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 95

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 95

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Joseph F. Powell was born in Northampton county, N. C., February 14, 1836, and is the seventh of a family of thirteen children. His father, George W. Powell, was born in Virginia in the year 1800, and spent the early part of his life there. He was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. In the year 1825 he removed to North Carolina, where he resided until 1840. Then he came to Mississippi, locating in Warren county. There he engaged in agricultural pursuits, which he followed until his death, in 1866. He was a man of industrious habits and accumulated considerable property. He was of Irish origin. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Ramsey, was a native of North Carolina. Joseph F. was reared within the borders of Warren county, Miss., but his educational advantages were extremely meager. His school days did not cover a single year, but, fortunately, experience is a wise teacher, albeit a severe one, and to-day he has few equals in practical business knowledge. When about twenty-two years of age he was appointed deputy sheriff of Warren county, discharging the duties of this office for two years. He then clerked in the postoffice at Vicksburg, and was afterward in the offices of the Vicksburg & Meridian rail- road at Vicksburg. He was afterward employed by the railroad company as station agent at Bolton and other points along the line. In 1866 he became a resident of Yazoo City, and for a period of thirteen years he clerked for F. Barkdale. In the meantime he made some good investments, from which he realized a handsome profit. In 1877 he embarked in the general mercantile trade and has conducted a large and growing business. He is the origi- nator of the first cotton warehouse company that was organized in Yazoo City, of which he is the efficient president. He is a director and heavy stockholder in the Bank of Yazoo City. He is a charter member of the Lintonia Land company, which is one of the most worthy business enterprises. He is treasurer of the Yazoo Valley Telephone company, of which he is also a stockholder. He is also one of the largest stockholders of the Yazoo Commercial company and was the first president of the organization. From this brief review it will be seen that there are few business corporations to which he has not lent a helping hand, either by investment or personal supervision. He is thoroughgoing, energetic, courteous and kind of manner, and a man whom it is the pleasure of the stranger in a strange land to meet. Mr. Powell was united in marriage in 1861 to Miss Mary Redding, a native of Yazoo City, and a daughter of James Redding of South Carolina. One child was born of this marriage, John F., who is in business with his father. Mrs. Powell is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and her husband, while not a member of the society, is a liberal contrib- utor to its support.

William H. Powell, who stands at the head of the legal profession in Madison county, Miss., is a native of that county, born on the 16th of November, 1856, aud is the fifth of six children born to J. R. and Frances A. (Smith) Powell, natives of the Old Dominion. The father emigrated to North Carolina at an early day, thence to Mississippi in 1850 and settled in Madison county, where he has since lived as a cotton-factor and planter, meeting with fair success. He was president of the board of supervisors of Madison county for many years, and although not a politician he is an ardent democrat. He and wife are both living, he at the age of seventy-two and she at the age of sixty-eight years. William H. Powell was reared in his native county, received his education at Oxford and graduated before eighteen

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years of age. He had read law at home, was admitted to the bar, and before he was nineteen years of age had commenced practicing. He is a warm and hearty advocate and supporter of democracy, and although he is not an office-seeker, few men stand higher in the estimation of the people than he. Although frequently urged to run for the office of representative, senator and other positions of honor and trust, he has always respectfully declined. His life is devoted wholly to his business and his family. He has a large and successful practice in the supreme and Federal courts as well as the lower courts, and stands at the head of the bar. Believing that his clients should have his time, he is ready to prosecute their claims to the extent of his ability. In fact he is a man of business and one who believes that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. He has occupied the same office since practicing and has built up his now large practice in the place of his birth, thus forcibly illustrating the confidence that the people have in him. He is an excellent business man, is the owner of three thousand five hundred acres of land and has a fine residence in Canton. He is a stock- holder in the Mississippi state bank and of the Canton Cotton Compress and Warehouse com- pany. Mr. Powell was married in 1881 to Miss Sallie Cage, a native of Canton, Miss., and the daughter of Dr. A. H. Cage, who was born in Kentucky. Her father was an able physi- cian and died during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878. Mr. Powell has three living chil- dren by this union: Amanda, Robert and Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Powell are members of the Baptist church and he is a Knight of Pythias.

There are few citizens of Mississippi more generally or more favorably known than Col. J. L. Power, of Jackson, of which city he has been a resident since April, 1855. Colonel Power was born in Ireland in 1834, and has a lively recollection of the great agitation of 1848, and remembers having seen Daniel O'Connell, William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Fran- cis Meagher, John Mitchell, and other prominent leaders, as they moved among and addressed the people. His father died when subject was about six years of age, and his mother, remarrying, came to the United States, leaving him to the care of relatives who were barely able to provide for themselves. For ten years of his young life his experience was an excep- tionally hard one, and it is often a matter of surprise to him, as well as of gratitude, that he survived the trying ordeals of his early years. When he was not quite sixteen years of age he resolved to come to America. He traveled on foot a long distance to the city of Water- ford, thence by steamer to Liverpool, where he embarked on a sailing vessel, and after a six weeks' voyage, narrowly escaping shipwreck, he arrived in New York in December, 1850. He was thinly clad and had only a few dimes in his pocket, but he was cared for, as he always has been, by a kind Providence, and the next day he was placed on a Hudson river steamer for Albany. Arriving there, he expected to work his way to Lockport, in the western part of the state, where his mother lived, but the canal was frozen and navigation closed for the winter. He then went to the railway station, found the conductor and told him his story, who told him to get aboard, and who permitted him to ride as far as Batavia. There was no railroad to Lockport in those days, and when he alighted from the train a heavy snow was falling, and his heart sank within him. Cold and hungry, without money, and seemingly without friends, the prospect seemed gloomy indeed; but a kind-hearted gen- tleman took in the situation and he was again provided for, and after being nourished and wrapped in buffalo robes, he was taken to Lockport in a splendid sleigh. After the sub- ject of this sketch had resided in Lockport for a short time, he became identified with the Presbyterian Sabbath-school and church. Through the influence of his teacher he obtained employment in the office of the Lockport Journal, where he soon became proficient in all departments of the printing business. It so happened that a family from New Orleans were

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visiting Lockport in the summer of 1854, and they talked so much about Dixie and the sunny South, he resolved to go with them when they returned, and so on the 31st of August, 1854, he started for the Crescent city. Yellow fever was prevailing there and in other cities of the South, and after passing Vicksburg he was prostrated with the fever, but passed the crisis of the disease before the steamer reached New Orleans, and soon conval- esced. He found steady and profitable employment, and though much attached to the Cres- cent city, he accepted an invitation to go to Jackson, Miss., in April, 1855, where he has since resided and has been for many years one of its most active, progressive and useful cit- izens. He was married in December, 1857, to Miss Jane Wilkinson, and they have raised quite a large family. When the war came on Mr. Power was engaged in the publishing business in Jackson, but on the organization of Wither's regiment of light artillery he enlisted as a private in company A. He was appointed orderly sergeant, and soon after became adjutant of the regiment. He was in the siege of Vicksburg. In 1864 he was com- missioned superintendent of army records, under a joint act of congress and the states, with the rank of colonel, and hence the title by which he has since been known. He was thus engaged at Richmond when the city fell, on April 2, 1865.

On his return to Mississippi he was, for many months, without employment, but when Provisional Governor Sharkey called a convention to adopt a constitution that should con- form to the changed condition of affairs, Mr. Power was offered for secretary, and was elected over three formidable competitors. His earnings from this he pooled with equal sums by two others in starting a newspaper called the Mississippi Standard, which was merged with the Clarion in 1866. It was the official journal of the state, and so continued until the beginning of the reconstruction period, when a military order transferred the printing to an office deemed loyal by the party in power. His associate for many years was Hon. Ethel Barksdale. In 1875 the firm of Power & Barksdale was elected state printer, and reelected for five biennial terms. After the election of Mr. Barksdale to congress, the Clarion was merged with the State Ledger, in January, 1888, and Colonel Power is the business man- ager. But he has also the pen of a ready writer, and employs it as inclination and time admit. Colonel Power is one of the best known secretaries in the state. He was clerk of the house of representatives in 1867, secretary of the constitutional convention of 1865, reported the proceedings of the secession convention of 1861 and of the constitutional convention of 1890, and has been secretary of many of the political state conventions that have been held at the capitol. But it is as grand secretary of Masons that he is most widely known, and his name is familiar to the craft throughout the Union. He was elected to that office in 1869, and is now serving his twenty third year. He is also secretary of the three other Masonic grand bodies. He is a past grand master of Odd Fellows, and was grand treasurer of that order for several years, and has received many special testimonials of his efficiency. He is also an active member of the Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias; is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church, and for twenty years was superintendent of its Sabbath-school. Colonel Power's greatest work, and the one of which he is especially proud, is in connection with the great yellow fever scourge of 1878. He received and judiciously disbursed to more than thirty stricken communities nearly $100,000, being vested by the contributors with unlimited discretion as to its use. He visited many of the afflicted towns, during and after the epidemic, and distributed relief to all, regardless of race, creed or fra- ternity. His work was examined and warmly commended by the grand lodge. Colonel Power's rough experience in his early youth implanted in him a disposition to help the orphan and the friendless, and hence it is that the Protestant Orphan asylum at Natchez has

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found in him a friend indeed. The lady managers have placed in its parlor a large portrait of him, from which is suspended a beautiful card, "The Lord will provide;" and that he has been an instrument in the Lord's hands in providing food and raiment for the fatherless is ample compensation for all that he has done in that direction. Immediately after the epi- demic of 1878, and occasionally since, Colonel Power's name has been mentioned in connec- tion with the office of governor, but he has always been too busy to give the matter a serious thought, and he has been satisfied in the consciousness that there were others more willing to seek and more able to fill that high station.

Capt. Homer C. Powers, banker, Starkville, Miss. Captain Powers' grandfather, Jacob Powers, was a native of Pennsylvania and one of the pioneers of Mahoning valley, in Ohio, where he opened up a large farm in the wilderness. He became one of its wealthy and well- known citizens, was also an extensive stocktrader, and gave each of his seven children a good start in life after educating them. He was in the War of 1812. His wife was a Virginia lady. Both died in the Buckeye state. One of their sons, John W. Powers, father of sub- ject, was born in Beaver county, Penn., in 1812, and at a very early day removed with his parents to Ohio, where he was married to Miss Miranda Gee, a native probably of New York state. Her father, Rev. Nicholas Gee and his wife were natives of the state of New York, and were also pioneers of the Mahoning valley, Ohio, where the father became an extensive landowner. He was for many years a prominent Methodist minister and of great service to the church. Besides rearing thirteen children of his own to become well-to-do and prosper- ous citizens, Mr. Gee reared two adopted children, both of whom he gave good educational

advantages. He lived to be about ninety-five years of age, and was a very useful man. After his marriage to Miss Gee, Mr. Powers settled in Mahoning valley and became one of the largest landowners and stockdealers in the country. He was well educated, was a man of great industry and good judgment. He excelled as a business man and was a noted finan- cier. He reared seven children, all of whom were well educated. Capt. Homer C. Powers, the fourth in order of birth of this family, all of whom are living with the exception of one son who was killed while railroading in the West, was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1842, and there received his early education. At the breaking out of the war he was a pupil of the lamented President Garfield, and during the vacation of 1861 he joined the one hundred-day troops, and spent a few weeks in Kentucky. After that, he being a minor, his services were not needed and he returned home. His father, while being in favor of the war, said the war could be put down without enlisting minors (the North having so many resources), and he was not allowed to enter the service further, but instead, in the fall of 1861, he entered the Michigan university at Ann Arbor, from which he graduated in 1865. During his first year in college he was a roommate of a cousin, R. C. Powers, who afterward became a colonel in the Federal army. After the war the latter removed to Noxubee county, Miss., became one of the wealthiest planters, and was lieutenant-governor with Governor Alcorn. Upon the election of Governor Alcorn to the United States senate Colonel Powers became governor of the state. He afterward returned North, and is now a resident of Arizona. After complet- ing his education Captain Powers' father started him in the merchandising business in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, and after a very successful career of about nine months he lost all by fire. On September 20, 1866, he was married in Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss Matilda, daugh- ter of J. S. and Matilda (Kimbal) Tilden, natives of New York state but early settlers of Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Tilden was a prominent merchant and large landowner and where he still lives. Mrs. Tilden died in 1873. Mrs. Powers was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church. To Mr. and Mrs. Powers were born four

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children, two now living. Immediately after the war Captain Powers came to Oktibbeha county, Miss., where his father had purchased a large cotton plantation in 1865, and resided on the same for five years, since which time he has resided in Starkville, although he still carries on his planting interests quite extensively. He pays the third largest tax in the county, and most of his property is the result of his own industry. Dur- ing the constitutional convention of 1867 he was made reading clerk, and while holding that position a vacancy occurred in the sheriff's office of Oktibbeha county, and in January of the following year he was appointed to that office, serving ten years in succession, being elected once after the democrats came into power. He afterward served one year as deputy revenue collector of this district, and was a delegate to the national republican convention in Chicago in 1884, that nominated James G. Blaine. Captain Powers has shown his appre- ciation of secret organizations by becoming a member 'of the Masonic fraternity, Albert lodge No. 89, the I. O. O. F., Ridgely lodge No. 23, the Knights of Honor, Starkville lodge No. 783, and of the Knights of Pythias. In 1877 Captain Powers established the Stark- ville bank, which he controlled until 1887, when it was made a national bank, of which he has since been president, L. D. McDowell, vice president, and E. L. Terry, cashier. The capital stock is $60,000; it has declared an annual dividend of ten per cent. and now has a surplus of $6,500.

A gratifying example of what can be accomplished by determination and energy is demonstrated in the career of L. C. Prather, merchant, Baldwyn, Miss., who started out to fight life's battles with limited means, and who is to-day one of the leading business men and sub- stantial citizens of the county. He is a native of the Palmetto state, and was the eldest of eight children, five of whom are living, born to the union of John T. and Harriet (Ramage) Prather. The paternal grandfather followed planting and smithing for a livelihood, and died while in his prime. John T. Prather was born in Maryland in 1815, but was reared in Laurens district, S. C., where he resided until 1846, when he and family moved to Mississippi, settling near Satillo, then in Itawamba (now Lee) county, where they resided until 1852. They then moved to Tippah county, located in the southeast corner, and there purchased land, which they cultivated until 1884. At that date they moved to Saltillo, Miss., where the father carried on merchandising until 1890, since which time he has retired from active pur- suits. He is a stanch democrat, and while a resident of Tippah county held the office of justice of the peace for some time. He has been a cripple all his life, is a man of good judg- ment, and is well posted on all the leading topics of the day. He is a member of the Chris- tian church, and his wife, who was born in 1825, and is also living, holds membership in the same. The four children, besides our subject, now living, are named as follows: Mrs. Nannie T. Hardin, resides in Tippah county, Miss .; Mrs. Ophelia Wesson, of Saltillo, Miss .; Mrs. Caroline Chisholm, of Blue Springs, Miss., and Mrs. Harriet McElroy, residing at Graham, Union county, Miss. L. C. Prather's early life was spent in Tippah county, and there he received a good practical education in the common schools. In 1867 he commenced business for himself at Baldwyn with the firm of J. D. Bills & Co., which was subsequently changed to Bills & Prather. In 1878 Mr. Prather bought out his partner, and has since been engaged in the business alone. His annual sales amount to $35,000, and he handles about six hundred bales of cotton every year. Aside from this he is also interested in farming to a considerable extent in this vicinity, and has made a success of this as he has with all other enterprises undertaken. Hosts of patrons and friends throughout this and adjoining counties will bear voluntary testimony to his honesty and uprightness, both in business and social affairs. His marriage to Miss America Allen, daughter of David Allen, a prominent citizen

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of the county, resulted in the birth of five sons: Walter, Brooks, Forest, LeRoy and Claude. In politics he is identified with the democratic party. He is an A. F. & A. M., and is a mem- ber of the Christian church, having been clerk in the same ever since its organization.

Francis B. Pratt, lawyer, Canton, Miss. Originally from Worcester, Mass., Mr. Pratt's birth occurred on April 19, 1841, and he was the eldest of eight children born to Ezra K. and Abigail D. (Brigham) Pratt, natives, also, of that state. The father was an agriculturist and spent his life in his native state. He was a son of Otis and Lidia (Mason) Pratt, natives of Connecticut, his father also being engaged in farming. The Pratts are of English, and the Brighams of Irish ancestry. Francis B. Pratt was reared and received a common-school education in Massachusetts. Until seventeen years of age he worked in the cottonmill, and then went to California, where he worked in the mines and cooked for a hotel. He subse- quently ran a blacksmith shop and a hotel. After remaining in California for six years he succeeded in accumulating a few thousand dollars, after which he returned to Massachusetts. He resided in that state for a few years, and then, in 1866, came to Madison county, Miss., where he followed planting for five years. Then, not finding it as profitable as he wished, he abandoned it, read law, was admitted to the bar in 1870, and has practiced his profession continuously ever since. He is very successful, and is noted for his pertinacity, industry and strict fidelity to the interests of his clients. He was justice of the peace for some time, pres- ident of the board of supervisors from 1870 to 1875, was district attorney for some time, and from 1876 to 1880 he was state senator. He held the position of postmaster of Canton under President Garfield for four years, and is the present postmaster at Canton. He owns the building he occupies as his office and the postoffice. Though a republican in his political views, Mr. Pratt has won the friendship and respect of the people of Madison county, and no man is more interested in its welfare than is he. The offices given him have been filled with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents.

James Rhea Preston, of Jackson, Miss., the present superintendent of public instruc- tion for that state, was born in Washington county, Va., January 22, 1853, being a son of Col. James T. and Fannie (Rhea) Preston. About the seventeenth century the Prestons removed from England, the country of their birth, to Ireland, from which they came to America. The paternal grandfather, who bore the name of John, was a resident of Walnut Grove, Va. Col. James T. Preston served in the Confederate army in the army of Virginia. His wife was of Scotch ancestry, and was born in Blountville, Tenn. They were the parents of six children: John, James R., Walter E., Robert F., Fannie R. and Francis M., all of whom are living, with the exception of Fannie and Walter. The father was a lawyer by profession, but was also engaged in tilling the soil. John, his son, is at present superintendent of the State Lunatic asylum at Terrell, Tex. The early life of James Rhea Preston was spent at home, where he received his preliminary education under private teachers. At the age of sixteen he entered Georgetown university, and after remaining in that institu- tion for two years he entered Emory and Henry college, Virginia, to finish his course of studies, and from that institution was graduated in 1873, and in 1875 received the degree of A. M. Soon after leaving college he became a teacher and followed this occupation one year each in Tennessee and Indiana. In 1875 he removed to Mississippi and located at Okolona, where he taught school for three years, and during his leisure moments studied law, being admitted to the bar at the above-mentioned place. In 1878 he removed to Center Point, Noxubee county, Miss., at which place he conducted the high school for three years, and resigning, was elected superintendent of public schools at Water Valley. He held this position for four years and a half, at the end of which period he received

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the nomination at the democratic state convention and was elected state superintendent of public schools November, 1885. At Water Valley he established a fine system of schools, which attracted the attention of the public and led to his promotion. He was reelected state superintendent in 1889, and by the provisions of the new constitution his term is extended two years. Mr. Preston has made education his study, and has introduced sev- eral very important reforms into the school system of Mississippi, among which may be mentioned the following, which were adopted and passed by the legislature at his sugges- tion: one providing for uniform examinations to test the scholarship of applicants so that they could be paid according to their qualifications, the county superintendent being required to fix the salary of each teacher, with due regard not only to his scholarship but his experience, ability and the scholastic population of his district. Another reform was providing a system of districts to limit the number of schools and to make each large enough to justify the employment of a competent teacher. A third provision was one requiring the superintendent to inspect the work of teachers, also to arrange and manage the institutes for the advancement of teachers in the best methods of instruction and dis- cipline. Another important reform was one requiring continuous sessions so that the school fund might not be frittered away, and also that all schools of a term should be in session at the same time, that the work of supervision might be systematic and effective. A salary system based upon the average attendance had been in vogue, which was a fruit- ful source of unjust discriminations and of many frauds. This was abolished, and the salaries of the teachers of the different grades were fixed between a maximum and minimum limit. Mr. Preston is a very popular official, and is doing a great work toward the advance- ment of education in Mississippi. He is a man of good stature, well-proportioned, and in personal appearance attractive. He has dark hair and beard, and dark, expressive eyes. In politics Mr. Preston has always been a stanch democrat, and in 1875 assisted in redeem- ing the state from radical misrule. Under his administration the public schools of the state have rapidly improved. Graded-school systems have been established in more than twenty- five towns, and the impulse for advancement has penetrated every country district.

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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 95

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