Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 36

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 36

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).

The Natchez highland was covered with hardwood forests, with no pine, but occasionally an enormous sassafras, such as was found nowhere else on the continent. There is no stone, and no running water except streams having their rise in the interior, cutting through these hills to the river. The soil yields easily to the ero- sion of water, and along the streams is cut into immense gullies and ravines, with precipitous heights. Abutting the Mississippi were the famous bluffs known as Walnut hills, Grand, Petit Gulf, Natchez and St. Catherine hills. "In primitive forest they pre- sented a most imposing appearance." Lofty timber covered them from base to summit. The river, approaching the hills closely in a few places, and at an angle always, and deflected at a sharp an- gle, gives the bluffs an outlook over vast stretches of the murky waste of water. ' "The scene is sombre, but grand, especially when lighted by the evening's declining sun." When no foliage hides

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the festoons of long gray moss, "the dead gray of the entire scene in winter is sad and melancholy as a vast cemetery." "These hills are peculiar. They are drift, thrown upon the primitive formation by some natural convulsion, and usually extend some twelve or fifteen miles into the interior. They consist of a rich marly loan, and when in a state of nature were clothed to their summits with the wild cane, dense and unusually large, a forest of magnolia, black walnut, immense oaks, and tulip trees, with gigantic vines of the wild grape climbing and overtopping the tallest of these forest monarchs. Here among these picturesque hills and glorious woods, the emigrants fixed their homes."-(Sparks, Memories.)

Commencing a century before, the French had conquered the land for them from the Indians; of the ancient Natchez people only a scattered remnant existed in distant places. There was no dan- ger from savage jealousy, and in some places the clearings of the French remained to afford the new comers an easy foothold.

The ruins of Fort Rosalie, abandoned by the French since the Natchez massacre, were occupied by British troops in the summer of 1764, under the protection of a war vessel in the river. The works were repaired and fitted up for a garrison, under the name of Fort Panmure. Of the French inhabitants, Claiborne says: "There is no record of any settlement." The English board of trade represented to the king, in March, 1764, that there was "very considerable settlements upon the east bank of the Mississippi," above the 31st degree of latitude. Pickett, in his history of Ala- bama, says, "The French population, along the east side of the Mississippi, to the Walnut Hills, was considerable, and, when they ascertained that British laws had been extended over them, many retired across the river, south of Manchac. Others, assured that they would not be disturbed, either in the enjoyment of the Cath- olic faith, or in their rights and property, remained in the country." But the French historians, noting the records of arrivals of ref- ugees from the Illinois and Alabama counties, do not mention any from the Natchez, perhaps because of their nearness.

This British military post was outside of the limits then as- signed to the province of West Florida; and within the region assigned by the royal proclamation for the use of the Indians. But, in order to open to settlement the beautiful and fertile lands along the river, the limits of West Florida were extended north- ward to a line running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo river. As is stated in the article British West Florida, the commissions to the governors do not show that this was done, under seal. until 1770. The new line permitted the granting of land on the Missis- sippi northward to the Yazoo, and on the waters of Mobile, after the Indian title had been extinguished by treaty.

In response to the efforts of the British to attract immigration, the attractions of the Natchez highlands became widely known. Landspyers were soon on the ground from the older colonies, and "adventurers", as colonists were then called. began to arrive at Pensacola and Mobile from distant parts of the British empire.

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In 1765 the North Carolina settlement began below Baton Rouge. Some of these families, says Wailes, subsequently removed to the neighborhood of Natchez. But the little stockade, called Fort Bute, on the Manchac, was not built until December, 1766, to pro- tect the workmen who were clearing the bayou of obstructions to navigation. Before that, a frigate in the bayou was the fortress of British power. References to the "tide of immigration" and the pouring in of settlers, in this period, does not seem to be justified by the facts. Mentioning the Carolina adventurers, Hamilton says (The Colonization of the South) : "Others emulating them pressed over the Alleghanies to the Mississippi country, and, exploring and hunting, began the trade to New Orleans. By the irony of fate, on their overland return the adventurers were by the Choc- taws robbed of all they had made. We find speculators even in 1768 discounting the future and securing warrants of survey for large tracts of land about Natchez. Thus the Earl of Eglinton (the Colonel Grant of the South Carolina wars) got twenty thou- sand acres, and Samuel Hannay and associates five thousand. John McIntosh obtained five thousand contiguous to Fort Bute, George Johnstone ten thousand at Baton Rouge, and Daniel Clark, afterward a famous name, showed his foresight by locating three thousand at Natchez, one thousand at the head of Lake Maurepas and five hundred more near Fort Bute."

The statement by Wailes (Historical Outline) is: "In January, 1768, the first grants of which we have any record were made under the authority of the king's proclamation, grants to retired military and naval men. They were executed by Montfort Browne, lieutenant-governor of the province of West Florida at Pensacola, among the first being two grants of 3,000 and 2,000 acres to Dan- iel Clark, a reduced captain of the Pennsylvania troops, and clerk of the council under Browne. These grants were situated on the St. Catherine, about three miles south of Fort Panmure, and em- braced lands that had been in part cleared and improved under the French government. Similar grants were made to others, by Lieutenant-Governor Brown, in the following year. Grants dated in January, and to the 19th of March, 1770, were signed by Elias Durnford, as lieutenant-governor. No subsequent grants are known to have been made during this, or the following year. In 1772, and each of the succeeding years to the 3d of September, 1779, numerous patents, many of them for tracts of large dimen- sions, were granted by Governor Chester."

Spanish relations and other matters of high policy caused re- moval of the troops in 1769. "During the withdrawal of troops." says Hamilton. "one John Bradley received possession of Fort Panmure with the duty of keeping it in order and defensible

the project of settling the Mississippi remained a favorite

idea of the province and in 1770 this began in earnest. It would

seem that some eighteen families of immigrants with negroes set- tled down about Natchez, and Chester promptly applied for troops to protect them. Gage, of course, opposed it, and expressed

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astonishment that avidity for lands should make people scramble thither through the deserts. The necessity may be shown by a report to Haldimand in 1772 that the materials of Fort Bute had been destroyed and the writer turned out by the help of Spanish officers ; but this seems to stand unsupported. The jealousy of the Spaniards, however, might well be aroused, for Durnford reports that three hundred persons from Virginia and the Carolinas were then settled on the Mississippi, and three or four hundred families were expected before the end of summer. As a result the posts at Natchez and Bute were ultimately repaired and some sort of government instituted on the Mississippi."

It is evident that there were little settlements, of a permanent character, before the commission to Gov. Chester and the Treaty of 1770, by which John Stuart, superintendent of Indian affairs, obtained from the Choctaws the title to the area which afterward became known as the District of Natchez. A boundary line was run, defining an area of 2,031,800 square miles.

According to Holmes' Annals, before the summer of 1773 had passed, four hundred families from the Atlantic seaboard advanced through the wilderness to the Monongahela and Ohio river and de- scended in boats for the Natchez country. Durnford made an even more hopeful report of immigration, but it does not seem to have greatly affected the Natchez district, according to other observa- tions.

The earliest important settlements were made by Northerners, under grants direct from the king, one dated 1767, known as the Ogden mandamus, and one of date 1775, known as the Lyman mandamus. They were orders on the governor to survey for Capt. Amos Ogden, of New Jersey, 25,000 acres where he might choose, and for Maj .- Gen. Phineas Lyman, of Connecticut, 20,000 acres where he might select. These were the foundations of the impor- tant Swayze and Lyman settlements. The Swayzes brought a Congregational colony from New Jersey, the first Protestant re- ligious movement into the Southwest. They sailed from Perth Amboy to Pensacola, in 1772, then proceeded by way of Manchac and the river to where they settled, on the Homochitto. The Ly- mans organized a considerable colony, that sailed from Connecti- cut and came up the river by way of New Orleans in 1775 to settle on Bayou Pierre and the Big Black. (See Lyman Colony.)

"We have the testimony of some of the early settlers, who sur- vived to an advanced age, and whose statements have been pre- served," says Wailes, "that in 1776, twelve years after the English first occupied the fort at Natchez, the town then consisted of only ten log cabins and two frame houses, all situated under the bluff. The site of Fort Rosalie was overgrown with forest trees, some of them more than two feet in diameter; several old iron guns were lying about, supposed to have been left by the French. About seventy-eight families, dispersed in different settlements, consti- tuted the whole population of the district, few of which, accord- ing to these statements, had emigrated to the country previous to

20-11

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the year 1772. There were four small mercantile establishments in the town; these were owned by Blomart, James Willing, Bar- ber, and the firm of Hanchet & Newman. Blomart was a reduced British officer, and Hanchet was one of the followers or associates of Lyman."

The revolution of the Thirteen Colonies against the king began in 1775, and the people of South Carolina, in the course of that year, were involved in serious difficulties, with promise of actual warfare between the revolutionists and the settlers of the back country, who in considerable measure adhered to the king. In Georgia, also, there was a large party opposed to revolution, so large that that State was generally, when not under control of the British after 1775, in a condition of civil war. The Scotch Highlands of North Carolina were in arms for the king early in the war, under Allan McDonald, and were defeated in battle by the revolutionists in February, 1776. So it happened that the great natural attractions of Natchez district were enhanced, after that date, by the fact that it promised, by its remoteness, a safe refuge from the horrors of war, to those "whose sense of loyalty and of duty forbade them to fight against the king; but rather than stain their hands with kindred blood, renounced home, com- fort, society and position for an asylum in the wilderness."- (Claiborne.) "The opprobrium attached to the name of Tory (which was freely given to all who had either avoided the war by emigration, or who had remained and taken part against the col- onies, and then, to avoid the disgrace they had earned at home, and also to escape the penalties of the laws of confiscation, had brought here their property) induced most families to observe silence respecting their early history, or the causes which brought them to the country, and especially to their children. This was true even as late as forty years ago. There were then in these counties many families of wealth and polish, whose ancestors were obnoxious on account of this damaging imputation; and it was remembered as a tradition carefully handed down by those who at a later day came to the country from the neighborhoods left by these families, and in most instances for crimes of a much more heinous character than obedience to conscientious allegiance to the government."-(W. H. Sparks, The Memories of Fifty Years, probably written before 1870.)

Wailes, explaining a later situation, says: "Many of the older inhabitants had been royalists from principle. Some of them were British officers and continued to receive their pay and pensions even after the acquisition of the country by the United States. Not a few had migrated from the sister States, with strong sus- picions of having fought on the wrong side of King's Mountain. With a change of circumstances and of political institu- tions came also a change of views and opinions, and many of these persons became none the worse citizens, from their antecedents. The descendants of many of them, grown up with attachments to American institutions, have earned for themselves positions of

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respectability and influence. It would answer no good purpose, therefore, to annoy the over-sensitive of the present age, by rend- ing the veil which time has spread over the 'bygones' of a past generation. Let them rest in oblivion."

Without accepting the standpoint of any of these authors, or admitting that anything in the records of the settlers deserve the sentence of oblivion, it may be observed that these differences of attitude toward the revolution can be discussed now without prejudice, and charitably understood. Historically, it is necessary to remember the way the people of the United States were divided in hostile camps during the revolution in order to understand the events along the Mississippi and properly weigh the opinions ex- pressed then, and by later, but not remote, chroniclers. Elihu Hall Bay, of South Carolina, one of the refugees called Tories, served as an official under Gov. Chester during the Revolution, received a large grant of land in the Natchez district, and became the owner by purchase of large bodies on the Homochitto and at Walnut Hills.

In later years he was honored with a position on the bench of South Carolina. Anthony Hutchins, who had obtained a grant of about 1,500 acres on Second creek in 1772-73, brought his fam- ily and a large party of loyalists from the Santee Hills of South Carolina in 1777. They packed their belongings over the moun- tains to the Holston river, built a fleet of flatboats, floated down the Tennessee river, passed the dangerous Mussel shoals, infested by Indian pirates (with the loss of only a few boats, and the wounding of Hutchins, who was shot in the back), floated on into the Ohio and Mississippi; stopped at L'anse a la Graisse, after- ward known as New Madrid, where they hurriedly pushed out in the night for fear of robbery and murder, and so came on down the great river to Walnut Hills, whence some proceeded to Cole's Creek and some to St. Catherine. After 1776 also came the rep- resentatives of the Scotch Highlanders of Cape Fear river, whose "worthy and industrious descendants may be found from Pensa- cola to Natchez." These earliest Scotch immigrants were of the people that had fought for the Hanovers at Moore's Creek as their ancestors did for the Stuarts at Culloden.

The Carolinians led by Hutchins followed the river route sev- eral years before a party of daring pioneers of the Holston valley, including the future wife of Andrew Jackson, had dared to make their voyage to settle Nashville, a voyage made memorable also by the capture at Mussel Shoals of three of their number, who were tortured to death by the Chickamaugas. Others came with packhorses on the trail from Georgia through the Creek and Choctaw country ; the Northerners came by ship to Pensacola and New Orleans, and thence by boat up the river, or down the Ohio from Pittsburg. Of the settlers in general from 1765 to 1779, Clai- borne says: "Nine-tenths of them came to cultivate the soil; they brought intelligence and capital ; and they embarked at once upon the production of supplies for home consumption."

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In 1773, according to a document in the office of trade, at Lon- don, there were only thirty-three settlements (or plantations) between Natchez and the present Louisiana line. But a few years later, in 1778, the "Western parts had so far increased in its inhabitants that since the last assembly it had been divided from the district of Mobile or Charlotte county, and erected into two districts; viz .: The District of Manschalk and the District of Natches, and contained a greater number of respect- able, wealthy planters and settlers than either of the other Dis- tricts in the Colony." (Letter of Gov. Chester.) In this pro- vincial assembly of West Florida, in 1778, the first one after 1772, Anthony Hutchins and Isaac Johnston were members for the Dis- trict of Natchez.

It appears that they gave considerable attention to stock rais- ing, for which the open ranges were favorable. Col. Hutchins is said to have had 1,000 cattle and 500 horses at the time of the revolt. Indigo was probably cultivated as an export crop, as in other parts of Florida and on the South Atlantic coast. "Bacon, beef, butter and poultry were plentiful. Orchards were on a large scale and the fruit better than at present. It was a common sight to see one hundred bee hives in a farm yard. Beeswax and honey were articles of export. The medicinal roots and herbs, rhubarb, ginger, pimento, saffron, hops, the opium poppy, were grown in the gardens. Many planters tanned their own leather. Shoes were almost always made on the plantation, either by a workman belonging to the place, or by a man hired to do the work. Gen- tlemen and ladies were clad in homespun. Even the bridle-reins, girths and saddle-cloths were made at home." In brief, it was that sort of happy, independent and self-reliant existence that is possible where there is more land than can be utilized. "The land holders were, for the most part, educated men; many of them had held commissions in the British and provincial armies ; others had held civil offices under the crown or the colonies. Such a popu- lation is a guarantee against anarchy or mob rule, and though remote from the provincial government of Pensacola, and no court of record nearer, the Natchez district was proverbial for its im- munity from crime and criminals. . The intelligent and cul- tivated class predominated, and this gave tone to the community." There was a darker side, of course, as Mr. Claiborne admits. "Bad men, outlaws and fugitives from justice came likewise, but they were outnumbered and restrained by the better class." There was that spirit of which Wailes gives an intimation in his account of the revolt of 1781: "Having little else to employ them, the people ran to arms in a spirit of reckless frolic and bravado, without duly considering their true situation, and the great evils to which they exposed themselves." But without something of this daring, there would never be any pioneer settle- ments of civilization.

Hardly had the "District of Natchez" been formally erected, when it became evident that Natchez was not to be a secure refuge

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from the influence of the Revolution, which was controlling events, not only as far as the Mississippi river, but throughout the world. Pensacola had some report of trouble from Natchez as early as 1777, and John McGillivray, the Mobile merchant, was authorized to raise a force, including Indians, to march to the support of the settlement.

Oliver Pollock was commissioned as agent of Virginia and the United States in 1777, to purchase military supplies for the fron- tier troops on the Indian border of the Northwest. This had the secret sanction of the Spanish authorities, but the purchase and shipment of supplies up the river was necessarily a matter of as much secrecy as possible, Spain being a neutral power. American officers came down to convey the supplies, and, says Monette, "through the enterprise and discretion of Capt. William Lynn, Colonel Rodgers, Captain James Willing and Captain Benham, the American posts on the Ohio and upper Mississippi were re- peatedly supplied during the years 1777, 1778 and 1779 with mili- tary stores and supplies from New Orleans." This was not only a delicate but a very dangerous service. On the Ohio they were watched by the savages, under the orders of Gen. Hamilton, of Detroit. Rodgers and Benham, going up from New Orleans in 1779, were massacred, with their 90 men. Stephen Minor, another officer in this service, escaped death in 1780, at the Post of Arkan- sas, only by the fact that he was delayed by sickness. All his men were murdered and his stores plundered. Captain Willing came down with 50 men in two keel boats, in the winter and spring of 1778. Remonstrances had been made to the governor of Lou- isiana regarding this contraband trade, and "Willing deemed it prudent that he should have some assurance, as he descended to New Orleans, that the people of the Natchez district would ob- serve a strict neutrality on their part. In order to place this ques- tion beyond doubt, he landed [first at Walnut Hills and then] at Natchez, where he had formerly resided for several years before the war, and having obtained an interview with some of the citi- zens, he took the sense of the town in a public meeting, and with the general approbation entered into a written convention of neu- trality."-(Monette, Hist. Val. Miss.) It will be observed that this was a sort of treaty under which Willing would refrain from attack if the colony would refrain from support of his enemies. There was no garrison of British soldiers at that time. Accord- ing to Monette's account. Willing found it desirable, from infor- mation received. to take Col. Hutchins with him to New Orleans as a hostage. There, Hutchins was released on parole, whereupon he returned home and alarmed the settlements by a report that Willing was preparing to return and plunder the district, as his men had done about Baton Rouge and Manchac. In these lower districts there was wholesale pillage of the property of the promi- nent royalists. Hutchins raised a body of armed men, which, on the return of Willing up the river, fired upon one of his boats as it was coming to land, killing several men.

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Monette describes this as "the first act of open hostility by the people of Natchez district against the American troops a wanton attack, made by about twenty-five men in ambuscade."

From the narrative by Claiborne and Wailes it would appear that the attack on the boat was in self-defense, not as against sol- diers, but against plunderers. (But see Willing Expedition.) Capt. Phelps wrote in his Journal: "We subsequently held a consultation upon the unhappy condition of our affairs and the course it had become necessary to pursue. Under the advice of Colonel Hutchins, a British subject who resided among us, and still retained his commission and had not taken with us the oath of neutrality, we formed ourselves into a military body, and agreed to turn out as often as needed to protect ourselves and the settle- ments generally from such banditti. Their depradations, so con- trary to the declaration of Willing, had absolved us from the oath we had taken, and thus the sympathy with and friendship for the American cause, in these remote settlements, were smothered by these unprincipled buccaneers." The American influence at New Orleans was exerted after this event more strongly in favor of Spain taking possession of the territory held by the British. Willing went on to Mobile, in the hope of causing an uprising in favor of the United States, but was made a prisoner of war and vigorously treated, for which the United States retaliated upon General Hamilton, who was captured by Gen. George Rogers Clark. At the time of the Willing expedition, Clark was making his famous march on Kaskaskia.

"Shortly after the foregoing occurrences," says Wailes, "Gov- ernor Chester sent Colonel Magellan to raise four companies of militia, and with orders to fit up Fort Panmure. The command of these troops was given to Lyman, Blomart and McIntosh, who were soon ordered to Baton Rouge, in consequence of the prospect of war with Spain, and a Captain Foster, with a hundred men, was left in command of Natchez." According to the narrative of Mr. Claiborne, while Capts. Lyman, Blomart and McIntosh were in command at the fort with their volunteers, Capt. Michael Jack- son appeared to take charge under orders from Pensacola, with a company of royalist refugees. The officer is said to have been recognized as a refugee for other causes than allegiance to the king, and his men were described as'no better than Willing's. So much discontent was aroused that there was a revolt of citizens and volunteers, headed by Anthony Hutchins, who arrested Jack- son and required him to promise to resign his commission and leave the country. Captain Lyman again took command. But Jackson collected a party of "deserters and brigands," seized some military stores and two pieces of artillery, sent out runners for Choctaw reinforcements, and posted himself under the bluff at the landing. The Choctaws came in. three hundred strong, but finding the British flag flying on the fort, declined to aid in sup- pression of the mutiny. The conflict was settled by permitting Jackson to return to the fort and submit to orders until the com-

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 36

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