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 81

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 81

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).

521

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

is a prosperous planter of Washington county; Sargent Prentiss Knut, who has gone back to the old way of spelling the name, was educated near Philadelphia and finished a highly classical education at the University of Virginia, afterward studying law at Natchez, being now a successful practitioner of Washington, D. C .; Julia is single; Calvin R. married and resides in St. Louis, Mo., and Lily, who is the wife of James W. Ward of Washington county, are the members of the family now living. Those deceased are: Carrie, a renowned beauty and belle, and especially noted for her riding, who married Charles S. Forsyth, of Chicago, and died soon after her marriage; Fannie, who died in youth, and Austin, who was accidentally shot when a lad. The justness of a claim of this family against the government for property taken during the war has been well established in the courts of Washington and before congress.

The Ker family. The Kers of Scotland are a very ancient family, who inhabited the border. Sir Walter Scott tells a great deal of them in his "Tales of my Grandfather." The Dukes of Roxburgh and the Marquises of Lothian are younger branches of this family. David Ker, the founder of the family in Mississippi, was a native of Down Patrick, north Ire- land, where so many Scotch people have settled. He was educated at Trinity college, Dublin, and emigrated with his wife, Mary, to North Carolina, before the Revolution. He founded Chapel Hill college, now the University of North Carolina, and was its first presiding pro- fessor. He migrated to Mississippi territory, and died there in 1805. He was appointed judge of the supreme court of the territory by Mr. Jefferson. He had issue: First, John (who married Mary K. Baker of Natchez, and had issue: Mary; Sarah, married to Butler; John Ker, who married Rosaltha Routh (see Routh); Lewis, Mary and William); second, David; third, Eliza (married to Dr. Rush Nutt, see Nutt); fourthi, Martha (married to William Terry, and had issue: Sarah, married to - Jeffries, and Eliza, married to Prince); fifth, Sarah (married to - Cowden). Dr. John Ker, son of David, was an eminent physi- cian. He was a surgeon in the state army in war with Indians, and also in the War of 1812. His son William is now engaged in the courts of Mississippi. He is a graduate of Harvard.

The Williams family. This family comes down from Sir Thomas De Bullen, one of the Knights of William the Conqueror. He overran a portion of Wales, and there took up his position. In course of time there came Sir William De Bullen, whose son, Sir Thomas, became designated as Sir Thomas Williams (on). He was the father of Ann Boulyne, or Ann De Bullen, the mother of Queen Elizabeth. Descendent from him was Barnett Williams, who came to Virginia with Lord Fairfax and married Mary Pierce, of Fredericksburg, and had issue Charles Pierce, who married Elizabeth Red, granddaughter of Col. John Minor, of Vir- ginia. A few years later he migrated to Kentucky, where he became one of the pioneer settlers of Scott county. He became a wealthy planter, an influential citizen, and died on the magnificent plantation of which he had become the owner, at the age of eighty-three years. In his family were five sons and three daughters: Merritt, who lived all his life in Scott county; Archibald Pierce, who removed South and founded one of the wealthiest and best known families in Rapides parish, La., (one of his daughters married Judge Johnston, a son of Judge (Sibley) Johnston and a brother of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, and after his death she married the noted Philadelphia lawyer, Henry T. Gilpin, attorney-general of the United States); Maria Williams married William Payne and removed with him to Fayette, Mo., where their descendants are among the leading citizens of that state at the present time; Austin was educated in Kentucky, but about 1800 became a citizen of Natchez and a short time after turned his attention to planting in Louisiana, where he became well and prominently known. He was a member of the legislature of that state for some time, and died in 1847, his

522

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

widow, who was formerly Miss Caroline M. Routh (see Routh), dying in 1863. To their union three sons and six daughters were born, who were as follows: John- stone, who died in childhood; Annie E., married to Walton P. Smith (see sketch of Austin Smith); Julia Augusta, married to Haller Nutt (see sketch of the Nutt family); Cath- erine, married to Dr. John Brumley, of Virginia, who was taken prisoner during the war, and died of want; her death occurred before the war, in 1859; Caroline became the wife of Rev. Joseph R. Stratton, of Natchez (see sketch); Job Routh died single in Natchez, hav- ing been a noted society beau and a very popular gentleman of fashion of his day; Thomas served in the Confederate army on Gen. Dick Taylor's staff, and died in 1879, unmar- ried; Mary Louise resides with her sister in Washington county, and Irene is the wife of Merritt Williams, of Washington county (see sketch). All these children were given the advantages of the finest schools of the country. Their marriages resulted in the birth of large families, and they have ranked among the most popular and enterprising people of the sections in which they have resided. The other children born to Archibald Pierce Will- iams are as follows: Charles; Josiah; Frances, who married -- Chambers, now. a wealthy planter of Rapides parish; John and Laura. Mr. Austin Williams was very wealthy and was very generous with his means, and made a point of giving each of his children a sum of money and ten negro slaves when they became of age. His house, Ashburn, near Natchez, was one of the most elegantly fitted up of any in the South. He was a man of unblemished reputation, and this worthy characteristic has been noticeable in all his descendants.

The Routh family. Arms or, three bars az. on a quarter ar., two lions passant gu. The Rouths are of the Danish invasion that accompanied William the Conqueror. The name means "the red." They are usually blondes, and a physical characteristic that has been present in the generations in England follows them to America, and we find here the same large physique of the Norseman. The founder of the family in Mississippi was Job Routh, who, when a mere lad, ran off from his family, then domineered by a disagreea- ble stepfather, and came out to the Southwest when the county was still under the Spanish flag. He was the first man of English blood to settle in Natchez. He married Ann Made- line, the daughter of - Müller and his wife, nee Hawkins, both from Switzerland. Her brother was the venerable Christopher Miller, whom the old citizens of Natchez remem- ber when, as a relic of the days gone by, with his brother-in-law he walked the streets of Natchez in his knee breeches and silk stockings and cutaway coat and three-cornered hat. Job Routh was industrious and hardworking, and it was not long before he accumulated a large fortune. Heobtained a grant for land on Lake St. Joseph, in what is now Tensas parish, La., and there commenced planting cotton. As his children raised families, they, too, became planters in the same place, all retaining their fall and spring houses in the suburbs of Natchez till the breaking out of the late war, when they had under plow about twenty thousand acres of land and owned over five thousand slaves. The life these families lived on Lake St. Joseph has passed, never to return. Around the lake they possessed some fifteen homesteads, and during the winter each family had from one to three other families of relatives from Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Virginia, visiting them, and their days and nights were one series of revelry and enjoyment, with dinners, balls, picnics, horse-rac- ing, cock-fighting and boat races with crews composed of their slaves. Job Routh died ripe in years, and lies buried in the Routh graveyard that is to-day one of the landmarks of Natchez. Their children were: John, who married Nancy Smith and had issue; Matilda, who married Dr. Allen T. Bowie, from Maryland, and the brother of Mrs. Reverdy Johnson,

The Goodspeed Pub. Co Chicago

523

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

and whose children were John, Allen T., Thomas C., and Annie. Calvin, who married Ann Skillman and had issue; Andrew, who married Sue, daughter of Governor Dougherty of Georgia ; Calvin, Annie, John and Matilda, and John Knox, who married Margaret Williams, sister of Mrs. S. S. Prentiss of Natchez, and had issue, Nannie, Jennie and Stella. John Routh was in his day called the Cotton King. His crop just before the war amounted to eight thousand eight hundred and forty-two bales in one year. He owned so many negroes that he did not know them all. His silver dinner service cost him $35,000. Elizabeth, who married Archibald Williams (see Williams family) Caroline, who married Austin Williams, brother of the above. Sarah, who married Colonel Walker, and had issue: Samuel, who married Eliza Baker of Virginia, Virginia, who married Samuel Hollingsworth of Maryland, and Martha, who married Zelliot, the brother of the latter. Ann, who married Isaac Ogden from New Jersey, and had issue. Eliza, who married William Cochran from New Jersey, and had issue: Wayne, Frank, who married Fredinka, daughter of the old Roman, General and Governor Quitman of Mississippi; John Routh, who married Josephine Marshall, and Mary, who married Clayton Pendleton of Virginia. Frank, who married Mary Lane, and had issue: Rosaltha, who married John Ker (see Ker), and Stebbins, who married Ann Stewart; (Mr. Frank Routh lived some years after the war, and was the last of his gen- eration of old-timers. After his fortune had been swept away, and there seemed no hope of recovering it, he retired to the wilds of Catahoula parish, La., where his word became law among the small people around him. On one occasion when he visited Natchez, members of the family surrounded him and pleaded with him to come and make his home with them. His reply was: "No, by G-d, I would rather be a bull-dog in Catahoula than a d-d cur in Natchez.") Stephen, who married Eliza Sprague, and had issue: Alice, Horatio, Stephen, Paul- ine (a great beauty), who married Robert Percy (see Percy), Octo, Clarence, Job, who married Miss Jeffries of Mississippi, Charles, Earnest, and Amelia, who married N. Bayard Sadler of Georgia. Mary, who married first, Thomas Ellis, son of Colonel Ellis and Lady Percy, and had issue: Sarah, who married Samuel Dorsey from Maryland (it was she who left the beautiful place on the gulf, Beauvoir, and three plantations to Jefferson Davis), Thomas Percy, who married Appoline Ingraham, of New Orleans, and Inez, who married three times. She next married Charles Dahlgren, son of Barnard Dahlgren of Philadelphia, Swedish consul, and brother of Rear Admiral Dahlgren, United States navy, and by him had issue: Charles, Barnard, John Adolph (who married Miss DeMovel, of Tennessee), and Mortimer.

524

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

CHAPTER XU. - RECORDS OF A PRIVATE NATURE, O. AKLAND college is located in Claiborne county, thirty-five miles north of Natchez and five miles east of the Mississippi river. Rodney is the nearest landing place; Bruinsburg, three miles north, is the spot where Grant crossed the river and gained possession of the rear of the city of Vicksburg, and soon that city fell. Oakland college is situated in a region of country rendered interesting from many reminiscences of early times. Here was the scene of some characteristic incidents in the life of Gen. Andrew Jackson. A few miles from the college was the residence of Blennerhassett; here was the place of the capture of Aaron Burr; in this vicinity was the plantation of the amiable, patriotic and lamented Gen. Zachary Taylor. This region also possesses much interest, for it is the scene of the visits and labors of some of the earliest pioneers of Presbyterianism in the South- west, Rickhow, Smylie and Montgomery, who came here when the dew of their youth was upon them, and laid the foundation of our churches. Here visited and preached Schermer- horn, S. J. Mills, Larned, Bullen and many others. The eccentric Lorenzo Dow here rode his mule and blew his horn and attracted crowds of the first settlers, preaching on housetops and haystacks, resembling Peter the Hermit, who once marshaled all Europe under the Crusaders' banner. The origin of Oakland college may be traced to a meeting of Presbyterian ministers held in the town of Baton Rouge, La., in April, 1829. * * A committee was * accordingly appointed, who, after an extensive correspondence, continued through several months, called a meeting of the friends of education at Bethel church, two miles from the present location of the college, on January 14, 1830. This meeting was composed of gentlemen from adjoining parishes in Lonisiana, and from the counties of Claiborne, Amite, Wilkinson, Adams, Jefferson, Warren, Hinds and Madison, in Mississippi, and continued six days. The following resolution was presented:

Resolved, That it is expedient to establish and endow an institution of learning within our bounds, which, when complete, shall embrace the usual branches of science and literature taught in the colleges of our country, together with a preparatory English and German school, and theological professorship, or seminary.

This resolution was sustained by gentlemen from every part of the country represented in the meeting, and after considering it for three days it was unanimously adopted. A sub- scription was immediately opened to supply the requisite funds. Twelve thousand dollars were contributed for the purchase of a site and the erection of the building. Other commit- tees were appointed to prepare constitution, etc., and make all necessary arrangements for opening the school.

525

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

On May 14 the school opened with three pupils, who had accompanied the president, Rev. Jeremiah Chamberlain, D. D., from Jackson, La., where he had been presiding over the College of Louisiana. On July 2, 1830, the first clearing was begun, on the magnificent oak ridge now occupied by the college buildings. At the end of the session, March 28, the school consisted of sixty-five pupils; the two more advanced formed a sophomore class, and there were five in the freshman class; the remainder in the English and classical. The president instructed the two college classes and the classical in the languages; his brother, Mr. John Chamberlain, afterward professor of chemistry and natural philosophy, instructed the classes in mathematics and in the English school. In 1831 it was chartered by the legislature of the state. In 1833 the first commencement was held, and Mr. James M. Smylie, ex-vice chancellor of this state, was the first graduate of Oakland college. This was the first commencement south of Tennessee, and Judge Smylie is the first native Mississip- pian who received the degree of A. B. in his own state. Such is the origin of Oakland col- lege, which has aided in the education of nearly one thousand native yonth, and which now has on its roll of graduates one hundred and twenty alumni, who are scattered throughout the Southwest, and occupied in the cultivation of the soil, or in the learned professions. There were about thirty cottages for the occupancy of pupils, residences for the president and professors, two handsome halls for literary societies, with libraries attached, a college library of upward of four thousand volumes, a philosophical, chemical and astronomical apparatus, which cost nearly $4,000, a main structure of brick, 112x60, containing a college chapel and prayerhall, lecture rooms, and other requisite accommodations. The institution has never received aid from the state or general government. Its funds have been secured by private, liberality, etc. (See note of Chamberlain Hunt.) This college was purchased soon after the war by Governor Alcorn, and turned into a colored school, or agricultural college, and is in a very prosperous condition.

Chamberlain-Hunt academy is successor of Oakland college, and the following short sketch of its origin is taken from the correspondence of the Times-Democrat :

"In one of the most beautiful sections of the South, among the sweeping green hills and broad, umbrageous natural parks of Claiborne county, in the southwestern part of Mississippi, stood for years one of the most famous seats of learning in our Gulf states. This was Oak- land college, the alma mater of many of the most prominent statesmen, jurists and divines now living in Louisiana and Mississippi. During a long era of sectional prosperity before the war, this college was celebrated throughout the entire South. When the irrepressible conflict commenced, its professors and students took four years' vacation, leaving their rules and books for a temporary diversion with rifles and bayonets. The former assiduous votaries of Minerva readily became ardent followers of Mars. Many of the alumni of old Oakland fell asleep in the broad bivouac of the dead which stretches under the sky from the banks of the Potomac to the distant borders of the Rio Grande. After the war no great effort was made to re-establish the institution in its old locality. Death had apparently disorganized the directory, and the general destruction of property involved in the conflict had sadly diminished the revenues of the college. - Five years ago the grounds, buildings and proper- ties of the college were purchased by the state from the synod of Mississippi. The proceeds of the sale were devoted to founding and endowing a new institution, which was to be made a worthy successor to Oakland. There was considerable competition among the cities and towns of this state in endeavoring to secure for themselves the site of the new school. Port Gibson manifestly offered the greatest inducements, and was accordingly chosen for its loca- tion. The school was chartered anew by the legislature under the name of the Chamberlain- Hunt academy, in honor to the memory of founders and presidents of Oakland college."

526

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL

In the same vicinity, Bethel church (Presbyterian) was chartered in 1828, with William Young, L. Price, John Magruder and Smith C. Daniel, trustees. The church dates its organization from about 1826, with Rev. Samuel Hunter as pastor, who was a native of Ire- land and a noble man. The present brick church of Bethel was built in about 1830, with Dr. Chamberlain as pastor. During that time, in addition to the support of their minister, the church contributed to the different boards of the church about $1,000 annually. In 1837, twenty-three were added to the church; in 1845 about fifty more. During thirty years of its prosperity the church contributed largely to the different boards of the church, to the tract cause, Bible society and Sunday-school union, the contributions oftentimes amounting to many thousands of dollars. A few noble planters supported a minister to labor among the slaves. At one time forty negroes, valued at $330,000, were liberated and sent to Liberia as missionaries. Thomas Freeland contributed $333 annually, between 1833 and 1843, to support a missionary in China. The college gave about the same amount, besides contributing to the various other church boards, theological seminary at Maryville, Tenn., Natchez Orphan asylum, etc. Those were palmy days-gone, never to return.

Dr. Charles E. Oatis is one of the most prominent physicians and surgeons of Hazle- hurst. He was a native of Lawrence county, Miss., where he was born August 5, 1823. His father was John H. Oatis and his mother was Mary W. Buckley. The former was born near Milledgeville, Ga., in 1793, the latter in Barnwell district, S. C., May 13, 1795. They both located when comparatively young in Hancock county, Miss., where they were married, and from there they removed to Lawrence county, where Mr. Oatis died December 3, 1863, the mother surviving until May 12, 1886, only one day less than ninety- one years old. Both were for many years members of the Baptist church. Mr. Oatis was a very successful planter, a man of remarkable natural gifts and ability. His father died in Georgia when he was but a boy, leaving him without the advantages of an education, but being fond of reading and very industrious, he acquired a very large stock of useful knowl- edge, becoming well versed in law, history and medicine. His knowledge of the healing art was so well recognized that he was often called upon to practice among his neighbors, which he did with much success. A man of fine address and an exceedingly good conversa- tionalist, he won and retained many friends and was universally esteemed for his good qual- ities. While not an officeseeker, he was active in all public affairs. Politically, he was an ardent democrat. Commissioned colonel by Governor Holmes, he served with distinction in one of the Indian wars; and he was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity. He was one of four children, three sons and one daughter, born to Jeremiah Oatis, who died in Georgia; his mother, who before her marriage was Jane Sinkfield, married again and came at an early date to Hancock county, and afterward to Warren county, where she died. Dr. Oatis' grandfather, Edward Buckley, a native of South Carolina, removed from that state to Hancock county, Miss., and thence to Lawrence county before our subject was born, and became a prominent planter and reared a large family. The Doctor is the fifth of ten chil- dren born to his parents, five of whom are living: Adaline, the wife of Jesse Cannon, of Mon- ticello, who is deceased; Col. Martin A., a graduate of the State university of Mississippi, who graduated in law from the Cumberland university, Lebanon, T'enn., and became a prominent lawyer of Cleburne, Tex., was Colonel of the Twenty-second Mississippi infantry, in which he served in the army of Tennessee, and was probate judge of Lawrence county after the war; Sarah, who is the widow of Thomas L. Watts, who died in the war; Adelaide, who is unmarried; C. C., the eldest, died in California; Dr. F. M., in Texas during the war; Amanda, the wife of S. A. Speights, in Lawrence county about the same time; Dr.

527

MEMOIRS OF MISSISSIPPI.

John J., died at Galveston, Tex., during the war while he was surgeon connected with a Con- federate battery; W. A., who died in Warren county in 1878, and Dr. Charles E., who was reared on a farm and received a common school education, but later was a student for a short time at the Transylvania university at Lexington, Ky., from which institution he graduated in medicine in 1846. He practiced in Lawrence county until 1860, when he removed to Hazlehurst, where he has since lived, except. the two years from 1874 to 1876, when he was a resident of Cleburne, Texas. During the war he was for a time assistant surgeon in the hos- pital at Hazlehurst. He is now the oldest medical practitioner in Copiah county, having practiced continuously for forty-five years, and is still in the enjoyment of good health and in great demand professionally throughout the surrounding country. He was married August 8, 1848, to Fannie T., daughter of Francis B. and Elizabeth (Tomlinson) Haynes. Mr. Haynes was born in North Carolina and came when a young man to Mississippi and became a prominent planter. He was married in Wilkinson county and afterward moved to Law- rence county, where he and his wife both died, she before and he during the war. Mr. and Mrs. Haynes had five children, three of whom served during the late war. Mrs. Oatis was born in Lawrence county and died September 29, 1886. She bore her husband four chil- dren, of whom Myra D. is the wife of John E. Mayes, a prominent merchant of Hazlehurst; and Dr. Charles E. Oatis, Jr., is a prominent practicing physician, who was educated at Cleburne, Tex., and studied medicine at Louisville, Ky., graduating from the college of physicians and surgeons of Baltimore in 1879, since when he has been a partner with his father and is now local surgeon of the Illinois Central railroad; Dr. Francis Bythel Oatis, eldest son of Dr. Charles E. and Frances T. Oatis, died at Benton, Bossier parish, La., December 2, 1876, aged twenty-four years, eight months and seventeen days; possessed of a mind of extraordinary power, every opportunity was given for its improvement, and with every pursuit open to him he chose that of doctor of medicine and graduated with honor at Louis- ville, Ky., in 1874; Mrs. Eulora H. Warrell, wife of Theodore M. Warrell and daughter of Dr. Oatis, died August 3, 1876. The Doctor is a dimitted Royal Arch Mason, and has been a member of the Baptist church for many years. He is five feet eleven inches high, is well proportioned and exceedingly well preserved. His integrity has always been unques- tioned and he stands high as a citizen and in his profession.

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 81

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