Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 80

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 80

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).

Signal, a postoffice of Warren county, 4 miles northeast of Vicks- burg, on the Y. & M. V. R. R.

Silver City, a post-town on the Y. & M. V. R. R., and on the Yazoo river, in the western part of Yazoo county, about 20 miles north of Yazoo City. It has a number of good general stores, several churches, a bank, a lumber yard, a public gin and a cotton compress. It is a flourishing place with good schools and a popu- lation of about 500.

Silvercreek, an incorporated town in the central part of Law- rence county, on the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship Island Railroad, and at its junction with the Miss. Central R. R., 8 miles northeast of Monticello, the county seat. The town is situated on a high level and has excellent drainage. It is on the west bank of Silver creek, one of the prettiest streams in the State. To the west- ward are beautiful hills covered with magnificent forests of yellow pine. The Lawrence county high school is located here, and there are good churches, several large mercantile establishments, and a strong bank, The Merchants & Planters Bank, established in 1903 with an authorized capital of $30,000. The Silver Creek Star, a Democratic weekly, was established in 1903 with R. W. Hall, editor and publisher. There are saw mills, a planing mill, a brick plant, a machine shop, an ice factory, bottling works, a cotton gin, four hotels, three livery and one sale stable. These advantages and others combine to make this one of the best towns in Lawrence county. The town is surrounded by an abundance of hardwood timber and the vicinity is adapted to fruit and vegetable growing which is proving to be a very Successful industry. Here is a splendid location for manufactures, especially of hardwood timber. The lands around Silvercreek are fertile and can be purchased in small or large bodies at a very reasonable figure.

Silversprings, a post-hamlet of Tippah county, about 10 miles northeast of Ripley, the county seat and nearest railroad and bank- ing town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 66.

Similo, a post-hamlet of Lincoln county, about 12 miles south- west of Brookhaven, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 60.

Simlin, a hamlet in the northeastern part of Lawrence county. The postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905, and mail now goes to Vixen.

Simmonsville, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Pike county, about 10 miles southeast of Magnolia, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 57.

Simonton, John M., was elected to the State senate from Ita- wamba county and served in 1859-61, leaving the legislature to enter the military service, where he was distinguished, rising to the rank of colonel of the First regiment. He was again a member of the senate, 1864-68, a delegate to the constitutional convention of 1865 (q. v.), senator 1884-88, and a member of the constitutional convention of 1890. He was elected in 1895 land commissioner,

Digitized by Google

666

MISSISSIPPI

an office he held at the time of his death, June 24, 1898. Governor McLaurin said of him, "In all his life he exemplified the lovely character of a loyal patriot and pure Christian."

Simpson County was organized seven years after Mississippi became a State, January 23, 1824, and was named for Judge Josiah Simpson. The county has a land surface of 578 square miles. It was part of the Choctaw cession of 1820, termed the New Purchase, and previously formed the eastern part of the county of Copiah, erected during the preceding year. It lies a little south of the center of the State and is bounded on the north by Rankin county, on the east the old Choctaw Indian line of 1820 divides it from Smith county, on the south the Choctaw boundary line of 1805 divides it from Lawrence and Covington counties, and on the west is Copiah county, the Pearl river forming the dividing line. It has an area of about twenty townships, and as early as 1837 had a free white population of 2,329, slaves 891, a majority of these early settlers coming from the older portions of the State on the west and south.

The following is a list of the county officers for the year 1824, the year the county was created: Duncan McLaurin, Judge of Probate; Wm. Morris, Peter Stubbs, Neal McNair, Richard Nall, James B. Satturfield, Associate Justices ; Laughlin McLaurin, Jacob Carr, James Briggs, John C. Halford, Justices of the Peace ; Richard Sparks, Sheriff ; Neal McNair, Assessor and Collector ; Daniel Mc- Caskill, Coroner ; Eli Nichols, Surveyor ; John C. McFarland, Treas- urer ; Daniel L. Ferrington, Notary Public; Gideon Royal, Ranger ; other county officers in 1825, 1826 and 1827 were John Briggs, Joseph R. Plummer, John Campbell, Absalom Harper, James Welch, Joseph Carr, Justices of the Peace; John R. Hubert, Associate Justice : William B. Easterling; Treasurer and Surveyor; Macom McDuffee, Ranger.

The first courts of the new county were held at the house of William Gibson, and, in 1827, the village of Westville was made the county seat and remained such until recently, when the county records were moved to Mendenhall, where they remained until Nov. 1905, when they were returned to Westville. A contest be- tween Mendenhall and Westville over the final location of the county seat was taken before the Supreme court of the State for determination, and the court ordered the county seat to be located at Westville pending an election to decide whether it would be located at Westville or Mendenhall. The election was held in 1906 and Mendenhall was selected as the county seat. Mendenhall is lo- cated in the north-central part, at the junction of the two lines of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. Westville is about 11/2 miles east of Pinola, which is on the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship Island rail- road running south through Lawrence county. There are no large settlements in the county ; some of the other towns are Braxton, Magee, Maddox, Everett, Coat and Weathersby. More than one- third of the acreage of the county is now improved, and much of the balance is finely timbered with long leaf or yellow pine ; on the river and creek bottoms are oaks of all kinds, ash, beech, magnolia, pecan, hickory, poplar, cypress, etc. The general surface of the

Digitized by Google

667

MISSISSIPPI

land is undulating, level on the bottoms, and some portions hilly. Though a piney woods country, the lands are fairly fertile, those on the three forks of Silver creek being reputed among the best in east Mississippi. Stock can range without much care the entire year, feeding on the native grasses and switch cane. The products of the county are corn, cotton, sugar-cane, rice, sorghum, oats, field peas, ground peas, and all varieties of fruits and vege- tables common to the latitude. Strong river flows through the center of the county from northeast to southwest, Pearl river is the western boundary, and the numerous tributaries of these two streams afford excellent water power. Many fine mill sites are to be found on the streams and creeks. The Gulf & Ship Island R. R. traverses the county from northwest to southeast, and the Columbia branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., extending from Maxie to Mendenhall, provide it with good shipping facilities. The county has increased rapidly in population since the advent of the railroad. School and church advantages are general throughout the county. A great number of lumbering plants have been established since 1900 and there are probably as many as 30 saw mills in the county.

The following statistics, taken from the twelfth United States census for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : Number of farms 2,161, acreage in farms 222,949, acres improved 74.281, value of lands exclusive of buildings $770,750, value of buildings $301,320, value of live stock $369,313, total value of products not fed to stock $698,362. Number of manufacturing es- tablishments 27, capital invested $68,985, wages paid $20,207, cost of materials $64,311, total value of products $121,274. The popula- tion in 1900 was whites 7,846, colored 4,954, total 12,800, increase over 1890, 2,662. The population in 1906 was estimated at 15,000. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Simp- son county in 1905 was $2,233,826 and in 1906 it was $4,009,701 which shows an increase of $1,775,875 during the year.

Simpson, Josiah, Territorial judge, was a native of Pennsylvania, educated at Princeton college, and after reading law engaged in the practice of that profession. He married a Miss Stuart, of Fredericksburg, Va. In 1812 he was appointed one of the Terri- torial judges, to succeed Judge Fitts, and the records show his presence at least as early as October of that year. He made his home at Green Hill, near Natchez, afterward known as Devereaux Hall, "one of the old historic homes of Natchez, beautiful in its loveliness, with many sweet memories clustering around it." Says J. F. H. Claiborne, "Nature had given him a vigorous intellect, and being a close student and very methodical in his habits, with great purity of character and simplicity of manners, he was fully equal to the high station to which he had been called. Judge Simpson soon impressed himself on the bar and the commu- nity as a man of great ability, learning and rectitude, and no man was more beloved." In the constitutional convention of 1817, "a position he would have avoided, but was literally forced into by

Digitized by Google

668

MISSISSIPPI

a universal call, he took a very prominent part, and his conserva- tive character is impressed upon the most important features of our first constitution. He died soon after the convention dis- solved."

Cowles Mead introduced a bill for the relief of his widow in the legislature of 1817, in evidence of Mississippi's high sense of respect for the memory of "Josiah Simpson, late a judge of the superior courts of the Mississippi Territory, and late a member of the convention, where he rendered great and signal services to the State, to the citizens thereof, and to posterity, by the purity of his principles, sustained by talent, integrity and judgment." The legislature passed an act to provide for the education of his child, who according to Claiborne, afterward became the wife of Thomas L. Dobyns, of Rodney, Miss.

Simrall, Horatio F., was born near Shelbyville, Ky., February 6, 1818. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and his father was an officer in the War of 1812. He attended the Hanover (Ind.) col- lege ; then taught school for a while, after which he took a law course at Transylvania university, and was admitted to the bar. He came to Mississippi in the fall of 1838; stopped at Natchez, but located at Woodville in 1839, and soon became prominent as a lawyer. He was in the legislature of 1846-48; made a strong effort to secure free schools for the State, and secured a system of free schools for Wilkinson county. In 1857 he became a professor of law in the University of Louisville, but returned to Wilkinson county in 1861. Meanwhile a Confederate State government had been set up in Kentucky, and he was elected lieutenant governor. He returned to that state, but it was soon in the possession of the Federals, and he came back to Mississippi. After the war he was a member of the legislature of 1865-66 and as chairman of the com- mittee on federal relations recommended rejection of the Four- teenth amendment. In 1867 he removed to Vicksburg. He was prominent in defending people who were tried before the military courts. He went to Washington with a committee of Democrats and appealed to President Grant against the proscriptive features of the constitution of 1868 ; was appointed supreme judge in 1820; held this place for nine years, becoming chief justice in 1876, and retired to private life in 1879. He was offered the professorship of law in the University of Mississippi in 1881, but declined. He was a member of the constitutional convention of 1890.

Sims, a post-hamlet of Attala county, about 10 miles north of Kosciusko, the county seat and nearest banking town.

Sims, William H., was born in Lexington, Ga., in 1840, son of Dr. James Saunders Sims and Amanda Booker Moore. He gradu- ated from the University of Georgia before he was nineteen, and after being admitted to the bar at Lexington spent a year in study at Harvard. In 1859 he made his home at Columbus, Miss., and was just beginning his practice when he enlisted in the Confederate army, where he rose to the rank of colonel. After arduous service in the army, during which he was twice wounded, he was captured

Digitized by Google

669

MISSISSIPPI

in 1865, and taken to a military prison at Louisville. Out of 9,000 prisoners here, all were soon discharged except Col. Sims and two others, who were to be tried for treason. Finally, however, he was paroled, and in 1866 began his practice again in Columbus. In August, 1870, he married Louie Upson, of Lexington, Ga. He was elected to the State senate in the "Revolution of 1875," and when John M. Stone succeeded to the governorship, he was unanimously chosen president of the senate, and thus exercised the duties of lieutenant-governor. In 1878, he and Governor Stone were re- elected for four years. He was president of the Democratic State convention in 1885, and at the St. Louis Democratic convention in 1888 he was instrumental in reconciling the jarring factions in the platform committee. For several years he resided at Columbus, engaged with his business interests and his practice, but is now living in Florida.

Sinai, a postoffice of Rankin county.

Singer, a postoffice of Tunica county.

Singleton, a post-hamlet of Winston county, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus, and 13 miles east of Louisville, the county seat and the nearest railroad and banking town. It has two churches. Population in 1900, 75.

Singleton, Otho R., was born in Jessamine county, Kentucky, October 14, 1814. After graduating from St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Ky., and from the Lexington Law School, he moved to Mississippi in 1838. He was a member of the lower house for two years and of the State senate for six years. He represented Mis- sissippi in the thirty-third, thirty-fifth and thirty-sixth congresses, and resigned from the latter January 12, 1861. He represented Mississippi in the Confederate congress throughout the war, and in 1875 was elected to the national congress where he served from the forty-fourth to the forty-ninth congresses inclusively (1875- 1885). He died in 1889.

Sitka, a postoffice of Covington county, 13 miles east of Williams- burg, the county seat.

Siwel, a hamlet of Hinds county, 8 miles southwest of Jackson. It has a money order postoffice.

Sixteenth Sections. The act of congress, in 1803, providing for the sale of land "south of the State of Tennessee," excepted "sec- tion No. 16, which shall be reserved in each township, for the sup- port of schools within the same." As each township contains 36 sections, this was a reservation of one-thirty-sixth of the area, in other words, one mile square in every six miles square. This pro- vision would be equivalent, under fair conditions, to a land tax of nearly thirty cents on the dollar for public education. The land was acquired by the United States by conquest, international treaty and purchase, and the school sections were a reservation from the lands which the United States were offering for sale. Said Gov- ernor Leake (1822): "The sixteenth sections were not granted to the States or Territories in which they lay, but the title re- mained in the United States, and was held by them in trust for the

670

MISSISSIPPI

use and benefit of the inhabitants of the particular township in which it was reserved." It was one of the inducements for people to adventure to the wild lands and build up new communities. The donation was made in trust for the children of the State, "and was accepted by the State subject to all the responsibilities of a trustee." (Gov. Alcorn, 1871.)

In 1806 it was provided that when the 16th section fell on land previously granted by congress or claimed under a British grant, another section should be located in the same township or one ad- joining. In 1815 congress authorized the Territorial county courts to appoint five agents to lease the 16th sections in each county, the leases to expire January 1 after the admission of the Territory as a State. The first action by the legislature in regard to these lands was the law of 1818, providing that the justices of the county courts should "take charge of the lands given by the United States to the State of Mississippi, in their counties respectively, and pro- vide for the erection of one or more schools, as they may deem right and useful." The justices were authorized to lease the lands, for a term not exceeding three years, and protect them against waste of soil and timber. Under the law of 1824 each township wherein lands were reserved was authorized to elect a board of trustees to "take into consideration the situation of the school sec- tions and how to apply the money arising from the lease or rents of the same," to protect them from waste, and rent them for a term not exceeding five years. It will be observed that the 16th sections were treated as a source of local revenue. The State school fund at this time was the "Literary fund" of 1821 (q. v.) A law of 1829 authorized the trustees of school lands to establish as many schools in each township as they may deem necessary, and apportion the rent according to the school enrollment. The following year (1830) the United States had acquired the title of the Choctaws in the State, by purchase and trade, and all the State was being opened to settlement except the great northern area held by the Chickasaws, which was yielded by them for the regular price of public lands, in 1832. The total area of the 16th sections, was estimated in 1846, by Governor Brown, at 700,000 acres. The Chickasaw school sections were sold at $6.00 an acre and the proceeds ultimately became a public debt, instead of a source of revenue.

The system of short leases was abandoned under the act of leg- islature of February 27, 1833, which provided that when the ma- jority of the resident heads of families in any township requested it, the school land trustees should lease the section for 99 years to the highest bidder, it being permitted to lease in lots of not less than eighty acres. Where the township did not have a sufficient population to have a board of trustees, the county board of police might lease the section. The leases were to be made on a credit of one, two, three and four years the purchaser to give notes pay- able to the trustees, who were required when the notes were paid, to "appropriate the amount so collected to the purchase of stock

Digitized by Goran

671

MISSISSIPPI

in the Planters' bank of the State of Mississippi," the dividends on which should be used for the purposes of education in the town- ships where the lands were located. This law was admirably adapted to destroy all hope of revenue from the school lands for the period of ninety-nine years. In 1836 authority was given to loan the proceeds to private persons or invest the same in any solvent bank. In 1841 the school section trustees were authorized to sell the depreciated bank paper in their hands at public auction. A law of 1842 authorized the trustees or county judge of probate to com- promise or rescind all leases or other contracts for the sixteenth sections, or purchase for the township under the liens retained. In 1846 Governor Brown said the leasing system had not worked well. A very small fraction of the 1,100 sections were well man- aged. Some were trespassed on and denuded of timber, some were leased and the money not collected; in many instances the proceeds had been collected and squandered, and "in the fewest number of instances have there been free schools kept by the pro- ceeds." Lowndes county is distinguished as one that has main- tained schools on the land fund since 1821. The common school law of 1846 provided that the county treasurers should open an account for each township, entering a credit for the principal and interest arising from the lease of the 16th section, the principal to remain a permanent fund, the interest thereon to be used for town- ship education ; but this requirement was made valueless by a pro- viso that upon protest of a majority of the heads of families, the control of the fund should be left with the township trustees.

The constitution of 1869 made the proceeds of the school lands, and "the funds arising from the consolidation of the Congressional township funds and the lands belonging thereto," part of the Com- mon School Fund of the State, to be invested in United States bonds and remain a perpetual fund, etc. This pleasing anticipa- tion was never realized. Governor Alcorn, in 1870, urged that "the new order of things shall mark its condemnation of the old by declaring that the lands left by half a century of political cor- ruption, at the service of education, an inalienable heritage as such, for the children of the people." The school law of 1870 pro- vided for the handling of the school sections in a way that Gover- nor Alcorn said was "but a rehearsal of a past legislation which has made the educational interests of the children of the State a subject of most outrageous spoliation." The lands should be leased, he said, for a term not exceeding twenty years, the rents payable annually in advance, on pain of eviction, and bond required for pro- tection of timber, etc. But his recommendations were not fol- lowed.

Superintendent Preston wrote in 1890: "The leasing of 16th sections under the statutes of the State has been neither uniform nor judicious. It has been entrusted to boards of police, to county school directors, to county school commissioners, and to boards of supervisors. Various shifts and devices were enacted from time to time for the purpose of either saving or destroying the children's

Digitized by Google

672

MISSISSIPPI

heritage. The only uniformity discernible at this distance is that manifested in the fact that the lands went and no revenue came in return." The reports of the State board of education 1871-80 throw but little light upon the obscurity that surrounded the fate of this great educational endowment. Under the Alcorn administration investigations were made in the counties to determine the condi- tion of the school sections. From Lowndes county it was reported that six of the school sections were missing, that is, it was impos- sible to tell where they had been located. The records were gone. as was the case in a good many counties. In other counties the school sections were held by persons who claimed title in fee. Superintendent J. A. Smith continued the inquiry, but his efforts resulted only in the information: "Leased for 99 years, notes and revenues all lost or squandered." A few counties required the county treasurer to have charge of the fund. In Warren county a complete and satisfactory report was made by Treasurer Cameron. Practically the only sections remaining unleased were in the Yazoo delta, but they were in process of disappearance, as formerly. "Within the past few years the 16th sections of some townships have been parcelled out and leased for 99 years by the owners of adjacent lands, the sum paid being from $2 to $4 per acre." Super- intendent Preston estimated in 1890 that a section, two-thirds cleared, properly rented, would in twenty years create a fund of $40,000, which would yield $2,000 annual interest. Consequently. if the original grant of 661,000 acres had been then available, it would have made in the same period, a permanent fund of over $40,000,000, yielding an annual revenue of $2,000,000, to say nothing of the future rent, after twenty years. It was this that was thrown away, and, in some degree, there was similar waste in all the western country. In the words of Edward Mayes, "The year 1935, or thereabouts, will set the matter right, if that be any con- solation : provided it do not happen again."

The constitution of 1890 provides that the legislature shall enact laws to ascertain the true condition of the title to the 16th sections, and provide that they shall be reserved for the support of township schools, shall not be sold, nor leased for a longer term than twenty- five years for a ground rental payable annually. (Also see Chick- asaw School Fund and School System.) In 1892 Superintendent Preston reported that by persistent efforts complete reports of the Sixteenth section fund had been obtained from most of the coun- ties outside of the Chickasaw cession. "The funds reported aggre- gate $162,839 ; and the interest on these funds added to the rentals of Sixteenth sections amounts to $32,973 per annum; this last sum being the total amount accruing for annual use from the once magnificent bequest of 661,000 acres set apart by the general gov- ernment for the education of children of the Choctaw counties [also for the Natchez district]. The receipts are less than 5 cents per acre-less than five per cent. of a fund which might have been created by selling the land at $1 per acre. This lamentable squan- dering of the children's heritage is a lasting shame to our State."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 80

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