of products not fed $1,111,704. Number of manu
facturing establishments 57, capital invested $325,629, wages paid
$179,978, cost of materials $168,420, total value of products $408,-
346. The population of the county in 1900 was whites 9,284, col
ored 10,458, total 19,742, increase over the year 1890, 3,113. The
total population in 1906 is estimated at 22,500. Artesian water is
found in all parts of the county. The total assessed valuation of
real and personal property in Yalobusha county in 1905 was $2,-
430,193 and in 1906 it was $2,613,032, which shows an increase of
$182,839 during the year.
Yarbro, a postoffice of Panola county, 8 miles northeast of Sar
dis, the nearest railroad and banking town.

MISSISSIPPI 997
Yawn, a postoffice in Covington county, 8 miles northeast of
Williamsburg, the county seat.
Yazoo-Chattahoochee Line. In 1794 to 1796 the question of the
extension of the boundary of West Florida was investigated in
the British records for the United States government, and the in
vestigator reported that "a new boundary was settled in' March,
1764 . . . drawn from the mouth of the Yazoo," etc, as asked
by the office of trade. But he furnished no official paper in proof
of the assertion, and Attorney-General Charles Lee said : "It may
be proper to observe here, that no document has come to the hands
of the attorney-general by which the extension of West Florida
appears to have been made, conformably to the suggestion of the
board of trade." On the contrary, the commission to Governor
Elliot, in 1767, recites the original boundary. The commission
to Governor Chester, March 2, 1770, however, gives the boundary:
"to the northward, by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the
Yazoo river," etc. (Amer. St. Pp., Pub. Lands, I. 28-59.) The
connection of the change, officially, with Gov. Chester, is corrobor
ated by a memorandum found among the papers of Col. Anthony
Hutchins, which reads, "The king in council, sometime after the
peace of '63, in consequence of a representation from Gov. Chester,
of West Florida, extended the jurisdiction of said province to the
Yazous, and empowered him to procure from the Indians a pur
chase or surrender of the land."
It is the statement of Monette, in his history of the Valley of the
Mississippi, on the authority of Martin's Louisiana, that "a second
decree of the king in council was issued on the 10th of June, 1764,
extending the northern limit of West Florida as far as the mouth
of Yazoo river." Mr. Wailes, in his "Historical Outline," says that
a commission was issued to Governor Johnstone on that date ac
cordingly. The opinion of the United States supreme court, was
expressed in the year 1827, in the case of Harcourt vs. Gaillard,
from the district court of Mississippi : "After the proclamation of
1763, the board of trade of Great Britain, which, at that time, had
the affairs of the colonies committed to them, passed a resolution,
of the date of March, 1764, in which they advise the king to extend
the limits of West Florida up to a line drawn from the mouth of the
Yazoo, east to the Chattahoochee. It does not appear that the king
ever made an order adopting this recommendation. No proclama
tion was issued in pursuance of it; but it appears that from that
time the commissions to the governors of West Florida designated
that line as the northern limit of that province." The opinion of
the supreme court is not so conclusive in matters of history as of
law. , It must be noted that the documents available to the .court
indicate that the king allowed the matter to rest, and the Yazoo
limit was not named in a. commission until 1770, coincident with the
treaty to gain possession of Natchez district and Mobile district
frorh the Indians. After that, the Yazoo boundary was clearly
recognized. The territorial claims of Georgia are described in
another article. The south boundary of that colony as defined in

998 MISSISSIPPI
the commission to ^Governor Wright, 1764, followed the north
boundary of the Floridas, no geodetical line being named, and de
pended upon what the king might designate as the north boundary
of West Florida, as long as the unlimited sovereignty of the king
was recognized. But the discussion of that dispute would lead one
into a discussion of the history of the United States from 1763
until 1865, certainly, and possibly into the future. The essential
thing is, that sovereignty was denied in 1776.
There is a passage in the Memoir of Pontalba, a distinguished
Louisianian, presented to Napoleon about the year 1800, which
tends to indicate that the assertion, or recognition, of the Georgia
claim was the effective cause of the extension of West Florida
in disregard of that claim. The early maps show the district of
Natchez within the bounds of Georgia, under the commission of
1764 to Governor Wright, says Pontalba, "but the inhabitants of
that post having represented that, on the appeal cases from their
courts, they were obliged to resort to Georgia, his Britannic Ma
jesty declared that the district of Natchez would henceforth be
placed under the jurisdiction of the governor of Pensacola, and be
incorporated with Western Florida, which was under the govern
ment of that officer. In this way the province became extended to
the Chaterpe line, which had been drawn by the English, the Chick
asaws and Choctaws, from the territory of the Mobile, at 135 miles
from the fort of that name on the western bank of the Tombecbee,
to the Yazoo river, at fifteen miles froni its junction with the Mis
sissippi." Thomas Hutchins, the geographer, in his map' of the west parts
of Virginia, Carolina, Georgia, etc, 1778, shows the Yazoo line,
as the boundary, and gives the latitude as 32° 30'. Another survey,
by George Gaul, gave the latitude as 32° 29', and it is generally
given by later authorities as 32° 28', but the latitude was immate
rial in the definition of this line.
Yazoo City. Yazoo City has been termed the "Queen City of
the Delta", and its remarkable rise from its disastrous conflagra
tion of May 24, 1904, when the whole business section and a large
part of the residence section were laid low by the fire fiend, into
a "Greater Yazoo City" entitles it to first place among Mississippi
towns for pluck and enterprise.
Yazoo City is situated on the east bank of the Yazoo river near
the center of the county of Yazoo. It is the largest and most im
portant city on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railroad between
Memphis and Jackson. During the year 1904 the Tutwiler branch
of the Y. & M. V. railroad was completed to Yazoo City, so that
the city is now well supplied with shipping facilities both by rail
and water. Its population in 1900 was 4,944, an increase of 1,6,38,
or about thirty-five per cent over the preceding census of 1890.
The present population of the city (1906) is about 10,000 inhabi
tants, and it continues to grow at a rapid rate.
The present site of Yazoo City was originally known as Hanan's
Bluff, having been settled by a Mr. Hanan some time during the

MISSISSIPPI 999
early 20's. Gov. Hiram G. Runnels, Judge Isaac Caldwell and
Daniel W. Wright laid off a town here in 1829, which was incor
porated by the Legislature in 1830, under the name of Manchester.
In 1838 the name of the town was changed to Yazoo City, and in
1849 an election was held to remove the county seat to Yazoo
City, which was done as soon as the courthouse was completed in
1851. It was at Hanan's Bluff, in 1826, that the first gin in the
county was erected, and the first saloon in the county west of the
Big Black river was opened in this old gin. Among the first mer
chants in Yazoo City were B. F. Williams, P. B. Pope, George
Jonas, James Robinson, Richard Allen, Fountain Barksdale, James
Allen, Harrison & Hyatt, J. M. Devlin, R. T. Jennings, C. W.
Wood, B. F. Bostick, and Robert Wilson. Among the pioneer
lawyers, who practiced at the bar in Yazoo County were Wm. R.
Miles, afterwards State senator and brigadier-general in the Con
federate army ; his partner, Edward C. Wilkinson, an uncle of
Senator E. C. Walthall ; C. F. Hamer, J. M. Quacenboss, R. S.
Holt, James R. Burrus, Morgan L. Fitch ; Q. D. Gibbs, who
settled in Manchester in 1834 and took high rank as a commercial
lawyer; W. E. Pugh, A. G. and S. E. Nye and Geo. B. Wilkinson.
The first Democratic newspaper in the county was published in
1845 in Yazoo City, called the Yazoo Democrat, and was owned
and edited by Major Ethel Barksdale, who had a state reputation.
He was a member. of the Confederate Congress and after the war
he was a member of the U. S. Congress.
The city possesses excellent educational facilities. Since the
great fire there has been erected a new high school building at a
cost of $45,000, furnished and equipped in modern style. There
are enrolled at present 475 pupils and the school session lasts for
nine months in the year. Its graduates are on the accredited list
of the State's higher institutions of learning. Not far from the
high school building is the Ricks Memorial Library, readily ac
cessible to the pupils of the city. Besides the system of public
schools, there is located in the city a Catholic Convent, surrounded
by beautiful grounds and liberally patronized .
The present city officers are E. R. Holmes, Mayor; S. E. Barn
well, H. H. Brickell, C. A. Collins, J. R. Lacey, L. G. Montgomery,
J. J. North, D. A. Swayze, J. W. Stout, Aldermen ; E. J. Poursine,
Clerk ; W. E. Daniels, City Marshall ; E. P. Swain, City Assessor
and Collector; J. B. Ellis, Treasurer. The city is clean from a
moral standpoint, and vice is not permitted to flourish. It is a
prohibition town and the prohibitory law is strictly enforced.
The assessed valuation of the city is $3,699,016, which did not
include the new buildings recently erected. The rate of taxation
is 9 mills for the General Fund, 3 for the School Fund, and 3 for
the Sinking Fund, a total of 15 mills.
"The Yazoo City Herald," a weekly Democratic paper, edited
and published by J. G. McGuire; "The Yazoo Sentinel," a weekly
paper, edited and published by F. R. Birdsall; "The Saturday
Evening News," edited by N. A. Mott, and owned and published
by the Waller Printing Co, are the newspapers of the city.

1000 MISSISSIPPI
In the destructive fire above referred to there was a total prop
erty loss of about $2,250,000, on which total insurance amounting
to $1,025,000 has been paid, leaving a net loss to the stricken city
of over $1,000,000. No such disastrous conflagration has visited
another Mississippi city. The number of buildings burned was
324, including about 200 residences. Despite the extent of the
fire, not a single life was lost as a result. One of the few promi
nent buildings which escaped was the courthouse built in 1870-72
at a cost of about $87,000. During the year that has since elapsed,
a modern, up to date city has arisen from the ashes of the old
town. Every precaution has been taken to insure against a repe
tition of the disaster. New, modern fire-proof buildings have largely
been built in the business section ; the main business street has
been widened, and the antiquated board walks, wooden awnings
and swinging wooden signs, the telephone poles and wires, etc,
have all been abolished. New streets and alleys have been opened,
and the business houses have been rendered accessible to the fire
fighters, in case of necessity. The municipality has installed an
all-paid fire department, under a competent chief, and owns one
of the best systems of water works, electric lights and sewers to
be found in the State. It has a splendid power house, located
near the river bridge, three 150-horsepower marine boilers supply
steam for the water and sewage pumps and the electric light en
gines, and the water supply comes from deep artesian wells and
is ample in quantity for both domestic and manufacturing pur
poses. In addition, for use in emergencies and for condenser
water, a sixteen inch suction pipe is laid from the pumps into the
Yazoo river. The water pressure is now sufficient to throw a
stream sixty feet high from the highest ground in the city.
Yazoo City is situated in the midst of the best cotton growing
district in the world, and is a noted market for the "long staple"
cotton used in making the finer grades of cloths. In spite of the
confusion and loss wrought by its fire of 1904, there was marketed
in Yazoo City up to May 1st, of 1905, over 64,000 bales of cotton,
as against total receipts for the preceding year of 66,000 bales.
The city has an extensive cotton manufacturing plant, a large
oil mill, cotton compress and warehouses, and every marketing
facility for handling the large quantities of cotton that come to
it. During the last year 131,000 tons of freight were brought into
the city by the Y. & M. V. railroad, and 47,000 tons were carried
out. Eight passenger trains daily pass into and through the city.
On the Yazoo river a line of steamers is in constant operation,
offering effective competition in the matter of freight rates. Of
the places of worship destroyed by the fire, the Baptist, Presby
terian and Episcopal churches are already rebuilt, and the new
Methodist is nearly completed, while the Catholic is in course
of construction. The banking houses, stores, office buildings, and
manufacturing plants of the city would do credit to a much larger
place. It has several good hotels, also an ice factory, a plant for
making pressed brick, and the Delta Bottling works among its
numerous profitable industries.

MISSISSIPPI 1001
Yazoo City, battles, see War of 1861-65.
Yazoo County, one of the largest and richest counties in the
State, was established January 21, 1823. It is situated in the west
central part of the State, in the fertile valley of the Yazoo river,
and was created at the same time as the county of Copiah, out of
the large county of Hinds, (q.v.) It formed part of the territory
acquired from the Choctaws in 1820, long known as the "New
Purchase." The original act defined its boundaries as follows:
"Beginning at a point on Big Black river, where the northern
boundary line of township seven intersects the same; thence due
east along said -line to where it strikes Pearl river ; thence up said
river to where the Choctaw boundary line crosses the same ; thence
along said boundary line to where it strikes the Mississippi river;
thence down said river to the northern boundary line of Warren
county; thence along said boundary line to Big Black river;
thence with the same to the beginning." It thus included within
its original limits the present counties of Washington, Holmes,
Issaquena, and Sharkey, and parts "of the counties of Madison and
Sunflower. It is still a very large county, containing about 1,018
square miles, or 625,000 acres, is of a very irregular shape, and is
bounded on the northeast by Holmes county, the Yazoo river
forming part of the boundary between the counties, on the south
and southeast by Hinds and Madison counties, the' Big Black
river forming the line of division, on the west by Issaquena and
Sharkey counties, the Yazoo forming part of the boundary divi
sion, and on the northwest by Washington county. When Yazoo
County was first established, the seat of justice was located at
Beattie's Bluff, on the Big Black river, twelve or fifteen miles
northwest of Canton. The first court house and the other build
ings of the settlement were made of hewn logs. When, in 1829,
the county seat was moved to Benton, the town dwindled away,
and its site is now a cultivated field. In 1828, William Y. Gad
berry of South Carolina entered the tract of land on which Benton
was built. It was a place of importance in the early days and was
incorporated in 1836. Its first log courthouse was replaced by a
fine two story brick building, and it contained a school house,
churches and many elegant residences. Its early lawyers were
R. S. Holt, J. R. Burrus, Ronan Harden, Spencer M. Grayson,
Jno. W. Battle and W. R. Miles ; its physicians, J. W. Morough,
Ben Hagerman, J. B. Wilkinson, Wm. Yandell; and its merchants
James Rawlins, E. and N. O'Reilly, Geo. Fisher, R. T. Jennings,
Alex. McGaughey, and Jas. Blundell. When Yazoo City became
the seat of justice in 1849, the place declined, and it is now a
dilapidated village of about 250 people. The rich region embraced
in Yazoo county was rapidly settled after its organization, by a
splendid body of pioneers, who poured into the region from the
older parts of Mississippi, and from the Carolinas, Alabama, Geor
gia, Kentucky and Tennessee. By 1830 the county had attained
a population of 6,500, and by 1837 it had acquired a population of
11,884, including slaves.

1002 MISSISSIPPI
' Yazoo City, the county seat, was known as Manchester until 1838,
and is the largest and most important town in the county. It is
located on the left bank of the Yazoo river, near the center of the
county, had a population of 4,944 in the year 1900, and nearly
10,000 in 1906. It is a center for the cotton trade and an impor
tant manufacturing point. It is in the heart of the best cotton
growing district in the world, especially for -the production of the
"long staple" cotton needed for the making of the finer grades of
cloths, and near at hand are abundant supplies of valuable timber,
cypress, various kinds of oaks, red gum, beech, hickory, etc. Its
shipping facilities are excellent, both by water and rail. The
Yazoo river is navigable for large steamers throughout the year,
and the city is at the junction of the Illinois Central and the Yazoo
& Miss. Val Rys. It suffered a disastrous fire in 1904, but has
since been rebuilt and is now larger than before. It was also
burned by Gen. Arthur in 1864, and rebuilt soon after the war.
Yazoo City is the home of the brilliant Democratic leader of the
House at Washington, John Sharp Williams. Bentonia (pop.
167), Belleprarie (pop. 200), Satartia (pop. 146), Craig, Vaughan,
Deansville, Silver City, Midnight and Lucille are some of the
more important villages in the county. Besides the Yazoo river,
which traverses the county in a winding course for about 140
miles, and the Big Black river, which forms its southeastern
boundary, there are numerous small tributary creeks of these
streams, Silver, Panther, Tokeba, Beaver, Piney, Bowie, Ruson
and Teshecah, and Lakes George and Wolf.
The main line of the Illinois Central R. R. runs through the
extreme eastern border of the county, and a branch line of the
same road traverses the center of the county. The Yazoo Branch
of the Yazoo & Miss. Val. R. R. enters the county from the north
west and runs to Yazoo City. There is an enormous acreage un
der cultivation — 238,098 acres — or considerably more than one-
third of the total area. The Western two-fifths of the county is in
the Yazoo and Mississippi River Bottom, and has all the famous
fertility of that region of the State. -The other three-fifths of the
county is undulating, with a narrow strip of the Bluff Formation
along its western edge, about the center of the county. A very
large section of the county is still heavily timbered with trees of
great variety, — oaks of all kinds, poplar, locust, walnut, elm,
beech, hickory, gum, cypress, etc. Large and excellent beds of
marl are found in the county. The soil varies a good deal in char
acter, but is practically all of it rich and fertile. Taken all in all,
Yazoo county is excelled by none in the State in the variety and
value of its natural resources. The agricultural products are cot
ton, corn, oats, wheat, sbrghum, peas, all the varieties of grasses,
and an abundance of fruits and vegetables. Good pasturage
abounds and the value of its live stock industry is only exceeded
by that of one other county in the State, Washington county. Ex-,
cellent schools are found here in great numbers, which are open
from four to ten months in the year.

MISSISSIPPI 1003
The great resources of this county are well set out in the fol
lowing statistics, taken from the twelfth United States Census for
1900, arid relate to farms, manufactures and population: — Number
of farms 6,741, .acreage in farms 428,145, acres improved 238,098,
value of the land and improvements, exclusive of buildings $4,749,-
260, value of the buildings $1,251,420, total value of products not
fed to stock $3,493,122. Number of manufacturing establishments
127, capital invested $687,913, wages paid $85,422, cost of ma
terials used $533,202, total value of products $862,919. The popu
lation of the county in 1900 was whites 11,743, colored 32,205, total
43,948, increase of 7,554 over the year 1890. The population in
1906 is estimated at over 50,000. The total assessed valuation of
real and personal property in Yazoo county in 1905 was $7,415,424
and in 1906 it was $8,080,678.75, which shows an increase of
$665,254.75 during the year.
Yazoo Land Companies, 1789. "Men not of us, men from abroad,
many of them of fair, some of them of hjgh name, had long had
their avaricious gaze fixed on Georgia's vast and fertile Indian do
main (great speculations in wild lands were a fashion and a rage
in those days), and they had conspired with self-seeking, influen
tial persons among our own people to enrich themselves by despoil
ing the State of it on a hugh scale. . . . The main cause which
had held them back was the unsettled state of the title, which was
in strong dispute between South Carolina and Georgia." — ( Chap-
pell's Miscellanies of Georgia.) The treaty of Beaufort in 1787
yielded to Georgia the pretensions of South Carolina, and the legis
lature of the latter Commonwealth (hardly more than a fringe of
Carolina) — eleven senators and thirty-four representatives — had
to decide between the policies of relinquishment to the United
States or making a bargain with the land speculators. To the
United States in 1788 was offered the region annexed to West Flor
ida before the war, with conditions which the United States asked
modifications of, as well as the cession of the whole back country.
Dropping that negotiation then, the legislature gave its ear to the
speculators. According to the statement of the main western agent of the
South Carolina company, Dr. James O'Fallon, in his letter to Gov
ernor Miro at New Orleans, (May, 1790) the project was conceived
by himself "a long time ago;" he said that the members of the
general company were "all dissatisfied with the present Federal
government," and some of them disposed to have recourse to Great
Britain ; that it was his private intention all the time to found a
state as a rampart of the Spanish possessions, of which the inhab
itants should be "the- slaves of Spain;" that during the two years
he had been secretly employed by the company and they were work
ing with the members of the Georgia legislature, he was also in
correspondence with and obtaining information for the Spanish gov
ernment, and working up a colony of Irish, Americans and Ger
mans for East Florida. O'Fallon's representations to the Spanish
authorities are, of course, to be taken with consideration of his
purpose to secure Spanish indulgence.

1004 MISSISSIPPI
The act of the legislature, approved by Governor Telfair De
cember 21, 1789, was entitled, "An act for disposing of certain va
cant lands or territory within this State." It asserted in the pre
amble that "divers persons" from Virginia and the Carolinas had
made application for the purchase of land on the Tennessee, Tom
bigbee, Yazoo and Mississippi rivers, "within this State, and have
offered to engage to settle the same, a part of which territory has
already been settled, on behalf of some of the applicants," under
the Bourbon county act, a statement which appears dubious in the
light of later reports of the land commissioners. It was therefore
enacted that all the land between -Cole's creek and a line from its
source east to the Tombigbee, and the line of latitude 33°, bounded
on the east and west by the Tombigbee and Mississippi, containing
about five million acres, "shall be reserved as a pre-emption for the
South Carolina Yazoo company, for two years," from the passage
of the act; and if the company paid into the treasury of the State
in that time, $66,964, then the governor was empowered to grant
to "Alexander Moultrie, Isaac Huger, William Clay Snipes, and
Thomas Washington, and the rest of their associates, and to their
heirs and assigns forever, in fee simple, as tenants in common, all
the tract of land" described.
The region on the Mississippi, north of 33° and up to the "north
ern boundary of this State," and south of the Tennessee river, and
east to Bear Creek and the Tombigbee, was to be granted on the
same conditions, to Patrick Henry, David Ross, William Cowan,
Abraham B. Venable, John B. Scott, William Cocke Ellis, Francis
Watkins and John Watts, and their associates of the "Virginia
Yazoo company," seven million acres, for $93,741.
A third tract east of Bear creek and south of the Tennessee
river, joining the Virginia company tract on the west, bounded on
the south by the 34th parallel, and running east from the Tombig
bee 120 miles, bounded on the north by "the north line of this
State," and the Tennessee river, was to be granted on the same
conditions to Zachariah Coxe, Thomas Gilbert and John Strother
and associates, called the "Tennessee company;" 3,500,000 acres
for $46,875.
It was provided that the grantees "shall forbear all hostile at
tacks on any of the Indian hordes, which may be found at or near
the said territory, if any such there be," language which verged
on the humorous, considering the situation of the frontier; "and
keep this State free from all charges and expenses which may
attend the preserving of peace between the said Indians and
grantees, and .extinguishing the claims of the said Indians under the
authority of this State," which practically meant that the com
panies would maintain a military establishment and treat with
the Indians, which they made preparations to do. It was after
ward claimed by the companies that it was the understanding that
any credit paper of the State would be received in payment, except
the "rattlesnake money." The minority of the legislature made a
protest, claiming that more advantageous offers had been made,

MISSISSIPPI 1005
payable in tobacco and other property and paper issues and public
securities. (Moultrie vs. Ga, U. S. sup. court).
The- act proposed to conyey the right of pre-emption to almost
the whole of the lands of the Choctaws and Chickasaws and part
of the Cherokee and Creek land. The attitude of the United States
government was, "that although the right of Georgia to the pre
emption of the lands should be admitted to its full extent, yet
should the State, or any company or persons claiming under it,
attempt to extinguish the Indian claims, unless authorized thereto
by the United States," such action would be repugnant to the
treaties of Hopewell and Seneca, the constitution of the" United
States, and the law regulating trade and intercourse with the In
dians. Chappell observes that the transaction amounted to a license
to the companies to go and make a conquest at their cost and
risk ; that the terms of the act professed ignorance whether the
Indians were at or near the land, and made the pretense of for
bidding "hostile attacks on them," when the settlement itself was
bound to be regarded as a hostile act. "Such was too much the
logic and ethics toward the Indians of that period of mingled dread
and exasperation in Georgia." But giving such provisions of the
act their most favorable interpretation, "still they were unavoid
ably mere empty, ineffective words," as Georgia was not able in
any sense to make them good.
O'Fallon, "general agent for and proprietor with, the South
Carolina company, through the whole, western territory of the
United States and in New Orleans and Pensacola," as he called
himself, made his headquarters at Louisville. He sought to involve
George Rogers Clark in the enterprise, but did not succeed further
than marrying the general's daughter. Col. John Holder, a noted
Kentucky pioneer, was persuaded to become military commander.
When these agents applied to Wilkinson for assistance, that wily
agent-in-chief of Spain, amazed at the letters and certificates they
presented, his breath quite taken away by the audacity of the
scheme, finally was convinced that the documents were not for
geries and proceeded to attempt to manipulate the enterprise in
the interests of his employers.
The company's agents, Cape and Holder, were advised from
Charleston October 1, before the act was passed, (according to
Gayarre, III, 272) that "everything was already settled with our
sister State of Georgia and with all parties concerned here," and
the essential thing to do was "to take possession of and settle the
land at once." Holder was urged to go down as soon as possible
"with your complement of emigrants, and form the establishment
as agreed on," because it would materially help the sale of land
to say that settlements were already begun. Holder was told to
make friends with the Indians and tell the Spaniards that their in
terests were — "intimately connected and inseparable," that they
would "form a highly advantageous rampart for Spain. . . .
At all events, take possession, exhibit this letter and even our
contract to the Spaniards, and conceal nothing from them." Gen-

1006 MISSISSIPPI
eral Wilkinson, in Kentucky, knew about the project long before
the act was passed. On January 4, 1790, he wrote to Moultrie and
the others that he had talked it over with Governor Miro on his last
trip to New Orleans. He advised the company that they could not
possibly make a settlement before the next fall, and meanwhile
they must send an able representative to confer with Miro, as
nothing could be done without his favor and his influence with the
Choctaws. Holder, Wilkinson informed Miro, was under his pro
tection, and Cape he had loaned $3,000, and both were "insignifi
cant creatures." O'Fallon was a man of education, but flighty and
vain. Fie had asked authority of the company to take charge of
the project himself, and would "experience no difficulty in adding
their establishment to the domains of his Majesty."
Governor Miro was disposed to look at the project as "taking
a foreign state to board with us." He did not understand that the
settlement would form part of the United States, and thought that
if the South Carolina company succeeded, "all the hopes of the
United States (for limits at 31°) would vanish, or at least they
would find it no trifling enterprise to send an army to gain that
point." He wrote to Spain a discussion of the matter, being at a
loss what stand to take. "These people," he said, "are imbued
with the conviction that these lands belond to them by purchase,
and, in order to obtain them, they may momentarily accept all sorts
of conditions. But would they not violate them, as soon as they
should find themselves powerful enough to do it with impunity?"
He began preparations to erect a new fortification, at Walnut
Hills, the key to the lower Mississippi valley. Meanwhile he noti
fied Moultrie and his associates, through Wilkinson, that Spain
was in possession, and until the question of limits were settled,
an attempt to sieze any part of the land would be an act of hos
tility. "It would be exceedingly painful to me to march with arms
in my hands against citizens of the United States." It appears
that the companies urged the treaties of Hopewell arid Seneca as
basis of title of Georgia, the same treaties that Georgia had repudi
ated by act of legislature. Wilkinson advised the Carolinians that
their Indian title was "not worth a pinch of snuff," and Miro said
that a concession of land based on the treaties "is a chimera."
August 25, 1790, President Washington sent out a proclamation
calling attention to the laws and treaties and requiring all persons
to govern themselves accordingly. But this did not appear to dis
courage the enterprise. O'Fallon suggested to the president that
it would save trouble to turn over to him the regulation of trade
and treaties with the Choctaws and Chickasaws. Lieut. John Arm
strong, in Kentucky, in the latter part of 1790, heard of several per
sons organizing companies for the Yazoo country. O'Fallon, talk
ing to him, took lightly the president's proclamation, saying that
"many of the gentlemen of Congress were concerned in the busi
ness," and offering to read a letter from one. On September 16,
O'Fallon completed the organization of the "Yazoo battalion,"
with which a regular contract was made by him in behalf of the

MISSISSIPPI 1007
Carolina company, the troops to be paid by grants of land. It was
provided as an encouragement to women who might go with the
battalion, that 500 acres should be given to the first one to land
and 500 "to her who shall bring forth the first live child." The
battalion roster shows : John Holder, colonel ; Thomas Kennedy,
lieutenant-colonel ; Henry Owen, major ; Ebenezer Piatt, captain
of horse; Thomas Reynold, captain of artillery; John Mclntire,
captain of infantry; and Martin Nail, John Sappington, Charles
Hazelrigg, Francis Jones, Philip Alston, James Dromgold and
Joseph Blackburn, captains of riflemen.
In the back parts of Virginia and in East Tennessee the talk
was of a settlement by the Tennessee company, which advertised
by poster, September 2, 1790, from Augusta, Ga, that an expedi
tion would leave the confluence of the Holston and French Broad
January 10, 1791, to open up for free distribution 480,000 acres
south of the Tennessee, also, to sell land on the north side, called
the Bent. At this time the Cherokees were gathering at their
"greatly beloved town, Estanaloee," on the waters of Mobile, to
deliberate on the treaty offered by Governor Blount, of the Terri
tory South, and the request that they aid the United States in the
war with the Northern Indians. They sent a messenger to the
president protesting against the proposed invasion of their lands.
Another proclamation was issued forbidding the enterprise. It
appears from Pickett's Alabama that the expedition did not get
off until May, 1791, when a party floated down in flatboats to
Mussel Shoals, under the command of Zachariah Coxe, built a
blockhouse on an island, and prepared to do a land office business.
In 1790 the United States had made a treaty with Chief McGil
livray of the Creeks, who was notified by Ensign Heth in 1791
that the United States "disapprove entirely of the projected set
tlements . . . under the Yazoo companies." Heth was in
structed to assure McGillivray that if the companies, in defiance
of the president's two proclamations on the subject, persisted in
making settlements, "they will be considered to all intents and
purposes entirely without the protection of the United States."
Coxe and his party found themselves very lonesome before they
had been long at Mussel Shoals, when a war party of Cherokees
arrived under the command of Chief Glass. They agreed to de
part and the buildings were burned.
Writing to Philip Nolan February 14, 1791, General Wilkinson
said that O'Fallon was at Frankfort, "making wonderful exer
tions;" he had engaged George Rogers Clark to command his
troops, and had made "extensive contracts for provisions, negroes,
horses, etc. The company offering me 20,000 acres as a compli
ment, 'but I finally refused it." (Minor papers.) O'Fallon, how
ever, was suppressed by General St. Clair, under orders from the
secretary of war.
Edmund Phelan was sent by the South Carolina company as its
agent to Natchez, through the Indian country, piloted by Thomas
Basket, an Indian trader, who was to be the official interpreter.

1008 MISSISSIPPI
They arrived at Natchez September 25, 1790, expecting fo meet
O'Fallon and Holder with settlers and lumber for houses, and
goods for the Indians, after which Phelan and Basket were to pre
pare the Choctaws for a settlement at Walnut Hills and on the
Yazoo. Early in 1791 Commandant Gayoso showed Phelan a let
ter he had received from O'Fallon saying they would be down
shortly. But they never came.
The report of Madison, Gallatin and Lincoln, in 1803, was, that
the Carolina and Virginia companies "did, within the two years,
tender in payment to the treasurer of the State the whole amount
of the purchase money in evidences of the public debt of the State.
The payment was refused on the part of Georgia. The money
which had been deposited by the Virginia Yazoo company was
withdrawn ; but the South Carolina company instituted, before
the Supreme court of the United States, a suit against the State,
which was terminated by the amendment to the constitution rela
tive to the suability of States."
When Georgia ceded the western lands, the South Carolina and
Virginia companies claimed indemnification for a violation of con
tract on the part of Georgia, attempting to prove by collateral
evidence that it was the intention of the legislature that they pay
in State certificates of debt. Included in this evidence were their
own petitions for the passage of the act, and the protest of the
minority of the legislature, made principally, it was alleged, be
cause the payments were to be made in depreciated certificates.
The commissioners decided (1803) that they had no equitable claim
either for the land or for compensation. The claim was carried
before Congress and a committee of the house sustained the judg
ment of the commissioners in January, 1804.
Yazoo Land Companies, 1795. The land companies of 1795 were
not called Yazoo companies officially, but the whole transaction
was popularly known as the Yazoo Fraud. In his vigorous de
scription of these speculations, Chappell (Miscellanies of Georgia)
asserts that the attitude of "Washington's stern course and true
teaching" regarding the act of 1789 had a tendency to create a
healthy public sentiment. But the campaign to acquire the public
lands for speculation was renewed, or rather continued with little
pause by those who had lost considerable money in the enterprises
of 1789-91. The legislature of 1793 was besieged for a renewal of
grants, but, says Chappell, it "proved itself staunch and altogether
impregnable." But, following this, the speculators were informed
through James Gunn, United States senator from Georgia, that
Spain was likely soon to relinquish those claims in the West, which
covered not only the Yazoo li'ne, but all of the Georgia pretensions.
For this reason, in 1794, the year before the treaty was made,
the speculators "were industriously occupied in perfecting their
schemes, in tampering with the elections to the legislature, in en
listing men of influence far and wide, and in getting up funds for
the purpose of corruption and paying for the lands." The first
proposition for the purchase of the Yazoo lands came on the 12th

MISSISSIPPI 1009
of November, 1794, from Albert Gallatin, Alexander J. Dallas and
Jared Ingersoll, by their agent, John Wereat. This agent proposed
to purchase all the country included in the conditional sale made to
the South-Carolina Yazoo company, in 1789, at a price something
over $66,000. (Quoted by John Randolph from Georgia House
journal.) When the legislature met in November, Gunn was reelected to
the senate. Randolph of Virginia said in a speech on this subject
in the national house of representatives, January 1, 1805, that the
funds for sustaining the enterprise were furnished from Philadel
phia and New York and perhaps Boston, and the direction of these
resources devolved upon Gunn. "His reelection was to be con
sidered as evidence that the temper of the legislature of Georgia
was suited to their purpose and his Northern confederates were to
take their measures accordingly. In proof of this fact, no sooner
was the news of his re-appointment announced in New York than
it was publicly said in a coffee-house there, 'Then the western
territory of Georgia is sold.' "
Four companies petitioned for grants and they made a combina
tion and satisfactory partition among themselves of nearly all the
land west of the Alabama and Coosa rivers. One bill to grant their
demands was passed and vetoed by Governor Matthews, after
which a second bill was passed and signed by the governor January
7, 1795. The bill passed by force of bribery, in the house by a vote
of 19 to 9, and in the senate 10 to 8. A long preamble asserted
the claims of the State to the western lands, and declared that
"notwithstanding" the act of Congress to regulate trade, etc, with
Indians, and the treaty of New York, the State of Georgia was in
full possession and full exercise of the jurisdiction and territorial
right, and the fee simple and the right of pre-emption of vacant
lands and the right to sell the same, were in the State of Georgia.
The act provided for the extinguishment of Indian claims north of
the St. Mary's river, and "for the purpose of raising a fund for car
rying this act fully into effect," the grants to the companies pur
ported to be made. It was provided that each company should
pay in gold or silver "or bank bills of the United States or such
warrants as are made payable," and part was paid previous to the
passage of the act. The balance was to be paid by November 1,
following, when a grant should be executed conveying the title in
fee simple to the persons composing each company, "as tenants in
common and not as joint tenants."
The main grant was to the Georgia company, James Gunn,
Matthew McAllister, George Walker, Zachariah Coxe, Jacob Wald-
burger, William Longstreet and Wade Hampton, for $250,000.
Their grant was to begin on the United States line of 31° at the
Mobile river, extend up the Alabama and Coosa to latitude 34°,
and on the Mississippi river extend from latitude 34°, south to 32°
40'. Below the western part of this tract, between the Tombig
bee and Mississippi, a tract between 32° and 40' and 31° 18' was
granted to the Georgia Mississippi Company, composed of Nicho-
64-11

1010 MISSISSIPPI
las Long, Thomas Glasscock, Ambrose Gordon, Thomas Cum-
ming and their associates. A strip of land twenty-five miles wide
off the north side of the old grant of the Virginia Yazoo company,
that is, off the north end of the present State of Mississippi, was
granted to John B. Scott, of the Virginia company, who, with
John C. Nightingale and Wade Hampton and others, took the
name of the Upper Mississippi company. The old Tennessee
Company, appeared to be revived under the same name, Zachariah
Coxe and Matthias Mather being named as members, and granted
the same lands as before. The amount of land included in these
grants was estimated by the companies in their petition to the leg
islature as 21,750,000, but subsequently at nearly 40,000,000. The
prices paid were $250,000 by the Georgia company, $155,000 by the
Georgia Mississippi company, $35,000 by the Upper Mississippi
company, and $60,000 by the Tennessee company. The Georgia
company was to reserve a million acres for the use of citizens of
Georgia; and the other companies among them, another million.
This seems to have been done to secure the governor's approval
of the second bill. "All the members, both in the senate and the
house, who voted in favor of the law, were, with one single excep
tion (Robert Watkins, whose name does not appear) interested in,
and parties to, the purchase." (Report of Madison commission,
Amer. State Pp., I, 122). On page 128 of the same is a list of the
persons to whom the Georgia company disposed of land before the
act was passed, for the purpose of raising a fund "to effect the
purchase of the same." This is headed by Hon. James Wilson, of
Philadelphia, a prominent member of the Federal constitutional
convention and supreme court, 750,000 acres, and the whole list
calls for 3,000,000 acres. A second list is of subshares for land
which it was found "necessary to distribute to a variety of citi
zens" beforehand, in order that the benefit of the purchase "should
be as generally diffused as possible." This list, including names
of members of the legislature, calls for nearly 7,000,000 acres.
So that the company really paid, for the grant, $250,000 to the
public treasury, and something like a third of the land elsewhere,
for what it got.
Chappell notes that Patrick Henry took no part in this project,
but suffered some loss of reputation for his connection with the
enterprise of 1789. Nathaniel Pendleton, Federal judge in Georgia,
was active in organizing the companies ; Senator Gunn was a great
power in pushing the enterprise to success through the legislature,
bullying and cajoling in turn (White's Statistics, p. 50) ; Robert
Goodloe Harper, of South Carolina, a member of congress, had an
interest of 131,000 acres ; Col. Wade Hampton, promoted to general
in 1809, had "a much more colossal interest than any other man,"
but with a sagacity that made him regarded "as a prince of spec
ulators," disposed of his interests at "a hugh profit" in less than
a year. (Chappell and White.) Hampton had three shares and
Gunn two in the Georgia company, which was divided into ten

MISSISSIPPI 1011
shares. Consequently, they together had title to about a third of
the entire territory sold.
The several companies made their payments to the Georgia
treasury in full, and the grants were completed in due form. The
terms of the transaction were carefully devised to make a title
easily sold. The members of the company were tenants in com
mon and not joint tenants. The main company, or Georgia com
pany, of which Gunn and Hampton owned half the ten shares, sold
the greater part of the territory in large tracts by metes and bounds
to various parties, and, after the subsequent commotion began,
surrendered to the State what remained unsold. The whole tract
granted to the Georgia Mississippi company (in southern Missis
sippi and Alabama) was divided into 1,600 equal undivided shares,
and sold in January, 1796, at 10 cents an acre, to the New-England
Mississippi company, composed of citizens of Massachusetts. The
Scott, Nightingale and Hampton tract in upper Mississippi was
divided into twelve equal undivided shares. The others sold out to
Hampton, and he sold to various citizens of South Carolina. The
tract granted the Tennessee company was divided into 420 shares,
besides several hundred thousand acres deeded by Coxe alone.
The statement of Secretary Madison in 1805 was that there were
at least twelve hundred purchasers under the four companies.
President Washington communicated copies of this act and the
State Troops act to Congress, February 17, saying: "These acts
embrace an object of such magnitude, and in their consequence
may so deeply affect the peace and welfare of the United States,
that I have thought it necessary to lay them before Congress."
A committee reported that the acts contemplated an infringement
of the law of the land and advised the president to permit no in
dividuals or States to make treaties with the Indians, for the ex
tinction of title to land. The State of Georgia was thrown into
great excitement by the passage of the act and the subsequent
campaign to secure its repeal. It is stated by chroniclers that some
members who voted for it were driven into exile, others assassi
nated. Chappell denies this, saying that they were simply con
signed to "social ostracism and infamy." He admits, however,
that Robert Thomas, who seemed to be picked out as the one re
sponsible for the majority of two in the senate, fled from' his home
and was followed and killed by some one.
The State constitutional convention pf May, 1795, controlled
in the interests of the companies, declined to take action upon
the protests against this legislation, and adjourned, calling the
election of another convention in 1797. James Jackson, one of the
United States senators for Georgia, who had been offered half a
million acres, but had refused, resigned from the senate to enter
upon a fight to destroy the scheme, in which he succeeded, so far
as legislation could effect his purpose. Col. Benton wrote of him :
"The defeat of the Yazoo Fraud was the most signal act of his
legislative life, for which he paid the penalty of his life, dying of

1012 MISSISSIPPI
wounds received in the last of the many duels which his undaunted
attacks upon that measure brought upon him-" He secured the
election of a legislature that passed an act February 13, 1796, which,
with elaborate whereases, asserted that the legislature had no
authority to convey and was induced to do so by fraud and corrup
tion, declared the act of 1795 null and void, and the land "the
property of the State, subject only to the right of treaty of the
United States, to enable the State to purchase, under its pre
emption right, the Indian title to the same." It was enacted that
all mention of the proceedings should be expunged from the rec
ords of the State, and "that the enrolled law or usurped act shall
then be publicly burned in order that no trace of so unconstitu
tional, vile and fraudulent a transaction, other than the infamy
attached to it by this law, shall remain in the public offices." Rec
ords of the State, and "that the enrolled law or usurped act shall
recording or admission of papers in evidence prohibited. The
money paid was ordered returned.
February 15 a bonfire was started in front of the statehouse, at
Louisville, Ga, by use of a lense, so that "fire from heaven" might
do the deed. The legislature marched out in solemn procession
and circled round the fire, heads uncovered. The obnoxious papers
were solemnly passed from the committee to the president of the
senate, to the speaker, to the clerk, to a messenger, who threw the
documents in the fire, exclaiming "God save the State and long
preserve her rights, and may every attempt to injure them perish
as these corrupt acts now do." (Evans, History of Georgia.)
Oliver Phelps, William Wetmore, Samuel Sewall, and others,
of New England, who had purchased shares of Amasa Jackson and
William Williamson, agents of the Georgia Mississippi company,
and in February, 1796, formed the New England Mississippi com
pany, made plans for colonizing. As their agent, George Matthews,
the governor of Georgia who had signed the Yazoo bills, evidently
undaunted by the "fire from heaven," came down to Natchez by the
Tennessee river route in September, 1797. He and Asher Miller,
issued a notice in October, that their company would transfer their
title to the inhabitants of Natchez district for such lands, as had
been regularly acquired and built upon and cultivated under the
Spanish government before the ratification of the treaty.
Zachariah Coxe made another attempt, in 1797, to establish a
colony at Mussel Shoals, but was prevented by Col. Thomas But
ler, commanding United States troops. He next appeared at
Natchez, in command of a body of armed men, taking such author
ity that it was reported he would assume the government of the
country on behalf of Georgia. Governor Sargent, soon after his
arrival, ordered his arrest. He escaped to the Indian country, and
his "army" returned to the pursuits of civil life.
The adjustment of the claims of the purchasers under these
acts was the most troublesome part of the negotiations for cession.
The Madison, Gallatin and Lincoln commission expressed without
hesitation the opinion that "the title of the claimants cannot be

MISSISSIPPI 1013
supported," but advised a compromise. The claimants besieged
congress for many years, and finally secured an opinion of the
supreme court supporting the validity of their claims. (See Geor
gia Land Claims.)
Pickett (History of Alabama) says that before the repeal of the
act, "hundreds had emigrated to the Tombigby and the Mississippi,
establishing themselves in those distant and isolated regions, in
tending soon to occupy the lands which the companies had pro
posed to grant them. In this respect the Yazoo sale was a great
blessing. It contributed to throw into that wild region a popula
tion of Georgians, whose activity, ability and enterprise better
fitted them to seize, occupy and bring into cultivation a wilderness,
mark out towns, people them, build female academies, erect
churches and hold courts, than any other people."
Yazoos. See Indians.
Yeargain, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Holmes
county, on the Yazoo river, 6 miles west of the Yazoo & Missis
sippi Valley Railroad, and 8 miles northwest of Tchula, the near
est banking town.
Yellow Fever. The Yellow Fever, called fievre jaune by the
French, and negro vomito by the Spanish, has prevailed endem-
ically throughout the West Indies and in certain parts of the Span
ish Main since the discovery of America. It made its appearance
in the ports of Philadelphia, Charleston, Boston and New York,
before the close of the 17th century. Philadelphia suffered a severe
visitation in 1793, when the deaths were 4,041 and the mortality
was 1 in 10 of the population.
"The first mention of yellow fever in Mississippi is made under
date of August 22, 1701, when Antoine Lemoyne Sauvolle died at
Fort Maurepas, near Biloxi. The disease was carried from San
Domingo by one of the ships touching at that island." (Memoirs
of Miss, II, 298). The disease has been persistent in more south
ern islands and mainlands, for the reason, unknown until 1900, that
it is caused by a poison communicated by a diseased musquito.
The Mississippi gulf coast and the gulf cities visited by sailors
from the region of continual infection are barely freed from the
danger by the frosts of November or December, ordinarily, some
times a mild winter giving the insects additional grace. New Or
leans has been, for Mississippi, the main source of infection, and
the disease has been frequently nurtured there by concealment.
During the Spanish period in Mississippi, the yellow fever was
not uncommon. Governor Gayoso died of it at New Orleans.
Before that, it raged in Natchez in 1797 when Commissioner Elli
cott was awaiting permission to establish the boundary, and he
moved his corps to an inland spot, where there was a spring, which
became the site of the town of Washington. It was prevalent
when the first legislature of the State was to meet at Natchez,
in October, 1817, according to the constitution recently adopted.
Because of that fact, the governor called the session at Wash
ington. He said: "The city of Natchez, for many years past,

1014 MISSISSIPPI
has been remarkable for its healthfulness. In the course of
the preceding summer, the streets in the lower part of the town
were raised, conformably to the graduation directed by the officers
of the corporation. The adjacent lots, which ought to have been
filled up as the public work progressed, were, in many instances,
neglected by the individual owners — the consequence was that in
a short time ponds of putrid water were formed in the heart of the
city. To this circumstance we may chiefly attribute the cause
which either produced the disease, or, if brought from any other
place, gave it an epidemic and malignant character." The physi
cians of Natchez, F. Seip, J. Morris, Samuel Gustine and John H.
Robinson, certified that the disease ceased November 15. When
the legislature had assembled at Washington it proceeded to pass
a stringent quarantine law, which, however, did not avail to pre
vent a recurrence of the disease early in September, 1819, and
caused the transfer of the State offices to Washington. The gov
ernor wrote on the 30th : "The disease still exists there, but few
deaths now happen in consequence of most of the inhabitants hav
ing fled to the country. Many cases of the yellow fever have been
brought from Natchez, but no instance has occurred of its being
communicated to any person here." In his message in January,
when it was deemed safe for the legislature to meet at Natchez,
the governor discussed the theories of the origin of the disease and
called attention to the fact, that it was communicated by contact
outside of the places where it raged. He was inclined to attribute
it to a condition of the atmosphere, following the heavy rains and
floods, and the disturbed condition of the streets in Natchez, caus
ing ponds of stagnant water. The number of deaths was 180.
In September, 1820, Governor Poindexter ordered General Mc
Comas to detail a body of militia to support the authority of the
board of health and enforce a strict quarantine. He was able to
report in the following January that with a rigid enforcement of
the law the disease had not appeared, and he hoped that by the
same course in the future, "a return of this malady may be avoided,
and this great depot of the products and commerce of the State
rescued from the desolation which has heretofore swept from
among us so many valuable citizens, depressed our commercial
operations, and retarded the progress of population."
In the fall of 1822 the fever ravaged New York and New Or
leans, the deaths being reported as 200 weekly in the latter city,
and drove the population of Pensacola en masse into the woods ;
but, as Governor Leake said, "the city of Natchez, the great em
porium of our State, has enjoyed comparatively a great portion
of health," which he attributed to the vigilance of the board of health
and police. There had been a severe drought in the State. Never
theless, the "autumnal fever" was unusually fatal. The following
year, August 10th to October 18th, there were 312 deaths at
Natchez. This was one of the most severe attacks. At the close
of it John A. Quitman wrote to his brother in the north: '"Three
weeks since (in November) a severe frost banished the epidemic

MISSISSIPPI 1015
and we returned. It was painful to see the desolation of the
streets. I looked in vain for faces with which I had been familiar.
A gloom and sadness pervaded the whole place, and when friends
met they pressed each other's hands in silence, or averted their
faces and burst into tears." But, "even the theatre has opened,
parties announced, and an air of recklessness prevails. There is
certainly more dissipation and extravagance than we had at this
time last year. It was observed when London was plague-stricken.
It is seen in cities during a siege, and I hear curious details of the
saturnalia, the debauchery and excesses, that occurred here when
the fever was at its worst — wine parties after funerals, card-play
ing on coffins, shrouded figures whirling in the waltz."
In 1826, at Natchez, the deaths were 150, and the disease ravaged
the town of Washington. The Mississippi and Louisiana Almanac
said: "It is very justly believed to have been carried there by
means of the fomites contained in the blankets and other articles
of merchandise, with which Washington was crowded at the be
ginning of September, when the citizens of Natchez fled from the
yellow fever which had appeared in that place. The whole num
ber of cases of yellow fever that have occurred in Washington and
vicinity, is about 110 ; of which 52 have terminated fatally. This
number must be allowed to be great, when it is known that the
number of inhabitants of every description has generally been only
about 250."
In 1827 it again appeared at Natchez ; no record of the mortal
ity; it developed again at Natchez in 1829, commencing Sept. 1,
mortality, 90 ; Rodney was also attacked. The fever ceased this
year with a severe frost Nov. 12 ; in New Orleans it had begun as
early as June, and at Natchez it was preceded by the small pox.
It also appeared at the following places and periods : In 1837, at
Natchez, commencing Sept. 8, ending Nov. 25 ; mortality 280 ; in
1839 at Biloxi, after an interval of 136 years ; at Natchez, from
September to November, mortality, 235 ; also at Shieldsboro (on
Bay St. Louis) and at "Vicksburg; in 1843, at Rodney, commenc
ing Sept. 6. Dr. John H. Savage, an eminent physician and pro
fessor at Oakland college, was among the victims at Rodney, in
October. In 1844, at Natchez and Woodville; in 1847, at Biloxi,
Pascagoula, Pass Christian, Rodney and Vicksburg; in 1848, at
Natchez, from June to November; in 1852, at Woodville.
Among the Mississippi towns which suffered severely in the
great epidemic of 1853 were Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Brandon, Clin
ton, Natchez, Fort Adams, Grand Gulf, Greenwood, Jackson, Pass
Christian, Petit Gulf Hills, Port Gibson, Rodney, Woodville, Pas
cagoula, Yazoo City and Vicksburg. The epidemic was general
throughout the South, and the mortality in New Orleans alone was
8,000. In 1854, Brandon and Jackson were visited ; in 1855 Coop
er's Wells, mortality 13, Canton, Pass Christian, Woodville and
Natchez; in 1858 Biloxi, Natchez, Pass Christian, Vicksburg and
Woodville.

1016 MISSISSIPPI
In 1856 Governor McRae suggested the appointment of an ex
pert, to be one of an inter-state board, to study the fever and
discover a means of prevention. The naval blockade kept New
Orleans, Mobile and Mississippi clear of the yellow fever in
1861-65, but the disease returned in 1867. The first serious inva
sion of Mississippi was in 1871, when the fever appeared at
Natchez, Vicksburg and Jackson, but in so peculiar a form that
many physicians at first pronounced it malaria fever: At Jackson,
out of 30 cases in the garrison of United States troops, 24 were
fatal. The epidemic there was ably monographed by Dr. M. S.
Craft. In 1874-75, there were cases at Pascagoula, and all along
the gulf coast of Mississippi.
In 1878 occurred the last extensive epidemic. It spread into
eight States, and Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi especially
suffered. The total mortality from yellow fever in that year was
16,000. Many Mississippi towns were visited by the scourge,
among which were Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Bolton, Bovina, Canton,
Byram, Cayuga, Dry Grove, Duckhill, Durant, Edwards, Friar's
Point, Gallman Sta, Greenville, Grenada, Handsboro, Hayne's
Bluff, Hernando, Holly Springs, Jackson, Lake, Lawrence, Leb
anon Church, Logtown, McComb, McNair, Meridian, Mississippi
City, Natchez, Ocean Springs, Osyka, Pass Christian, Pascagoula,
Pearlington, Port Gibspn, Rocky Springs, Senatobia, Stoneville,
Summit, Sunflower, Terry, Hornlake, Vicksburg, Water Valley,
Winona, Yazoo City. The number of deaths in the State was in
excess of 3,000. At the little village of Dry Grove, Hinds county,
of the first 29 cases, 28 died. In this epidemic twenty members of
the State medical association died of the fever while ministering
to the sick (see Health, State board of, and Miss. State Med. Ass'n.)
and the following physicians, not there named, also lost their lives :
Blackburn, Barber, Birdsong, Sappington, Wilkerson, Gilleland,
Hayes, Hippolat, Newman, Norris, Potts, Blackman, Vicksburg;
V. F. P. Alexander, J. S. McCall, William Montgomery, A. S.
Gardner, Stafford, Greenville; E. W. Hughes, Lindley, W. B. May,
G. W. Woodfolk, Gillespie, Hawkins, Milton, Grenada; Lewis,
Leach, Manning, Frank Fenn ell, J. M. Fennell, Fenton, Holly
Springs ; M. J. McKie, Canton ; J. J. Tate, Lake ; Powell, Hernan
do; W. D. Sprott, J. C. Strowbridge, Thomas Young, Blickfeldt,
Port Gibson. (Memoirs of Mississippi.)
In December following this terrible epidemic congress provided
for an investigation of the disease and the employment of seven
experts, one of whom was Dr. M. S. Craft, of Jackson, who col
lected information, at various points that had been infected, for
the use of the committee. H. S. Fulkerson, in his Recollections,
says he went through six epidemics, in 1843, 1853, 1855, 1867,
1872 and 1878. Writing in 1885, he was disposed to accept the
definition of Dr. Holt, of the Louisiana board of health, that it was
"a mystery in nature, one of the hidden ways of God," also quot
ing the satirical remark that "yellow fever never originates, but is
always brought from somewhere else." There was a popular

MISSISSIPPI 1017
belief that it came from Africa with the negroes, and on the other
hand it was recorded that when the first English settlers arrived
in New England they found the Indians suffering with it. Fulker
son gave in evidence the experience of his own family, all of whom
had it at different dates, that no one was attacked a second time.
Rodney was devastated in 1843, and Fulkerson, after going there
to nurse a friend, came down with the fever. Suddenly, in the
night, the pain struck him in the region of the spine something as
if some venomous reptile had dealt the blow. There was no ice to
apply to alleviate the excruciating pain, and the doctors, as ig
norant as any one about the disease, tortured the sick with cupping
and bleeding.
The actual loss of life from the disease itself represents only a
part of the affliction it brought to the State and the South in gen
eral. Every epidemic outbreak served to alarm the whole country ;
commerce in the affected region was brought almost to a stand
still ; the commercial loss to the country from the, epidemic of 1878
was estimated at over $2,000,000 ; cities were deserted ; people suc
cumbed to exposure from campaign on the highlands; burdensome
quarantines were established ; innocent persons were shot in the
effort to pass the quarantine lines ; every form of industry was
stifled; and the entire industrial development of the South was
retarded because of the supposed liability of the region to an epi
demic of yellow fever.
The disease appeared again, but not seriously, in 1879. When
in 1886, the fellow fever appeared at Biloxi, the State board of
health was able to confine it to Harrison county. There were 270
cases and 12 deaths. The quarantine at Pascagoula was main
tained during the fever seasons of 1886-87, and against the danger
of cholera in the winter of 1887. The State was quarantined
against yellow fever at Jacksonville, Fla, in 1888. The fever ap
peared at Jackson in September, and the board took control. The
inhabitants were advised to leave. Only 398 whites and 1,593
blacks remained in the town. A refugee camp was provided for
many. Houses were fumigated and bedding burned. There were
13 cases and five deaths, all the cases originating about the rail
road depot. All the fatal cases died with suppression- of urine.
In September, 1897, the fever again appeared. The source was
ascribed by some to the cases at the Marine hospital quarantine
at Ship Island, where vessels from infected Southern ports were
detained- by others to a conference of Cuban revolutionary
refugees' Early in September, Dr. H. H. Haralson, supervising
quarantine inspector for the State board of health on the coast,
called representatives of the Alabama and Louisiana boards, Sec
retary Hunter and Dr. Gant, of the Mississippi board, and Dr.
Wasdin of the Marine hospital, into consultation over suspicious
cases and the presence of the epidemic was revealed. At the same
time 'it was found at Biloxi, and the infection had been carried to
Edwards where the disease was made known a few days later,
spreading thence to Nitta Yuma, Clinton and the Hinds county

1018 MISSISSIPPI
farm. Dr. Gant took charge at Ocean Springs, and Dr. Hunter
visited New Orleans and Memphis, attempting to establish regu
lations of travel, to prevent the shot-gun quarantine, and tearing
up of railroad tracks, that had occurred in former epidemics. He
was not allowed to return to Jackson, and made his headquarters
at Vicksburg. A great panic prevailed, a bridge was burned on
the A. & V. railroad and the tearing up of tracks was threatened.
The board desired to send North as many people as possible from
Edwards, and when Meridian forbade the running of such trains
through that city, ordered the stopping of all railroad communica
tion with Meridian, which resulted in a reasonable concession.
Armed guards were placed along the Big Black river, and in a
line about Vicksburg. An officer of the State board of health was
put in charge of each infected place, and the spread of the disease
was prevented. But it had also raged in New Orleans and Mo
bile, and survived the winter. The quarantine regulations at this
time required the fumigation of mails and newspapers, on the
theory of germs, and the shipping of cotton from infected towns
was forbidden. After the fever appeared at Ocean Springs, there
was lack of confidence between the State authorities and the Ma
rine hospital service in charge of the quarantine station on Ship
Island. In December of that year, Governor McLaurin appointed
a medical commission, composed of Drs. H. H. Haralson, H. A.
Gant, J. R. Tackett, J. H. Purnell, S. R. Dunn and H. M. Folkes,
who, without compensation, visited Cuba for a study of the dis
ease with a view of more effectually preventing its introduction
into the State.
In 1898, despite every effort, the plague returned, with 28 foci
in the State, 1,386 cases and 84 deaths. There were 292 cases
at Jackson, 167 at Harrison, 120 at Madison, 118 at Taylor's, 115
at Ormund, 95 at Natchez, 70 at Oxford, 64 at Yazoo City, etc.
Several towns were depopulated, as the most effective way of
preventing the spread of the disease. In 1899 the disease appeared
again at Jackson, Mississippi City and Centerville, At this time
it was a generally accepted theory that the disease was brought to
the United States in the form of "germs" adhering to banarias.
Meanwhile, in Cuba, the study of the disease had resulted in
definite knowledge that dissipated the mystery and much of the
terror that accompanied it. In 1881, Dr. Carlos Finlay, of Havana,
first proposed the theory that yellow fever is conveyed by mos
quitoes. That the mosquito serves as the intermediate host of the
parasite of yellow fever was effectively demonstrated in 1900 at
"Camp Lazear," an experiment station one mile from Quemado,
Cuba. The experiments were conducted by a board of surgeons
appointed by Surgeon-General Sternberg. Subsequent careful
experiments in other places have added further proof that the
yellow fever is communicated by a certain species of mosquito, the
striped house mosquito (stegomyia fasciata). In general it is
found in all parts of the world, south of 38 degrees north latitude,
and north of 38 degrees south latitude. It is not common in high

MISSISSIPPI 1019
altitudes and is especially common within the United States, in
all the Gulf States, Atlantic Coast States, north to Virginia, por
tions of Kentucky and Tennessee, southeastern Missouri, most of
Arkansas and Indian Territory, and southern New Mexico, Ari
zona, and California. It is peculiarly a house mosquito, bites by
day as well as by night, and is found most abundantly in the cities,
breeding m roof troughs, cisterns, water-tanks, barrels and any
chance receptacle of clean standing water.
The State board of health was informed through the office of
the surgeon-general at Washington July 20, 1905, that there were
cases of yellow fever at New Orleans. The board was at once
called in session, and on the 21st quarantine was proclaimed
against the Louisiana city. Accepting the demonstration at
Havana and elsewhere that the disease was communicated by the
striped house mosquito (stegomyia fasciata), no embargo was put
upon freight, express, baggage or mail, as had been done in for
mer quarantines. Upon request of the executive committee and
the governor, Surgeon Eugene Wasdin, of the Marine hospital,
was detailed on the Mississippi coast, and was afterwards the
health officer for that part of the State. Guards were placed at
the State line, and inspectors on the trains from New Orleans. It
was officially known July 22 that the disease at New Orleans was
yellow fever, and Secretary Hunter issued a proclamation calling
on the local authorities to begin a war of extermination against
the striped house mosquito, according to the well-known methods.
The surgeon-general was requested to take charge of train inspec
tion on the New Orleans lines, and Surgeon J. H. White, of the
Marine Hospital service, at New Orleans, took charge of the train
inspection out of that city for Mississippi on July 25. The quar
antine order was extended to the entire State of Louisiana, and all
travelers in Mississippi were required to have health certificates,
July 28. The old time panic was in evidence at various places ;
there was a clash of the naval patrols along the indefinite mari
time boundary of Louisiana and Mississippi, that caused some
excitement, and a general feeling, openly expressed by Governor
Vardaman, and afterward established beyond doubt as true, that
the health officers of New Orleans had concealed the disease as
long as possible, and until it had spread in advance of quarantine
regulations, threatened the amicable relations of the people. There
were indications that the fever was about to make a fatal record,
and the Louisiana authorities called upon the United States Marine
Hospital to take control, a large sum of money being raised to
meet the expenses. The Marine hospital officers had full control
in the city, and also cooperated with the health departments of
Mississippi and other States, in regulating travel, and its surgeons
travelled by special trains to diagnose every suspicious case as
soon as reported. Business was paralyzed throughout the State
until the last week of October, but by a thorough campaign against
the mosquito the disease was put under control in New Orleans,
and its spread prevented in the Mississippi towns; while the fact

1020 MISSISSIPPI
was demonstrated beyond doubt that with prompt and rational
treatment yellow fever had forever been deprived of its rational
fatal and destructive sway over the Gulf States.
The first case reported in Mississippi was an Italian refugee at
Lumberton. The man was screened from the possibility of infect
ing mosquitoes, and no other case occurred there. At Sumrall
there was the same experience. Several cases were reported at
various point from time to time, which were malarial, and the im
mediate investigation by experts, conveyed on special trains by
the railroads, prevented panics. The genuine disease was diag
nosed at Mississippi City, August 14, and Dr. Charles Le Baron
was put in charge as State health officer. Afterward the disease
developed at several places, at each of which a State health officer
was put in charge, assisted on the gulf coast by Dr. Wasdin, and
on the river, by Drs. Guiteras and Dr. Lavinder, of the Marine
hospital. The fever had prevailed at New Orleans in the Italian
quarter for several weeks before it was reported and several ex
cursion trains from Mississippi to the city had served to convey
infection. A negro excursion from Vicksburg July 20, is believed
to have been the source of the disease in that city, which came under
observation a month later. Following is the record, from Dr.
Hunter's report, giving the date of diagnosis, and name of State
health officer put in charge. Mississippi City, August 15 ; Dr.
Charles Le Baron, officer ; cases 96, deaths none. Pearlington,
August 26, Le Baron, officer; cases 4, deaths none. Handsboro,
September 16, Le Baron, officer, cases 15, deaths none. Mtass
Point, September 20, reported 29, Dr. B. F. Duke, officer, cases 3,
deaths none ; Scranton, September 20, Dr. Duke, officer, cases 4,
deaths none. Gulfport, August 25, Dr. Eugene Wasdin, officer ;
cases 118, deaths 3. Natchez, August 27, Dr. W. H. Aikman, of
ficer; cases 196, deaths 9. Vicksburg, reported August 29, Dr.
H. H. Haralson, officer, cases 210, deaths 21. Harrison, Septem
ber 22, Dr. J. C. McNair, officer, cases 2, deaths none. Roxie, Sep
tember 7, Dr. J. H. Wood, officer, cases 27, deaths 5. Hamburg,
September 12, Dr. T. K. Magee, officer, cases 63, deaths 15. Port
Gibson, September 23, Dr. G. W. Acker, officer, cases 62, deaths 4.
Rosetta, September 11, Dr. J. H. Anders, officer, cases 38, deaths
6. At Natchez there was the most prompt and active cooperation
with the board of health. Citizens aided the physicians in allow
ing no cases to be concealed. The physicians reported without de
lay or attempt to humor influential patrons. The fight was made
against the mosquito, and the patients at the hospitals, who were
carefully screened, were visited by their friends daily without alarm
and without infection. In all places where the disease appeared or
where it was feared, cisterns and pools were screened or oiled and
some attempts made at fumigation, though it was for a time difficult
to overcome the former notions that the disease was a "mysterious
dispensation" of providence. Dr. Hunter wrote, "When yellow
fever was announced in New Orleans on the 21st of July, I must
confess that I was almost staggered by the news, especially when

MISSISSIPPI 1021
I realized the fact that we had at least three months to fight the
disease, and $5,000 emergency fund to make the fight with. The
executive committee of the State Board of Health, realizing the
dreadful calamity that would befall the people of our State, deter
mined to make a bold fight to protect them." When it became
evident that the disease would rage in epidemic form in the State,
Governor Vardaman wrote a letter to each member of the legis
lature, stating the case, and in response received promises of sup
port that authorized him to borrow money for quarantine purposes.
The expense incurred was about $45,000. The unprecedentedly
mild winter of 1905-06 caused fear early in the latter year of a
renewal of danger, and the war on the mosquito was resumed early
in the spring, the whole situation being aided by the Congressional
quarantine law, adopted largely through the efforts of the Missis
sippi delegation. (See Board of Health.)
Yellow Rabbit, a hamlet of Benton county, 8 miles northeast of
Ashland, the county seat. The postoffice was recently discontin
ued at this place, and it now has rural free delivery from Ashland.
Yerger, E. M. On June 8, 1869, while editor of the Jackson
News, he became involved in a dispute with and killed Lieut.-Col.
J-. G. Crane, mayor of Jackson by military appointment. He was ar
rested by the military authority and taken before a military court
presided over by Brig.-Gen. R. S. Granger. His counsel protested
against the right of the military authority to try him, and, being
overruled, applied to the United States court for a writ of habeas
corpus, which was granted. The court decided that the imprispn-
ment was lawful and remanded the prisoner to the custody of the
military, whereupon Yerger appealed to the. United States supreme
court. Before that court had announced an opinion upon the legiti
macy of the exercise of military power, under the reconstruction
laws, the military government ceased, and Yerger was handed over
to the civil authorities for trial.
Yerger, George S, was born in Westmoreland county, Pa, about
1808, the eldest son of one of the German pioneers of that State ;
he was reared at Lebanon, Tenn, where he studied law, and pre
pared for the practice at Nashville, being for some years Supreme
Court reporter. About 1838 he moved to Vicksburg, and thence, in
1844, to Jackson, where he confined his practice mostly to the High
court. He was a very strong lawyer, not an ornate speaker, but
of great power in the presentation of argument. He was a Whig
in politics, and in 1840, and 1844, was active in the presidential
campaigns', but otherwise did not permit himself many excursions
into that domain. He died suddenly in April, 1860, from over ex
ertion while hunting in Bolivar county. Reuben Davis called him
"the most gifted of a family of gifted men."
Yerger, Jacob Shall, was born in Greensburg, Pa, January 11,
1810, and from six years of age was reared and educated at Lebanon,
Tenn. The family was large and resources slight, but he had the
privilege of reading law in -the office of his brother, George S. Yer
ger. He began the practice at Nashville, Tenn, and moved to

1022 MISSISSIPPI
Vicksburg, Miss, in 1837. He attained a high place at the eminent
bar of that city, and a position of leadership in the Whig party.
He was twice elected to represent the city of Vicksburg in the leg
islature, where he opposed repudiation, and in 1841' moved the re
jection of the repudiation message of Governor McNutt, a motion
which was lost by only four votes. He was the author of a bill to
fund the indebtedness of the State, in the same period, which was of
great benefit. Removing in 1845 to Washington county, he was elec
ted to the legislature from that constituency. In 1852 he was a dele
gate to the Whig national convention and one of the candidates for
presidential elector. In 1855 he was elected to the circuit bench,
upon which he served with distinction during the remainder of his
life. As a member of the convention of 1861 he opposed the step
that was taken, but he gave four sons to the army, one of whom was
killed in battle. In 1865 he was president of the first constitutional
convention after the war. Judge Yerger died July 14, 1867, at Vicks
burg. Yerger, William, was born at Lebanon, Tenn, of Pennsylvanian-
German parentage, November 22, 1816 ; was graduated at the Uni
versity of Nashville, and then read law in that city, where he was
admitted to the bar before he was twenty-one years of age. He
made his home at Jackson, Miss, in 1837, and rapidly attained
prominence as a lawyer. His politics, as a Whig, excluded him
from honors purely political, but in 1850 he was elected to the High
court of errors and appeals. "He at once made himself famous
there," said Wiley P. Harris. "I will only recall to your mind his
great judgment in the greatest of cases, in which the issue was the
liability of the State to pay the Union Bank bonds. In the face of
a popular feeling violent and proscriptive, which had carried men
into office and driven men from office, he firmly and fearlessly
declared that the State was legally as well as morally bound to
pay these bonds. He was a member of the legislature during the
war, and after the war a member of the convention of 1865, which
had to deal with many grave and difficult questions. His profes
sion drew him into the discussion of the greatest questions which
arise in the jurisprudence of a country, and without going into
particular instances, I may sum them up by saying that he was al
ways equal to the occasion and always rose to the full height on
every question, whatever it chanced to be, which was presented
to him, or upon which he was called to speak or act. His percep
tions were singularly quick and clear, and the vigorous activity
of his mind without any parallel in my observation of intellectual
men. The resources of his mind were rich and varied, and were
always under his instant and absolute control. ... It was
said of Lord Hardwicke that he had an intuitive perception of the
law; and this rare gift William Yerger possessed to a degree that
was almost startling. . . . He never hesitated, nor stumbled,
or blundered. . . . 'He had a flowing courtesy towards all
men.' Poverty was no check to this spirit in him, and it was in his
house that one learned that hospitality was not made of bread and

MISSISSIPPI 1023.
meat alone. He was the most useful person I ever knew. No man,
burdened as he was, ever did as much hard work gratuitously for
other people as he. How he contrived to do so much is to me a
real mystery; and besides, I am convinced that he went about this
work with a positive relish. ... He busied himself night and
day with the troubles of his neighbors, as though he had no cares
of his own. He seldom, if ever, spoke of these. His firmness and
unconquerable spirit, coupled with his high character and repu
tation, secured the respect of the military men in command here,
and gave him a certain influence which he employed for the noblest
purposes. In those days people flocked about him as though there
was healing in his touch." He and Judge Sharkey were the lead
ers in the movement in 1863 to return the State to the Union with
out further bloodshed, considering the fall of Vicksburg as suffi
ciently indicating the verdict of war. A different policy prevailed,
and there was a finish fight, after the conclusion of which, about
two years later, Sharkey and Yerger were sent to Washington by
Governor Clark to ascertain the demands that would be made upon
the State as a condition of restitution to the Union. Judge Yerger
presented the results of his visit to the constitutional convention
of 1865, making the ablest speech before that body, in opposition
to resolutions that proposed to continue the struggle in behalf of
the slavery that had been destroyed. "As men of sense, let us
endeavor," he said, "to remedy what we cannot alter, and gather
together whatever may tend to palliate our misfortunes. Of all the
industrial systems, that of slavery was probably the most expen
sive." The tolerance of his attitude, 1863-65, is one of the most
remarkable testimonials to the great esteem in which he was held.
Judge Yerger died at Jackson June 7, 1872.
Yocony, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Itawamba
county, on Chubby creek, 15 miles from Fulton, the county seat.
Yokena, a post-hamlet and station of Warren county, on the
Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R, 15 miles south of Vicksburg.
It has a money order postoffice, a store, a fine church, good school
and a cotton gin. Population in 1900, 52.
Yorka, a post-hamlet in the extreme northeastern part of Leake
courity, about 16 miles from Carthage, the county seat. Popula
tion in 1900, 28.
Youngs, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Grenada
county, 18 miles from Grenada, the county seat. Population in
1900, 21.
Youngton, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Warren
county, on the Big Black river, about 18 miles from Vicksburg.
Zada, a postoffice in the southern part of Kemper county, situ
ated on Blackwater creek, 10 miles south of Dekalb, the county
Zebulon, a post-hamlet of Attala county, 8 miles due north of
Kosciusko, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.
Population in 1900, 36.

1024 MISSISSIPPI
Zeiglerville, a village in the northeastern part of Yazoo county,
on Teshecah creek, about 16 miles distant from Yazoo City, the
county seat, and riearest banking town. It has a money order
postoffice. Population in 1900, 91 ; which has increased to about
150 in 1906.
Zemuly, a postoffice of Attala county.
Zero, a hamlet of Lauderdale county, 5 miles southeast of Meri
dian. The postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905, and
mail now goes to Eastville. Population in 1900, 50.
Zetus, a hamlet of Lincoln county, on the Bogue Chitto, 5 miles
southwest of Brookhaven, the county seat, and nearest railroad
and banking town. It has rural free delivery from Brookhaven.
Zilpha, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Attala county,
situated on the creek of the same name, 6 miles east of Beatty
station on the Illinois Central Railroad, and 14 miles north of
Kosciusko, the county seat. Population in 1900, 70.
Zion, a post-village in the southeastern part of Leake county,
12 miles distant from Carthage, the county seat. Forest is the
nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 100.
Zionhill, a village in the northern part of Amite county, 12 miles
north of Liberty, the county seat, and nearest railroad and bank
ing town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 77.
Zula, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Smith county, situ
ated on Hatchushe creek, about 13 miles from Raleigh, the county
seat.V

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