Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 64

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 64

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Meanwhile, Mr. Davis and his wife went to Canada, where their children were, and he there prepared to write a history of the Con- federacy, but found he could not so soon contemplate such a sub- ject. In the winter of 1867, after a visit at Baltimore, he went with his family to Havana, and then to New Orleans. A brief visit was made to the ruins of his Mississippi home. Another trip was made to Canada, whence they sailed to Europe. From there in the latter part of 1868, they returned to make their home at Memphis,

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where Mr. Davis became the head of a life-insurance company. While he was in the North in 1874 seeking to transfer the business, it was sold out to another Memphis company. In this year his son, William Howell, died. He accepted an invitation to visit Texas, declined a home that was offered him there, engaged in a law suit to recover Briarfield, and made another voyage to Europe. He en- deavored to establish the Mississippi Valley Company, in Europe and the United States, to promote trade in English ships between New Orleans and South America. Upon the failure of this, he rented a cottage at the home of Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey, at Beauvoir, and began the writing of the "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government." There his second son died of yellow fever in 1878. Mrs. Dorsey falling ill, he bought Beauvoir, and consented to be her executor. Upon her death, it was found her will bequeathed to him her property. In his work he had been assisted by Mrs. Dor- sey, and continued to be assisted by his wife and Judge Tenney, a representative of the publishers, Appleton & Co. After three years labor, it was completed, when he dictated this sentence :

"In asserting the right of secession it has not been my wish to incite to its exercise. I recognize the fact that the war showed it to be impracticable, but this did not prove it to be wrong ; and now, that it may not be again attempted, and the Union may promote the general welfare, it is needful that the truth, the whole truth, should be known, so that crimination and re-crimination may for- ever cease, and then, on the basis of fraternity and faithful regard for the rights of the States, there may be written on the arch of the · Union 'Esto perpetua.'"

He made another visit to Europe and next year made his journey to Montgomery, Atlanta and Savannah, where his daughter Win- nie was presented to an enthusiastic crowd as "the daughter of the Confederacy." He presided over the Lee memorial meeting at Richmond in 1820; spoke at the convention at White Sulphur Springs to reorganize the Southern Historical society in 1874, and at New Orleans at the dedication of monuments to Albert Sidney Johnston and Stonewall Jackson.

On March 10, 1884, by invitation of the legislature, he visited Jackson, Miss., and was given a great ovation. Addressing the leg- islature he said he had not applied for pardon, because he had not repented. "If it were to do all over again, I would do just as I did in 1861." But, "no one is the arbiter of his own fate. Our people have accepted the decree; it therefore behooves them, as they may, to promote the general welfare of the Union, to show

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to the world that hereafter as heretofore the patriotism of our people is not measured by lines of latitude and longitude, but is as broad as the obligations they have assumed and embraces the whole of our ocean-bound domain."

There has been criticism of his administration as president, of his conduct of the war and his financial policy, and of the centraliza- tion of the powers of government at Richmond, to a considerable degree obliterating State individuality. Much of this was dis- cussed in his lifetime. But as he grew old, differences ceased, and it is as a grand old man, broken by adversity, and suffering for others for the sake of principle that he lives in the hearts of his countrymen. "It was not his mental power that most impressed me," wrote James Redpath, who saw him in his last days. "It was his goodness, first of all, and then his intellectual integrity. I never saw an old man whose face bore more emphatic evidences of a gentle, refined and benignant character. He seemed to me the ideal embodiment of 'sweetness and light.' His conversation showed that he had 'charity for all and malice toward none.'"

In 1890 two overflows of his Mississippi plantation had put him deeply in debt, and he visited Briarfield, occasionally by steam- boat. In November, while there, he was taken with the grippe. His wife joined him as he was carried to the home of Judge Fenner, at New Orleans. On December 6, he was considered convales- cent, but died the same afternoon.

The State governments and people of the South immediately be- gan a memorable expression of grief and reverence. The body lay in state at New Orleans, the funeral occurred December 11, and memorial services were held at noon of that day throughout the South. An immense funeral procession, including Gov. Robert Lowry and other Southern governors, attended his body to Me- tarie, where it was laid temporarily in the tomb of the army of Northern Virginia. One of the best addresses delivered in his memory was that of Judge J. A. P. Campbell, before the Missis- sippi legislature. Subsequently the body of Mr. Davis was removed by special funeral train to Richmond, Va., selected as the final resting place.

Davis, Joseph Emory, was born near Augusta, Ga., Dec. 10, 1784, the eldest boy in a family of ten children, of which Jefferson Davis was the youngest. He was twelve years old when the family moved to Kentucky, and after some primitive schooling he was found a place as clerk in a store. Disliking this, he studied law first under Judge Wallace, of Russellville, and after the removal

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to Wilkinson county, Miss., in 1811, under Joseph Johnson. Ad- mitted to the bar in 1812, he began practice at Pickneyville, but soon removed to Greenville, Jefferson county, where he was elec- ted to the constitutional convention of 1817. In 1820 he moved to Natchez and became the partner of Thomas B. Reed, one of the ablest lawyers of the State. His ability was quite worthy of such an association. In 1818 he began the purchase of land at what was afterward known as Davis Bend, 36 miles below Vicksburg, foun- ding the plantation of 5,000 acres, called "The Hurricane," because of a storm which devastated the property soon after cultivation was begun. Abandoning the profession in 1827, he made his home on this plantation, which became one of the most valuable on the river.

He had little taste for political affairs, and was never a candi- date for any office except that of delegate to the constitutional con- ventions of 1817 and 1832. For the latter he was defeated, as he opposed the proposition of an elective judiciary. In the secession debates he was in opposition, doubting the expediency of such a policy.

In 1859 he traveled in Europe with his family. After the fall of New Orleans in 1862, he removed his household and slaves to a plantation twenty miles back of Vicksburg, where they remained during the siege, after which, they moved by wagon, through Mis- sissippi and Alabama, his wife dying en route, and lodging finally at Tuscaloosa, until his return to Vicksburg in 1865. His planta- tion home, Hurricane, was burned, and the Hinds county plantation was confiscated and used as a depot for refugee negroes, by the Freedman's bureau. He regained possession, but continued to live at Vicksburg, until he passed away, Sept. 18, 1870. "His re- mains were borne down the river for burial, and when they reached the landing of the Hurricane, as his plantation was called, they were met by a large concourse of his former slaves, who, with loud lamentations, and bearing torches that sent a dismal glare through the darkness, seized the bier and bore it to the grave, where he was laid away by the side of his wife. (Lynch, Bench and Bar.) Reuben Davis wrote of him as a citizen of Natchez: "He was the admitted arbiter of every question of honor, and his decision was always final. He was a great lawyer and debater, and his wealth was the honorable accumulation of his professional gains." Presi- dent Davis wrote that he was "a profound lawyer, a wise man, a bold thinker," and particularly noted for "a wide-spreading humanity which manifested itself especially in a patriarchal care

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of the many negroes dependent upon him, not merely for the sup- ply of their physical wants but also for their moral and mental elevation, with regard to which he had more hopes than most men of his large experience. To him materially as well as intel- lectually I am more indebted than to all other men."

Joseph E. Davis instructed his slaves in holding courts for the dis- cipline of their numbers. One of them, Ben Montgomery, kept a variety store, at which the Davis' frequently traded, and handled the fruit crop of the Joseph and Jefferson Davis plantations. After the war the Montgomery family purchased the Davis plantations, The Hurricane and Briarfield, preference being given them over a Northern man who offered $300,000 for the property.

Davis, Joseph R., was born in Wilkinson county, Miss., Jan. 12, 1825, a son of Isaac Davis, (an elder brother of Jefferson Davis), who came to Mississippi in 1810, served as an officer in the war of 1812-15 and later was a planter at Davis Bend. Joseph. R. Davis spent his boyhood days in Madison county, received a preparatory education at Nashville, and was graduated at Miami university, Ohio. He began the practice of law in 1857 and left it in the spring of 1861, when he resigned a seat in the legislature to go to Pensa- cola as captain of a Madison county company of volunteers. At the organization of the 10th regiment at Pensacola he was elected lieu- tenant-colonel. In August, 1861, he was commissioned colonel on the staff of President Davis, and he was on inspection duty throughout the South until commissioned brigadier-general and given a command of a brigade of Mississippi troops in 1862, in the Army of Northern Virginia. (q. v.) After the war he returned to Mississippi, and practiced law until his death at Biloxi, Sept. 15, 1896.

Davis, Reuben, was born near Winchester, Tenn., Jan. 18, 1813, the twelfth child of his parents, who moved to that State from Virginia. His father was a Baptist minister of much repute, who supported himself and family by farming, refusing to make the ministry a mercenary occupation. The boy was raised from five years of age in what was Madison county, Mississippi territory, on the Indian frontier. His education was obtained in the short terms of school taught by adventurers who sought temporary sup- port in that profession. Before he was of age he began the study of medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. George Higgason, at Hamilton, Monroe county, then separated by the Choctaw country from the other settlements. He began the practice of medicine in northern Alabama and gave evidence of ability. Later he read

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law and married (Mary Halbert), making his home at Athens, Monroe county, in 1832. He was thereafter identified with Mis- sissippi history. He was elected district attorney in 1833, and in his first year's practice, so he states in his autobiography, cleared $20,000. He then resigned, on account of a change of districts, and was elected again. He moved from Athens to Aberdeen in November, 1838. Though not a Whig he was persuaded to accept the Whig nomination for Congress in 1838 with Adam L. Binga- man, and reduced the adverse majority from 6,000 to 2,000. His platform was conservatism in bank legislation. He supported the Whig ticket in 1840, canvassing his district, the northern part of the State, with such enthusiasm, that the majority was changed from 6,000 Democrat to 6,000 Whig. After that he was allied with the Democrat party until 1828. In the Tucker campaign he engaged in joint debate with S. J. Gholson, maintaining the posi- tion of the Democratic party that the Union bank bonds were not an honest debt of the State.

He was a brigadier-general of militia after about 1840. In 1842, April to August, he was a justice of the supreme court by appoint- ment.

In January, 1847, he was elected colonel of the Second Missis- sippi regiment, for the Mexican war. This he afterward considered the most fatal step of his life, from which he dated all his mistakes. and most of his troubles. Arriving too late for the battle of Buena Vista, his regiment shared the forced inaction of Taylor's army. Col. Davis was attacked by the prevalent diarrhoea and was brought home at the point of death, but after a long illness, was restored to health.

When the Calhoun address to the people, in 1848-49, was put forth, suggesting the "solid South," Col. Davis, inspired also by criticisms of his record in the army, announced himself as an independent candidate for Congress. His opponents were W. S. Featherston, Democrat, and William L. Harris, Whig. After evidence of popular approval, he withdrew from the canvass. "I had vindicated myself against unjust aspersions and had also exposed the demagoguery of the famous address to the South- ern people," he says in his memoirs. He maintained that "seces- sion would prove to be only another name for bloody revolution." He was a Union Democrat in 1851 and this faction demanded his nomination for congressman at large as a condition of party re- union in 1852. But he was defeated in convention by one vote.

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On this account Alexander Bradford came out as an independent candidate, which was known as "the Chickasaw rebellion."

Soon after this episode he accepted the appointment of attorney for the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern railroad, and in 18 months secured the right of way from Canton to the Tennes- see river, and subscriptions to $600,000 worth of stock. Politically he was stranded, having as he said, encouraged an opposition movement by the Union Democrats though he "adhered most un- compromisingly to the Democratic State Rights party." He gave increased attention to the railroad business, appearing also as a criminal lawyer in murder cases, a branch of the practice in which he was unequalled. In 1855 he was nominated as a forlorn hope for the legislature, against the "Know Nothing" candidate, and was elected. He sat in two sessions and was particularly valuable in forcing consideration and adoption of the code. In 1857 he formed a law partnership with Lock E. Houston, and in July of the same year was mentioned for congress by the Democrats, his Whig opponent being Gen. Charles Clark of Bolivar. Being elected in October he took his seat in December, and at once observed that "everything that was said or done evinced a war spirit." When Albert Sidney Johnston was ordered to advance upon Utah, Quit- man told him it was the first step toward war, that the sectional quarrel was beyond settlement, and his policy was disunion. He adopted the attitude of his leaders, but "I had the frankness to say everywhere that war was in sight." He was reelected in 1859, and there was no opposition. In the memorable session of Con- gress that followed, in which was revealed the hopeless division of the Democrat party on sectional lines, and the strength of the Republican party, Davis was called on for a speech to delay the ballot for speaker. He writes: I "spoke for four mortal hours. I announced that war was inevitable and that the South was pre- pared for it, and would begin the fight whenever called upon." The famous Thomas Corwin replied with an earnest warning that "the South should take prudence among her counselors, and learn by moderation to avert destruction." (Recollections, 384-5). He was treated personally with great courtesy by his opponents, though classed as ultra in his views and one of the fire-eaters." Davis was one of the group (Pettus, Singleton, and Barksdale with him) that caused the calling of a secession convention and advised South Carolina to make her ordinance of secession take effect in- stantly. Of this action he wrote, "It was practically a declaration of war." He differed from those of his contemporaries who main-

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tained a theory of peaceful secession. Speaking from the same plat- form with Lamar, who ignored the possibility of war, he took occas- ion plainly to state the practical situation. In the session of congress, December, 1860, he was appointed by the.Republican speaker to represent Mississippi on the committee of thirty-three to consider the danger and inquire into the possibilities of adjustment. Sena- tor Jefferson Davis came to him and asked if he intended to serve. To his reply that he so fully intended, the senator rejoined, "Then it is useless to say anything to you," and turned away. For a week he was treated with great coldness by his Southern colleagues, and from the State he was warned that he might not be allowed to return there. In reply he published a card saying that the people making threats against him were inviting the nation to "a feast of blood," which he was determined to do anything honorable to avert. He made a bitter and vehement statement in behalf of the South before this committee. "The reply was vindictive and defiant. It was declared that the Northern States had no apologies to make in regard to their course with reference to slavery, and no guaran- tee to offer for their future action. It was also boldly asserted that not one foot of territory should thereafter become the home of a slaveholder." Nevertheless, Gen. Rust of Arkansas offered a reso- lution declaring that the committee was progressing harmoniously toward an arrangement, upon the adoption of which, a meeting of Southern congressmen at the rooms of Reuben Davis prepared and sent out the manifesto of December 14th, which "we telegraphed to all parts of the South. From that day there could be no hope of peace." As a final test he submitted a resolution declaring that the Constitution of the United States "recognizes property in the slave," and it was the duty of the government to protect that prop- rety like any other. This was rejected by the vote of the chairman, Thomas Corwin. Davis then asked to be excused from the com- mittee and it was granted before the significance was perceived,

. subsequent requests being denied. He left Washington Jan. 5, 1861, and was active as a brigadier-general and finally a major- general of the Army of Mississippi (q. v.) He took a brigade of sixty-days' men to Kentucky, late in 1861, and was assigned by Gen. Hardee to command of the fortifications of Bowling Green, Dec. 20. When the period of enlistment expired he returned home. Being elected a representative in the Confederate congress, he was present at the Richmond inauguration of President Davis. He, however, severely criticised the war policy, and was not in favor with the administration. He resigned in May, 1864, upon the re-

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jection of a scheme of campaign proposed by him. In 1878 he was a candidate for congress on the Greenback ticket. In Decem- ber following, while engaged in a criminal trial at Columbus, he was shot by the prosecuting attorney, and dangerously wounded, so that he was reported dead. In 1880 he published "Recollections of Mississippi and Mississippians," dedicated to the lawyers of the State, by "the sole survivor of the bar of fifty years ago." He died at Huntsville, Tenn., Oct. 14, 1890.

Davis, Varina Ann Jefferson, second wife of Jefferson Davis, was the daughter of William B. Howell and was born May 7, 1826, at Vicksburg, Miss. The Howells were of distinguished lineage, the first of the family coming from England and settling in New Jersey. An ancestor, Gov. Richard Howell, was an officer in the Revolution and her father won distinction under McDonough on Lake Cham- plain. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Davis was James Kempe, an Irish gentleman who came to Virginia after the Emmet rebellion. He was a man of large wealth and moved to Natchez when the mother of Mrs. Davis was an infant. Col. Kempe organized and drilled the "Natchez Troope," a company that fought through the Creek War. Her marriage with Jefferson Davis was solemnized February 26, 1845, at the "Briars," the home of the Howells near Natchez. From that day her life was an eventful one until its close. The great part played by Mr. Davis in the history of the South made their public life most trying but their private life was full of peace and sunshine. Their children were Samuel, Margaret, William Howell, Jefferson and Winnie. In June, 1864, the last named was born at Richmond, and to the day of her death was affectionately known as the Daughter of the Confederacy. The only child to survive Mrs. Davis is Margaret; now Mrs. J. Addison Hayes. Mrs. Davis' life was closely identified with that of her great husband's until his death in 1889. After that she moved to New York city and became prominent as a writer, most of her work being contributed to current periodicals. Her memoirs of her hus- band in two large volumes is one of great merit, both for its literary and historical excellence. She was one of the most brilliant women of her time and to the last maintained a patriotic attachment to the South and all its great traditions and sentiments. She died in New York, October 16, 1906 and was interred with her husband at Richmond, Va.

Davis, Varina Annie (Winnie), was born at Richmond, Va., June 27, 1864, the youngest daughter of Jefferson Davis. In April following Richmond fell, and she was carried in an army ambu-

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lance for hundreds of miles over rough roads, afterwards visiting her father in prison. She was educated in Europe, and returning, was the stay of her father's declining years. She went North with her mother after his death, to secure work, and was adopted and idolized by the United Confederate Veterans, as the "Daughter of the Confederacy." She attended their reunions until her death, Sept. 18, 1898. She was a contributor to the North American Review and other publications. Her chief works are: "The Veiled Doctor," a novel, Harper Bros., 1895; and "A Romance of Summer Seas," Harper Bros., 1898. "Charles Dudley Warner pays a high tribute to her striking character and ingenuous face, her sweet disposition, and power of great affection. He emphasizes her sym- phethic nature, her simplicity of manner, her open eyed candor, her transparent sincerity, and her unworldliness-her disposition to place spiritual things above material things. He was especially struck with the fact that she was free from prejudice and bitter- nes with regard to the war between the States. He had reason to know that she rather shrank from the demonstrations of the Confederate veterans toward her, as she was a little timid in such matters, and had a very humble opinion of herself and her merits, and a womanly reluctance to such publicity. Yet she met the try- ing situation admirably, her tact and her modesty preventing her from making any mistakes. She seemed to the veterans the em- bodiment of those principles of which they had fought, and she always remained true to the traditions of her family and her be- loved Southland."-(Sketch by Chiles Clifton Ferrell.)

Days, a post-hamlet of De Soto county, 10 miles northwest of Hernando, the county seat, and nearest banking town. Popula- tion in 1900, 35.

Dayton, a post-hamlet in the northwestern part of Amite county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 9 miles by rail north of Gloster, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 30.

Deaf and Dumb Institute. This institution originated in an act of the legislature of 1854, appropriating for that purpose the amount of money placed to the credit of the State by the government of the United States, from the proceeds of sales of public lands, under an act of 1841. It was provided that the institution should be under the control of the trustees for the Blind institute, who were then W. B. Smart, S. Pool and F. C. Jones. They purchased the prop- erty known as the "Cleaver Female institute," opposite the execu- tive mansion, comprising two acres of ground and suitable build-

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ings. The trustees had only $7,000 of the congressional fund avail- able, but purchased the land for $7,500, with the aid of subscriptions, and trusted to the legislature taking the buildings at $9,000. The institute was put in operation in August, 1854, under charge of John H. Gazlay, a graduate of the New York institute, but he did not remain long, for lack of salary.

The small compensation offered made it very difficult for the trustees to procure or retain a principal, and in 1855 the school was obliged to close for some time, because the salary offered the prin- cipal was too small. In 1861, the school had 57 pupils. During the war 1861-5, the building was burned and some provision had to be made for the pupils. Therefore, in 1863, the legislature empow- ered the trustees to place these or other deaf mute children in any suitable school either within or without the State, and appropriated $7,000 annually to their use for that purpose.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 64

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1030

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1030