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 166

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 166


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W. Robinson (deceased), at one time a prominent merchant of that place. To Mr. and Mrs. Williamson the following children have been born: Elise and Chalmers, both of whom are bright, interesting and handsome. Mrs. Williamson belongs to the Episcopal church, and Mr. Williamson is a Presbyterian in faith. Socially, he is a member of the A. F. & A. M. and the K. of P.


Dr. Lea Williamson, physician, Como, is one of the most successful physicians of Pa- nola county, Miss., and, although his birth occurred in York district, S. C., on April 6, 1837, he has identified himself with the interests of Panola county since early childhood. His parents, James S. and Jane M. (Hicklin) Williamson, were natives also of the Palmetto state (see sketeh of S. Z. Williamson). Dr. Williamson came to Panola county with his parents in J846 and received the principal part of his education in the University of Virginia, where he also took a course of medical lectures. He subsequently attended Bellevue hospital, New York, and graduated from Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, in 1859. The following year he began practicing at his home in Panola county, and at the breaking out of the war he enlisted as private in Bartlett's regiment and was soon afterward made assistant surgeon of his regiment in General Alcorn's brigade, remaining with his regiment one year. Upon the reorganization, he attached himself to the Fourteenth Mississippi artillery battalion, with which he continued as surgeon until the close of the war, first under Major-General Van Dorn till the siege of Vicksburg, next under Major Preston, of South Carolina, who was killed in the battle of Peach Tree creek, and finally under Major Truehart, who was captured at Nashville, Tenn., December 16, 1864. After this the battalion, being without horses or guns, was ordered to rendezvous near General Hood's army at Columbus, Miss. In February, 1865, his battalion went to Mobile, Ala., to defend that place, and there they remained till April 9, when all of them that could escaped at the fall of Spanish Fort and retired to Mobile and thence to Demopolis. Ten days later they were removed to Meridian and were there paroled on May 11, 1865. Dr. Williamson returned home and resumed the regular practice, which he has continued ever since with more than usual success. He is no dishonor to the medical profession, and stands high both as a citizen and a physician. In connection with his practice he has planted to a considerable extent and is now the owner of about four thousand acres of land in Mississippi and Arkansas, with nearly twelve hundred acres under cultiva- tion. Miss Helen Howard, who became his wife in 1868, was born in Grenada, Miss., and is the daughter of Col. Nat. Howard, who was at Winthrop, Me., in 1805, and descended from the John Howard who came to the new world in that well-known historical ship, the May- flower, as one of this country's first settlers. Being well educated, he went to Nottoway county, Va., in 1824, and teaching there two years, removed to West Tennessee, and in 1828 from there to Vicksburg, where he made friends of such young men as S. S. Prentiss, Henry S. Foote, Robert J. Walker and William Sharkey, who afterward became men eminent in law and national politics. In 1832 Colonel Howard bought in Cincinnati a boatload of goods which were kecled from Mississippi river, near Helena, down the Yazoo pass to Cold- water river, thence down Tallahatchie to Yalobusha and up that stream to the canebrake where Grenada now stands. Colonel Howard pitched the first tent and opened the first store in what afterward became a somewhat noted town. Colonel Howard was a man of very extensive reading and information, of superior colloquial power, fond of his friends and dis- pensed a generous hospitality, and was one of the projectors, and, until his death, a director of the Mississippi & Tennessee railroad. Dr. Williamson's marriage resulted in the birth of three children: Howard, now in the University of Mississippi; Louise and Leu. Dr. and Mrs. Williamson are worthy members of the Presbyterian church. The Doctor is railroad


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surgeon for the Illinois Central railroad, and is a member of the A. M. Railroad association. He is a Mason and the trustee from the second congressional district of the Industrial insti- tute and college for girls at Columbus, Miss. He comes of a representative family and has done credit to it.


One of the most promising young men of De Soto county is Hon. Lucanus W. William- son of Pleasant Hill, Miss., who was born in this county April 24, 1856. He is the second of a family of seven children of Charles W. and Ann (McMillan) Williamson, natives of South Carolina and Alabama respectively. The father came to Mississippi in 1843, and is still living in De Soto county. Lucanus W. received his education in the private schools of his native county. and enjoyed more than ordinary advantages. At the age of eighteen years he secured a position as clerk in a store at Pleasant Hill, and with the savings of two years' work he went to school for some time longer. He is a planter, stockraiser and merchant, and owns considerable landed estate. He and his brother, J. C. Williamson, are engaged in the mer. cantile business and they carry a large stock of goods and are doing a large and profitable trade. In 1883 he was united in marriage to Miss Ora L. Webber, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of John and Linnie (McAlexander) Webber. The father was a merchant in Mem- phis, Tenn. Mrs. Williamson died in 1844. Our subject is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, belongs to the Masonic order, and also to the Knights of Labor and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. He has been a liberal supporter of all movements tending to the growth and advancement of the county. Although a young man, he has twice repre- sented his county in the state legislature-in 1888 and in 1890-and has just been elected to serve a third term. He has represented his constituency with honor and credit, and has dis- charged his duties with great zeal. He is considered one of the political leaders of the county. In consideration of the disadvantages under which Mr. Williamson has labored from his youth, too much can not be said in praise of his efforts and the strides he has made toward success. He was needed by his father to assist on the farm until he had arrived at mature years, and when he came to enter the struggle for a place in the world, he was illy prepared, and had no capital to fall back upon. But with courage worthy a Spartan he went to work, and the reward has been a generous one. He occupies a position in the com- munity which has been won through a life of the strictest integrity, and his name is honored where it is known.


Judge R. W. Williamson. In no profession do men attain greater prominence than that of law. The amount of good accomplished is a subject we will leave to the discussion of others. R. W. Williamson was born in Rutherford county, Tenn., January 11, 1832. His father, George W. Williamson, was a native of Virginia, born in 1804, and he was the son of Ludi Williamson, also a native of Virginia; the latter removed with his family to Tennes- see about the year 1811, and was one of the pioneers of Rutherford county. There George W. grew to manhood, and married Edna De Jarnatt, a native of Tennessee, and a daughter of James De Jarnatt, another of the pioneers from Virginia. George W. Williamson removed to Mississippi in 1834, and settled in Carroll county, where he was engaged in planting. He was located in that portion of Carroll that is now embraced in Grenada county. There he reared his family, and resided until his death, which occurred in 1884, his age being eighty years. His widow still survives, and is aged eighty-two years (1891). Judge Will- iamson is one of a family of two sons and four daughters who grew to mature years. He received a liberal education at Union university, a Baptist college at Murfreesboro, Tenn., being graduated in the class of 1852. The following year he was engaged in teaching at Grenada, and the next year was devoted to the study of law at Carrollton. He was admitted NNN


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to the bar in 1854, and until 1870 he was closely identified with the legal profession in Car- roll county. At that time he removed to Winona, where he practiced for six years. In 1876 he was appointed chancellor by Governor Stone, was reappointed by Governor Stone, and was once so honored by Governor Lowry. He filled this responsible position for twelve years, exhibiting that decision of character that has marked his administration of public office. In 1888 the Judge removed to Greenwood, where he has resided since that time. He was appointed judge of the fourth judicial district by Governor Stone in 1890, and is now serv- ing his first term in this capacity. He is an able and efficient lawyer, and a just judge, and in the discharge of his duties has given the greatest satisfaction throughout the entire district. He was united in the holy bonds of marriage in De Soto county, Miss., in 1866, to Mrs. Mary E. Howze, daughter of Robert and Ann White, and a native of Rutherford county, Tenn. The Judge and his wife have had born to them five children: George W., a clerk in the town of Greenwood; Annie, the wife of F. Barksdale; Edna, the wife of James A. Howze, of Den- ver, Colo .; Mary W. and Robert W. Mrs. Williamson has one son by her former marriage, Arthur R. Howze, a merchant of Winona. Judge Williamson and family are active mem- bers of the Baptist church. April 19, 1861, our esteemed subject enlisted in the Eleventh Mississippi volunteer infantry, and went to the service of the Confederate cause. He was promoted from the office of sergeant to that of captain at Corinth, Miss., and remained with the Eleventh Mississippi one year. He then returned home and joined the Thirtieth Missis- sippi volunteer infantry, was transferred to the Twenty-ninth, and was again elected captain, and was afterward made colonel of the Twenty-fourth, a consolidated regiment, serving in this position until the close of the war. He participated in a number of important battles, the most noted being Perryville, Resaca, Nashville and Murfreesboro, where he received a slight wound. At Resaca he was shot through the body, and was in a dangerous condition for some time. He did gallant service in the cause of the South, and has every reason to be proud of his war record. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being a Royal Arch Mason.


Robert Patton Willing, of the firm of Willing, Ramsey & Willing, lawyers of Hazle- hurst, Miss., was born in Copiah county in 1836. He is a son of William J. and Malinda A. (Patton) Willing. His father was born on the eastern shore of Maryland, in 1810, his mother in 1817, in Claiborne county, Miss. Mr. Willing received a liberal education, and came when a young man, about 1830, to Mississippi, and engaged in merchandising at Gallatin, the old county seat of Copiah county. Afterward he became a planter, and con- tinued to be one until his death in 1870. He was a successful business man, active and helpful in all public matters. He was one of a large family of children born to Phillip M. Willing, who died in Maryland. The Willings are of English descent, and as a family became quite widely known and influential, some of them having been prominent in Phil- adelphia. His wife was a daughter of Francis Patton, who came from Georgia at an early date to Claiborne county, where he became a planter and reared a large family. One of his daughters married Justice Ephraim G. Peyton, one of the most distinguished judges of Mississippi in his day. Mr. Willing was for many years a member of the Methodist church, and was a prominent Mason. He married his wife in 1835. Robert P. Willing is the eldest of ten children who were born to his parents, two sons and four daughters of whom are living. From an early age he rendered his father such assistance as was in his power in the management of his plantation affairs. He received a creditable rudimentary education in the common schools near his home, and graduated from the state university in 1856. Immediately after he began the study of law, but had been only a short time


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engaged in the practice of his profession when the war commenced. He joined the Pettus relief, which was attached to the Twelfth Mississippi regiment, and which formed a part of the regiment. He reached the seat of war soon after the first battle of Bull Run, and took part in the battle of Seven Pines and in many others, including those at Chancellors- ville and Gettysburg. Just prior to Lee's surrender he was captured near Petersburg, and taken to Washington, and thence to Johnson's island, where he was kept a prisoner until July, 1865, when he was released after four years of hard service as a soldier. He held the rank of lieutenant, but was in command of his company in several engagements. In 1862 he returned home on a furlough, and in October of that year he married Mary A., the daughter of Michael M. and Carrie Durr. Her father was a native of South Carolina, but removed to Mississippi when a young man, and was married in Simpson county. He became a well-to-do planter, and reared a large family, each of whom received a good educa- tion in the colleges. He died in Simpson county. Mrs. Willing was born in that county, and educated partly at Clinton and at Holly Springs, graduating at Memphis with high hon- ors. She has borne her husband nine children, seven of whom are living: Robert Pat- ton, Jr., graduated with distinction from the state university in 1883, and is now a member of the firm of Willing, Ramsey & Willing (he taught school for a while at Jackson, Miss., and was later for three years principal of the public school at Fort Worth, Tex. He married Miss Willie F. Flowers, who was born in Copiah county, and who was educated at Stanton, Va., and at the Ward seminary of Nashville, Tenn.); Carrie is the wife of J. S. Ramsey, who, with her father and brother, comprise the firm of Willing, Ramsey & Willing; (he was born in Copiah county, and educated at the Mississippi college at Clinton); Mary was educated at the Newton seminary at Crystal Springs; Lizzie is the wife of John C. Ryan, a capitalist at Fort Worth, Tex .; Myra and Nellie are unmarried. After the war Mr. Willing located at Gallatin, and engaged in the practice of law. Not long after he was elected district attorney, in which office he served with credit for eighteen months, when he was reconstructed out of office. In 1869 he removed to Crystal Springs, and thence, in 1885, to Fort Worth, Tex., where he was attorney for the Fort Worth & Denver railroad com- pany, having besides a considerable private practice. In 1891 he returned to Copiah county, and with his son and son-in-law organized the present firm of Willing, Ramsey & Will- ing. He is the oldest legal practitioner in Copiah county, and one of its oldest and most prominent citizens. His standing at the bar is high, and his son, Robert Patton, Jr., is one of the most promising young lawyers in this part of the state. Mr. Willing is a mem- ber of the order of Knights of Pythias.


C. O. Willis is a member of the firm of Willis, Moore & Co., cotton factors of Vicksburg, and he has also been president of the Merchants' National bank since its inception, he being one of its organizers. He was born in Maryland, May 1, 1848, being the youngest of five children that lived to maturity, born to Thomas and Mary (Mace) Willis, who were also born in Maryland, the father being quite an extensive farmer. He died in 1880, and his wife in 1850. C. O. Willis was educated in Mechanicsville, Penn., and in 1870 came to Mississippi and located in Warren county, where he engaged in planting until 1880, at that date removing to Vicksburg, where he began dealing in cotton. In 1882 he established him- self in business with the father of his present partner, and the same year assisted in organiz- ing the Vicksburg Compress company, and was for some time its president. In 1890, when the two compresses were combined, Mr. Willis was elected president of the new corporation, now known as the Vicksburg Cotton Compress association, and he is also one of the directors of the Vicksburg Hotel company. He is one of the active younger business men of the city,


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is a reputable and valuable citizen, and is a thoroughly selfmade man. He has proved him- self a successful financier, and is now the owner of about two thousand acres of land, one thousand of which are under cultivation. He was married in 1877, his wife being Miss Mary B. Hogan, of New Orleans. She died in 1890, leaving five children: Florence Keene; Ethel Miles; Lucille Moore; Rosalie, and Hazel Cameron. Mr. Willis is prepos- sessing in personal appearance, is rather portly, and is of fair complexion.


La Fayette Willis, of Aberdeen, Monroe county, Miss., was born in February, 1823, less than one mile from where he now lives, and is the only son now living of Austin Willis. His. father was born in Virginia, and lived there until his marriage with Miss Wood, by whom he had six children. After her death he married Evalina Wood, her sister. This family of Woods were of German and English descent, and traced their ancestry back to George III, of England. Mr. Willis came to Mississippi in 1816, and located in Monroe county in 1823. He was a veteran of the War of 1812, and had one son, Austin W., Jr., who served in the Mexican war. He was a strong democrat, of the old Andrew Jackson style; a man of strong physique, enjoying unusually good health almost to the day of his death. La Fayette Willis now owns and lives on the plantation formerly owned by his father. It consists of some of the best land in the Tombigbee river bottoms, there being four thousand acres in the plan- tation. His father died when he was about fifteen years old, and, while his education is somewhat limited, it is yet sufficient to enable him to transact the business of life with a success that has been more than flattering. In 1847 he married Fannie Quarles, of Ala- bama, who is connected with the Butler family, of South Carolina-one of the best of the many distinguished families of that state. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was fired with the patriotism which moved the Southern heart at that period, and equipped a company, which he turned over to Captain Baker, but before the close of 1861 he was found in active service. He participated in the Georgia campaign, and, among other engagements, took part in the fighting around Atlanta. His health became impaired, and he was sent home a few months before the close of the war. Though he was long in active duty, and a partici- pant in many closely contested engagements, he was never wounded nor taken prisoner. Before the war he was a whig, but since that time he has been a democrat. His plantation is in a high state of cultivation, and there are living and engaged upon it in work about three hundred negroes, many of whom he owned before the war. Mr. Willis is a natural- born sportsman, and from boyhood has taken part in the sports so much enjoyed by Southern gentlemen. He owns one of the finest packs of hounds in the state, and, although now somewhat advanced in life, has frequent foxhunts upon his plantation, in which he takes great interest, and which are an attraction to many of the best citizens round about. Mr. Willis is of a cheerful, contented disposition, and, although he has always lived childless, he has by no means been friendless, for, it is safe to say, there are few more popular men in his part of the state. He is, in the highest degree, hospitable, and his home is open to all comers. Mrs. Willis, of whose high personal character and many admirable social qualities her husband is justly proud, is a lady of education and refinement, and very popular among a large circle of acquaintance.


Dr. William T. Willis, father of R. B. Willis, planter and stocktrader, Graysport, Miss., was born in Orange county, Va., and was a worthy son of that state, having inherited the enlarged views of government, liberty and law from those ancestors who sought out homes in obedience to impulse prompted by lofty ambition and sincere desire to benefit their race. When a young man he went with a brother to Alabama, and was there married to Miss Frances E. Starke, a native of South Carolina. About 1832 he and family immigrated


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to Mississippi and settled in the eastern part of what is now Grenada county, on the farm where R. B. Willis now resides, when the country was a perfect wilderness. He was truly one of the pioneers of the county and was a man of noble character, kind disposition, generous and progressive, but did not live long to enjoy the home he had established in the wilderness. He died about 1841, leaving a large tract of land-about two thousand acres. He was a man of considerable literary ability and was a graduate of both the Jefferson and Philadelphia medical colleges. He practiced with success for some time in Alabama, but abandoned his practice after coming to Mississippi. His father, William Willis, was born in Fredericks- burg, Va., and there passed his entire life as a wealthy planter. This was one of the prominent families of the Old Dominion. The maternal grandfather, Turner Starke, was a native of South Carolina, but an early settler of Alabama, where he received his final summons. Mrs. Frances E. (Starke) Willis, wife of Dr. William T. Willis, and the mother of our subject, died in 1879. She had been a member of the Methodist church for many years. Their family consisted of four children, the eldest of whom died when quite young. The second in order of birth, Amanda B., became the wife of Robert H. Golladay, a promi- nent attorney of Coffeeville; R. B., our subject, was third in order of birth, and the fourth was John W., who was a planter and died in Sevier county, Ark., about 1888. He served as a private in an Arkansas regiment, Confederate army. R. B. Willis was born where he now resides, in Grenada county, in 1836, received the rudiments of an education in Grenada county and then entered Union college, at Murfreesboro, Tenn. After this he attended the state university, at Oxford, but left that institution when about sixteen years of age to take care of his mother's estate. This he did until the breaking out of war, when he joined the Mobile cadets, Third Alabama, as a private, serving in that command until the spring of 1862, in the army of northern Virginia, and fought at Seven Pines and many other places. In the spring of 1862 he joined the Forty-second Mississippi, company H, and remained in the Virginia army until the battle of Gettysburg, when he was severely wounded. This disabled him from further service and he was in the hospital at Baltimore for probably two months as a prisoner. He was then exchanged and spent some time with his relatives in Virginia, after which he returned home. In 1870 he married a cousin, Miss Rosalie Willis, daughter of Richard Henry and Lucy A. Willis, her father being a brother of Dr. William T. Willis. Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Willis were natives of Orange county, Va., where they spent all their lives. He was a very progressive planter and an excellent citizen. Mrs. Willis, subject's wife, was also a native of Orange county, Va. To this union were born three children. Since his marriage Mr. Willis has lived on the farm of his birth, six miles east of Graysport, and now owns over two thousand acres. He raises annually two hundred bales of cotton and plenty of corn and hay to supply the plantation, and is one of the leading planters of the county. For about six or eight years he was engaged in mer- chandising on his plantation, and then for about two years he followed the same business in Graysport, but the fall of 1890 he sold out. He has never aspired to office, but has led a quiet, industrious life. He was a charter member of Graysport lodge, A. F. & A. M., No. 289, and was once junior warden. He and his estimable wife are Episcopalians, holding membership in All Saints' church, Grenada. He is a whole-souled gentleman, noble, gen- erous, and one of the most practical and successful planters in the county. He spares no pains to make his home pleasant and cheerful. Mrs. Willis is a lady of culture and taste and has many warm friends.


Born on May 5, 1858, near Union Church, Rankin county, Miss., Edgar Stewart Wilson spent his early boyhood on his father's farm. Descended on both sides from Scotch-Irish


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ancestry, his father, Joseph Wilson, being a native of Ireland, and his mother, Elizabeth Ellen Evins, a native of Tennessee, his home surroundings were in keeping with that sturdy stock. When he had reached the age of eleven the family moved to Brandon, the county seat, to secure for the younger members such educational advantages as the troubled condi- tion of the state could then afford. The death of his father, in 1876, not only took him from school, but also threw him on his own resources, and he began in earnest the battle of life. Determined to learn the printer's trade, he commenced as "devil" in the office of the East- ern Argus at Brandon, where he remained until he found employment with Col. Fleet Cooper, on the Meridian Gazette (soon to become the Comet), and continued to work on that paper at Brookhaven and at Jackson. Upon its removal to the latter place, young Wilson took a position on the editorial staff, which he retained until 1880. In that year, after a temporary engagement with the Grenada Sentinel, he bought the Walthall Pioneer, and went into busi- ness for himself. In 1881 he was elected secretary of the Press association, at its meeting in Aberdeen, and in January, 1882, he was elected, after a close and spirited contest, clerk of the Mississippi house of representatives, over some of the most popular gentlemen in the state, being the youngest man ever chosen to that important and lucrative place. On March 1, 1882, Mr. Wilson was married, at Jackson, Miss., by Rev. Dr. Galloway (now Bishop Gal- loway), to Miss Elizabeth Buckley, daughter of Hon. James M. Buckley, and the wedding was so numerously attended by members that the legislature was left without a quorum. Toward the close of the legislative session Mr. Wilson attempted to buy the Comet, the paper with which he had been so long, and which he had helped to build up. Failing in this, he established the New Mississippian, its first issue appearing March 1, 1882, and marking an era in the journalism of his state. The new venture met with phenomenal success, and attracted wide and favorable comment from the progressive press of the South. The New Orleans Picayune pronounced it the most serviceable engine of independent journalism in the state. Its conservatism and candor commanded the respect of the public, and it speedily attained the honor of being the home organ of that progressive, unsectional and constitu- tional democracy of which Hon. L. Q. C. Lamar, then in the senate, now on the supreme bench of the United States, was recognized as the foremost leader in the South, and which in Mississippi had come to bear his name. True to the policy he announced, Mr. Wilson fear- lessly assailed the abuses which he saw in his own party, and severely criticised and steadily opposed the state administration of that day as extravagant and violative of its pledges. This course led, subsequently, to his defeat by the unsparing use of administration influence, when he became a candidate for reelection as clerk of the lower house of the state legislature; yet the result was barely accomplished, the vote standing, just before the decisive ballot, fifty-one for Wilson, fifty-two for his successful competitor and two for a gentleman not in the race. In the fall of 1884 Mr. Wilson was called to Washington, to become private secre- tary to Senator Lamar, and remained with that distinguished statesman until he accepted a position in Mr. Cleveland's cabinet. Mr. Lamar tendered Mr. Wilson the choice of Federal positions in Mississippi, but Mr. Wilson desired to see something of the Northwest, and asked for an appointment in Wyoming. He was appointed receiver of public moneys at Evanston in June, 1885, but after visiting Wyoming in September of that year, declined the position, and asked for the registership of the United States land office at Cheyenne. He was immediately appointed, and entered upon his duties October 21, 1885, being the youngest register in the service. As prior to taking up his official residence in Wyoming, Mr. Wilson had been appointed annual orator of the Mississippi Press association, he returned to fulfill his engagement, and at the annual session of that body at West Point, in May, 1886, delivered




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