Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 88

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 88

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).

831

MISSISSIPPI

After 1836 he made his home at Vicksburg and established the Sentinel, which became an organ of the anti-bank and anti-bond paying party. He was besides, a warm friend of the political poli- cies of John C. Calhoun and frequently issued broadsides against "Centralism." "I do not think," wrote Henry S. Foote, "that any other editor that this country has produced has been known with impunity to indulge, for so long a space of time, as freely as Dr. Hagan, in language of the harshest personal invective." After the defalcation of State Treasurer Graves, and the escape of the criminal in his wife's clothing while an investigation was being made by George Adams and Henry S. Foote before Judge Sharkey, Hagan made a violent attack upon Gov. Tucker and Judge Adams, which induced the son of the judge, Daniel W. Adams, then a young man, to demand personal satisfaction. A street fight was the result, and when the dust cleared away, Hagan was dead with a bullet in his head. Thus he died June 7, 1843, aged about 38 years.

He was special bank commissioner of the State in 1839-40, and the real genius of the man may be seen in his keen analysis of the evils arising from corporate cupidity, as true today as in his time. "Publicity" was the remedy he prescribed, in 1840, for the out- lawry of greed in public functions. After he had made his report on the banks he attacked some of the senators of the State in his paper. The phenomena of the "flush times" and the panic could not have been possible without gross corruption in the legislature. Some of the legislators proposed to call him before the senate for punishment, but the proposition seems to have been dropped.

The Sentinel continued to have a bloody record. Rian, the suc- cessor of Hagan, was killed by Hammet, of the Vicksburg Whig. The next editor, Captain Hickey, killed Dr. Maclin, in a street af- fair. His successor, Dr. James Fall, had two affairs of the trigger. Jenkins, editor in 1848, fell in combat with one Crabb (a son of Judge Crabb, of Tennessee), who afterward went to California, organized an expedition against the State of Sonora, and was be- trayed and put to death.

Haggard, a hamlet of Winston county, about 15 miles southeast of Louisville, the county seat. The postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and it now has rural free delivery from Fearns Springs.

Haile, William, was born in 1797, moved to Mississippi and lo- cated at Woodville. He was elected to the legislature from Wil- kinson county, and was a prominent man in the lower house. In 1826 he reported the resolutions on slavery, and as chairman of another committee reported in favor of establishing new banks in the State, notwithstanding the exclusive charter of the Bank of Mississippi. Congressman Rankin died in March following, and Haile was elected his successor. He was reelected to the next congress, 1827-29, but resigned in 1828. Reentering the legisla- ture, he was an unsuccessful candidate for speaker of the house in 1830. He was said by Henry Vose to have been a representative neither surpassed or equalled for zeal and ability. He procured

832

MISSISSIPPI

the appropriation of $15,000 to enable the Chickasaws and Choc- taws to explore the West. He died near Woodville, March 7, 1837, aged about 40 years.

Hale, a post-hamlet of Clarke county, situated on Bogue Homo creek, about 10 miles southwest of Quitman, the county seat and nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 29.

Halifax, a postoffice of Hinds county.

Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame, in which are preserved the names and portraits of the great men of Mississippi, is a part of the Department of Archives and History, and was established by Director Dunbar Rowland for the purpose of stimulating State pride and patriotism. The Hall is a beautiful circular room on the ground floor, east end of the Capitol. The idea of having the people of the State select ten great Mississippians, whose por- traits should adorn its walls, was carried out by a vote through the newspapers in 1902. Good humor and sound judgment marked the voting, which resulted in a general revival of historical re- search. The ten men receiving the highest vote were, in the order named, as follows: Jefferson Davis, L. Q. C. Lamar, E. C. Wal- thall, J. Z. George, S. S. Prentiss, John M. Stone, George Poindex- ter, William L. Sharkey, Henry S. Foote, and J. L. Power.

Fine oil portraits of many of these men now hang in the Hall, and those of forty-five other Mississippians have from time to time been added.

Many interesting manuscripts and relics of the past are also exhibited. Here, too, are preserved the Confederate battle flags, which in 1905 were returned to the State by the Federal Govern- ment. Up to this time (1906) the great majority of portraits in the collection have been donated by the people of the State. The Legislature in 1906 made a special appropriation for additional portraits.

Hall, William Wood, was born at Grenada, August 17, 1839, studied medicine under Dr. E. W. Hughes, and was graduated at the University of Nashville in 1861. He began his Confederate army service as a lieutenant, became a captain, and at the close was a regimental surgeon. He afterward made his home at Grenada, and became a leading member of the State medical as- sociation, for which he collected materials for a surgical history of Mississippi. In 1878 he was tendered a chair in a new medical college at Memphis, but died at Grenada, August 29, while bat- tling with the yellow fever.

Hallum, a postoffice of Attala county, 17 miles southwest of Kosciusko, the county seat. Goodman is the nearest railroad and banking town.

Halstead, a postoffice of Sunflower county, on the Boyle & Sun- flower branch of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 18 miles north of Indianola, the county seat.

Hamberlin, Lafayette Rupert, was born in Clinton, Miss., Feb. 25, 1861. His father, John B. Hamberlin, was a Baptist clergyman. He was educated at Mississippi college, Richmond college, Va.,

833

MISSISSIPPI

and Harvard; taught elocution and oratory in Richmond college, University of N. C., University of Texas, and Vanderbilt university. He was married Dec. 22, 1897, to Miss Lily Wilson of Richmond, Va., and died April 24, 1902. He was distinguished as a dramatic reader, published Lyrics, 1880; Seven Songs, 1887; Alumni Lilts, 1892; A Batch of Rhymes, 1893; In Colorado, 1895; Rhymes of the War, 1899; and various uncollected poems and short stories.

Hamburg, an incorporated post-town in the northwestern part of Franklin county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 25 miles directly east of Natchez. It has a telegraph and express office, and publishes a newspaper, the Gusher, a Democratic weekly estab- lished in 1901, O. Q. Griffing, editor and publisher. Population in 1900, 222.

Hamburg, an extinct town of Hinds county, located on the Big Black river, near the point where the Alabama and Vicksburg R. R. crosses that stream. The location of the town was too marshy and the town only lived a few years. It was established in 1826.

Hamilton, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Monroe county, about 8 miles southeast of Aberdeen, the county seat, and the nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 56.

Hamilton, Old. The extinct town of Hamilton was situated about 3 miles southwest of the present town of the same name, in the southern part of Monroe county, 1 mile east of the Tombigbee river. It is historically important as the first county seat of Monroe county until the year 1830, when Monroe was divided to form the county of Lowndes, and the county seat was removed to Athens, near the center of the county. The old town, in the days of its prosperity, had between 150 and 200 inhabitants, several stores and workshops, and a hotel, besides the county buildings. Citizens of the town were Thomas Branch, George Landemix, Benj. Rees, merchants ; Red Eckols and Waits Tucker, hotel keepers ; T. Tipton Linsley, owner of the blacksmith and general repair shop. After the old town dwindled away the postoffice was maintained there until 1900, when the new town sprang up.

Hamlet, a postoffice in the west-central part of Jasper county, on the Mobile, Jackson & Kansas City R. R., 16 miles west of Paulding, the county seat.

Hammett, William H., a native of Virginia, received a theolog- ical education, was chaplain of the University of Virginia and of the house of representatives of that State, moved to Princeton, Miss., and was elected a member of the 28th congress as a Demo- crat.

Hampton, a post-village in the southern part of Washington county, on the Riverside division of the Yazoo & Mississippi Val- ley R. R., 27 miles south of Greenville, the county seat. It is sur- rounded by a fertile cotton growing district. Population in 1900, 100; estimated in 1906 to be 150.

Hampton, John P., who succeeded John Taylor as presiding judge of the first supreme court of the State, is believed to have been a native of South California, and a member of the eminent

53-I

834

MISSISSIPPI

family of that name. He does not appear in the available official records of Mississippi until elected unanimously, by the first legis- lature, as judge of the supreme court for the Third district. In 1825 he was granted leave of absence from the State on account of illness. A resolution was introduced in the legislature of 1827 soliciting Judge Hampton to resign unless he had a reasonable hope of recovery, as he had for three years been unable to perform his duties. But this was kindly suppressed. A few days later, on Feb. 5, Gov. Brandon announced his death. Lynch, in his Bench and Bar, quotes as notable, and as "one of the ablest decisions rendered by our early courts," Hampton's opinion sustaining the doctrine that Spanish law was "the law of the land" during the Spanish occupation of Natchez district. The same doctrine was enunciated by the supreme court at its first session in June, 1818, in which Hampton was on the bench. This was, perhaps charac- teristic of the transparent honesty of Judge Hampton, against which the able annotator, R. J. Walker, asserted the legal and diplomatic fiction of Georgia domain. Lynch ascribes to Hamp- ton a decision in the first volume of Mississippi reports, to the ef- fect that where a buyer of cotton shipped from Walnut Hills to Natchez during the British war, concealed from the seller the fact that peace had been made, and thereby bought at a low price, the contract was void for fraud. The court ruled: "It makes no difference with what formality an obligation is entered into, if obtained by fraud, by a suggestion of falsehood, or suppression of the truth, it is void, and the party is not bound to perform." As Lynch suggests, this decision is a beacon light for a future when courts will not adapt justice to commercial conventions.

Hamrick, a postoffice of Carroll county, 12 miles northwest of Carrollton, the county seat.

Hancock County is one of the three gulf counties of the State and was established during the territorial era. The county has a land surface of 611 square miles. It was named in honor of John Han- cock, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and has had a varied and romantic history. The coast region along its southern border was first discovered by the Spaniards and later re-discovered and colonized by LaSalle and Iberville for the French. A part of the great French Province of Louisiana for a time, by the treaty of Paris in 1763, it became a British possession and was incorporated with the newly established province of West Florida. It was not until early in the nineteenth century that the settlements of the whites penetrated far into the interior of the county from the coast, as all of southern Mississippi was up to that time in the actual occupancy of the Indians. Under the treaties of Fort Adams, December 17, 1801, and Mt. Dexter, November 16, 1805, the Indians relinquished to the United States all the southern portion of the present State of Mississippi, and May 14, 1812, the district of Mobile, lying east of Pearl river, west of the Perdido and south of the 31st degree of latitude, was annexed to the Mississippi territory. A few months later, December 14, 1812, all that part of this region

835

MISSISSIPPI

lying within the present limits of Mississippi, was erected into the two large counties of Hancock and Jackson. The original act de- fined the limits of Hancock as follows: "All that tract of country lying south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude and west of the line running due north from the middle of the Bay of Biloxi to the thirty-first degree of north latitude and east of the Pearl river." February 5, 1841, that portion of Hancock lying east of the line be- tween ranges 13 and 14 was embodied in the county of Harrison, and February 22, 1890, that portion of the county lying north of the dividing line between townships 4 and 5, and extending from the middle of Pearl river east to the line between ranges 13 and 14 west, was taken to form the new county of Pearl River. Among the early settlers of the county prior to the year 1825, were John B. Lardasse, Chief Justice of the Quorum in 1818; Noel Jourdan, Chief Justice of the Quorum, the same year ; Elisha Carver, Assessor . and Collector (1818) ; Samuel Slade, John Lott, George Sheriff, Alexander Frazar, Alex. Williams, Louis A. Caillaret, Solomon Ford, John Morgan, John Deal, William Stackhouse and John S. Brush, Justices of the Peace; John P. Saucier, Chief Justice of the Quorum (1820) ; Haman Hammond, James Toole, Elihu Carver, Sheriffs, and George H. Nixon and Zebulon Pendleton, Presidents of the town of Pearlington. The important gulf town of Bay St. Louis is the county seat, and, with the exception of Biloxi and Gulfport, is the most important city between New Orleans and Mobile. It is located in the extreme southeastern part of the county on the line of the Louisville & Nashville R. R., and contains a popu- lation of 3,500 inhabitants. It is the favorite pleasure resort of New Orleans people, one of the celebrated winter resorts for northern people and the center of a large coasting trade. It was originally named Shieldsboro for Thos. Shields, a pioneer settler, but subsequently was named for Louis XI. of France, and given its prefix from its position on the Bay. Other important towns in the county are Pearlington, a thriving lumbering town of 850 in- habitants; Pickayune, Gainesville, Logtown, Carriere, Nicholson, Westonia, Cæsar, and the pleasantly situated little coast town of Waveland of 520 people. The principal streams in the county are the Pearl river, which washes its western border and affords trans- portation for the great lumber industry along its banks; the Jordan and Wolf rivers, and numerous tributary creeks. The prevailing timber is the long leaf or yellow pine and the face of the county is level or gently undulating. The soil is sandy, but, with reasonable fertilizing, will produce a great abundance of all kinds of veg- etables and fruits. The pecan nut is also a source of profit, while sugar and molasses are extensively produced. Oysters and shrimps are found in unlimited quantities along Mississippi Sound and in the marshes along the coast, and the canneries of Bay St. Louis and Biloxi do a thriving business, their products going to northern and eastern markets and even to Europe. Salt and fresh water fish and crabs are also caught in great numbers in the gulf, bayous and streams of this favored region and prove a source of profit.

836

MISSISSIPPI

Grazing lands are excellent and wool of a superior quality is being grown in the county. Besides the splendid water transportation facilities afforded by its rivers and the gulf, the Louisville & Nash- ville R. R. runs along its southern fringe and provides ample rail transportation. The New Orleans & Northeastern R. R. also runs through the county from northeast to southwest. The climate along the coast is invigorating and healthful, the salt air, the piney woods, and the mild temperatures prevailing both winter and sum- mer, are attracting an increasing number of outsiders every year, many of them invalids seeking a return of health in this land of flowers and balmy breezes.

Data taken from the twelfth U. S. census, showing the agricul- tural and manufacturing development of the county and the num- ber of its inhabitants, will prove interesting. The number of farms in 1900 was given at 530, total number of acres in farms, 75,855, acres improved 6,014, value of the land exclusive of the buildings $199,910, value of the buildings $131,940, value of the live stock $241,829, and the total value of farm products not fed to stock $170,339. The number of manufacturing establishments in 1900 was 40, capital $1,989,927, wages paid $270,858, value of materials used $746,710, and the total value of products was $1,446,344. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $4,030,028 and in 1906 it was $4,394,736, which shows an increase during the year of $364,708. The population for the year 1900 was, whites 8,356, blacks 3,530, a total of 11,886, and an increase of 3,568 over 1890. In 1906 the population of the county was estimated at 13,500. Artesian water of an excellent quality is found in all parts of the county. The county schools for both whites and blacks are in an excellent condition, there being 46 white and 7 colored country schools, besides several excellent schools in the towns.

Handy, Alexander H., was born in Somerset county, Md., Dec. 25, 1809, and was educated there in letters and law, coming to Mississippi in 1836. In 1853 he was elected to the High court over Judge William Yerger, who had incurred political disfavor by af- firming the validity of the Union bank bonds. In 1860, Judge Handy was reelected, and, in the latter part of that year, went to Maryland as secession commissioner from Mississippi. He was again elected justice in 1865. In January, 1866, he was chosen chief justice. In November, 1866, he was elected the fourth time to the court, and resigned October 1, 1867, because the court was subordinated to the military power. Moving to Baltimore, he was professor of law in the university of Maryland, until 1871, when he returned to Jackson. Subsequently he made his home at Can- ton. His opinions enter largely into 16 volumes of the court re- ports. He was the author of a defense of secession as a constitu- tional remedy, published in 1862. ( Lynch, Bench and Bar.)

Hand, a postoffice of Kemper county, 12 miles southwest of Dekalb, the county seat.

837

MISSISSIPPI

Handle, a post-hamlet of Winston county, about 15 miles south- west of Louisville, the county seat. Population in 1900, 35.

Handsboro, an incorporated post-town of Harrison county, two miles from the Gulf of Mexico, one mile north of Mississippi City, its nearest railroad town, and about 10 miles west of Biloxi; Gulf- port, the county seat, is the nearest banking town. It has six churches, a large lumber mill, and a brick yard. Population in 1900, 840; estimated at 1,200 in 1906. It was named for a northern man who established a foundry here before the war, 1861-5.

Haney, a postoffice of Jones county.

Hankinson, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Claiborne county, about 12 miles northeast of Port Gibson, the county seat.

Hannah Incident. Early in June, 1797, Hannah, a frontier Baptist preacher, having come to Natchez during the pe- riod of uncertainty about the Spanish evacuation, asked permis- sion of Ellicott, the boundary commissioner, to preach in his camp on Sunday, the 4th. Ellicott referred the matter to Governor Gay- oso, in a personal interview, and the latter consented without hesi- tation. So the preacher delivered his exhortation, Sunday morning. Ellicott warned him to avoid subjects touching on the question of allegiance to Spain or the United States, and the preacher obeyed, but "a public protestant sermon, being a new thing in that coun- try, drew together a very large and tolerably respectable audience ; and although the preacher meddled not with politics, the effect was nearly the same; the hearers, who were generally protestants, wanted liberty of conscience in its fullest extent, and very natur- ally preferred a sermon which they understood to a mass which few of them knew anything about. The preacher, being a weak man, was extremely puffed up with the attention he received on that occasion, which arose more from the novelty of the case than his own merit and talents, and paved the way for the commotion which took place a few days after." (Ellicott's Journal.) Elli- cott's account of the affair betrays no sympathy with the preacher. On June 9, he says, Hannah, having his zeal "a little heightened by liquor, entered into a religious controversy in a disorderly part of the town, generally inhabited at that time by Irish Roman Catholics, who took offence at the manner in which he treated the tenets of their church, and in revenge gave him a beating. He immediately called upon the governor and in a peremptory manner demanded justice; threatening at the same time to do it for him- self, if his request was not complied with. The governor, with more patience and temper than ordinary, desired him to reflect a few minutes, and then repeat his request, which he did in the same words, accompanied with the same threat. Upon which the governor immediately ordered him to be committed to the prison, which was within the fort, and his legs to be placed in the stocks."

The story probably could not be told with less partiality for the preacher ; but, as so told, it is apparent, as it must have been to the inhabitants, aside from their religious opinions, that they were

838

MISSISSIPPI

under an arbitrary military government. The second Natchez re- volt against the Spanish immediately followed.

Harbeson, a hamlet of Jones county, about 7 miles southeast of Ellisville, the county seat. The postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and mail now goes to Fellowship.

Harding, Lyman, first attorney-general of Mississippi Territory and also of the State, and "confessedly the head of the Mississippi bar for many years," was born and educated in Massachusetts. On attaining his majority he went to Maryland and taught school two years and read law enough to obtain a license to practice, after which he walked to Pittsburg, and took boat to the new and promising town of Louisville. Dissatisfied with the fruit of one month's residence there, in which he had one case and earned enough to pay a week's board, he hired himself to the skipper of a boat for Natchez, where he arrived just after the Territorial government was established. In the summer of 1799 Governor Sargent appointed him attorney-general for the United States and Territory, and he seems to have continued as the official adviser of the Territorial government until after the arrival of Governor Claiborne, when a new system of judiciary was established, and Abner L. Duncan was made attorney-general for Adams district. He was a Federalist in politics, and took some part, but in a genial way, in the political contests of his time, being one time elected to the house of representatives. If his party had been in power he would undoubtedly have gained great prominence politically. In beginning his career at Natchez his knowledge of law was aided by an ability as an expert draughtsman, a valuable accomplishment in a period of land settlement. His financial ability was also excellent. In 1805 he had saved $10,000, which he invested in cot- ton, and sailed with the cargo for New York, where he realized a good profit. While in the east he was married at Boston to Miss Abigail Barnett, "a lady. of noble character, great beauty and su- perior accomplishments, who became the idol of society in Nat- chez, but unfortunately soon died."

When the State was organized in 1817, he was elected attor- ney-general for four years by the legislature, over Thomas B. Reed and John Burton. But he did not live to the end of his term, his death occurring in 1820. He left a widow, who afterward mar- ried Daniel Vertner, and one son, Winthrop Sargent Harding. Governor Poindexter, July 3, appointed William B. Shields to suc- ceed him as a director of the Bank of Mississippi, and Edward Turner succeeded him as attorney-general.

Hardy Station, an incorporated post-town in the northern part of Grenada county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 8 miles north of Grenada, the nearest banking town. It was named by the railroad company for Richard Hardy, the owner of the land on which the depot was built. Population in 1900, 145.

Hardy, W. H., was born in Lowndes county, Ala., in 1837. He be- came a school teacher after taking a college course at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., began the practice of law in 1858, at

839

MISSISSIPPI

Raleigh, Smith County; raised a company of volunteers at the outbreak of the war; was elected captain; served through the war, and after returning home removed to Paulding. In 1868 he con- ceived the idea of building a railroad from Meridian to the Gulf, but the project was delayed until 1880, when he again took it up, and the road was completed in 1883. Capt. Hardy organized the Meridian Gas Light company, the Meridian National bank and other business enterprises, while a citizen of Meridian. He founded Hattiesburg in 1882, and named it for his wife. He was a member of the State senate in 1896. On Dec. 26, 1905, he was appointed circuit judge of the Gulf Coast district. He was one of the com- missioners who compiled the Mississippi code of 1906.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 88

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