USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 28
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Boundary Case. See Boundaries. In his Geological report of 1854 B. L. C. Wailes wrote: "The State also embraces the islands in the gulf within six leagues of the northern shore." The lan- guage of the enabling act of 1817, follows the east line of the State "due south to the gulf of Mexico, thence westerly including all the islands within six leagues of the shore, to the most easterly .
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junction of Pearl river with Lake Borgne, thence up said river," etc. The east line was run southerly by the coast of the sound, and the terminus marked there. It would seem that this line would be extended with the same bearings six leagues out over the water, to find the eastern limit of the maritime possessions ; but the inference is not so clear as to the bearing of the line which might be considered to be the extension of the line of the Pearl river in its most easterly channel. What direction the line would take out from the most easterly land point would have to be gov- erned by some general rule regarding maritime boundaries. But, in 1812, the State of Louisiana had been admitted into the Union, with a boundary defined in part as "along the middle of said river [Iberville] and Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the gulf of Mexico; thence bounded by said gulf to the place of be- ginning [around the delta and back to the mouth of the Sa- bine river], including all islands within three leagues of the shore." Hence, whatever the "shore" of Louisiana may be, . the islands within ten land miles of the same had been assigned to her jurisdiction five years before the boundary of Mississippi was defined as including the islands within twenty miles of her shore. The peninsula of St. Bernard juts up toward the mouth of the Pearl from below Lake Borgne, within eighteen miles of the Mississippi shore, with some islands to the north of the pen- insula, and each of it a stretch of thirty miles of archipelago called the Grand marsh, or Louisiana marsh, the islands covered by sea grass, and most of them submerged by high tide. This area was for many years the subject of little interest, until the growth of the oyster industry, when Attorney-General Williams estimated it to be worth from two to ten millions of dollars. The States of Louisiana and Mississippi both passed laws for the regulation of the oyster fishing, and disputes began. In apprehension of an armed conflict between the sheriffs of St. Bernard parish, La., and Harrison county, Miss., a meeting at New Orleans was called by Governor Heard in January, 1901, at which Mr. Ducate, of the great oyster house of Lopez & Ducate, of Biloxi, asserted the right to fish in the marsh islands within eighteen miles of the Mississippi shore. As a result of this meeting, Governor Heard appointed a commission of five to make a boundary adjustment, and Governor Longino appointed a commission, February 9, 1901, composed of J. I. Ford, Scranton; E. J. Bowers, and A. Keller, Bay St. Louis; W. A. White and H. T. Howard, Biloxi ; the latter chairman. The two commissions met at New Orleans
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March 26, and the Louisiana representatives contended for a boundary following the deep water channel through the sound into the gulf eastward of Chandeleur island. The Mississippi commissioners replied July 20 that they regarded as islands con- siderable territory that Louisiana claimed to be mainland, and there was no opportunity for agreement. "It is apparent that the only hope of settlement is a friendly suit in the supreme court of the United States, and we respectfully suggest that course." The next action was by the Oyster Commissions (q. v.) of the two States, which met at New Orleans in September, 1902, and adopted a temporary boundary, to be observed until the opinion of the supreme court should be obtained. This arrangement gave Louis- iana exclusive rights in the marshy islands from Malheureux point eastward to Grand pass (west of Isle Pitre, and made a neutral zone, open to both States, between the marshes and the channel line claimed by Louisiana. This was unsatisfactory to the Mis- sissippi oystermen and a mass meeting at Biloxi early in No- vember, asked to have the agreement abrogated. Consequently there was another conference of the two State oyster commissions held at New Orleans, November 17, attended by the governors and attorney-generals of the two States. This produced no result. The Louisiana authorities refused to modify the treaty, or to sub- mit the subject to the legislatures of the two States. The bill of complaint in the supreme court was completed in October, and brought by "The State of Louisiana, one of the United States of America, by William W. Heard, governor, and upon the informa- tion of Walter Guion, attorney-general," against the State of Mis- sissippi, Governor Longino and Attorney-General McClurg. The bill claimed as the boundary of Louisiana the deep water chan- nel off the mouth of Pearl river, "eastward following the deep water channel to the north of Half Moon island, through the Mis- sissippi sound channel to Cat island pass, northeast of Isle a Pitre, into the gulf of Mexico. At the October term, 1902, a demurrer was filed and overruled. Governor Longino appointed Monroe Mc- Clurg, of Greenwood, and Dodds & Griffith, of Biloxi, as counsel to assist the attorney-general, William Williams, after Mr. Mc- Clurg's resignation. In 1904 Governor Longino was appointed by the supreme court to take testimony, and upon his declination, William D. Bullard, of Pascagoula, was selected. The legislature of 1904 failed to make an appropriation for attorney's fees and ex- penses, and the attorneys all resigned. In this emergency Gov- ernor Vardaman made an arrangement with Judge Hannis Tay-
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1
lor and Monroe McClurg to be associate counsel with Attorney- General Williams and his assistant James N. Flowers, and the work on the case proceeded, in both States, without legislative aid. Louisiana examined about 100 witnesses, and introduced about 85 maps, charts and diagrams, and over 100 documents. Mississippi made a similar showing, and the evidence submitted covered about 12,000 typewritten pages. The burden of the Louisiana evidence was to prove that "the marshes," from Mal- heureux point to the east end of Pitre island, was in 1812 and as late as 1817 a solid peninsula of the mainland, subsequently con- verted into an archipelago by storms and gradual subsidence of the land. "Mississippi has held more directly to her pleading and sought by her evidence to meet the theories and facts developed by her opponent and to show sovereignty and jurisdiction, subject of course to the national and international common right, over the water surface, bottoms and islands within six leagues of her shore since the strip of territory south of degree 31 was claimed by the United States and especially since it was occupied by American authority in 1810 and inferentially in 1763." ( Louisiana vs. Miss., McClurg, M. H. S., VIII, 293-339.) Mississippi under- took to show that there had been no such change in the character of the "marsh, in the memory of men living, also that by history and tradition the line between the two states is the Pearl river extended; that the Congress intended to place within the limits of Louisiana nothing east of the Mississippi river except the an- cient island of New Orleans; that the description of the line from the Mississippi eastward is the historical description for that one island; that the coast line referred to in the Louisiana Act runs east and west; that the islands intended to be given to Louisiana are those south and in front of her mainland. (Atty .- Gen. Re- port.) The record was printed in a volume of more than 2,000 pages, at the expense of Louisiana. Briefs also were printed, and the case was set for argument before the supreme court in Octo- ber, 1905. The opinion of the supreme court of the United States was given March 5, 1906, by Chief Justice Fuller. It was held that the peninsula of St. Bernard and adjoining islands are a part of the territory of Louisiana, under the act of Congress in 1812 defining the boundary of that State, and that the later act defin- ing the boundary of Mississippi could not be taken as intended to controvert the Louisiana act. The chief justice said: "The gen- eral land office of the United States in all the maps it has caused to be made of Louisiana and Mississippi has been consistent in
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its recognition of the ownership by Louisiana of the disputed area. The record contains much evidence of the exercise by Louisiana of jurisdiction over the territory in dispute and the gen- eral recognition of it by Mississippi as belonging to Louisiana."
Boundary on 31º North Latitude. Commissioner Ellicott, who had waited at Natchez from February 24, 1797, was notified by Governor Gayoso, January 10, 1798, that the survey of the line would soon be taken up, and again on February 13 that they would meet at Clarksville "some time next month" to take up the work. Ellicott then sent a despatch to the department of state that he would begin the survey alone, the instant the forts were evacuated. The Natchez fort was evacuated March 30, before daylight, and on April 9 the astronomer with his surveyor, assistants and woods- men, left Natchez, arriving at Clarksville, April 10. He wrote: "I confess my feelings were much alive on leaving that town; the attentions, politeness, and hospitality which I had experienced from the inhabitants on all occasions, for more than a year, had made strong impressions on my mind, which can only be obliter- ated by the loss of recollection." Ellicott set up his clock and zenith sector, and after taking observations five evenings found that he was three miles and 290 perches north of the 31st parallel. The distance was measured southward by his assistants, Gillespie, Ellicott, Jr., and Walker, and it was found that the place reached was almost unapproachable by land as the site of an astronomical observatory. Consequently the expedition embarked on the river and descended to Bayou Tunica (Willing's bayou), a voyage of fifty miles, and so transported the instruments, stores, etc., to a hill near the place they desired to reach. To do this they were also compelled to cut a road for a mile through the gigantic cane and lofty timber. The camp was made on May 1, and a building was next erected for the instruments. Ellicott was provided with a zenith sector of nearly six feet radius, another zenith sector of 19 inches radius, both made by Rittenhouse with improvements by Ellicott; a large achromatic telescope made by Dolland of London; a transit and equal altitude instrument which Ellicott had constructed and used in running the western boundary of New York, the boundaries of the District of Columbia and the principal avenues of Washington; two smaller telescopes, sextants, and various instruments and contrivances necessary to the work. For ten nights the astronomer observed the zenith distance of various stars with his large sector, and thereby determined that he was 1,644.8 feet too far south. The distance was carefully laid off, and
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ended in a deep hollow or chasm. How the astronomer got out of it by an ingenious arrangement and laid off the first ten miles of the line, the reader is referred to his Journal (appendix, pp. 51-52).
The party was joined later in May by Captain Minor and a party of laborers and William Dunbar, selected as astronomer on behalf of Spain. Dunbar was before this the owner of a splendid astronomical circle, made for him in London, which he sold to Governor Gayoso for use on this work; a sextant that Mr. Dun- bar had given to Gayoso was also made use of. The American surveyor originally appointed was Thomas Freeman, but he and the astronomer quarreled, and David Gillespie was chief surveyor after the work began. Gayoso had nominated Thomas Power, his diplomatic agent, for Spanish surveyor, but Dunbar refused to serve with him. Daniel Burnett was chosen for the place. Pat- rick Taggart seems to have been an efficient assistant surveyor in the Spanish force. John Bowyer was appointed to the com- mand of the escort October 27, 1798, to succeed McClary, and continued on duty until March, 1800. Surveyor Thomas Freeman wrote to Captain Guion May 21: "McClary landed at the bayou the evening before last, and marched his detachment up here yes- terday. I am sorry to see the men so bare of clothes. . .
. However, we live very cheerful and merry, considering we are immersed in an impenetrable forest, condensed by cane and grape- vines so that a dozen trees must be cut before one can fall, and this on the most irregular, hilly, broken and unfinished part of the globe's surface, where every leaf is inhabited by myriads of moschetoes, gnats, flies, ticks, etc., of various kinds, so that we may be said for the present to be in a more than earthly purga- tory."
May 31, Governor Gayoso, empowered to act as commissioner for Spain, arrived, with several officers, and found the work started by the establishment of the beginning of the line. He declined taking any formal action, and returned to New Orleans, "empowering Capt. Stephen Minor and William Dunbar to exe- cute the commission on behalf of his Catholic majesty." On June 7 the camp was moved to Little Bayou Sara, and the men being nearly all overcome by the weather, negroes were employed to do the work. The first twenty miles was traversed only by cutting a path with cane, knife and hatchet. The party did well in ad- vancing a quarter of a mile a day, as a wide road had to be cut for the observations. On July 28 the important first ten miles,
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that involved all sorts of astronomical and surveying problems, was about done, when, the waters of the Mississippi having re- ceded from flood, Mr. Dunbar undertook the task of running the line from the bluffs to the margin of the river, a distance of 2 miles and 180 perches. Dunbar had undertaken to remain on the line only until it was completed through the inhabited coun- try. "In the beginning of September," Ellicott writes, "Mr. Dun- bar left us, and returned to his seat, a few miles from the town of Natchez. This circumstance I considered a real loss to the public. To myself it was irreparable." After that Captain Minor was the Spanish commissioner and astronomer, alone. Next day, the camp was moved to Thompson's creek, where they continued until October 27, when the camp was moved to the Pearl river. A very interesting feature of life on the survey west of Pearl, was an intrigue which was in progress. Wilkinson, Daniel Clark, Ellicott and Gayoso were watching each other, one of Ellicott's functions being, apparently, to obtain information for the gov- ernment regarding the Western schemes of independent empire. It seems from a letter of Gayoso to Thomas Power that Wilkin- son was worried about his correspondence, which Gayoso said was all in Spain and would be kept safe, if the general should con- duct himself with propriety.
The small streams on the route had been crossed on rafts, as the country was unsettled and apparently never explored. The Pearl was crossed in the same way on November 18. The expedi- tion was then about out of food and clothing. Supplies had been sent to the mouth of the Pearl, but the river was choked with logs, and absolute necessities were brought up by pack horse. Both Gillespie and Ellicott made trips to New Orleans to arrange for supplies, taking a boat sent by Governor Gayoso, and part of the men set to work clearing out a channel in the Pearl, which was found to have so many by ways that parties would go astray and lose several days in finding the right course.
On February 23, 1799, at New Orleans, Ellicott and Gayoso signed with great ceremony, in the hall of the government house, four reports in Spanish and English, confirming the work done before June 7, 1798, the date when the Spanish interests were en- trusted to Dunbar and Minor. A new silver standish, made for the occasion, was employed. The sandbox was in the form of a drum, the ink was in a miniature mortar, the pounce box was an astronomical sphere, all of these being curiously and appropri- ately engraved. Meanwhile the guide line was carried on to Mo-
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bile bay by Daniel Burnet, surveyor for Spain, and the correc- tion line back to Thompson's creek was run by Gillespie. The direction was carried across the Mobile by signal fires, and the party pushed on, reaching the Chattahoochee river, 381 miles from the Mississippi, the eastern boundary of the Mississippi territory, where the instruments were set up again May 9, 1799. The end of the guide line was found to be 236 feet too far north, which dis- tance was laid off and the corrected line carried back, as in for- mer cases. The rest of the work was a line from the confluence of the Flint and Chattahoochee to the source of the St. Mary's. The Creek Indians interfered (indicating the necessity of Captain Bowyer's escort, that had accompanied the party all the way), and the running of that part of the line was abandoned. Instead, Ellicott erected a monument at the river confluence, and sailed around the peninsula and up the St. Mary's, penetrated the great Okefinokee swamp as far as possible, and built a mound to mark the other end of the line. On his way he found William Augustus Bowles shipwrecked off the mouth of the Apalachicola, indicat- ing that the days of foreign intrigue with the Indians was not to end until the United States stepped across this line of Ellicott's and Minor's and possessed every foot of the coast. (Also see Dunbar's line.)
Bounds, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Calhoun county, about 8 miles southwest of Pittsboro, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50.
Boundstown. An extinct town of Noxubee county, which was situated on the Noxubee river, in the southeastern part of the county. It was first settled by a Mr. Jesse Bounds in the early '30s and grew into a small country village. As it never had any good reason to exist, it only survived for a few years, after its founder, Mr. Bounds, moved away.
Bourbon, a post-hamlet of Washington county.
Bourbon County. The legislature of Georgia, Feb. 7, 1785, passed an act establishing the county line of Bourbon, with the following boundaries: "Beginning at the mouth of the river Yazous where it empties into the Mississippi river, thence by a line to be drawn along the middle of the said river until it shall intersect the northern- most part of the. 31° of north latitude; thence by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of the line last mentioned in the latitude of 31º north of the equator as far as the lands reach which in that district have, at any time, been relinquished by the Indians ; thence along the line of said relinquishment to said river Yasous;
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thence down said river to the beginning; and the said county shall comprehend all the lands and waters within the said descrip- tion." This was intended to embrace the British district of Natchez, then under the government of a Spanish commandant reporting to the governor of Louisiana.
The act deferred the granting of lands, as not proper at that time, but provided that when a land office should be opened, preference should be given to the occupants as should be citizens of the United States or subjects of any power friendly to the United States during the Revolution, provided such claimants were the actual cultivators of the claim. The price of the land, when granted, should not exceed 25 cents per acre. The justices .were authorized to administer the oath of allegiance to the State of Georgia to any person not proscribed by that State or some other of the United States. These provisions reveal the attitude of the victorious Revolutionists toward the loyalists, to which class a large part of the inhabitants of the Natchez belonged.
The justices named in the act were Thomas Green, Cato West, (son-in-law of Green), Tacitus Gilliard, Sutton Banks, Nicholas Long, William Davenport, Nathaniel Christmas, Willam McIn- tosh, Benjamin Farrar, Thomas M. Green, (son of Thomas), Wil- liam Anderson, John Ellis and Adam Bingaman. Abner Green (son of Thomas) was named as register of probate. As the act provided for an oath of office to be administered by the governor of Georgia to such as should appear before him, and to others by any one who should so appear, it is to be inferred that Thomas Green was sworn in, and empowered to administer the oath to the others.
The list of officers, says Claiborne, includes some of the former royalists as well as Revolutionary soldiers. "This array of names clearly indicates the social status. of the Natchez district" at that time. "In no county of any state of this Union can be found at this day a magistracy more competent, more dignified, and more richly endowed with personal and moral virtues."
The passage of the law was secured by Col. Thomas Green, a Virginian, citizen of Georgia, who with some others above named went to the Ohio to join Clark's army about 1782 but instead came down as settlers in the Natchez. Col. Green made the over- land trip to Georgia to secure this assertion of American dominion in the west. He also visited New Orleans and, as a commissioner of Georgia, demanded the surrender of the region north of the 31st parallel. For this, says Wailes, he was "an object of suspicion, and on the first plausible pretext he was placed in confinement." Clai-
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borne says this demand an imprisonment preceded his return to Georgia. (See Thomas Green).
James Madison wrote to James Monroe, June 21, 1785, "A gen- tleman of credit lately from Kentucky tells me he fell in with two persons on the Ohio, who were going down the river in the char- acter of commissioners from Georgia, authorized to demand from the Spanish governor of New Orleans the posts within the limits of that State, and a settlement of the boundary between it and the Spanish possessions. The gentleman did not see their commission, but entertains no doubt of their having one. He was informed that two others were joined in it, who had taken a different route. Should there be no mistake in this case, you will no doubt be able to get a full account of the embassy. I would willingly suppose that no State could be guilty either of so flagrant an outrage on the Federal constitution, or of so imprudent a mode of pursuing their claims against a foreign nation." (Works of Madison, I, 155).
It appears from a proclamation by Governor Stephen Miro, at New Orleans, commandant of Natchez by speciaal disposition of the Count of Galvez, June 23, 1785, that the people of the district had been called to meet for the organization of government. The commandant announced that on account of "seditious steps against the laws of good government in all nations, almost in sight and against the prohibition that was made to that purpose by the commandant of this district in possession of which Spain is by the incontestable right of conquest," the arrest of Tacitus Gaillard, Richard Ellis and Sutton Bankes had been ordered; that they would be tried according to the circumstance of their crime, and that, "being informed that the generality have rejected the sedi- tious propositions of the promoteurs," the other participants in the meeting had nothing to fear.
"Also in the steps of Thomas Green in command of the fort Pamure and the district in the name of the State of Georgia from which he pretended to be sent are known to the publick refusing to present himself to me nor suffer the titles he pretended to be possessed of being examined, be it known to all the Inhabitants of this district that they are obliged to take the oath of fidelity altho some of them (h) as not being willing to do it being the right of nations that every man under a Domination that protects him ought to be a faithful Subject to his Sovereign, Therefore I do Declare that any one who would attempt any kind of seditious meeting or rebelion shall be punished according the military laws,
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as they ought to be quiet without meddling themselves in the circumstances, nor to take any part in the contestations that may arise from the said claim." Notice was given that "is catholique Majesty as one agent in Philadelphia who started from havana in the latter end of April or the beginning of May with a particular commission in this river with United States of Amer- ica, & therefore there is no doubt that this matter will be settled amicably which ought to encourage the planters more & more to think of nothing else but gathering their tobacco which will be paid in New Orleans as well as that of the rest of the produce in hard money." This proclamation was written in English by the commandant's adjutant, Andrew Lopez Armesto. (Natchez Records, 1785, No. 8, 155).
Feb. 1, 1788, the Bourbon county act was repealed by Georgia, "because she saw that her attempt to carry it into execution would be likely to increase the difficulties of the United States in their diplomatic strife with Spain touching that and all the other terri- tory then in dispute between the two countries."-(Chappell's Miscellanies).
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