USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 61
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to arrest Mr. Curtis, Hamberlin and De Alva. But they were warned of the approach of the officer and his men in time to make their escape. They fled to a thicket, and after a long, perilous and wearisome journey through the trackless forest, reached the old home of Curtis in South Carolina.
There they remained in exile until the Natchez country became American territory, and then they returned to their Mississippi homes, where they were given a warm welcome.
After his return to Mississippi Elder Curtis preached for eleven years, doing a great work in building up his church. He was not only the pioneer Baptist preacher in the State and the founder of the first Protestant church west of the Cumberland settlements in Tennessee, but a man of force and ability. He died on October 28, 1811, in Amite county. His burial place is unknown, but a mod- est monument near Ebenezer church commemorates his name.
Cushtusa, a post-hamlet in the eastern part of Neshoba county, 12 miles southeast of Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 56.
Cyclone, a post-hamlet of Simpson county, about 8 miles south- east of Mendenhall. Population in 1900, 51.
Cynthia, a post-hamlet of Hinds couny, on the Yazoo & Missis- sippi Valley R. R., 7 miles northwest of Jackson. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 60.
Cypress, a post-hamlet of Tate county, about 11 miles south- west of Senatobia, the county seat and nearest railroad and bank- ing town. Population in 1900, 58.
Dabney, a post-hamlet of Webster county, 14 miles due west of Walthall, the county seat.
Dabney, Thomas Smith Gregory, was born at the plantation Bellevue, in King and Queen county, Va., Jan. 4, 1798. He was of a Huguenot family, the French form of whose name was D'Au- bigny. His father, Benjamin, was at the head of the bar of his county. Thomas was educated in New Jersey and at William and Mary, and in youth took charge of the Gloucester county planta- tion left by his father. By his second marriage, to Sophia Hill, he had a large family. He was considered one of the most suc- cessful wheat and tobacco farmers in Gloucester county, but the expensive style of living made it desirable to take his family to a new country. He bought 4,000 acres in Hinds county, and in preparing to move informed his slaves in Virginia that he wished none to go unwillingly, and he would buy all husbands and wives connected with his negroes, of other owners, or sell those who pre-
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ferred to stay, so that families should not be separated. All went with him, who were not too old to move. The family and retinue of servants moved by wagon to the new country. They had left the James river district inhabited by a wealthy class of planters of proud ancestry, who lived after the manner of princes. One of their nearest neighbors in Hinds was a highwayman whose home was headquarters for a gang of robbers that infested the road to Memphis. Col. Dabney was something of an enigma to his neigh- bors, who called him haughty. He gave his negroes barbecues ; he allowed them to meet as much as they pleased. "Dyar warn't no sich people no whyar. Marster mustn't be named de same day as udder people," said an old servant. "His plantation was con- sidered a model one, and was visited by planters anxious to learn his methods. He was asked how he made his negroes do good work. His answer was that a laboring man could do more work and better work in five and a half days than in six." He gave the negroes half of Saturday; also gave them coin prizes for cotton picking, and allowed them to specialize their work; he allowed them to raise and sell chickens, etc., manufacture various knick- knacks and take in sewing on their own account. Dabney saw that his foremen were more warmly clad than himself, and kept them all well supplied with blankets. He became the owner of 200 negroes, more than could be used on his own plantation, but he would not let any of them away from his own care. Managing the Burleigh plantation, he had charge of about 500 negroes alto- gether. He did not agree with those who in that time made whole- sale accusations of dishonesty against the negro. The confidence he reposed in the negroes taught them self respect and a thievish negro was put under ban by the slaves themselves.
The Dabneys were stalwart Whigs. Augustine Dabney, a bril- liant lawyer at Raymond, was four times elected probate judge, without opposition from the Democrats. His home was the cen- ter of unpretentious culture at the town of Raymond. Thomas and Augustine Dabney persuaded Judge Sharkey to have the State convention propose John Tyler for vice president, starting "the ball" that resulted in his election with Harrison. Later the Dabneys were sorely humiliated by Tyler's defection. "It was a shock and grief to Thomas when the State of Mississippi repu- diated her debts." When all other efforts failed he offered to con- tribute $10,000 to a private fund for settling with the bondholders. "It would have ruined him, for he was just beginning to get his plantation in order. He still lived in the old log house with the
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leaky roof." But his efforts were fruitless. Every summer he took his family away from the plantation. In 1845 he bought a home at Pass Christian as a summer resort, was one of the gen- tlemen who owned yachts there, and first president of the yacht club. Two weeks every November he spent with a hunting club in Scott county, shooting deer. He had a pack of hounds that were used in these hunting excursions. January always found him in New Orleans for a three weeks' visit, where he was a mem- ber of the Boston club. His occasional journeys took him to Vir- ginia or New York. A game of whist that he once played at the White Sulphur Springs, Va., was considered a classic. His in- tuition was so remarkable that he once, before the beginning of play, announced that every player held a nine spot, which proved to be true. One day at Cooper's Wells, he accused Alexander K. McClung of revoking, and bore himself so that McClung apol- ogized. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Henry Clay and Sear- gent Prentiss and kept a file of the National Intelligencer. He was chairman of the reception committee when Gen. Zachary Tay- lor landed at Pass Christian in 1848. In 1853, the year when yel- low fever invaded Pass Christian, his son, Charles, just graduated in the law school of Harvard university, was a victim. In 1860 he had no patience with the "Blue Cockade" secessionists, and made up his mind to leave the country, but would not sell his slaves and could not, after he had provided for them, afford to go to England. "It was a great blow to him when Mr. Davis was made president of the Confederacy." Political controversy between Whigs and Democrats was bitterly partisan, and Dabney was an intense Whig. After the war began he supported the course of his State, en -. couraged enlistments, made large donations to the armies. In 1863 all his horses were taken for the Confederate service. When Grant's army advanced on Jackson, the home was visited by foragers who ransacked the house for money and valuables, which had been buried, compelling the negroes to unearth their treasures. The family took refuge at Enterprise, the father and sons being in the Confederate lines, and finally they were re-united at Mobile, where a hundred negroes had been brought-all who had not run away. The household and plantation goods were sold for Confederate money. They were at Macon, Ga., during the Atlanta campaign, and then returned" to Hinds county, to the bare house and lands. When news came of Lee's surrender Dabney told his negroes they were now free but advised them to go on and finish the crop and he would pay them at the end of the year. There was no
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apparent change in the attitude of the negroes the rest of the year, except that they were very quiet and serious. At Christmas such compensation was made as seemed just to the master. Afterward fixed wages were offered and accepted. As time went on the slaves became tenants and other new negroes also, all of whom called him "master." This was unprecedented in the South. In 1866 the Burleigh plantation was taken by the sheriff to satisfy a debt for which Dabney was surety. Incendiary fires were common, and the gin house was destroyed. After this he had not a dollar. "He had to borrow the money to buy a postage stamp, not only during this year, but during many years to come. He was fourteen years in paying the debts that fell on him in his 69th year. He lived but three years after the last dollar was paid. "When he was seventy years of age he determined to learn to cultivate a garden." He did much of the family washing, to spare his daughters that labor. At the same time he enjoyed the esteem of all people. In answer to his letters North $5,000 was sent to build a parish church near his home. In 1875 he was the chairman of the Democratic club and thoroughly in sympathy with the uprising against carpet bag and negro rule. He died at Baltimore in February, 1885. (A Southern Planter, by Susan Dabney Smedes.)
Dahlgren, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Lauderdale county, about 18 miles from Meridian.
Dahomy, a post-hamlet of Bolivar county, on the Yazoo & Mis- sissippi Valley R. R., about 12 miles south of Rosedale, the county seat. Benoit is the nearest banking town. The largest cotton plan- tation in the world is located near Dahomy.
Daisy, a post-hamlet of Jackson county, situated on Red Creek, a tributary of Pascagoula river, about 30 miles northwest of Pas- cagoula. Population in 1900, 45.
Dale, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Marion county, about 12 miles north of Columbia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 29.
Dale, Sam, was born in Rockbridge county, Va., of Pennsylvania parents who were of Scotch-Irish descent. In 1775 the family moved to the forks of Clinch river, on the Indian frontier, and as a boy Sam Dale was familiar with the scenes of horror that were com- mon on that frontier during the war of the Revolution. After- ward the family moved to Georgia, near the present site of the town of Greensboro. Here also, they were associated with the red men, and the boy's life was one of constant adventure. In the Christmas season of 1791, just after they had moved to a new
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home, in Georgia, the parents both died, and Sam, under twenty years of age, was left to care for eight younger brothers and sis- ters. In 1793 he was authorized by the State government to raise a troop of horses for the protection of the frontier, and the pay he received freed him from debt. Until 1796 he had much scouting duty, and was in various romantic fights with the red warriors, by which his personal valor became famous. In 1799 he began trad- ing among the Creeks and Choctaws, and running a wagon line for the transportation of emigrants through the Indian country to the Tombigbee. He and Alex. Saunders were the guides of the commissioners who laid out the government road through the Cherokee country, in 1803, after which he and Joseph Buffington set up a trading post in the Cherokee country. From this he turned to milling within the settlements, but could not endure it long, and accompanied Col. Hawkins, the great Indian agent, to the council at Tookabatcha, on the Tallapoosa, which was ad- dressed by Tecumseh, in October, 1811. He was again in the transportation work when trouble began in the latter part of 1812, and in the summer of 1813 he joined the party that attacked the Creeks returning from Pensacola at Burnt-corn creek. He was wounded there, but was on duty again soon, and at Fort Madison, when it was evacuated by the volunteers, he organized a force to defend it. He contrived a system of protective illumination, not with search lights, but flaming pine fagots run up to the top of a fifty foot pole, that aided in security from attack. In November, 1813, he set out on a scouting expedition on the trail to Pensa- cola known as the Wolf path, and with Jim Smith, Jerry Austill and a negro, Caesar, encountered a party of Creeks, the famous Weatherford being near at hand. The battle was partly fought in canoes, and Dale was victorious, after he and his comrades had killed twelve antagonists. Dale took part in the expedition to Holy Ground, and in February, 1814, in command of Austill's company and Foster's horse, accompanied Russell's Third regi- ment in an expedition to the Cahawba towns. He and Maj. Jo- seph Carson in the summer of that year went to Pensacola to treat with the fugitive Creeks; in September he rode express to Fort Hawkins, 150 miles, in three days, and in December, he carried dispatches from the war department to Gen. Jackson, riding from the Creek agency in Georgia, carrying a wallet of Indian flour for food and feed, and reached Madisonville in seven and a half days. He delivered his dispatches to Jackson in the midst of the battle of New Orleans. Thereupon Jackson insisted he should carry
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back the reply, and he did so, using the same horse, Paddy, that had brought him. After the war Dale lived at Dale's Ferry, serv- ing as colonel of militia and holding various other offices of Mon- roe county, by appointment of Governor Holmes. He was a member of the Pearl River convention of 1816, and a delegate to the Alabama General Assembly of the year 1817 at St. Stephens. In the same year also he was made a colonel of militia and entrusted with the suppression of the Indian outlaws led by Savannah Jack, a bloody villain. He built Fort Dale, and after several months drove the outlaws out of the country. He was in the Alabama legislature of 1819-20, and again in 1824-28 ; was made a brigadier- general of militia, with the pay of a colonel in the United States army, in 1821, and was one of those selected to meet General La- fayette at the Chattahoochee in 1824. In 1831 he and George S. Gaines were commissioned by the secretary of war to remove the Choctaws to Indian territory, after the treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek. He purchased of a Choctaw chief two sections of land which he afterward made his home, near the site of the town of Daleville, Lauderdale county, Miss. He was the first representa- tive in the Mississippi legislature, of Lauderdale county, after its organization. The death of Gen. Dale occurred May 24, 1841, at his home near Daleville. He was a rawboned, square shouldered man, standing six feet two, and known on the frontier as "Big Sam." He even had a facial resemblance to the Indians, the light footfall of the forest roamer, and the taciturn manner, slow speech and unsmiling countenance of the red men, whom he understood and loved, and who loved him, though he was often in battle against them.
Dalen, a postoffice of Winston county.
Daleville. An extinct town of Lauderdale county, (q. v.), near the northern border. The little village of Lizelia now occupies its former site, and a new village by the name of Daleville now exists a few miles to the north.
Dallas, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Lafayette coun- ty, about 16 miles from Oxford, the county seat. Population in 1900, 24.
Damascus, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Scott coun- ty, about 20 miles from Forest, the county seat. Population in 1900, 26.
Dancy, a post-hamlet in Webster county, 10 miles north of Marthiston on the M. J. & K. C. R. R.
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Dangerfield, Henry, a kinsman of Gov. Holmes (1809-17), came to the Mississippi territory after the latter's appointment, and was appointed secretary of the territory, to succeed Thomas H. Will- iams, June 30, 1810. He was re-appointed, in 1814, and served until his death Feb. 19, 1815. He was also register of the land office west of Pearl river. On April 2, 1811, he was commissioned as attorney-at-law. Secretary Dangerfield was acting governor in April, 1811, on account of the governor's absence, and again from Oct. 6, 1811, to June 15, 1812. Dangerfield was obliged to veto an act for the incorporation of the town of St. Stephens, because it attempted to deprive the wives of the proprietors of the right of dower; also a bill to extend the jurisdiction of justices beyond the constitutional limit.
Daniel, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Smith county, on Strong river, about 15 miles from Raleigh, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.
Danville, the first white settlement in old Tishomingo county, located on the old Reynoldsburg road, near Tuscumbia river, in what is now the county of Alcorn. It was first named Troy by the two earliest settlers of the place-John Rives and Fitz, who had established a store here. At one time the following mer- chants were doing business here: Young & Chany, Brewster & Dilworth, Adams & Cross, Stafford & Cross, H. Mitchell, L. B. Mitchell, and J. H. Buford. The first circuit court in Tishomingo county was held in a little log house at Troy. When the place de- sired a postoffice, its name was changed to Danville, as there was another Troy in the State. Early citizens were Allslot, a tanner, James Hamlin, Allen Kemp, Dr. Broady, Wm. Taylor, and Dr. B. F. Liddon. Nearby settlers were Judge H. B. Mitchell, the first Probate Judge of the county, and A. B. Dilworth and Cody Fowler, representatives of the county in the lower house of the Legislature. Dilworth was a prominent Democratic politician of Tishomingo county and was Secretary of State, from 1855 to 1860. The largest population of the town was about 150, and it was incorporated in 1848. The Mobile and Ohio railroad missed the town by a mile, and its business largely went to the new railroad towns of Rienzi and Corinth. The Federal troops were encamped here during the War and built a stockade, called Camp Davis, about three miles north, across the Tuscumbia river. The Church, Masonic hall, and houses of Danville were moved to Camp Davis to furnish quarters for the troops. No vestige of the old town is now left, though there is still a postoffice there.
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Darbun, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Pike county, about 28 miles northeast of Magnolia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 37.
Darby, William, author of "A Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana, the Southern Part of the State of Mississippi and the Territory of Alabama," published, 1817, wrote: "In the months of July, August and September of 1799, I descended the Ohio and Mississippi to Natchez. That year the yellow fever prevailed in New Orleans; to the severity of which fell victims, Manuel Gayosa de Lemos, the then governor of Louisiana, and many other persons, Creoles and strangers. I arrived at Natchez on the 13th of September, in that country the most deleterious month. I resided in the neighborhood of Natchez until July, 1805, at which epoch I left that city and commenced the collection of material for my map and tracts on Louisiana; and during almost ten years, endured all that the summer's sun and winter's wind could inflict. Between the 9th of July, 1805, and the 7th of May, 1815, incredible as it may appear to many persons, I actually trav- elled upwards of twenty thousand miles, mostly on foot. During the whole of this period I was not confined one month, put all my indispositions together, and not one moment by any malady attributable to the climate. Temperance, fresh air, good sound food in plenty, and above all, cleanliness in house and per- son, would contribute more to secure cities or countries from pesti- lence, than all the quarantine regulations that were ever framed."
Darden, a hamlet of Union county, about 12 miles west of New Albany the county seat. The postoffice was discontinued in 1905, and it now receives mail from Myrtle. Population in 1900, 42.
D'Arges Colony. When Gardoqui was minister of Spain at the American capital he employed agents to solicit immigration from the States into the territory of Louisiana and Florida, treating the Natchez district as such territory, in disregard of the treaty of 1783. One of the chief agents was Pierre Wower d'Arges, who came to New Orleans in the latter part of 1787, desiring to make arrangements for the settlement of 1,582 Kentucky families, which he expected to lead into His Catholic Majesty's domain, if the promises of Gardoqui would be fulfilled. Gov. Miro would not meet the pledges of the Gardoqui agents, for the following reason, expressed in his dispatch to Waldes, secretary of state for the Indies, Jan. 8, 1788: "The delivering up of Kentucky unto his Majesty's hands, which is the main object to which Wilkinson has promised to devote himself entirely, would forever constitute this
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province [Kentucky] a rampart for the protection of New Spain. Hence I consider as a misfortune the project of D'Arges, because I look upon the commercial franchises which he has obtained for the western colonists, and the permission given to the people to introduce any kind of articles into Louisiana, on their paying a duty of twenty-five per cent, as destructive of the great design which has been conceived" [of forcing the secession of Kentucky by restrictions of river navigation and trade]. Furthermore, "The western people would no longer have any inducement to emigrate, if they were put in possession of a free trade with us." Miro, in February, sent to Spain a copy of the instructions he had given to Charles de Grand Pré, commandant at Natchez, in regard to the proposed Kentucky colony.
"You will make concessions of land to every family on its ar- rival ; to each family not owning negroes at all six arpens fronting a bayou or water course, with forty in depth, making a total of two hundred and forty arpens; to such as may have two, three or four slaves, or be composed of four or six adult and unmarried sons, capable of working-ten arpens in front by forty in depth ; to such as have from ten to twenty negroes-fifteen arpens by forty, and to whose owning more than twenty negroes, twenty arpens by forty.
"As to religion, you are already aware that the will of His Ma- jesty is, that they be not disturbed on that account, but I think it proper that they be made to understand, that this toleration means only that they shall not be compelled to become Catholics and it is expedient that this information be conveyed to them in such a manner, as to convince them that they are not to have the free exercise of their religion-that is-that they are not to build churches or have salaried ministers of their creed-which is the footing on which have been placed the settlers before them."
"I herewith forward to you a copy of the oath which you will require of them. You will take notice of its last clause, by which they bind themselves to take up arms against those who may come as enemies from the settlements above; you will then, after hav- ing assured them that they shall not to be troubled in matters of religion, inform them that the object of peopling Louisiana is to protect it against any invasion whatever which may be directed against it from the aforesaid settlements; that this is to their own interest, since, under the Spanish domination, they cannot fail to be happy, on account of its mild and impartial administration of justice, and because they will have no taxes to pay, and besides,
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that the royal treasury will purchase all the tobacco which they may raise. Whilst presenting to them these considerations, you will carefully observe the manner in which they shall receive them, and the expression of their faces. Of this you will give me precise information, every time that you send me the original oaths taken."
Grand Pré, however, was not required to attend to this work, if any of these Kentuckians ever appeared, as he was soon after- ward superseded by Lieutenant-Colonel Gayoso de Lemos. See Gayarre's Louisiana, III, 198-203.
Darling, a post-hamlet of Quitman county, on the Yazoo & Mis- sissippi Valley R. R., 7 miles northeast of Belen, the county seat.
Darnall, a post-village of Kemper county, 12 miles southwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 175.
Darrington, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Wilkinson county, 10 miles north of Woodville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 30.
D'Artaguette. Among the most conspicuous names identified with the early French occupancy of Louisiana is that of d'Arta- guette. The first mention of the name occurs in 1708, when M. Diron d'Artaguette came to the colony to succeed M. de la Salle in the office of Intendant Commissary. The Commissaire Ordon- nateur, or Intendant, Commisary was an officer, who had, in colo- nial times, an extended authority, civil and military, but subor- dinate to that of the Governor. The colony at this period was at a very low ebb. It consisted of only 14 officers, 76 soldiers, 13 sailors, 3 priests, 6 mechanics, 1 Indian interpreter, 24 laborers, 28 women, 25 children, and 80 Indian slaves; all the rest had been cut off by sickness. Bienville had been fiercely assailed by his enemies and blame for the prevailing conditions. D'Artaguette was especially commissioned to inquire into the conduct of Gov- ernor Bienville ; to report on the past conduct of all the officers of the colony, and to examine the port of Mobile and decide on the propriety of keeping it there or removing it according to new plans prepared by the king. He was a man of sterling character and rendered a report to his king, which entirely exonerated Gov. Bienville, but portrayed the deplorable condition of the colony. It was shortly after this that the first fort at Mobile was moved nearer the sea, to the present site of Mobile. He returned to France at the close of the year 1711, "carrying with him the sin- cere regrets of the colony." The following year the king relieved himself of the burden of the colony, and the merchant, Anthony
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