Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 113

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020

USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 113

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).

Digitized by Google

932

MISSISSIPPI

abundance of fruits and vegetables. The bluff formation here seems to be the home of the grape and the pear. As is natural in a region which is the watershed between three great rivers, it is well watered by an abundance of streams both large and small. This is an excellent stock country and the live stock are now val- ued at nearly three quarters of a million dollars. The herd of Jersey cattle owned by Dr. W. E. Oates is known to breeders everywhere. The climate is mild and equable. An improved water supply and an efficient quarantine system have minimized the dangers from malaria and yellow fever.

The following statistics for the county were taken from the last United States census for 1900, and relate to farms, manufactures and population :- Number of farms 4,058, acreage in farms 221,- 851, acres improved 116,942, value of the land exclusive of build- ings $2,176,090, value of the buildings $627,210, value of live stock $706,581, total value of products not fed to stock $1,794,695. Num- ber of manufacturing establishments 133, capital invested $1,682,- 805, wages paid $597,592, cost of materials $1,302,307, total value of products $2,404,797. The population of Warren county in 1900 was whites 10,346, colored 30,566, total 40,912, increase over the year 1890, 7,748. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Warren county in 1905 was $7,695,530 and in 1906 it was $8,941,060, which shows an increase of $1,245,530 during the year.

Warrenton. This was an important river town of Warren county during the first half of the last century. When that county was first organized in 1809, Warrenton was made its county seat, and it was not until 1836, as the result of a plebiscite, that the seat of justice was transferred to Vicksburg. Its location was about twelve miles below Vicksburg and the place was incorporated by the Legislature in 1820, several years before Vicksburg was even laid out. The loss of the county seat was a severe blow to its prosperity, but it continued to be a place of importance down to 1861, at which time it still had a population of several hundred people. We are told that it was here "the first company was formed in 1819 for the purpose of constructing local lines of levees to protect the adjoining plantations from the overflows of the Mississippi river. In 1812 "large quantities of cotton were ex- ported from Warrenton." The old town has almost disappeared as the river changed its course just above the town, so that boats could no longer touch at its landing.

Warsaw, a postoffice of Marshall county.

Washington. This ancient capital of the Territory and State, rivals Natchez both in age and the richness of its historic associa- tions. It was laid out and named near the close of the eighteenth century by Andrew Ellicott, who came to Natchez in 1797 as U. S. Boundary Commissioner to meet the representative of Spain. No sooner were the Americans in recognized control of the Missis- sippi Territory than they proceeded to make treaties with the Indians and open up public roads through the Indian country to

- -

Digitized by Google

933

MISSISSIPPI

the white settlements on the east and north. In 1808 the great public road, known as the Natchez and Nashville Trace, was thus established. Along this road were provided numerous sta- tions for the convenience of travellers, and the first station out of Natchez was Washington. It is recorded that Ellicott and his military escort, pending the Spanish evacuation of the Natchez District, camped on St. Catharine creek by the side of a lovely spring that still bears his name, and just inside the present grounds of Jefferson College at Washington. The site of the town which was "compactly built for a mile or more east and west," says Col. Claiborne, is in the midst of a picturesque and elevated region, surrounded by many beautiful eminences. On February 1st, 1802, by act of the Territorial Legislature, Washington was selected as the capital of the Territory, and retained the distinction until Nov. 20th, 1820, when the Legislature made Jackson the future capital of Mississippi. As the capital in the early Territorial days, Wash- ington was the center to which all men were attracted. Within its borders and in its immediate vicinity dwelt a distinguished com- pany of early Mississippi pioneers. Jefferson College, founded in 1802, was located here, and is the oldest endowed institution of learning in the southwest. Here also was located the Elizabeth Academy for girls, chartered in 1819, noted as the first school de- signed exclusively for young women, and of collegiate rank, to be incorporated by either the Territorial or State Legislatures. Not only was the old town celebrated as a political center, but it was also a great literary center,-largely due to the influence of its colleges and the Mississippi Society. Monette, the historian, and Wailes, the geologist, were residents of the town, and their homes are still in evidence. Claiborne, the historian, lived a few miles distant, and Ingraham, the author of the "Pillar of Fire", was a professor in Jefferson College. In and about the old capital also dwelt the cultured families of the Covingtons, Graysons, Chews, Calvits, Wilkinsons, Free lands, Bowies, and Magruders, emi- grants from Maryland and the Winstons and Dangerfields from Virginia. Dr. Daniel Rawlings, a native of Calvert county, Mary- land, was a distinguished representative of the medical profession. It was the location of the U. S land office, the Surveyor-General's office, the office of the Commissioner of Claims; the U. S. Courts also sat here. The prominent Territorial officials made it their residence, and it possessed three large hotels. During this period, 1802-1820, it was a "gay and fashionable place," where the "punctilio and ceremony, parades and public entertainments" held forth.

In close proximity to the old town was Fort Dearborn, perma- nently garrisoned by a force of United States troops. A number of British prisoners captured at the great battle of New Orleans were confined in this fort for some time. The old brick church, which was founded by Lorenzo Dow, was also used as a state- house, and within its walls sat the constitutional convention of 1817. When Aaron Burr was arrested in January, 1807, near the mouth of Coles creek, he was conducted to Washington, and the

934

MISSISSIPPI

first investigation of the serious charges preferred against him took place in the old brick church. The ruins of this historic build- ing have now been torn down and sold. It was expected that Washington might remain the permanent seat of government for Mississippi, and with that end in view, we find Silas Dinsmoor, on the 23rd day of November, 1810, addressing the Territorial Legis- lature as follows: "Silas Dinsmoor begs leave to offer and prays your honorable body to accept a square of ground in the town of Washington equal in area to a square of three hundred feet, on the sole condition that the said square be appropriated as the site of the public buildings for the said Mississippi Territory and for the county of Adams, to which square of ground marked No. 5 in the annexed plat, a good title shall be given in such manner as to your honorable body may deem proper." The proposed donation was a square on the north side of Main St., between Claiborne and Montgomery Streets.

The glory of the old town, has now passed away and its former greatness is but a memory. With the departure of the capital, it lost its importance, and is now a small village of about two hun- dred and fifty inhabitants.

Washington County was created January 29th, 1827, by an act which recited that "So much of the counties of Yazoo and Warren as lies west of the Yazoo river, beginning on the right bank of said river, where the Choctaw boundary line strikes the same; thence along said boundary to the Mississippi river; thence down the said river, to a point on the said river, where the east and west line between townships seventeen and eighteen strikes the same; thence along said line, to where the same strikes the Yazoo river; thence up the said last mentioned river, to the place of beginning, shall constitute a county, which shall be called the county of Wash- ington." This created a triangular area, with the base on the Mis- sissippi river and the apex on the Yazoo river. Sections two to nine of the same act organized the county. An act of Feb. 12, 1828, declared the line between Warren and Washington counties to begin on the east bank of the Mississippi, "at the upper end of the plantation of Nerry Henly, and run so as to intersect the line between the counties of. Warren and Yazoo, where the same strikes the Yazoo river", and appointed commissioners to run the line. February 9, 1839, the line between the said counties was defined again as follows :- "commencing at the point on the Yazoo river, where the southern boundary of township nine, range six, west of the Choctaw district, intersects it; thence running west on the southern boundary of township nine, range six, seven, eight, and nine, west to the Mississippi river." January 23, 1844, all that part of Washington county south of a line commencing on the Mis- sissippi river between townships 13 and 14, and running east. between said townships, to the western boundary of Yazoo county. was taken to form the county of Issaquena. It later surrendered small portions of its territory to Bolivar and Sunflower counties and finally, on March 29, 1876, it surrendered another portion to

---

Digitized by Google

935

MISSISSIPPI

help form the new county of Sharkey. As now constituted it is an irregular area of land, with a surface of 925 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Bolivar county, on the east by Sunflower and Holmes counties, the Yazoo river forming the boundary line between Holmes and Washington, on the southeast by Yazoo county, on the south by Sharkey and Issaquena counties, and on the west by the Mississippi river. It was named for President George Washington and was one of the numerous counties formed from the so-called "New Purchase", acquired from the Choctaws by the treaty of Doak's Stand, Oct. 20, 1820. The county lies wholly within the fertile Yazoo Delta, and many settlers of char- acter and wealth were attracted to the rich region before its or- ganization, and during the 30's and 40's, coming from the States of Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and the older parts of Mississippi. From South Carolina came Col. Wade Hampton, the son of Major-General Wade Hampton, and his two sons, Gen. Wade Hampton, afterwards Senator from South Carolina and Christopher Hampton, Robert J., Andrew and Dr. Charles Turn- bull, Andrew and Ambrose Knox, and Thomas B. Kershaw ; from Kentucky came Elisha Warfield, Thomas B. Warfield, Albert Met- calf, Captain Henry and Edward P. Johnson, George W. and Junius Ward; from Mississippi came Howell Hinds, son of Gen. Thos. Hinds, Col. Henry W. Vick, Capt. John Willis, and Benjamin Smith, an old resident of Claiborne county. Other early settlers were William B. Prince, who gave his name to the old town of Princeton and was the first Representative of Washington county in 1828; William Blanton, whose plantation embraced part of the site of Greenville; Hon. Jacob S. Yerger, Wm. F. Jefferies, sher- iff, A. Knox, J. Y. Daster, Wm. Hunt, Andrew A. J. Paxton, and Samuel, Isaac and Dr. William Worthington. Another prominent settler was Wm. A. Percy, of Greenville, soldier, lawyer and pub- licist, whose untimely demise was a distinct loss, not only to the Delta but to the whole State. A list of the county officers of Wash- ington for 1827, the year of its organization, follows: Wm. B. Cook, Judge of Probate; Philip A. Gilbert, Thomas Marney, As- sociate Justices; William Prince, Assessor and Collector; Philip A. Gilbert, County Treasurer; Geo. Shanks, William Brittain, Peter H. Bennett, Nimrod Selsor, Joseph McGuire, Hiram Miller, James Bayne, Peter Wilkinson, Justices of the Peace.

Princeton, the first county seat, was at one time the chief town in the county. It was situated on the Mississippi river, about ten miles above the present southern boundary, and once had a population of about 600 people. After the county seat was removed to Green- ville, Princeton rapidly declined, and is now entirely extinct. The old town of Greenville was a mile south of the present flourishing town of that name, but having been partially destroyed during the war and inundated by the river, the county seat was removed to the pres- ent point on the river. Greenville is one of the largest and most prosperous towns in the State; it had a population in 1900 of 7,642, and is the center of the network of railroads now covering the

Digitized by Google

936

MISSISSIPPI

Delta. Located also on the Mississippi river, its shipping facili- ties are unsurpassed and the town is growing at a rapid rate. It is the center of trade for the rich country about it and has become a manufacturing town of importance. The town of Leland, a few miles to the east, is also a growing place of 762 (1900) people, pos- sessed of unusually good railway facilities. Other towns in the county are Hampton, Pettit P. O. or Avon Station, Winterville, Stoneville, Tralake, Moore, Glenallen and Hollandale. The whole county is intersected by numerous lines of railway belonging to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, and the Southern Railway sys- tems. Besides the Mississippi river on the West and the Yazoo on the east, Deer creek, Bogue Phalia and Black bayou flow south though the length of the county, and with Lakes Lee, Swan, Sil- ver, Washington and Jackson constitute the principal waters. The census for 1900 rates Washington county first in the value of its lands and ninth in the value of its manufactured products, among the counties of the State. Out of 560,000 acres in the county, not quite 200,000 were improved in 1900. Of the remaining unim- proved land, a very large proportion of it is covered with an im- mense growth of timber composed of various kinds of oak, ash, gum, hickory, walnut, pecan and large cypress brakes. This tim- ber is a source of great present and future wealth to the county, is almost inexhaustible in quantity, and, when the lands are stripped of their valuable forest growth, they will yield a full tide crop the second year. Not all this valuable timber is being cut and ex- ported, but more and more is being worked up into finished lumber by the planing mills, and by the many small wood-working shops and factories which are springing up in the region. The soil is a rich alluvial loam of great depth and will produce from one to two bales of cotton and from fifty to eighty bushels of corn per acre. Besides these great staple crops, it produces wheat, oats, rye, barley-the three latter crops being chiefly grown for their value as winter pasture for stock,-sorghum, rice, and all the fruits and vegetables common to the latitude and region. The native nut tree of the Delta is the pecan, and its nuts are a valuable food for swine, and are also gathered for the market in great quantities. The larger Texas variety of the pecan has been introduced here and is perfectly at home in the climate. Horses, cattle and hogs are bred here in great numbers, and the pasturage is good both winter and summer. Perhaps no country in the world can produce pork as cheaply as the Delta and this fact is being more and more generally recognized by the inhabitants of this favored region. Some attention is paid to sheep husbandry, but the flocks are small and are chiefly raised for mutton. The census of 1900 values the live stock higher than any county in the State. Church and schood ad- vantages for both races are found throughout the county. The region now compares favorably with other parts of the State in point of health, since the great underlying artesian basin has been tapped for supplies of pure, cold water.

The following statistics, taken from the United States census

Digitized by Google

937

MISSISSIPPI

for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population :- Number of farms 6,853, acreage in farms 265,138, acres improved 197,- 896, value of the land and improvements, excluding buildings $6,767,530, value of the buildings $1,557,240, value of the live stock $1,372,594, total value of products not fed to stock $3,944,632. Number of manufacturing establishments 128, capital invested $1,391,968, wages paid $196,850, cost of materials used $744,579, total value of products $1,473,739. The population in 1900 con- sisted of whites 5,002, colored 44,214, total 49,216, increase of 8,802 over the year 1890. The total assessed valuation of real and per- sonal property in Washington county in 1905 was $7,207,939 and in 1906 it was $7,915,735, which shows an increase of $707,196 during the year.

Washington County, Territorial. The Spanish boundary, estab- lished in 1798-99, separated from Mississippi Territory all the coast settlements including Mobile, but some settlements had been made on the Tensas and Tombigbee rivers, under English and Spanish grants, and there were a number of "squatters" established in that quarter by the year 1800. Governor Sargent decided he must visit the region, and in April, 1800, asked the commandant at Natchez for a military escort. In the act of congress May 10th it was provided that the eastern settlements should have one rep- resentative in the general assembly of the Territory, then ordained. June 4, by proclamation the governor established the county of Washington, embracing all the territory east of Pearl river. This reduced the older counties of Adams and Pickering to the region between the Mississippi and Pearl. The north line of the Terri- tory was then the line east from the mouth of the Yazoo, and the eastern limit was the Chattahoochee river. The county seat was to be at McIntosh's Bluff. The following officers were appointed : Justices of the courts of quarter sessions and common pleas, James Fair, John Johnson, John Chastain, John Caller, Joseph Thompson and Flood McGrew; John McGrew, coroner; Samuel Mims, treas- urer ; James Fair, judge of probate ; Wilson Carman, sheriff ; Sam- uel Clark, clerk of the courts and recorder. The militia appoint- ments were Adam Hollenger and Joseph Stiggens, captains ; Flood McGrew and William Pierce, lieutenants; Daniel Johnson and John Lindor, ensigns. Judge Daniel Tilton and Capt. Bartholomew Schaumberg were deputed to administer oaths to the new officials. Wilkinson, Hawkins and Pickens reported in December, 1801, that "unlicensed settlements" had been made on the western banks of the Mobile and Tombigbee for more than seventy miles, and a less distance on the east bank and been formed into a county by the late governor. The population was estimated at five hundred whites and half as many negroes. Governor Claiborne's estimate in 1802 was 1,200. The only lands open to settlement were those of the old English district of Mobile, north of the 31st parallel, of which the boundary was re-established under the treaty of Fort Confederation.

In 1801 and 1802 the United States government endeavored to

Digitized by Google

938

MISSISSIPPI

obtain for the citizens of Washington county, free navigation of the Mobile waters, as had been granted on the Mississippi. This was before there was definite information about the treaty of San Ilde- fonzo. In March, 1803, Governor Claiborne sent to Washington the memorial and petition of the house of representatives, "upon the subject of the free navigation of certain navigable rivers falling into the bay of Mexico, from the territories of the United States and passing through the dominions of his Catholic Majesty." After the purchase of Louisiana from France, the United States claimed the gulf coast east to the Perdido as a part of Louisiana. Accord- ingly, as if Mobile were United States territory, Congress provided, in the act to carry into effect the Louisiana purchase, that the pres- ident, "whenever he shall deem it expedient," might constitute a separate revenue district to include "the shores, waters and in- lets of the bay and river of Mobile, and of the other rivers, inlets and bays emptying into the gulf of Mexico, east of the said river Mobile, and west thereof to the Pascagoula, inclusive." Spain duly protested against such a forcing of the question of boundary, and proposed to contest the validity of the cession of Louisiana. There- upon the Jefferson administration declared that the problem of eastern boundary would be left to peaceful negotiation. Spain withdrew her protest, and Jefferson proclaimed May 30, 1804 that he had decided that all the above shores and streams, "lying within the boundaries of the United States, shall constitute and form a separate district, to be denominated the district of Mobile," and designating Fort Stoddert as the port of delivery and entry.

The inhabitants of this district were greatly oppressed. They were surrounded by powerful Indian nations, in possession of all the country north of the Tennessee river; the Spaniards held the coast and the mouths of the rivers. To ship products to any Amer- ican port they must pay the king of Spain a duty of twelve per cent .; frequently by the joint operation of the American and Span- ish tariffs they were compelled to pay a duty of 42 to 47 per cent. ad valorem on imports, and they were subjected to continual vexa- tious searches and seizures. So they complained in 1807, in resolu- tions drawn up by their United States judge and postmaster, Harry Toulmin ; but they declared they were ready to fight for the United States against England, and they were loyal to Mr. Jefferson, not- withstanding his temporizing policy. After the Baton Rouge in- surrection of 1805, and during the Sabine river movements of 1806, the inhabitants meditated a war of their own against Spain.

Capt. Thomas Swaine, of the Second U. S., wrote Cowles Mead, from Fort Chambers, August 15, 1806:

"The militia under the orders of Col. John Caller contemplated an attack upon Mobile, and had carried on their plans in so secret a manner that the least hint had not transpired. It luckily got to the knowledge of Judge Toulmin, who, with some difficulty per- suaded the colonel to desist. I make no doubt, although success was not to be expected, but they would have gone down, as every- thing was in readiness. Since then, another scheme has been in

Digitized by Google

939

MISSISSIPPI

agitation, for thirty men to proceed to Mobile and destroy the town by fire. This was also discovered and prevented. It has had great influence on the minds of the Spaniards and in consequence of it a reinforcement of troops has been sent from Pensacola, and nightly paroles are kept up in the vicinity of Mobile."

Caller himself said that when war with Spain was feared, Gov. Williams gave orders to liven up the militia. Some of the officers and men declared themselves in sympathy with Spain and a few went over into the Spanish territory. In the summer of 1807 Gov- ernor Williams authorized the formation of a battalion of volunteer militia in Washington county, of three companies under the com- mand of Maj. James Caller.

November 25, 1803, Delegate Lattimore presented to Congress the petition of inhabitants of the Alabama, Mobile and Tombigbee rivers, asking for a division of the Territory, and a separate govern- ment for Washington district. A similar petition was joined in by the inhabitants east of Pearl river, and presented to Congress June 12, 1809. (See Statehood.)

The situation continued so that the secretary of state wrote in 1810 that it was understood the Spanish at Mobile had continued to exact, with occasional relaxation, a duty of twelve per cent. on products of United States territory shipped to and fro between New Orleans and the Tombigbee settlements. The disposition of the inhabitants to relieve themselves also continued and Governor Holmes was impelled to warn Colonel Caller in July, 1810, that any aggressions within the territory of West Florida would ruin the in- dividuals who might engage in it and be productive of much mis- chief.

After 1809, when the first Choctaw purchase was completed, the county of Washington was reduced by the creation of Wayne county, which extended, north of the Spanish boundary, from the Pearl river to the trading road running from Mobile northwesterly.

Where this trading road crossed the Choctaw line is "the north- west corner of Washington county," which was the one fixed point in the eastern boundary of the State of Mississippi, (except the mouth of Bear creek, on the Tennessee river) when the boundaries were defined by Congress. After this, Washington county lay out- side the present limits of the State of Mississippi. It was subjected to another division in 1812, the country in the forks of the Tombig- bee and Alabama being organized as Clarke county, and after the Creek treaty of 1814, the country southeast of the Alabama was organized as Monroe county.

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.

Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 113

Author: Dunbar Rowland Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant Number of Pages: 1020

Author: Dunbar Rowland
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Madison, Wis. : S.A. Brant
Number of Pages: 1020