Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 11

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 11

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"It may not be understood what this berme is, and what its office in the levee may be. In all well-regulated levee building there is an unbroken strip of earth between the base of the levee and the barrow pits. This berme varies from ten to thirty feet in width, and adds greatly to the strength and length of life of the embankment. There is, of course, a very strong pressure of water against the under side of tliese structures, and the force is greatest at the bottom of the barrow pits on the end next to the levee, and this berme adds greatly to the power of the levee to resist the percolation of sipe water through it. Many breaks have occurred, no doubt, attributable to lack of berme in light, spongy soil. The muck ditch was at one time a very insignificant affair, which had no particular object, except the search for trees or holes in the center of the proposed embankment. Recent levee construction demands a muck ditch which will serve as a protection from sipe and crayfish.

"The Skipwith levee has under it a muck ditch six feet deep, six feet wide at bottom, and twelve feet wide on top. The board has not stopped at the size of the ditch, but on every piece of new work there is an inspector appointed to see that this muck ditch is free abso- lutely from all vegetable matter of any kind, and that nothing but the purest buckshot dirt finds its way into it, no matter what the character of soil through which it passes, and this is often a work of great difficulty, as on one or two sections of the new levee at Mound Land- ing the contractors, Messrs. Carey & Bradburn, were compelled to haul dirt nearly a quarter of a mile to get the right material.

"At this point the inspector is Judge J. L. Root, who is a levee man of great ability and experience, and whose practical knowledge of the subject makes him the terror of the con-

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MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

tractor. The inspector sees that every shovelful of dirt that goes into the great muck ditch is thoroughly packed by boys on mules continually riding over it every few seconds. The result is a core as hard as concrete, which will add a hundredfold to the strength of the embankment.

"Levees are built now with six feet of base to every one foot of hight, and if there is variation from this rule it is on the side of wider base. The slope is gentle and will stand the greatest amount of wave-wash with the least amount of wear.

"These embankments are let to contractors by the cubic yard at prices ranging from ten cents to forty cents per yard. The cubic yard appears to be a very small lump of dirt until one begins to pull it with mules or push it with man -power up into the body of the work. There it looks and is of great bulk and weight.

" Irishmen monopolize most of the barrow work, while the negro has the call for driving the gentle and innocent mule. The negro is as good a day man as the Irishman, but the lat- ter outdoes him in doing what is known as ' station work.' The colored man will not do any more by the job than by the day, and does not often tackle any sized stations.

"In levee building, as elsewhere, one sees a great deal of human nature among the work- ers. The Irishman, for example, will quit a good place if his grub varies in the smallest degree from his standard, and there is no rhyme nor reason in his manner of quitting. 'I am going to quit; give me my toime,' is often all that is heard. The writer knew a con- tractor to lose one hundred Irishmen at the very rush of completing his contract in time, because the baker did not have light bread ready for breakfast. A worthy Irishman explained to me the other day that his countrymen went south 'wid de geese in winter and came back wid'em in spring.' As a rule they seem to enjoy camp life until they get a notion to move on; then all power can't stop them-go they will.

"There is a great deal of talk by outsiders about the amount of timber put in levees and railroad beds by dishonest contractors-a great deal more than the facts warrant-simply because it would not pay to do it. That it is done occasionally is shown by the following story, which is told as gospel truth: A certain contractor was not content with beating the levee board, but would not pay his laborers unless forced to do it. One of his men waited until the engineer was in easy hearing, then called out to the conductor: 'Say, now, if you don't pay me my wages, I'll set fire to your d-n dump.'

"The 'dump' is the technical term for the body of au embankment in course of con- struction, deriving its name from the necessary dump of scrapers or wheelbarrows of their loads of dirt. Another story has it that an engineer, in taking up some levee completed, missed his dog, and after looking around everywhere, heard him barking in the 'dump,' and before he could have a hole dug in to rescue him, the dog bounded out one hundred feet or more away. Of course there can be no such thing under the present system, and no fears need be indulged ou this score in future.

"The taking charge of these great works by the national government will give a new impetus to the already rapid development of the country protected by them. They can and will be made to confine the great river in one safe, deep pathway to.the sea."

But Mississippi has an ocean transportation, and a straight coast of over one hundred miles, with one of the most magnificent natural harbors in the world. So thought Bienville, in 1699, and now, after nearly two hundred years, it has four flourishing harbors-Pascagoula, Biloxi, Mississippi city and Shieldsburg. Unlike the levees, however, the states and nation have not seen fit to do much for it. Even in the year 1876 there were over seventy vessels entered and cleared for the coast-wise, and over a hundred for the foreign trade at Pascagoula E

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

alone, this being the largest shipping point at that time. Its great drawback has been its absence of direct railway connection with the center of the state, a struggle for which has been made since early in ante-bellum days, and is identical with the career of the Gulf & Ship Island railway scheme, that has lagged along in the history of the state. Thus far the lumber interests have had the bulk of the shipping, the proximity of New Orleans divert- ing from it many lines that might otherwise enter. The state's desire regarding it can not be better shown than by a memorial on the subject in 1872: "For the last half century the state of Mississippi has encouraged by legislation the construction of a line of railroad that would place the different parts of the state in communication with the gulf coast, and for this purpose has granted charters to companies with immunities and privileges of a most liberal character. Having on her gulf coast a deep and safe harbor, that of Ship island, with a con- stant depth of water twenty-four feet, with safe channels of ingress and egress, and in which was sheltered the British fleet in the war of 1812, and the Union fleet during the late war. Manifestly a wise policy dictates that this fine harbor should be made available, and the products of Mississippi's fertile soil should be transported to that point for shipment to the markets of the world. Mississippi is the largest producer of cotton of any of the Southern states, her annual crop averaging between eight and nine hundred thousand bales; and all this yield of natural wealth is carried without her borders, and pays tribute to cities beyond her limits. The mighty Mississippi flowing along her western borders, bears upon its bosom the bounteous yield from the alluvial valleys of the Yazoo and its tributaries, and the valley of the Mississippi, to the city of New Orleans. The Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans rail- road, running through the center of the state, gathers up from that portion of the state its products, and pours them into the crowded warehouses of New Orleans. The Memphis & Charleston railroad, skirting her northern line, carries to Memphis the cotton from that part of the state, and the Mobile & Ohio railroad, running along her eastern boundary, conveys to Mobile the product of that region of the state. Thus it will be seen that the state of Missis- sippi-rich beyond her sisters in the production of that great staple that brings so much national wealth-pays a large annual tribute to cities and communities foreign to her and her people; building them up and sustaining them in prosperity by that which should be con- trolled for her own benefit and the welfare of her people. Let us see what this annual rev- enue or tribute amounts to, that is reaped by the points hereinbefore designated. We can safely place it at $5 per bale; this includes storage, drayage, commission, labor, weighing and compressing; and by this amount let us multiply the minimum figure stated as the annual crop of Mississippi, say eight hundred thousand bales, and we have the round sum of $4,000,000 that Mississippi pays annually, a tribute to enrich cities of her sister states, when every dollar of this sum should remain with her and her people, to build up within her own territory a city that should rival those of her neighbors as a port of entry and shipment, and add to her revenues in the enhancement of the value of property subject to taxation. From the Potomac to the Rio Grande all the other sea-coast states have their port of entry and ship- ment, from which people derive profit and wealth and the state's increased yield of taxes. Texas has Galveston and other ports, and freights with her products vessels for all places of demand. Louisiana has New Orleans, at whose wharves are seen flying the flags of all nations. Alabama has Mobile, inviting to safe harbor and full-return cargoes the commercial marine of the world. Florida, Pensacola and San Augustine, where may be seen loading ships from all parts of the world with her cotton, sugar, timber and tropical fruit. Georgia has Savannah, and none have a better natural harbor than that of Ship island and Missis- sippi sound. The future is bound to make use of it."

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

CHAPTER V.

RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION, ETC.

A S valuable as Mississippi's water transport facilities have been in furnishing communi- cation with the outside world, she was for many years handicapped by a land trans- portation attended with unusual difficulties, incident to her heavy forests and numerous intercepting water courses. The difficulties attending the long route by national roads through the Chickasaw nation to the northeast settlements, and through the Choctaw country to the lower Tombigbee community have been noticed elsewhere. The long years of dependence on stage routes and horseback riding, tollroads and ferries are within the mem- ory of many now living, and no doubt the great plantations and the comparatively meager internal commerce it fostered had much to do with it. The vast predominance of agriculture and the minimum of commerce with its consequent meager offspring of cities, the natural product of commerce, all tended to discourage it no doubt, while incidentally the public finances of the state, elsewhere noticed, was no small ingredient in the final solution. Certain it is that railway development is confined largely to the last two decades, and that, too, by far the most vigorous in the one just closed. As water development was a characteristic of ante bellum transportation in this state, so the development of railways has been the leading feature of post-bellum intercommunication, and has been the fruitful mother of a-for this state -numerous brood of fast-growing cities, towns and villages, which will be noticed else- where in these volumes.

There is one marked difference between the two systems-the inflexibility and per- manence of the water courses made, in their days of predominance, no uncertainty as to the location of population. Not so with the railway; in certain ways far more powerful than water courses, their projectors determine their course, and their course determines the chief seats of inhabitance.

No greater illustration of this new institution's power in this respect need be sought than in the early growth of railways in this state. We are wont to forget that the first loco- motive used in this nation was only in 1820; but it was as late as 1828 that the first actual railway was in operation, so that when it is known that three years later, 1831, the Wood- ville people incorporated the West Feliciana railroad company to build a road from Wood- ville to St. Francisville, or Bayou Sara, Mississippi is seen to be near the head of the line. Vicksburg & Jackson railroad was incorporated the same year, and in 1833 the Port Gibson & Grand Gulf company. The Jackson people proposed to connect themselves with Mobile, and incorporated the Mississippi & Alabama railroad, and the same year Natchez and Jack- son proposed a line joining them and extending to Canton and northward; this was the Mis-

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

sissippi railroad company. By this time the proposition of railway construction became epi- demic in its proportions. Paper railways came thick and fast, as the sometime "leaves of Valombrosa," a total of twenty-two from 1831 to 1841: The Tombeckbee, from Columbus to the Jackson line; the Lake Washington & Deer Creek, the Benton & Manchester, the Gains- ville & Narkeeta; the Yazoo, from Leflore in Carroll county; the Tallahatchie, from that river to Tillatoba; the Mississippi Springs & Clinton, and the Aberdeen & Pontotoc, all in 1836; the New Orleans & Nashville; the Hernando company, from Jefferson to the great river; the Pontotoc, Oxford & Delta; the Mississippi City company, the Grenada & Douglas, all in 1837; the Eagle & Pascagoula line, the Raymond & Bolton, the Paulding & Pontotoc, the Newton & Lauderdale, all in 1838; the Kosciusko & Canton, in 1839; the Brandon & Jackson, the Holly Springs & Tennessee, the Commerce, Hernando & East Port, and the Canton & Jack- son in 1841. It will be noticed that these were the years of Mississippi's great financial dis- tress; but they kept on; in 1846, the Southern railroad company, from Jackson toward Selma, Ala., and the Panola & Delta, and Locopolis & East Highlands, and in 1848 the Mobile & Ohio, the Hernando & Mississippi, Cold Water & Panola Hills, and the Deer Creek com- panies. With all this, however, we are much surprised to have a letter of 1849 sum up the state railway facilities with: "For several years we have had a railroad from Vicksburg to Jackson"! It was graded, also, to Brandon, but no tracks laid.

The meaning of this was that the financial panic of those years caused all to collapse totally, not even allowing visible progress, except Natchez, which built about thirty-five miles of her line, and then sold out and allowed it to be abandoned, and the Vicksburg & Jackson line, the solitary instance of a permanent construction. The space allowed here will not permit of an entrance into the subject of the state's aid to railways, interesting as it would be; sufficient to say that, besides money grants and loans at various times, land grants were made on the Jackson & Ship Island route, Jackson & Meridian and Mobile & Ohio, below Columbus. Neither can the connection of the railway and levee system be treated, and the mazy and numerous changes in names and combinations of railways of the state down to the present would be as uninteresting as they are inaccessible. No attempt will be made to do more than indicate the general growth to present conditions.

Moving forward about a decade from the point last noticed, it will be seen that in 1857 the Southern railroad had taken up the road east of Jackson to a junction with the new Mobile road, and was now graded to that junction, now so famous, but then scarcely named, and track laid to Brandon, with expectation of completion by January, 1860-three years. The Mobile & Ohio had grown rapidly during the decade, and was now complete to Crawfords- ville station, in Lowndes county, a distance of two hundred and twenty miles from Mobile, and prospects of being through the state in three years. The New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern, incorporated when the fifties began, and destined to become the great Illinois Cen- tral, was rapidly nearing completion from the south to Canton. The Mississippi Central was now completed sixty-two miles south of the Memphis and Charleston junction, with eighty- two miles yet to join the Great Northern at Canton. The Mississippi & Tennessee had now reached sixty miles out front Memphis toward Grenada, and with prospects of completion to that point by January, 1859-two years. But these were all. The Ship Island agitation, begun in 1837, came to an act of legislature by 1850, and resuscitation was attempted by another act in 1854, but so far in vain.

As a mere indication of the way the state had taken hold financially, by 1858, almost $20,000,000 had been invested within the state; over $10,000,000 in stock was there held, although it was quoted at fifty per cent. below par. The state itself owned $743,571.72 in stock, and held the bonds of various companies aggregating $825,396.29.

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

By 1859 the Great Northern had reached two hundred and six miles to Canton, and was rapidly grading toward Aberdeen. All but twenty miles of the Mississippi Central was completed, and that little gap was above Canton. The Mobile & Ohio and Mississippi & Tennessee had made large progress, but the southern tracks seemed inclined to halt at Brandon. The Memphis & Charleston had over thirty miles in the northeast corner, and the Gulf & Ship Island road had now achieved organization. This is practically the railway status of the state when the war began to paralyze the arts of peace.

In 1860 the railway mileage of the state was put at eight hundred and sixty miles. The power of the railways as connection with base of supplies, made them one of the first things to be destroyed by the army whose enemy they served. Their vast destruction is a matter of national history; suffice to say that in 1864, while there were five hundred and forty-five miles left undestroyed, only three hundred and sixty-five were in operation *. By 1870, however, the old figure of 1860 was recovered, and increased upon to nine hundred and ninety miles in the state. In 1880 the increase had reached to a total mileage of one thou- sand one hundred and twenty-seven. Up to this point the growth had been comparatively slow, but the decade of 1880-90 made such strides that by its close, the year 1890 saw the grand total of two thousand three hundred and sixty six miles of railway in actual operation, and more in prospect. This was considerably over a double in mileage in one decade. Note the progress in the decade: Eleven hundred and twenty-seven miles in 1880; thirteen hun- dred and three in 1882; eighteen hundred and forty-four in 1884; twenty-one hundred and nine in 1887, and twenty-three hundred and sixty-six in 1890, when the Georgia Pacific, the Ship Island, and the Fort Scott, Natchez & New Orleans were prospective. Compare the increase by decades in the United States: Twenty-three miles in 1830; twenty-eight hundred and eighteen in 1840-but little more than the total in this state now: ninety hundred and twenty-one miles in 1850; thirty thousand six hundred and thirty-five in 1860; fifty-two thousand nine hundred and fourteen in 1870; ninety-three thousand two hundred and ninety- six in 1880, and in 1888 a total of one hundred and fifty-six thousand and eighty-two. This showing is very favorable to Mississippi, considering the great losses of war.

This twenty-three hundred and sixty-six miles of railway is distributed among the fol- lowing lines: The Illinois Central, the largest, with 636.06 miles; the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas with 584.8 miles; the Mobile & Ohio with 306 miles; the Georgia Pacific with 202.2 miles; the New Orleans & Northeastern with 153.42 miles; the Alabama & Vicksburg with 143.39 miles; the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham with 142.89 miles; the Natchez, Jack- son & Columbus with 98.6 miles; the Louisville & Nashville with 73.83 miles; the Gulf & Chicago with 56.56 miles; the Memphis & Charleston with 33.4 miles; the Alabama Great Southern with 18.78 miles; the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia with 7.73 miles, and the Gulf & Ship Island with 7 miles. Thus it will be seen that the Illinois Central is much the largest, a railway that in the season of 1882-3 carried to New Orleans nearly forty-eight thousand bales of cotton more than that carried by all the rivers and bayous carrying to that port together-a total of four hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty- nine bales. A little more detailed sketch of each road may be of interest, at least so far as materials are accessible. The Illinois Central railroad is the great central artery of the state. To this railroad the settlement and prosperity of Illinois, Iowa, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, Mississippi and eastern Louisiana are very largely indebted. So early in the history of Illinois as 1832, Senator A. M. Jenkins suggested a road from Cairo to Peru. In 1835 William S. Waite, of Bond county, Ill., suggested the necessity of a rail-

*The Confederate States Almanac, 1864,

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

road, and in October of that year Judge Sidney Breese urged the construction of one from Cairo to Galena. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, Senator James Shields, Representatives Bis- sell, Harris, McClernand, Richardson, Wentworth and Young, with other prominent econo- mists of that period, desired a central road connecting the territory of the great lakes with that of the Mississippi, and their desire was so manifestly in the interest of the state that the act of January 18, 1836-special charter-incorporating a company to build a road from Cairo to the foot of the proposed Illinois & Michigan canal, was received with favor. Let us see what the harum-scarum legislature of 1836-7 aimed at. There were $250,000 appro- priated toward building the Great Western railroad from Vincennes to St. Louis; $3,500,000 to build the Central from Cairo to La Salle, and thence to Galena; $1,600,000 to construct a road from Alton to Mount Carmel and Shawneetown, to be known as the Southern Cross rail- road; $1,850,000 to build the Northern Cross railroad from Quincy, on the Mississippi, to the Indiana state line; $650,000 to build a branch from the Illinois Central toward Terre Haute; $700,000 for the Peoria & Warsaw railroad; $600,000 for the branch from the Illinois Cen- tral to Lower Alton; $150,000 to build a road from Belleville to a junction with the Alton & Mount Carmel railroad; $350,000 to construct a road from Bloomington to Mackinaw, and the Freemont & Pekin branch of that proposed line, all making the modest sum of $9,650,- 000 at a time when the scattered citizens of Illinois had not the proper shelter from the inclement winter. Experience is a great school, but an expensive one. The next legislature repealed the act of the madmen and saved the state from irretrievable bankruptcy. In 1837 an appropriation of $3,500,000 was made under the internal improvement act of February 27, 1837; the construction of the road was entered upon in May of that year, but the credit of the state being unequal to her aspirations, she had to be content with the Northern Cross road from Menadosia to Springfield, as completed in February, 1842, at a cost of $1,000,000. Further work was abandoned. On March 6, 1843, the Great Western Railway Company was granted a preemption right, and Darius B. Holbrook and his fellow members of the Cairo City & Canal Company of 1837, became identified with railroad history in the West. The work accomplished by the state on the Central railroad was to become the property of the new company at a stated price; but the company was bound to pay into the state treasury one-fourth of the total net income, after twelve per cent. per annum had been distributed among the stockholders. In December, 1843, this company, through Congressman Breese, petitioned congress for the right of preemption to a portion of the public lands; but Doug- las opposed the petition, and in 1844 introduced a bill providing that the lands should be preempted to the state. It won little attention. Similar bills introduced in January and December, 1846, by Judge Breese, failed to obtain the approval of congress, and the question of building a railroad was exactly where Holbrook & Co. found it. The Great West- ern Railroad Company lost their charter March 3, 1845, and for a time the contest between Chicago, represented by Douglas, and Dubuque, represented by Breese, was closed. From February, 1842, to February, 1847, the cross roads proved a losing venture, and in 1847 this $1,000,000 deal realized $21,000 in state indebtedness. The Great Western Railroad Company was revivified in 1848, and the legislature returned its charter April 13, 1849, and it may be said donated all the railroad work performed by the state in 1837, as well as right of way from Cairo to Chicago. The governor was appoined trustee in futuro to hold such lands as congress might donate to aid the construction of a central railroad, and altogether the Great Western Railroad Company appeared to be singularly well endowed with the friend- ship of the commonwealth. The return for the charter was foreshadowed by the technical defeat of Douglas' direct bills for aid to the Central railroad of 1848-9 by congressional

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 11

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314