USA > Mississippi > Encyclopedia of Mississippi History Comprising Sketches of Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions and Persons, Vol. II > Part 94
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Thaxton, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Pontotoc county, on a tributary of the Tallahatchie river, about 11 miles from Pontotoc, the county seat. Population in 1900, 56. It has 2 churches, a good school and a ginnery.
Thayer, a hamlet of Lincoln county, 7 miles south of Brookhaven, the county seat, and nearest banking town, and 3 miles north of the station of Bogue Chitto. The postoffice at this place was recently discontinued, and it now has rural free delivery from Bogue Chitto. Population in 1900, 46.
Thelma, a hamlet of Chickasaw county, 6 miles due north of Houston. Houlka is the nearest railroad town. Population in 1900, 20. It has rural free delivery service from Houston.
Thomastown, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Leake county, on the Yokahockany river, 55 miles northeast of Jackson, and 12 miles northwest of Carthage, the county seat. Kosciusko is the nearest railroad and banking town. It has two churches and a college. Population in 1900, 54.
Thomasville, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, 9 miles south of Brandon, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has 2 churches, 2 stores and a good school. Population in 1900, 31.
Thompson, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Amite county, on the East Fork of the Amite river, about 12 miles from Liberty, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 40.
Thompson, Hugh Miller. The Right Reverened Hugh Miller Thompson, D. D., LL. D., second Bishop of the Protestant Episco- pal Church in the Diocese of Mississippi, was born, of English parentage, June 5, 1830, at Tamlaght O'Crilly, County of Derry, Ireland. His parents came to the United States during his child- hood, and he received his early academic education from private instructors at Caldwell, New Jersey, and Cleveland, Ohio. He did not attend any college or university, but having determined to study for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, he went to the seminary at Nashotah, Wisconsin, for his theological train- ing. He describes his going to that institution as follows :
"I walked from Milwaukee to Prairieville (now Waukesha), and thence tramped on to Nashotah. On the road through the woods then between Delafield and "Nashotah House," I met a stout, elderly gentleman in black with a white neck-tie, a pair of gold-bowed spectacles, and a pleasant, fresh, white and red face. He bowed in passing, and was shortly thereafter overtaken by a younger man, black-haired, spare, and also with gold-bowed spec- tacles over curious, questioning eyes. The younger gentleman joined me and in a few, short, sharp questions found out what he wanted; i. e., he turned me inside out ; told me the gray-haired gen- tleman was Bishop Kemper, and that he was Professor William Adams,-the man who was to have more influence upon my intel- lectual development than all other living men together.
"When we reached Nashotah my heart sank within me. I had expected to find some outward and visible sign of an institution
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of learning. I found a group of shanties! I would have walked back the next day to Milwaukee, but Professor Adams put his arm in mine and led me along the trail by the Lake-shore, and he talked. I had never met a scholar like this before. Here was a man who could teach me something, and I stayed and studied and worked for three years."
He was graduated from Nashotah in 1852, and June 6 of that year was ordained to the Deaconate by Bishop Kemper. He was or- dained to the Priesthood four years later, August 31, 1856, by the same Bishop; and until 1870 he continued to be associated with Nashotah Seminary and the missionary work of the Episcopal Church in Wisconsin and Illinois. He had charge of the missions at Portage and Baraboo, Wisconsin, and was rector of St. John's, Elkhorn ; St. Matthew's, Kenosha ; and the Atonement, Milwaukee. In 1854 he was married to Caroline Berry, who died a few years after. On October 25, 1859 he was married to Anna Weatherburn Hindsdale, daughter of Henry Butler Hindsdale, of Kenosha, Wis., who survives him. From 1860 to 1870 he was professor of ecclesi- astical history at Nashotah, having at the same time charge of the parishes at Kenosha and Milwaukee. During this period he founded Kemper Hall, a school for girls at Kenosha, which work still continues, now under the charge of the Sisters of St. Mary; and was also editor of the "American Churchman," a paper which wielded great influence in the Episcopal Church. He was rector of other congregations, viz., Grace Church, Madison, Wis .; the Nativity, Maysville, Ky .; Grace Church, Galena, Ill. ; and St. James' Church, Chicago.
Bishop Thompson received the honorary degrees of Doctor in Divinity, from Hobart College, N. Y., 1863, and of Doctor of Laws, from the University of Mississippi, 1885.
In 1870 he went to New York as the rector of Christ Church. While here he became editor of "The Church Journal and Gospel Messenger," and as such made himself notable throughout the whole country for his remarkable strong and scholarly editorials. Two volumes of his editorials in this paper have been published under the title of "Copy" and "More Copy."
In 1875 he became the rector of Trinity Church, New Orleans, La., and there he continued for eight years, until his election and consecration as Bishop-Coadjutor to Bishop William Mercer Green, of the Diocese of Mississippi. He was consecrated Bishop in Trin- ity Church, New Orleans, February 24, 1883; and at the death of Bishop Green, in 1887, he became Bishop of the Diocese of Missis- sippi, in which office he continued until his death, November 18, 1902. His remains lie buried in St. Colomb's Chapel, Jackson, Miss.
Bishop Thompson was the author of the following publications : (1) "Copy"; Essays from an Editor's Drawer. 1872. (many editions).
(2) "More Copy ;" Second Series of Editorials. 1897.
(3) "The World and the Logos." (Bedell Lectures, Kenyon College). 1886.
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(4) "The World and the Kingdom." (Paddock Lectures, Gen- eral Theological Seminary, New York.) 1888.
(5) "The World and the Man." (Baldwin Lectures, University of Michigan), 1890.
(6) "The World and the Wrestlers; Personality and Responsi- bility." (Bohlen Lectures, Philadelphia.) 1895.
(?) "Unity and Its Restoration.'
(8) "Sin and Penalty."
(9) "First Principles."
(10) "The Kingdom of God."
(11) "Absolution in the Light of Primitive Practice."
(12) "Is Romanism the Best Religion for the Republic?"
Thompson, Jacob, was born in Caswell county, N. C., May 15, 1810; was graduated at the university of that State in 1831, and remained for some months at the university as a tutor ; he read law at Greensboro, and was admitted to practice in 1835, whereupon he started to make his home at Natchez ; but on reaching Columbus, Miss., was induced to remain in eastern Mississippi, where the re- cent cession of land by the Chickasaws opened great opportunities for wealth. Consequently he accompanied his brother, Dr. James Y. Thompson, to Pontotoc, where the land office was opened, and thereafter made his home there. He began to take an active part in politics, to which his life was mainly devoted, and made his first speech at Pontotoc in opposition to the proposition that the State should issue $5,000,000 bonds for the Union bank. The State was, however, too tight in the grip of the speculative mania to heed his warning. In 1837, when the Chickasaw cession was divided into ten counties, and Governor Lynch refused to issue writs of election for the representatives in the legislature, according to his under- standing of the constitution, Thompson was the leader at Pontotoc of the party that demanded immediate representation, opposed by William Y. Gholson and others. He drew up an address to the Chickasaw counties advising elections under local writs. He was accordingly nominated for attorney-general of the State by those favoring his views, but was defeated by a small majority. But the part he took in the organization of courts in each of the new coun- ties confirmed him in a position of leadership in north Mississippi. The suspension of the banks followed, and the political revulsion which put Prentiss in congress. The Democratic party made a great fight to recover power, with A. G. McNutt and repudiation as the State issue, and Albert G. Brown and Jacob Thompson were the nominees for congress. The ticket was elected in November. 1839. The returns were collected by special runners, and a cer- tificate reached Thompson in time, by special courier from the governor, so that he was able to reach Washington for the Decem- ber session, and by his vote, tie the house on a famous contested election case. Thompson devoted himself in congress to the busi- ness interests of his people, as affected by the national regulations regarding post roads, pension rolls, land titles, etc., and made him-
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self stronger than his party in Mississippi. By continued reelection he remained in congress 18 years, until March 4, 1857.
He made a gallant fight for his party in the State campaign of 1840; and in 1841 wrote a letter in defense of the repudiation of Union bank bonds that was of great influence in sustaining the action that was taken. After the inauguration of President Polk, it was the understanding that Robert J. Walker was to accept the secretaryship of the treasury, and that Thompson should immedi- ately succeed him in the senate; but Walker failed to deliver to Thompson the commission entrusted to him by the governor, (Clai- borne's narrative) and after Thompson's return to Mississippi, he declined appointment. There was thereafter a serious breach be- tween him and Walker, whose projects he had theretofore sup- ported. He supported the settlement of the Northwest boundary and the Mexican war, and was in successive congresses chairman of the then important committee of Indian affairs. In 1849, as at earlier dates. he was willing to retire from congress, but his party demanded his candidacy, as the Whigs nominated a very popular man, Gen. A. B. Bradford. In 1851 he made a desperate fight for the entire State ticket of his party, and was defeated, the issue be- ing resistance to the Compromise of 1850. In 1852 he was a dele- gate to the Baltimore convention and was influential in securing the nomination of Pierce, who, upon inauguration tendered him the consulship at Havana, which he declined. In 1855 he was a can- didate for United States senator, but was defeated by Jefferson Davis. At the national convention at Cincinnati in 1856, he did much to se- cure the nomination of Buchanan, and in March, 1857, he was called to the position of secretary of the interior, which department he re- organized, centralizing the management in his own hands. Toward the close of his administration, however, there was a great defal- cation in the Indian Trust fund, due to the acceptance by the dis- bursing clerk of that fund of the drafts of a great firm of contrac- tors on the secretary of war, John B. Floyd, in accordance with an illegitimate agreement between Floyd and the contractors. The explosion of this scandal had great political notoriety, and Mr. Thompson's reputation suffered severely, although a committee of congress, mainly composed of his political opponents, reported "that they have discovered nothing to involve the late secretary, Hon. Jacob Thompson, in the slightest degree, in the fraud, and nothing to indicate that he had any complicity in the abstraction, or that he had any knowledge of it until the time of the disclos- ure of Goddard Bailey."
Mr. Thompson remained in the cabinet after the election of Mr. Lincoln, until January 9. He then resigned and returned to Mis- sissippi, where he aided much in the organization of troops. When Gen. Beauregard came to Jackson to take command of the army of the West. he served with him as volunteer aide in the battle of Shi- loh and through the siege of Corinth. Afterward he was lieutenant- colonel of Ballentine's regiment four months, and was in active service during Grant's advance on the Central railroad, having his
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horse shot under him at Water Valley. Gen. Pemberton invited him to become chief inspector of his army. He suggested to Pem- berton, says Claiborne, the raid of VanDorn to Holly Springs. He was with the army at Vicksburg in December, 1862, and through the campaign of 1863, and was under parole after the surrender of Vicksburg.
He was elected to the legislature from Lafayette county, and served in the session of 1863 at Columbus, and the called session at Macon, after which he went to Richmond at the call of President Davis, and accepted a secret mission to Canada, to cooperate with the secret organizations in the Western States, against the United States government. With verbal instructions from the president and an ample fund, he set out upon his mission, accompanied by C. C. Clay, of Alabama, and W. W. Cleary, of Kentucky, as secre- tary. They ran the blockade in the English ship, Thistle, to the Bermudas, and thence sailed in a regular English packet to Halifax. Reaching Montreal, he opened communication with Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, who had been banished for opposition to the war, and held the position of grand commander of the secret organizations, known mainly as Knights of the Golden Circle, or more popularly by their enemies as Copperheads. They claimed a fighting strength of 80,000 in Illinois, and 40,000 in each of the States of Ohio and Indiana. Mr. Thompson became a member of the order, and opened communication with their lodges in those States, and cooperated in the plans for releasing and arming 25 .- 000 Confederate prisoners at Chicago, Rock Island, Indianapolis and Johnson's Island. Dates were set in these prisons for a con- certed uprising, but the expected allies never had the courage to make proof of their theories. Col. Thompson did organize an expe- dition to release the men at Johnson's Island, and capture the gun- boat Michigan, which resulted in the famous exploit of Lieutenant Beale, who seized the boat Philo Parsons, and captured and scut- tled the Island Queen, but through treachery was unable to surprise the Michigan, and was compelled to escape to the Canada shore. As soon as the trial of the raiders was over and they were released, Mr. Thompson started to return home.
At this time, President Lincoln was assassinated. The President had, a few days before his death, requested that Mr. Thompson be permitted to proceed unmolested from Portland, Me., where he had gone in disguise to obtain passage southward. He sailed for Eu- rope and remained several years before returning to Mississippi. After a short residence at Oxford, he removed to Memphis, where he died March 24, 1885. At that time L. Q. C. Lamar was secretary of the interior, and ordered the flags to be put at half mast over the department buildings. (Sketch by J. F. H. Claiborne, in His- tory of Miss.)
Thompsonville, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Hinds county, 15 miles south of Raymond. Utica is the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 26.
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Thorn, a post-hamlet of Chickasaw county, about 5 miles north- west of Houston, one of the county seats of justice, and the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 24.
Thornton, an incorporated post-town of Holmes county on the Illinois Central R. R., about 18 miles north of Yazoo City. Tchula is the nearest banking town. It was named for Dr. C. C. Thornton, a large land owner. Population in 1900, 46.
Thornton, Thomas, was born in Dumfries, Va., October 12, 1794. At the age of sixteen he became an exhorter in the Methodist church, and was a member of the Baltimore conference at nineteen. He became president of a college in Mississippi in 1841. In 1845 he became a member of the Episcopal church, but returned to the Methodist church in 1850, and was readmitted to the Mississippi conference. He was the author of "An Inquiry into Slavery," 1841, which was a famous defense of that system.
Thrailkill, a postoffice in the southern part of Montgomery county, 18 miles from Winona, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Thrasher, a postoffice and station in the north-central part of Prentiss county, on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 6 miles north of Booneville, the county seat.
Three Per Cent. Fund. (See Two Per Cent. Fund). The legis- lative acts appropriating this fund began as early as 1824, when the settlements of the State were in three remote regions, unconnected by roads. The money was wisely appropriated, with great benefit, in opening new roads and building bridges. In January, 1826, the legislature asked congress to permit the partial use of the fund in improving navigation, and under an act of congress of March 14, 1826, there were some considerable expenditures at the Pascagoula pass, in Pearl river, Bayou Pierre, in canalling Yazoo pass, and im- proving the Coldwater. By an act of January, 1826, the governor was authorized to collect the fund of the United States and deposit it in the treasury. Then in February, 1830, and again in 1833, the legislature directed that the fund as received should be invested in the stock of the Planters' bank. About $36,000 was so invested, and it grew to $42,700 worth of stock, which was sold under another act of legislature, in 1836, for $52,379, and in obedience to the act of legislature, this amount, as well as $382,000 received for the fund in 1836-37, was distributed among the counties, which was the end of it ; $13,770, received by J. H. Mallory, auditor, never reached the treasury. $435,000, nominally distributed to the counties, was lost-"being mostly swallowed up by the boards of police and county treasurers and their friends, in that great period of specu- lation-and squandered in the same manner that the Common School funds of that date were wasted." (Arthur's report).
Another distribution act was passed in 1852,-$332 to each county,-and it was supposed that the amount left over from the Graves defalcation, and what was received from the United States in 1849, was all there was to the credit of the fund. "But, strange as it may appear, owing to the bungling manner in which the books of the treasurer's office were kept, there was then near $86,600
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more to the credit of the fund, which had never been brought for- ward on the books of 1837-40, and had been lost sight of."
November 18, 1857, the legislature passed an act to loan the fund, in equal portions, to the railroad companies then building what are now known as the Mobile & Ohio, Illinois Central and Alabama & Vicksburg roads. The loan was to be for six years, without inter- est, and when paid back the money was to be invested in stock in the Gulf & Ship Island railroad. When the act passed it was sup- posed that the fund amounted to $104,736, and it was so distributed; but the examination of the State finances by Mr. Arthur in 1858- 59 showed that the fund was entitled to $209,176; so that there re- mained $104,000 to distribute, and the question arose where should it go, to the railroads or the counties.
On March 16, 1852, there had been paid into the State treasury, on account of this fund, $486.337, and disbursed $368,856. Subse- quently, up to the fall of 1859, $113,928 was received for the fund. The United States records showed a payment to the State of $569,- 185, which added to the Planters' bank proceeds, made a total of $621,565, which was over $24.000 more than the State records ac- counted for. (Report of A. S. Arthur, State commissioner, Senate Journal, 1858, appendix p. 29).
Three Rivers, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Jackson county, on the Pascagoula river, 13 miles north of Pascagoula, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.
Thrift, a postoffice of Madison county, 16 miles northeast of Can- ton, the county seat.
Thyatira, a hamlet of Tate county, 12 miles east of Senatobia, the county seat. It was named for the ancient city of Asia Minor. It has a money order postoffice, 2 stores, a church, a school, and a cotton gin. Population in 1900, 62.
Tibbee Station, a post-hamlet of Clay county, on Line creek, and on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 51/2 miles south of West Point, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has a church and a school. Population in 1900, 100.
Tillatoba. (See Tallahatchie county). This old abandoned town was once the county seat of Tallahatchie county, but as the title to the land on which the town stood was defective, the seat of justice was moved about 1837 to the present county seat of Charleston. Three of its citizens were W. H. Carothers, merchant ; Trewalla, a tailor, and Dr. Coleman. The new town of the same name on the Illinois Central is not to be confused with the old town, which has quite vanished.
Tillatoba, an incorporated post-town of Yalobusha county, on the Memphis division of the Illinois Central R. R., 18 miles north of Grenada. Oakland is the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, and a public cotton gin. Population in 1900, 115; population in 1906 was estimated at 150.
Tillman, a post-hamlet and station in the southern part of Claiborne county, on the Natchez-Jackson branch of the Yazoo &
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Mississippi Valley R. R., 8 miles southeast of Port Gibson, the county seat, and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 38.
Tilton, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Lawrence county, on Tilton creek, a tributary of the Pearl river, about 12 miles from Monticello, the county seat. Population in 1900, 20.
Timberville, a postoffice of Calhoun county.
Tinnin, a hamlet in the northern part of Hinds county, on Os- burn's creek, about 12 miles northwest of Jackson. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 25.
Tinsley, a postoffice of Yazoo county, 7 miles south of Yazoo City, the county seat. It is a station on the Illinois Central R. R. It has several stores and an express office. Its population is about 50.
Tiplersville, a hamlet in the northern part of Tippah county, on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 13 miles north of Ripley, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, a saw mill and a cotton gin, and lies in the midst of a fertile farming region. Its population in 1900 was 72.
Tippah, a post-hamlet of Benton county, situated on the creek of the same name, 6 miles due south of Ashland, the county seat. Population in 1900, 26.
Tippah County was established, Feb. 9, 1836, and was named for the wife of Pontotoc, a Chickasaw Indian chief, the name signifying "cut off." The county has a land surface of 456 square miles. It was one of the twelve counties created out of the Chickasaw Indian cession of 1832, in the year 1836, and lies next to Tennessee, on the northern border of the State. It was originally a very large county of about 27 townships and embraced within its area a large part of the present county of Benton, as well as the northern portion of Union and the western portions of Alcorn and Prentiss counties. Its original limits were defined as follows: "Beginning at the point where the line between townships 6 and 7 intersects the basis meridian, to the northern boundary line of the State; thence east with the said boundary line, to the line between ranges 5 and 6 east ; thence south with the said range line, to the line between townships 6 and 7; and thence 'west with the said township line to the be- ginning." It is now bounded on the north by the Tennessee line, on the east by Alcorn and Prentiss counties, on the south by Union county and on the west by Benton county. A list of the county officers, soon after the establishment of the county, is as follows: Joseph Hicks, George Gray, Robert P. Dean, Thos. C. Nanty, Samuel Long, Members of the Board of Police; John B. Ayres, John Redfern, James Parke, Hugh G. Henderson, Daniel Cuthbert, Wm. McGraw, John C. Blackwood, Josiah Short, Joseph Smith, David Skilman, Magistrates; John Jones, Allen Ayres, Hiram Oney, Handy B. Byrn, James M. Clark, Constables : Robert R. Thomas, Judge of Probate; Edmund J. Baily, Clerk of the Pro- bate Court ; Henry W. Stricklin, Clerk of the Circuit Court : Samuel N. Pryor, Assessor and Collector : Daniel Griffin, County Treasurer ; Wm. Kerr, County Surveyor ; Winston Corter, Coroner.
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Many wealthy and substantial planters, merchants and profes- sional men came to the region in the early '30s, and settled along the banks of its streams. Among the early settlements of those years, which flourished for a time, but are now moribund, may be mentioned Salem, Orizaba and Ruckersville. Salem was first set- tled in 1836, incorporated 1837. It was two or three miles west of Ashland in what was then Tippah county, and was absorbed by the latter place. Among the more prominent settlers of the neigh- borhood were Col. Francis T. Seake, Thomas Hamer, Col. Daniel B. Wright, lawyer and Congressman ; Col. John B. Ayres, father of Gus Ayres, M. D .; Robert McDonald, Dr. J. A. Moorman, John W. Matthews, Orin Beck, proprietor of Beck's Springs, and Col. Baird. Major-Gen. N. B. Forrest, the renowned cavalry leader and a nephew of Mr. Beck, and Joseph W. Matthews, once Governor of the State, also lived near Salem. Orizaba was 7 miles southt of Ripley and once had one hundred and fifty inhabitants. Its people lost heavily during the war and the building of the Gulf & Chicago R. R. a few miles to the east, and the establishment of the large female college, at Blue Mountain, by the late Gen. M. P. Low- rey, three miles to the northwest, worked the final ruin of the old town. Many prosperous planters were located in the surrounding country, and local residents were : Robert I. Hill, W. T. Ratcliff, Noah Roberts, Laird and Wear, merchants; Laird, Magill, Ford, Ellis and King, physicians. Ruckersville was settled in 1842 by John and Daniel Finger and first called Finger's Cross Roads, from its location where the Ripley and Pocahontas and Salem public roads cross. Soon after Dr. Charles Rucker, an able physician, established a drug store here and the place took his name. Fant, Gibbs & Co. did a thriving mercantile business here until the coming of the railroad to Ripley, 5 miles away. Some of the earliest settlers in the county besides those above mentioned, were Abner McCoy, Joseph Jamison, W. C. Falkner, lawyer, author and colonel in the Confederate service ; Rev. Wm. A. Gray, Hon. W. A. Boyd, Judge Christopher A. Green, Thos. C. Hindman, father of Gen. Thos. Hindman ; Dr. E. M. Alexander and Frederic Brougher, Senator from Tippah in 1842, 1843 and 1844, father of Charles Brougher, afterwards Secretary of State. The Brougher home, "Blue Mountain," 6 miles from Ripley, was one of the famous his- toric homes of Mississippi.
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