Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 45

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 45

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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not only the Creeks, but the Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees. They moved both the Indians and the Spanish governors in the interests of their business and were the most important feature of the Spanish dominion. Their prices for skins and goods were fixed to meet American competition from Charleston and Savan- nah. Their packhorses carried goods and their traders influenced the red men from the Ohio river to the gulf. The first cessions of land by the Choctaws and Chickasaws were made in order to pay their debts to Panton, Leslie & Co.

The main business depot was at Pensacola, with branches at Mobile, Chickasaw Bluffs, St. Marks and other points in East Florida. The Mobile house exerted great influence over the In- dians of the region now Mississippi state. William Panton died at Pensacola in 1804, and after that the business went into the hands of John and James Innerarity, mainly. But the business went down after the United States took possession of the Missis- sippi territory.

Parchman, a postoffice of Sunflower county, on the Yazoo & Mis- sissippi Valley R. R., about 35 miles north of Indianola, the county seat. Ruleville station, 14 miles to the south, is the nearest bank- ing town. Population in 1900, 23.

Pardue, a postoffice in the eastern part of Prentiss county, about 15 miles from Booneville, the county seat, and the nearest rail- road and banking town.

Paris, an incorporated post-hamlet in the southern part of La- fayette county, 11 miles east of Water Valley, the nearest rail- road and banking town. It has two churches and a tannery. Pop- ulation in 1900, 105.

Parkersburg, a hamlet of Chickasaw county, 5 miles northeast of Houston, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20. It has rural mail service from Houston.

Parks, a hamlet of Union county, 7 miles east of New Albany, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Popula- tion in 1900, 58.

Parksplace, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Panola county, about 10 miles from Sardis, one of the seats of justice. Como is the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 75.

Pascagoula, which name recently was given to an incorporation including Scranton, is now the capital of Jackson county. It is a port of entry and a manufacturing and lumbering city on the L. & N. Ry., 40 miles southwest of Mobile, and is situated on the Gulf. The word Pascagoula means "bread nation", and was the name of the tribe of Indians that originally inhabited this region. Says the old narrative of M. Penicaut, who formed one of the original French colony in 1699 at Old Biloxi, "coasting along in an east- erly direction (from Biloxi), we found a wide bay, called the Bay of the Pascagoulas; because, within this bay, there flows a river, upon the borders of which the Pascagoulas are established, at a distance of about twenty leagues inland, and it is from that na-

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tion the bay and river take their name." The city has telegraph, express, telephone, and banking facilities, electric light, an ice plant, street railway and waterworks. The Scranton State Bank was established here in 1892, and has a capital of $50,000; the Merchants & Marine Bank was established in 1899, capital $25,000. Two weekly newspapers are published here; the Pascagoula Democrat-Star, an influential Democratic paper, established in 1850, owned and edited by P. K. Mayers; the Chronicle, another influential paper established in 1897, which is edited and pub- lished by J. J. Tomasich. Pascagoula is one of the eleven impor- tant manufacturing cities of the State, for which a special agent was appointed to collect the statistics when the 12th U. S. census was being taken. The census returns of 1900, give the following data for the city; number of manufacturing establishments, 15; capital, $372,655; average number of wage earners employed, 167; wages paid, $66,045 ; cost of materials used $173,319 ; value of prod- ucts, $326,114. An important part of the lumber industry of the State is carried on along the Pascagoula river, and many large lum- ber mills are located at and near Pascagoula which is connected with Moss Point by a street railway ; at the latter place more lumber is manufactured than in any one place in the State. Here are also grist mills, and ship yards, and the town exports an enormous quantity of lumber products annually. There are several churches and good schools, both public, private and denominational. The town supports several good hotels. The population is increasing rapidly ; there were 1,353 people in 1890, 2,025 in 1900, and 4,000 in 1906.

Pascagoula, Parish of, see Gulf Coast Occupation.

Pascagoulas, see Indians.

Pass Christian, a noted watering place in Harrison county, lo- cated on Mississippi Sound (Gulf of Mexico), on the Louisville & Nashville R. R., 58 miles from New Orleans, and 82 miles from Mobile. It has telegraph, telephone, express and banking facili- ties. The surrounding country is devoted to sheep and cattle rais- ing, and truck-farming. The "scuppernong grape" is extensively grown at this point, and both still and sparkling wines are made. The canning of oysters and shrimps is a profitable industry. Pass Christian College, a Catholic institution, is located here. A branch of the Hancock county Bank at Bay St. Louis was established here in 1902, and the Home Bank was established in 1905. The Coast Beacon, an influential, Democratic weekly, was established here in 1881, and is now owned and edited by E. J. Adam. The city has a number of fine hotels, and the place is filled with vis- itors both winter and summer. The climate is mild and healthful, and there is a fine sea beach, affording excellent sea bathing. Pop- ulation in 1900, 2,028 ; estimated at 2,500 in 1906.

Pat, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, 8 miles south of Brandon. the county seat and nearest banking town. There is one store and a large cotton gin located here. Population in 1900, 21.

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Patmos, a post-hamlet of Sharkey county, located on the Sun- flower river, 10 miles southeast of Rolling Fork, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1906, 20.

Patrick, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, situated on Campbells creek, about 10 miles southeast of Brandon, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 67.

Patrol. The patrol was a function of the State military made necessary by slavery from the earliest times. According to the law of 1809 every owner of slaves, and all other persons subject to militia duty, under the rank of captain, was subject to be called out for patrol duty, every two weeks or oftener. Detachments were made out regularly, of three men beside the leader or officer, in each captain's district or beat. It was the duty of the patrol to visit all negro quarters or places suspected of entertaining unauthorized assemblages of slaves or other disorderly persons, and take such persons before a justice, or administer lashes not exceeding fifteen upon slaves so found, and to take up slaves sus- pected of being runaway. By the law of 1812 default in this duty was punishable by fine.

Occasionally there were rumors of slave insurrection in Terri- torial days, and the patrol was exhorted to extra vigilance. This law survived the change to statehood and was reenacted in the . Poindexter code of 1822, and the statutes of 1848.

"Soon after the Southhampton tragedy, during the Christmas holidays, the public mind was agitated by a vague rumor that this drama was to be reacted here, as it was known that some of the negroes, supposed to be engaged in it, had been brought out and sold in this State. During this excitement the patrols were very vigilant. On the high roads they were increased to one hundred armed and mounted men. But this alarm was groundless and very soon subsided." (J. H. Ingraham.)

Pattison, a postoffice of Tallahatchie county, situated on the Middle Fork of Tillatoba creek, an affluent of the Yazoo river, 5 miles east of Charleston, the county seat.

Patton, James, of Winchester, a member of the constitutional convention of 1817, was one of the leading men of his time, when the town of Winchester was, by reason of his influence, a center of political influence. Senators Powhatan Ellis and John Black began public life under his auspices. He was a general of militia, and was elected lieutenant-governor on the ticket with George Poindexter, and but for his untimely death would doubtless have attained higher honors.

Paulding, the capital of Jasper county, is a post-village 33 miles southwest of Meridian. Vosburg, on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., is the nearest station, and Heidelberg is the nearest banking town. The town was named for John Paulding, who as- sisted in the capture of Major Andre. It has two churches, two stores, a cotton gin and grist mill combined, and a good school. Population in 1900, 229.

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Paulette, a post-hamlet of Noxubee county, about 10 miles south- east of Macon, the county seat. Shuqualak is the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 72.

Pawticfaw, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, about 8 miles south, southwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50.

Paynes, a post-hamlet of Tallahatchie county, situated on Ascal- more creek, 6 miles south of Charleston, the county seat. Charles- ton is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 65.

Pearce, a post-hamlet of Yazoo county, 10 miles east of Yazoo City, the county seat. Population was about 30 in 1906.

Pearidge, a postoffice of Kemper county, 9 miles west of Dekalb, the county seat.

Pearl, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Simpson county, on the Pearl river, 20 miles west of Mendenhall. Crystalsprings is the nearest railroad and banking town, located 10 miles west, on the Illinois Central R. R. Population in 1900, 33.

Pearlhaven, a hamlet of Lincoln county. The postoffice here has been discontinued, and mail now goes to Brookhaven, the county seat.

Pearlington, a post-town in the southwestern part of Hancock county, on the Pearl river 10 miles from its mouth, and 40 miles northeast of New Orleans. It takes its name from the river. It has several churches, a good school, and large saw mills. Lum- bering is the chief industry. A branch of the Hancock County Bank of Bay St. Louis was established here in 1902. Population in 1900, 850.

Pearl River. The Pearl river, as Ellicott found it in 1798-99, "is navigable for small craft many miles north of the boundary. It is remarkably crooked, and full of logs and lodged trees. Its banks for some distance above the boundary (31°), and almost the whole of them below, are annually innundated. The banks, with a considerable extent of country become very low below the Indian house, over the whole of which the water passes when the river is high : and here it begins to divide into a number of branches ; some of them maintain an open channel until they unite again with the main branch, and others are lost in the swamp. Those branches appear so nearly of the same size that a person not acquainted with the river will be as likely to take a wrong as a right one. In consequence of the water extending over such a considerable space, it never acquires a sufficient head to force away the lodged timber, which in two places extend across the river. The upper raft is of considerable magnitude, and covered with grass and other herbage, with some bushes. The tide ebbs and flows a few miles above latitude 30° 21' 30", where there was formerly a trading house, and to where any vessel that can cross a bar into the lake (Pontchartrain), may ascend with ease. The river has several communications with the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pont- chartrain, but they are all too shoal for vessels drawing more than six of seven feet of water, and therefore only fit for the coasting

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trade. The coasting vessels which visit New Orleans from the eastward pass by the mouth of Pearl river into Lake Pontchartrain, thence through the west end of the lake and up the Bayou St. Johns to the canal executed by the Baron de Carondelet, thence to the end of the canal which terminates at the walls of the city."

Pearl River County was formerly a part of Hancock and Marion counties and was established quite recently, February 22nd, 1890. It is located in the extreme southern part of the State and takes its name from the river which forms its western boundary. The county has a land surface of 663 square miles. It is bounded on the north by Marion and Lamar counties, on the east by Perry and Harrison counties, on the south by Hancock county and on the west by Washington county, Louisiana, the Pearl river forming the dividing line. In 1904 a part of its territory was taken to assist in forming the new county of Lamar. (q. v.) Pearl River county, situated in the long leaf pine region of the State, is just now enjoy- ing a very rapid and prosperous development. The population more than doubled between 1890 and 1900, the value of its manufac- tured products, chiefly lumber, approximates a million dollars and its cattle, sheep and dairy interests are growing rapidly. The lum- bering industry of the county will continue to be the most impor- tant for years to come, on account of its extensive forests of valu- able long leaf or yellow pine, and the ease with which its lumber products can be brought to market. The soil is a light sandy loam, easily worked, but not fertile or retentive. It produces, however, luxuriant forage grasses on which stock thrive the year around. The county seat is Poplarville, near the center of the county, and the largest town in the county. It has a population of 1,500, is located on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., which runs through the county from north to south, and is growing rapidly. Orvisburg (pop. 435), Millard, Tyler and Hillsdale are some of the other more important towns. The Pearl river, Hobolo Chitto and Wolf rivers, and their tributary creeks, water the county.

The following statistics from the twelfth United States census for 1900 relate to Farms, Manufactures and Population :- Number of farms 491, acreage in farms 81,793, acres improved 9,241, value of land exclusive of buildings $192,260, value of buildings $106,010, value of live stock $213,380, total value of products not fed $160,- 182. Number of manufactures 32, capital invested $1,040,015, wages paid $200,646, cost of materials $432,527, total value of prod- ucts $874,579. The population in 1900 was whites 4,904, colored 1,793, total 6,697, increase over the year 1890, 3,050. The popula- tion in 1906 was estimated at 10,000. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $2,523,828 and in 1906 it was $5,099,256, which shows an increase of $2,575,428 during the year.

Pearl River Settlements. Outside of the Natchez district, as late as 1830, the most populous settlement was upon Pearl River ; "but those eastern settlements were constituted of a different people ; most of them were from the poorer districts of Georgia and

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the Carolinas. True to the instincts of the people from whom they were descended, they sought as nearly as possible just such a country as that from which they came, and were really refugees from a growing civilization consequent upon a denser population and its necessities. They were not agriculturists in a proper sense of the term; true, they cultivated in some degree the soil, but it was not the prime pursuit of these people, nor was the location sought for this purpose. They desired an open, poor, pine country, which forbade a numerous population. Here they reared immense herds of cattle, which subsisted exclusively upon the coarse grass and reeds which grew abundantly among the tall, long-leafed pine, and along the small creeks and branches numerous in this section. Through these almost interminable pine forests the deer were abundant, and the canebrakes full of bears. They combined the pursuits of hunting and stock-minding, and derived support and revenue almost exclusively from these. They were illiterate and careless of the comforts of a better reared, better educated and more intelligent people. They were unable to employ for each family a teacher, and the population was too sparce to collect the children in a neighborhood school. These ran wild, unwashed and uncombed, hatless and bonnetless through the woods and grass, followed by packs of lean and hungry curs, hallooing and yelping in pursuit of rabbits and opossums, and were as wild as the In- dians they had supplanted, and whose pinebark camps were yet here and there to be seen, where temporarily stayed a few strolling. degraded families of the Choctaws. Some of these pioneers had been in the country many years, were surrounded with descendants, men and women, the growth of the country, rude, illiterate and in- dependent. Along the margins of the streams they found small strips of land of better quality than the pine forests afforded. Here they grew sufficient corn for bread and a few of the coarser vege- tables, and in blissful ignorance enjoyed life after the manner they loved. The country gave character to the people; both were wild and poor; both were sui generis in appearance and production, and both seeming to fall away from the richer soil and better peo- ple of the western portion of the State. Between them and the inhabitants of the river counties there was little communication and less sympathy ; and I fancy no country on earth of the same extent presented a wider difference in soil and population, espec- ially one speaking the same language and professing the same re- ligion. Time, and the pushing of a railroad through this eastern portion of the State, have effected a vast change for the better, and among those quaintly called piney-woods people now are families of wealth and cultivation." ("The Memories of Fifty Years," by W. H. Sparks, 1870.)

Pearson, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., 5 miles southeast of Jackson. Population in 1900, 23.

Pease, Henry R., "the first reconstruction State superintendent of education, was a northern man, an ex-Union soldier, and an

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agent of the Freedman's bureau. In 1865, he became superinten- dent of education in Louisiana by military order. Later, he was appointed superintendent of the educational department of the Freedmen's bureau in Mississippi, and upon the readmission of the State to the Union, was elected superintendent under the new constitution. It devolved upon him to organize the system of free schools. His competency was never questioned, but the demand of the colored race for office, in 1873, caused him to be set aside for a negro named Cordoza, who, at the time of his election, was under indictment for malfeasance as circuit clerk of Warren coun- ty." (Garner's Reconstruction).

Pecan, a postoffice of Jackson county, on the L. & N. R. R., 12 miles west of Pascagoula, the county seat. Population in 1906 was estimated at 100

Peden, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, 8 miles northwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 43.

Peelers, a postoffice of Warren county, situated on Eagle Lake, near the Mississippi river, about 12 miles above Vicksburg.

Peete, a post-hamlet of Grenada county, on the Yazoo & Missis- sippi Valley R. R., about 14 miles west of Grenada, the county seat. Holcomb is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 50.

Peetsville, a postoffice in the southern part of Copiah county, 10 miles due west of Wesson, the nearest railroad and banking town, on the Illinois Central R. R.

Pegram, a post-hamlet of Benton county, 12 miles northeast of Ashland, the county seat.

Pelahatchie, an incorporated post-town of Rankin county, on Pelahatchie creek, a tributary of the Pearl, and on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., 25 miles east of Jackson. Brandon is 10 miles west. It lies in a cotton growing section, and has two churches and a school. The Pelahatchie Bank was established in 1904 with a capital of $10,000. Population in 1900, 325.

Pemberton, John Clifford, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., August 10, 1817, and graduated at West Point in 1837, after which he went on duty in the Seminole war in Florida. As an officer of artillery he served under both Taylor and Scott in Mexico, in 1846-47, in all the battles, winning the brevets of captain and major. He contin- ued on active duty in the army until secession, when he refused advancement in the Union army, became an officer in the Virgin- ja service and organized the artillery and cavalry troops of that State. He was promoted to brigadier-general in the Confederate service in 1861 and to major-general in January, 1862. He suc- ceeded Gen. Robert E. Lee in command of the department of South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida, in March, 1862, and in October was promoted to lieutenant-general and transferred to command of the department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. His task was, under the general command of J. E. Johnston, to meet the combinations of Gen. U. S. Grant and retain Confederate control of the Mississippi river. See War of 1861-65, and Vicks- burg campaigns and siege. After his exchange Gen. Pemberton

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resigned his commission and was assigned to duty with the artil- lery about Richmond, where he served with the rank of lieutenant- colonel until the end of the war. He removed from Virginia to Pennsylvania in 1875, and died at Pen Llyn, Pa., July 13, 1881.

Penantly, a postoffice of Jasper county, 9 miles north of Pauld- ing, the county seat.

Penicaut, Jean, author of the Annals of Louisiana, from 1698 to 1722, was born at La Rochelle, France, about 1682, and accom- panied the first expedition of d'Iberville to the Mississippi in 1698 as a ship's-carpenter on one of the vessels of the squadron. He was employed in various capacities in the colony until the year 1720, when he purchased the concession of M. de la Houssaye, on St. Catherine's, at Natchez. He himself states that he sailed for France on the 6th of October, 1721, at the advice of Bienville, in order to secure medical treatment for an affection of the eyes. He evidently returned again to Natchez, however, as there is frequent mention of him under the name of M. Perricault, as one of the few Frenchmen who escaped at the time of the Natchez massacre in 1729. He left behind in manuscript the "Annals of Louisiana," from 1798 to 1722, which found its way into the King's library at Paris, and is an important record of what took place in the country for more than twenty years after the arrival of the first expedition of d'Iberville. Charlevoix referred to it as a work of merit in his travels in New France, and said it afforded him important infor- mation which he could not obtain elsewhere.

Penitentiary. After 1817 the first recommendation of a peniten- tiary was made by Gov. Holmes, (see his administration). The next official voice on the subject was the utterance of Gov. Bran- don in January, 1827: "It may be the policy of the legislature at as early a period as our resources will justify, to establish a peni- tentiary. Punishments through a spirit of revenge, for the infrac- tion of penal laws, are or ought to be unknown to a civilized com- munity. The object, then, can be no other than to reform the offender, and at the same time to protect society from a repetition of the offence-these can be effectually accomplished only through the medium of a penitentiary. To inflict ignominious punishment on the offender and then turn him back upon society, so far from producing reformation, only prepares him for the commission of the worst of crimes. To protect society, then, it becomes necessary to resort to capital punishments, not commensurate with the of- fense, the infliction of which is attended with uncertainty." He suggested that the labor of prisoners would not only be self-sup- porting, "but, in the course of time, productive of a revenue."

A. L. Bingaman reported a resolution in 1833 that the commis- sioners appointed under the resolution of December, 1832. be con- tinued to make further report, as the finances did not permit expen- diture at that time for a penitentiary. Action was recommended by Gov. Quitman in January, 1836. But it was not until 1840 that the brick work of the keeper's house and of the east wing of the prison was completed, and most of the carpenter's work. "The

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east prison contains 150 cells on three stories conformable to the Auburn system of prison discipline," which was hard labor during the day and solitary confinement at night.

The first prisoners were admitted April 15, 1840. The first keeper, elected by the legislature in the same year, was Charles M. Hart. In 1847, 220 convicts had been received since the open- ing, and about 85 was the average number of inmates. One pris- oner when committed was 106 years old, 13 were held for negro stealing. The institution gradually grew into a great industrial establishment. It occupied the site of the present Capitol, and was surrounded by a lofty brick wall. In 1860-61 and later the penitentiary was mainly used for the repairing and remodelling of rifles, the mounting of cannon, manufacture of munitions of war, etc., and when Jackson was occupied by Sherman in July, 1863, it was destroyed as a factory. Before that, the inmates had been released or sent to Alabama. See War of 1861-65.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 45

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