Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 29

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 29

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).

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tory and Modern Languages was created, and Prof. J. P. Hanner was put in charge of the work. Prof. Hanner had been acting- professor of Natural Sciences in 1894-95, in place of Prof. Mucken- fuss absent on leave, and in 1895-96, was acting-professor of Ancient Languages while Prof. Swearengen was in Europe on leave. He was a graduate of Vanderbilt University. The faculty remained unchanged until the fall of 1899 when Prof. Weber re- signed from the chair of English to accept the same chair in Emory College. In his place was elected Professor D. H. Bishop, professor of English and History in Polytechnic College, Fort Worth, Texas. At the close of the session of 1899-1900, Prof. Hanner resigned from the Chair of History and Modern Lan- guages, and accepted a position in Emory College. Prof. B. E. Young resigned the chair of Modern Languages in the Polytechnic College, Fort Worth, Texas, and accepted the position made va- cant by Prof. Hanner's resignation. Prof. Bailey also resigned from the Preparatory Department, and Rev. G. W. Huddleston, principal of Carthage High School, took his place. Prof. Huddles- ton is still in this position. At the same time there were added to the Law Department, Judge A. H. Whitfield, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court, and Judge W. R. Harper. These with Judge Mayes constitute the present Law Faculty. At the commence- ment of June, 1902, Dr. Muckenfuss accepted the chair of Chem- istry in the University of Arkansas, and in 1905 the same chair in the University of Mississippi. In his place was elected Dr. J. M. Sullivan, a Ph. D. of Vanderbilt, and professor of Natural Sci- ences in Centenary College. During the session of 1902-03, Prof. A. H. Shannon acted as professor of Biology and Sociology. In 1904 Prof. Young accepted the chair of Romance Languages in Vanderbilt University, and the chair of History and Modern Lan- guages was divided. Prof. J. E. Walmsley took charge of the work in History and Economics. Prof. Walmsley had been professor of History and Economics in Kentucky Wesleyan College, and, during the session of 1903-04, was acting-professor of History and Modern Languages in the absence of Prof. Young, who was in Europe. Prof. O. H. Moore, a graduate of Harvard, was elected to the new chair of Modern Languages. Dr. Swearengen resigned from the Latin and Greek Department, and the position was filled by Prof. M. W. Swartz, who had been professor of Greek and German in the Milwaukee Academy. Prof. Bishop accepted the chair of English in the University of Mississippi, and Prof. A. A. Kern was selected in his place. At the time of his election Prof. Kern was a graduate student of the Johns Hopkins University. During the session of 1905-06 a movement was organized to in- crease the endowment, and the movement has so far succeeded that the productive endowment is now near $200.000. Since the erection of the original main building. there have been added, an astronomical observatorv. the gift of Dan A. James, the Webster Science Hall. and the Founder's Hall, these last being the gifts of Major Millsaps. In addition to the large dormitory, known as

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Founder's Hall, there are ten smaller students' homes, and two fraternity halls. The college is situated in a most attractive part of Jackson, and its campus will soon be one of the most beautiful in the South. The College offers three courses leading to degrees, and its graduates have taken such high rank in the outer world that, though the youngest college in the State, it ranks second to none.

Millsaps, Reuben Webster, was born in Copiah County, Miss., May 30, 1833. He is a son of Reuben Millsaps and Lavinia Clowers, who were both Georgians by birth. Major Millsaps was educated at Hanover college and Asbury (now De Pauw) univer- sity, graduating in 1854. After returning to Mississippi he taught school for a few years and then entered the law department of Harvard university, from which he was graduated in 1858. He began the practice of law in Pine Bluff, Ark., where he resided till the beginning of the war, when he joined Co. A, 9th Arkansas infantry. He was wounded once, and held the rank of major at the close of the war. He engaged in mercantile business in Mis- sissippi till 1880, when he removed to St. Louis, and remained there for four years. In 1884 he closed out his business in St. Louis, and, after spending a year in Europe, returned to Missis- sippi, and engaged in banking, first in Hazelhurst, and later in Jackson, where he now resides. He was president of the Capitol National bank, in Jackson, from 1888 to 1904, and is a stockholder and director in many of the banks of the State. He has given nearly $200,000 to Millsaps college (q. v.), and is interested in many philanthropic movements, in addition to the official posi- tions which he holds in the Methodist church. In 1869 he was married to Mrs. Mary F. Younkin, a daughter of Horace Bean, a banker of New Orleans.

Millview, a postoffice of Harrison county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 23 miles by rail north of Gulfport, and 1 mile south of McHenry Station, the nearest banking town.

Millville, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Madison county, 18 miles from Canton, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 63.

Minden, a post-hamlet in the extreme southeastern part of Kemper county, on Wild Horse creek, about 18 miles from Dekalb, the county seat. It is 4 miles east of the main line of the Mobile & Ohio R. R. Population in 1900, 30.

Minerva, a postoffice of Montgomery county, 8 miles northeast of Winona, the county seat. The town is growing and has a population of 50.

Mingo, a postoffice of Tishomingo county, 12 miles south of Iuka, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town.

Minieola, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, on Sucarnoochee creek, 5 miles north of Dekalb, the county seat.

Mining. See Clays, Cement, Fertilizers, Iron and Coal, Ochre.

Minor, Stephen, entitled in the Spanish documents, Don Estevan Minor, "was a native of Pennsylvania ; he first visited New Orleans

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in 1780, to procure military stores for the American posts on the Ohio and Monongahela [the same errand on which Capt. James Willing came]. On his return, with a caravan of loaded mules, not far from the present post of Arkansas, his stores were plun- dered and his men all murdered; his own escape being due to a most fortuitous detention by sickness, a few hours behind his party. He afterwards repaired to New Orleans," where the American party was headed by Oliver Pollock and Daniel Clark, and joined in the expedition of Gen. Galvez against Mobile, Gal- vez' war being understood to be in sympathy with the American revolution. "His remarkable skill with the rifle, and his acts of gallantry, during the siege, attracted the notice and secured the favor of the general, by whom his position in the Spanish army was advanced." (Wailes, Historical Outline.) Minor was sent to Natchez in 1783, where he had the rank of captain in the Span- ish army, and the position of aide-major or adjutant of the mili- tary post. On the records his function appears, "ayudante del Fuerte Panmure de Natchez." Throughout the whole Spanish jurisdiction he was the subordinate officer to the governor, being in fact the American element in the government, and no doubt responsible for its adaptation to the customs and habits of the population. He was, of course, intimately associated with Miro and Gayoso, both of whom were promoted from the government of Natchez to the administration of Louisiana and West Florida.

William Dunbar wrote: "This gentleman was aide-major of the post of Natchez, and attended the governor [Gayoso] officially, almost perpetually, and was certainly more intimately acquainted with his motives and actions than any one here, his secretary only excepted, who is a Spaniard [Joseph Vidal]." "He is said to have endeared himself to his countrymen, the American settlers, by his acts of friendliness and protection, and was applied to on all occa- sions, in cases of difficulty." (Wailes.)

His attachment to Natchez district was increased by his mar- riage to a daughter of John Ellis, of White Cliffs. When Gayoso became governor of Louisiana, after the arrival of Ellicott, Capt. Minor acted as commandant at Natchez, and civil governor until the evacuation in the spring of 1798. Capt. Guion wrote to Gen. Wilkinson, May 5, 1798: "Captains Minor and Vidal are still here. The first is an American (at heart). The latter says he is a consul. I say he is-perhaps so." Minor served on the boun- dary commission, for running the line between the United States and the Floridas, in 1798-99, in place of Gov. Gayoso, and was with the surveying party to the Chattahoochee river.

In 1804-5 he was listed as an officer of the Spanish boundary commission of Louisiana, as a captain in the Spanish army. He gave a safe conduct to Walter Burling, sent by Wilkinson to the governor of Mexico in 1806. Captain Minor then had his home at Gayoso's old plantation, Concord, and, says Claiborne's history, "was an opulent planter. extremely hospitable, and lived in elegant style." But he did not purchase that plantation until sometime

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after the evacuation. "A part of the Minor family still resides near Natchez at a charming home called Oakland, which is a part of the original grant made to Don Estevan Minor. Oakland is famous for its avenue of liveoak trees, of which the branches inter- lock though the trunks stand eighty feet apart." (Deupree.) Gov- ernor Minor had a brother, John Minor, who was at Natchez dur- ing the absence of Stephen Minor on the survey. William J. Minor, son of the captain, resided at Concord, after the decease of his father. Minor's second marriage was to Catherine Lintot, and five children were born to them. Captain Minor died at Concord in 1815.

Minot, a postoffice in the northern part of Sunflower county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 35 miles distant from Indianola, the county seat.

Minter City, a post-village in the northern part of Leflore county, on the Southern, and the Mississippi Valley railroads, about 18 miles northwest of Greenwood, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, an oil mill, and a brick and tile factory. Population in 1900, 170.

Miro, Estevan, was a Spanish officer at New Orleans, who gained promotion to colonel commanding the Creole regiment, during the conquest of West Florida by Galvez, and succeeding Galvez as governor of the province, including the Natchez district. He made the treaty of 1784, at Pensacola and Mobile, with Alex- ander McGillivray and the Southern Indian nations, binding them to Spain ; and engaged the services of James Wilkinson and others to promote the separation of the Western country from the United States. He was popular outside of his own domain, as was evi- denced by the naming of the Cumberland river region "Miro dis- trict," in his honor. In October, 1790, he wrote to his home government, asking a place in the department of the Indies, in Spain. "I have now had the honor," said he, "of serving the king, always with distinguished zeal, for thirty years and three months, of which, twenty-one years and eight months in America." He was a native of Catalonia; his wife was a Macarty, of New Or- leans. Judge Martin wrote of him that though he was not bril- liant, like Galvez, he had sound judgment, a high sense of honor and an excellent heart, united suavity of temper with energy, was remarkable for strict morality, had a fair college education and was master of several languages. He sailed for Spain in 1791. "where he continued his military career, and from the rank of brigadier-general rose to that of mariscal de campo, or lieutenant- general."

Mish, a money order post-hamlet of Covington county, and a station on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 6 miles north of Williams- burg, the county seat, and 3 miles southeast of Mt. Olive, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 21. A large saw mill is located here and the population in 1906 was estimated at 100.

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Missionary, a hamlet of Jasper county, 6 miles north of Paulding, the county seat. The postoffice here has been discontinued and mail now goes to Paulding. Population in 1900, 57.

Missions, Early Catholic. With the exception of the chaplains who are known to have accompanied De Soto in his luckless wan- derings through Mississippi in 1539, Father Marquette was the first Catholic priest to set foot on Mississippi soil. In 1673, with Joliet, he explored the great river, termed on his autograph map the River de la Conception, as far south as the mouth of the Ar- kansas river. His work was one of exploration and preparation, and he probably held little communication with the Indians. Nine years later, Father Zenobius Membre, Recollect, accompanied the expedition of LaSalle as chaplain, to the mouth of the Mississippi. He has left us an interesting narrative of that celebrated voyage. On their way down the river, every effort was made to obtain the friendship of the various Indian tribes. Father Membre calls the Natchez by the name "Natchie"; says the narrative, "Although their village lay three leagues inland, the sieur de la Salle did not hesitate to go there with part of our force. We slept there and received as kindly a welcome as we could expect."

Before 1698 the seminary of foreign missions at Paris, France, had established a branch in Quebec to train missionaries for the New World. The first Catholic missionaries sent in 1698 by the Bishop of Quebec into the newly discovered southern field were priests from this seminary. They were Father Francis Jolliet de Montigny, superior, who settled among the Taensas, a nation closely akin to the Natchez; and afterwards among the Natchez ; Father Anthony Davion, who pursued his missionary labors in what is now Wilkinson county, and who planted the cross on a high rock, known by the French as Roche a Davion until 1764, when it was called Loftus Heights, and subsequently and ever since as Fort Adams : the third priest sent at this time was Father Francis Buisson de Saint Cosme, who began a mission among the Tamarois, an Illinois tribe above the Ohio; he later took the place of Father Montigny among the Natchez. When d'Iberville came in 1699 to plant the first French colonv on the Mississippi. he brought with him as chaplains Father Bordenac, who was later left as chaplain of the garrison at Fort Biloxi, and Father Anas- tasius Douay, Recollect, who had been with LaSalle's expedition, from 1684-88, and has left a very full narrative of LaSalle's attempt to ascend the Mississippi, in 1787. Father Anastasius does not appear to have remained long in the colony, however. In 1699, Revs. Berzier Bouteville and Saint Cosme, a younger brother of the Father Cosme, above mentioned. arrived on the Lower Mis- sissippi from Canada. In Tulv. 1699. Fathers Montigny and Davion, having learned from the Indians that the French had made a set- tlement at Biloxi, were welcome visitors at that post. October 1. 1702, Father Davion and Father Limoge. a Tesuit priest. went to Biloxi to inform the French that Father Foucault, his servant, and two other Frenchmen had been murdered on the Yazoo river

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by two Courois Indians, who were serving them as guides on a trip to Mobile. It would seem that Father Davion abandoned his mission among the Tonicas for a time, as La Harpe records that December 21, 1704, "the chiefs of the Tonica nation came to Fort Mobile to solicit the return of Father Davion to their village, which he had abandoned since the death of Father Foucault, who had been killed by the Curois, instigated by the English, and in concert . with the Yasous." In 1706, Father Saint Cosme, the elder, became sick and started down the Mississippi from Natchez. January 1, 1707, Rev. Father Berzier, Grand Vicar of Quebec, arrived at Mobile from his station among the Tamarois, and re- ported that Father Saint Cosme had been cruelly murdered by the Chitamaches of La Fourche. Bienville thereupon induced the Biloxis, Bayagoulas and Natchez to make war on them and they were nearly exterminated. Father Davion was finally forced to abandon his mission among the Tonicas on account of the hostility of the Indians, who were instigated thereto by the English, and went to Mobile. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Quebec had caused Father la Vente and four other priests to be sent to the colony from France. La Vente came as Vicar-General of the colony, and con- temporary records would seem to indicate that he devoted more time to stirring up trouble against Gov. Bienville than to mission- ary efforts.

When the Company of the West was formed in 1717 under the auspices of the Duke of Orleans, the charter required the company "to build at its expense churches at the places where settlements were formed; to maintain there the necessary number of approved ecclesiastics, in order to preach the holy Gospel there, perform divine service and administer the sacraments under the authority of the bishop of Quebec, the said colony remaining as heretofore in his diocese." "In 1722," says the Rev. B. J. Bekkers in his sketch of the Catholic Church in Mississippi, "the company took up the matter. The year before, the Jesuit Father Charlevoix (q. v.) had travelled through the French colonies in North Amer- ica (he made extended visits at the Yazoo and at Natchez), and after his return to France had told of the great spiritual destitu- tion of the colony." As a result of this report, it was arranged to have the Capuchin fathers take charge of the French settlements, and Jesuit fathers from France were placed in charge of the mis- sions among the Indians. In that portion of the province of Louisiana embraced in the State of Mississippi. the following as- signments were made: The Capuchin Father Philibert was given the mission at Natchez. The Jesuit Father Maturin le Petit was sent to the Choctaws; Father Seoul to the Yazoos; Father Bau- douin to the Chickasaws. On the recall of Father le Petit to New Orleans, Father Baudouin took his place, and assisted by Father Lefevre labored among the Choctaws for 18 years. We are indebted to Father le Petit for a very full account of the man- ners and customs of the Natchez tribe, including an account of the great massacre of 1729. Father Philibert happened to be away

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from Natchez and escaped the common fate; the Jesuit father du Poisson, from the Arkansas post, however, happened to be at Nat- chez at the time and was slain, as was Father Seoul at the Yazoo on December 11. Father Doutrelou was severely wounded by the Yazoos at this time also, but managed to escape. Still another Jesuit met his fate on Mississippi soil in 1736. Father Lenat had accompanied d'Artaguette from the Illinois post on his disastrous expedition into the Chickasaw country to assist Bienville. He perished with the commander and other officers at the stake.

The Jesuit order was finally suppressed in France in 1761 and all the missionaries in the province of Louisiana were hunted down and deported to France, their property confiscated and their churches and chapels destroyed.

As a result of the seven years war between England and France the latter country lost her possessions in the new world, and, with the exception of the brief period 1779-98, when the Spaniards were in control of the province of West Florida, Catholic missionary effort entirely ceased. Under the Spanish regime, the Bishop of Salamanca sent four Irish priests to Natchez, about 1790, the Revs. Wm. Savage, Gregory White, Constantine McKenna and Michael Lamport. When the province became part of the United States by the treaty of San Lorenzo, they all returned to Spain and the territory of Mississippi was without a Catholic priest.

Catholic missionary labors thus cover nearly a century of time. Despite great individual effort and heroism amid savage condi- tions of life, it is doubtful if many converts to Christianity were made in Mississippi, or if any lasting impression was made on the Indian tribes. (See Shea, History of Cath. Church, and Bek- kers. Miss. Hist. Soc. Publ., VI, 351.)

Missions, Protestant. Before the departure of the Catholic priests the Protestants had done much missionary work, but in violation of the laws of the province. The first Protestant to preach in the new territory was Rev. Richard Curtis, a Baptist, who settled on Cole's Creek near Natchez, with a number of emi- grants from North Carolina in 1780. His work was effective, and the first Protestant church in Mississippi was established by him. But his preaching aroused the indignation of the Spanish govern- ment, and to escape being sent to the mines in Mexico, he fled through the wilderness to his old home and did not return until the United States got possession of the territory. The Baptists were active in the early missionary work. Soon after Mr. Curtis began his work Rev. Tobias Gibson, a Methodist missionary, came to the territory, followed by Moses Floyd. Lanner Blackman and T. C. N. Barnes, also Methodists, who did effective work. The pioneer preacher of the Episcopalians was Rev. Adam Cloud, who came in 1792. He did missionary work until 1795, when he was sent to New Orleans in irons, and to escape the punishment of slavery in the mines went into exile in Georgia and South Caro- lina. The Presbyterians came as soon as the Americans gained possession of the country. They established missions among the

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Indians and did active missionary work among the negroes on the plantations.

Towards the close of the eighteenth century a Congregational- ist preacher named Bullen came from New York and attempted to establish a mission near the present site of Pontotoc. He put up some buildings, but his enterprise was a failure, as a result of the imprudence of his two deacons.

In 1818 Revs. Kingsbury, Gleason, Touse, Hooper Cushman and others established a mission called Mayhew in East Mississippi, but afterwards removed to a place they called Hebron, three miles from the present site of Starkville. In August, 1818, the Elliott school was established on the Yalobusha in the Choctaw nation, by the American Board for foreign missions. At these missions the boys were taught farming, and the girls how to spin, weave, knit and keep house. Eighty scholars were reported in 1822, when the board was about to open school at Mayhew.

Mayhew mission school (near Columbus) was established by Dr. David Wright, who taught and preached to the Indians for several years. His daughter, Laura, born at Mayhew in 1824, was educated at Mt. Holyoke, Mass., and taught school in Mississippi for 40 years.

The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Tennessee established a school in the Chickasaw nation in October, 1820, which was in charge of Rev. Robert Bell, previously a resident of Monroe county, Miss. He taught a school two and a half miles northeast of Cotton Gin Port, and in 1834 settled near Pontotoc. In October, 1821, the missionary society of the Presbyterian synod of South Carolina and Georgia, established a mission among the Chickasaws at Monroe Station, the movement to this end having been begun in 1819, the region having been visited by Revs. David Humphries and T. C. Stuart in 1820. Stuart established the mission, aided by two men as farmer and mechanic. William Colbert, grandson of the original settler, became an elder in the church they organ- ized. A branch mission was established at "Pigeon Roost," the station being called Martyn, under Rev. W. C. Blair, of Ohio.

The Six Towns Mission Station was established by a gentleman by the name of Bardwell in 1825. He was probably from New England, and the Indians among whom his mission was located were known as the Six Towns tribe. A comfortable log dwelling was built, also a log church and school house. The location of this mission was in Jasper county. The missionaries supplied the natives with school and church privileges and worked among them eight years, but their work, though done in a spirit of self sacrifice, did not amount to a great deal.

The later missionary work, aside from church extension work among the whites, has been among the negro population.

Mississippi. Originally the name of the river. Peter Pitchlynn, in a letter to the Columbus Whig, in 1861, traced the derivation of the word to the Choctaw, mish sha sippukni, which he trans- 'lated "beyond age." Du Pratz sought to explain the name Mecha-

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sepi as a contraction of Meact Chassipi, meaning "the ancient father of waters." It appears, however, that the Southern Indians did not give the river such a name when the earliest explorers reached the coast. The name given by the gulf coast Indians was written by the French as Malabouchia.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 29

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