Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 34

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 34

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In 1834 Murel was arrested for negro harboring, fined several hundred dollars, and in the absence of property, was sentenced to slavery for five years. He appealed to the supreme court, and was. about to be set free, when Stewart became associated with him. Stewart claimed that after he had gained the outlaw's confidence, the plan was revealed of a general insurrection of slaves to take place on the night of December 25, 1835, by which time Murel expected his clan of white men to be 2,000 strong. His purpose was simply to cause more bloodshed and destroy more property than any other robber who had ever lived, and he felt confidence in his success because half of his "grand council" were men of high stand- ing and "many of them in honorable and lucrative offices." This was the basis of a book that Stewart wrote and proceeded to sell through the country, creating a great panic and much bloodshed. The book contained a list of the members of the "Mystic Clan," in each of the slaveholding States, also what purported to be a narration by Murel of various robberies and murders he had been guilty of, in Mississippi mainly.

Murfreesboro, battle, see Army of Tennessee.

Murphreesboro, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, 6 miles southeast of Charleston, the county seat and nearest banking town. Tillatoba is the nearest railroad station. Population in 1900. 56. Murphy, a postoffice in the southern part of Washington county, on Big Sunflower river, about 30 miles southeast of Greenville.

Murrah, William Belton, was born at Pickensville, Ala., in 1852. In 1874 he was graduated from the Southern university, at Greens-

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boro, Ala. In 1876 he joined the North Mississippi conference of the Methodist church, and served the churches at Oxford, Winona, and Aberdeen. In 1886 he became vice-president of Whitworth college at Brookhaven, which position he held until 1890. In 1887 the degree of D. D. was conferred on him by Centenary college, La., and in 1897 the degree of LL. D. by Wofford college, S. C. While Dr. Murrah was connected with Whitworth college, he was married to Beulah Fitzhugh, daughter of President L. T. Fitzhugh, of Whitworth college, later president of Belhaven college at Jack- son. When Millsaps college was established at Jackson, Dr. Mur- rah was elected president, which position he still holds, having re- fused several offers to go elsewhere. Dr. Murrah is considered one of the most successful college presidents in the South, and is a rep- resentative of his church at all the important councils, both in his country and abroad. In 1898 he declined the position of secretary of education of the Methodist church.

Murry, a post-hamlet of Tate county, 7 miles northwest of Sena- tobia, the county seat. Coldwater is its nearest banking town. It has a store, a church, and a cotton gin. Population in 1900, 37.

Music, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Smith county, 4 miles north of Mount Olive, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., and the nearest railroad and banking town.

Mussacunna, a postoffice of De Soto county.

Myles, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Copiah county, about 22 miles from Hazlehurst, the county seat. It is a station on the Natchez-Jackson branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 9 miles by rail south of Utica, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 31.

Myrick, a post-hamlet of Jones county, 13 miles northeast of Ellis- ville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.

Myrleville, a post-hamlet of Yazoo county, 12 miles southeast of Yazoo City. The population in 1906 was about 30.

Myrtle (Old). An early settlement in Tippah, now Union county. It was situated 2 miles south of the station of the same name, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham railroad. From an incident, which happened in the year 1857, at which time one Moses Parker was teaching school at this place, it was long called by the name of "Candy Hill." After the War of 1861-1865, it became a post- town and was given the name of Myrtle. Its business moved to the new town of Myrtle, after the building of the railroad, and the old settlement is now known as Avenell, a tiny settlement of about 20 inhabitants, with a postoffice and store. (See Union county.)

Myrtle, an incorporated post-village in the northwestern part of Union county, on the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham R. R., 8 miles northwest of New Albany, the county seat. It was named because of the abundance of myrtle trees in the vicinity. It has a money order postoffice, express office, and a bank, the Bank of Myrtle, established in 1904 with a capital of $10,000. Population in 1900, 165.

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Nabers, Benjamin D., native of Tennessee, moved to Hickory Flat, Miss., where he held several local offices; was elected to the 32d congress as a Unionist, and served 1851-53; was the unsuc- cessful Whig candidate in 1853; moved back to Tennessee, where he was a presidential elector on the Bell and Everett ticket in 1860.

Nanachehaw, or Allen Station, a postoffice in the southern part of Warren county, on the Big Black river, and on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 18 miles south of Vicksburg. Popula- tion in 1900, 23.

Nancy, a postoffice of Clarke county, 12 miles southwest of Quitman, the county seat.

Nannye, a post-hamlet in the extreme southwestern part of Copiah county, 24 miles from Hazlehurst, the county seat. It has an excellent high school.

Napier, a postoffice of Jones county, 10 miles southwest of Ellis- ville, the county seat.

Napoleon, a hamlet in the southwestern part of Hancock county, on the Pearl river, 5 miles north of Pearlington, the nearest bank- ing town. The postoffice has been discontinued, and mail now goes to Huxford.

Narvaez, Panfilo de. The ill-starred expedition of Narvaez in 1527 concerns us inasmuch as it is thought that he may have trav- ersed the Mississippi coast line, and possibly made occasional land- ings thereon, in his efforts to escape from Florida to Mexico. With the remnants of his little band of 300 men, he reached the coast at a bay which Narvaez styled Bahia de Cavallos on the 31st of July, 1528. Here he set to work to build boats in which to escape from the inhospitable shores. Biedma in his narrative of De Soto's expedition says: "We recognized the spot on which he had built his smithy, and saw a great quantity of horses' bones scattered about." This point is believed to be the site of the present town of St. Marks on Apalachee bay. Here he embarked the miserable remnant of his troops, on September 22, 1528, in five frail boats and coasted west for thirty days, landing occasionally to obtain food and water, and meeting with fierce opposition from the na- tives of the coast. On October 31 they came to a "broad river pouring into the Gulf such a volume of water that it freshened the brine so that they were able to drink it; but the current was too strong for their clumsy craft. The boat commanded by Narvaez was lost and never heard of." Another boat was wrecked at the same point and the three others were thrown on the coast of west- ern Louisiana or eastern Texas. Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, the treasurer of the expedition, and three others, were the sole sur- vivors, and finally, after years of wandering, reached the town of San Miguel in Sinaloa, April, 1536. The broad river of fresh water is supposedly the Mississippi.

Nashville was an important shipping point for cotton and was located on the east side of the Tombigbee, a few miles from the southern line of Lowndes county, on what was formerly known as Young's bluff. It was named for Abner Nash, an early pioneer

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of Eastern Lowndes, whose large and commodious residence near the place remained long after the merchants of the place had closed out their stocks and moved elsewhere. . The principal merchants were northern men, who became dissatisfied with the country, on account of the great overflow of the river in 1847, and sold out their stocks and moved away. There is now a public ferry at this point maintained by the county and known as Nash- ville Ferry, but the site of the town and the dwelling of Mr. Nash is now a cultivated field.

Nashville Convention. The Nashville convention was called by the Convention of 1849, (q. v.) at Jackson, Miss., to meet on the first Monday in June, 1850. It was proposed, said Gov. Foote in his inaugural address of 1852, "for the avowed purpose of con- sulting in a fraternal and patriotic spirit, for the general safety of the South, and the preservation of the Union from the dangers with which it was obviously menaced." The delegates chosen to represent Mississippi were: William L. Sharkey, A. M. Clayton, HI. T. Ellett, G. T. Sturges, Joseph W. Matthews, T. J. Word, T. N. Waul, J. B. Cobb, H. C. Chambers, E. C. Wilkinson, George Winchester, D. H. Cooper ; alternates, John I. Guion, A. Hutchin- son, W. R. Cannon, J. T. Harrison, H. R. Miller, J. D. Bradford, Reuben Davis, Charles B. Shepherd, W. R. Hill, Patrick Sharkey, David Hurst, Henry Mounger.

The convention did not seem to meet with general approval. It was declared in congress that the efforts to get up meetings in Virginia to send delegates almost entirely failed. Comparatively few newspapers freely approved it. In Georgia less than 4,000 people in all took part in choosing delegates. At Nashville, a county convention refused to elect delegates. Alabama sent mod- erate men.

The convention met June 3, and Judge Sharkey was made presi- dent. The delegates from Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee were for a declaration in favor of preserving the Union. The minority from South Carolina, Texas and Mississippi, wanted a declaration for resistance. Judge Sharkey opposed extreme measures. The resolutions, drawn up by John A. Campbell, of Alabama, were moderate. But later an address was adopted which denounced the compromise, and expressed Calhoun's conviction that no matter what was compromised, the diversity of interests compelled a con- stitutional amendment or separation.

The Nashville convention was re-assembled in November. 1850; none of the regular Mississippi delegates were present. John J. McRae and two others represented Mississippi, by appointment of Gov. Quitman.

It was resolved. "That we earnestly recommend to all parties in the slaveholding States to refuse to go into or countenance any National convention, whose object may be to nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States. under any party denomination whatever, until our constitutional rights are secured." Also that a congress or convention of the slave- 19-11

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holding States should be held, with twice as many delegates as the regular congressional delegations, "to deliberate and act with the view and intention of arresting farther aggression, and, if possible, of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and if not, to provide for their future safety and independence." But the elections of 1851 in the South went strongly against the promoters of this movement. (See Const. Con. 1851.)

Nashville Indian Conference, 1792. Governor Gayoso had the Choctaws to a treaty at Natchez in 1792, and the chiefs had just returned home when the agents of Governor Blount, Anthony Forster and J. R. Robertson, came to invite them to a conference at Nashville, in August. Nearly all the Chickasaw chiefs, including "Chenambe, king of the Chickasaws," were present, but only about 110 Choctaws attended the congress, being dissuaded by Brassheart, a British trader in that nation. John Pitchlyn ex- plained that he could lead the greater part of the Choctaws against the Indians of the Northwest or their old enemies, the Creeks, but they had neither arms nor ammunition and were very poor. They were compelled by circumstances to maintain an appearance of friendship with the Spanish, with whom they must trade. This was corroborated by Ben James, "a man of the first property and probity in the nation." General Pickens, who accompanied Blount, praised the two Mississippi nations that since they had taken the hand of the Americans at Senaca. "it has never been known that a Chickasaw or Choctaw has spilled the blood of an American. What makes the President and ourselves unhappy is, that it is with difficulty trade can be extended by the United States to your country." He asked that a trading house be permitted at the mouth of Bear Creek, as granted in the treaty of Hopewell. Pia- mingo, the Chickasaw warrior, was opposed to this on the ground that it would breed trouble. The boundaries were discussed, and guns presented to each of Piamingo's soldiers with St. Clair in 1791. and presents distributed. Particularly, the Indians were sol- emnly assured the Americans were not making war north of the Ohio for land, but to restore order.

Nason, a post-hamlet of Grenada county 7 miles southwest of Grenada the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has a public cotton gin.

Nat, a postoffice of Amite county, 8 miles northwest of Liberty, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.

Natchez. No city in the State can claim such a wealth of his- toric associations and traditions as the famous old city of Natchez. Its commanding situation, terminating in a high bluff overlooking for miles the great "Father of Waters," at once attracted the at- tention of the French, the first white settlers on the soil of Missis- sippi. Here, in 1716, Gov. Bienville caused to be erected and gar- risoned old Fort Rosalie, having a two-fold purpose in mind, to hold in check the warlike nation of Natchez Indians, the primitive possessors of the soil of Natchez ; and also to make of Rosalie a link in the chain of river outposts on the Mississippi, which should for-

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STRIPRH GOVERNOR

"CONCORD." RESIDENCE OF THE FIRST SPANISH GOVERNOR.

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ever serve to protect France in her claim to the Valley all the way from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Only brief allusions can be made in this sketch to the long story of French, English, Spanish and early American occupancy. This period of time will be found fully covered by other articles appearing in this work, such as Natchez Indians, Fort Rosalie, Natchez Massacre, Natchez District, Natchez Trace, British West Florida, Fort Panmure, Early Catholic Missions, Spanish Dominion, Advent of the Flag, Ellicott and Gayoso, etc. See also articles treating of the French, English and Spanish governors, and those covering the administra- tions of Governors Sargent, Claiborne, Williams and Holmes. It is proper to say that the history of Natchez, town and district, forms the bulk of the colonial and early territorial records of Mis- sissippi. Natchez was the capital and center of life for the old Natchez District, as well as the first territorial capital; its fair fame drew within its influence that first splendid body of English speaking pioneers, whose names adorn the pages of Mississippi territorial history. Throughout the period of statehood, if it no longer dominated affairs as of old, the proud old city has exerted a powerful influence in shaping the destinies of the Commonwealth. Some hint will be given in the following of the glories of the old city during the heydey of flatboat, barge and steamer traffic, when it was an important port of entry, and when Natchez-Under-the- Hill was in its prime; when it was the commercial depot of the State and its wharves were crowded with all manner of craft, and with as motley a collection of sailors and boatmen as any city in the country could disclose. It will suffice to say here that Natchez bore her full share of the burden, during the great struggle between the States. The dark days of Reconstruction which ushered in the years of carpet-bag thieves and negro domination, was an even harder trial than war. She rose with her sister cities in 1875 when the manhood of Mississippi asserted itself and regained for all time control of the State's machinery of government. From this time on dates the era of the modern city. Natchez has kept step with the march of time, and is today a bustling. wide-awake business center, as well as the home of culture and refinement.

The period of French settlement at Natchez was practically ter- minated by the great massacre of 1729. We have the evidence of William Bartram, the naturalist, who visited Pointe Coupée in 1777, that he met an ancient Frenchman who told him that he with many families of his countrymen settled at the Cliffs of the Natchez, under the protection of the fort and garrison, and by cultivating plantations, had developed there a populous, rich and growing colony ; but through the tyrannical conduct of the military com- mandants towards the Natchez Indians, a conspiracy was formed and all would have been wiped out had it not been for the favor of one of the princesses toward the commandant. "However, the settlement was entirely broken up. most of the inhabitants being slaughtered in one night, and the few who escaped betook them-

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selves to their canoes, descending the river until they arrived at this place, where they established themselves again."

Dumont, in his Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, states that MM. Hubert, king's commissary of the colony, and La Page, were the first settlers at Natchez. Le Page had begun to cultivate a plot in 1717, near the site of New Orleans, but abandoned it that year and went to the Natchez with M. Hubert. The latter had made choice of some land on St. Catherine's creek, and here he built a house, which he called St. Catherine's. M. Penicaut, on the other hand, states that M. Hubert came to Natchez in 1720. He had been residing near New Orleans, and moved to Natchez with all his family and sixty laborers and domestics. He made choice of some land on St. Catherine's creek, "and erected a large dwelling house. The land was about a league from Fort Rosalie and ex- tended into the prairies, which he ploughed up, and sowed with French wheat. He afterward erected a grist-mill, a forge, and machine shops, to manufacture arms and agricultural implements. He allowed M. de Montplaisir to locate himself also on land about a league from his own for the purpose of planting tobacco, which succeeded admirably after the first year." (Annals of Louisiana, French Coll. p. 154).

In 1718 M. de la Houssaye, a gentleman of Picardy, France, with fifteen persons, settled on a concession, "near the great village of the Natchez, on a little river (St. Catherine's creek), which now belongs to the author of these annals, who purchased it of them." (An. of La. By Penicaut, French Coll. p. 141). Claiborne says that Houssaye was the first planter who settled at Natchez. M. Peni- caut was still living at the Natchez in 1729, as he is doubtless the same man usually referred to by writers as M. Perricault, spared by the Natchez on account of his skill as a carpenter and boat builder.

Penicaut also states that MM. Pellerin and Bellecourt arrived at Dauphin Island in 1719, with a number of persons "to make a settlement near the village of the Natchez, on the banks of the little river (St. Catherine's) which falls into the Mississippi."

Hubert strongly urged upon the Council of Louisiana the ad- visability of removing the capital of the colony to Natchez. He was opposed by Bienville who wanted the capital removed to New Orleans. It is probable that Hubert's ownership of the St. Cather- ine concession weakened the force of his argument. He resigned his office under the company and went to France in 1722 in order to regain his health which had suffered; also to present his argu- ment for the transfer of the capital to Natchez. Before his de- parture, he sold his land to M. Dumanoir. who bought it for M. Colly (also spelled Koly, Kolys, and Colis), a merchant of St. Malo, who retained the workmen upon it, on the same terms paid by M. Hubert. MM. Colly and son had just arrived at Natchez in 1729 to inspect their concession, on which they had spent large sums, when the great massacre occurred and they met the common fate.

Many French soldiers and workmen, after obtaining their dis-

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charge from the company, took up small holdings near Natchez, attracted by the excellent soil and climate. Most of them bought their lands from the Indians, who lived about a league from the river. When Charlevoix was at Natchez in 1721, he spoke of a large number of particular grants, already productive, and de- scribed at some length the grant of the Maloins, and that of the Cleracs. (See Charlevoix's Visit). Each of these grants was situ- ated on St. Catherine's, and was four leagues square. The former was the Hubert concession, afterwards sold to M. Colly and asso- ciates of St. Malo; the latter, after first belonging to the Cleracs, was ceded to M. Blanc and his associates, who had previously set- tled at the Yazoo. (See Yazoo Grant). M. Blanc's concession at Natchez was called the "Terre Blanche" concession. Its director in 1729, Sieur Desnoyers, had only arrived from the Yazoo on the morning of the massacre, accompanied by M. Codere, commandant at the Yazoo post and a Jesuit father, Du Poisson. All were slain in the general massacre.

The town was re-established under British dominion, after 1763. For this period see the articles Natchez District, British West Flor- ida, Lyman Colony, Willing Expedition, Fort Panmure, etc.

A valuable insight into the Spanish period is given in the state- ment of William Dunbar, in his claim of title to the "Green," or park, that "A tract of land was granted, by patent, to an individual by the Spanish government ; this land was sold by the first to a sec- ond individual, and considerable improvements made thereon ; the Spanish government purchased three hundred acres of this tract, with the view to erect public buildings and establish a town; a church was built, and a small town laid off, and on another part of the land Governor Gayoso caused a large building to be erected for his own residence, at his private expense ; but before it was finished it was blown down by a hurricane, and the governor then found it more convenient to rent a house [of Minor] for the use of Government, in which he continued afterwards to reside." Be- fore the evacuation Gayoso conveyed to Dunbar, in payment of public services, 26 acres of this land, and the Natchez corporation afterward attempted to gain possession, on the theory that the land was intended as a park. The matter was carried before con- gress.

Francis Baily, who visited Natchez in 1797, when the United States flag was first raised to stay, said there were "two or three places here which go under the denomination of taverns. I put up at one of them, at which there was a billiard table kept, and paid my landlord a dollar a day, which was enormous, considering the fare; for provisions are not very plenty in this province, at least if we judge from the prices." He hoped for improvement with American rule. "Looking forward to this time, we may pronounce this district to be the most flourishing in the southwest territory ; and the town of Natchez far to excel every other on the banks of the Mississippi. . . Land in the country is sold for about a dollar an acre; a five acre lot close to the town sold for 150 dol-

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lars. Dr. Watrous bought a lot of uncleared land near the town for four dollars per acre, and it was thought cheap." Upon the whole he thought this an excellent place to settle, if one were willing to "give up the advantages of refined society; though I don't know that this remark is more particularly here than in all young countries : on the contrary, I know several persons here, both Spanish and English, whose conversation and company have been interesting and amusing." This was significant appreciation, from a young Londoner, afterward president of the Royal Astro- nomical Society. "It is situated upon a high hill, which terminates in a bluff at the river, and consists of about eighty or ninety houses scattered over a great space of land. The streets are laid out upon a regular plan; but there is so much ground between most of the houses, that it appears as if each dwelling was furnished with a plantation. There is a fort upon an eminence near the river, which commands both the town and the Mississippi : but it is in a ruinous condition, and could not be defended against a regular attack." · "The houses are chiefly framed buildings; but, though this

country has been settled so long, there is that inattention to neat- ness, cleanliness, and the comforts attending theron, that there is in a country just cleared. I have seen houses in this place (and those possessed by persons assuming a degree of consequence in the country) scarcely furnished beyond the first stage of civiliza- tion, when a few boards nailed together have served for a bedstead, and a mattress covered with a bed, etc." "This to be sure, is not universally so; on the contrary, I have seen others fitted up in the neatest manner possible : but then in the greatest plainness, without any of those luxuries which decorate even the cottages of our English farmers." The country homes were log houses on the plantations, generally of one room. The young Londoner was per- mitted to occupy one of these with his party, and provided with a supper of mush and milk, and "yet, even for this rough fare, they had the impudence to charge us a quarter of a dollar apiece."

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 34

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