Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 93

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 93

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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in the capture of Detroit, summer of 1812, in support of the British, and was killed in the battle of the Thames, 1813 ; in western Canada.

Ted, a post-hamlet of Smith county; 12 miles due east of Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.

Telegraph, Electric. Extract from Natchez Courier, October 26, 1847: "A most favorable opportunity is now presented to the citizens of Natchez and Adams county, of securing immediately the benefits of this wonderful and useful invention. A company is forming for extending the line from a point on the Ohio river, above Cincinnati, to New Orleans. The route through Alabama and Mississippi is not yet positively defined, and will depend upon the amount of subscriptions obtained in the various counties through which it is contemplated it will pass. It is of much im- portance that Natchez should be made a point on the line traversed by the lightning, and a station should by all means be established here. A comparatively small amount of stock subscription to the stock, by our citizens, will probably ensure to us the benefit of the telegraph, and, judging from the profitableness of the stock in all the lines already established throughout the United States, the investments will turn out profitably. One of the proprietors of the line, Mr. Wm. B. Lloyd, is now in our city."

It appears in 1849 that the only line to New Orleans was that of the Washington & New Orleans company, whose wires ran via Montgomery and Mobile. This was the longest line in the United States then,-1,716 miles. There seems to have been no other line through Mississippi.

Temple, a post-hamlet of Lauderdale county, 12 miles north of Meridian. Population in 1900, 28.

Tenmile, a postoffice and station in the north-central part of Har- rison county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 5 miles north of McHenry, the nearest banking town. It has a good store and a large saw-mill.

Tennessee. "The whole of the present western district of Ten- nessee, as late as 1816, was an Indian wilderness, in the undisputed occupancy of the native savages. Until that year, the Chickasaw nation occupied the whole western portion of Tennessee, as far eastward as the Tennessee river, and northward to the southern boundary of Kentucky. The rapid advance of the civilized popu- lation made it requisite that the Indian tribes should occupy more circumscribed limits ; and they retired within the present State of Mississippi, and subsequently to the Indian Territory west of the present State of Arkansas."

The lands on both sides of the Tennessee, below Mussel Shoals, were opened to settlement by the treaty with the Chickasaw nation, made by Gen. Andrew Jackson, in 1816, at which time part of the present territory of Mississippi and Alabama were also relin- quished. The second sale of lands by the Chickasaws in Tennessee was two years afterward. In this case, negotiations were con- ducted by Gen. Andrew Jackson and Col. Isaac Shelby. of Ken- tucky. By this treaty, signed October 18, 1818, the Chickasaws

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relinquished all their lands in the western part of Tennessee, and concentrated at the heart of their nation in north Mississippi, where they remained until after the treaty of Pontotoc, sixteen years later. The first white immigrants advanced into this country yielded by the Chickasaws early in the year 1820, when John Overton settled near Fort Pickering, and the site of a town was laid off in May and given the name of Memphis. West Tennessee increased rapidly in population, and by 1840 Memphis was the third commercial city on the Mississippi river, and the great cot- ton mart of western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. For many years that region drew immigration to the disadvantage of the more southern State, and its metropolis absorbed that profit that accrues to the handler and distributor of exports and im- ports. From Tennessee, Mississippi has also received much. "Tennessee, not inaptly, has been called the mother of States. From the bosom of this State have issued more colonies for the peopling of the great valley of the Mississippi than from any other State in the American Union. Her emigrant citizens have formed a very important portion of the population of Alabama, of the northern half of Mississippi and of Florida. They have also formed the principal portion of the early population of the States of Mis- souri, Arkansas and Texas." (Monette, History of the Valley.)

Governor Holmes said in his message to the legislature of De- cember, 1813: "The conduct of the State of Tennessee upon every occasion when our Territory has been menaced by an enemy, en- titles that member of the Union to our peculiar gratitude, but the patriotism shown by their statesmen, soldiers and citizens upon the late occasion of the disasters which happened on the eastern fron- tier, exhibited a magnanimity of character, and a national sensi- bility, worthy of being emulated by all who justly esteem that pride of country essential to the maintenance of those rights which the constitution of the United States was intended to secure and perpetuate."

Teoc, a postoffice of Carroll county, 12 miles northwest of Carroll- ton, the county seat.

Terrell, a postoffice of Covington county, situated on Bowie creek, about 8 miles west of Williamsburg, the county seat.

Territorial Enactment. For the events leading up to the act of congress establishing "the Mississippi Territory," see Georgia Cession. President John Adams, June 12, 1797, in pursuance of the policy recommended by Senator Aaron Burr in 1796, and by later resolutions of congress, and having in view the assertion of Spanish dominion reported by Commissioner Ellicott, recom- mended congress, in effect, to delay no longer for negotiation with Georgia, so far as the populated district was concerned. The words of his recommendation were: "To erect a government in the dis- trict of Natchez, similar to that established for the territory North- west of the river Ohio," etc. The first action upon this seems to be the report of the senate committee, March 2, 1798 (see Georgia Cession), which was followed on the 6th by the

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passage of a bill by that body. This bill passed the house also, and became a law April 7, 1798.

Sec. 1 provided for a commission to adjust the interfering claims of the United States and Georgia in all the country west of the Chattahoochee river. Sec. 2 enacted that the proceeds of the sale of land shall be applied to the discharge of the public debt. Sec. 3. "That all the tract of country bounded on the West by the Mis- sissippi; on the North by a line to be drawn due East from the mouth of the Yazous to the Chattahoochee river; on the East by the river Chattahoochee; and on the South by the thirty-first de- gree of North latitude, shall be, and hereby is, constituted one district, to be called the Mississippi territory; and the President of the United States is hereby authorized to establish therein a government, in all respects similar to that now exercised in the territory Northwest of the river Ohio, excepting and excluding the last article of the ordinance made for the government thereof, by the late congress, on the thirteenth day of July, 1787, and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint all the necessary officers therein, who shall, respectively, receive the same compensations for their services, to be paid in the same manner, as by law established for similar officers in the territory Northwest of the river Ohio; and the powers, duties and emoluments, of a superintendent of Indian affairs, for the Southern department, shall be united with those of Governor;" (A proviso was added authorizing appointments in the recess of congress.) Sec. 4. That the territory hereby constituted one district, for the purpose of government, may, at the discretion of congress, be hereafter divided into two districts, with separate territorial governments in each, similar to that established by this act. Sec. 5. That the establishment of this government shall, in no respect, impair the right of the State of Georgia, or of any person or persons, either to the jurisdiction or the soil of the said territory, but the rights and claims of the said State, and of all persons interested, are hereby de- clared to be as firm and available as if this act had never been made. Sec. 6. That, from and after the establishment of the said gov- ernment, the people of the aforesaid territory shall be entitled to and enjoy all and singular the rights, privileges, and advantages, granted to the people of the Territory of the United States North- west of the river Ohio, in and by the aforesaid ordinance of the thirteenth day of July, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, in as full and ample a manner as the same are pos- sessed and enjoyed by the people of the said last mentioned ter- ritory. Sec. 7. That, from and after the establishment of the afore- said government, it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to import or bring into the said Mississippi territory, from any port or place without the limits of the United States, or to cause or procure to be so imported or brought, or knowingly to aid or assist in so importing or bringing any slave or slaves, and that every person so offending, and being thereof convicted, before any court within the said territory, having competent jurisdiction, shall

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forfeit and pay, for each and every slave so imported or brought, the sum of three hundred dollars; one moiety for the use of any person or persons who shall sue for the same; and that every slave, so imported or brought, shall thereupon become entitled to and re- ceive his or her freedom." Sec. 8. (Appropriation.)

By the act of March 27, 1804, in which additional provision was made for the confirmation of land claims in Natchez district, it was further enacted, "That the tract of country lying North of the Mississippi Territory, and South of the State of Tennessee, and bounded on the East by the State of Georgia, and on the West by Louisiana, shall be, and the same is hereby, annexed to, and made a part of, the Mississippi Territory." This extended the bounds of the Territory so as to embrace all that is now Alabama and Mis- sissippi, north of the 31st parallel.

By the act of May 14, 1812, "All that portion of territory lying east of Pearl river, west of the Perdido, and south of the thirty- first degree of latitude, shall be, and the same is hereby annexed to the Mississippi territory; to be governed by the laws now in force therein, or which may hereafter be enacted, and the laws and ordinances of the United States, relative thereto, in like manner as if the same had originally formed a part of said territory; and until otherwise provided by law, the inhabitants of the said district hereby annexed to the Mississippi territory, shall be entitled to one representative in the general assembly thereof."

Terry, an incorporated post-town in the southeastern part of Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 16 miles south by west of Jackson. The town was named for "Old" Bill Terry, a resident of the place. Truck farming and market gardening are extensively carried on in the vicinity, and this station is one of the most im- portant fruit and vegetable shipping points in the state. Peaches, pears, figs, plums, strawberries, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits are scientifically cultivated for market. The Bank of Terry was established here in 1897 with a capital of $20,000. Population in 1900, 481. Terry has 4 churches, 10 or 12 mercantile houses, a good hotel, and a money order postoffice.

Terza, a postoffice of Panola county.

Texas Revolution. Following the betrayal of Burr by Wilkinson, both of whom had designs on Texas, the insurrection of Aranjuez, (Spain) in 1808 and the abdication of Charles IV encouraged the Spanish provinces in America to revolt against the slavery to which they had been subjected for about two centuries. The invasion of Spain by Napoleon further emancipated the minds of the creoles from the ancient terror of the Spanish name. The revolt of the Mexicans began in 1810 under Hidalgo.

Governor Claiborne wrote to Gen. Wade Hampton January 5, 1811: "A terrible civil war rages in Mexico. I have seen official reports from which it seems that the horrors of the time of Cortez are revived. The contest is between the Europeans and the Creoles of the country. The Creoles have brought into the field immense armies, and in one engagement it is said ten thousand Creoles were

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killed. Hitherto the Europeans have met with great success, but private letters state that numbers are flocking to the Creole standard, and that they are in possession of immense treasure. At one town they possessed themselves of fifteen millions of dollars. The object of the Creoles is said to be independence." Such reports appealed strongly to the adventurous spirits of the Natchez.

In the border land, between Natchitoches and the Sabine river, a considerable number of adventurers and refugees from justice had established themselves, and the region became noted for "the commission of robberies, murders and other crimes of an infamous and astounding character." Governor Claiborne issued a proclama- tion against the outlaws in 1812, and a body of United States sol- diers was sent against them under Lieut. Augustus William Magee, a Massachusetts officer. This brought Magee closer in touch with the revolutionary movement. He resigned his commission in June, and organized the outlaws and others into a little army of 300 men to attack the town of Nacogdoches. A Spaniard, Bernardo, was the nominal leader of the movement. Nacogdoches promptly submit- ted to the revolutionists, and to that place came many recruits, among them Reuben Kemper, and Ross, Luckett, Perry, Robinson, Deane and Wolforth, of Mississippi. The movement was of course, unlawful, and some secrecy was maintained in the organization. About 80 men, well equipped, crossed the Mississippi in small groups at different places. In the territory it was reported that Gen. Adair was at the head of the enterprise, but he assured Gov- ernor Holmes otherwise and gave him, in confidence, information on the subject. Five hundred strong, Magee's army marched to- ward San Antonio, and was besieged through the winter at Goliad by the royalist officer, Gen. Salcedo. When spring opened, Salcedo withdrew and was pursued and defeated at Salado creek. Magee died in March, 1813, and Reuben Kemper commanded the army when it occupied San Antonio, under Bernardo. The latter caused the massacre of 17 Spaniards, including Herrara and Cordero, which so disgusted Kemper, and the Mississippians, that many of them abandoned the enterprise.

Soon after the departure of Kemper, there arrived at San Antonio the personage known in history as Gen. Toledo, formerly a member of the Mexican cortes. He took secondary command, aided by Col. Perry and the gentleman afterward known as Judge Bullard, among the Americans. But in August, 1813, Spanish troops, under Elisando and Aredondo, appeared on the scene, and along the Medina river and the Trinity the "Republican army" suffered bloody defeats, until the revolutionists were crushed, routed and well- nigh exterminated. Many of the Americans were slain. Three hundred were reported lost. Slocum, the Gormleys, and Caston, of the Mississippi territory, were among the missing when Toledo got back to Nacogdoches.

There was some activity, in 1814, which caused Governor Holmes, March 29, to issue a proclamation against persons accused of raising

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troops in the Territory for the purpose of invading the Spanish provinces. But there was comparative quiet in Texas until 1817, when La Fitte, the pirate, in command of a fleet of some twenty sail, under the flag of Venezuela, took possession of the island of Galvezton, to continue in control of that harbor for several years.

The Mexican revolution was suppressed in the course of six years. ending with the surrender of the surviving leaders in Janu- ary, 1817. One of the latest incidents was the dispersal of an ex- pedition from the United States under Mina.

The boundary between Spain and the United States was fixed at the Sabine by the treaty of 1819, after which the Spanish govern- ment established the province of Texas, between that river and the Rio Grande, under the Mexican viceroyalty. The United States abandoned all claim beyond the Sabine, in consideration of a clear title to Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, the Florida peninsula and Oregon. But, by individuals, an attempt was immediately made to free the province of Texas from Spanish control. (See Long' Expedition.)

In 1821 the Mexican revolution was renewed by Iturbide, and it was completely successful within the year. Iturbide was declared emperor Augustine I, in May, 1822. A republican revolution fol- lowed, under the great creole, Santa Ana; Iturbide resigned in 1823, and a republic was established in 1824, after the model of the United States.

Meanwhile there had been grants of extensive areas of Texas land to colonists from the United States, among whom was Moses Austin, and Texas began to have a population like that of an Amer- ican territory. The disposition of the colonists was to separate Texas from the Mexican government, though Austin tried for a long time to restrain this (See Edwards, B. F.). There naturally was much disorder in the new Mexican republic. A war was waged between two factions under the guise of Scotch and York free- masonry, which brought Santa Ana to the front in 1828, though he did not become president until 1833. In 1829 slavery, which had well-nigh disappeared except as it was revived in Texas by the colonists from the United States, was formerly abolished by govern- ment decree. Coahuila and Texas, which had been united under one State government, demurred to this and the citizens from the United States refused to observe it. There was also more or less nullifi- cation of the Mexican tariff laws, which the Mexican national gov- ernment endeavored to support by military power. In 1831, Branch T. Archer, having been invited to Texas by Col. Austin, wrote back that the "goddess of liberty" had been violated and needed protec- tion by increased immigration from the States. "The war dogs are unkennelled." Trouble began after Archer's arrival at Anahuac; in June, 1832, a body of the Austin colonists captured the Spanish garrison at Velasco, and Travis drove the garrison from Anahuac. The garrison at Nacogdoches was besieged, and, when escape was attempted, was ambushed and many killed.

Then came the elevation of Santa Ana, with a promise of less "Centralism," and peace was restored. In 1833 the Texans held a

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convention to ask separate statehood, after the manner of the States in the United States; but a revolution was raging, and Col. Austin was imprisoned for a year when he went to the capital to present the subject. It became apparent that Santa Ana would play the part of dictator; there was a terrible tragedy in suppressing insur- rection at Zacatecas ; preparations were made for a military occupa- tion of Texas, under Gen. Cos, and on October 1, 1836, occurred the battle of Gonzales, in which the colonists were aggressors against a Mexican garrison. An army was then organized under Col. Aus- tin, including such men as Archer, Fanning, Travis, Rusk, Bowie, Moore, Caldwell, Neil, Grayson, Hall, Carnes. Samuel Houston was commander in the Nacogdoches district, and later, commander- in-chief. Goliad was taken, a battle was fought at Concepcion, and in December, 1835, San Antonio was captured. Companies of soldiers arrived from the Southern States to aid the colonists. But the revolutionists met with reverses, and March 27 there was a treacherous massacre at Goliad of the survivors of a fierce prairie battle. Under Sam Houston as commander-in-chief, the colonists rallied and defeated the Mexican troops decisively at San Jacinto, April 21, taking prisoner Santa Ana himself.

News was received at Natchez of the assault and capture of San Antonio by the revolutionists in January, 1836, and this was fol- lowed in March by tidings of the counter blow, at the Alamo. A meeting was called at once, of which Capt. John A. Quitman was president and Gen. Felix Huston secretary. It was resolved that Santa Ana must fall. About $2,000 was soon subscribed for vol- unteers. Recruits were instructed in the newspapers to be cautious about their expressions, in order to avoid arrest for violating the neutrality laws, but there was really no danger. Quitman, who had been chancellor, president of the senate and acting governor of Mississippi, led the first company, that sailed April 5, about forty men, including 15 of the Fencibles, the famous military and social organization of which he was the head. Huston waited to organize a larger force from all parts of the State, and made arrangements with leaders in Louisiana and Arkansas to rendezvous in May. The Eleventh reunion of the Natchez Fencibles and Vicksburg Volun- teers that April was brilliant with excitement. Their mottoes, "Try Us" and "Always Ready" were cheered to the echo by the as- semblage of gallant men and beautiful women of the two cities. But news soon arrived of the rout and capture of Santa Ana. Gen. Thomas J. Green, formerly a citizen of Mississippi, visited the State, in March, holding meetings to enlist volunteers and raise funds to support the revolution. Military commissions were dis- tributed by him, among those thus honored being Benjamin W. Ed- wards. Henderson, a young lawyer from North Carolina, was one of the most enthusiastic volunteers, and became a prominent official of the new republic. Huston and another Mississippian (Foote?) offered to join with Green in becoming responsible for a loan of $200,000 at New Orleans. Quitman and his men reached San

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Antonio in time for their leader to see and talk with Santa Ana be- fore his return to Natchez in May.

In the meantime Texas had declared her independence. Richard Ellis was president of the convention and David G. Burnet was elected president of the republic. Senator Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, introduced the resolution in the United States senate, recognizing the independence of Texas, passed January, 18, 1837. (Foote, "Texas and Texans;" Mississippi archives and newspaper files.)

Text, a postoffice of Jasper county, 16 miles southwest of Paul- ding, the county seat.

Text-Book Commission. A law of 1904 required the governor to appoint eight educators of known character and ability in their profession, to constitute, with the State superintendent of educa- tion, "the Text-Book commission of Mississippi." The commission is required to adopt a uniform system of text-books for use in the public schools of the State, to be kept in use for five years, and re- ceive bids from publishers, and make contracts for obtaining the same, the publishers, whose bids are accepted, being required to maintain one or two depositories in the State, and two or more agencies in each county where the books may be obtained at the contract price. Governor Vardaman appointed as the commission : D. A. Hill, Booneville ; L. H. Jobe, Dumas ; C. E. Saunders, Green- wood; O. A. Shaw, Winona ; L. Q. C. Williams, Leakesville ; T. K. Boggan, Collins ; H. P. Hughes, McComb City ; E. L. Bailey, Jack- son. The system was put in operation in the summer of 1905.

Thacher, Joseph S. B., a native of Massachusetts, was reared and educated at Boston, where his father held judicial office. He came to Natchez in the early '30's, and from 1833 to 1837 was judge of the district criminal court, succeeding John I. Guion. He was elected in 1843 to the High court of errors and appeals, pledged to render an opinion sustaining the repudiation of the Union bank bonds. The campaign had disagreeable features, and he was defeated six years later by the Whig candidate, Cotesworth P. Smith. Judge Thacher is remembered as an earnest advocate of education, inter- ested in science and fine arts, and an author of literary essays of considerable merit.

Thames, a post-hamlet of Covington county, 5 miles southeast of Williamsburg, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.

Thanksgiving. In his last message, November 2, 1857, Governor John J. McRae wrote: "Since I have been in office I have, each year, as Governor of the State, without any authority of law, but sustained by ancient custom, appointed a day of Thanksgiving. Thursday, the nineteenth day of this month, is the day now ap- pointed, and I trust it will be observed. There is certainly some superruling Providence which has brought us into existence, and which will ultimately accomplish the ends for which we were created, not only as individuals, but as a people. Nothing can, therefore be lost by recognizing the obligation which we owe to that Supreme Being-by it much may be gained."

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Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II, Part 93

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