USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 12
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Amsterdam. An extinct town of Hinds county which flourished during the 30's and 40's. (See Hinds county). An epidemic of the
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cholera about 1832, and the fact that the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R. missed it by about two miles, caused the death of the town.
Amy, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Jones county, about a mile and a half from the station of Soso on the Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., and about 12 miles north of Ellis- ville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 27.
Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons. The grand lodge of Mis- sissippi was organized at Natchez, July 27, 1818, by a convention consisting of masters, wardens and past masters of Harmony Lodge, No. 33, (holding under the grand lodge of Kentucky), Andrew Jackson lodge, No. 15, and Washington lodge, No. 17, (holding under the grand lodge of Tennessee). Harmony lodge, at Natchez, was chartered October 16, 1801, as No. 7, but sur- rendered its charter August 30, 1814, and received a new dispensa- tion August 30, 1815, as No. 33. Andrew Jackson lodge, at Natch- ez, was chartered August 13, 1816, and Washington lodge, at Port Gibson, April 19, 1817. The members of the convention which organized the grand lodge of Mississippi were Christopher Rankin, Chilion® F. Stiles and Christopher Miller, of Harmony lodge; Edward Turner, George R. Williams, and John Corn, of Jackson lodge; and Israel Loring, Amos Whiting and Cornelius Haring, of Washington lodge; masters and wardens, and Past Masters Elijah Smith, Henry Postlethwaite, George Newman, Henry Tooley, Joseph Newman, Stephen Carter, Lewis Winston, James Lombard, Robert Alexander, Anthony Campbell and David Mathewson. Elijah Smith, the eldest past master, was called to the chair, and C. F. Stiles appointed secretary. The election of officers resulted : Henry Tooley, grand master; Israel Loring, grand senior warden; Edward Turner, grand junior warden; Hen- ry Postlethwaite, grand treasurer; Chilion F. Stiles, grand secre- tary ; Joseph Newman, grand steward and tyler. Christopher Rankin was appointed deputy grand master, Christopher Miller and John Corn deacons. Bros. Rankin, Loring, Turner Postleth- waite and Campbell were appointed a committee to report a con- stitution and a circular address to the grand lodges in the United States. In addition to the names already given, Woodson Wren was one of the signers of the constitution. The first lodge orga- nized by the grand lodge was Warren, No. 4, at Greenville, Jeffer- son county, chartered in 1821, and the next was Columbus, No. 5. In 1840 the lodges in the State were: Pearl 23 at Jackson, Pauld- ing, Coleman at Brandon, Vicksburg 26 and Ancient York 38 also at Vicksburg, Gallatin 25, Quitman 18 at Georgetown, Olive
8-I
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Branch 34 at Williamsburg, Monroe, U. D., in Perry county, Eastern Star 27, Liberty 37, Harmony 1, and Andrew Jackson 2, Natchez ("the standard of Masonic perfection in the State"), Hiram 9 Washington, Grand Gulf, U. D., Washington 3 Port Gibson, Fitz 30 Madisonville, Canton 28, Yazoo City U. D. Leake 17 Benton, Lexington 24, Carrollton 36, Grenada 31, Oxford 33, Holly Springs 35, Pontotoc U. D., Aberdeen 32, Colum- bus 5 ("unrivalled in the State in discipline, unanimity and every trait that distinguishes a well-governed lodge"), Macon U. D., Clinton 16, Raymond 21. (Report of Lecturer D. J. White).
A lottery was organized, under authority of an act of legislature, to raise money to build a Masonic Hall for the grand lodge, of which James Kempe was manager until his death in 1820, suc- ceeded by Joseph E. Davis.
The lodge turned over the scheme to John Minor and Josiah S. McComas on commission, and bought $3,000 worth of tickets on which they drew $1,128. A balance of $2,200 was declared due in 1827, which Mr. McComas said circumstances beyond his control made it impossible to pay. But, by borrowing money, the grand lodge bought land for $2,000, at Natchez, and the corner stone was laid June 25, 1827, with an address by Grand Orator D. S. Walker at the Episcopal church. The building, completed in 1829, cost $10,000.
The first cornerstone laid by the grand lodge was of the Metho- dist Episcopal church at Port Gibson, September 30, 1826. John A. Quitman was grand master, Peter A. VanDorn deputy.
The subject of a Masonic school was referred to a committee in 1842. W. H. Hurst and B. S. Tappan reported in favor of a school on the plan of Princeton academy in Kentucky, to be lo- cated upon a farm in Hinds county, Madison or Warren. A com- mittee in 1847 recommended an institution after the model of the Funk seminary of the Kentucky grand lodge, and use of the latter for the education of the orphanage of Masonry until a Mississippi institution should be provided.
By the liberality of the fraternity Eureka Masonic college was built in 1847, and a committee recommended its support by the grand lodge in 1848.
The fraternity has aided in the regular support of the Protestant orphan asylum at Natchez.
Benjamin S. Tappan was appointed to attend the national con- vention at Baltimore in 1843, and on his inability to go, the grand lodge was represented by John Delafield, of Memphis, a member
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of Vicksburg chapter. William P. Mellen represented the grand lodge in 1847 at the Baltimore convention which proposed a con- stitution of the supreme grand lodge of the United States.
During the Mexican war Quitman lodge was organized at Vera Cruz, and St. John's lodge in the Second regiment. At this time, also, seven lodges in Louisiana were working under the Missis- sippi grand lodge. The controversy between the grand lodges of these two States agitated the Masonic world. A new grand lodge of Ancient York Masons was founded in Louisiana in 1848 of the lodges chartered by the Mississippi lodge. The schism was some- thing like that which produced or contributed to the civil - war in Mexico after the revolution, involving the York and Scottish rites. In 1850 a settlement of the Louisiana matter and a union of the grand lodges was effected. The Star, a Masonic newspaper at Jackson, was recognized by the grand lodge in 1851.
Following is the list of grand masters from the first; and year of election :
Henry Tooley, 1818; Christopher Rankin, 1819; Edward Turner, 1820-21; Israel Loring, 1822-23-24-25; John A. Quitman, 1826 to 1839; Robert Stewart, 1839-41; George A. Wilson, 1842-43; S. W. Vannatta, 1844, died in year; Harvey W. Walter, 1845 pro tem .; John A. Quitman, 1845-46; Benjamin S. Tappan, 1847; William Cooper, 1848; Charles A. Lacoste, 1849; Charles Scott, 1850; Wil- liam H. Stevens, 1851; James M. Howry, 1852 ; Joseph W. Speight, 1853; Carnot Posey, 1854; Giles M. Hillyer, 1855-56; William R. Cannon, 1857; William Cothran, 1858; William P. Mellen, 1859 ; David Mitchell, 1860; Richard Cooper, 1861-62-63; William S. Pat- ton, 1864-65; George M. Perkins, 1866; John T. Lampkin, 1867; Thomas S. Gathright, 1868-69; George R. Fearn, 1870-71; W. H. Hardy, 1872; Richard P. Bowen, 1873; A. H. Barkley, 1874-75; John Y. Murry, 1876-77 ; Charles T. Murphy, 1878; Frank Burkitt, 1879 ; William French, 1880; John F. McCormick, 1881; Frederick Speed, 1882; P. M. Savery, 1883; Robert C. Patty, 1884; J. B. Morgan, 1885; B. T. Kimbrough, 1886; E. George DeLap, 1887; M. M. Evans, 1888; William G. Paxton, 1889; John Riley, 1890; John M. Ware, 1891; W. A. Roane, 1892; Irvin Miller, 1893; J. L. Spinks, 1894; James T. Harrison, 1895; James F. McCool, 1896; John S. Cobb, 1897; John M. Stone, 1898; H. H. Folk, 1899; B. V. White,. 1900; Oliver S. Mckay, 1901; Harry T. Howard, 1902; Emmet N. Thomas, 1903 ; Thomas U. Sisson, 1904; T. B. Franklin, 1905; Charles H. Blum, 1906.
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J. L. Power was secretary or recorder of all the State organiza- tions of Masonry from 1869-71 until his death in 1901.
After 1861 the grand lodge met in all parts of the State, though Grand Master McCool said, in 1897, that the domicile by law was in Jackson. The meeting of 1895 was at Jackson.
In 1904-05 there were 298 lodges in Mississippi, organized in twelve districts. At the last meeting of the grand lodge the trus- tees of the contemplated Widows and Orphans' Home had on hand $63,000, and they were directed to choose a site and purchase or begin the erection of buildings in 1906.
The grand chapter was organized by a meeting at Vicksburg, May 18, 1846, of representatives of four chapters, the first chapter in the State having been organized at Port Gibson, September 15, 1826. Benjamin S. Tappan was the first grand high priest. The grand council was organized as the result of a convention at Natchez, January 2, 1856. Benjamin Springer was the first grand master. The grand commandery of Knights Templar was organ- ized January 21, 1857. The first grand commanders were Wil- liam H. Stevens, George P. Crump, Giles M. Hillyer, Harvey W. Walter, Benjamin S. Tappan, until the war, and Edward Lea begins the list afterward.
Anderson, a post-village of Madison county, about three miles east of Flora, a station on the Yazoo City branch of the Illinois Central R. R., and about 14 miles southwest of Canton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 51.
Anderson, Fulton, was born at Knoxville, Tenn., March 8, 1820, was graduated at the university of Nashville, 1836, read law with his father, Judge William E. Anderson, and settled at Raymond, Miss., to begin the practice in 1840. In 1847 he was elected to and in 1848 resigned the office of prosecutor ; in 1848 also, he mar- ried the daughter of George S. Yerger, of whom he became the partner, at Jackson, beginning a law partnership that was famous for twelve years. He was a Whig and a Unionist, before the war; was defeated as a candidate for delegate to the convention of 1861, but accepted the mission to Virginia to encourage the secession of that State. (See Lynch, Bench and Bar, and Journals of 1861.) He was elected to the legislature during the war, and was de- feated for the Confederate States senate by J. W. C. Watson. In 1865 he was appointed by Governor Humphreys one of the counsel to defend Jefferson Davis if brought to trial for treason. Mr. Anderson died at Jackson, December 27, 1874.
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Anding, a post-town in the southern part of Yazoo county, and a thriving little station on the Yazoo City branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 10 miles directly south of Yazoo City. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 110. Estimated in 1906 at 200. It has two white churches; also colored churches.
Andover, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Smith coun- ty, and distant about 7 miles from Raleigh, the county seat. Popu- lation in 1900, 22.
Andrew, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Smith county, distant about 12 miles from Raleigh, the county seat. Low station on the Laurel branch of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., is the near- est railroad point.
Anguilla, a prosperous little station in Sharkey county, located on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., six miles north of Rolling Fork, the county seat. It has two churches and a money order postoffice. The Bank of Anguilla was organized in 1904, capital stock $30,000, with Malcolm Cameron, Pres .; H. J. Field, Vice Pres .; and W. P. Adams, Cashier. Population now estimated at 300 (1906.) It has a large cotton seed oil mill, and there are good schools for both white and colored.
Anner, a post office in Hancock county, 33 miles northeast of Bay St. Louis, the county seat.
. Ansley, a post-village in Hancock county, on the Louisville & Nashville R. R., 12 miles west of Bay St. Louis, the county seat and nearest banking town.
Anthrax. "A virulent and fatal epidemic of charbon or anthrax visited a section of the delta during the summer of 1901, which almost completely devastated the live stock of every kind in that locality, thus causing to their owners an estimated loss of more than $200,000, exclusive of other loss from blackleg, glanders, Texas fever, hog cholera, and other stock diseases which are more or less prevalent all the time, but which are constantly in- creasing with the growth of the live stock industry." Governor Longino, making this statement in his message of 1902, urged the creation of the office of State veterinarian, and a State Live Stock board, with authority to enforce a quarantine against diseased domestic animals.
Antibank, an old town in Hinds county, which was first settled in 1836 by T. L. Sumrall, a former employee of the land office at Clinton. (See Hinds County). It was located on the high bank of the Big Black river opposite to the ferry of T. A. Holloman of
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Yazoo county, and was a shipping point for the farmers of the . neighborhood. With the advent of the Vicksburg & Jackson R. R. (now the A. & V.), it ceased to be a shipping point and the site is now part of a cotton plantation.
Antioch, a post-town in the northwestern corner of Prentiss county, on the Hatchie river, and about 10 miles northwest of Booneville, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 32.
Anvil, a post-town in the northern part of Tippah county, and about 12 miles northwest of Ripley, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 20.
Appomattox, see Army of Northern Virginia.
Aquila, a postoffice in the northeastern part of Itawamba county, about 13 miles northeast of Fulton, the county seat. Population in 1900, 60.
Arbo, a postoffice of Covington county.
Arcadia, a post-town of Issaquena county, on the Mississippi river, about 18 miles south of Mayersville, the county seat. Popu- lation in 1900, 45.
Archaeology. As any discussion of this broad subject must nec- essarily be brief in these pages, the limitations to be placed on our subject will be first set out. Considered as that period of human development which spans the sciences of Geology and History, Archaeology is concerned with the vanished or prehistoric races of men, and is engaged in reconstructing and defining the life of a people chiefly known through their existing material remains. With the broader aspects of the general subject we shall have lit- tle concern, and shall treat of its branch, American Archaeology, only so far as it is germane to a work on Mississippi. The evi- dences are strong that those important tribes of red men con- stituting the various branches of the Choctaw-Muscogee family, and dwelling in the Gulf States east of the Mississippi river, are but the children of that earlier race of men whose monuments and remains are so thickly strewn over our soil. Their stage of progress when the whites first came among them would seem to indicate that they preserved, in a petrified state as it were, the civilization attained by this prehistoric people. It is therefore assumed by many able authorities that we have to deal with the forbears in the dim past of our native tribes, and with no alien race of mound builders. (See "Mound of the Mississippi Valley by Lucien Carr, Smithsonian Report, 1891; also writings of H. S. Halbert and others.) We are especially fortunate in Missis-
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sippi, not only in the abundance of archaeological material, but in our intimate knowledge of these local tribes. Allusions will be made to certain customs and manners which prevailed among these tribes, in order to explain the probable origin of some of these ancient works. As far as out limits permit, the more im- portant works of archaeological interest will be located and de- scribed and certain conclusions will be drawn concerning the origin of these works; and inferentially the origin of the local tribes of Mississippi. Little effort will be made to reconcile widely divergent views, but the conclusions of investigators such as Hal- bert, Brown, Cyrus Thomas, Carr and others will be followed.
Comparative philology, folk-lore and legends of the Indians are important aids to archaeology, but students have had recourse chiefly to the spade in the prosecution of their work. Of the many tangible prehistoric remains found on Mississippi soil, the more important are the fixed monuments, such as mounds, widely divergent in size, shape and purpose, fortifications, shell heaps, graves ; relics, such as stone implements, and ornaments, pottery, and weapons. A valuable list of prehistoric works east of the Rocky Mountains, compiled for the Bureau of Ethnology by Cyrus Thomas, and a bibliography of prehistoric remains, by H. S. Hal- bert and A. J. Brown, M. H. S. Vol. 5, show that important arch- aeological works exist in the following Mississippi counties : Adams, Bolivar, Claiborne, Chickasaw, Coahoma, Itawamba, Is- saquena, Hinds, Jasper, Lafayette, Lee, Lowndes, Marion, Nox- ubee, Panola, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Rankin, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tip- pah, Tunica, Union, Warren Washington Winston and Yazoo counties.
One of the noted Indian mounds of the State is to be found near the site of old Selsertown Adams county. It is an im- mense mural pile with what was perhaps a watch-tower ris- ing to a considerable distance above the general surface of the mound. Its subterranean entrance led to the center of the mound, and could be still traced in 1838, when a party of scientific gentle- men from Natchez and vicinity journeyed thither for the pur- pose of making a thorough exploration of this interesting relic of a bygone age. The investigators were: Judge Thatcher, Prof. Forshey, C. S. Dubuisson, J. A. VanHosen, Thomas Farrar, Col. B. L. C. Wailes, Maj. J. T. Winn, Rev. Charles Tyler, Doctors Mo- nette, Merwin, Benbroke, Inge, Hitchcock, Mitchell and others. The original white settlers of the region were wont to declare that the remains of great roads, unusually worn by travel, could once be
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seen leading from the great, principal mound. As a fortress, this mound occupied a commanding position on elevated ground, and was perhaps the residence of the chief sun of the Natchez tribe. The traveller Cuming, writing in 1808, must refer to this mound when he says "I observed to the N. W. (of Selsertown) an ex- tensive cotton plantation, with a good house in a very picturesque situation, occasioned by an insulated hill near it, with a flat plain on the top, cultivated in cotton, supported on every side by a cliff, clothed with wood, rising abruptly from the plain below." This mound is the largest of a group of four, commonly called the Selsertown group. This group was carefully surveyed in 1887 by Mr. Middleton who thus describes it: "There are at present four mounds on this elevated area, though, according to Squier and Davis (Anc. Mon. p. 118), there were formerly eleven. Of the four which remain, one is placed, as these authors state, about the middle of each end, that is, at the east and west margins. The other two are placed near the middle of the north and west sides. Of the other seven no satisfactory traces were found. . The
. surface of the platform (on which the mounds are built) is strewn with pottery. On and about the smaller mounds down the north- ern slope, especially in the gullies or washouts, probably brought down from the top, are numerous fragments of burnt clay and is evidently the clay which formed the plastering of the houses, as mentioned by the French explorers, which at the destruction of the houses by fire, was burned to the condition in which it is now found." The largest of the four mounds, the one to which writers have generally referred is nearly circular in form, truncated but somewhat rounded on top, the slopes tolerably steep. The diameter at the base is 145 feet; the diameter of the top averages 72 feet (the upper surface being somewhat oval) ; height, 31 feet. Though once under cultivation, it was probably too steep and has been abandoned to briers and locust trees.
Mounds are also found in Adams county at White Apple village, on Second creek about 12 miles from Natchez. This was an im- portant settlement of the Natchez Indians before the massacre of 1729. (See Historic Adams County, Brandon, M. H. S. Vol. 2). In Ellicott's Journal, p. 134 we read "From the great number of artificial mounds of earth to be seen through the whole set- tlement of Natchez, it must at some former period have been well populated. Those mounds or tumuli are generally square and flat on top."
In Bolivar county, besides a group of mounds and house sites
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by the side of Goose Lake, are found some graded mounds en- circled by an earth work, situated near Williams Bayou, in the Choctaw Bend 1 and 1/2 mile from the Mississippi river. The cir- cular earth wall surrounding the group is 250 yards in diameter and 3 feet high. The smaller mounds of the group, when opened, were found to be mere heaps or patches of burnt clay, ashes, and the dirt accumulated during occupancy as dwelling sites. (Twelfth Smith. Rep. p. 258).
In Coahoma county are found the prehistoric remains known as the "Carson Group," the Dickerson Mounds" and the "Clarksdale Works." The Carson group has been so named from its location on the plantation of the Carson Brothers, 6 miles south of Friars Point. Here in an area, 1 mile east and west and about a half mile north and south, are found six large mounds and other earth- works of interest. About one of the largest mounds is an earthen wall and a well defined ditch. The wall on three sides measures 1,173 feet and is in the form of a parallelogram, embracing an area of about 5 acres. It is from 15 to 30 feet wide at the base, and from 3 to 5 feet high. In the excavations made in this group were found fire-beds of burnt clay, stone chips, fragments of pottery, (none of it whole), charcoal and ashes, a few skeletons, &c. The conclusion has been drawn by Mr. Thomas and others, that this was a town of mound-builders located upon what was the bank of the ancient channel of the Mississippi, and built by people hav- ing the same customs as those who built the more recent works at Old Town. Four miles east of Friars Point is located another group, on the Dickerson farm. These are situated on the dry, gravelly bank of the Sunflower. The fields are strewn with frag- ments of ancient pottery and stone chips. These mounds are mostly oval or oblong and flat on top, constructed as usual from the material from adjacent ground, which, in this case is gravel and renders the outlines of the beds of burned clay distributed through the mounds more distinct than usual. One of the oblong mounds explored was an ancient cemetery, and there are doubt- less others. At Clarksdale, on the Sunflower river, is a group con- sisting of an inclosure and six mounds. The former is semi-cir- cular and 2,005 feet long and from 3 to 5 feet high. The largest mound of the group is on a rectangular platform 5 feet high, above " which it rises to a height of 20 feet; base 153 by 100, top flat and level, on which formerly stood a little conical mound of burned clay, charcoal, ashes, and fragments of pottery, beneath which were found a fine scallop-edged, double-eared pot and a skeleton.
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This mound is constructed and was doubtless used for the same purposes as those of the Carson group, but is deemed less ancient. For 30 miles below Clarksdale in the counties of Bolivar, Coahoma and Sunflower, many ancient dwelling sites have been found. They have the appearance of low, flattish mounds, and when opened were always found to be mere heaps of burnt clay, ashes, and the accumulated dirt of their ancient occupants, covered by a thin layer of top soil.
Numerous mounds are scattered over Tippah, Pontotoc, Lee, Itawamba, and Tishomingo counties. Samuel Agnew mentions them in Smithsonian Report, 1867, pp. 404, 405, and says: "The mounds are, so far as my observations extends, situated adjacent to watercourses. They are generally placed in what we call sec- ond bottoms-elevated level land lying between the bottom proper and the hills. Some are, however, in the low ground near the watercourses." In Lafayette county is to be found an embank- ment of earth with an exterior ditch of corresponding dimensions inclosing mounds, situated in the northwest part of the county; and on the left bank of Clear creek, near Mount Sylvan is a quad- rangular inclosure with accompanying mounds exterior to the wall; Gerard Fowke also reports a mound near La Fayette Springs. H. F. Johnson, on page 444, Smith. Rep., 1879, speaks of a ruin in Rankin county known as the "Platform"; the remains of a wall in Claiborne county, and mounds of great size in Marion county ; Henry Floyd on page 442 of the same report speaks of unexplored mounds on Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, in Warren county, and on Deer creek in Sharkey county. They are in groups of threes, oval in shape, or nearly circular, flat on top, the largest occupying over an acre. There are also mounds at Haynes Bluff in Warren county. Near the shoals of the Sunflower river, in Sunflower county, and in the midst of a cane-brake is a large mound, length 125 feet, greatest width, 100 feet, height to the summit of its cone, 25 feet ; apex surmounted by a white oak 6 feet in diameter. Mr. Thomas reports it thus: "Along the east side of the mound was the outcropping of a bed of burnt clay in small masses or lumps, and below it some very light colored fragments of pottery. Al- most the first spadeful of earth revealed decaying fragments of human bones. Tracing these horizontally under the roots of the oak, and under the clay bed, a skull was reached, resting on a brown platter shaped vessel, and by the side of it a pot with a scal- loped edge, a broken water bottle with female head on the tope of the neck, a pottery tube, and a dipper in the form of a shell"; also
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