Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 44

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 44

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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1844. In the fall of 1848 the actual work of the university was started.

The population of Oxford in 1900 was 1,825, an increase of nearly 300 inhabitants in one decade and was estimated at 2,000 in 1906; the people are cultured and liberal-minded. A region well adapted to general farming lies about the town, and large tracts of valuable hardwood timber will eventually result in the establishment of profitable wood-working industries.

The Bank of Oxford and the Merchants and Farmers Bank are two splendid financial institutions. The Oxford Eagle, a weekly Democratic publication is the only paper published in Oxford. The Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist, Presbyterian, Cumberland Presbyterian and Primitive Baptist denominations are all repre- sented by churches here.

The industries of the town are a splendid electric light and water plant, a cotton seed oil mill, an ice factory, a large Munger System cotton gin, planing mill, a fine brick and tile factory, a sand and cement block m'f'g. plant, three lumber yards and a pri- vate electric light plant. There are three first-class hotels, a fine brick court house and jail and one of the best government buildings in the State. Oxford has probably the best educational advantages of any town of its size in the State.

Oyster Commissioners. Laws of 1896 and 1898 put the regula- tion of oyster fishing and protection of the oyster beds on the coast under the control of the coast counties. The act of February 3, 1902, repealed these laws, and provided for a Board of Oyster commissioners of five members to be appointed by the governor, to meet monthly during the oyster canning season and have actual supervision of the industry. Any owner of oyster craft of over one ton burden is required to have a license, for which the charge is $2.50 to $15, vessels are to be conspicuously numbered, and a chief inspector is appointed by the board to patrol the reefs and prevent unauthorized fishing. A tax is levied upon packed oysters, and an Oyster fund is created in the State treasury, from which an ex- penditure of not exceeding $5,000 a year is authorized for cultiva- ting the oyster beds. The first appointments of the board, August 30. 1902, were. O. T. Cassibry, J. D. Minor, Frank J. Ladner. Frank Patenotte and J. A. Hattiestad, all residents of the coast and famil- iar with the industry. The board was organized at Gulfport in Sep- tember following, with J. A. Hattiestad as president and F. S. Hewes, Jr., was chosen secretary. and R. L. Mosley chief inspector. The receipts of the first year paid the expenses, about $12,000, and 82.000 surplus was paid into the State treasury. Upon the resig- nation of Mr. Hattiestad J. B. Chinn was made president. The members in 1905 were, K. L. Thornton, J. B. Chinn, O. T. Cassibry, J. D. Minor. Richard Mendes. A patrol boat was purchased in 1904. Four hundred oyster boats were licensed in the last year.

Mississippi has an area of about 450 square miles of salt water, after yielding the claims of Louisiana. "Of this an area of about 180 square miles has oyster beds scattered over it, covering about

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one-fourth this area, or 45 square miles. In some places they are too thick, in others they are too thin, yet people fish where they are too thin, because the oysters are large, while beds of millions of barrels remain on reefs where they are too thick to grow large enough for use. Instead of 45 square miles of area being oyster beds, the entire square miles with proper handling can easily be converted into one solid mass of marketable oysters, thereby be- coming a veritable mine of wealth to the State." (W. A. White, author of oyster statute of 1896.) The senate committee of 1904 reported that half a million dollars was invested in the business at Biloxi alone, shipping $1,000,000 worth of oysters annually, the business employing four shippers and five large canning factories. "The oyster catch for this year will amount to 800,000 barrels, and the shrimp business amounts, at Biloxi, to 1,500 barrels, which are worth $60,000 in their raw state, and $200,000 in their finished state." The business along the whole coast was estimated to exceed $1,500,000 a year, 300 boats and 1,200 men being employed in the fishing and 1,000 men in the canneries. This volume of bus- iness depended largely on the right to fish in the waters claimed by Louisiana. There are canneries (1906) at Biloxi, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport and Scrantan.

Pachuta, an incorporated post-town in the western part of Clarke county, on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., 10 miles south- west of Enterprise. The name is a Choctaw Indian word mean- ing "possum creek," from the creek of the same name on which it is situated. Population in 1900, 131; in 1906, 250. The town has several good stores, two churches, a good school, cotton gin and a bank,-the Bank of Pachuta-established in 1905, capital $10,000.

Palestine, a hamlet of Hinds county, 5 miles south of Raymond, the county seat and nearest railroad town. The postoffice here was recently discontinued, and it now has rural free delivery from Ray- mond. Population in 1900, 36.

Palmer, a postoffice of Perry county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 4 miles south of Hattiesburg, the nearest banking town.

Palmetto Home, a village in the northwestern part of Yazoo county, on the Yazoo river, and a station on the Yazoo & Missis- sippi Valley R. R., 20 miles north of Yazoo City, the county seat, and nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Pop- ulation in 1900, 156.

Palmyra. This old settlement is a post-hamlet in the south- western part of Warren county, 25 miles below Vicksburg, and was settled early in the last century. Though now but a place of about sixty people, it has had a long and varied history as a river town. An early traveller, who journeyed down the Mississippi in 1807 has described the town as he found it then. He says "It is about seven years since several families from New England commenced this beautiful settlement. The situation is almost a peninsula, formed by a continued bend in the river for an extent of four miles, the whole of which is cultivated in front, but the clearing

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extends back only one hundred and fifty rods, where is a lake, and some swampy land, always inundated during the summer freshets. There are sixteen families, who occupy each a front of only forty rods, so that the settlement has the appearance of a straggling vil- lage." After stating that the soil produced "17,000 pounds of cot- ton in seed from nine acres, which, allowing it to lose about three quarters in cleaning, left 500 pounds of clean cotton to the acre," he continues : "Palmyra is one of the most beautiful settlements in the Mississippi Territory, the inhabitants having used all the neatness and industry so habitual to the New Englanders. I think the lake and swamp behind Palmyra must render it unhealthy, and the pale sallow countenances of the settlers, with their con- fession that they are usually subject to fevers and agues, when the river begins to subside, confirms me in my opinion. (Cuming's. Tour.)

Palo Alto. An extinct village in Chickasaw, now Clay county,. which flourished before the War between the States. After the- organization of Clay county in 1871, it was absorbed by the new town of Abbott.

Palona, a post-hamlet of Leake county, 10 miles north of Carth- age, the county seat. Population in 1900, 35.

Pandora, a postoffice of Chickasaw county, 10 miles north of Houston, the county seat.

Panic of 1813. Throughout the summer of 1813 there was great fear in western Mississippi that the hostilities of the Creek nation would involve the Choctaws, or a part of them, and bring upon the ancient Natchez district the horrors of an Indian war, from which it had been exempt for over eighty years. This fear was particu- larly felt after the Fort Mims Massacre, and in Jefferson and Clai- borne counties, bordering on the Choctaw lands. In September, when the troops were being enrolled to go to the Tombigby, the apprehensions of the timid regarding being left alone, joined to the rumors of Choctaw sympathy with the hostile Creeks, started a panic, that swept over the two counties with startling effects. It was declared that the red men, in war paint, had been seen at Rocky Springs, or at Grindstone ford; smoke of burning homes could be seen by the more imaginative. Women and children and movable effects were loaded in wagons and sent to Washington. Port Gibson was practically deserted. The men capable of bearing arms gathered to meet the foe. There was a recovery before many of the domestic caravans reached Washington, and most of them were turned back short of the destination. To restore confidence .. it was determined to organize for defense.

Col. Daniel Burnet presided over a meeting at Port Gibson, on the 13th, at which a committee, composed of Maj. Clarke, Harmon Blennerhassett, H. Harmon, Col. Ragan, Capt. P. Briscoe, Wm. Briscoe and Thomas Barnes, reported that the alarm was ground- less, but three stockades should be built and one strong fort at a central point. A frontier committee was appointed, and a central

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committee, which latter included Samuel Gibson, Harmon Blen- nerhassett, Daniel Burnet, Thomas Farar and Judge Leake.

According to a reminiscent article by John A. Watkins, the for- tification consisted of four blockhouses, protected by strong pali- sades, called Fort Shaw. The Tennessee troops bivouacked there one night, in 1815. Later, one of the blockhouses was used for a school house.

Panic of 1835. The South was much excited in 1832 and later by the reports of the Southampton negro insurrection, in Virginia, or plot for insurrection, which was followed by many hasty trials and executions. There was such a panic also, in earlier days, in New York city. In both cases there were those who denied the seriousness of the alarm, and claimed that confessions and exe- cutions alike were part of a strange and uncontrollable panic. On the other hand the records afford evidence of some fire behind the smoke. The Mississippi panic was in 1835, following the vis- its of Virgil A. Stewart, who travelled extensively through Mis- sissippi and several adjoining States, selling a pamphlet which pur- ported to be a revelation of a scheme for a general insurrection originated by John Murel, of Tennessee, negro stealer and horse- thief, and participated in by the noted outlaw Alonzo Phelps and the whole body of "Thompsonian" or "steam doctors." There had been in the same year as the Virginia panic, a bloody insur- rection of slaves in Jamaica, and the era was revolutionary every- where, both in Europe and America. Stewart found complete credence for his revelations, was given public honors in some places and hailed as a public savior. The result is thus described by Henry S. Foote, in his Reminiscenses, (pp. 251-62.) "Never was there an instance of more extravagant and even maddening excitement amid a refined, intelligent and virtue-loving people than that which I had the pain to witness in the counties of Central Mis- sissippi in the summer of 1835. Vigilance committees were orga- nized in some ten or a dozen counties where the negro population was most numerous, and where, of consequence, the slaveholding class was more sensitive to the cries of alarm which at this time literally rang through the whole community. . . The impres- sion prevailed that the insurrectionary movement was to com- mence in the interior counties of Holmes, Yazoo and Madison ;" that the slaves were to rise simultaneously, murder the whites, burn the towns, sieze all firearms and spread war over all the cotton country. At Clinton, night after night, the women and children were assembled at a central place, while the male popula- tion patrolled the surrounding country. The committees of safety sat daily, and some persons suspected of abetting the alleged in- surrection were brought before it, while others, "whose guilt seemed to be fully established, were hung without ceremony along the roadsides or in front of their own dwellings by those who had apprehended them. "A number of the poor Thompsonian em- pirics were taken up and either hung or severely whipped" ac- cording to the seeming force of the evidence. In Madison county

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a young trader from Kentucky was taken and hung, and the pub- lication of his letters to his wife, later, proved that there was not the slightest cause for the outrage." Foote made a desperate but vain attempt to save the life of a mulatto boy who had been the sole support of his master's widow and child. Patrick L. Sharkey, a kinsman of the chief justice, and himself a magistrate, was at- tacked by a mob because he discharged an intended victim, and was badly wounded, but fled from Madison county, and obtained the protection of the Hinds county committee. Such is Foote's version of the episode.

In the Mississippi Archives is a phamplet printed at Jackson in 1835, being a narrative prepared by Thomas Shackleford in behalf of the committee of citizens of Madison county, at Livingston. It appears that a rumor was afloat in that county in June, that an insurrection was meditated, which was found to emanate from a lady who had overheard her colored girls talking rebelliously. Her son told one of them she had been overheard and must confess, and thereupon she told a story a black man told her, that there was to be a rising soon to kill all the whites. Consequently there was a meeting of the citizens, presided over by Col. H. D. Runnels, and hints were collected which led to the severe whipping of a number of negroes by their masters, and additional confessions. From this the excitement grew until five negroes were examined and hung at Beattie's Bluff, after accounts of the proposed insur- rection on July 4 were elicited from them. On July 3 there was a great meeting at Livingston and a committee was appointed, which proceeded to try all persons accused. The list of white men exe- cuted on confession, or negro testimony, or circumstantial evidence, were Joshua Cotton, a steam doctor from Tennessee, who made a confession that he was one of the grand council of Murel's gang, and that the statements of Stewart's book were correct; William Saunders, also of Tennessee, a friend of Cotton's; Albe Dean, a Mississippian of two years' residence from Connecticut, who was hung on the word of Cotton and Saunders; A. L. Donovan, of Maysville, Ky., who was apparently a contraband trader with the negroes, and was accused of being an abolitionist; Ruel Blake, implicated by Cotton; Lee Smith of Hinds county, from Tennes- see, implicated by Cotton ; William Benson, who had worked for Blake; William Earle, of Warren county, being taken committed suicide ; John Earle, who made a confession was turned over to the committee at Vicksburg. A visitor from Natchez wrote home July 14 that five white men and twelve negroes had been hung in Madison county. Such was the panic that his letter was opened by the postmaster and he was put under surveillance as a spy or accomplice of the gang. There is no doubt that the State at this time was overrun with highway robbers, negro-stealers, and Black legs, of which organization Murel was a member; that some abnormal people were impelled to foment insurrection by the doctrines of abolition, as others have from time to time been im- pelled to assassination by political and religious doctrines. The

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combination of circumstances and the general agitation of the period all over the world, serve to explain this Mississippi phe- nomenon, that Foote's account hardly does justice. But the license of the regulators brought evils in its train.

The Jackson Freetrader said in August 1836: "Another bloody affray, is a sound which often greets our ears. The affair at Vicks- burg, the affair at Manchester, the affair at Rodney, other places. and lastly a most horrid affair at Fayette, have followed each other in quick succession, as to make every friend to law and order shudder, lest an entire destruction of rational liberty should be the consequence of these repeated violations of law." The same paper declared that a man paraded the streets of Jackson two days early in December, 1835, armed with a fowling piece, sundry pistols and a bowie knife, threatening to assassinate Gov- ernor Runnels, without molestation.

The Natchez Courier and Journal, March 3, 1837, complained : "The papers in the city of New York seem to delight in nothing better than when any little fracas happens in any of the Southern States, to announce in glorious capitals, "More Riots in Missis- sippi," "More Lynching at the South."

Pannell, a postoffice of Pontotoc county, 8 miles southwest of Pontotoc, the county seat.

Panola, an extinct town of Panola county, situated on the south side of the Tallahatchie river about a mile from the present town of Batesville. It was long engaged in a spirited contest with the rival town of Belmont (q. v.) over the location of the county seat, and finally won. It was a flourishing town during the 40's, but when the Mississippi & Tennessee railroad (now the Illinois Cen- tral) was built and avoided the town, its buildings were nearly all placed on rollers and moved to Batesville, about a mile distant, on the railroad. The historic old courthouse building and the jail were left behind. The courthouse was a brick structure and has been transformed into a fine modern residence. Panola was incor- porated by the Legislature in 1839.

Panola County was established February 9, 1836,and is one of the twelve large northern counties created in that year out of the lands ceded by the Chickasaws, in the treaty of Pontotoc, Oct. 20, 1832. The county has a land surface of 699 square miles. The original act defined its limits as follows: "Beginning at the point where the line between ranges 9 and 10 strikes the center of section 6, and running thence south with the said range line, and from its termination in a direct line to the northern boundary of Talla- hatchie county, and thence along the northern boundary of Talla- hatchie and Yalobusha counties, to the center of range 5 west ; thence north through the center of range 5 west, according to the sectional lines, to the center of township six; thence west through the center of township six, according to the sectional lines, to the beginning." Its original area was 21 townships, or 756 square miles. February 1, 1877, when Quitman county was created, it surrendered a small fraction of its southwestern area to assist in

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forming that county (See Quitman.) Besancon's Register for

1838, gives the list of county officers as follows: Aaron Botts,

Judge of Probate; David Boyd, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Garland G. Nelson, Probate Clerk, Geo. P. Anderson, Sheriff; J. T. Bate- man, Surveyor; Jas. M. Rayburn, Assessor and Collector; Jas.

Redman, Wm. Robertson, Members of the Board of Police. John John Allison, Vincent Adams, Thomas H. Williams, Geo. W. Keith, Treasurer; Wm. Boyles, Ranger; Harry Osteen, Coroner ;

Rayburn, Thos. B. Hill, David Mckinney, R. M. Childress and Anthony B. Foster were early members of the Legislature from the county. The name "Panola" is an Indian word signifying "cot- ton" and the fertile valleys of this region are indeed as productive

of that staple crop as any part of the State. Situated in the north-

by Tate county, on the east by Lafayette county, on the south by western part of Mississippi, the county is bounded on the north

Yalobusha and Tallahatchie counties and on the west by Quitman county. The old boundary line between the Choctaw and Chicka- saw cessions cuts the southwestern corner. It is a healthful, fer-

decade. Two of the oldest settlements in the county were at Bel- number of settlers from other states, especially during the last tile, well watered and prosperous region and has attracted a large

mont and Panola, a few miles apart, and on opposite sides of the Tallahatchie river. For several years there was a spirited contest between these two towns over the location of the court house of. Panola county. With the advent of the Mississippi and Tennessee

(now the Illinois Central R. R.) Belmont was absorbed by Sardis,

being the seat of justice for the first judicial district, and Bates- contest is found in the two judicial districts of the county, Sardis and Panola was absorbed by Batesville. One result of the above .

ville for the second judicial district into which the county is now divided. Sardis is a thriving town of 2,000 people on the I. C. R. R.,

possessing several small manufacturing establishments and is the

center of a good trade from the rich agricultural section surround-

ing it. Batesville is also on the railroad a few miles south and has

a population of 750, is the market town for a considerable region about it and has important shipping and manufacturing interests. Como Depot is in the northern part of the county on the line of the railroad, has 650 inhabitants and is a rapidly growing and prosper- ous town. Crenshaw, Pope Depot, and Courtland are a few of the other towns of importance. Besides the I. C. R. R., which runs north and south through the center of the county, there is a short branch road from Sardis extending 22 miles west, and known as the Sardis & Delta R. R. The region is well supplied with water by the Tallahatchie and Yocona rivers and their tributary creeks, and the water power in the eastern part is especially good. The valleys comprise about one-half the county and are very fertile, with a soil of rich, dark loam. The balance of the county is undu- lating uplands, interspersed with rich creek bottoms. On the western side occurs a line of bluffs, a continuation of the lower bluff formation of Mississippi. The soil produces abundant crops

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of cotton, corn, small grains of all kinds, sorghum, millet, potatoes and a great variety of the fruits and vegetables common to the latitude. The timber is quite extensive and consists of all kinds of oaks, ash, beech, hickory, poplar, gum, walnut, cherry, locust and cypress. The live stock industry is very large and in a thriving condition, being valued at nearly $1,000,000 by the last census re- turns.

The following statistics, taken from the twelfth census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population. Number of farms 4,744, acreage in farms 333,015, acres improved 187,182, value of the land exclusive of buildings $2,244,980, value of the buildings $744,170, value of live stock $955,150, total value of products not fed $1,794,735. Number of manufacturing establishments 85, cap- ital invested $129,970, wages paid $16,891, cost of materials $49,- 086, total value of products $118,165. The population in 1900 was whites 9,661, colored 19,366, total 29,027, increase in last decade 3,050. The total population in 1906 was estimated at 31,000. Among the pioneers of the county were Col. W. B. Johnson, Joshua S. Fletcher, Dr. Mosley, Dr. Freeman Irbey, N. R. Sledge, Monroe Pointer, Anthony Foster, J. F. Lavender, Capt. E. S. Walton, Rus- sell A. Jones one of the first white settlers in Panola county, and Daniel B. Killebrew, who taught the first school in Sardis. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Panola county in 1905 was $4,324,914.51 and in 1906 it was $5,453,139.83 which shows an increase of $1,128,225.32 during the year.

Pansy, a postoffice of Attala county, 16 miles east of Kosciusko, the county seat.

Panther Burn, a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., in the northwestern part of Sharkey county, about 12 miles north of Rolling Fork, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, and one large mercantile establish- ment.

Panton, William, was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, emi- grated to America, and before the Revolution acquired property in South Carolina and Georgia. When the war cut off the Indian trade of Savannah and Charleston, and drove the sympathizers with England to the Floridas, Panton established himself at Pensa- cola, where the British were in possession until 1781. He became the particular friend and agent of Col. Brown, who succeeded Col. Stuart as British superintendent of the Four nations, and the presents of the British government passed through his hands, giving him the opportunity to supply the Indians with such other goods as they desired. He was also agent for the officers of Brown's regiment of Florida rangers, of whom several, as high in rank as captain, were Cherokee half breeds. He established a business house at Pensacola, with John Forbes and John Leslie as his partners. After the Spanish conquest, he adapted himself to the situation, and through a compact with Alexander McGilli- vray, chief of the Creek nation, and with the Spanish authorities, Panton, Leslie & Co. became the agents of Spain in dealing with

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 44

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