USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 80
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The greater portion of the State is characterized by the Orange sand, sand rock and hardpan, which is entirely absent only in the Delta. It forms the White Cliffs and Loftus Heights, but does not closely approach the river north of Natchez. In a well dug at the University it was found 200 feet thick, but is usually 40 to 60 feet, though very fluctuating. An orange-yellow color predominates, but there are delicate rose hues in the southern pine region, and crim- son, purple and almost blue may be found. Where the iron color- ing material is considerable a ferruginous sandstone is formed, which has been very important in determining the contour of the country, by checking the wearing away of the sand, and forming the curious detached hills or "buttes" in North Mississippi, Tip- pah, Marshall, Lafayette, Carroll and Yalobusha. In such places may be found tubes of this material, sometimes five feet long, and other curious shapes, that have been put to various uses. Similar formations are going on constantly, wherever vegetable matter is decaying in contact with the sand, the iron being dissolved, form- ing chalybeate waters, which deposit their iron in trickling through
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the sand. In some places the sand has been transformed into a white siliceous sandstone.
The material next in abundance to the sand is pebbles or shin- gle, either cemented into puddingstone, or, more frequently, loose and commingled with clay. The pebble beds occur mainly in a belt east of the Yazoo river, and along Bear Creek and the Tom- bigbee, extending to the great pebble beds of the Warrior. These pebble beds are mainly chert, hornstone and jasper, with here and there agate, chalcedony, cornelian, sardonyx, etc. Pebbles of rock crystal are common in some places. The greater variety is in the western beds.
The character of the sand and gravel deposits "proves beyond question that its deposition, preceded and accompanied by ex- tensive denudations, has taken place in flowing water, the effect of whose waves, eddies and counter-currents is plainly recogniza- ble in numerous profiles. Nor can there be any doubt that the general direction of the current was from north to south, though locally changed or directed by the pre-existing inequalities of the surface." (Hilgard.) The arrangement of the pebble beds into belts proves that currents of greater velocity existed there, coin- ciding in the main with the rivers at present existing-the Mis- sissippi and Tombigbee, the connection of the latter channel with the former having been closed by the pebble beds, throwing north- ward the waters of the Hatchie, Tuscumbia, Big Bear and other southern tributaries of the Tennessee river. The pebbles were deposited where the current was strongest, the sand in the inter- vening spaces, and clay in the most quiet spots. Still later, another great denudation occurred, at the time of the deposit of the yellow loam.
On Bear Creek, in the outcrop of the Carboniferous, is a very durable sandstone, and at one locality an excellent grindstone rock is found.
The Cretaceous formation include the rotten limestone, a soft chalky rock, frequently exposed in cliffs along the streams and near the surface where there are barren patches. Such are the so called Chickasaw Old Fields, really small barren prairies, where the limestone lies close to the surface. (Hilgard.)
During 1903-04 the Selma chalk was carefully mapped through the Tombigbee river basin by Eugene A. Smith and A. F. Crider. (See Cement Materials.) At Gainesville this chalk forms a bluff 30 or 40 feet high, overlaid by sands and gravels of the Lafayette age. At the big elbow bend of the Oaknoxubee near Macon, it forms a bluff 75 feet high, a solid mass of white chalk.
The flatwoods country of the northeast is an exposure of the Midway group, including the gray plastic, "popping clay," where the Lafayette sand is washed off. Black oak is the principal tim- ber over the Selma chalk, which forms a black, rich loam. The Midway or Flatwoods clay is well shown at Scooba.
The limestone of the Selma chalk is in some places very soft, and at Prairie Rock is crystalline in character, called flint rock,
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and has been used for building, but breaks down easily. when ex- posed to the weather. The post oak land is the Lafayette sand; the prairie land from which the Lafayette has been removed, leav- ing the black rich loam produced by decomposition of the Selma rock. This prairie soil was too rich for cotton when the country was first settled, but after many years of corn production it be- came as it is now the principal cotton land in that region, while the post oak land has been largely abandoned.
In some places where the limestone is exposed there is an en- tire absence of soil over large areas, called the "bald prairies."
The Eutaw sands form a bluff 90 feet high at Columbus, of a light golden yellow toward the top. The upper part of the sand deposit contains shells of two species of large oysters.
"By far the greater portion of the State is occupied by deposits of the Tertiary age, if we leave out of consideration the strata of the Orange sand, which forms the greater portion of the actual surface." Their place is mainly in the southern part of the State. Lowest are some lignitic clays and sands; next the Claiborne stage of white and blue marls; next the Jackson stage of white and blue marls, underlaid at Jackson by lignitic clay; next the Vicksburg stage of crystalline limestones and blue marl; and most recent, the Grand Gulf stage, or Southern lignitic, white and gray sand- stones, usually soft, colored clays and sands, and fossil remains of tree palms. The Claiborne formation is generally overlaid by the Orange sand. The Jackson group is characterized by huge bones of a sea animal, the Zeulodon, shark's teeth, etc. The rock is found outcropping along the valley of the Pearl. The soil above it is soft, yellowish, calcareous clay.
The Vicksburg group is the highest of the marine eocene of Mississippi, and the only formation of that era that is exposed along the Mississippi, where it was studied by the geologist Con- rad. It runs in a narrow belt across the State and forms the bluff at St. Stephens, Alabama. Associated with it is strata of gypsum- clays. The Grand Gulf group is mapped geologically as occupy- ing the main part of South Mississippi, but it is generally covered by the Orange sand, and it is not easily found except along Pearl river and the tributaries of the Mississippi. The whole formation, from Grand Gulf and Raymond to the Pascagoula, is characterized by the presence of gypsum and common salt, and generally also magnesium salts. Many of the solid sandstones of this region will effloresce with salt when exposed. The characteristic exposure is in the bluff at Grand Gulf. Near Winchester the lignitized trunks of trees may be found, standing as they grew, with the soil show- ing the annual deposit of leaves, all buried deep under twenty feet of Orange sand. These trees are ancient forms of palms, pines, oaks and beeches.
The Orange Sand formation, already described, is the oldest of what was called the Quarternary era. More recent in the same era comes the Bluff formation of the river coast, the Yellow Loam deposits that are the basis of the agricultural wealth of the upland
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part of the State ; the Hommocks or second bottoms of the streams yet existing, and latest, the alluvial deposits resulting from action yet going on. The Bluff formation, characteristic of the southern river counties, is a fine silt, almost too siliceous to be called a loam, of a grayish or yellowish buff tint, containing enough carbonates of lime and magnesia to effervesce, also considerable chunks of carbonates. These beds overlay the Orange sand formation when associated with it, intervening below the surface loam that is found directly upon the sand or hardpan of the Orange Sand formation in other parts of the State. The Bluff formation contains among its fossils the remains of the mastodon and fossil horse and ox. The waters of this deposit are very hard. This silt bed is of vary- ing thickness, at Vicksburg varying from 50 to 10 feet; at some places 70 feet. It is generally overlaid by 3 to 10 feet of solid brown clayey loam, the agricultural soil. The silt resists the ac- tion of water peculiarly in steep slopes, but when once shattered it wears away rapidly, and some fertile regions can be but little cultivated on account of the brokenness of the surface.
The Loams, yellow, brown or reddish, which form the surface and essentially the soils of the greater part of Mississippi, consti- tute an independent deposit, later than the Orange Sand and Bluff deposit, and older than the alluvial deposits of the present epoch. The nature of its materials and the absence of stratification dis- tinguish it from the Orange Sand, and the general absence of lime and presence of hydrated peroxide of iron separate it from the Bluff formation. From the appearance of the loam stratum even on high ridges and elevated uplands, it is obvious that it was de- posited, in part at least, before the great denudation that produced the present contour of the surface; yet its increasing thickness, as the Mississippi river is approached, indicates that that great chan- nel was then in existence. On the Tombigbee, Big Black, lower. Tallahatchie and Yalobusha, the same increase may be found ; but it appears that the cuttings of the smaller streams have been made mainly since the deposit of this loam. It is mellow clay or loam, tinted with iron, containing one-tenth to one-fourth siliceous sand, forming loose mellow soils and abundant beds of good brick clay.
The soil most esteemed along the gulf coast is the shell "hom- mock" (Choctow for thicket or jungle), which is the same as the more interior sand hommock of the piney region, with the addi- tion of beds of oyster and clam shells left by ancient Indians. Us- ually the sand hommocks come up to the beach, and only in a few places as at Ocean Springs and near Bay St. Louis, yellow brick clay or loam forms the bank. The hommocks extend inland in narrow strips, interspersed by marshes. Larger marshes are formed by the larger creeks and rivers. Those of the marshes grown up with the "Jinc coupant" or saw grass, are deep beds of black fetid muck; while round rush marshes contain sand and are more solid. The noxious odor, when disturbed, is caused chiefly by sulphuret of ammonium. It has no ill effect upon health, and in fact this region is quite healthful. The marl beds of the Pearl
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and Pascagoula rivers are very rich and extensive. Between Biloxi Bay and Bay St. Louis the pine meadow lands do not ap- proach so closely to the beach as is the case further east. There intervenes a tract of level pine woods, the soil of which is very sandy. The clay ridges become more frequent as one advances westward, and at the head of Bay St. Louis is a pine hill region with a good loam subsoil. On Bayou Bernard there is an outcrop of white pipe clay and hardpan, of the Orange Sand formation, this and ochre and gypsum and some iron pyrites, are the minerals of the sea coast counties. Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis are sit- uated on sand hommocks, five to 12 feet above tide-with pitch pine and live oak at the beach, and to the rear level woods of long leaf pine, with wet places inhabited by the pitcher plant and yellow star grass. Just west of Bay St. Louis town is the former planta- tion of J. F. H. Claiborne, a hommock land of mulatto soil, re- sembling the Pascagoula country, and quite fertile. The sea is- land cotton plantations are in the southeast border of the great Pearl river marsh, on Mulatto bayou, originally covered with very large magnolias, oaks, hickories, gums, pines, and various other trees hung with long moss. The islands that enclose Missis- sippi sound are of white sand. But there has been a plantation on Cat island from a remote period, and some cultivation and graz- ing is possible on Ship island. Water is readily obtained by sink- ing a barrel, and it is only slightly brackish.
Dr. W. N. Logan, of the Agricultural college, has recently pub- lished bulletins on the geology of Oktibbeha county; on the un- derground waters of Mississippi, and one on the clays of the State. (See Geological Survey.)
George, James Zachariah, was born in Monroe county, Ga., Oct. 20, 1826, the only child of Joseph Warren George, who died a year later, and Mary (Chambless) George, who married again and, in ยป 1834, moved with her child and second husband to the compara- tively new country in Noxubee county, and later to Carroll county. The boy worked on the farm, and was encouraged by his mother to improve such advantages of education as were afforded by the local school. At 18 years of age he went to Carrollton and read law with Judge William Cothran. At 20, by special dispen- sation of the legislature, he was admitted to practice; but about this time he enlisted and served as a private soldier in the First Mississippi Rifles, under Col. Jefferson Davis, and fought at Mon- terey. In later years he regularly drew his pension of $8 as a Mexican soldier, and gave it to the support of the widow of a comrade. May 27, 1847, he married Elizabeth Brooks Young, who lived to share her husband's fortunes until two weeks before his death. He was chosen reporter of the High court of errors and ap- peals in 1854, and was reelected in 1860, in which office he pre- pared ten volumes of the reports. Later he published a digest of all the decisions up to 1870, that was a model of its kind. He was a delegate in the constitutional convention of 1861 from Carroll county ; later he organized and was chosen captain of a volunteer
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company which entered the 20th regiment, and after serving in Kentucky, was surrendered at Fort Donelson. On being ex- changed in the following September, he entered upon the work of organizing State troops, accepted the rank of brigadier-general, became lieutenant-colonel commanding the 19th battalion, and when that was raised to the 5th regiment of cavalry, was commis- sioned colonel in the Confederate States service. At the battle of Collierville, Tenn., (see War of 1861-65) he was wounded and captured, and remained a prisoner of war at Johnson's island, Lake Erie, until after the close of hostilities. Returning home he re- sumed the practice of law at Carrollton, moved to Jackson in 1873, and after five years returned to Cotesworth, his home near Car- rollton. In 1875 he and Lamar were the leading members of the Democratic State convention that faced the task of overcoming a negro majority of 40,000 and overthrowing the Ames administra- tion. George was put in charge of the campaign as State chair- man, and he gave his whole time to the organization. When the Clinton riot and its attendant reprisals seemed to destroy hope of success, he met Gov. Ames in conference, handled the situation with frankness, calmness and strength of character, and quiet was restored, so that the campaign proceeded, with as great freedom from violence as could have been expected, to the election of a white majority in the legislature. He was talked of then for United States senator, but the honor worthily fell to Lamar. Gen. George was appointed one of the justices of the supreme court in 1878, and chosen chief justice; was elected to the United States senate in 1881, and by reelection continued in that body until his death. In general legislation in congress he may be called the father of the department of agriculture; he secured an increase in the pensions of Mexican veterans; made his first great speech in favor of Chinese exclusion ; made a strong appeal to national feel- ing in advocating a bill for the admission of ex-Confederates to the United States service; supported the Civil Service law regard- less of the opposition of some of his own party; and with Senator Hoar led the fight for the Blair educational bill, 1883-84. He gained recognition as a great lawyer after he was appointed to the judiciary committee in 1884. In 1887 he made a great speech in defense of the political revolution of 1875 in Mississippi; and another in favor of the ratification of the fisheries treaty with Eng- land. In 1890 he was a member of the Constitutional convention of Mississippi, and was the great builder of the Constitution of 1890, including the educational test of suffrage, to which the un- derstanding test was added. In the following congress he made a speech of three days in defense of the suffrage test, which dis- armed criticism, and in the same session he made an exhaustive attack on the proposed Federal election law. In 1892 he cam- paigned the State, for reelection, in opposition to Ethelbert Barks- dale, who espoused the sub-treasury scheme and was supported by the Farmers' Alliance. His sound common sense and irresistible logic were never more clearly shown than in this campaign, and a
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revelation of his character is given in the following extract from one of his speeches: "Public life has no charm for me beyond the consciousness of having at all times, to the best of my humble ability, worked for the welfare and advancement of the people of Mississippi, and of the whole country. I shall not, therefore, com- promise my principles, nor advocate what I know will injure the people, for the poor privilege of occupying a conspicuous place among those who have aided in destroying what I have always endeavored to preserve and advance-the welfare of my country- men." His last important speech in the senate was on the resolu- tion to seat DuPont as senator from Delaware. He was too ill to take his seat in December, 1896, and during the following ses- sion, and on August 14, 1897, he died at Mississippi City. His body lay in state at the capitol several hours and was visited by many ; the railroad stations from Jackson to Carrollton were draped in mourning and crowds collected to testify to their sorrow. The funeral at Carrollton, on the 17th, was attended by a great multi- tude. "Through sixteen years he had been heard on every im- portant question before congress, and he had never failed to con- tribute light and information." Senator Gray said that "no one ever encountered him in legal debate without being aware that all the legal acumen and ability he himself possessed would be re- quired for the contest." Senator O. H. Platt, of Connecticut, de- clared that had he lived in the days of Calhoun he would have been esteemed certainly as great a senator and as great a man as Calhoun. A Republican colleague said: "Right with him was right and the consequences of his action did not concern him when he knew that he was in the right." Personally, he dressed very plainly, was simple in his habits, "was rugged and cour- ageous in character, rather blunt in address and somewhat brusque in demeanor." As a popular orator he was not a success. His speech was low and often indistinct. He rarely used gesture and his language was without embellishment or adornment."
The finest tribute to him was made by President Johnson, of Hillman college, who closed the funeral oration with these words: "To the man who is conscious of great abilities and honest in his' recognition of them as the gifts of God ; who beholds in these gifts a high and inalienable commission, and feels in his heart a manly resolve to discharge it to the full; who, under the propulsion of an imperial will, watches ever for the gateways of opportunity and seizes upon them with a master's stern hand; to such a man fame gladly does obeisance and then goes forth with cheery, tripping gait and the charm of mellow voice to herald his way. Even thus, not captured while he slumbered, not taken by surprise, did the great Commoner of Mississippi come to his fame." See account of his senatorial career, by J. W. Garner, M. H. S. Publ., III, 245.
See articles in Miss. Hist. Publs .; by Garner, vol. 7, by John- ston, vol. 8, by Rowland, vol. 4; sketch in Hall of Fame series, by Johnson ; and Congressional Memorial.
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Georgetown .- An old settlement in the eastern part of Copiah county on Pearl river, founded in the early part of the last century by a Mr. George, from South Carolina. George ran the first ferry boat between Jackson and Monticello on the Pearl, and was killed at Georgetown in 1836. It was noted in the early day for gambling, horse racing and target shoots, and in its most thriving era, had from three hundred to five hundred inhabitants and a number of stores and shops, besides one saloon. The village now has about 70 people and the old ferry boat has been discarded for a new iron bridge across the river.
. Georgeville. An extinct town in Holmes county, located in the northwest quarter of section 35, T. 14, R. 3, East.
Georgia Agreement and Cession. The "Articles of Agreement and Cession" entered into by the commissioners respectively of the United States and Georgia, April 24, 1802, contains the fol- lowing sections particularly bearing upon the subsequent history of the State of Mississippi :
"Article I. The State of Georgia cedes to the United States all the right, title and claim, which the said State has to the jurisdic- tion and soil of the lands situated within the boundaries of the United States, south of the State of Tennessee, and west of a line, beginning on the western bank of the Chattahoochee river, where the same crosses the boundary line between the United States and Spain, [etc., describing the course of this line up the river to the great bend, thence in a direct line to Nickajack, on the Tennessee river, and up that stream to the Tennessee boundary].
"Secondly, That all persons who, on the 27th day of October, 1795, were actual settlers within the territory thus ceded, shall be confirmed in all the grants legally and fully executed prior to that day, by the former British government of West Florida, or by the government of Spain, and in the claims which may be derived from any actual survey or settlement made under the act of the State of Georgia, entitled, [etc., referring to the Bourbon county act, of February 7, 1785].
"Fifthly, That the territory thus ceded shall form a State, and be admitted as such into the Union, as soon as it shall contain sixty thousand free inhabitants, or at an earlier period, if Con- gress shall think it expedient, on the same conditions and restric- tions, with the same privileges, and in the same manner, as is provided in the ordinance of Congress of the 13th day of July, 1787, for the government of the Western Territory of the United States; which ordinance shall, in all its parts, extend to the ter- ritory contained in the present act of cession, that article only ex- cepted which forbids slavery."
The other Articles and sections relate to compensation to Geor- gia and claimants under her acts of sale; acceptance of the cession by the United States, and relinquishment of the twelve-mile strip north of Georgia; and provision that either party could refuse as- sent to the treaty within six months.
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Georgia Cession. The various acts of the British crown, after the conquest of the region west of the Alleghanies, and down to the gulf, from France and Spain, tended to restrict the Thirteen colonies to the Atlantic region, back no farther than the sources of streams flowing easterly. An exception was the commission to Governor Wright, in 1764, giving jurisdiction back to the Mississippi. But this was followed by the equally authoritative annexation of all the back country containing any settlements to West Florida. During the Revolution the States asserted title under the colonial charters, back to the South sea, or as modified after 1763, to the Mississippi river. By the Treaty of Paris, 1783, "the boundaries of the United States" were defined, without a word regarding cession or relin- quishment or what the rights of the British colonies might have been. The declaration of the Georgia-Carolina convention of limits in 1787, "that, by the treaty of peace concluded at Paris on the
10th day of February, 1763, the river Mississippi was declared to be the western boundary of the North American colonies," is an inference, not a citation of the words of the treaty. The limits agreed to by Great Britain included all of what had been called Indian reserve or Crown lands after the king's proclamation of 1763. The States claiming title back to the South seas under the colonial charters, nevertheless asserted ownership in all this land, and their titles overlapped. There were memorable hostilities on this account between Connecticut and Pennsylvania and Virginia and Pennsylvania, in what is now the east, and the conflict was equally glaring further west. The smaller States protested against recognition of these pretentious claims, because the Union would be controlled by two or three imperial commonwealths. Maryland was conspicuous in such opposition to the claims of Virginia. The magnitude of the Georgia claim, it appears, was not so prominent then as that of Virginia, which State claimed everything from her south line extended westward, up to Lake Superior, and on the east was not disposed to concede Pittsburg to Pennsylvania. But Massachusetts and Connecticut, with equal authority, demanded long strips of that western country, and New York brought for- ward an Indian cession of the country most desired for new settle- ments.
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