USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 38
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In addition to what has already been said of institutions of learning supported by the State, and the long estab- lished male and female schools and colleges, there are high schools and academies in almost every county in the State that are well equipped for the education of both sexes.
CHICKASAW SCHOOL FUND.
For a correct, accurate and condensed history of this fund, we give the following extract from the biennial mes- sage of Governor Lowry to the Legislature of 1886. This brief history was prepared with unusual care, and puts
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the reader in possession of every act passed by the Federal or State Legislatures pertaining to the fund :
"Congress by an act approved March 3d, 1803 (2 Statutes at Large, page 234,) reserved from sale section number 16. in each township for the support of schools within the same. By the treaty of Pontotoc Creek, on 20th of Octo- ber. 1832, (7 Statutes at Large, page 380) the Chickasaw In- dians ceded to the United States all their lands in Missis- sippi, embracing 6,283.804 acres, and the United States agreed on its part to sell the same and pay over the pro- ceeds to the Chickasaw Nation.
"Since title to the sixteenth sections in this cession had already vested in the State, this treaty could not divest it. But to settle all controversy that might arise out of these conflicting grants, by an act approved July 4th, 1836, (5 Statutes at Large, page 116,) Congress granted to the State in lieu of the said sixteenth sections, one thirty-sixth part of the lands ceded by the Chickasaws, within the State, which lands when selected were to be holden by the same tenure and upon the same terms and conditions, in all respects, as the State now holds the lands heretofore re- served for the use of schools within the said State."
"Thus the amount donated for school purposes, and known as the Chickasaw school lands, was 174,550 acres. By an act approved February 23d, 1848, (acts 1848, page 62,) the State authorized the Secretary of State to lease these lands for a period of ninety-nine years, and renew- able to the lessee, his heirs or assigns forever, for a sum not exceeding six dollars per acre, but certain persons · were authorized to enter at two dollars and a half the several pre-emptions theretofore entered by them under the laws of the general government. The fifth section of this act provided that the proceeds of these lands, after deduct- ing the expenses of the sale, were to be a charge upon the State, to be held in trust by said State for the use of the schools in the Chickasaw cession, and to be applied to that purpose as hereafter to be provided by law.
"It will be noted that these sales were made without the authority of Congress. But by an act approved May 19th, 1853, (100 Statutes at Large). Congress approved and ratified
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
the sales under the act of 1848, aforesaid, and authorized the State thereafter 'to sell and convey in fee simple, or lease for a term of years, as the said Legislature may deem best, all, or any part of the lands heretofore appro- priated by Congress for the use of schools within said State, and to invest the money arising from said sales as the Legislature may direct for the use and support of schools within the several townships and districts of the country for which they were originally reserved and set apart, and for no other use and purpose whatever.' By an act approved March 7th, 1857, (acts 1856, page 141), it was provided that the Chickasaw School Fund, which arose from sales under the act of 1848, "shall become a charge on the State of Mississippi, and shall remain and be sub- ject to general appropriation, by law, from the treasury or otherwise to be used by the State in the same manner as the money received into the State from the ordinary sources of revenue."
"It was further provided that eight per cent. interest should be paid on this fund, to be distributed semi-annually among the counties entitled thereto, for the support of schools therein.
"This act was continued in force by an act approved February 20th, 1867, (acts 1867, page 394), and a strict ob- servance of all its provisions directed.
"The principal of this fund now aggregates $816,615.71, on which, the State has annually paid eight per cent. in- terest, amounting to $65,329.25."
The interest has been reduced by the present State Con- stitution to six per cent. per annum, after the close of the fiscal year 1891.
INTRODUCTION OF PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY.
In 1773 Richard and Samuel Swayze, natives of Morris county, New Jersey, with family connections and friends, settled on their lands purchased from Amos Ogden, on the Homochitto river, in what is now Adams county, and afterwards and yet known as the "Jersey Settlement."
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
Rev. John G. Jones, a pioneer Methodist minister, who died at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, honored and beloved by christians throughout the southwest, who descended from a family of christians and ministers of the Great Master, says in his "History of the Introduction of Protestantism in Mississippi and the Southwest," that " Rev. Samuel Swayze was a Congregational minister, and had sustained the pastoral relation in that church from early manhood. He was beyond doubt the first Protestant minister that ever settled in what is now known as Mississippi, and his church was the first Protest- ant church ever organized in this country."
Col. Claiborne, who wrote on the same subject sixteen years after the history of the venerable minister was pub- lished, in reference to Rev. Samuel Swayze, says: "The faithful shepherd, as soon as he had provided a shelter for his wife and children, and planted corn for their bread, gathered up his fold and organized a society, undoubtedly the first Protestant pastor and congregation in the Natchez district."
This faithful minister died in 1784, and was buried near Fort Rosalie. The Congregationalists were followed by the Baptist denomination, their earliest worship being probably in 1781. This denomination, with their many thousand communicants now in the State, with their schools and colleges accessible and within easy reach of those who seek education and moral training, never fail to pay tribute and honor to their first preacher in what is now Mississippi, Rev. Richard Curtis. Dr. David Cooper, says Rev. Mr. Jones, "came early in the century as a mis- sionary of the Baptist church. His name first appears in the printed minutes of 1808. He was liberally educated and polished in manners. He was a warm advocate of a higher grade of ministerial education than generally ex- isted among his co-laborers. * * Dr. Cooper, Thomas Mercer, Moses Hadley and David Snodgrass generally wrote the annual pastoral letters to the churches."
Rev. Adam Cloud, a Virginian by birth, was the first representative of the Protestant Episcopal church in the "Natchez country." He settled on St. Catherine's Creek,
28
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
in 1792. Some three years after the adoption of the first Constitution, an Episcopal church was established at what is now Church Hill, of which Rev. Mr. Cloud was rector for years.
This denomination adheres to an educated ministry, and has many communicants in every part of the State. All Mississippians remember with affection the late Rt. Rev. Bishop William Mercer Green, who was succeeded by the accomplished and distinguished divine, Rt. Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson.
The Methodist denomination came next. The Rev. To- bias Gibson came from South Carolina, and reached Adams county in 1799. He organized his first church at Washington, the capital of the Territorial government.
Rev. William Winans was Secretary of the first Metho- dist quasi Conference which was held at the residence of Rev. Newit Vick, a local preacher residing in Jefferson county. ' The advent of Rev. Mr. Gibson was followed by. quite a number of Methodist ministers, who worked assid- uously in the service of the Master-some of whom be- came distinguished in the early history of the country; among them the Rev. Wm. Winans, who was a Pennsyl- vanian by birth, a close student, and altogether an able man. He was in the ministry for forty-six years, and filled all the important offices in the itinerancy, except that, of bishop. Bishop Robert R. Roberts presided over the first legal Conference at the house of Wm. Foster, in Adams county, in 1816, one year previous to the adoption of the first Constitution. Thomas Griffin, Wm. McKendree, John Page, William Houston, Isaac Quinn, Thos. Owens, Ran- dal Gibson, and Benj. M. Drake labored under great diffi- culties in the discharge of their ministerial duties, in those early days. Like their Baptist brethren, the Methodists have schools and colleges in every section of the country for educational and moral training.
The first representative of the Presbyterian denomina- tion came to the Chickasaw Nation, now north-east Mis- sissippi, in 1799, Rev. Joseph Bullen, a native of Massa- chusetts, educated at Yale College. Other Presbyterian missionaries followed Rev. Mr. Bullen. The first Missis-
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sippi Presbytery wasorganized in 1816; the first Presby- terian church, however, was established in 1804, which was soon after followed by a number of others. This church has always maintained a high standard of education for its ministry, and like other Protestant denominations has schools and colleges located in convenient and accessible parts of the country.
The Jews have established synagogues in the several cities of the State, while the smaller towns are unable to erect synagogues or to secure the services of Rabbis, yet most of them are connected in some way with benevo- lent institutions having for their object the promotion of religious instruction and the elevation of their people. The Israelites in Jackson, Meridian, Columbus, Aberdeen, Vicksburg, Natchez and Greenville and other cities and towns are largely interested in the welfare and prosperity of their communities, and among their ministers are a num- ber of highly educated and cultured Rabbis.
It is scarcely necessary to say that Catholicism obtained long prior to the organization of any other church in the territory of Mississippi. De Soto had his priests. The Catholic was the only recognized religion when the coun- try was a French province, and when under the dominion of Spain, and remained when the English succeeded to con- trol. The country, not only Mississippi, but the whole country, is indebted to the influence of churches for good government and a high standard of civilization.
CHAPTER XXIII.
ADAMS COUNTY
W AS established April 2d, 1799, by proclamation of Governor Sargent, and named in honor of John Adams, the then President of the United States It was the first county organized in the Territory. Its early settlement was by the French. Dur- ing the dominion of Spanish authority, Natchez wasthe seat of government. It was also the seat of the Territorial government in its formative period.
Natchez and Adams county played a most conspicuous part in the history of the Territory and of the State. The names of the sturdy pioneers of the county will be found scattered profusely through the preceding pages, and hence it is unnecessary to re- peat those names in the record of the county. There may be mentioned, however, in addition, the following names : the Gil- 'lards, William and George Winchester, Abram and Thos. Ellis, Dr. R. A. Cartwright, Peter Surget, father of Capt. Frank, Jacob and James Surget, John Linton, Alvare Fisk, Wm. B. Griffith, Capt. Jas. Kemp, who commanded the Adams Troop in General Hinds' command at the battle of New Orleans, and the grand- father of Mrs. Jefferson Davis, and the great-grandfather of the present family of Winchesters, the Bislands, Grafton, McCaleb and Foster families, Rev. Benj. Chase, Dr. Wm. N. Mercer, John Henderson, Samuel S. Boyd, John T. McMurrin, the Hoggetts, Joseph Quegles, the Stantons, Frederick, William, Abijah and David Hunt. John Nugent, a native of Ireland, came when a. boy to Philadelphia in the company of a Quaker merchant, with whom he took service as a clerk. As the agent of this merchant he brought a stock of goods to Washington, Adams county, and established a branch store. On reaching his majority he bought his Quaker friend out, and continued the business in his own name until he accumulated a fortune. Mr. Nugent was twice married. By his first wife he had two children born in Adams county, one of whom, Perry Nugent, was widely known as a.
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commission merchant in New Orleans. Mr. Nugent's second wife was the daughter of Hon. Seth Lewis, at one time a Federal Judge of Mississippi Territory. This lady was the mother of Hon. W. L. Nugent, of the city of Jackson. He, however, was born in Louisiana, to which State his father moved and became an extensive planter. Mr. Nugent is the senior partner of the well known firm of Nugent & McWillie. He is a lawyer of dis- tinguished ability, full of resources, and his firm does a large and lucrative practice. Mr. Nugent is a devoted member of the Methodist church, and finds time to contribute to every sugges- tion and enterprise having for its object the promotion of chris- tianity. Among the above will be found the names of a number of leading, able and brilliant men. To this list may be added the names of Sergeant S. Prentiss and John A. Quitman, both of whom are mentioned elsewhere in this volume. In a historical sketch of the county by the late Judge Joseph D. Shields, it is stated that the late Col. John Hutchins was the first native born son of American parentage in Adams county.
The first charter of the city of Natchez was granted fourteen years prior to the admission of the State into the Union, Samuel Brooks being the first mayor. The Natchez hospital was incor- porated in 1805, and is now in part, and very properly, main- tained by the State government.
After the battle and victory at New Orleans, Mrs. Jackson joined the General, and on their return home, Natchez gave them an ovation and grand ball. Twenty years before that time he had come to the Natchez country, an unknown young man to woo ? his beloved Rachel. At the ovation he stood the hero of the South, the cynosure of all eyes.
The great tornado in May, 1840, destroyed all that part of Natchez under the hill, and did great damage on the hill. There were three hundred and forty-six persons known to be killed, and there was supposed to be five or six hundred lives lost on steam and flat-boats. The city of Natchez, noted for its beauty and the culture of its citizens, has cotton factories, cotton com- press, ice factory, electric lights, water-works, etc., and it is a place of very considerable commercial importance, with banks of sufficient capital to meet all needed demands. As in "the olden times," the city boasts of a most intelligent and capable bar. The principal streams of the county are the Mississippi river, that forms its western boundary, the Homochitto river, Second and St. Catherine's Creek. The Natchez, Jackson and Columbus
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
Railroad was completed in 1880. General Will T. Martin, a dis- tinguished soldier and able lawyer, who has represented Adams county twice in the State Senate and was a delegate to the Con- stitutional Convention of 1890, devoted a number of years to the building of the N., J. and C. Railroad. The New Orleans and Northwestern Railroad has a depot at Natchez and is finished for some distance in the direction of its objective point, Kansas City.
Adams county has 105,164 acres of cleared land, average value per acre, $7.66. Total value of cleared land, including incorpo- rated cities, $2,832,607.
Population as shown by the census of 1890: Whites, 6,054; colored, 19,973 ; total, 26,027.
SENATORS.
1820 Chas. B. Green, White Tur- pin. 1821 Chas. B. Green, Jos. Sessions
1822 Joseph Sessions.
REPRESENTATIVES.
B. R. Grayson, L. Winston, S. Montgomery, E. Turner.
S. L. Winston, B. R. Grayson, S. Montgom- ery, Jas. Foster.
Abram Defrance, Bela Metcalf, John Snod- grass.
1823 Adam L. Bingaman.
1825 Adam L. Bingaman, James Foster.
Geo. Dougherty, B. L. C. WVailes, F. Win- ston.
1826 Adam L Bingaman, Foun- Chas. B. Green, Benjamin Wailes. tain Winston.
1827 Fountain Winston.
1828 Fountain Winston.
1829 Fountain Winston.
1830 Fountain Winston.
John F. H. Claiborne, R. Dunbar.
1831 Robert T. Dunbar.
John F. H. Claiborne, Adam L. Bingaman.
Adam L. Bingaman, Wm. Vannerson.
Adam L. Bingaman, Wm. Vannerson.
1836 John A. Quitman.
Adam L. Bingaman, J. T. McMurran.
1837 Geo. Winchester.
1838 Adam L. Bingaman.
1839 Adam L. Bingaman.
1840 John C. Kerr.
1841 John C. Kerr.
1842-'43 James Metcalf.
D. P. Jackson, S. Murchison.
John Maxwell, Samuel Cotton George Win- chester.
1846 James Metcalf.
1848 T. J. Stewart.
1850 T. J. Stewart.
1852-'54 A. K. Farrar.
1856-'57 A. K. Farrar.
1858 A. K. Farrar.
1859-'60-'61 George H. Gordon. 1861-'62 Geo. H. Gordon.
- 1865-'66-'67 Moses Jackson. 1870 H R. Revels. 1871 J. M. P. Williams.
1872-'73 J. M. P. Williams. 1874-'75 J. M. P. Williams. 1876-'77 Henry C. Griffin.
1878 K. Palmer Lanneau.
W. B. Fowles, B. Pendleton, R. North.
Robert Stanton, S. C. Cox.
L. M. Day, P. W. Farrar.
Thomas Grafton, C. L. Dubuisson.
G. L. C. Davis, W. S Gibson.
John S. Holt, R. W. Phillips.
Douglas Walworth, C. A. Pipes.
H. Fowles, Jos. D. Shields.
Giles M. Hillyer, J. H. Blanchard.
John R. Lynch, O. C. French, H. P. Jacobs.
John R. Lynch, O. C. French, H. P. Jacobs. John R. Lynch, O. C. French, H. P. Jacobs. W. H. Lynch, O. C. French, Willis Davis.
M. A. C. Hussey, H. P. Jacobs, F. Parsons. T. Otis Baker, J. W. Chamberlain, Geo. R. Washington.
1835 John A. Quitman.
Adam L. Bingaman, Wm. Vannerson.
Wm. P Mellen, T. Armat, S. Murchison.
Wm. P. Mellen, T. Armat, S. Murchison. John C. Inge, F. Wood, S. Murchison.
F. Wood, S. Murchison.
1844 James Metcalf.
C. B. Green, A. Dunbar.
John A. Quitman, C. B. Green.
C. B. Green, D. S. Walker.
1833 Fountain Winston.
Geo. Dougherty, F. Winston.
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
1880 A. H. Brenham. T. L. Mellen, J. W. Chamberlain, W. W. Hence.
1882 A. H. Brenham.
1884 A. H. Brenham.
1886 A. H. Brenham.
1888-'90 Will T. Martin.
T. L. Mellen, C. D. Foules, W, H. Lynch. Charles D. Foules, T. L. Cory.
Charles D. Foules, W. H. Lynch.
George M. Marshall, G. F. Bowles.
ALCORN COUNTY
Was established April 15th, 1870, and named in compliment to Governor James L. Alcorn, and carved mainly out of Tisho- mingo. The early settlers of the latter county contain the names of many persons now comprising the county of Alcorn. Corinth, the county site, made historic by the battles there and in the vicinity, is situated at the crossing of two railroads, the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio. The town is eligibly located, with good advantages for transportation. The other towns in the county are Jacinto, the former seat of justice, Danville, Rienzi, Kossuth, Winnesoga and Glendale. The Hatchie and Tuscumbia rivers and a number of creeks afford ample water facilities. The county having been formed since the war, its early history is that of the area of country out of which it was formed.
Alcorn has 80,340 acres of cleared land, the average value of which, as rendered to the Assessor, is $4.19 per acre-total value of cleared land, $665,792.
The population of Alcorn, as shown by the census of 1890, is whites, 9,543 ; colored, 3,571 ; total, 13,114.
SENATORS.
REPRESENTATIVES.
1872-'73 John M. Stone.
1874-'75 John M. Stone.
1876 John M. Stone.
1877 John D. Bills.
L. P. Reynolds, W. I. Gibson.
1878 John D. Bills.
J. Key, W. I. Gibson.
1880 John D. Bills.
K. M. Harrison, W. H. Reese.
1882 F. M. Boone ..
Wm. M. Inge, W. H. Reese.
1884 F. M. Boone. .
1886 F. M. Boone.v
1888 F. M. Boone. ~
1890 C. Kendrick.
C. F. Sawyer, C. B. Curlee.
J. M. Walker, J. L. Ruse.
L. P. Reynolds, W. I. Gibson.
Wm. M. Inge, T. H. Underwood.
M. W. Bynum, J. P. Carraway.
T. H. Underwood, H. H. Ray.
T. J. Graves, W. Y. Baker.
.
AMITE COUNTY
Was established February 24th, 1809, eight years prior to the ad- mission of the State into the Union. During the Territorial
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
government, courts known as Justices of the Quorum, com- prised of four justices of the peace, exercised jurisdiction over the property of orphans, and also acted as Boards of Police. The first term held by the Justices of the Quorum in Amite was at the house of William R. Richards, on the 13th of April, 1809. It was composed of Micajah Davis, James Lee, Thomas Wag- goner and Robert Montgomery. Thomas Batchelor was Regis- ter of the Court, was also Register of Deeds as early as 1810, and Clerk of the Superior Court in 1813, and Clerk of the County Court in 1818, serving until 1828. In addition to the above early settlers were David Neilson, Matthew Toole, John Nelvin, Robert Trontham, Thomas Torrence, George Davis, Abram H. Buckhalts, Sylvester Dunn, Henry Cassels, David W. Hurst, (one of Mississippi's most distinguished lawyers, who was elected Supreme Judge in 1863, and was colonel of the Thirty- third Mississippi Regiment; and Col. C. P. Neilson, a leading law- yer and a colonel in the Confederate service, now located at Greenville, were both natives of Amite county; John Brown, Matthew Kinchen, Moses Myles, William Brillen, Jas. Cade, John R. Williams, Robert Lowry, Ben Hill, Jas. Gordon, Jonathan Hicks, John Smylie, Jesse Talbert, Thomas Causey, Matthew Smylie, Catesby Gordon, Isaac Jackson, West Taner, Jesse Win- borne, Joshua Collins, Wm. R. Richards, Thomas Toler, James MeKnight, Benjamin Cassels, Stephen Ellis, Thomas Talbert, Richard Bates, Nathaniel Wells, James Robinson and James Chandler. The first Territorial Courts were held by Thomas Rodney and Francois X. Martin. Judge George Winchester held the April and October terms of the circuit court in 1827. Judge Harry Cage held October terms, 1829'-30, April term 1831, and May term 1840. Rev. Ezra Courtney, a Baptist minister, per- formed the first marriage ceremony of which there is any record in the county. Rev. James Smylie, the pioneer Presbyterian min- ister, founded Bethany Church, on Beaver Creek, in 1831. Among other divines of an early day were Zachariah Reeves, Chas. Fel- der, Shadrack Young, Thomas Clinton, J. W. Kennon, Thos. Nixon, George King, John Campbell, Jas. Cain and David Cook.
Ludwick Hall published a newspaper at Liberty, called the Republican, in 1812. The Liberty Advocate was published over forty years by J. W. Forsyth. The Southern Herald is now the only paper published in Liberty.
The first Confederate monument in the State was erected at
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI.
Liberty by the patriotic citizens of Amite county. It was de- signed by Capt. A. J. Lewis, of Port Gibson, and cost $3,332, and was received by Col. C. P. Neilson on behalf of the Monu- mental Association, April 31st, 1871. It is a beautiful structure of Italian marble, in Corinthian style, twenty-seven feet high, on the tablets and columns of which are engraved two hundred and eighty-two names of soldiers who enlisted from this county, and lost their lives in the great struggle for independence.
Liberty, the county site, is a handsome village, and has always supported and encouraged schools. The large college hall, with its contents, including a number of pianos, was burned by the Federal soldiers during their occupancy of the town in 1863. · The remaining buildings were finally handsomely fitted up, and after passing through several hands, were purchased by Prof. C. F. Massales, a native of the county and an educator of experi- ence. He is assisted by an able corps of teachers and is liber- ally patronized.
Gloster, on the line of the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas Railroad, has a population of one thousand or more. This place and also Gillsburg are manifesting a laudable interest in the cause of education.
East Fork and Ebenezer Institutes are liberally patronized by their respective localities.
The Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad traverses the western part of the county for about twelve miles. Gloster and Dayton are the only commercial points on the road in the limits of the county. The principal streams are the two Amite rivers, which form a junction and flow into Lake Maurapas. Beaver, Tickfaw, Hominy, Brushy and Dawson creeks are bold running and impetuous streams. Tangipahoa flows into Lake Pontchar- train. The lands on these streams are fertile and productive and the uplands by fertilization give generous yields. The county is covered with a variety of valuable timber. There are 73,999 acres of cleared land, the average value of which $6.46. Total value of cleared lands, including, incorporated towns, is $510.292.
The population as shown by the census of 1890: Whites, 7,509; colored, 10,689 ; total, 18,198.
SENATORS.
1820 Thos. Torrence.
1821 Thos. Torrence.
1822 Thos. Torrence.
1823 John R. Brown.
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