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 8

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 8

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The principal topics that have occupied the attention of the Grand lodge of late years, are the saloon question and the establishment of a Masonic widows and orphans' home. A regulation has been adopted that no saloonkeeper can become a member of a Masonic lodge. A fund of several thousand dollars has already been collected toward establishing and endow- ing a home, and the interest in that behalf is steadily increasing. The Masons of Mississippi have not only the will, but the ability to thus provide for the shelter and support of the des- titute widows and orphans of their brethren.

The officers of the Grand lodge for 1891 are: John M. Ware, grand master; J. L. Spinks, deputy grand master; W. A. Roane, senior grand warden; Isaac T. Hart, junior grand warden; Rev. J. A. Bowen, grand chaplain; R. B. Brannin, grand lecturer; A. P. Barry, grand treasurer; J. L. Power, grand secretary; C. N. Simpson, senior grand deacon; W. R. Woods, junior grand deacon; John Y. Murry, Jr., grand marshal; S. G. Stern, grand sword bearer; A. G. Wood, grand pursuivant; Henry Strauss, grand tyler.

The standing committees are: Law and jurisprudence, Frederic Speed, John F. McCor- mick, M. M. Evans; complaints and appeals, Frank Burkitt, John Y. Murry, James T. Harrison; finance and printing, William G. Paxton, E. G. DeLap, James H. Duke; state of the craft, P. M. Savery, chairman; foreign correspondence reporter, Rev. A. H. Barkley.

Pursuant to dispensation issued by the deputy general grand high priest of the General Grand chapter of the United States, dated at Baltimore March 12, 1846, the representatives of four chapters assembled in Vicksburg May 18, 1846, and organized the Grand chapter of Mississippi. Vicksburg chapter No. 3 was represented by Thomas J. Harper, Thomas Rigby and James Trowbridge; Columbus No. 4, by N. E. Goodwin; Wilson No. 5, by J. B. Day; Jackson No. 6, by A. Hutchinson, William Wing and Robert Hughes. The grand officers elected were: B. S. Tappan, grand high priest; A. Hutchinson, deputy grand high priest; Charles H. Abert, grand king; William F. Stearns, grand scribe; William Wing, grand secre- tary; Thomas J. Harper, grand treasurer; T. C. Thornton, grand chaplain; J. Trowbridge, grand marshal.

The first chapter organized in Mississippi was at Port Gibson, chartered September 15, 1826. A charter was issued for a chapter in Vicksburg September 17, 1841, and dispensations for chapters in Holly Springs October 30, 1841, Columbus February 7, 1842, Jackson August 28, 1843, which were chartered September 12, 1844.

The Grand chapter, like the Grand lodge, moved serenely along until its labors were interrupted by the Civil war. There were no sessions in 1862 or 1863. The convocations of 1864 and 1865 were held at Columbus, and the proceedings were printed on " Confederate" paper.

There have been one hundred and fourteen charters issued by the Grand chapter. The number in force in 1890 was forty-four, embracing a membership of eleven hundred and eighty. Its highest membership was in 1869-twenty-five hundred and sixty-five in seventy- six chapters.

The grand high priests from 1846 to 1891 are as follows: Benjamin S. Tappan, 1846-7; Walker Brooke, 1848; William H. Stevens, 1849; T. C. Tupper, 1850; Charles Scott. 1851; Charles S. Spann, 1852; A. V. Rowe, 1853; William S. Patton, 1854; William R. Cannon, 1855; William Cothran, 1856; James M. Howry, 1857; Amos R. Johnston, 1858;

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

M. S. Ward, 1859; Giles M. Hillyer, 1860; S. H. Johnson, 1861-4; George T. Stain- back, 1865; William S. Patton, 1866; William D. Ferriss, 1867; J. O. Lusher, 1868; George D. Fee, 1869; R. B. Mayes, 1870; Charles T. Bond, 1871; H. C. Robinson, 1872; George R. Fearn, 1873-4; John Y. Murry, 1875; Harvey W. Walter, 1876-7; John S. Jones, 1878; Robert B. Brannin, 1879; Frederic Speed, 1880-81; William Richards, 1882; B. T. Kimbrough, 1883; William French, 1884; S. C. Conley, 1885; Richard P. Bowen, 1886; Charles T. Chamberlain, 1887; N. W. Bouton, 1888; A. D. Bailey, 1889; W. R. Trigg, 1890; P. M. Savery, 1891.

The Grand chapter and Grand council adopted what has been termed "the Merger," or " Mississippi plan," by which the cryptic degrees were transferred to and conferred in the chapter. This created some disturbance in the General Grand chapter and General Grand council-the course of the Mississippi companions having been ably vindicated in the General Grand bodies by Companions Harvey W. Walter, James M. Howry and Frederic Speed. After an experience of twelve years, the " Merger" was a generally admitted failure, and, by common consent, the Grand council was reorganized in February, 1889, the Grand chapter resigning all control of the degrees of royal and select master.

The officers of the Grand chapter for 1891 are: P. M. Savery, grand high priest; J. K. McLeod, deputy grand high priest; Frank Burkitt, grand king; William Starling, grand scribe; Rev. J. A. Bowen, grand chaplain; A. P. Barry, grand treasurer; J. L. Power, grand secretary; G. A. Logan, grand captain of the host; G. J. Bahin, grand principal sojourner; James T. Harrison, grand royal arch captain; Hiram Hood, grand master third vail; M. M. Evans, grand master second vail; S. R. Lamb, grand master first vail; Henry Strauss, grand sentinel. The present grand treasurer has been in office since 1869, and grand secretary since 1870.

A convention of Councils of Royal and Select Masters was held at Natchez, January 2, 1856, by the mandate of the Grand Council of the Princes of Jerusalem of the state of Missis- sippi. This convention drafted a constitution, which was approved by the said Grand Council of Princes of Jerusalem.

The councils represented in the convention were: Natchez No. 1, E. Craig; Vicksburg No. 7, B. Springer, William Middleton; Cayuga No. 10, William R. Lackey; Lexington No. 26, William P. Mellen, William A. McMillion.

The convention adjourned to meet at Vicksburg, January 18, 1856, adopted the consti- tution, and on the day following organized the Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of the state of Mississippi by the election and installation of grand officers.

On January 26, 1856, the Grand council held an adjourned convention, when the formal ratification and confirmation of the above proceedings by the Grand Council of the Princes of Jerusalem, of the state of Mississippi, and their grant and conveyance of jurisdiction of these degrees, dated at their Grand Orient in Natchez, January 23, 1856, were presented, received and filed.

A pamphlet of thirteen pages, printed in 1855, gives the proceedings of a meeting of Royal and Select Masters, held in the Masonic hall, at the city of Jackson, January 10, 1854, when a Grand council of Royal and Select Masters was formed. The councils at Jackson, Lexington and Holly Springs were represented, and twenty-six other Royal and Select Mas- ters were present, several of them very prominent in the craft of that day: Howry, Brooke, Cannon, Tupper, Barrows, Foute and others. The officers elected were T. C. Tupper, thrice illustrious grand master; Walker Brooke, illustrious deputy grand master; William R. Cannon, principal conductor of the work; William H. McCargo; captain of the guard; L. V. Dixon, recorder; Burton Yandel, treasurer; G. W. Johnson, sentinel.

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

The next assembly was held in Jackson, January 11, 1855. Seven councils were 1 sented. A constitution was adopted. Amos R. Johnston was elected thrice illustrious ; master.

This appears to be the last of this organization, which was superseded by the ( council formed in January, 1856, under the auspices of the Grand Council of Print Jerusalem.

The most puissant grand masters, from organization to 1891, are: Benjamin Spr 1856; William P. Mellen, 1857; Jacob F. Foute, 1858; Daniel Rosser, 1859; William ran, 1860; Jacob F. Foute, 1861; William S. Patton, 1864-5; James M. Howry, 1866; Lusher, 1867; Giles M. Hillyer, 1868; Morris Cook, 1869; B. S. Trice, 1870-72; E. G De Lap, 1873; Harvey W. Walter, 1874-5; P. M. Savery, 1876 [merged after 1876]; iam Richards, 1889; Frederic Speed, 1890-91. There were no sessions in 1861 and The highest membership was reached in 1866, nine hundred and eighty-five in fort councils. The total membership, December 27, 1890, was one hundred and eighty-n seven councils. The rite has beauties that will not fail to enlist the zealous and intel of the royal craft in its dissemination.

There are, at this writing, seventy-eight thousand eight hundred and eighteen KI Templar in eight hundred and forty-three commanderies in the United States. The ( commandery of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is the senior grand body, having organized May 6, 1805. Mississippi ranks twelfth as to age, having been organized Ja. 21, 1857, under letters of authority from Grand Master W. B. Hubbard, dated Colu: Ohio, December 22, 1856. Three commanderies were represented, as follows: Missi No. 1, Sirs Thomas Palmer, E. P. Russell, Thomas W. Caskey; Magnolia No. 2, Sirs G P. Crump, Benjamin S. Tappan, Christopher A. Manlove; Lexington No. 3, W H. Dyson, William A. McMillion, A. V. Rowe. A constitution was adopted on the following.

There were no grand conclaves in 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865. In January, 1866, whe Grand commandery assembled in Vicksburg, Grand Commander Tappan made appro and pathetic reference to the four years of pilgrimage that severely tested the fait constancy of those who endured it; and after fitting reference to the chivalrous and kn: dead, he said: "We once more, knights and companions of our order, set our watche pitch our tents around the hallowed temple of Zion. The civil convulsions and the : conflicts through which we have passed have but proved the constancy of our faith i great principles upon which that temple is founded, and that which will make it as perm as the religion it represents, and upon which, in every great and unlooked-for emerg like that which has so long suspended the functions of our Grand commandery, it is our ilege to look for aid."

The grand commanders, from organization, are: William H. Stevens, 1857; Geor Crump, 1858; Giles M. Hillyer, 1859; Harvey W. Walter, 1860; Benjamin S. Tappan, Edward Lea, 1866; Christopher A. Manlove, 1867; Fleet C. Mercer, 1868; John K. F. 1869; Charles T. Bond, 1870; William S. Patton, 1871; E. George DeLap, 1872; Henry, 1873; P. M. Savery, 1874; Gideon W. Cox, 1875; Oliver Clifton, 1876; Willi: Fairchild, 1877; William G. Paxton, 1878; Charles M. Erwin, 1879; William G. Benl 1880; William French, 1881; James T. Meade, 1882; H. M. Romberger, 1883: W. P. T. 1884; John H. Gordon, 1885; B. A. Vaughan, 1886; N. S. Walker, 1887; Frederic S 1888-9; James J. Hayes, 1890; J. E. Leigh, 1891.

The annual conclaves are held at the same place as Grand lodge, and on the Tu preceding.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

The officers for 1891 are: J. E. Leigh, grand commander; W. A. Bodenhamer, deputy grand commander; S. W. Ferguson, grand generalissimo; J. C. French, grand captain of the guard; Rev. William Cross, grand prelate; James H. Gunning, grand senior warden; Frank Burkitt, grand junior warden; G. J. Bahin, grand treasurer; J. L. Power, grand recorder; King Dorwart, grand standard bearer; J. R. McIntosh, grand sword bearer; T. A. Teasdale, grand warder; C. W. Bolton, grand captain of the guard.

There are ten commanderies, with a membership of three hundred and twenty.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows, on December 31, 1889, had a total lodge mem- bership in the United States of six hundred and thirty-four thousand three hundred and thirty-five, an increase over the previous year of thirty thousand seven hundred and ninety- eight; and the relief distributed amounted to nearly $3,000,000. It is one of the great benevolent forces of the world, and, including the " Manchester Unity" in England, and membership of the order in other parts of the world, makes a grand fraternal host of nearly one and one-half million. In some of the Eastern and Western states it exceeds all other fraternal associations in numbers, but it has not been so popular or prosperous in the South- west.

Pursuant to a charter granted by the Grand lodge of the United States to Past Grands M. Ruffner, William Dale, E. P. Pollard, S. L. Goddard, William Cannon, Joseph B. Robinson and William S. Robinson, contributing members of Mississippi lodge No. 1, and Washington lodge No. 2, both at Natchez, the Grand lodge of Mississippi was organized in that city on May 6, 1836, when Mr. Ruffner was elected grand master. The organization was conducted and the officers installed by Past Grand Sire Thomas Wildey, who founded the order in the United States on February 26, 1819. He appears to have taken a special interest in planting the order in Mississippi, and that his fostering care was appreciated by the Grand lodge is shown by the fact that he was its "permanent " grand representative for a number of years. He communicated frequently with the Grand lodge, and his recommenda- tion always had great weight.

The Grand lodge, for several years, indulged in quarterly communications, but the quarterlies were discontinued as new lodges were established throughout the state. The order appears to have attained its greatest strength in the second term in 1860, when there were fifty-seven working lodges, a total membership of seventeen hundred and ten, two hundred and eighty-one initiations, and a total revenue of $14,127.69. There were no sessions in 1863, 1864 or 1865, so that the session in Meridian in May, 1891, was the fiftieth session and the fifty-third year of the order in Mississippi. On December 31, 1890, there were twenty-eight working lodges, with a total membership of nine hundred and ninety-four, but when the Grand lodge met in May following, the membership exceeded one thousand, so that the Grand lodge was again entitled to two representatives in the Sovereign Grand lodge. The order was greatly revived in the state in 1890, through the efforts of Grand Master Wiley N. Nash.

Its grand masters have been: M. Ruffner, William Doyle, Benjamin Walker, S. Halsey, George J. Dicks, Richard Griffith, S. B. Newman, J. R. Stockman, William H. Brown, Thomas Reed, D. N. Barrows, C. H. Stone, William Crutcher, A. M. Foute, N. G. Bryson, J. K. Connelly, W. A. Strong, A. H. Arthur, L. K. Barber, John L. Milton, H. L. Bailey, William Wyman, A. E. Love, J. P. Hawks, R. B. Mayes, C. Parish, O. T. Keeler, S. C. Cochran, George Torrey, G. K. Birchett, Ira J. Carter, Isaac T. Hart, J. S. Cain, H. S. Van Eaton, D. P. Black, R. L. Saunders, A. B. Wagner, J. H. Mckenzie, Joseph Hirsh, T. J. Hanes, W. J. Bradshaw, J. L. Power, G. W. Trimble, Isaac D. Blumenthal, H.

C.C. Hulehals 3

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

C. Roberts, James C. Lamkin, William M. Strickland, Amos Burnett, Robert C. Patty, Wiley N. Nash. Most of these have joined the " great majority," a few have been dropped, and fifteen remain affiliated with the order. The grand master for 1891 is J. T. Thomas, of Grenada, and the grand secretary is Hon. George G. Dillard, of Macon. The session of 1892 is to be held at Holly Springs, May 3.

The saying, " Tall oaks from little acorns grow," has been forcibly illustrated in the remarkable history of the great and growing fraternity, the Knights of Honor. Organized in the city of Louisville, Ky., on June 30, 1873, with seventeen members, it had a total strength on April 1, 1891, of one hundred and thirty-eight thousand and twenty-nine; the number of subordinate lodges being two thousand five hundred and seventy, and thirty-six grand lodges. The death benefits paid during its first year amounted to $1,093.65; the death benefits paid for the year 1890 amounted to 83,848,500; the total benefits paid from organization to June 1, 1891, $34,787,034.26; the value of certificates outstanding, $256,015,000.

At the fourteenth annual session of the Grand lodge of Mississippi, August 25, 1891, the total membership in the state was six thousand and forty, a net gain of three hundred and thirty-eight on preceding year. Number of lodges, one hundred and twenty-four, six having been instituted during year. There were sixty-eight deaths during the year and the benefits paid families amounted to $135,000. Total deaths in Mississippi since organi- zation of Grand lodge, April, 1891, seven hundred and eighty-three; total benefits for same period, $1,566,000. It is fair to presume that within the next five years the membership will reach ten thousand. It is claimed that the order is stronger in Mississippi, in proportion to white population, than in any other state in the Union. There were more applications filed at the office of the supreme reporter for the month ending July 11, 1891, than from any other state, except New York and Texas.

Hon. George G. Dillard, of Macon, is grand dictator; E. W. Smith, Hernando, grand reporter.

The order of the Knights & Ladies of Honor was organized in 1878. Its membership on June 30 of that year was nineteen hundred and twenty-five. Its membership December 31, 1890, reached sixty-seven thousand five hundred and forty-eight; benefits paid to September 1, 1891, $5,875,714.62. The benefits are from $500 to $3,000, according to division. Females are admitted on same terms as men, and it has been demonstrated that females are better risks than males. It is not necessary now, as formerly, that a person should be a Knight of Honor, or the female relative of such, in order to become a member of the Knights and Ladies of Honor; and hence the rapid growth of the order during the last few years. Mississippi had a total membership of one thousand eight hundred and eighty- one on July 1, 1891. There were twenty-eight deaths during the year ending that date, and the beneficiaries received the sum of $47,000.

The Grand lodge meets annually, in July, and the representatives and grand officers numbered at last session about seventy gentlemen and ladies. Hon. Thomas J. Wood, of Starkville, is grand protector for 1891-2; Mrs. O. A. Hastings, Port Gibson, grand secretary.

The great beneficial order, the American Legion of Honor, was organized in 1878, had a membership on January 1, 1891, of sixty-two thousand five hundred and seventy-four, and paid benefits to that date to the amount of $17,956,278.21. The benefits range from $500 to $5,000. It has twenty-seven councils in Mississippi, with a membership of about twelve hundred. It is among the most prompt of the benevolent orders in paying death losses. It has, as yet, no state organization.

The very popular benevolent order, the Knights of Pythias, is growing rapidly in Mis- D

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

sissippi. On December 31, 1890, its total membership was three thousand one hundred and eleven; lodges, fifty-six. The endowment rank has about one thousand two hundred mem- bers, carrying an insurance of over $3,200,000. The order in the state has paid to the endow- ment rank $387,491.10, and received in death benefits $456,107. This order, on December 31, 1889, had a total membership in the United States of two hundred and sixty-three thou- sand eight hundred and forty-seven; subordinate lodges, three thousand seven hundred and twenty-four. The amount paid for relief during that year reached the magnificent sum of $789,455.53. Rev. William Cross, Greenville, grand chancellor; Joseph L. Maganos, Vicks- burg, grand keeper of records and seals for 1891-2.

The Ancient Order of United Workmen is also being introduced into the state, and has strong lodges in Jackson and other places.

CHAPTER IV. -

WATER TRANSPORTATION, LEVEES, ETC.

HE friction of mind against mind is one of the greatest sources of our civilization, and nothing produces this friction so much as facile means of transportation, and nothing intensifies it so much as any means of greater rapidity in such intercommunication. This feature of rapidity and the other of mere facility may each be easily marked, by the most casual student of civilizing influences, as the chief characteristics that distinguish our country and our century from other countries, and centuries now past. The amazing growth of "the great republic" and the century that has been called the " age of steam," "the age of electricity," "the railway age," "the age of iron and steel," "the age of invention," "the age of rapid transit," "the century of ocean greyhounds," and what not, springs from this one source of rapid transportation to a far greater degree than from any other direct cause. A great story of civilization lies in the simple and homely facts: A man walks about three miles an hour; a horse trots about seven miles an hour; a steamboat averages about eighteen miles an hour; and a railway train reaches near to sixty miles an hour. Civiliza- tion has moved in like manner.

But if variations in rapidity of transport make such stupendous differences in immediate results, variations in facility are equally great. The most cursory glance at the several continents will show this feature of facility of intercommunication, when climate does not interfere, to be a very practical measure of the civilization of that continent; the greater the facility of intercommunication-natural, especially-the greater the civilization. Indeed, the two continents most widely separated in degree of civilization, Europe and Africa, are also the best and worst illustrations of facility of intercommunication, although adjoining one another, and the latter even having centuries of advantage in seeds of advancement. Whatever difference of views may be held as to the bearing of race qualities on the subject,

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

there can be no doubt that the number and depth of the water inlets into Europe, and the practical absence of them in Africa, the small continent of Europe having the longest coast line, and the vast continent of Africa having the smallest, has led to Africa being the last continent to be opened up, and that, too, by artificial means, while Enrope has been advanc- ing with an excellence and rapidity unequaled in the history of continents before the rail- way age.

It is Mississippi's good fortune, in this respect, that not only gave her an exceptional Indian civilization, but makes her one of the earliest to begin in that larger one of Europe. It was her ocean coast-line of magnificent harbor advantages that gave her her first settle- ment; her river coast-line on the longest waterway of the globe, reaching over four thousand miles from the delta to the mountains, that gave her an early and wealthy metropolis long before many of the trans-Mississippi commonwealths were deemed a possibility. Her coast-line, including the islands which are a part of the state, aggregates five hundred and twelve miles; but it must be remembered that the Mississippi allows the travel of large steamers for two thousand one hundred and sixty-one miles, while for small boats her branches in the state reach a navigation of as high as two hundred and twenty-eight miles on the Yazoo; and other branches having an easy course of over fifty miles, are the Sunflower, with two hundred seventy-one, the Tallahatchie with one hundred seventy-five, the Issaquena with one hundred sixty-one, not counting the several rivers of the sound, which are quite equal in their pro- portions.

It is needless to repeat here how these watercourses determined settlement in Missis- sippi, like such courses have in all countries before the railway age, as it is needless to show that the most advanced settlements have the best waterways. Settlements were even described by the waterway: a man lived "on the Yazoo," "over on the Big Black," "up on the Tombigbee," or " down on the Pascagoula."

It was on foot that De Soto's caravan entered this state's territory in 1540, and over a hundred years later (1690) that horses were first known to the Chickasaws. Canoes were used by those early explorers from the French posts above, and the British adventurers of the Northeast. The ocean ships of Iberville and Bienville were the first to touch her harbors on the sound, in 1699, "because of the sheltered bay or roadstead, where small vessels could come and go in safety at all times," wrote Iberville in his report.

It was not until 1736 and 1739 that bateaux or barges ascended the Mississippi river, when Bienville did so to prosecute the Chickasaw war. This was the best means then known, and these voyagers were the first. "Tuesday, the 9th, Mons. de Nouaille also set out in a separate transport," says a journal of one of his officers. "Wednesday, the 10th of June (1739), we set out at break of day, and moved with might and main to stem the terrible cur- rent of the Mississippi; a storm coming up from the northwest at about 7 A. M., we made a second landing, having gone three leagues of our route." On the 14th, when they stopped again, they were sent to barracks to rest from the fatigues of heat "and the swift currents of the river, which we had been compelled to stem." "On the 23d of September," he says, "we found ourselves engaged at the dinner hour among the three channels of the river, which are comprised within the limits of the 'Natchez' settlements. We took the middle one, fearing the currents in that on the left. We found here from three and one-half to four feet of water, and so fierce a current that half our boats were driven aground, the rest in the meantime having proceeded to encamp at the head of the channels on the right bank of the river." On the 10th of October they reached the mouth of the "Hyazous," in which one readily recognizes the Yazoo, which they could not ascend, because of the drift wood. They

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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 8

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