USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 67
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Said Jackson in his address to his army, below New Orleans, Jan. 21, 1815: "The cavalry from the Mississippi territory, under
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their enterprising leader, Major Hinds, was always ready to per- form every service which the nature of the country enabled them to execute. The daring manner in which they reconnoitred the enemy on his lines, excited the admiration of one army and the astonishment of the other."
The battalion was mustered out in March, 1815. A public din- ner was given Maj. Hinds on his return to Natchez, presided over by the venerable Col. John Steel, with Edward Turner and Gov- ernor Holmes among the guests. One of the toasts was: "The Mississippi dragoons-the terror of the enemy and the unceasing defenders of their country."
Drew, an incorporated post-village in the northern part of Sun- flower county, and a station on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 12 miles northeast of Cleveland; and about 25 miles north of Indianola, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 195; estimated in 1906 at 500. The Bank of Drew was established in 1904 with a capital of $30,000. The town has two churches for whites and one for colored people ; also. a Masonic Lodge. It has a fine artesian well.
Drought of 1838. A severe drought caused much damage in Mississippi in the summer and autumn of 1838. The drought ex- tended to the head waters of the tributaries of the Mississippi river, both east and west, south of 42 degrees of latitude. All the rivers were at an extreme low water mark, and the smaller streams were completely dried up by September 1. The lower Mississippi became so low that only small boats, drawing less than five feet of water, could pass, and often pilots could not find eight feet of water for 300 miles below the Ohio. At Natchez the river was four or five feet below low water mark.
Drycreek, a postoffice of Covington county, 6 miles west of Williamsburg, the county seat.
Drygrove, a post-hamlet of Hinds county, 9 miles directly south of Raymond, the county seat. Terry, 10 miles east, is the nearest banking town. It has a church and an Episcopal Theolog- ical Seminary, called Bishop Green Associate Mission. There is also a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 75.
Dryrun, a post-hamlet of Prentiss county, about 8 miles north- west of Booneville, the county seat and nearest railroad and bank- ing town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 22.
Dubard, a postoffice of Grenada county, on the Yazoo & Mis- sissippi Valley R. R., 6 miles west of Grenada.
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Dubbs, a post-hamlet of Tunica county, 8 miles south of Tunica, the county seat and the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 52.
Dublin, a post-village of Coahoma county, 10 miles southeast of Clarksdale, the county seat of justice, and the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, and lies in a fertile cotton growing section of the State. Population in 1900, 160; population in 1906 is estimated at 200.
Duckhill is a small post station on the Illinois Central railroad, located in the northwestern part of Montgomery county, about half way between Winona and Grenada. The last census gave it a population of 242 (estimated at 325 in 1906). It supports two churches, a Baptist .and Methodist, has a good public school, and ships annually about 4,000 bales of cotton. The shipment of strawberries is also a growing industry at this point.
Duelling. In his charge to the grand jury at the opening of the court of quarter sessions in Adams county, August, 1800, Chief Justice William Dunbar said: "On the subject of offenses I find myself impelled to animadvert upon a crime of a heinous nature, which is too often resorted to upon very slight and trivial occa -- sions; I mean the practice of duelling, where both parties meet: avowedly with an intent to murder, presumptuously arrogating to. themselves the right to wanton with their own lives and those of their fellow creatures, in direct contradiction to the laws of both God and man." The territorial laws of 1799 made challenges pun- ishable as an affray of aggravated nature, and killing in a duel was defined as murder.
Gov. Sargent had written to Daniel Clark earlier in the same year of a "recent and most abominable transaction." The affair I allude to has happened upon or near Second creek, where some persons of the name of Carter and Tomlinson have, it is said, given and received wounds, from which death or deaths may ensue." The general assembly of 1803, of which Will- iam Dunbar was a leading member, passed an act "to prevent the. evil practice of duelling." It was a time when it was socially proper to take another's life in atonement for the demands of "honor," and legally possible to deprive a white man of liberty, even to sell him into slavery for a term, in payment of a financial obligation.
In 1807 Capt. Jones of the gun ketch, Etna, and Capt. Leonard, of the Vesuvius, of the flotilla stationed at Natchez, fought at nine feet distance, and exchanged shots four times before there was a
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hit, which was not fatal. Delegate Poindexter opened belligerent negotiations with Gov. Williams, but the latter refused to recog- nize the "code." Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne, more complaisant to the demands of "honor," met Daniel Clark at the Manchac fort, on Spanish soil, in the summer of 1807, and received a wound in the thigh.
Capt. Winfield Scott, rejoining his regiment after the transfer from New Orleans to the town of Washington, found rumors ex- tant that he had appropriated the pay of some of his men to his own use, and in the trouble that followed he made charges against the loyalty of Wilkinson and was arrested. He was tried by court martial, acquitted of evil intent regarding the financial matter, also of speaking disrespectfully of the general, but was sentenced to one year's suspension. Scott then challenged Dr. Upshaw and a duel was fought Feb. 10, 1810, on the west bank of the Missis- sippi, opposite Natchez, where the bluffs were crowded by sev- eral hundred spectators, including officers of the army. The future general received a painful scalp wound. Over another courtmar- tial quarrel, Lieut. Stephen Rose, U. S. A., and Andrew H. Holmes, brother of Governor Holmes, fought opposite the mouth of St. Catherine, at ten paces, and Rose was instantly killed.
So the record might be prolonged, with great interest, to the extent of several volumes. (See McClung, Foote, Prentiss, etc.) In later days, Vicksburg also had its duelling ground on the Lou- isiana shore. The biographies of the great men of the State, of that day, are incomplete without their affairs of honor, and such events influenced in a vast degree the progress of public events.
In the first constitutional convention (1817) William Lattimore proposed to make duelling a disqualification for office, but this was rejected by a vote of 37 to 6.
In the Poindexter code of 1822, killing another in a duel was de- fined as murder and challenging to a duel disqualified a man for public office, as well as subjected him to a fine of $1,000. There- after, the governor, and all other officers, upon taking office, were required to swear that they had not been engaged in a duel, nor had sent or accepted a challenge, since the passage of the act of 1822, neither would they be so concerned in duelling during their continuance in office. It was not uncommon, from the earliest day, for challenges to be ignored on the ground of public service. On this justification J. F. H. Claiborne refused two, one from S. S. Prentiss.
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At Natchez, in 1828, an association was formed "for the purpose of suppressing this evil practice," and a committee composed of Stephen Duncan, James C. Wilkins, R. H. Adams, Charles B. Green, Thomas B. Reed, Edward Turner, Duncan S. Walker, Adam L. Bingaman, John A. Quitman, Col. James Smith, James Green, George Winchester and Felix Huston, was appointed to draw up a constitution "which shall provide a Court of Honor for the decision of all differences" for a settlement of which custom compelled men to resort to duelling.
By the constitution of 1832 the legislature was authorized to require the duelling oath if it saw fit, which it did not. Gov. Run- nels in 1835, said, "The frequent scenes of bloodshed which have occurred in the face of society, against law both human and di- vine," induced him to call for a law to suppress duelling. By the constitution of 1869 any person concerned in a duel as principal or second, or in proposing a duel, was forever disfranchised and disqualified for holding office. In his message of May 4, 1871, Gov- ernor Alcorn wrote: "A further cause of crime amongst us lies in the ridiculous practice of posting. Such mock heroism might very well have passed amongst a people uneducated in the stern chivalry of war. If, however, the manliness of public sentiment has not learned to laugh to scorn this routine of cheap gallantry, the law must come to the rescue of, at all events, our decency and order." As late as 1880, James D. Lynch, in his Bench and Bar of Mississippi, wrote: "While the institution of chivalry, as it ex- isted in the middle ages, has long since been borne down by the heavy tread of a cold asceticism, and our society bears but little analogy to the scenes of Ivanhoe or the days of Richard Coeur de Lion, the duello, in spite of all regrets and denunciations, will con- tinue to give tone to the upper circles of Southern society so long as Southern honor maintains its historic standard."
Senator Lamar said to a friend who anticipated a challenge, or assault : "Stand by your higher convictions. Every true man has a right to live his own life and stand upon his own principle of ac- tion. The sentiment of the world has changed in that respect, even here in the South. . Never say that you look down upon the code of honor, or that you regard it as barbarous, or any- thing of that sort. Say only that your aspirations and your hopes lie in other directions; that without detracting from those who want to live differently, you have pitched your life upon a differ- ent plane and have other things in view."
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Duke, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Hinds county, 6 miles west of Utica, the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 50.
Dumas, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Tippah county, 10 miles southeast of Ripley, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, three churches, a good school and a fine Munger system gin; population in 1900, 99; in 1906 it was estimated at 150.
Dumont. Author of The Historical Memoirs of Louisiana from the first coming of the French to the year 1740, or the close of Bienville's second campaign against the Chickasaws. He was sta- tioned for a number of years at Forts Rosalie and St. Peter, as lieutenant and engineer. He also accompanied de la Harpe in 1721, in the capacity of mathematician, on his expedition of 150 miles up the Arkansas river. He appears to have been at Fort Rosalie shortly before the massacre, in 1729, as he records a se- rious difficulty he had with the arbitrary commander of that year, M. de Chopart. His narrative of the wars with the Natchez, and of the expeditions of 1736 and 1739 against the Chickasaws, are particularly full and instructive. Mr. French has published a translation of his Memoirs in the Historical Collections of Louis- iana, and remarks: "It is much to be regretted that M. Dumont, who lived some years after he returned to France, had not brought down his history of Louisiana to its abandonment to Spain."
Dunbar's Line. This name may appropriately be given to that part of the southern boundary of Mississippi that touches the river, if not to the whole line from the Mississippi to the Pearl. Ellicott, having waited more than a year upon the Spanish began the work independently, and had determined a point on the line of 31° before William Dunbar's arrival, May 26, 1798. The latter set up his astronomical circle fifteen feet north of Ellicott's sec- tor, and made independent observations for several nights, from which he concluded that Ellicott had fixed the line too far north by six French feet. He, however, as astronomer of His Catholic Majesty, approved the starting point as fixed by his colleague, disregarding the small difference. Ellicott had also established a due east and west line through this point, by taking double alti- tudes of the star Arcturus, which Dunbar accepted, "entertaining the highest confidence in the scientific knowledge as well as the veracity of the American commissioner." "From the point where the east and west line was established, a line was carried due west, by cutting a trace sixty feet wide, which was consequently a tan-
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gent to the parallel of latitude, and was pushed on to the termination of the high grounds." The annual inundation pre- vented any progress at that time in the low lands westward, and when the waters had receded, "the moist and swampy soil in the vicinity of the Mississippi being considered as hazardous to the health of our northern friends, I proposed (Dunbar's report) that the American commissioner should continue his progress east- ward, with the white laborers, 50 in number, reserving for myself the task of pushing the line through the low lands to the margin of the Mississippi with the assistance of two surveyors, 22 black laborers and a white overseer." He made his camp on a beautiful bluff commanding the river in the latter days of July and began cutting the line through the low grounds toward the river Au- gust 1. The line was extended to the river bank on the 17th, the distance being two miles and 180 perches, or 2,111.42 French toises. At the distance of one and two miles square posts were erected surrounded by mounds, and 88 feet from the river bank a post ten feet high surrounded by a mound eight feet high. "On this point is inscribed on the south side a crown with the letter R underneath ; on the north U. S., and on the west side fronting the river, Agosto 18th, 1798, 31° Lat. N." Mr. Dunbar returned to the camp on Bayou Sara August 20, and remained until the line had been carried to the distance of about eighteen miles from the river, including the whole of the cultivated lands, when he retired from the work, agreeably to the stipulation he had made before- hand with the Spanish government. His report to the Spanish government has been copied from the archives in Spain, and printed in Pub. Miss. Hist. Society, III, 185.
Dunbar, William, was born in 1749, the youngest son of Sir Archibald Dunbar, of Moray shire, Scotland, whose home was near the town of Elgin, where the cathedral was for several cen- turies the burial place of the family. He was educated at Glas- gow, also studied mathematics and astronomy at London, and, for the sake of his health, came to America in 1771, arriving at Philadelphia in April with a trading outfit of goods, which he transported over the mountains to Pittsburg. He engaged alone for two years in the Indian trade and then formed a partnership with John Ross, a Scotch merchant of Philadelphia, which con- tinued until the latter's death in 1800. He came down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1773, in one of the flatboats of the time, a very dangerous trip when the Indians were hostile, and selected a tract of land near New Richmond (Baton Rouge), upon which
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he decided to make his home as a planter. He visited Pensacola to obtain a grant of the land from Gov. Chester, sailed to Jamaica to buy the necessary number of slaves, and with them, returned to his new home by way of the Louisiana lakes and the Amite river. He experimented with indigo, which the British government recommended the colonists to produce, but found the manufacture of staves for the West India market more profitable. Life was full of adventures in that frontier quarter. Some of his most val- uable slaves were lost to him through an insurrection; his home was plundered thoroughly by the Willing soldiery in 1778, and again in 1779 by the troops of Galvez. After the treaty of 1783, desiring to be in American territory, he removed to a plantation nine miles south of Natchez and four miles east of the Mississippi river, where he built his home known as "The Forest," which was his residence during the remainder of life. In Natchez district he was a cultivator of cotton and indigo, and one of the first to see the possibilities of cotton. He wrote to Ross in 1799 that in the season he had made not less than 20,000 pounds of clean cotton. He introduced the square bale for the packing of cotton, ordered a screw press made at Philadelphia according to his plans, and when informed that the press cost $1,000 determined to indemnify himself by extracting the oil from the cotton seed, which he ob- served was "between the fat and drying oils, resembling linseed in color and tenacity, but perhaps less drying." This was many years before cotton seed was utilized in any manner, even for feed- ing. Under the Spanish government he held for some years the office of surveyor, succeeding William Vousdan. He was a loyal supporter of such government as was maintained, whether Span- ish or American, but welcomed with pleasure the coming of the United States flag in 1797, and was one of the trusted advisers of Commissioner Ellicott. In 1798 he was appointed by Gayoso, then governor of Louisiana, to act as astronomer on behalf of Spain in running the line of demarcation. He carried on independent ob- servations to verify the correctness of the starting point, which was over two miles from the river, and ran the line from that place to the river and established the monument on the bank of the "father of waters." Ellicott wrote that "his extensive scien- tific attainments, added to a singular facility in making calcula- tions, would have reduced my labor to a mere amusement, if he had continued." The estimate of the same eminent mathematician, in his. "Journal," was that Dunbar was "a gentleman whose exten- sive information and scientific attainments would give him a dis-
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tinguished rank in any place or any country." It was not long after this that Daniel Clark, a man of great ability, wrote to Thomas Jefferson that Dunbar, "for science, probity and general information is the first character in this part of the world," and suggested him as a person worthy of being consulted for informa- tion. Accordingly a correspondence between Jefferson and Dun- bar began, which resulted in the election of the Natchez planter to membership in the Philosophical society, upon the recommenda- tion of Mr. Jefferson. His report of the survey of the line, made to the Spanish government, is a work of great interest, embracing a description of natural history as well as astronomical observa- tions. The last ten years of his life were almost entirely devoted to scientific researches, of which there is a record in his contribu- tions published by the American Philosophical society. He and Ellicott were the main contributors to the sixth volume of the so- ciety transactions. He wrote a paper of great interest on the sign language of the Indians, showing that in this method of commu- nication there were certain roots of language like those in speech. He contributed his careful and exact observations of temperature, rainfall and barometer; described fossil bones and lunar rainbows ; proposed the storm theory of vortices with centers of profound calm; collected Indian vocabularies ; observed the rise and fall of the river; reviewed the theories of foreign scientists regarding hydrostatics ; observed an eclipse of the sun from his private ob- servatory on Union hill, June 16, 1806; contributed at Jefferson's request a method of finding the longitude without knowledge of the precise time, and toward the last, reported his observations of the comet of 1807-8. In 1804, by authority of President Jefferson, he explored the Washita river country and made the first scien- tific report on the Hot Springs. In the following year he was given general supervision of the Red river expedition. He was the cen- ter of the Mississippi Society, the pioneer of science in the South- west, and imported many books and instruments for its use, as well as the finest products of London and Philadelphia in the way of astronomical, surveying and general scientific instruments for his own use. He was indifferent to politics, but held office as magistrate under Gov. Sargent, rendering faithful public service in the beginnings of the Commonwealth. His death occurred in October, 1810. His widow died at The Forest, Nov. 15, 1821. (See sketch by F. L. Riley, in Pubs. M. H. S., vol. II.)
Duncan, an incorporated post-village in the northeastern part of Bolivar county, 12 miles southwest of Clarksdale, on the Yazoo
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& Mississippi Valley R. R. It was named for a leading citizen of the place. Population in 1900, 172; population in 1906 was esti- mated at 400. The Bank of Duncan, recently organized, affords banking opportunities to its citizens.
Duncan, Stephen, was born at Carlisle, Pa., in 1787; was edu- cated at a college there, and graduated in medicine in 1805. He came to Natchez in 1808, and after practicing his profession some time, became a wealthy planter. He was twice married, first to Margaret Ellis and afterward to Catherine Bingaman. In the later 1820's Dr. Duncan was president of the Bank of Mississippi. He was the agent of the State in 1829 to negotiate a loan of $200,000. His "talents, indefatigable preserverance and standing in society, eminently qualified him for the trust," said Governor Brandon. But the circumstances of the enterprise made his efforts unsuccess- ful. In 1863 Dr. Duncan removed to New York, where he died in 1867.
Duncansby, a post-village of Issaquena county, on the Missis- sippi River, 90 miles above Vicksburg, and 5 miles above Mayers- ville, the county seat. Next to Mayersville, it is the largest town in the county. Grace station, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., is the nearest railroad point, and Rolling Fork is the nearest banking town. It has two churches and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 157.
Dundee, post-hamlet in the southern part of Tunica county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 12 miles south of Tunica, the county seat. Population in 1900, 70.
Dunleith, a post-hamlet in the northeastern part of Washington county, on the Southern Ry., 15 miles by rail east of Greenville. Population in 1900, 40.
Dunnaway, a postoffice of Grenada county, four miles northwest of Grenada, the county seat.
Durant, the metropolis of Holmes county, is located in the east- ern part on the Illinois Central R. R., at the junction of its branches to Aberdeen and Tchula. The town increased in popu- lation over 500 in the decade 1890-1900 and maintained an even more rapid rate of increase during the ensuing five years, having an estimated population of about 2,300 in 1906. It is in the center of a rich farming country, especially noted for the successful growing of strawberries for the northern market. The "Durant" berries always have a special quotation in the Chicago price cur- rent, and the total annual value of the shipments of this fruit has run as high as $50,000 or $60,000. Large quantities of other fruits
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and early vegetables are also shipped from this point, and Durant is a good cotton market, though fewer bales are now shipped than formerly. Among the industrial enterprises of the town are a wagon factory, a large brick factory and a cotton gin. In the vicinity of Durant are some excellent vacant lands suitable for almost any kind of manufacturing industry. A postoffice of the third class is maintained here, and three rural free delivery routes emanate from Durant, running to Franklin, to Bowling Green and to Edsville. Two good banking institutions-the Bank of Durant and the Peoples Bank-minister to the financial needs of the town, and there is a weekly newspaper-the "Durant News", edited by L. Elmore. An excellent graded school is maintained and the pub- lic school building cost some $12,000; all the principal religious denominations have church edifices, there being eight altogether ; there are also two fine hotels. The town owns its own electric lighting plant, and there are nine artesian wells, each of which throws a stream 16 to 20 feet high through a three-quarter inch pipe, giving Durant the best artesian well service in the State. Only three miles from Durant are the well known Castalian Springs, whose mineral waters were held in high esteem before the war, and are still popular.
Durham, a postoffice of Coahoma county.
Dwiggins, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Sunflower county, 26 miles north of Indianola, the county seat, and three miles from Drew, the nearest railroad station.
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