Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 66

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 66

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He was elected lieutenant-governor by a plurality vote in 1821, and first presided over the senate in June, 1822. In the same sum- mer he was active in the defeat of Poindexter for Congress. In 1823 he was a candidate for governor against Walter Leake. The vote was divided by a third candidate, Dr. William Lattimore, and Leake was elected by a plurality but not a majority. On January 6, 1823, Dickson retired from office, saying in his farewell address, "Necessity will in future constrain me to devote myself exclusively to the duties of my profession, and it is probable that I shall no more mingle in the councils of my country," but he would withhold no effort for the prosperity of the State. He was one of the first ten pre-emptors of lots in Jackson, and the first post- master there (1822). In 1828 he was intrusted with the survey of the pass from below Chickasaw bluffs to the upper Yazoo, to determine whether it was practicable to open it up for navigation.

In the memorable political campaign of 1835 Dickson was one of the Whig candidates for congress, and received 2,000 votes more than his Whig colleague on the ticket, James C. Wilkins, and 42 more than his Democratic opponent, B. W. Edwards. J. F. H. Claiborne, his colleague in congress, wrote of him: "He was an early immigrant from Georgia-an eminent physician who prac- ticed extensively and rarely ever collected a bill-had lived in and represented five different counties-had an extensive and influen- tial connection-a man of imposing presence-full of information -a good talker and a humorist. He made no speeches and would not squabble about politics."

He was in poor health during the session of congress in which he served, and in the recess he died at Little Rock, Ark., July 31, 1836. The eulogy of him, pronounced in Congress by Col. Clai- borne, was one of the most famous examples of eloquence in that day.

Dickson, Harris, was born at Yazoo City, Miss., July 21, 1868, son of Capt. Thomas H. Dickson, a native of Jackson, Miss., cap- tain of Company E, 9th Mississippi regiment, in 1861-65, and postmaster at Jackson about 1878-79. Harris Dickson was educated in the Vicksburg public schools; attended the law schools of the University of Virginia and Columbian college, Washington; and was graduated in 1893; began the practice at Vicksburg, and was made judge of the municipal court in February, 1905. He is widely known as the author of novels,

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which deal largely with life in Mississippi, beginning with "The Black Wolf's Brood," published in 1899. Since then, he has pub- lished "The Siege of Lady Resolute," "She that Hesitates," "The Ravanels," and "The Duke of Devilmaycare."

Dido, a post-hamlet in the east-central part of Choctaw county, about 10 miles northeast of Chester, the county seat. Ackerman is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 53.

Digests. See Court Reports.

Dillard, a postoffice of Copiah county, 6 miles northwest of Hazlehurst, the county seat.

Dillon, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Pike county, on Bogue Chitto river, about 18 miles southeast of Magnolia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 56.

Dillville, a postoffice of Hancock county, 12 miles west of Bay St. Louis, the county seat.

Dinan, a post-hamlet of Pike county, about 18 miles northeast of Magnolia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.

Dinsmore, a postoffice of Noxubee county.

Dinsmore, Silas, United States agent among the Choctaws, was a native of Massachusetts, a scholarly man, of much travel, who had been a purser in the navy, possessed a large stock of useful information and inexhaustible humor, which made him a general favorite. He was also industrious and energetic in his duties. He was of great service in preparing the way for the treaty of Mount Dexter. He established his agency office in the valley of the Chick- asawhay, near the site of the town of Quitman, but removed in 1807 to the valley of Pearl river, a few miles above the site of the present state capital. He married a lady of Philadelphia, pur- chased a number of slaves, and opened a large plantation near his agency. He was particularly active in encouraging the Choctaws to support themselves by agriculture, and sought to awaken in them some self-reliance after many decades of dependence on the French, Spanish or American governments. John Pitchlynn was his invaluable aid and interpreter. His strictness in requiring travelers through the Choctaw country to be provided with pass- ports caused him some trouble with the general government, where the impatient and thoughtless made complaints. Having relinquished the Choctaw agency, he was nominated May 30, 1819, by Thomas Freeman, as principal deputy surveyor for the district east of the island of Orleans, which the president confirmed. It is said in Hamilton's Colonial Mobile, "Dinsmore surveyed Spring Hill before 1826, and seems to have been living there in 1828.

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Direct Tax. After Mississippi had become associated with the Confederate States, the congress of the United States, by act ap- proved Aug. 5, 1861, levied a direct tax on all the States of $20,- 000,000, of which the quota of Mississippi was $413,084. The tax was laid upon lands and improvements. It was collected in the Northern States. In cases such as Mississippi the president was authorized to collect the amount with interest at six per cent per annum, when the authority of the United States should be re- stored. Subsequently, in 1862, a penalty of 50 per cent was added in the case of States in rebellion, and the lands of such States were made chargeable with the tax and penalty as a lien, accord- ing to the proportionate value of each tract in the general assess- ment of the State for State taxation. An act of March, 1865, re- stricted the privilege of redemption of land sold to pay this tax to those who could swear they had not been insurgents or given them aid and comfort. A committee of the legislature of October, 1865, argued that the tax was without justification ; that "the late war was a civil war-not simply a civil war-but it was territo- rially a sectional war, treated as such by the United States, and recognized as such by the great powers of Europe." The commit- tee also claimed as offset the destruction of county and State prop- erty, to say nothing of the devastation of private property. It was also urged that the value of the lands had been greatly depreciated by the "turning loose" of an "industrious population of laborers." "Two hundred million dollars of property have been suddenly taken from the State. Waste and ruin meet the eye throughtout our former richest agricultural regions. . The actual pov- erty of the people of the State will necessitate the forfeiture and sale of a large portion of the lands, if the tax is imposed. .

The provisions of the law practically exclude our people from ever again possessing the land so sold. Surely congress will listen to an appeal for justice, sympathy and liberality." Con- gress did so. "By an act of July 2, 1866, the secretary of the treas- ury was directed to suspend the collection of the direct tax in the late seceded States until January 1, 1868. No lands were sold in Mississippi for non-payment of the tax." (Garner's "Reconstruc- tion," House Journal, 1865.)

There was also a cotton tax imposed by the United States con- gress in 1863, and collected in 1866-68, of 212 or 3 cents a pound, that was very burdensome, amounting in Mississippi to six or eight times the expenditures of the State government. This tax was repealed in 1868. Gov. Lowry reported in 1884 that the direct

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tax, amounting to $413,084, had been credited with $62,000, col- lected in Mississippi, and the Two and Three per cent fund incre- ments, since 1879, amounting to $25,000, were withheld to apply thereon. The act of congress, March 2, 1891, provided for the re- funding of this tax to all the States, for distribution to those who paid it or their heirs. Accordingly, $69,584 was paid to Gov. Stone in 1892, and was covered into the State treasury. When the time for filing claims against it had expired, March 2, 1897, $49,904 had been paid out. The balance of $20,000 the State was not required to account for.

Divide, a postoffice in Lawrence county.

Dixie, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Kemper county, located on Okatibbee creek, about 20 miles southwest of Dekalb, the county seat.

Dixon, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Neshoba county, about 10 miles from Philadelphia, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, and a high school. Population in 1900, 100.

D'Lo, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Simpson county, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 2 miles distant from Mendenhall. It has a money order postoffice, several stores, two saw mills, churches, a good school, a cotton gin and a bank. The Bank of D'lo was established in 1905. The population in 1900 was 70; estimated population in 1906, 300.

Doak's Stand. A station or tavern on the Robinson road, or Natchez trace, from Natchez, Tennessee. The house stood about a quarter mile south and a little west of the southwest corner of section 4, town 9, range 5 east, in Madison county. It can be lo- cated approximately on an ordinary map as four miles north of where the Choctaw boundary (which forms the northeast line of Rankin county) crosses Pearl river. See Treaty of Doak's Stand, 1820. This was the first seat of government of Hinds county.

Dobson, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, about 8 miles south- east of Brandon, the nearest railroad and banking town and county seat. Population in 1900, 50.

Docia, a postoffice of Jones county, 12 miles west of Ellisville, the county seat.

Dock, a postoffice of Kemper county, about 9 miles northwest of Dekalb, the county seat.

Dockery, a post-hamlet of Sunflower county, and the terminus of the Boyle & Sunflower branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Val- ley R. R., 25 miles north of Indianola, the county seat.

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Doddsville, a post-hamlet of Sunflower county, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 15 miles from Indianola, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 80 ; estimated in 1906 to be 150. The town has a fine artesian well.

Dollie, a hamlet of Jones county, 6 miles northwest of Ellisville, the county seat. The postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and it has rural free delivery from the county seat.

Doloroso, a post-hamlet of Wilkinson county, about 15 miles north of Woodville, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.

Dolphin, a post-hamlet of Webster county, 10 miles northeast of Walthall, the county seat.

Domain, Law of. A statement of legal conclusion on the ques- tions regarding land titles that originated during the British and Spanish dominions between the years 1763 and 1798, is here given, as of legal and historical interest. It was written by Wiley P. Harris for Claiborne's History of Mississippi and quoted by Ed- ward Mayes, in his "Glance at the Fountains of our Land Titles," 1887, as "a lucid statement of the determination of those trouble- some and important questions" by the courts.

The whole subject was, in one way or another, brought before the courts of the United States; and these courts announced cer- tain leading principles, and decided certain questions, which dis- posed of the whole subject of controversy, definitely and finally.

1st. That the treaty of 1782, between the United States and Great Britain, in recognizing the independence of the colonies, also recognized their title to the territory which they claimed ; that the United States did not, by that treaty, acquire any of their territory from Great Britain, but held it by original and inde- feasible title; that the declaration of independence was a denial of the sovereignty of Great Britain over the country.

2d. That the treaty with Spain of 1795, by which the 31st par- allel of north latitude was recognized as the southern boundary of the United States, was not a cession of territory north of that line by Spain, but the recognition of a pre-existing right in the United States.

3d. That neither the British grants subsequent to the declara- tion of independence, nor the Spanish grants, possessed any in- herent validity. The former were void because, according to the principles of public law, the war had established not only the in- dependence of the United States, but their title to the territory

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they occupied and claimed, from the time they renounced the sov- ereignty of Great Britain, and, consequently, British grants sub- sequent to that event were without any authority or foundation. The latter were void because Spain never had any title to the ter- ritory north of the 31st parallel.

4. That these grants were without efficacy, except as they were recognized by the acts of congress of 1803-4, so that such titles were, in legal contemplation, derived from the United States.

5. That there was not sufficient evidence that the limits of West Florida were ever extended to the Yazoo line, and that the contrary was impliedly conceded by the treaty of 1782, which fixed the 31st parallel as the true boundary ; as it was also by the treaty with Spain, of 1795.

6. That all grants by colonial governors of West Florida, of lands lying north of the 31st parallel, should be denied recogni- tion because those functionaries had no power, according to the laws of England, to make grants in territory over which they had no jurisditcion; and lastly, that grants by colonial governors, of land to which the Indian title had not, at this date, been extin- guished, were not entitled to recognition, even according to the proclamation of the British crown.

Donavan, a post-hamlet in the northeastern corner of Jackson county on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 36 miles north of Pascagoula, the county seat. Population in 1900, 175.

Dont, a postoffice of Covington county, 12 miles northeast of Williamsburg, the county seat.

Dormanton, a post-hamlet of Newton county, 10 miles north, northeast of Decatur, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.

Dorsey, a postoffice in the west-central part of Itawamba county, 6 miles from Fulton, the county seat. It is a money order office.

Dorsey, Sarah Anne, was born at Natchez, Feb. 16, 1829, a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Routh) Ellis, the latter a daugh- ter of Job Routh, the former a son of Col. Ellis and Lady Percy. In 1853 she married Samuel W. Dorsey, of Ellicott Mills, Md., then a planter of Tensas parish. She had travelled in Europe, was versed in ancient and modern languages, music and art. She made contributions to the New York Churchman, and in 1860 sent for publication the choral services she had arranged for religious in- struction of the slaves on her husband's plantation. During. the war the Dorsey home was burned. As a refugee in Texas she was a nurse in a Confederate hospital. After the death of Mr. Dorsey in 1875, she made her home at Beauvoir, where she con-

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tinued her literary labors, and assisted Jefferson Davis in the preparation of his "Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government." She published Recollections of Henry Watkins Allen; and the fol- lowing novels: Lucia Dare, Agnes Graham, Attalie and Panola. She died at New Orleans, July 4, 1879. By her will Beauvoir and three plantations were bequeathed to Mr. Davis.

Dossville, a post-hamlet of Leake county, 12 miles north of Car- thage, the county seat. Population in 1900, 50.

Dot, a post-hamlet of Franklin county, 8 miles south of Mead- ville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 15.

Double Springs, a hamlet in the northwestern part of Oktibbeha county, about 15 miles west of Starkville, the county seat. The station of Maben, on the Southern railway, is the nearest railroad town. It has four churches. Population in 1900, 126.

Dover, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Yazoo county, about 10 miles south, southeast of Yazoo City. It has 3 churches, several stores, and about 15 residences. Population in 1900, 79; estimated population in 1906 is 120.

Dow, Lorenzo, a famous evangelist, born in Connecticut in 1777, first visited Mississippi in the summer of 1803, coming on horse- back through the Creek country from Georgia to the Tombigbee settlements, and thence through the Choctaw nation to Natchez. He was nominally a Methodist, but in fact was more nearly allied to the Quakers and Moravians. He was kindly greeted by Gov. Claiborne, and was permitted to hold two meetings in the assem- bly room. Through his efforts money was collected to buy ground for a Methodist church at the village of Kingston, the first enter- prise of the kind in Mississippi territory. The deed made June, 1803, names Floyd, Foster, Truly, Turner and Calendar as trus- tees, and provides that preachers of other denominations might use the building, as well as Dow himself, "unless he should be- come an opposer of the doctrine or discipline of said church." He visited Pine Ridge, Washington, Sulzertown, Calendar's, and other places; at Big Black he preached the funeral sermon of a niece of Tobias Gibson, and then obtained a Spanish race horse from Randall Gibson for the return trip. His horse's speed en- abled him to avoid a threatened attack by some lawless Choctaws. On his return to the east he married his wife, Peggy, and leaving her immediately, started back to Mississippi with his brother-in- law to find a home, believing the Natchez would be "the garden of America." Reaching his destination in November, 1804, he found that some newspaper ridicule of him helped in obtaining au-

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diences. He had a camp-meeting at Washington, the first one in Mississippi. Returning to his wife after a few months, they went to England, where they had a checkered experience and many hardships. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law had made a venture in a sawmill, four miles south of Port Gibson, involving Dow finan- cially, and they found themselves obliged to defend the title to the land, at a time when titles were very insecure and uncertain. Two trips to Mississippi followed, and in the last one he was ac- companied by his wife. They built a little home near the mill, and his wife was in the territory two years continuously, though he was absent one year in the North. Finally, he sold all his inter- ests, paid all his debts, and abandoned his home. "Dow's Mill" is yet a geographical name, and some ruins of his possessions were visible a few years ago. It appears from an advertisement in the Natchez Chronicle that he held meetings at Washington and Nat- chez in February, 1809. It may or may not detract from the view of him as an apostle to observe that he was also selling a medical book, "recommended by Dr. Rush." He donated the ground at the town of Washington on which was built the first Methodist church in the territory, and in which was held the constitutional convention of 1817. The year before the admission of the State he made his last visit to Natchez, coming down the river from Cincinnati, and proceeding to New Orleans. He died at Wash- ington, D. C., in 1834. (Article by C. B. Galloway, in Publs. M. H. S., IV, 233.)

Dowd, William Francis, was born in South Carolina, Dec. 31, 1820, of Irish ancestry. His father was a Baptist preacher and a captain in the war of 1812. His mother was a graduate of the Moravian school of Salem, N. C. In 1832 he accompanied his par- ents to the vicinity of Jackson, Tenn., where he was reared to ma- turity, with the advantages of some schooling. In 1841 the family residence was changed to Monroe county, Miss. He began read- ing law on the farm, was admitted to the bar in 1846, and began practice at Aberdeen, where he was also editor of a Whig news- paper. In 1854, when his practice was very successful, he mar- ried a daughter of Col. James Brown, of Lafayette county. When the war came on he raised the 24th regiment, of which he was commissioned colonel. He was in battle at Corinth in the spring of 1862, and at Perryville, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, after which, on account of impaired health, he accepted duty as one of the judges of the military court in north Alabama. In 1865 he resumed the practice as a partner of John B. Sale and

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James Phelan, and attained great prominence. One of his notable appearances was as counsel, with Gen. Gholson and others, in de- fense of persons arrested by the United States marshal, under the enforcement law, for the murder of a negro in Monroe county, and he made a brilliant argument on the question of jurisdiction-State and Federal. (See Lynch, Bench and Bar, 402.) He was soon afterward invited to accept the position of assistant district attor- ney to aid in the prosecution of cases under the Civil Rights bill and enforcement act. He died at Aberdeen, Nov. 28, 1878.

Dowell, a postoffice of Leake county.

Dragoons, Mississippi. The cavalry battalion, known as the Mississippi Dragoons, was organized in September, 1813, after the Fort Mims massacre, to support Generals Claiborne and Flournoy, in the Creek war. It was formed of the Jefferson troop, Capt. Thomas Hinds; the Adams troop, Capt. James Kempe; the Madi- son (Ala.) troop, Capt. J. G. Richardson, the Amite troop, Captain Dunn; in all abut 200 men. Capt. Hinds was promoted to major commanding, and Dr. William Lewis was appointed surgeon. They started from the town of Liberty for the Tombigbee, with the 3d U. S. infantry, Sept. 23. On their arrival, the dragoons found that no service awaited them that had opportunities of glorious distinction, only the guarding of plantations and the occa- sional chasing of hostile Indians. Besides, they were not taken into the United States service. Their most active duty was with Claiborne in his movement to Pine Level, but no considerable body of Indians could be found.

In the fall of 1814 the Dragoons, under Maj. Hinds, went to the support of Gen. Jackson, in the vicinity of Mobile, and par- ticipated in the capture of Pensacola. At Pensacola the dragoons were exposed between two fires-one from Fort St. George, in the rear of the town, manned with English and Spanish troops, and the other from the seven British ships of war in the harbor. South of the town in a scouting expedition toward the Barrancas, Lieut. Alexander Murray, second in command of the Adams Troop, and a fellow countryman and associate of Kempe, was shot by an In- dian and instantly killed.

When Jackson began to move his army to New Orleans, Hinds' command was ordered to report there as soon as possible. "They marched to Liberty, Amite county, where, as many as desired it were furloughed for three days to get a remount, and rendezvous at Camp Richardson, in Wilkinson county. The march was pushed on day and night, the weather very cold and wet, the road exceed-

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ingly bad. They entered the city on the night of the 23d of De- cember, at 2 o'clock, and bivouacked on what is now known as Lafayette square." (Claiborne's Mississippi.) The date of their arrival was December 18-20, according to Anthony Campbell, writing in 1837. Their first fight was on the night of the 23d, when the British infantry had landed.

The Dragoons were immediately put in action, the first adven- ture being a dash down Royal street and out three miles or so be- low the city, where they slipped through the British outposts and captured sixty men. This was the same night that Jackson marched down from the city and in a night battle forced back the British lines. While the position was being fortified the dragoons were kept constantly in front of the enemy and had frequent skir- mishes. They made no fires, and when the British, bound to fol- low tradition, lit their fires in the night, the Mississippi riflemen would pick off the enemy as the light revealed their forms. Gen- eral Pakenham remonstrated that this was unchivalrous, but Jack- son answered in effect, that it was a way they had and the British did not have to stay there. Christmas day, some of the Jefferson troop, by order of Col. Hinds, who encouraged them with a prom- ise to recover their bodies if they fell, made a dash in front of the British lines and brought off 70 or 80 horses. "On the 30th of December the famous adventure of the ditch occurred. Colonel Hinds reported at headquarters that his pickets had detected a strong party of the British creeping up a wide and deep ditch traversing the field before us. Some doubt being expressed, he ob- tained permission to make an immediate reconnoissance. He formed the battalion and said: 'Boys, you see that big ditch. It's full of redcoats. I'm going over it. Whoever wishes may follow me. Whoever chooses to stay here may stay.' And off he went at full speed, and every man close behind him. They leaped the ditch, which was crowded with soldiers, made a circuit in front of the British lines, and charged over the ditch a second time, each dragoon firing his pistol on the astounded soldiers, as they bounded over. The whole affair was phenomenal and almost supernatural, and apparently stupefied the crouching redcoats. But they recov- ered in time to give us a general volley, which wounded several of the troops, and tumbled over a number of horses. L. C. Har- ris and Charles H. Jourdan each got a bullet in the right shoulder." (Mss. of M. W. Trimble.)

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 66

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