Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 71

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 71

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Sallis, an incorporated post-town in the southwestern part of Attala county, on Long creek, an affluent of the Big Black river, and a station on the Kosciusko branch of the Illinois Central R. R. The town was located in 1874, and was named for Dr. James D. Sallis, the former owner of the town site. It is 11 miles by rail west of Kosciusko, the county seat. Durant is the nearest banking town. It is situated in a fine cotton growing region, and ships a large amount of the staple annually. It has a money order post- office, an academy, several churches, and a steam grist mill. Popu- lation in 1900, 195. The population in 1906 was estimated at 250.

Salona, a postoffice of Washington county.

Salt. One of the first inconveniences of the people during the war of 1861-65 was the shutting off of the supply of salt. State Geologist Hilgard made a search for salt in the State, without success. Governor Pettus in the summer of 1862 sent agents to Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana, and there was no available sup- ply found except in Louisiana. The only way to obtain salt was by mining at New Iberia, La., hauling by wagon to Atchafalaya, and shipping thence by boat, exposed to capture by the Federal navy.

Several foreigners proposed to run salt in through the blockade, and with one of these, Minett, the governor made a contract in 1862 to pay 500 bales of cotton for a cargo of salt, Minett depos- iting $10,000 in Confederate notes as security. But the contract was never fulfilled. Then the governor sent D. S. Pattison, with $20,- 000 and a steamboat, to get salt at Iberia. A boat load was ob- tained, but on his return Pattison was delayed by the Confederate authorities, on account of danger from Federal gunboats, until he was actually blockaded. He managed, however, after much labor, to bring 40,000 pounds to Vicksburg. An effort to manufacture on State account failed, and contracts were made with Strong, Cunningham & Co. to manufacture at Saltville, on private account for North and Northeast Mississippi. The legislature by act of

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January 1, 1863, appropriated $500,000 for the purchase of salt, and Capt. C. W. Turner was appointed salt agent. He contracted for salt from the State salt works of Alabama, but the delivery by the contractors was unsatisfactory. In April, 1863, Col. A. M. West was appointed to distribute the salt, and in October he was given entire charge of the salt affairs. Fifty bales of the cotton bought to pay Minett was turned over to Dr. Luke Blackburn, one of the medical commissioners of the State, to be exchanged at Havana for medical supplies. Under the act of January 1, 1863, there was expended in the following ten months, for salt, $120,000 in Treasury notes. The legislature of 1865 authorized the appoint- ment of a commissioner to sell all the property invested in the State Distillery and Salt works. J. R. Robinson, commissioner, closed out the Distillery, but found no property of the Salt works.

Saltillo, an incorporated post-town in the north-central part of Lee county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 9 miles north of Tupelo. Guntown, 5 miles north, is the nearest banking town. The five commissioners appointed by the legislature in 1866 to organize the new county of Lee, held their first meeting in Saltillo, November 12, 1866. The Lee County Citizen, a semi-monthly Republican paper, was established here in 1898, and is edited and published by R. D. Gladney. The town has a brick and tile factory, two cotton gins, a saw mill, several stores, five churches, one of them the only Catholic church in the county, and a good school. The population in 1906 was estimated at 300.

Sandersville, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part of Jones county, on the New Orleans & North Eastern R. R., 10 miles northeast of Laurel. The Bank of Sandersville was estab- lished in 1905. Lumbering and stock raising are the important in- dustries of the locality. It has a money order postoffice. Popula- tion in 1900, 357.

Sandhill, a postoffice of Rankin county, about 18 miles northeast of Brandon, the county seat. Jackson is its nearest banking town.

Sandpoint, a post-hamlet of Smith county, 5 miles northeast of Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.

Sandy, a postoffice of Panola county, 10 miles northeast of Bates- ville, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest railroad and banking town.

Sanford, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Covington county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., about 18 miles from Wil- liamsburg, the county seat. Seminary is the nearest banking town. There is a good saw mill located here, a church and a good school. The population in 1906 was estimated at 300.

Santee, a post-hamlet of Covington county, 10 miles southwest of Williamsburg, the county seat, and 1 mile east of the Missis- sippi Central Railroad. Population in 1900, 25.

Sapa, a post-hamlet of Webster county, on the Southern Railway, 3 miles east of Eupora, the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 50.

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Sarah, a postoffice in the extreme southwestern part of Tate county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 15 miles west of Senatobia, the county seat and the nearest banking town.

Saratoga, a station at the junction of the main line of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., with its Laurel branch, situated in the south- eastern part of Simpson county. Mount Olive is the nearest bank- ing town. It has a money order postoffice, two saw mills, a planing mill, a good general store, and bottling works. There is a fine spring near the town.

Sardinia. An extinct town of Yalobusha county which flourished down to 1856. It "was located on the Craig plantation near the Yacona river, 1 mile north of the present church of Sardinia." (See sketch of Yalobusha county.)

Sardis, the seat of justice for the first judicial district of Panola county, is located in the north-central part of the county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 50 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. The following information concerning the origin of the town is supplied by the article on "Extinct Towns and Villages of Mississippi," by Dr. F. L. Riley, in the fifth volume of the publications of the Mis- sissippi Historical Society : "This town had its beginning in a small log school house, known as Danville Academy, in which Daniel B. Killebrew taught. The Baptists then built a church at this place and called it the Sardis Baptist church. This church gave the name to the town which was afterwards built at this place." It is claimed that W. H. Alexander built the first house in Sardis in 1836 and was the first postmaster ; also that he named the town "Sardis," obtaining the word from the Bible. Mr. Alexander is still living in Sardis at the age of 86 years. The old town of Belmont, now extinct, was located in the 30's, 5 or 6 miles to the southeast, on the Tallahatchie river and was absorbed by Sardis, after it had failed in the contest for the county seat with Old Panola (see Belmont). The two judicial districts of the county are a relic of this old contest. The Sardis & Delta Railroad, a short spur line, extends southwest from Sardis for about 22 miles to Carrier.

Sardis is the largest and the most important town in the county. It has one of the most healthful locations in the State, and is sur- rounded by a fertile agricultural district. It has telegraph, tele- phone, express and banking facilities. The Southern Reporter, an influential Democratic weekly, established in 1885, is published here by J. F. & P. N. Simmons. Large quantities of timber for spokes, staves, and lumber are shipped from this point annually. It has two banks, the Bank of Sardis and the Panola County Bank, with an invested capital of $114,000 ; two hotels, a public high school for both races, separately conducted ; a system of water works; a privately controlled electric lighting plant : Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Catholic and Episcopalian churches ; also colored Methodist and Baptist churches. Among the manufacturing enterprises now in the town are a hardwood saw mill, bending works, a box factory, a mill for the manufacture of hardwood flooring and inside furnish-

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ing lumber, a veneering factory, two cotton gins, a cotton-seed oil mill, brick and tile works, bottling works and a machine shop.

Sardis has a debt of $15,000; the assessed valuation of its prop- erty, real and personal, is $455,473 ; the tax rate is 10 mills ; the pop- ulation in 1900 was 1,002; the estimated population in 1906 was 2,000.

Sarepta, an incorporated post-town in the northeastern part of Calhoun county, about 20 miles east of Water Valley, the nearest railroad and banking town. It has three churches and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 172.

Sargent, Winthrop, was born at Gloucester, a coast town of Mas- sachusetts, May 1, 1755. His first paternal ancestor who came to America was William Sargent. He immigrated to the colony from Gloucester, England, some time before 1668, since which time his descendants have been distinguished in law, literature, art and politics.

Winthrop Sargent was graduated from Harvard University, and soon after went to sea as captain of a merchant vessel owned by his father. On July 7, 1775, he enlisted in the Army of the Rev- olution, as a lieutenant in Gridley's regiment of Massachusetts artillery ; on December 10, 1775, was promoted to captain lieuten- ant of Knox's regiment, Continental artillery. He received the following promotions before the close of the war : Captain 3d Con- tinental Artillery, January 1, 1777; brevet major, August 28, 1783 ; served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Howe from June, 1780, to 1783.

Major Sargent took an active part, with his artillery, at the siege of Boston, the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Tren- ton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and other important operations. A chronicler of 1801, in writing of Sargent at the close of the war, says: "Six months' pay in Morris' notes and his sword were all that were left him." In this condition of affairs Major Sargent determined to apply for a commission in the army of Hol- land, and with that end in view, applied to General Washington for a testimonial of his service in the Continental army, who gave him a certificate in these words:

"I certify, that Major Winthrop Sargent, lately an officer in the line of artillery, and Aide-de-Camp to Major General Howe, has served with great reputation in the armies of the United States of America : that he entered into the service of his country at an early period of the war, and during the continuance of it, displayed a zeal, integrity and intelligence which did honor to him as an officer and a gentleman.

"Given under my hand and seal, this 18th day of June, 1785. "(Signed) George Washington, late Commander in Chief, &c."

At this juncture a company was formed, made up largely of revolutionary soldiers, for the settlement of the Ohio river coun- try, known as the Northwestern Territory, and Maj. Sargent ac-

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cepted employment as a surveyor, charged with the duty of laying out the country into townships. On the organization of a govern- ment for the Northwest Territory, in 1787, he was elected its secretary by the old congress.

In the war against the Miami Indians, Secretary Sargent served as adjutant-general of the army in the field under Gen. Arthur St. Clair, and was wounded in the disastrous defeat on the Maumee, November 4, 1791. He continued to serve as secretary of the Northwestern Territory, and much of the time as acting-governor. until May 7, 1798, when President Adams appointed him governor of Mississippi Territory. In a letter to Secretary Pickering, rela- tive to arrangements for going to his new post, he says, under date of June 16, 1798 :

"General Wilkinson arrived here the evening before last and has assured me of accommodation to descend the river in a very few days, so that you will not probably hear again from me at this place."

Governor Sargent arrived at Natchez August 6, in very poor health, and was taken to Concord, the old home of Governor Gay- oso, where he remained until convalescent. His first official act was performed August 16, when he delivered an address at Nat- chez to the people of the Territory.

The territorial officers, as appointed by President Adams, were: William McGuire, chief justice ; and Peter Bryan Bruin and Dan- iel Tilton members of the Court. John Steele was appointed sec- retary.

Legislative authority was vested in the governor and territorial judges. Judge Bruin was the only resident member of the Court, and the absence of the other members greatly embarrassed the governor in the organization of his administration. Judge Tilton did not arrive until January 10, 1799, and Judge McGuire not until the following summer.

On the arrival of Gov. Sargent in the Territory, the United States and France were on the eve of hostilities, which prompted him to temporarily organize the militia, which was done by an official order, dated September 8, 1798.

Political discontent, under the leadership of Anthony Hutchins and Cato West, soon began to manifest itself. Sargent was a Fed- eralist ; the majority of the people were Jeffersonian Republicans, and party feeling prevented them from cooperating with him in his, really, earnest and sincere efforts to give them good govern- ment.

On the arrival of Judge Tilton, the legislative branch of the gov- ernment was organized, and the first law of Mississippi Territory bears date of February 28, 1799.

Soon after this time Gov. Sargent was married to Maria McIn- tosh Williams, a young widow of considerable fortune in lands, which gave him a permanent interest in the Territory. One son was born of this marriage, William Fitz Winthrop.

The leaders of the opposition violently attacked the laws that

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were enacted by the governor and judges. These dissensions re- sulted in a public meeting of the opponents of the administration, at which a committee was appointed to present grievances to the governor and judges. The committee also appointed Narsworthy Hunter as its agent, and instructed him to proceed to Philadelphia and lay their complaints before congress. The petition to con- gress was prepared by Cato West; it bears date of October 2, 1799, and was signed by fifteen citizens of the Territory.

The agitation by the West Committee, as represented by Hunter, before congress, resulted in the supplemental act of June 24, 1800, which authorized a legislative body for the Territory, to consist of a house of representatives elected by the people, and a legislative council nominated by the house and appointed by the president. The house had a membership of nine; the council was composed of five members.

On June 24, 1800, the governor ordered an election for members of the house of representatives, to be held at the county seats on the fourth Monday of July. The election resulted in a victory for the opponents of Gov. Sargent. The representatives-elect met Sep- tember 22, 1800, at the government house in Natchez.

In his address to the representatives of the people, the governor adopted a conciliatory attitude, but the presence of Hutchins and West as members, probably, prevented agreeable relations.

The Territory had been divided into three counties, Adams, Pickering and Washington, which were named in honor of John Adams, Timothy Pickering and George Washington. Adams County was represented by Henry Hunter, James Hoggett, An- thony Hutchins and Sutton Banks; Pickering County by Cato West, Thomas M. Green, John Burnet and Thomas Calvit. Wash- ington county's election was held irregularly, in that it was not held on the day fixed by law, and the House refused to seat John Flood McGrew, the representative from that county.

The change to the second grade of government, as provided for by the act of June 24, 1800, soon became unpopular, and a petition for its repeal, dated December 6, 1800, signed by four hundred citi- zens of the Territory, was presented to congress.

When President Adams was defeated by Thomas Jefferson for the Presidency, Gov. Sargent, early in April, 1801, took a leave of absence, which had been granted some time before, to visit Wash- ington, in order to defend his administration against the attacks of his political enemies, and seek vindication by reappointment. He left the Territory soon after, and proceeded to the national cap- ital for that purpose, but his mission was not accomplished, as William Charles Cole Claiborne was commissioned governor of the Mississippi Territory May 25, 1801.

The popular opinion of the Sargent administration has been de- rived from Claiborne's Mississippi ; and it is somewhat natural that his criticism should have been adopted without investigation by other historical writers. Claiborne pictures Sargent as a cold, austere, unsympathetic, arbitrary, grasping man, who was never

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in touch with the true interests of the people. Such an estimate seems to be partisan on its face, and is not borne out by a careful perusal of the record. His journal impresses one that he had a deep love for his country and its interests, that he was sincerely ambitious to serve, faithfully, the people to whom he had been sent, and that he surmounted unusual difficulties in the establish- ment of law and order in a frontier settlement. In his adminis- tration of the affairs of government he was industrious, capable and just. He was, possibly, wanting in political tact, and perhaps his military training caused him to expect too much obedience and reverence for law in a frontier people.

During his trip to the Atlantic States, Governor Sargent visited his old home in Massachusetts, after which he returned to Mis- sissippi Territory, and quietly took up the life of a planter. He called his home Gloucester, evidently in honor of his birthplace. He was a successful planter, and was one of the committee ap- pointed by the legislature in 1809 to receive subscriptions to stock of the Bank of Mississippi, the first banking house establishment in the Mississippi Territory. Governor Sargent died in New Or- leans June 3, 1820, and is buried at Gloucester, his home, near Natchez.

For authorities on the life of Governor Sargent consult Missis- sippi Archives, Heitman's Register Continental Army, Annals of Congress 1799-1801, Papers in relation to the official conduct of Governor Sargent, Claiborne's Mississippi, Wilkinson's Memoirs.

Sargent's Administration, 1798-1801. On May 7, 1798, the senate confirmed the appointment by President Adams, of officers of the Mississippi territory, south of the Yazoo line, as follows: Win- throp Sargent, of the Northwest territory, governor and Indian agent ; John Steele, of Virginia, secretary; Peter Bryan Bruin, of Mississippi, and Daniel Tilton, of New Hampshire, judges, the third judge, William McGuire, of Virginia, being appointed June 28. When notified that he would be appointed, Col. Sargent had lately returned to Cincinnati from ardous duty in quieting an uprising in the Illinois country under the French flag, and was suffering from a dangerous malady almost as fatal as the yellow fever then raging at Philadelphia. He began a correspondence with the sec- retary of state regarding his duties. He asked that the judges ap- pointed be instructed to accompany him. "First impressions are strong," he wrote, "it will therefore, I apprehend, be unfortunate for our government should the Executive be constrained to visit the Mississippi territory without the Judges-the people have been anticipating that which it is not in the government's power to bestow." He asked that statutes of the various States be furnished him so that he could select laws, as required by the Ordinance ; which request was not complied with. He asked that the powers of the governor and Mr. Hawkins, the United States Indian agent, be defined. He received information that his confirmation had been opposed in the senate, but felt less mortified through the assurance that opposition was because he had been an "Eastern man." He

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accepted advice of the secretary in good part, and answered: "The footing upon which Governor Gayoso lived with the inhabitants of the Natchez, it may not be exactly in my power to observe, from the difference between American and Spanish appointments, and which must be as well, or better known to you than myself; I will however cheerfully make such pecuniary sacrifices, as my circum- stances may admit, for the interests of government, and it shall be my study to conciliate and attach all parties to the United States." June 16 he wrote: "From the best intelligence I have been able to procure, there prevails in the country of our destina- tion, a refractory and turbulent spirit, with parties headed by men of perverseness and cunning. They have run wild in the recess of government and every moment's delay in adoption of rules and regulations after the ordinance, etc., shall be promulgated amongst them, must be productive of growing evils and discontent."

Capt. Guion, at Natchez, worried by the appeals of the two factions to him for recognition, had written May 9, in a private letter :

"This is a hot country and people in a very chequered manner- a great number of the most turbulent characters-who have fled from the different states, for fear of having justice done on them. They are the most clamorous for government (having nothing to protect) and afraid of it." Writing a month later to the secretary of war, he reduced his indictment to "a few turbulent and busy spirits," and declared that the majority of the people, "when left to the unbiased exercise of their own judgment" were "above the ordinary capacity of like numbers in most of the states," which is also the impression received from Ellicott's observations. As Wailes has commented, the rivalries for "power and influence were but the common instincts of ambitious men wherever they may be placed." The district had for many years been subject to the intrigues of Spanish, French, and English, not to mention the dis- cordant policies of the United States and Georgia-an intricate maze difficult to thread intelligently now with many secrets dis- closed. The people had had little opportunity for the unbiased exercise of their own judgment. The recent rivalry between Col. Hutchins and Commissioner Ellicott had tended to bias the judg- ment of the inhabitants regarding the Ordinance of 1787, particu- larly the mode of territorial government it prescribed. It was not difficult to see why Hutchins should have asked that the people should have the right to select their own governor, when it is re- membered that the report came down that Ellicott was to be chosen. but his assertions that life under that ordinance would be no bet- ter than slavery undoubtedly had much effect. In fact, a consider- able party in Ohio said the same thing. protesting against a govern- ment in which the people had no voice. The lawmaking power. until there should be a white population of something like 25,000. was to be exercised by three men, the governor and two of three judges, appointed by the president of the United States, and answerable only to him and the senate. When the territory should

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have 5,000 free males of lawful age, a house of representatives would be permitted, but yet the president would have the ap- pointment of the upper house or council, and the governor would have an absolute veto. Such, however, was the form of govern- ment devised for western territory eleven years before his time, and applied to all the country from Lake Superior to the Gulf. (See Ordinance of 1787.)

The party headed by Anthony Hutchins and the Committee of Safety had represented to congress in 1797 that the Natchez, a region of five thousand white inhabitants and half as many negroes, might admit of different regulations from a wilderness to be set- tled, and that some acquaintance with the country was necessary to adjust its laws; the people should have the right to recommend the governor to be appointed, and the people by a majority of votes should take the lead under congress. (M. H. S. III, 294.) He might have added that twenty years before, the British government of West Florida had given Natchez district elective representation.

The other party, headed by the Permanent committee under the advice of Commissioner Ellicott, expressed themselves satisfied that the provisions of the ordinance of 1787 would effect as great a change from despotism toward representative government as could be wisely made, at once.

Another very important change in conditions was the prohibi- tion of the importation of slaves from any port outside the limits of the United States. For many years negroes had been bought in Jamaica of the English slave-traders, or at New Orleans. The prohibition may be viewed as putting under the ban of the law a commerce previously considered legitimate, or it may be looked at in the same light as previous edicts of Spain, control of the traffic for the benefit of the nation asserting domain. Thereafter, the foreign slave trade in this region was done by smugglers, and this trade was quite important as long as Florida remained in the hands of the Spanish. Many urged that the prohibition was un- constitutional. It is also to be remembered that during the con- sideration of the territorial act of 1798 there had been a proposition in congress to prohibit slavery entirely, as was first proposed by Thomas Jefferson. This precipitated a heated debate and revealed a settled determination on the part of the political leaders in Geor- gia and the Carolinas to maintain the slave-labor system at any cost. Gov. Sargent must necessarily, coming from a territory where slavery was prohibited, have been under suspicion by those inter- ested in the protection of slavery.

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 71

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