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 16

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 16

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Compare 1870 and 1880. Corn, fifteen million six hundred and thirty-seven thousand three hundred and sixteen bushels in 1870 to twenty-one thousand three hundred and forty in 1880; cotton, five hundred and sixty-four thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight bales in 1870 to nine hundred and sixty-three thousand one hundred and eleven in 1880; oats, four hundred and fourteen thousand five hundred and eighty-six bushels to one million nine hun- dred and fifty-nine thousand six hundred and twenty; wheat, two hundred and seventy-four thousand four hundred and seventy-nine bushels to two hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and ninety, a falling off; hay, eight thousand three hundred and twenty-four tons to eight thousand eight hundred and ninety four; molasses, two hundred and nineteen thou- sand six hundred and seventy-four gallons in 1870 to three hundred and thirty-six thousand six hundred and twenty-five in 1880; rice, three hundred and seventy-four thousand six hun- dred and twenty-seven pounds to one million seven hundred and eighteen thousand nine hun- dred and fifty-one in 1880; Irish potatoes, two hundred and fourteen thousand one hundred and eighty-nine bushels in 1870 to three hundred and three thousand eight hundred and twenty-one; sweet potatoes, one million seven hundred and forty-three thousand four hun- dred and thirty-two bushels in 1870 to three million six hundred and ten thousand six hun- dred and sixty-three; orchard values, $71,018 to $378,145, a remarkable gain full of signifi- cance; stock, one million seven hundred and twenty-four thousand two hundred and ninety- five head to two million three hundred and ninety-eight thousand nine hundred and thirty- four in 1880, a great gain; butter, two million six hundred and thirteen thousand five hun- dred and twenty-one pounds in 1870 to seven million four hundred and fifty-four thousand six hundred and fifty-seven in 1880, right in line with the last; and wool, two hundred and eighty-eight thousand two hundred and eighty-five pounds to seven hundred and thirty- four thousand six hundred and forty-three pounds in 1880, and the entire assessed valuation in 1880 was $110,628,129.

At this writing the census returns for 1890 are not available. A comparison of 1880 and 1886 will show to what an advance it may be expected to reach, however. Cotton rose from over nine hundred and sixty-three thousand bales in 1880 to over one million in 1883, and only fell to eight hundred and thirty-eight thousand six hundred and ninety-two bales in 1886, valued at $37,120,000, a less variation than in most other Southern states. Corn rose from over fifteen million bushels in 1880 to twenty-five million five hundred and seven thou- sand in 1886. Wheat fell again from over two hundred and eighteen thousand bushels in 1880 to one hundred and seventy three thousand bushels in 1886, but oats sprang up from over one million nine hundred and fifty-nine thousand in 1880 to three million three hundred and sixty-eight thousand bushels in 1886. Tobaccorose from over four hundred and fourteen thousand -pounds to about five hundred and twenty five thousand; Irish potatoes from over

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three hundred and three thousand bushels to about six hundred and thirteen thousand; sweet potatoes from over three million six hundred thousand bushels to about four million two hun- dred and eighty-five thousand in 1886; butter made the remarkable rise of from over seven million four hundred and fifty-four thousand pounds in 1880 to about fifteen million eight hundred and twenty- five thousand pounds in 1886; hay, also, rose from eight thousand eight hundred and ninety four tons to fourteen thousand five hundred tons, and molasses from over three hundred and thirty-six thousand gallons in 1880 to about six hundred and fifteen thousand gallons in 1886. The acreage in farm products increased from five million two hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven acres in 1879 to five million five hundred and twelve thousand in 1886 as follows: In 1879 it was five million two hundred and sixteen thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven; in 1882 it was five million three hundred and two thousand; in 1883 it was five million three hundred thousand; in 1884 it was five million four hundred and sixty-five thousand; in 1885 it was five million four hundred and ninety-two thousand; in 1886 it was five million five hundred and twelve thousand. The value of the yield for those years varied between about $62,000,000 in 1884 and about $69,- 000,000 in 1883, the value, however, being less a measure of increase than the acreage, for the former often decreases in proportion to the increase of product.

These items serve merely to illustrate the state's increase in wealth, not to indicate her varied sources nor totals of wealth. These must be considered separately, farther on, as far as results are obtainable. Her wealth was once largely in but two properties, slaves and cot- ton; or, at an earlier date only tobacco and cotton; or, at a still later date chiefly cotton without the slaves, but now it has become divided among numerous lines. Labor and capi- tal were once largely tied up in cotton production so in advance of all other industries as to throw them in the background, but now see the great wealth in lumber, in stockraising, in fruit culture, in manufactures, in trade, in dairy products, and numerous other lines. This

is development as well as mere increase, and means a real wealth for which the past decade has been remarkable above all predecessors. Let this illustrate and prove it: The assessed valuation per capita in the state was $97.76 in 1880; in 1890 it was $122.15, an increase of 42.39 per cent., and this too when the increase in population was only 13.96 per cent. This is a better showing than for the nation as a whole, for the United States' increase was only 43.46 per cent. with 24.86 per cent. increase in population. These figures are for both personal and real property, and they mean comparative increase and development, not com- parative amount of wealth, for while Mississippi has surpassed many states, even the nation at large, in rate of development, she is still below many in amount of wealth. For example, the comparison with Massachusetts' total assessed valuation in 1890 of $2,154,134,626 with that of the Bayou state, $157,518,906 is almost as twenty to one. Mississippi's assessed wealth comes more nearly reaching that of Vermont, Nebraska, West Virginia, or South Carolina, being less than the first three and greater than the last mentioned state. Those who are working to advance Mississippi's manufacturing interests find abundant encour- agement in the contrast between this state and Massachusetts, the contrast of an agricultural with a manufacturing state. Mississippi's per cent. of increase, however, is almost the same to a figure as that of the wealthiest state in the nation, New York, whose assessed valuation is $3,775,325,938, namely 42.39 per cent. and 42.36 per cent. respectively, a showing slightly more favorable to this state.

But as this state probably never can be wealthy from mining, and is still only in its infancy in manufactures, it may be of interest to see to what degree it is an agricultural state. "The importance of agriculture to the people of Mississippi," said Maj. A. B.

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Hurt, in his government report of 1884, "may be better appreciated when it is remembered that three hundred and thirty-nine thousand nine hundred and thirty-eight, or more than eighty-one per cent. of its entire working population, are engaged in agricultural pursuits. The distribution is as follows: All occupations, four hundred and fifteen thousand five hun- dred and six; agricultural laborers, two hundred and fifteen thousand four hundred and seventy-two; farmers and planters, one hundred and twenty-three thousand three hundred and eighty-two; gardeners, nurserymen and vine-growers, six hundred and twenty; stock- raisers, drovers and herders, ninety-three; turpentine farmers and laborers, two hundred and forty-eight, and others in agriculture, one hundred and twenty-three. Total, three hundred and thirty-nine thousand, nine hundred and thirty-eight."

Since this is the case, let the progress of this department of industry be traced. "Several years elapsed after the establishment of the French colony at Biloxi," writes State Geologist B. L. C. Wailes, in 1854, "before even the common vegetables of the gar- den were cultivated, and the sterile soil of the seashore was not calculated to invite a more extended culture, if the character and habits of the colonists, chiefly soldiers, deriving all their supplies from the mother country, had inclined them to such pursuits. It was, there- fore, not until the province came under the control of the Company of the Indies that the tillage of the earth became to any extent a fixed pursuit. The first impulse was then given to planting by the large grants to European capitalists, who sent out laborers to open and improve their lands. The most efficient of these were German redemptioners; but the nature of the climate and the heavy labor of removing the dense forests, rendered the prog- ress of improvement tedions and discouraging. It was soon found necessary to resort to Africa for suitable operatives for the prosecution of agricultural enterprise. These were introduced by the company from time to time, to a limited extent, and disposed of to the colonists at established and moderate rates, payable in annual installments in the product of the soil. These products were naturally confined, for a considerable period, to articles of necessity for home consumption, and notwithstanding some large grants were made near Natchez and on the Yazoo, ostensibly for the cultivation of tobacco and indigo; and, although some 'large plantations, with extensive improvements,' were established near the former place, it does not appear that anything beyond the spoils of the chase or the peltries procured by traffic with the Indian tribes, was exported from the country. By the massacre of the inhabitants by the Natchez, in 1729 and 1730, these establishments were broken up, and from this period the French were too much engaged in exterminating the Natchez and in hostile incursions among the Chickasaws, to reoccupy and cultivate, advan- tageously, their regained possessions. It was, therefore, under the occupancy of the country by the English that we trace the first germ of successful and systematic agriculture in Mississippi. The emigration which ensued, on the change of rulers, being chiefly from the Carolinas, Virginia, Jersey and New England, was from a class differing essentially in habits from their more volatile and restless predecessors, the French, who were more addicted to the chase and to trafficking with their Indian neighbors than to more laborious and settled pursuits. Many of these settlers were accustomed to agriculture, and being generally accompanied by their families, resorted at once to the tillage of the earth as a means of support. Their cultivation was necessarily rude, and their implements few aud imperfect; yet their products were varied and, for the purpose of subsistence, ample. Almost every article of prime necessity which the soil could yield was produced by them to the extent of their wants," such as in 1775 Mr. Dunbar mentions-rice, tobacco, flaxseed, indigoseed, corn, buckwheat, barley, peas and other things.

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The account proceeds: "Cattle and swine required little other attention than protection from the bear and wolf of the forest, and were raised abundantly, whilst the small farms, frequently confined to a few acres, exhibited a variety of production that is now (1854) rarely found together in the county. Indian corn, wheat, oats, rye, rice and potatoes, cotton flax, tobacco and indigo, were almost universally cultivated, but rarely, if at all, for exporta- tion. In the early stages of the settlement of the colony, many of the common conveniences of life were necessarily dispensed with, or supplied with such substitutes as ingenuity or skill could devise or fabricate from the productions of the country. Not many years since, were to be seen the molds in which the head of one of the most respectable and wealthy families of the present day (1854) was wont to cast the pewter platters and spoons which constituted the only plate of himself and neighbors. The inventories of the confiscated effects of some prominent, and, as then regarded, opulent persons, yet preserved among the Spanish archives, exhibit a simplicity of attire and furniture in strong contrast with that which would now (1854) satisfy those of very contracted means or humble station. The scarcity and high price of iron, and the consequent imperfection of agricultural implements was perhaps most felt and least easily remedied. At that period cut nails were not invented, and the wrought nail cost $1 a pound. Tools and all iron implements bore a corre- sponding price, owing in some degree to the high freight on heavy articles up the Mississippi, the voyage from New Orleans to Natchez, made by keelboats and barges, requiring several weeks. A set of plow irons was, therefore, an acquisition of no little value. Iron entered into the composition of few of the wagons or carts, and the wheels were often made of a transverse section or disk sawed and properly fashioned from the trunk of a tree of suitable diameter. These trucks constituted, to considerable extent, the only means of transportation of heavy articles. Even as late as after the introduction of Whitney's saw-gin, a now (1854) opulent planter, a venerable and highly respected citizen, a native of Adams county, states that in a wagon of this kind he hauled his crop of cotton for two years to a neighboring gin-a framework of cane serving in lieu of plank in the construction of the body. Not many years before the same gentleman was reduced to the necessity of fabricating his only plow by framing a common mattock to a beam, that being the only implement suited to the purpose left on his plantation by the depredating Indians. This was only about sixty-five years since (i. e. before 1854), and occurred within ten miles of Natchez, and to an individual belonging to one of the most opulent and influential families in that day. Flax was raised chiefly for shoe thread and similar uses, but in some families linen cloth was made. Leather was commonly tanned throughout the country in large troughs dug out of the trunks of trees. From the earliest occupancy by the English, cotton in small quantities, sufficient for domestic purposes, was habitually cultivated. It was of the black or naked seed variety, was planted in hills and cultivated with the hoe. Fifty or sixty pounds was the ordinary quantity gathered in a day. The seeds were picked out by the hand, or separated from the lint by means of the small roller gin. It was spun and woven at home, and constituted the chief apparel of the inhabitants; the small quantity of indigo then grown, and the numerous dyestuffs the forests afforded, supplied all the coloring materials required for dyeing the cloth. Rice formed an important article of diet, supplying largely the deficiency of flour; the colonists, especially the French, accommodating themselves slowly and reluctantly to bread made from the Indian corn. It was prepared by pounding in common wooden mortars, and perhaps was not as fair as that which we now (1854) purchase, but of far richer flavor and more nutritious. In the absence of millstones, when they could not be obtained, the Indian corn was reduced to meal by pounding in the same way. Large herds of cattle were owned by

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the more opulent inhabitants, for which the garrison at Natchez afforded the chief market, and some were driven to New Orleans shortly previous to the change of government. The price of common stock cattle was about the same then as at this time" (1854).

As this narrative so well shows both the early and closing years of the slave epoch, in contrast, it is continued freely: "When the country came under the dominion of Spain a market was opened in New Orleans; a trade in tobacco was established, and a fixed remu- nerative price was paid for it, delivered at the king's warehouses. Tobacco thus became the first marketable staple production of Mississippi. The tobacco plant, indigenous to the county, soon came into general cultivation. The larger planters packed it in the usual way in hogsheads. Much of it, however, was put up in carrets, as they were called, resembling in size and form two small sugar-loaves united at the larger ends. The stemmed tobacco was laid smoothly together in that form, coated with wrappers or the extended leaf, enveloped in a cloth, and then firmly compressed by a cord wrapped around the parcel, and was suffered to remain until the carret acquired the necessary dryness and solidity, when, together with the surrounding cloth, it was removed, and strips of lind bark were bound around it at proper distances, in such a manner as to secure it from unwrapping and losing its propor- tions. The rope used for this purpose was manufactured by the planter, from the inner bark of the lind, or basswood, then one of the most common trees of the forest. In those days, when the roads were indifferent, and wagons and carts few, the tobacco hogsheads were frequently geared to a horse by means of a pair of rude temporary shafts, connected with the heading, and in this manner rolled to the shipping point, or to market at Natchez; much being transported in this way from the settlements on Cole's creek, and from greater dis- tances. 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 accompany the joint adventure, deliver the tobacco at the public warehouse, and, if it passed inspection, receive the proceeds, and return home by land, generally on foot; the payment being made on a written acknowledgment, or bon, as it was called, which entitled the holder to receive the amount from the governor or commandant at Natchez, thus obviating the labor and risk of packing the specie several hundred miles. The monopoly of the tobacco trade was retained by the king of Spain, and the price paid for all that passed inspection at his warehouses was uniform. The price was regarded as liberal, and yielded a fair return for its production, whilst the stability and certainty of a market encouraged an increased cultivation; the county began to prosper, and the planters were able to make purchases of slaves, the current price of which averaged about $350. There was no classification in the sale of tobacco. If the article passed inspection, it was taken, and the quality was generally such that for that cause it could not be rejected. Nevertheless, it sometimes happened that an unobjectionable article was left upon the planter's hands, if, from ignor- ance of established usage, he had omitted the customary douceur to the inspector. Whether these usages, reacting upon the producers, had any affect upon the quality or condition of the tobacco in the end, is not, perhaps, altogether clear, but it is certain that, from some cause, either from fraud in packing, the falling off in quality, or the competition of the Kentucky tobacco introduced into New Orleans, under General Wilkinson's contracts with the Spanish authorities, or by their connivance, the price was so reduced that the further cultivation of it in Mississippi, for exportation, was in a few years wholly abandoned, greatly to the injury and embarrassment of the planters, who had, for the purchase of slaves, contracted debts which they now found it difficult to discharge."

Indigo had not been cultivated in the Natchez district as late as 1783, and until the

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failure of the tobacco business it was produced only for the seed, which was supplied to the various settlements below. Continuing the narrative: "The tobacco crop, being no longer profitable, indigo, which had been cultivated for some time in Louisiana, was now resorted to. This most offensive and uuwholesome pursuit was, nevertheless, the most profitable one in which the planter could engage. Seed was obtained at the cost of about $50 per barrel, and some of the small farmers engaged in cultivating the indigo exclu- sively for the seed to supply those whose larger means enabled them to erect the necessary fixtures, and to prosecute the cultivation and manufacture on a profitable scale. Indigo ferra tinctoria, from which the indigo pigment of commerce is prepared, said to have been introduced from India, flourishes luxuriantly in the Southern states, where a variety termed the atramentum anil is said to grow spontaneously. It was cultivated in drills, and required careful handling when young and tender, the subsequent cultivation being similar to that of the cotton plant. When mature, in good land, it attained the hight of about three feet. It was then, previous to going to seed, cut with a reap-hook from day to day, tied in bundles in quantities suited to the capacity of the steeping-vats, to which it was immediately transferred." "The whole process was of the most disgusting character. Myriads of flies were generated in it, which overspread the whole country. The plant itself, when growing, was infested by swarms of grasshoppers, by which it was sometimes totally destroyed, and the fetor arising from the putrid weed thrown from the vats was intolerable. The drainings from these refuse accummulations into the adjacent streams killed the fish. Those in Second creek, previously abounding in trout and perch, it is said were destroyed in this way. It is not surprising, therefore, that the cultivation of indigo was abandoned in a few years, and gave way to that of cotton, so remarkable for its freedom from the disagreeable concomitants of tobacco and indigo culture, and comparatively so light, neat and agreeable in its handling."

Cotton is from the Italian word cotone, and so called because of its resemblance to the quince down or cotogni. Its botanical name is gossypium. It was well known to the ancients, and introduced in England so late as 1640, whence, in 1719, it was placed in South Carolina, whose first provisional congress, in 1775, "recommended to its people to raise cotton." Georgia led off, and the first cotton was shipped to Liverpool in 1784, and five years later the Sea Island variety was introduced from Jamaica. It is probable that the French introduced it into Mississippi, as it was growing in Natchez in 1722, and Bien- ville reports its cultivation in 1735. The Sea Island variety grew on the seaboard; the upland and Tennessee varieties were grown also; but the Mexican soon became the leader. This, it is said, was introduced from Mexico by General Wilkinson's special envoy-Walter Burling, of Natchez, who, wishing to secure some of the seed from the viceroy of Mexico, was told it was against the law, but, as Mexican dolls were not in the forbidden list, although stuffed with cotton seed, the friendly viceroy assured him he could carry all the dolls home he desired. This was in 1806. The first gin used was much like a clothes- wringer in principle and size; then a treadle was added, and so used about 1764. A few improvements were made, and bowing was used. It was on March 14, 1794, that a Yankee machine lifted the repressive difficulty of seeding off of cotton culture (Whitney's cotton- gin), and in a single decade the nation's crop was increased from about $150,000 to at least $8,000,000. In 1795 Daniel Clarke, near Fort Adams, had one of these gins made, and in 1798 cotton was shipped from the gin on Pine Ridge, near Natchez, belonging to Thomas Wilkins. David Greenleaf became probably the first ginwright, and in 1807 Eleazer Car- ver began their manufacture near Washington. In 1838 he made excellent improvements

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on the original. Cotton culture received such an impulse that the ginmakers could not supply the demand, and this state became one of the leading manufacturers of it in the United States. The stalks and seeds were burned. About 1779 square bales were made in a rough lever press. In 1801 Mr. Dunbar secured an iron screw-press from Philadelphia for $1,000, and proposed to begin the manufacture of cottonseed oil. Soon the McComb and Lewis presses were invented by Mississippians. Said Mr. Wailes in 1854: " Hoop iron has been introduced of late years, but the use, as yet, is confined to a few large planters."

Indian corn was seen by De Soto to be "of such luxuriant growth as to produce three or four ears to the stalk," and in 1854 Mr. Wailes said: "With us, as an article of food, it has become by far the most important that our soil produces. The varieties which seem best adapted to our climate are the Tuscarora, the gourd seed and the white and yellow flint." Again: 'Thirty bushels are accounted a very fair crop per acre and forty a large one. The total production of corn in the state in 1849 was stated at twenty-two million four hundred and forty-six thousand bushels, equal to about thirty-seven bushels to about each individual inhabitant."

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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 16

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