USA > Mississippi > Lowndes County > Columbus > A history of Columbus, Mississippi, during the 19th century > Part 2
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But the chapter is not yet closed. When the general government ordered the wilderness and prairies of Mississippi to be checked off into townships and sections, the surveyor's compass and chain made the lines of a sixteenth section fall directly around the little village of Columbus. These sixteenth sections were set apart by the general government for the
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establishment and maintenance of schools, and the survey of 1820 made it possible for the town of Columbus to accomplish the great historical fact of the Franklin Academy, the first free public school in the State of Mississippi, established in 1821, and continuing without break in its increasing usefulness and prosperity to the present time.
When in 1830, the County of Lowndes, named after William Lowndes, the distinguished Congressman and Gover- nor of South Carolina, and for whom the writer of these chap- ters, in 1828, had been previously named, was organized, the little village of Columbus still in the eye of Fortune was chosen as the county seat.
Surely more than three centuries of time and the nations of the earth have contributed much to give to this romantic site a history and a name, and our fathers chose wisely and well, when they called the town Columbus. It deserved one of the earliest and most distinguished names in American history.
In the early years of the century, the Tombigbee Bluff was certainly a marvel of virgin beauty and charming interest. Standing on its highest cliff, you look down one hundred feet to the river below. On the water's edge hung the willows, sweeping the passing current with their pendant branches. Next above them grew the sycamore with white trunk and thick, broad leaves soughing in the summer breeze or rattling as the autumn blasts dash them to the ground. Next above the sycamores, were the poplars and elms struggling hard to raise their tops to greet the morning sun; and above these the evergreen cedars and holly with their roots holding to and holding up the crumbling earth nearest to its summit, while on its crest, great widespreading oaks and gums mingled their verdure to shade the favorite walk of our earliest citizens. Here lovers strolled to indulge in sweetest sentiment at the "Lover's Leap." Here the sad heart could find sympathy in the white stones that marked the grave of some early in- habitant. Here, expectant friends gathered to see the coming steamboat as its white and black smoke mingled with the clouds and its noisy wheel drove its sharp prow through the resisting current and the forms of the captain and loved ones
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on the top and deck as they return from, what was to them, the center of the world, the city of Mobile.
No wonder our people felt their minds thrill with interest and their hearts beat with emotion when the very air was full of echoes of the past with such names as De Soto and Bien- ville, Columbus and Franklin, Jackson and Lowndes, mingled with the Indian names of Tombeckbee, Luxapalila, Butta- hatchee, Oktibbeha, Mashulatubbee and Noxubee. Alas! the bluff is crumbling away; the great trees are gone; great ravines and deep gullies have gashed and marred its beautiful slope and memory alone can recall the days of its halcyon glory.
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CHAPTER II. ITS LOCATION-EARLY SURROUNDINGS-SURVEY AND PLAN OF THE TOWN.
To give Columbus its proper topographic and historic setting, it will be necessary to notice further its location. In 1817, Mississippi Territory was divided into the State of Mis- sissippi and Alabama Territory with the present dividing boundary line. In 1816 the Chickasaws had ceded to the general government a triangular shaped territory, bounded on the south and west by the Tombigbee River, on the north by a line drawn through the southern portion of the present Itawamba County and running east of the Alabama line, and on the east by the Alabama line. Between the years 1816 and 1821 this territory was surveyed and offered for sale by the government.
The first settlers who occupied these lands came from the north by way of the military road from Tennessee, North Alabama, and from what are now Marion and Lamar Counties. From the east they came by Alabama roads leading from Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties. These counties had been previously settled, the annihilation of the Creek Indians in the war of 1812, having brought the Alabama lands directly under the control and disposal of the general government. These settlers, from the fact that their lands were entered and paid for in the land offices of Tuscaloosa or Huntsville, believed that they lived within the bounds of Alabama, and tradition tells us of the election or appointment of officers under Alabama authority. When they learned that this was not the case and that they lived in Mississippi, they sent a delegate to the legislature in Jackson. The delegate was received but not allowed to vote.
In 1817, in the southeastern portion of this unorganized territory, ten miles west of the Alabama line and 250 miles from the mouth of Tombigbee River, Columbus was located, and in four years had acquired the proportions of only a little village.
In 1821 Monroe County was organized and included all this Chickasaw cession except a small strip on the north. All
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these settlements and the village of Columbus fell within the limits of Monroe County.
This history is limited to a description of the southern part of the original Monroe County south of the Buttahatchie River and includes what was afterwards called Lowndes County, thus making it comply with the title of the chapter, "Early Surroundings of Columbus."
These lands, taken as a whole, were not considered as very desirable or first class agricultural lands. Quite a large portion would have ranked as second class. But there was a wide plateau of red lands with a good clay subsoil that ex- tended through the middle of the entire county, that was re- garded, and proved to be extremely fertile, well drained, well watered, and offered all the attractions of a delightful home to the immigrant farmer. These red lands beginning north of Columbus may be represented by "Goshen" as a center, and running east across the Luxapalila they included what was called "Mulberry flat," thence running south to the Nashville road. Old Zion will be in the very midst. In this beautiful section of country, tributary to Columbus, the very earliest settlers located themselves, some few of them before 1821, and others among them years after to 1830, when Lowndes County was organized and Columbus became the county seat. Among these earliest and very earliest settlers we note the names of Thomas Townsend, James Carter, Early Hendricks, represented in Columbus at this time by Mrs. Virginia Smith and John Laws; Thomas Cummings, William Butler, Peter Nail, William H. Craven, Benjamin Franklin Beckwith(1818), represented by Mrs. William Mustin and Mrs. John Snell, John McGowan, Wesley Ross, A. Cook, James Brownlee, John Portwood, Thomas Kingcaid, Ezekiel Nash, William Weaver (1818), grandfather to Blanche and Walter Weaver, John Halbert (1817), perhaps the very first man that opened a farm in Lowndes county, grandfather to Dr. A. C. Halbert and father to Mrs. William Barksdale, who is prob- ably the oldest native living citizen; James McClanahan, grandfather to our ex-mayor, Hon. W. D. Humphries; John Davis, grandfather to Mrs. Leilia Sykes and Dr. John Davis and great-grandfather to Mrs. Claude Ayres, Nimrod Davis and Macajah Brooks.
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On the east we find Silas McBee, Ephriam Leech, father to Rev. A. P. Leech and grandfather to Mrs. McWilliams and Mrs. Lizzie Leech; Reuben Sanders, uncle to George Sanders; Larkin Nash (1821) grandfather to S. M. Nash, Superintendent of Education; Thomas Cooper, (1818), Cincinnatus Cooper, (1818), grandfather to J. W. Cooper, circuit clerk; Conrad Hackleman (1818), Jesse Williams, Martin Franks and Wil- liam Ellis.
On the north, Benjamin Hewson (1817). B. G. Hen- dricks, Sr., father to Mrs. Keeler and grandfather to Mrs. Flood; Thomas Sampson, Roddy Smith, Vaughan, Morris, Duncan, Smith, Mayfield and Murphy. A large portion of the Caledonia country was not settled until after 1840.
This record would be incomplete without another list of names, coming in the thirties, sixty or seventy years ago, who with those already mentioned made old Lowndes famous for its hospitable homes, good politics, pure religion and un- impeachable integrity. The writer recalls the names of Cox, Littleton, Gordon, Shields, Randolph, Meade, Neilson, Botters, Minter, Feemster, Rowan, Kidd, Thomas, Wood, Belk, Buck, Flood, Tunnell, Eubanks, Shirley, Snell, Barksdale, Payne, Jordan, Seal, Lauderdale, Crigler, Golding, Ellis, Adams, Acker, and Laws.
Among the general facts of historical interest it may be proper to mention that although the county on the east side of the Tombigbee River belonged to the Chickasaw Indians, there was an almost entire absence of evidence of Indian settlements, such as Indian relics, remains of Indian villages or farms, there being only one notable exception to the state- ment. Fifteen miles below Columbus, opposite Union Bluff, near the Tombigbee River, there is a large mound situated in the midst of an Indian field, the field being covered with pine trees apparently one or two centuries old. This mound appears to have been erected as a place of defense against other tribes or a place of safety for their stock in high water.
This portion of the country extending northward to Beav- er and Bear Creeks was probably the hunting grounds of the Chickasaws as it abounded in deer, turkeys, bear, beaver, otter, wolves, and wild cats.
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Another noticeable feature of this section was its complete isolation, being separated from all other parts of the State, on the south, west, and north by the territories of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians, one hundred and twenty or more miles in width, on which white settlers were not permitted to locate and through which nothing but Indian trails, not wagon roads, were allowed to run. It had to depend for its population and comforts of civilized life upon the State of Alabama, itself a sparsely settled wilderness.
For a verification of this meagre and rapid history of Lowndes county we are indebted to pages of facts, incidents and dates, collected by Hon. L. D. Landrum, Esq., who pur- posed, at one time, to write a history of Lowndes county. Notably, in his chapters, are the statements of Benjamin Hewson, ninety years of age, taken down by his daughter in 1898, and Davie Craven (colored), taken down in his own language, both known to the writer and which we believe, very nearly authentic. We hope Mr. Landrum will not permit his material for a history of Lowndes county to be lost or go unpublished.
Notwithstanding its isolation this territory in five years was sufficiently populated to be organized into Monroe county. Of even date with the organization of Monroe county, in 1821, the town of Columbus, with a wide-awake and commendable energy and with an intuition and wisdom, that looked like foresight, promptly availed itself of the very best assistance its new govermental relations could afford. The same legis- lature that organized Monroe county passed a bill directing the survey and lease of the sixteenth section on which Colum- bus was situated and the establishment of the Franklin Acad- emy. This bill being the most important and oldest public document in the history of Columbus, we hereby append it in full.
For this copy of the bill we are indebted to Col. W. D. Humphries, ex-mayor of the City, who obtained it after per- sistent effort from the public records at Jackson, Miss. Col- umbus owes Col. Humphries a large and long debt of gratitude for securing this valuable document.
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AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE A LEASE OF CERTAIN TOWN LOTS THEREIN NAMED, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
Whereas, It has been made to appear that the town site of Columbus is included in the sixteenth section of fractional township number eighteen, range number eighteen, west of the basis meridian of Madison county, Alabama, therefore,
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi, in general assembly convened, That William Cocke, Gideon Lincecum, Robert D. Hadden, Richard Barry, Thomas Townsend, Silas M'Bee, John Deck, William Leech and David Kincaid, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to lay out the southwest quarter of said fractional section, or so much of it as they may think suitable for town lots, which shall not contain more than one acre, nor less than one fourth of an acre, as they may deem proper.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That when the commissioners shall have laid out said town lots, it shall be the duty of the county court of Monroe county, at the first term of court after the passage of this act, or at any subse- quent term of said court, to appoint three agents for the pur- pose of leasing said town lots; and the said agents or a ma- jority of them shall have power to lease the said lots for the term of ninety-nine years, reserving an annual rent therefor, payable on a certain day in each year, and to take security from the lessees as to insure a certainty and punctuality of payment; and in case of any vacancy in said agency, the said county court shall have power to fill the same as occasion may, from time to time, require. It shall be the duty of said agents or a majority of them, to give public notice at three public places in said county, of the day and place of leasing said lots at least twenty days previous thereto; and they shall on such day or days offer the said lots separately at public outcry, and the same shall be leased to the highest bidder.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the agents appointed, or a majority of them, under the direction of the said county court, to apply with impar- tiality the proceeds arising from the rents of said lots and lands to the purpose of education and no other, according to the direction of the act of congress, entitled "An act to provide
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for leasing certain lands reserved for support of schools," in the Mississippi Territory, approved the ninth day of Jan- uary, eighteen hundred and fifteen; and that said agents shall before entering on the duties of their agency give security to the said county court, in such sum and penalty as said court shall require, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duty in all respects.
SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the said agents shall have power and authority to lease for the purpose of improvement, or for an annual rent, the other lands in said county appropriated by the congress of the United States to the support of schools; they in all things conforming to the directions of the act of congress herein before referred to.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That there shall be established in the county of Monroe an academy by the name of Franklin Academy.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the afore- said commissioners hereinbefore expressly named shall be a body politic and corporate, by the name of the president and trustees of Franklin Academy, and by that name shall be capable in law, to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, in any of the courts of law or equity in this State, to receive all donations, and in general, may do all acts for the benefit of said Institution which are incident to, or of right apper- taining to bodies politic and corporate.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the first meeting of the trustees shall be on the first Monday in June next, in the town of Columbus, at which time and place they or a majority of them shall choose a president by ballot, out of their own body, and in case a majority shall not attend at the first appointed meeting, it shall be in the power of any three members to call a meeting of said trustees by advertise- ment in the town of Columbus, giving ten days notice of said intended meeting, at which time the members present shall be competent to choose a president; and thereafter the ordi- nary meetings of the board of trustees shall be on their own adjournment.
SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the president, or in his absence, a member shall be chosen, pro tempore, as president of the present meeting, and that the board of trus-
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tees appointed by this act, shall have full power to fix upon a site for erecting and building said academy; they shall also have power of controlling the regulations of such institutions, and of employing such teachers as they may deem necessary for the literary order of said academy and the good morals of the students.
SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the trustees may increase their numbers to the number of twelve and no more; they may fill by ballot all vacancies occasioned by death, removal or resignation; the board may, at their regular meetings, appoint a successor or successors; PROVIDED, That the person or persons so chosen or appointed shall, on his accepting said appointment, bind himself in a bond pre- cisely in the same manner as is prescribed for the commission- ers or trustees hereinbefore mentioned.
SEC 10. And be it further enacted, That the trustees be and they are hereby authorized to raise by way of lottery for the benefit of said academy, the sum of five thousand dollars, on such scheme and plan as they may deem advisable.
SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That all acts and parts of acts, coming within the purview and meaning of this act, be and they are hereby repealed.
BEVERLY R. GRAYSON,
Speaker of the House of Representatives. JAMES PATTON,
Lieutenant-Governor and President of the Senate. Approved, February 10, 1821,
GEORGE POINDEXTER.
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CHAPTER III. SURVEY AND PLAN OF TOWN CONTINUED-LEASES AND LEASE-HOLD TITLES.
The sixteenth section, township 18, range 18 west, ordered by the above act to be surveyed and laid off into town lots of not more than one acre or less than one-fourth of an acre each, is situated within the present limits of the City of Columbus and may be bounded as follows: Begin at a point near the west end of Fourth Avenue South, formerly La- Fayette Street, running thence one mile due east, (passing immediately in front of the old Barry residence facing what was then the south end of Market Street) to a point near the southeast corner of the grounds of the Industrial Institute and College, thence north, on a line passing along the east boundary of the old grave-yard at east end of Main Street to a point on the corporation line one mile from the southeast corner, thence west on the corporation line, running through Dr. Hardy's residence, to a point one mile west of said northeast corner, thence one mile south to the point of beginning on the Tombigbee River. These are the boundaries as they appear on the present maps of the City.
It is plain that the surveyors did not lay off the streets and squares parallel with the section lines. The most ap- parent reason for this. divergence is that they desired to con- form to the longest lines east and west, and north and south on the Tombigbee bluff, or wished to make the principal streets, Main and Market, a continuance of the important country roads entering the town.
The streets fail to conform with the point of the compass, the section lines being our guide, by about two hundred yards in a mile. This accounts for the fractional squares on all sides of the section. The survey made about fifteen streets running east and west and the same number running north and south, thus dividing the section into about 225 squares and fractions. To corroborate the idea that the surveyors had regard to the long distances on the crest of the bluff, we find that most of the sites of the early residences were located on this ridge running northeast to southwest. This preference
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for residence sites on this ridge continued until all the ridge was occupied to the base of the hills two miles north of the town, at which point in 1836 there was a survey made by Walthall, Hodges & Co., for a town to be called "Prospect Hill." The town of Prospect Hill included the big spring on Military road, two and a half miles from Columbus. These gen- tlemen bought this property from a Chickasaw Indian named Immahoboh, who received it as his reservation from the United States government.
In the original survey Main Street occupied its present location, running east and west across the section, being 120 feet wide, and terminated on the west at the ferry across the Tombigbee, as it does now by the iron bridge over that stream, and on the east by connection with the county road crossing at a ferry on the Luxapalila, now spanned by an iron bridge. This road connects Columbus with Pickens and Fayette coun- ties, Ala. Market Street, eighty feet wide, crossed Main Street at right angles, and at its southern extremity was a continuation of the lower Tuscaloosa road, which running diagonally across the squares left the town at the Palmer Orphanage, thence south to a ferry across the Luxapalila at a place where Blewett's bridge, built in 1837, formerly stood. This road was the first over which the stages passed bringing the mail and passengers to Columbus.
Market Street, at its northern extremity, connected with the Hamilton road, which leads to old Hamilton, the county seat of Monroe county. The only point on these two streets that can be relied on as correct, from the original survey, and showing the proper direction of the survey, is the brick building on the southwest corner of the Main and Market Street crossing built by Henry W. Hunt, in 1831 or 1832, the walls of which still occupy their original site. The building is now occupied as Hirshman's dry goods store.
About 1830 an additional survey was added to the survey of the 16th section, at its southwest corner, and called Moore's survey. Moore's survey was bounded on the north by the 16th section line, on the east by St. Johns, now Fourth Street, on the west by the Tombigbee River. This survey was laid off into streets and squares to correspond with the plan of the town, with one exception, the subdivision of the square
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made the lots run east and west instead of north and south. The date of the survey is located at or before 1830, when Lowndes county was established and Columbus became the county seat, because the residences of some of our oldest citizens, notably T. M. Tucker, H. S. Bennett, Roddy Smith, L. G. Hatch, and others were located on that survey at that time.
Next, at a later date, prior to 1836, came Barry's survey, joining the town on the southeast. This survey was bounded on the north by the sixteenth section line, on the east by an extension of the section line south, seven squares, thence west to St. John's street. The squares and streets in Barry's survey do not correspond exactly with those in the plan of the town. The east and west streets appear to have been named for some of the female members of the Barry family.
The next survey, which was made in February, 1836, was that of Hopkins and Grigsby, and comprised that part of the present plan and not included in the other surveys. The public sale of the squares and lots in Grigsby's survey was accompanied with all the attendants of a modern city boom, such as a brass band, free whiskey, champagne, etc.
The present City of Columbus (1901), includes within its limits, all of these four surveys, together with a strip of land on the east, one fourth of a mile wide and one and three-fourths miles long-making a city block one and one- fourth miles wide by one and three-fourths miles long. The strip of land on the east has not been regularly laid off, and the streets and squares do not correspond with the streets and squares of Columbus, except in Robertson's Addition, a recent survey, well laid off and rapidly filling up with comfort- able cottages and thrifty people.
LEASE-HOLD TITLES AND PROPERTY.
The commissioners having complied with the provisions of the Act relating to the survey of the section and its division into lots, the next most important duty in the Act is the leasing of these lots, which duty was performed by three agents, appointed by the county court of Monroe county, Hon. Steph- en Cocke being the only one of these agents whose name is at this time procurable. These agents are supposed to have
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complied strictly with the provisions of the Act and leased at public outcry to the highest bidder these lots for a term of ninety-nine years, for specified sums to be annually collected and properly secured, and to have appropriately applied the money thus raised for school purposes.
It also appears probable from subsequent facts, that these agents turned over the money first received from these leases to the trustees of the Franklin Academy, an Institution incorporated by the same act, and for which the trustees had been appointed. This board of trustees was composed of the same persons who were commissioned to survey and lay off the lots.
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