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 37

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 37

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Columbia, the county seat of Marion county, was long the only town within its borders. Richburgh, Purvis and Piotona, on the Northeastern railroad have developed within the past few years and are advancing with much rapidity. Purvis has three hundred and twenty- five population, Columbia about two hundred. The latter has no railway facilities, but is pleasantly situated on the west shore of the Pearl river a little north of the center of the eastern half of the county. Its business and professional men take high rank and it is well supplied with churches and schools.

242

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

CHAPTER IX.

THE PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI, WITH A CURSORY GLANCE AT THE LITERATURE OF THE STATE.

HE press of Mississippi, in a most remarkable manner, has kept in advance of the actual wants and necessities of the people, and the enterprise, progress and stability of the state. The publishers, printers and editors, from the very year of the introduction of the first wooden hand printing press to the present day, with all its rapid, complicated and ponderous hand and steam printing machinery, and telegraph and railroad facilities, have been men of a very high order of intellect, genius and perseverance, men of remarkable sprightliness, patriotism, determination and courage, men who have adorned in all the walks of life the communities in which their lots have been cast, men who have contributed most wonderfully to the onward march of the state and its rapid advancement in all that consti- tutes true greatness and nobility.

At the early period (we may say, indeed, from 1800 to 1860) the village and town printer, or editor, as he was usually termed, was a man of all work in and about the newspaper print- ing office. That is to say, he was, almost invariably, printer, publisher, reporter, business manager and editor, all combined. The cities were the only exceptions to this rule. In the cities, the editors were usually resident lawyers, temporarily called to lead a campaign, or prospective or actual candidates for official positions; but it is true that the best equipped and most successful editors of the early times were from the ranks of the men who came into the state from other sections of the Union, and worked their way from the printing office proper to the editorial room and into the editorial harness. We assert it as a truth, and, in our judgment, the statement must be admitted as a truth by all who passed through any number of the years of the early times, that there was a something about the old-time news- paper printing office which suddenly transformed the intelligent, observing, industrious and conscientious youth connected therewith, however slight may have been his previous oppor- tunities, into the accomplished, self-reliant and successful editor, the most useful and valued citizen, the highly popular and most substantial public servant.

The first printing press introduced into what is now known as the state of Mississippi, was brought here by Mr. Andrew Marschalk, between the years 1790 and 1800. Mr. Mars- chalk was a Marylander by birth, and as an ensign, came down the Mississippi river with the first detachment of United States troops that appeared after the withdrawal of the Spanish authorities. The detachment to which he belonged was on duty for some years, we believe, on the river at and between the first rude forts constructed by our government at the points now known as Vicksburg and Natchez. The press was quite diminutive, and was made of. mahogany, and came originally from London, England. Its first work in this country was

243

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

turned out at Walnut Hill, or Fort Nogales (now the city of Vicksburg), and was a song, printed at the full capacity of the press, which was 4x6 inches. Soon after this, say in 1800, Mr. Marsckalk himself built a press, a larger press, no doubt using a part of the London press in its construction-one capable of printing a foolscap sheet, 11x14 inches, and upon this large, Mississippi manufactured press was printed at Natchez the territorial laws soon after the organization of Mississippi territory. At no distant day Mr. Marschalk sold this press to one B. M. Stokes, who at once commenced the publication at Natchez, on a foolscap sheet, of the first newspaper published and printed in what is now known as the state of Mis- sissippi, and it was called the Mississippi Gazette.

The Mississippi Gazette proved quite a success supplying " a want long felt," and the field enlarging, and there being a demand for a larger sheet, and the facilities having increased, Robert Green reached Natchez, from Baltimore, Md., with a printing press, and another paper was soon established, but its life was short. Then, as now, the business could be overdone, and newspaper enterprises, however deserving, could not in every case be crowned with suc- cess. With the declining fortunes of Mr. Green's journal, Mr. Marschalk again entered the field, and with largely increased facilities, and issued at Natchez, the Mississippi Herald, in the year 1802 or 1803-say about five years after the organization of the territory, and four- teen years before the admission of Mississippi as a state into the Federal Union. And soon after the appearance of the Herald, came the Halcyon, the Messenger, and other papers, all manifesting industry and talent; in almost every instance, however, they proved unsuccess- ful ventures, but they supplied the famishing people with what they craved, viz .: Political reading as well as the news not only about their homes but from the old states from which they had come.

In 1810, or thereabouts, John A. Winn, a man of education and business energy, estab- lished the Chronicle at Natchez, and a year or two later appeared a paper, also at Natchez, under the management of Peter Isler, who, years afterward, established a paper at Jackson. Then came the Ariel, then the Natchez, and others followed, not only in Natchez, but in the towns in the adjacent counties. The Woodville Republican, if we are not mistaken, was established about 1812. A paper is still published carrying that name.

From 1810 to 1820, as from the first, very nearly all the printers, as well as very nearly all the printing material in the territory, remained at Natchez, which was then, as for many subsequent years, the overshadowing and ruling locality-the center of intelligence, wealth, political power and influence-and then and there commenced the fierce political battles for which Mississippi has ever been noted.

The Natchez, a journal under the management of James H. Cook, soon after its estab- lishment became a power in the state, bringing to its political views many of the most prominent, influential and wealthy men of what was then known as the Natchez country, which embraced perhaps a half dozen of the counties which now constitute the extreme southwestern corner of the state. In time it became the champion of what was known as the John Quincy Adams party-the forerunner of what was subsequently known as the whig party-and, consequently, the opponent of Gen. Andrew Jackson. There were then but few, very few, native Mississippians, the population consisting almost exclusively of enterprising and ardent young men, immigrants from the states north and east; some of them mere adventurers, and men of desperate fortunes, but for the most part true men, and men of unblemished character and great intelligence and brilliancy. The two political parties were well arrayed against each other as early as 1822, and very soon the Statesman appeared as the exponent and defender of the Jackson party, established by Mr. Marschalk (the same

244

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

who brought into the country the first printing press), with distinguished and able gentlemen presiding over the editorial columns. The political fight was very warm and decided from the beginning, and all intelligent citizens at once became politicians. As years rolled along Col. I. F. H. Claiborne (afterward a member of congress) became its editor, and again Robert J. Walker (afterward United States senator, secretary of the treasury, etc.).

During this interesting period (1820 to 1830) the newspaper press commenced pushing its way with surprising rapidity into the interior of the state, north and east, keeping pace with, if not leading, the tide of immigration as it appeared in those early times. The delight- ful climate, the virgin soil of unequaled virtue for cotton and other agricultural productions, the multiplicity of navigable streams (for the small flat boats of the early times) and the very superior class of men who were pushing forward and making settlements in every part of the state, combined to bring Mississippi to the front in a most enviable light, and soon the state commenced filling up with wonderful rapidity for those early times, and with highly intelli- gent, wealthy and substantial men from all the old states, east to the Atlantic and north to the lakes, and especially from Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, etc., who, with their slaves, at once commenced opening up the wilderness, removing impediments, organiz- ing new counties, building courthouses and establishing newspapers of the most sprightly character. The newspapers were, without exception, political journals, all specially charged with politics, personal, state and Federal, outspoken and defiant for Jackson or Adams, for Clay or Van Buren, whig or democratic. There was no Northern or Southern party then, no talk of anti-slavery or secession. It is true, at a great distance there was a cloud, about the size of a man's hand, which threatened nullification, but the idea found no lodgment among the then Union-loving people of Mississippi.

At an early day the Mississippi Free Trader was established at Natchez, by Besancon and others, with Colonel Claiborne and Forbes as editors, and at once assumed the position as the leading Jackson or democratic paper of the state, and continued to hold that proud position for many years. And with the Free Trader came very soon the Natchez Courier, as the exponent of the gallant old Henry Clay or whig party. And very soon other bright, influential and forcible journals followed, always political, with eminent men as editors among whom were Black, Mellen, Van Winkle, Baldwin, Risk, Duffield, Prewitt, Hillyer, etc, Like the Free Trader the Courier remained a power in the state until about 1860.

The press assumed its proper position at Vicksburg during this period. Here the first press was planted (the wooden one brought from England by Mr. Marschalk), and here was received and operated many years afterward the first power press introduced into the state. The Republican, the Advocate, the Mississippian, the Sentinel, the Register, the Sun, and others, led the Jackson or democratic hosts, with such editors as Fall, Hagan, Green, Jenkins, Jones, Roy, Wood, McCallum and others; while the grand old party led by Henry Clay was represented at different times by papers of very superior ability and nerve and of wonderful resources and vitality. The Whig continued from its establishment (by Marma- duke Shannon), one of the leading journals of the state, if not of the Southwest, until the entire establishment was destroyed by fire in 1863. Shannon and Henderson were its founders, and Shannon continued as its publisher to its last isssue. It was for a considerable period, between 1840 and 1860, the only daily paper in the state, and its influence was always very great. It had as its editors, at different times, some of the brighest editorial lights of the Southwest, some of whom we may name: Griffin, Tyler, McCardle, Hammet, A. H. Arthur, R. Arthur, Carnes, Brooks, Partridge, etc.

Between 1830 and 1840 came the Vicksburg Mississippian, with Gen. H. S. Foote (after-

245

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

ward governor and United States senator), and his brother-in-law, F. H. Catlett, as editors and publishers. They were both Virginians, and both lawyers, having little, if any, previous knowledge of the publishing business. In a year or two they moved their paper to Clinton, Hinds county, and from there it soon found its way to Jackson, which had become the state capital, and soon it became one of the leading democratic papers of the state, which position it continued to hold until 1862. The Southern Intelligencer, the True Issue, the Constitution- alist, the Southern, and sundry other creditable journals appeared at Vicksburg during the same period, with McCreery, Hurst, Miller, Buck, McCardle and others as editors, but their existence was temporary.

Jackson, now the state capital, sprang into existence and importance long after the set- tlements made at Natchez and Vicksburg. Indeed, for years after the first printing presses were operated at the points named, the country where Jackson now stands in all its beauty, prosperity and importance, was a howling wilderness and the property of the red man, and the red man was its occupant. The Anglo-Saxon put in his appearance there between 1820 and 1830, and true to his character and customs, he brought with him the great civilizer and christianizer, the political newspaper. Many were the journalistic ventures, which came with its early history, and which continued until about the time of the Civil war. The Mississippian as the organ of the democratic party, with Foote, the Howards, Price, Fall, Barksdale and perhaps others, as editors, was ever a vigorous and popular journal and ever enjoyed the patronage of the democratic party. It ever gave a hearty support to McNutt, Brown, Jeffer- son Davis, McRae and the other leaders of the party, and ever enjoyed a large patronage, which must have been highly remunerative.

The Southern, the Flag of the Union and two or three other journals, under the editorial management of A. R. Johnston, Thomas Palmer, Dr. Pickett, H. V. Barr, Colonel Purdom and others, ever commanded the admiration and generous support of the old whig party, giving their support to Prentiss, Guion, Tompkins, Bingaman and a host of other leaders in opposition to General Jackson. While the Reformer, under the control of the Smythes, with the brilliant John Marshall as editor, stood very high in the affections of both of the political parties of its day.

The first power printing press in Jackson was brought in by Price & Fall, about 1848; and another was introduced in January, 1852, by Thomas Palmer, for the purpose of execut- ing public work (The Flag of the Union, Mr. Palmer's paper at that time), having been elected state printer by the union-whig legislature of that year.

The Eastern Clarion was established at Paulding, Jasper county, between 1830 and 1840, with John I. McRae (afterward governor and member of congress) as editor. Soon, however, it passed into the hands of Simeon R. Adams, who made it a power, not only in east Mississippi, but throughout the state, drawing not only a tremendous circulation, for that period, but an influence which was coextensive with the state, and freely acknowledged at all hands. Under the leadership and superior tactics of the Clarion east Mississippi became the political power of the state, and for some years had but to assert its wants and they were cheerfully accorded. Upon the death of Mr. Adams, about the year 1859 or 1860, the Clarion was bought by Col. J. J. Shannon, who removed it to Meridian about 1862, and in 1865 or 1866 it was removed to Jackson, where it is now, as a part of the Clarion-Ledger, under the control of Messrs. I. L. Power and R. H. Henry. Mr. Shannon continues his editorial labors in east Mississippi.

Port Gibson was settled at a very early period, and was a growing and thriving town when Mississippi territory was admitted into the union as a state, in 1817, and when by far

246

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

the larger portion of the territory was inhabited by the red man. The printing press was put in motion there before the state was organized, and first-class papers have been issued there from the first, condueted by Marschalk, Mason, Morris, etc.

The first paper at Macon, Noxubee county, on the Alabama border, was established in 1836 and was called the Mississippi Star. It was established by A. G. Horn, afterward of the Meridian Mercury, a gentleman of very superior literary attainments and wonderful per- severance. He died but a few years ago.

The three decades which we are now endeavoring to trace (1830 to 1860) were prolific of political papers. They appeared as if by magic, in every village, town and city in every part of the state from the great river to the Alabama line, and from the Tennessee border to the gulf. The mania for banking, the excitement as to railroads, the building of new towns (real as well as visionary towns), the purchase of the land from the Chickasaws and Choc- taws, the creation of new counties, the demand throughout the world for more eotton, the rapidly increasing population through emigration from the old states as well as from Europe, the opening of the delta of the Mississippi with its virgin lands of truly wonderful produetiveness, with the extraordinary political contests of 1840, 1850, 1851 and 1860, no doubt combined to cause the extraordinary increase in the number of publie journals, and to build up and strengthen those already long established. During the bank period, especially, from 1836 to 1840, the wildest schemes for villages and towns and cities were planned, and every one had its newspaper, while the whole state resounded with the woodsman's ax and the plowman's merry song. No other people on the continent, perhaps, were ever so prosperous as were the people of Mississippi from 1845 to 1860, and it was a substantial and solid pros- perity; and the press was in its glory.

Holly Springs, Columbus, Aberdeen, Coffeeville, Canton, Hernando, Oxford, Yazoo City, Carrollton and Lexington, in the northern part of the state, and Liberty, Woodville, Monti- cello, Fayette and various others, then mere villages, in the southern counties, came to the front, and in each was planted one or more printing presses, and from them were issued creditable journals, brimful of political matter, state and Federal. There was no use for neutral or independent papers in those stirring times, for the public appetite craved polities, polities only, in good column articles, at the hand of the newspaper.

Among the towns hewn out of the high hills and dense pine forests at this period (be- tween 1830 and 1840), was Raymond, for the county seat of Hinds county. The geograph- ieal center of the county was found, and there a courthouse was to be built, and Raymond was the name taken, and Raymond at onee assumed an air of importanee, and a very con- siderable town arose from the thick forest, as if by magic, and to the prospective city at once removed a number of the ablest young lawyers of the state. Among them were H. S. Foote, Anderson Hutchison, A. R. Johnston, T. J. Wharton, E. W. F. Sloan, John Shelton, William M. Rives, etc., and for a decade or more the sessions of the court in Raymond had a bar from abroad, consisting of S. S. Prentiss, Powhattan Ellis, Governor McNutt, P. W. Tompkins, W. A. Lake, John I. Guion, Judge Sharkey, and other men of like repute. Before a house was fully completed a printing press was brought in, and the Public Echo, by S. T. King, a 10x12-inch sheet, was issued, which was succeeded, in 1836, by the Raymond Times, by King & Dabney; which gave place, in 1841, to the Southwestern Farmer, by King, North, Jenkins & Phillips; which gave place, in 1844, to the Raymond Gazette, by George W. Harper and S. T. King. In 1852 King retired, and Harper continued as publisher and editor until 1884-making an uninterrupted editorship of forty years by George W. Harper -when he turned the establishment over to his son, Samuel D. Harper, who had been engaged

247

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

in the office since 1870, by whom it is still edited and published-perhaps the oldest con- tinuously published paper in the state. During its publication the office was once destroyed by fire (1859), and once by General Grant's invading army (1863). Within the same time Raymond had the Comet, the Snag Boat, the Fencible, and the Young Christian, all of which were short lived.

Brandon, Rankin county, came to the surface as a progressive town about the year 1830. Andrew Harper established a creditable newspaper there, which in 1852, became the prop- erty of A. J. Frantz, who continnes its publication to this day, having breasted triumphantly all the storms which have howled so fiercely and so unmercifully around him. A number of other papers have appeared in Brandon since the establishment of the Republican, some before the Civil war, and some since the war, but they have fallen by the wayside.

During the war period, 1860 to 1865, the fortunes of the newspaper press in Mississippi were most trying and overwhelming. The first great difficulty that presented itself was the want of practical printers-men to set the type, work the press, and manage the office. Printers, of all classes of American citizens, are eminent when the country needs friends and protection, when patriotism calls, when honor is at stake. It is not strange, then, that when the drums beat for volunteers in 1861, that very nearly every able-bodied printer was anxious to enroll; that the printers, almost to a man, shouldered muskets and fell into line, announcing their readiness and anxiety to march instantly for the hottest of the fight. Very nearly every printing office in the state was at once without a working force, while many were left utterly prostrate-editors, printers, pressmen, devils, and all, having taken up arms in defense of their beloved Southland. And very soon a greater difficulty presented itself. Females and children could in time acquire some knowledge of type-setting and the routine work of the small printing office-but paper, paper on which to print-was soon the great overshadowing want. It could not be obtained. It was not in the Confederacy in anything like a sufficient supply-it could not be manufactured here, for the material was wanting and the machinery was not within reach. It could not be brought from abroad, for the North would not supply it, nor would the Northern gunboats allow it to be brought from foreign countries. Frequently were papers seen in 1863 and 1864 printed on coarse brown wrapping paper, on common wall paper, on sheets torn from large blank books, etc. The invading armies, too, contributed largely to the suppression of the newspapers. The print- ing offices, as the invading armies came upon them, were pretty generally destroyed, some by fire and some by ordinary means of destruction. We do not now remember that, when the war closed, April, 1865, there was a legitimate newspaper in the state in regular publi- cation. The invaders had swept the field, had blotted out the newspaper press, and in a manner before nnheard of in the annals of civilized warfare. For instance, an Iowa regi- ment was quartered for a day or two (in 1863) in Raymond. Some of its men proceeded at once to the village printing office, which they found utterly unprotected. They used the material for their own purposes, and then dumped it into an adjacent well, forty feet deep! Other printing offices, as they encountered them on their onward march, were treated even more harshly.

With the brushing away in 1866 of the terrible and fearful effects of the war, no people in the state went to work more energetically and efficiently than the journalists, editors, pub- lishers and printers, and no industry was guided by more skillful hands, more earnest desire, or was more successful. The old papers, for the most part (at least in name), were permitted to slumber, and new papers came bristling forth from almost every town and city of the state, north, sonth, east and west. New type, new and improved printing machinery, and new edit-

248

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

ors (for the most part), had the field, and patriotically and well did they improve the oppor- tunity afforded. Jackson, Vicksburg, Natchez, Meridian, and the other cities of the state, especially, at once came up abreast with the cities of the surrounding states, issuing sheets which, in their contents, compared most favorably with any in the land, and for a time all were highly successful as literary, political and pecuniary ventures. At Jackson, there was the Mississippian, by Yerger; the Clarion, by Shannon; the Standard, by Power, Hamilton and Jones, with A. R. Johnson as editor, and others. At Vicksburg, there was the Herald, by Swords and Partridge; the Times, by McCardle, Manlove and H. Shannon. At Natchez, there was the Democrat, by Botto; the Courier, by Hillyer, and others; at Meridian, the Mercury, Tropic, etc. And in every other part of the state the press was up with, if not far ahead of, all other enterprises, and gallantly battling for the rights of the people, for the rights of the state, and for its favorites for the public offices.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 37

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