Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 55

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 55

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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many years he was superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday school at Jackson. He was for years the main reliance of the Orphan asylum at Natchez, which would have been compelled to close sev- eral times but for his assistance. "He was secretary of conventions innumerable." During the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 he was en- trusted with $100,000 of the relief fund to distribute at his own dis- cretion. "All through that awful fall, when death held high carnival, he sat up day and night, acknowledging every cent con- tributed, besides carrying much of it to the stricken communities and selecting those who should disburse it." His work in 1878 deserves lasting commemoration. In his political career he was clerk of the house of representatives in 1864 and 1867, and secre- tary of nearly all the Democratic conventions after the war; was chairman of the first board of Vicksburg Park commissioners of Mississippi, which selected the places at which monuments should be erected to commemorate the services of Mississippi commands ; was elected secretary of state in 1895 and reelected in 1899.

While secretary of State he collected and published many facts regarding the history of the State. He gathered together official publications, scattered about the old capitol, and called the atten- tion of the legislature to the fact that there were stored away in the capitol and the penitentiary many valuable books and docu- ments, that should be sifted out. While yet in the office of secretary he died, September 24, 1901. At that time he was grand secretary of the grand lodge of Masons and of the grand chapter, and grand recorder of the grand council and grand commandery, offices he had filled continuously since 1869 and 1871. He was also treasurer of the grand lodge of Odd Fellows, and prominent in other fraternal orders. Upon his death, the grand lodge of the State was convened, and the grand commandery escorted his body to the capitol, where it lay in state and was visited by thousands of school children, and loving friends from every part of Missis- sippi.

Power, Thomas. See Carondelet Intrigue.

Powers, Ridgley Ceylon, was born in Ohio, the grandson of a Pennsylvanian who married a Virginian and reared a family in the Mahoning valley of Ohio. He was a student at the University of Michigan when the war began. Enlisting in the Union army, he was a captain in 1865, after which he became a planter in Noxu- bee county, and under the military government was appointed sheriff by Gen. Ames. In 1869 he was elected lieutenant-governor with Gov. Alcorn, and November 30, 1871, he became governor upon the resignation of Alcorn. "Few of the 'carpet baggers,'" says Garner, "won the respect and confidence of the native whites to such an extent as did Governor Powers." After the return of the Democratic party to control of the State, Gov. Powers re- moved from the State and went to the West. His cousin, H. C. Powers, settling in Oktibbeha county in 1865, was prominent in politics, and became a banker at Starkville.

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Powers' Administration. Ridgley C. Powers began his admin- istration as governor upon the resignation of Gov. Alcorn, No- vember 30, 1871, though he yielded the chair in the senate to the president pro tem. in the previous January, when Alcorn accepted an election to the U. S. senate. The legislature met as usual in January, 1872, and remained in session three months. The legis- lation regarding railroads (q. v.) was particularly abundant and reckless. The year was the culmination of the general extrava- gance and wild speculation throughout the United States that brought on the collapse of 1873. The electoral vote of the State was cast for the reelection of President Grant. One Democratic congressman-Lucius Q. C. Lamar-was elected.

Gov. Powers stated in his message of 1872 that quiet reigned throughout the State, that "a new era of good feeling has sprung up," and that Mississippi was entitled to recognition as "an ex- ample of reconstruction based upon reconciliation." He made similar congratulatory comments in his message of January, 1874. There had been evils of special legislation, and he hoped the en- tire system of special legislation could be swept away, as had lately been measurably accomplished in Illinois and Pennsylvania. He illustrated the dangers of the system by the attempt at the last regular session of the legislature in 1873 to exempt all rail- roads from taxation for ten years by smuggling a clause to that effect into a special railroad charter.

In addition to the local government by the negro majority in many counties, led by recent white and black immigrants, many of whom were accused of corruption, the public generally com- plained of extravagance and corruption in the State administra- tion, though Gov. Powers was excepted from censure. Senator Alcorn openly denounced two prominent leaders, Gibbs and Staf- ford, in his campaign. According to Gov. Powers over one-fourth the annual expenditure from the State treasury was to bring its transactions to a currency basis. The system of paying court ex- penses out of the State treasury, including jurors and witness fees and many attorneys' fees in State cases, furniture and sta- tionery for clerks, etc., a system that extended even to justice courts in criminal cases, was greatly abused.

Treasurer Vasser said the high expenditures were due to pro- tracted sessions of the legislature, changes in the judicial system, costly allowances to outfit chancery and circuit clerks, investments in crude maps of the State for school purposes, employing counsel to shield evil doers from punishment, and the forcing of State paper as a makeshift for a circulating medium, at a ruinous dis- count to the State, . . benefiting alone the countless horde of sub-treasurers (tax collectors and others who belong to the ring of shavers) to the multiple of from thirty to forty per cent." (Report of 1873.)

During the four years of the Alcorn-Powers administration, the total amount of warrants issued by the auditor was $5,837,755; cancelled by treasurer, $4,965,808; leaving $871,947 outstanding.

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The State treasury had borrowed the Chickasaw school fund re- ceipts, to the amount of $814,743, the common school funds to the amount of $615,963, and these together with $218,000 in State bonds for the benefit of the agricultural departments of the two universities, were held as trust funds, on which the State paid in- terest. Warrants had been taken up with State bonds to the amount of $634,650, and with currency certificates of indebtedness to the amount of $294,150.

The State indebtedness at the beginning was $1,178,175 (See Alcorn Adm.). January 1, 1874, it was $3,443,189. Of this indebt- edness, $1,648,856 was owing to the school funds and agricultural schools, and the State was expected to keep up the interest only. The remainder of the debt was in State bonds, $416,500; currency certificates of indebtedness, $294,150; insurance company deposits of warrants, $280,000; warrants outstanding, $803,682; total debt demanding payment, $1,704,332. The governor thought this scarcely amounted to the dignity of a State debt, but urged that its annual increase should be stopped. The government expendi- tures had been reduced $132,000 in 1872, and $146,000 in 1873. He adhered to his former recommendations of an issue of cur- rency to redeem the auditor's warrants. The expiration within the year of the exemption of railroads from taxation, promised some relief of individuals from the burdens.

In parting. the governor said: "Slumbering resources surround us on every side. With good natural facilities for both, we are without either manufactories or commerce, and with a wealth of soil unequalled by that of any State, we pay a self-imposed tribute to the granaries of the Northwest. Home production, home in- dustry and home enterprise need encouragement-such encourage- ment as good government, economically administered, alone can give."

But the State had to look outside for capital, and the blow of 1873, falling upon Mississippi's modest share of the general ex- uberance of development that followed 1865, had a crushing effect for many years.

James Lynch, secretary of state, died in 1872, and was suc- ceeded by H. R. Revels, who resigned in September, 1873, and was succeeded by H. C. Carter. For eight years this office was filled by negroes.

In 1873 the people of the State were in distress because of con- tinued short crops of cotton, combined with low prices on account of the great financial panic. There was yellow fever also, almost annually.

In such circumstances the gubernatorial election came on.

The two United States senators. Ames and Alcorn, contested the Republican nomination for governor. Alcorn had declared in the senate in the previous year that Ames was not a citizen of Mississippi, did not even have a technical residence. At the Re- publican State convention Ames had the negro support, and a majority of about five to one. He was nominated for governor,

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and negroes named for three of the State offices, including super- intendent of education, upon the demand of the negroes, who brought the color line into prominence by declaring that the scheme of whites holding office, while the colored men voted, was "played out." Alcorn's adherents bolted the convention, and nominated him for governor, with one negro man on the ticket. This was the beginning of the end. The Democrats refrained from nomination, and though Ames was elected in November, the vote was divided 69,870 to 50,490. It is likely that he received, mainly, the Whig vote. It was said at the time that if the white people had stood by Alcorn more generally, he could easily have been elected.

There was a dispute whether an election in 1873 was legal un- der the constitution. (See Alcorn's Adm.) Attorney-General Morris gave an opinion that the general election, biennially, was not due until 1874, and that the governor and other state officers would hold over. In a correspondence between Gov. Alcorn and Messrs. Yerger, Harris and Johnston, November 13, 1871, the lat- ter had contended that the election law of 1871 was in part uncon- stitutional, and that all regular terms must begin on the first of January, 1871.

September 30, Gov. Powers called a special session of the legis- lature, to provide for a general election in 1874. In his message, October 20, he said the question of date of election put in abeyance even the financial crisis, the prevailing epidemic, and the rivalry of parties. He argued that the constitution fixed the political year of the State, reorganized, as beginning January 1st. If the first election had ratified the constitution, the first political year might have begun January 1, 1869. But as it was not ratified until November, 1869, Congress did not admit the State until Feb- ruary 23, 1870, and the officers elected for four years would begin their regular terms January 1, 1871. It was evident, however, that the State had, as nearly as possible, begun its political year with 1870, by the convening of the legislature in January, at which Powers was sworn in. The legislature did not take the action requested by the governor, but made a few enactments, including a fee and salary bill, extended the time for payment of taxes, on account of the hard times, and adjourned in November. This con- stitutional dispute was carried so far in some places as to threaten bloodshed. "It was settled, however, early in 1874, by the supreme court of the State in a case from Hinds county, involving the legal right to the county treasurer's office, in favor of Ames and other State and county officers, elected in November, 1873, to be installed in January, 1874." (Bowman, Recon. in Yazoo County.)

Powers, Tyrone. His "Impressions of America" contain some interesting pictures of Mississippi in the '30's. He was the guest of Col. James Wilkins and also visited "Natchy-under-the-Hill," saw the races, called upon Mrs. Minor at Concord, and gave some Cavendish to her aged negro, 120 years of age, who had been the servant of Stephen Minor, when he was major of the Spanish fort-

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ress, possibly the Caesar who was Indian interpreter. He de- scribes the gathering of an audience at the theatre, which was outside the town, the long line of pedestrians, many in carriages, and a host on horseback. Of the latter he said: "A finer set of men I have rarely looked upon; the general effect of their cos- tume, too, was picturesque and border-like. They were mostly clad in a sort of tunic or frock, made of white or of grass-green blanketing, the broad dark blue selvage serving as a binding. the coat being furnished with collar, shoulder-pieces and cuffs of the same color, and having a broad belt, either of leather or of the like selvage; broad-leafed white Spanish hats of beaver were evi- dently the mode, together with high leather leggings or cavalry boots and heavy spurs. The appointments of the horses were in perfect keeping with those of these cavaliers; they bore demi- pique saddles, with small massive brass or plated stirrups, gener- ally shabracs of bear or deerskin, and in many instances had saddle clothes of scarlet or light blue, bound with broad gold or silver lace. . These were the planters of the neighboring coun- try, many of whom came nightly to enjoy the theatre, forming such an audience as cannot be seen elsewhere; indeed, to look on so many fine horses with their antique caparisons, piquetted about the theatre, recalled the palmy days of the Globe and the Beargarden."

Prairie, a village of western Monroe county, on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, 8 miles west of Aberdeen, the county seat, and nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Popula- tion in 1900, 122.

Prairie Mount. An extinct town of Chickasaw county, which was located in the northeastern part, about five miles north of Okalona, on the public road from that place to Pontotoc. It was founded in 1836 by Littleberry Gilliam, a farmer from Franklin county, Alabama, and was incorporated in 1852. Gilliam's resi- dence was a wayside inn, where he found profit in catering to the wants of the early land investors, who poured into the Tombigbee section of the Chicasaw cession, below Pontotoc. There grew up about his place quite a prosperous little village, containing two small dry goods stores, a saloon, a blacksmith shop, and a wagon repair shop. It was afterward absorbed by the new town of Oko- lona, which sprang up on the Mobile & Ohio railroad, and estab- lished a more convenient trade center. Its former site is now em- braced within a farm.

Prairie Point, a post-hamlet of Noxubee county, 10 miles east of Macon, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 75.

Pray, P. Rutilius R., a native of the State of Maine, college- educated and with some experience as a teacher in Winchester county, N. Y., came to Mississippi in the early days of the State, and made his home at Pearlington, near the seaboard, where he engaged in the practice of law. He served in the legislature as representative of Hancock county, in 1827-29, and was honored

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with a place on the judiciary committee with Sharkey and Quit- man. In 1832 he was president of the constitutional convention, and by the following legislature he was selected to make a digest of the laws of the State. Influenced by the Napoleonic code of Louisiana he endeavored to work into his code of Mississippi, in conformity with the revolutionary spirit of that day, some inde- pendence of the traditions of the "common law" inherited from old England.

He reported to the January session, 1835, that he had relied much on the aid he had expected "to derive from the dissertations of those distinguished jurists, who have introduced such magnifi- cent improvements into recent legislation, and to whom justice seems fully to have unveiled her mysteries;" but he would not be ready to report until a year later. His work was submitted to the session of January, 1836.

The senate committee reported on the code in 1838 that "it has some circumstances attached to it calculated to recommend it favorably." The laws were written in "a concise and comprehen- sive style which evinces great clearness of perception and legal acquirement in its author." The principal innovations proposed by the code were its chief recommendation to the committee; namely, the abolishment of some old forms of pleading that be- longed to a bygone and barbarous age. The session of 1838 was partly given to the consideration of the code.

In January, 1839, the Pray code had not yet been adopted, and it never was. Gov. McNutt vigorously observed that many ob- jections were made to it by people who had never read it. "Some are so wedded to black letter books and the unwritten or common law as to be unable to believe that any improvement can be made. We live in an age which contradicts all such assumptions.

. It has been too long the custom to look for the law in the opinions of jurists. The legislative will, expressed in accord- ance with the constitution, is the only law recognized in a free government. The present is a most auspicious time for the adop- tion of an entire new code of laws. Fully one half of our popu- lation have recently emigrated to the State. . The spirit of the age is opposed to hanging, branding, cropping, whipping and the pillory. . . The revisor has wisely recommended that murder and arson, in the first degree, and treason, alone, should be capitally punished, and that executions should take place in the prison or prison yard, in the presence of certain offi- cers."

In November, 1837, Pray was elected to the High court, as the supreme court of the State was then called. and he held this office until his death, at the age of 45 years, at Bay St. Louis, Dec. 11, 1839.

Prentiss. The town of Prentiss was laid off in 1856, and was lo- cated in Bolivar county, opposite the town of Napoleon in Arkan- sas. As it was burned early in 1863 by the Federal forces. it was in existence for only about seven years. The town was designed

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to be the county site of Bolivar county, and a large brick court house and jail were built at once, and it grew to be a place of about two hundred inhabitants, with a good hotel and a newspaper, the "Bolivar Times." The great river has long since absorbed the site of the town.

Prentiss, a post-town, formely of Lawrence county, situated in the east-central part, on the Mississippi Central R. R., about 15 miles from Monticello, the county seat. It is a thriving town and has been selected as the county seat of the recently organized coun- ty of Jefferson Davis. There are several stores located here, also a bank, the Bank of Blountville, established in 1902.

Prentiss County was created at the same time as Alcorn county, April 15, 1870, during the administration of Governor Alcorn, and received its name in honor of Sargent Smith Prentiss, the gifted statesman, jurist and silver tongued orator of Mississippi. The county has a land surface of 420 square miles. Its territory was principally taken from that of old Tishomingo county, one of the numerous counties formed in 1836 from the Chickasaw cession of 1832 (q. v.). This county lies in the so called rotten limestone or black prairie belt, well up in the northeastern corner of the State, and is bounded on the north by Alcorn county, on the east by Tishomingo county, on the south by Itawamba and Lee coun- ties and on the west by Union and Tippah counties. In compliance with the act which created the new county, Governor Alcorn ap- pointed the following county officers: Board of Supervisors, John R. Moore, President, J. M. Moore, Alonzo Bowdry, Joseph Rodg- ers, M. L. Martin ; Henry C. Fields, Sheriff ; W. H. Walton, clerk of the Chancery Court and of the Board of Supervisors. J. M. Stone became the first State Senator for the county, and Hugh M. Street, elected Speaker of the House, (1873-1874) was the first Representative in the lower House of the Legislature. By the year 1850 the region comprising this county had become thickly settled with an excellent class of emigrants from Virginia, Georgia, and northern Alabama. The old village of Carrollville, (q. v.) founded in 1834, in what was then Tishomingo county, was once a thriving trade center for southeastern Tishomingo county. When the Mobile & Ohio R. R. was completed to Baldwyn, two miles away, the latter town absorbed its business and population. Hon. Wm. M. Cox now lives on the old site of Carrollville. During the early days before the railroad, all shipments were made to and from Memphis over 100 miles away by wagon, and later, to and from Eastport on the Tennessee river. With the railroad has come a shifting of trade centers, as well as increased population and wealth. The act creating the county established the county seat at Booneville (pop. 1.250), near the center of the county. It is on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., and is the largest town in the county and the center of the most important vegetable and fruit growing region in this part of the State. The county about is rich and fertile and the town is growing at a rapid rate. It contains a box factory, 2 brick & tile factories, a wood working plant, 2 gins, 2

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grist-mills, an electric light plant, a bottling works, a carding fac- tory and some other small enterprises. It is located on the highest point on the M. & O. R. R., 513 feet above tidewater and has a mild and salubrious climate. A courthouse was built in 1872 at a cost of about $15,000, but was condemned in 1904 and the contract let for a $35,000 up-to-date building which is still in course of con- struction. There are no other large towns in the county, the more important being Marietta in the southeastern part (pop. 100), Manila, Altitude, Daltonville, Burtons, Antioch, Elma, all off the railroad, and Thrasher, Wheeler, and Racket on the railroad. The only railroad in the county is the Mobile & Ohio, which runs through the center from north to south. The region is watered by the numerous creeks which form the head waters of the Tom- bigbee, flowing south, and by the branches of the Tuscumbia river, flowing north. In 1900 there were 74,436 acres of improved lands, or about one-third of its area; the remaining two-thirds is well timbered with oaks of various kinds, hickory, elm, beech, walnut, poplar, ash, gum and pine. The surface of the county is level, undulating and hilly, and the soil is rich and fertile on the bottoms, good on the uplands and poor on the steep hills. It produces corn, cotton, oats, wheat, sorghum, peas, potatoes and an abundance of vegetables and fruits, both large and small. Some limestone is found and large beds of marl have also been discovered and used for fertilizing purposes. The prairie region forms a good stock country and the industry has assumed large proportions during the last few years. Manufactures are still in their infancy, but the proximity of the county to the coal and iron of Alabama, should ultimately render it an important manufacturing region.

The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population :- Number of farms 2,591, acreage in farms 222,236, acres improved 74,436, value of land exclusive of buildings $929,970, value of build- ings $321,270, value of live stock $477,040, total value of products not fed to stock $863,305. Number of manufacturing establish- ments 50, capital invested $94,570, wages paid $23,830, cost of ma- terials $80,435, total value of products $178,602. The population in 1900 was whites 12,657, colored 3,131, total 15,788, increase of 2,109 over the year 1890. As there has been a steady increase in population it was estimated at 18,000 in 1906. Land values have increased at a rapid rate and farm lands have more than doubled in the last 5 years. Artisian water has been found in various parts of the county, and the region is one of the healthiest in the State. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Pren- tiss county in 1905 was $1,961,805 and in 1906 it was $2,610,330, which shows an increase of $648,525 during the year.

Prentiss, Seargent Smith, was born at Portland, Maine, Sep- tember 30, 1808. His father, William Prentiss, was a prosperous ship-master, a man of energy, intelligence and adventure, who had braved perils of sea-storm, shipwreck, pirates and the British enemy. The grandfather, Samuel Prentiss, a native of

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Massachusetts, was a graduate of Harvard college. The father of Samuel was Rev. Joshua Prentiss, a minister at Holliston, Mass. The pioneer of the family in America was Henry Prentice, a grave Puritan, who came over from England some time before 1640. His eldest daughter, Mary, married the great-grandfather of John Hancock.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 55

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