Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 97

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 97

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were $240,712. The expenditures in the four years and six months included $179,089 for legislature; $749,423 for courts, $177,000 for penitentiary ; $153,000 for Lunatic asylum; $124,000 for the Uni- versity ; $30,000 for capitol repairs and expenses ; $45,000 for Blind institute; Indigent relief, $60,000; payment of interest on the Chickasaw school fund, $247,000. This was independent of the ex- penses of the two conventions, paid by their own levies. But it was a period, generally speaking, of paralysis of the civil govern- ment, a waiting time in which hardly all the necessary expendi- tures were undertaken.

Under the tax laws lands were taken and sold to pay delin- quent taxes, with a privilege of redemption for two years, after which the auditor of state offered them for sale. Under the levies from 1862 down, there were many tracts of land taken for taxes. The official report January 1, 1871, showed 2,175,801 acres held subject to purchase, and 770,533 subject to redemption, and there were 382,990 acres for which no deeds had been filed with the au- ditor ; aggregate, 3,329,324 acres, besides 3,518 town lots.

Humphreys, Benjamin Grubb, congressman from the Third district of Mississippi, was born at Lucknow plantation in Clai- borne county, Miss., on August 17, 1865, a son of the late Briga- dier General Benjamin Grubb Humphreys and wife, Mildred Hick- man Maury. He comes of good patriotic stock, his paternal great- grandfather, Ralph Humphreys, having been colonel of a Virginia regiment in the Continental army in the War of the Revolution. Another ancestor, James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The father had a com- mission in the Confederate ariny and from 1865 to 1868 was the governor of Mississippi, being forcibly removed from his office in the latter year by Brig .- Gen. Adelbert Ames of the United States army, who then became military governor. The mother is a mem- . ber of the Maury family of Tennessee. The subject of this sketch received his preliminary education in the public schools and the high school under Prof. G. W. Smith, of Lexington, and then in 1880 matriculated at the University of Mississippi. In 1882 he received the first Phi Sigma medal and in 1884, after completing his junior year, was granted an academic degree. Upon graduation Mr. Humphreys engaged in mercantile pursuits, first as a clerk and afterward as a traveling salesman, and from 1887 until 1891 was in business for himself. In the latter year he attended the law depart- ment of the State university, but although he was not graduated he was admitted to the bar. In January, 1892, he received an ap- pointment as superintendent of education of Leflore county, which office he held for four years. Later that same year the presidential electors of Mississippi selected him as messenger to deliver the electoral vote of that state. In 1895 he was elected district attorney for the Fourth Circuit court district of Mississippi and four years later was re-elected. When the Spanish-American War opened in 1898 Mr. Humphreys raised a company at Greenwood and was made its first lieutenant. Governor McLaurin refused to accept his

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resignation as district attorney, giving him instead an indefinite leave of absence. His career as a soldier was limited to service with the Second Mississippi infantry in Florida, under Major-Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. In 1900 he first aspired to a seat in Congress, but was defeated by Patrick Henry, but two years later was nom- inated by the Democratic party and elected without opposition. Since that time he has been re-elected at each succeeding elec- tion. In a religious way he is associated with the Presbyterian church, being a deacon of the Greenville congregation, and frater- nally is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Honor and the Woodmen of the World. On October 9, 1889, at Biloxi was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Humphreys to Miss Louise Yerger, daughter of Major William and Lucy (Green) Yerger, of Greenville. Mrs. Humphreys is re- lated to Judge William Yerger, of the Mississippi High Court of Errors and Appeals. To Congressman and Mrs. Humphreys have been born two children-William Yerger and Mildred Maury.

Humphreys, George Wilson, son of Ralph Humphreys (q. v.), was born in South Carolina, March 23, 1771, and died in Missis- sippi, December 15, 1843 (Goodspeed's Memoirs). The land rec- ords show that he purchased, during the Spanish period, an old English grant of 500 acres from William Vousdan. He was mar- ried, Jan. 17, 1792, to Sara, daughter of Maj. David Smith, from Tennessee, who was afterward distinguished as an officer under Gen. Andrew Jackson in the Creek war of 1813-14 and at New Or- leans. Another daughter of Maj. Smith was the wife of Gov. Run- nels. By his marriage Humphreys became the owner of another large tract of land that had been granted his wife, on which the historic home, the Hermitage, was built. Here were reared three sons and three daughters, from which the family in Mississippi and its connections are descended.

He was captain of the Claiborne troop of cavalry, resigned in 1805, and in 1806 was elected one of the representatives of the Jefferson district in the general assembly. He resigned the office, however, on account of the factional fight made by Secretary Mead. D. W. Brazeale, who saw the captain in behalf of the gov- ernor, wrote: "I have said everything to him on the subject of your letter that I thought was proper, but he seems determined to resign. He has such an aversion to confusion and contention that I believe he would almost as soon enter the infernal abodes as the doors of the house of representatives of this Territory under ex- isting circumstances."

Humphreys, Ralph, obtained a survey order from the Spanish government in Natchez district, for 600 arpents on Bayou Pierre, in January, 1789. He was of a family that came from the north of Ireland to Virginia. His father, Ralph Humphreys, married a Miss Walker, related to Felix Walker of New Orleans. Ralph, the Natchez settler, married Agnes Wilson, a niece of the famous jurist, James Wilson, of Philadelphia. Ralph Humphreys was a patriot in 1775 and became a colonel in the Revolutionary army,

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as related in Goodspeed's Memoirs (Vol. I, pp. 979,981). Two accounts of the migration are given in that work, from one of which it appears that during his absence in the United States service his wife sold their plantation in South Carolina, and came west by the Tennessee river route, and located at Grindstone ford, where he subsequently joined her, and died a few months later. In the other account it is said he migrated from Virginia by way of the Ohio river, and arrived at Grindstone ford Sept. 10, 1788. He had two sons, George Wilson and Ralph, the latter of whom died in youth. His widow married Daniel Burnet (q. v.).

Hunt, a postoffice of Tishomingo county, 17 miles south of Iuka, the county seat.

Hunt, Abijah. Mr. Hunt was a native of the State of New Jersey, came west to the Ohio in the capacity of a sutler in Gen. Wayne's army, and is said to have realized a small fortune while serving in that capacity. On the close of hostilities he came to the Natchez District, and engaged in extensive mercantile operations. On Feb. 28, 1800 Gov. Sargent requested the agents of the United States in the Chickasaw nation to protect and assist the riders of Mr. Abijah Hunt, (who had contracted to carry the mail from Natchez to Knoxville). He became the most extensive merchant in the Territory, owning stores and public cotton gins at Natchez, Washington, Port Gibson and on the Big Black. The original settlement at Greenville, where he lived, was first called Huntston or Huntsville in his honor. He was a man of high character, and by reason of his wealth and intelligence, exerted great social and political influence. He was a strong partisan and sided with the Federal party, and was known as a bitter opponent of George Poindexter, whose term as Delegate to Congress from the Terri- tory was then drawing to a close. He is said to have made use of expressions against Poindexter, which the latter could not submit to in the prevailing state of public sentiment, and a challenge passed. After evading the officers Mr. Hunt and Mr. Poindexter met across the river from Natchez, in the Parish of Concordia, about 300 yards below the house of Duncan McMillan, and on the grounds of Maj. Stephen Minor, about a mile above the port of Concord, the pres- ent Vidalia. This was on the morning of June 8, 1811. Mr. Hunt was attended by his friends Capt. E. Bradish and Elijah Smith, while his opponent's seconds were Capt. Wm. C. Mead and Lieut. Jos. R. Peyton. "Capt. Bradish won the word and gave it. Two pistol shots were heard, and Mr. Hunt received a wound in the abdomen, which in a few hours terminated his life." Mr. Poin- dexter was unharmed. The affair caused a great sensation by reason of the prominence of the parties, and the historian Claiborne says that Poindexter was for years forced to defend himself from the charge of having fired before the word was given by Capt. Bradish. Mr. Hunt seems never to have married and his extensive business interests passed into the hands of his nephew, David Hunt, who amassed a large fortune as his successor.

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Hunter, a postoffice of Copiah county, " miles due west of Hazle- hurst, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.

Hunter, Henry, was granted 2,000 acres in the settlement of Bayou Sara Nov. 20, 1793, and 150 on the waters of the bayou; was alcalde of Bayou Sara district in the latter years of Spanish dominion. He was allied with the party headed by Col. Hutchins during the Sargent administration, and was elected as one of the representatives of Adams county in July, 1800, and made speaker of the house, the first legislative body in Mississippi territory under the dominion of the United States. He resigned from the legisla- ture in 1807. He was also sheriff of Wilkinson county, colonel of militia, and active in various capacities in that interesting period of Mississippi history.

Hunter, Narsworthy. Mr. Hunter was granted a thousand acres on Cole's Creek, Sept. 1, 1795, by the Spanish government of the Natchez district. In 1797, when Commissioner Ellicott ar- rived, he was a captain in the militia organization of the district, formed in 1793, and afterward designed as a protection against the threatened attacks of citizens of the United States under the French flag. In 1797 Mr. Hunter appears to have taken an active part in the sudden burst of American enthusiasm that greeted the arrival of the American commissioner of limits. He drew up a pe- tition of the inhabitants, addressed to Ellicott, requesting him to intervene in their interests. He was selected by Ellicott to carry a message to the secretary of state, and came back with a commis- sion as inspector of the military posts on the east side of the Mis- sissippi. This probably related to the post at Chickasaw Bluffs, the only one of that description, which Lieut. Pope erected that fall, against the advice ,of the secretary of war. Ellicott doubted the genuineness of this commission, and, in his Journal, and in a letter printed in Sargent's Papers, makes a savage attack upon Hunter, in this connection, also saying that upon his return he was an ardent advocate of a military government of the district. J. F. H. Claiborne alludes to him as "an educated, polished and honor- able man, a native of Virginia." In 1799 he was sent to Philadel- phia by the committee opposed to Governor Sargent, and while his communications were doubtless somewhat partisan and exagger- ated, they display ability, and he was successful in enlisting such support in Congress that Mississippi territory was given a general assembly long in advance of the time at which it could be expected under the terms of the Ordinance of 1787. Under the supplemental act of 1800 he was elected delegate to Congress, by the general assembly which met in 1801, and was consequently, from Dec. 7, 1801, the first representative in that body of the great region em- bracing the present States of Mississippi and Alabama. His ser- vice was cut short by death, March 1, 1802. On March 12, the House resolved that the speaker notify the governor of Mississippi territory of the death of Narsworthy Hunter, delegate from said territory.

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There was a younger Narsworthy Hunter, commissioned captain of Mississippi militia during the Baton Rouge troubles in 1810.

Huntlo, a postoffice of Yazoo county.

Huntsville, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Montgomery county, about 18 miles from Winona, the county seat. It has a church. Population in 1900, 76.

Hurley, a post-hamlet in the east-central part of Jackson county, about 20 miles north of Pascagoula, the county seat. Population in 1900, 100.

Huron, a post-hamlet in the southeastern part of Amite county, on the headwaters of the Tickfaw river, 15 miles southeast of Liberty, the county seat. Population in 1900, 30.

Hurricane of 1722. La Harpe, in his Historical Journal, mentions this, terrible storm. He says: "On the 9th of September, 1722, la Loire and les Deux Freres set sail for New Orleans, but after- wards returned to Ship Island on account of the weather. On the 11th, a violent hurricane commenced to blow in the morning from the southeast to the southwest, which damaged all the rice, corn and bean crops, and threw down a great number of houses, both at Fort Louis, Biloxi, and New Orleans. It sunk the ship l'Epidule, three transports, and as many pirogues, and likewise damaged the ships Neptune and Santo Christo. · On the 23rd, M. de Bienville was informed that the ship le Dromedaire had rode out the hurricane at the mouth of the Mississippi, as well as those at Ship Island, without receiving any damage." This is a striking testimonial to the excellence of the harbor at Ship Island, even at this early day. This storm blew violently for three days, and wrought such havoc to crops as to cause great distress. An urgent letter was dispatched to directors of the companies in France, de- manding of them further supplies.

Hurricane Creek, a post-hamlet in the extreme northeastern corner of Clarke county, about 25 miles from Quitman, the county seat. Population in 1900, 35.

Hurst, a post-hamlet in the south-central part of Amite county, between the east and west forks of the Amite river, 9 miles south of Liberty, the county seat. Population in 1900, 25.

Hurst, David Wiley, was born in what is now Amite county, Miss., July 10, 1819. His father, Richard Hurst, a sea captain, came from Norfolk, Va., in the Territorial period, and settled in the region then embraced in Adams county. David Hurst attended Davenport's school at Liberty, was at Hanover college, Ind., one term, but received his collegiate education mainly at Oakland col- lege. After reading law with James M. Smiley, he was admitted to the bar in 1843, after which he practiced three years at Bay St. Louis. Subsequently Amite county was his home until after the war. His father was representative from Amite county in 1821-25, and he had the same honor in 1848. In the same year he was the Whig candidate for elector for his congressional district and made a joint canvass with James A. Ventress. In 1860-61 he opposed secession and voted against it as a member of the con-

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stitutional convention; but he obeyed the majority in his State, raised a company of volunteers and was assigned to the 33d regi- ment of which he was elected colonel. At the battle of Corinth his horse was shot down, and, in the fall, he was so severely in- jured as to incapacitate him for further service. Upon the death of Justice C. P. Smith, of the supreme court, in 1863, he was elected to the vacancy, and was holding this office when all offices were declared vacant in 1865. Afterward he practiced for a short time at Vicksburg, but removed to Summit, where he resided until his death, July 10, 1882. Wiley P. Harris said of him that he attained the highest honors of his profession through real merit. "Straight- forward manliness and a certain nobleness and elevation of char- acter distinguished him."

Hushpuckena, a post-hamlet in the northern part of Bolivar county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 18 miles north of Cleveland, one of the two seats of justice for the county. Popula- tion in 1900, 46.

Hustler, a hamlet of Amite county, 12 miles northeast of Liberty, the county seat. The postoffice here was discontinued in 1905, and it now has rural free delivery from Liberty. Population in 1900, 18.

Houston, Felix, of Natchez, was a brother of Samuel Houston, and probably was born in the State of Virginia. He was in com- mand of the regular Texas army in January, 1837, and fought a duel with Albert Sidney Johnston, in which the latter was wound- ed. In the same year he returned to Natchez.

Hutchins, Anthony, one of the most notable figures in the early history of Natchez district and Mississippi territory, was born in New Jersey about 1719, a brother of Capt. Thomas Hutch- ins. Some time before 1772 Anthony Hutchins was a planter in Carolina. He travelled into West Florida, probably attracted by his brother's services in that region, and in less than a year after- ward (Claiborne's history, p. 172), had settled permanently at the site of the Indian village of White Apple, 12 miles from Natchez.

According to the narrative in Spark's Memoirs of Fifty Years, Anthony Hutchins and family and neighbors, with their negroes, moved over the mountains, when the war was inevitable, from the Santee Hills to the Holston river, where they built a fleet of flat boats from the forest, to convey themselves, their negroes, live stock and provisions down the rivers. At Mussel Shoals on the Tennessee, they were attacked by the Chickamauga pirates, and one of the boats, loaded with hogs, was abandoned. In the at- tack Anthony Hutchins was wounded. They floated on northward to the Ohio, then down to the place afterward known as New Madrid, where, after a brief stop they were alarmed by information that the mongrel inhabitants were preparing to kill them for their property. Slipping away in the night, they did not stop till they reached the mouth of Cole's creek, whence they moved to the St. Catherine's.

Mr. Hutchins represented the District of Natchez in the as- sembly of West Florida at Pensacola in 1778. During the subse-

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quent troubles he was at times the virtual governor of the district. In an address to the inhabitants in 1798, when he was asserting the office of agent of the district, in association with the Commit- tee of Safety, he wrote: "I have lived in this country more than twenty-five years, and a part of that time it was my lot to preside in all things civil and military, and it hath been well ascertained that I never spared either pains or expense in organizing the coun- try, regulating the course of judicature, attending to the adminis- tration of justice, and in composing the minds of the people."

In 1778 Mr. Hutchins was visited by members of the Willing expedition and because of loyalty to Great Britain was carried to New Orleans as a hostage for the neutrality of the district. Returning, he was active in organizing the district to repel Wil- ling by force of arms, and participated in a skirmish with a party of Willing's troops that caused the death of several of them. As told by old Tony, the famous body servant of Col. Hutchins (W. H. Sparks, Memories of Fifty Years, p. 307-8), one of the wounded was the lieutenant who had interfered to save the col- onel's home from plunder at the time of the arrest. When he was taken to the house, the colonel's wife knew him, "and she cried mightily about his being shot. Well, he talk plenty about his wife and modder, and Miss Alice's modder (daughter of the col- onel) nurse him; but he died, and his grave's yonder wid ole massa and missus."

On account of the part taken by Anthony Hutchins against Willing, Peter Chester, governor of West Florida, and his council, appointed him "Major in the provincial regiment with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel," and the House of Assembly of the Province unanimously resolved, "That the thanks of the House should be presented to Lieutenant-Colonel Hutchins for the extraordinary 'Zeal and indefatigable activity he showed at the critical time when the Rebels attempted to take full possession of the Natchez dis- trict for his having been the principal means of recalling the In- habitants to their Duty of Allegiance to His Majesty and thereby preventing that valuable country from falling under the Subjection of the Congress.'" (Pub. Miss. Hist. Soc., III, 280).

In 1781 he took a leading part in the uprising against Spanish dominion, during the siege of Pensacola, and when the Spanish enforced their conquest he was marked for punishment, but after staying in hiding for a while he managed to escape with some com- panions, most of whom were killed or wounded in an ambush. (See Claiborne, pp. 131-32.) Finally reaching Savannah, he sailed to London, and remained several years, it is said, until by the influence of friends at New Orleans and the great English mer- chant, William Panton, he was permitted to return to his family and home in Natchez district. But he was not absent many years. The Natchez records show his presence in 1785-86.

The claims by his representatives before the land agent in 1805 (he then being deceased) show that he was granted 1,000 acres on Second creek Sept. 21, 1772, and 434 more in 1773. A claim was

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also made to 1,000 acres on Second creek, based on a Spanish grant in 1788. After this he was granted land on the Mississippi river, 800 acres in 1789 and 586 in 1790, and in the latter year also, 2,- 146 on Cole's creek.

Col. Hutchins next, when past 80 years of age, became conspic- uous during the stay of Commissioner Ellicott at Natchez in 1797- 98. He was suspected by Ellicott of being so devoted to the Brit- ish interest, as to be favorably disposed toward foreign control of the Natchez district. He interposed when the Spanish governor was beseiged by the inhabitants, and was the leading member of the committee that made the convention of peace and neutrality. Apparently of his own will, he was not a member of the Permanent committee, but he presently attempted to dissolve it, and caused the election of the Committee of Safety. Throughout the remain- der of Ellicott's stay he bitterly opposed the influence of that gen- tleman in the affairs of the district. Ellicott did not appreciate Hutchins' feeling of primacy in the district, and the Colonel bit- terly resented the leadership assumed by the commissioner, whom he regarded as an interloper. He accused Ellicott of everything he could think of in the line of public character, but the writer has found no mention of the other accusations against Ellicott, over the signature of Anthony Hutchins.

He strenuously urged against Ellicott in 1797-8 that the latter favored the English grants, but Colonel Hutchins appeared to be closely associated with some royalist friends, including Elihu Hall Bay, in asserting the validity of these grants.

On file in the Mississippi archives is a letter from Colonel Hutchins to John Miller, Esq., Carolina Coffee House, Birchin Lane, London, dated Natchez, 25th January, 1799, enclosing his affidavits before Isaac Johnson, that he had not been during the year 1798, "following any other place or employment of profit, Civil or Military under His Majesty besides his military allowance as a Provincial Officer." He requested Miller, with whom he was associated commercially, to buy two tickets in the London State lottery, one for his wife, Ann Hutchins, and the other for his eight children, Samuel, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Nancy, Magdalene, Charlotte and Celeste Hutchins. "It is so long since a letter from you hath come to hand that I am and shall be at a loss to know how to write to you on the business of our consern, until I shall happen to receive one, for even such letters as may go safe to the U. States may lay in the Post Office unattended to, which probably may have been the case with some of yours to me. Things are very disagreeable here. Courts are not yet organized, nor do we know anything respecting lands, whether British grants for unoc- cupied lands will operate fully here or not, or whether Spanish grants on the same land will not bear the greatest weight. These are matters I suppose that will ere long be determined. One of the evasions respecting English grants is that Florida was in posses- sion of Spain when the Treaty between Britain and America was made and established."

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The history of this letter would be interesting. Possibly it was intercepted at New Orleans and the contents communicated to Andrew Ellicott, whose own letters met the same fate at Natchez.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. I, Part 97

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