USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I > Part 90
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Harrison, James T. "We had a goodly youth from the Repub- lic of South Carolina, Jim T. by name," wrote Joseph G. Baldwin in "Flush Times." "The elders had tried his mettle. He wouldn't fag for them, but stood up to them like a man. He rode over us, rough-shod, but we forgave him for it, in consideration of his worrying the elders. He was the best lawyer of his age that I had ever seen. He could entangle Justice in such a web of law that the blind hussy could never have found her way out again if Theseus had been there to give her the clue. He has risen since that time to merited distinction as a ripe and finished lawyer ; yet in the noon of his fame he never so tasted the luxury of power, never knew the bliss of envied and unapproached pre- eminence, as when, in the old log courthouses, he was throwing the boys, right and left, as fast as they came at him, with pleas dilatory, sham and meritorious, demurrers, motions and variances." He was so great a lawyer that his cousin, Wiley P. Harris, con- ferred with him in all important cases, and James Z. George for many years consulted him regularly. He was born near Pendle- ton, S. C., Nov. 30, 1811, son of Thomas Harrison, a descendant of the Virginia Harrisons, who was comptroller-general of South Carolina. James T.'s mother was a daughter of Gen. John B. Earle, of the same State. He graduated in South Carolina college
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at the age of 17, and read law under James L. Pettigrew. In 1834 he moved to Macon, Miss., and embarked in the practice, but two years later moved to Columbus, where he married, in 1840, Regina, daughter of Thomas G. Blewett. One of their daughters became the wife of Stephen D. Lee. He avoided office of all kinds, twice declining a seat on the supreme bench, but accepted election to congress immediately after the war, when representation was de- nied. Without his knowledge he was chosen one of the seven Mississippi delegates to the constitutional convention of the Con- federacy at Montgomery, in 1861. During the administration of Gov. Clark he was the governor's chief adviser. In 1865 he was selected as one of the counsel of President Davis if the latter should be put on trial. He was also a member of the constitutional con- vention of 1865, composed the hostile factions and proposed the abolition amendment that was adopted. He died at Columbus May 22, 1879.
Harriston, an incorporated- post-town in Jefferson county, at the junction of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., with its Natchez, Jackson & Columbus division, and three miles northeast of Fayette, the county seat and nearest banking town. It has several stores, one church for white people and one for negroes, an oil mill and cotton gin combined, and splendid schools. James M. Lowe and E. R. Jones were the first settlers. The town was named for Gen. Nat. Harris, of Vicksburg, who was the first president of the Vicksburg & New Orleans R. R. Population in 1900, 285; the population in 1906 was estimated at 500.
Harrisville, a postoffice of Simpson county, 14 miles west of Mendenhall. Several stores, churches, a good school and a cotton gin are located here. Population in 1900, 68; in 1906 it was esti- mated at 100.
Hartman, a post-hamlet of Lincoln county, located on the Illinois Central R. R., 4 miles south of Brookhaven, the county seat and the nearest banking town. One of the oldest settlers in this vicinity is Samuel Dunn, a farmer, who was born and bred here.
Hartness, a postoffice in the east-central part of Oktibbeha county, 4 miles south of Starkville, the nearest railroad and bank- ing town.
Harvey's Scouts. This famous body was originally 25 men, under the command of Capt, Addison Harvey, selected from Wirt Adams' regiment of cavalry. From the same and other regiments the company was recruited to 40. They were armed with Spencer repeating rifles and revolvers, and were well mounted. Their duties were secret service within the enemy's lines, interference with the scouts and couriers of the enemy, squad scouting, and, as a body, close attention to any Federal expedition. The individ- ual service of the members was of course of the most dangerous character, and involved instant death if captured. They gave the first information of the landing of Grant at Bruinsburg. When Sherman was evacuating Jackson, a few days later, Harvey's men attacked the rear guard. The colonel commanding, refusing to
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surrender, died fighting, and was given honorable burial by Har- vey, who on this occasion, before the Federal troops were out of sight, pulled down the United States flag from the capitol and hoisted the Confederate colors. Later he was commissioned to organize a body of scouts for the Army of Tennessee, his old com- pany serving as a nucleus. The new body served during the At- lanta campaign and did great damage to the railroad communica- tions of Sherman's army. They were with Hood in the Nashville campaign, and followed Wilson's raiding column in the spring of 1865. At Columbus, Ga., while on this duty, Captain Harvey was murdered by a Confederate deserter on the day of Lee's surrender.
Hashuqua, a village in the southwestern part of Noxubee county, on Hashuqua creek, 14 miles east of Shuqualak station on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., and the nearest banking town. The post- office here was discontinued in 1905, and it now receives rural free delivery from Fearns Springs. It has a church, a school, a cotton gin, and one store. Population in 1900, 80.
Hassie, a post-hamlet in Oktibbeha county, 11 miles northwest of Starkville, the county seat.
Hatchie, a post-hamlet of Tippah county, located on the Hatchie river, 12 miles east of Ripley, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. Population in 1900, 36.
Hattiesburg. Hattiesburg, the capital of the new county of For- rest, is situated at the junction of the New Orleans and North East- ern, the Gulf and Ship Island, the Mississippi Central, and the Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City Railroads.
It is seventy miles from Gulfport, one hundred and ten from New Orleans, one hundred and fifty from Natchez, ninety from Jackson, eighty-five from Meridian, and ninety-six from Mobile, having direct railroad communication with each of these cities.
Captain W. H. Hardy, a Confederate soldier, who served through- out the war between the states, at its close located at Paulding in Jasper county and resumed the practice of law. While living here, in 1868, he projected a railroad to run from Meridian to New Orleans. A charter was subsequently obtained and in 1872 he had the first instrumental survey of the road made under the supervision and direction of Mr. Sieman Brown, an eminent civil engineer of Mobile. Maps, profiles and estimates were made, and negotiations for funds were in progress when the financial panic following "Black Friday" attained such wide extent that all enterprises requiring large sums of money, especially in the South, were abandoned or suspended.
With the revival of business throughout the South following upon the overthrow of the Carpet-Bag government and the restoration of the southern states from military to civil government and representa- tion in the congress of the United States, Captain Hardy, in 1879, with Mr. Fred Wolfe, of Montgomery, Alabama, but later of New York City, re-organized and revived the New Orleans and North Eastern Railroad and had a new and more thorough survey made of the
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line from Meridian to New Orleans under the direction and super- vision of G. Bouscaron, an eminent civil engineer of Cincinnati.
This survey was begun in March, 1880, with two divisions in the field. The Northern Division was under the direction of S. Whinery, of Somerset, Kentucky, but now of New York City, and extended from Meridian to Black Creek; the Southern Division was under the direction of G. B. Nicholson, of Cincinnati, and extended from New Orleans to Black Creek.
Captain Hardy was vice-president of the railroad company and gave personal supervision to locating the line, securing rights of way, paying off the engineering forces in the field, locating stations and naming them.
It must be remembered that at this time the country was sparsely settled from the northern boundary of Jones county to Lake Pont- chartrain, and the larger portion of the country was public domain, an unbroken pine forest, subject to entry at the government land office at Jackson, Mississippi, at $1.25 per acre. When the perma- nent location of the railroad line was completed through Perry county, Captain Hardy visited the engineering parties at Black Creek and on returning he stopped to eat lunch at noon on a little hill on the north side of Gordon's Creek, where now the present city hall of Hattiesburg stands, there being a large oak and two hickory trees near each other, forming an umbrageous shade, an ideal rest- ing place on a summer's day. The oak still stands there. His only companion was a negro boy about fifteen years of age.
After luncheon he lighted a cigar, spread a blanket on the ground and with a map of the state upon which the located line of the New Orleans and North Eastern Railroad was platted he began a study of the future railroad map of the state. He reasoned that this vast area of the finest long leaf yellow pine in the United States would, in the course of a few years, come into demand both domestic and foreign. He knew the difficulties of exporting lumber through the port of New Orleans, and turned his eyes to the splendid harbor at Ship Island. He was familiar with the history of the projected Gulf and Ship Island Railroad anterior to the war between the states, and realized that it was destined to become at an early day the greatest enterprise that could possibly engage the attention of the people of the state, and that sooner or later the road would be built and the harbor opened to the commerce of the world.
Having become familiar with the topography of that section, he took out his pencil and traced on the map before him the future probable line of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad to the most feasible and practicable crossing of the New Orleans and North Eastern Railroad, and it intersected that road where the city of Hattiesburg now stands.
He then and there decided to locate a station at that point and to secure the land (which was public) and lay out a city and name it in honor of his wife, whose name was Hattie.
The New Orleans and North Eastern Railroad Company, after completing its line, erected here a handsome depot and eating house,
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and also a round house, making it a relay station with repair shops. A village of three or four hundred inhabitants soon sprang up in 1884 and 1885 with two or three stores, but its growth was slow though continuous.
In January, 1887, the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad, which had been re-organized, with Captain W. H. Hardy as president, began grading the road, the first work being done from Hattiesburg, south. About five miles of the line was graded when the entire force was transferred to Gulfport and north of that place, and the succeeding year the grading reached Hattiesburg, with twenty miles of rails laid from Gulfport north to the present town of Saucier.
New life was infused into the little town of Hattiesburg, real estate advanced in value, new business enterprises were set on foot, and the population soon increased to one thousand or more.
Financial embarrassment of the Construction Company caused a suspension of the work of construction in 1888. This embarrass- ment was occasioned by a failure to have the lands which had been granted to the railroad company, before the war, confirmed to the company by Secretary Noble, who was Secretary of the Interior un- der the administration of President Harrison. He held the question in abeyance until the last day of his term of office, when he decided it adversely to the company. As soon as the new administration was inaugurated, an application for a new hearing was filed with the Hon. Hoke Smith, Secretary of the Interior under President Cleve- land's second administration. Final decision was obtained in about one year, favorable to the company, securing, however, only about 130,000 acres of land, all of it timbered with long leaf yellow pine.
With this as a basis of credit a contract was made with the Brad- ford Construction Company, of Bradford, Pennsylvania, to complete the road to Hattiesburg, build a pier at Gulfport three thousand feet long into Mississippi Sound, and to equip the road with ample rolling stock. The contract was completed in 1897 and the road was sold to the Bradford Construction Company.
Hattiesburg in the meantime had taken on a new and more vig- orous growth. The largest saw and planing mill in the South had been established there by capitalists from New York and Penn- sylvania known as the J. J. Newman Lumber Company. Then a little state bank known as the Bank of Commerce, with a capital of $25,000, was established; then followed machine shops, a cotton compress and other minor industries. Real estate, hitherto very cheap ; advanced steadily in value ; cheap, wooden business buildings were torn down and substantial brick buildings were erected in their stead.
By an act of the legislature the county was divided into two judicial districts, and Hattiesburg was made the county seat of the second district; a neat brick structure for a court house was erected on Main street. Then the enterprising spirits who were guiding the progress of the little city had a splendid brick school building erected and fitted up with the best of modern school furniture and equipments for a Central High School. Then fol-
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lowed a two-story brick building for a city hall and public market. Following these in rapid process of evolution from town to city, a system of waterworks supplied by overflowing artesian wells, sunk to a depth of three hundred and fifty feet, with a stand-pipe ninety feet high, a fire department and a sewerage system were established. The city was now fully launched and people came from every quarter and began to invest their money.
The Gulf and Ship Island Railroad had been bought from the Bradford Construction Company by Captain J. T. Jones, of Buffalo, New York, and the road extended to Jackson, Mississippi, and a loop built from Maxie in Perry county via Columbia to Mendenhall on the main line in Simpson county. Hat-
tiesburg was made the county seat of the new county of Forrest, new banks were organized and established, a system of electric lights, and telephone lines were built, streets paved, a $75,000 court house took the place of the little structure on Main street, and a modern five-story hotel, costing about $200,000, with furnishings second to none in the South, was erected and thrown open to the public; car shops, machine shops and other manufactories went up like magic. Electric car lines are now being constructed through the principal streets of the city; the wholesale and jobbing business has now grown to large proportions; schools and churches have multiplied; one daily and several weekly news- papers established, and every enterprise which has been managed with business skill and energy has been successful in an eminent degree.
Hattiesburg, the beautiful Queen of the Pine Belt, is in all respects the model city of the State, and has a population of about twenty- one thousand, and is the commercial, financial, and social center of the pine belt lying between Pearl River on the west, Wayne and Greene counties on the east, and south of Strong River to the north- ern boundary of the three coast counties.
In all its history two facts stand out in bold relief. One is that not a drop of vinous, spiritous or malt liquors has ever been law- fully sold within its corporate limits; the other is that during its entire history no leading business concern, either mercantile, manu- facturing or banking has ever failed. It has a well equipped hos- pital, owned by the officers and employees of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad Company ; and also a modern well equipped private sanitarium where the very best skill in surgery and medicine may be had. The professions are well and ably represented. Its lawyers, doctors, dentists, architects, engineers and builders rank with the best in the South. All the benevolent orders are represented and flourish in dispensing sweet charity, and carrying hope and sunshine to the sad hearts and homes of the unfortunate.
He who laid the foundations of this splendid city laid them wisely, and they who built thereon have builded wisely and well. Her destiny is fixed. Her continued growth in the future is assured. With her splendid system of schools, her business integrity, and her lofty pride, her Christian citizenship will carry her growth for-
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ward along the lines that have marked her progress in the past, until she shall become the envy of her rivals, the pride of the State, and the glory of her citizens.
Hatton, a postoffice of Yalobusha county, about 12 miles north- west of Coffeeville, the county seat, and the nearest railroad and banking town.
Hays, a post-village on Turkey creek in Scott county, 16 miles northeast of Forest, the county seat. Lake is its nearest railroad and banking town. It has a good water mill. Population in 1900, 40.
Hazeldell, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Prentiss county, 15 miles southeast of Booneville, the county seat. Popu- lation in 1900, 22.
Hazlehurst, the capital of Copiah county, is an incorporated post- town on the Illinois Central R. R., 34 miles south, southwest of Jackson. When the Illinois Central railroad was completed through this section, it left Gallatin, the old county seat, about four miles to the west. Nevertheless, the thriving town of Hazlehurst had to wait until 1872 before the county seat was moved there from Gallatin, as the people of Copiah county had been induced to build an expensive court house at Gallatin, shortly before it was known that the road was coming through and would miss the old town. Hazlehurst was named for George H. Hazlehurst, who assisted in surveying the railroad. Cotton is extensively grown in the sur- rounding district, and also large quantities of fruits and vegetables. It is a shipping point of considerable importance, and has a num- ber of manufacturing industries. The Merchants & Planters Bank was established here in 1882 and had a capital of $25,000, since increased to $75,000; the Bank of Hazlehurst was established in 1891, and now has a capital of $100,000. The old Gallatin Argus, owned and edited in 1858 by the late Col. J. L. Power, was later merged into the Copiahan, edited by Col. J. F. Vance, and was moved to Hazlehurst about 1859. In 1885 it was merged with the Signal, and edited by W. L. Mitchell as the Copiah Signal. One newspaper is published here now, the Courier, a Democratic weekly established in 1895, and now edited and published by W. N. Hawk- ins and A. B. Lowe. Hazlehurst has good schools, and all the principal religious denominations have churches here. In 1902 a new court house and jail were built at a cost of about $72,000. Population in 1900 was 1,579; population in 1906 was estimated at 2,500. A large milling plant, an oil mill, cotton compress, a fer- tilizer factory, an ice plant, bottling works, a brick plant, cotton gins and a large lumber yard are located here. It owns and operates a fine electric light and water plant. The town is grow- ing rapidly.
Heads, a postoffice of Washington county.
Healds, a postoffice of Attala county, 10 miles north of Kos- ciusko, the county seat.
Health, State Board of. Under an act of legislature, Feb. 1, 1877, Gov. Stone appointed March 20 as sanitary commissioners for
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the State at large, Drs. F. W. Dancy, of Holly Springs; W. M. Compton, of Jackson, and D. L. Phares, of Woodville. And on April 7, upon the recommendation of the State Medical associa- tion, the following commissioners for the various congressional districts : J. M. Taylor, of Corinth ; A. G. Smythe, Baldwyn; T. D. Isom, Oxford; John Wright, Sardis; E. W. Hughes, Grenada; S. V. D. Hill, Macon; C. B. Galloway, Canton (Succeeded by A. H. Cage) ; P. J. McCormick, Yazoo City; Robert Kells, Jackson; C. A. Rice, Brandon ; R. G. Wharton, Port Gibson ; P. F. Whitehead, Vicksburg. The commissioners met at Jackson, April 7, and organ- ized the State Board of Health, with Dr. Robert Kells as presi- dent, and Dr. Compton, secretary. The law permitted the organi- zation of a State board, without any appropriation in aid of it. The beginning of the board therefore was a labor of professional pride and personal humanity. This volunteer organization ap- pointed its members to investigate and report on the various im- portant subjects that should engage its attention, and the State and local organization that should be effected. One member in each congressional district was called on to report the local needs. The secretary opened communication with the boards in other States, to secure cooperation. An act was passed in 1878, reor- ganizing the board, with auxiliary local boards in every county and main town. The legislature of 1876 had provided for boards of health in the gulf coast counties and county quarantine regu- lations.
The board was called to meet April 3, 1878, to consider the outbreak of small pox in the south of the State. Then followed the terrible and unparalleled scourge of yellow fever in the same year. Dr. Compton fell a victim. His successor, Dr. Wirt Johns- ton, busied himself sending out notices urging quarantines as the only means of safety. It was almost impossible to arouse the people to make a concerted campaign against the disease. Dr. Rice was elected president pro tempore in the midst of the panic. He and Johnston, M. S. Craft and Ethelbert Barksdale had a meeting at the quarantine station on Pearl river to devise means to relieve the people from destitution, which was great, notwithstand- ing the munificent donations from the North. This board, after the close of the epidemic, reported that experience showed that the use of popular disinfectants in cesspools and other foul accumula- tions was not efficacious in destroying the cause of yellow fever, and that it was brought into the State by "vessels, railroad cars, clothing, goods, etc." Hence they recommended more efficient quarantine laws and transmitted to congress, through representa- tive J. R. Chalmers, a memorial for a national quarantine, to sup- plement and strengthen the State quarantines.
Four members of the State board died on the field of duty-Dr. W. M. Compton, the pioneer of sanitary science in the State; and Drs. P. F. Whitehead, E. W. Hughes and A. H. Cage.
Rev. C. K. Marshall, Drs. S. D. Robbins and Wirt Johnston, attended as delegates the American Public Health association at
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Richmond, Va., in 1879, and presented their experiences with yel- low fever. The reports to the board, published in the public doc- uments of 1880, give minute particulars of the scourge of 1878, when the disease in its mode of propagation was a profound and terrifying mystery.
At its session in 1879 the State board adopted the rules of local and general quarantine proposed by the National board of health. In this year also the board had to contend with an epidemic of yellow fever, but it was kept under better control.
The second report of the board was made in November, 1879, when Dr. C. A. Rice, of Vicksburg, was president; Dr. Wirt Johns- ton, of Jackson, secretary; and these two and Dr. Robert Kells formed the executive committee. Other members of the board were F. W. Dancy, Holly Springs; D. L. Phares, Woodville; J. M. Taylor, Corinth; E. P. Sale, Aberdeen; T. D. Isom, Oxford ; John Wright, Sardis ; S. V. D. Hill, Macon; B. F. Kittrell, Black Hawk; George E. Redwood, Meridian; J. W. Bennett, Brook- haven ; R. G. Wharton, Port Gibson. Dr. S. V. D. Hill was elec- ted president in 1880, and Dr. Wirt Johnston secretary. A law of the same year abolished county boards of health and provided for the appointment of county health officers upon the nomination of the State board. In 1880 there was a State appropriation to aid in maintaining quarantine at Pascagoula.
In 1880 the board was required to take charge of the collection of vital statistics, and in 1882 the law to regulate the practice of medicine gave the board great powers in regulating the qualifica- tions of candidates for license to practice, with power to revoke licenses for good cause.
At the meeting in March, 1882, the board adopted rules for the guidance of censors or examiners of physicians applying for license. Dr. Johnston resigned as secretary and was reelected for six years. Dr. F. W. Dancy was elected president; and he was suceeded by Dr. J. M. Taylor, in 1883. In 1882-83 the board had to contend with the small pox, of which there were 784 cases. The board assumed control and put inspectors in charge in De Soto, Panola, Coahoma, Bolivar, Pike, Tallahatchie, Leflore, Holmes, Warren and Claiborne counties, supported by guards, footmen and mounted. Over 37,000 vaccine points were procured and dis- tributed. The work of the board undoubtedly saved the State from great mortality and pecuniary loss. Also, on account of yellow fever, quarantine was established against New Orleans and Pensa- cola in 1882, and three quarantine stations established. In 1883, on account of the discontinuance of the inspection service by the National board of health, an inspection station for all water craft was established at Fort Adams. The small pox practically disap- peared in 1885.
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