Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 116

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032

USA > Mississippi > Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II > Part 116

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His letter two days later is a further explanation, that the appli- cation to Gardoqui would serve to gain his confidence and defeat his project of organizing colonies in the upper valley. Major Dunn had been sent to visit Gardoqui. "The Major carries with him a petition to obtain, on the Yazoo and the Mississippi the conces- sion of land to which I alluded in my last letter. It is the most advantageous site to form a settlement above Natchez. That peti- tion is signed by Innes, Sebastian, Dunn, Brown and myself. Our intention is to make an establishment on the ground mentioned in my communication of the 12th, and with a view to destroy the plan of a certain Colonel Morgan." Morgan was an old Indian agent and trader, who had been sent by a New Jersey company of specu- lators to buy western land from Congress, and found he could make better terms with Gardoqui. He obtained an enormous con- cession west of the Mississippi, where he proposed to found a col- ony, with New Madrid as the capital. Wilkinson professed a de- sire to ruin this plan, because the Morgan settlers would "continue to be Americans," and probably "destroy the noble fabric of which we (Miro and Wilkinson) have laid the foundation." This episode is of interest in connection with the relations of Wilkinson, Burr and Morgan at a later day, and illustrates the two distinct lines of Spanish intrigue, for expansion and immigration.

Wilkinson County was established January 30, 1802, during the administration of Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne, and was the fifth county to be erected in the new Territory. It received its name in honor of General James Wilkinson of Maryland, in command of the United States troops during the early territorial era of Mississippi. It was created by act of the General Assembly, which recited that "The county of Adams shall be divided as follows, to-wit: Begin- ning on the river Mississippi at the mouth of the Homochitto river, thence running up the Homochitto river to Richards ferry, thence by a line running due east to the western boundary of Washington county ; and all that tract of country south of the above described boundary, to the line of demarcation, shall compose a county, which shall be called Wilkinson." From its territory lying east of a line drawn due north from the thirty mile post, east of the Mississippi river, were subsequently carved the counties of Amite, Pike and the portion of Marion lying west of the Pearl river. June 29, 1822, the river Homochitto was declared to be the dividing line between the counties of Adams and Wilkinson, from its mouth to its intersection with the basis meridian line; and from thence the said river was made the line of demarcation between the counties of Wilkinson and Franklin, as far as the mouth of Foster's creek. In 1846, the north channel of the Homochitto, where it forms an island below the lower or western Natchez and Wood-

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ville road was declared to be the boundary between Wilkinson and Adams, and Tanzy Island was embraced within the limits of Wilkinson. As now defined it is the southwestern county of the State and has an area of about 17 townships, or 664 square miles. This historic region composed the southern part of the old Natchez District, and contained some of the earliest settlements of white people in the State. During the latter part of the eighteenth cen- tury, several large settlements had been made in Wilkinson county, along the Homochitto river, Buffalo Bayou and in the vicinity of the Mississippi river. The whole interior of the present State of Mississippi, with the exception of a small district on the Toinbig- bee river, was at this time in the sole and undisputed possession of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. Many of these early settlers were Anglo-Americans, and some were of Spanish and French descent, due to the successive occupancy of the region by France, England and Spain. Others had emigrated to the district from the United States after the close of the Revolutionary war, under the inducements held out by the Spanish authorities. After the treaty of San Lorenzo in 1795 many more came from the western States, and from the Carolinas and Georgia. The census of 1810 shows that Wilkinson had attained a population of 5,068, and by 1837 it had a total population of nearly 13,000 including slaves. The year after General Wilkinson came to Natchez, in the summer of 1798, he erected a military post at the first highland point on the Mississippi, a few miles above the Spanish line of demarcation, and called it "Fort Adams." The historic old place is now a village of 240 people. A few of the early settlers of Wilkinson county at the beginning of the last century were George Poindexter, Daniel Williams, Abram M. Scott, John Joor, Gerard C. Brandon, Joseph Johnson, all members of the Constitutional Convention of 1817, and elsewhere mentioned in this work; Judge Edward McGehee, Peter Smith, father of Coteworth Pinckney Smith, Chief Justice of the High Court of Errors and Appeals, John Dunkley, Thos. Kirkham, John L. Lewis, Archibald McGehee, Landon Davis, Hugh Davis, Douglas Cooper, Gen. Wm. L. Brandon, and Wm. and James A. Ventress. Few, if any counties in the State, can furnish a roll of names as distinguished in the annals of the com- monwealth and the above list might be indefinitely extended. The following men were commissioned Justices of the Peace, February 2nd, 1802: John Ellis, Hugh Davis, John Collins, Richard Butler, William Ogden and Thomas Dawson. Courts were first held at Fort Adams and Pinckneyville, and a little later the seat of jus- tice was moved to the present county site of Woodville, which was incorporated in 1811. Woodville is now a place of 1043 inhab- itants, situated in the south central part of the county at the ter- minus of the Bayou Sara and Woodville branch of the Y. & M. V. R. R. This old railroad is noteworthy as one of the first railroads to be built in the United States, and is the oldest line in Missis- sippi. It was incorporated by Woodville people in 1831, under the name of The West Feliciana Railroad Company. Judge Edward

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McGehee was one of the active promoters of the road. Centerville is a place of some importance in the southeastern part of the county on the railroad, and has a population of 590 people. Ro- setta, Wilkinson, Perrytown, Darrington, Pinckneyville, and Turn- bull are all small villages. Besides the line of railroad to Wood- ville above mentioned, the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R. crosses the extreme southeastern corner of the county, and enters the county again at the extreme northeastern corner. Though the first county in the state to build a railroad, it is rather poorly sup- plied with railroad facilities today. Besides the Mississippi and Homochitto rivers on its western and northern borders, the prin- cipal streams are Buffalo, Percy, Smith, Big Pine and Fords creeks, and Bayou Sara. The portion of the county lying west of Woodville, or the Bayou Sara country as far as the Mississippi river, is of great fertility, with a warm, loamy and generous soil. The natural timber growth is cypress on the bottoms, and oaks, poplar, lind, magnolia, ash, black walnut, hickory. That section of the county lying north of a line drawn due east from Woodville to Amite county line is generally poor in soil and products. The natural timber consists of pine, poplar, ash, beech, catalpa, hickory, oaks, etc. The third division of the county lying south of the line drawn east from Woodville, is a fine agricultural country, gently undulating, and possesses a soil only a little less fertile than the first or western section. The forest growth consists of pine, poplar, hickory, oaks, ash, elm, beech, magnolia, and abounds in enormous wild grape and muscadine vines. The eastern half of the county lies in the Long Leaf Pine region and the western half in the Bluff Formation of the State. The products of the county are cotton, corn, oats, sugar-cane, sorghum, peas, peanuts and all the grasses. Fruits, especially grapes and all the vegetables grow in great luxuriance and abundance. Pasturage for stock raising and sheep husbandry is very extensive, the live stock of the county being valued at nearly $600,000. Excellent schools are to be found throughout the county. The Woodville Female Academy, incor- porated in 1840 by the M. E. church, was founded by Judge Ed- ward McGehee and Colonel and Mrs. Lewis, and was known as one of the best in the country. It was burned in 1849. The Mc- Gehee college for girls, formerly known as the Woodville Female Seminary, was chartered in 1861 and is still in a prosperous con- dition.

The following statistics, taken from the last United States cen- sus for 1900, relate to farms, manufactures and population : Num- ber of farms, 2,687, total acreage in farms 268,548, acres improved 109,247, value of land and improvements, exclusive of buildings $1,337,840, value of buildings $484,730, value of live stock $578,595, value of products not fed to stock $1,196,863. Number of manu- facturing establishments 40, capital invested $89,247, wages paid $9,282, cost of materials used $21,198, total value of products $62,- 215. The population of the county in 1900 was whites 4,384, col- ored 17,069, total 21,453, increase over the year 1890, 3,661. The

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total assessed valuation of real and personal property in Wilkinson county in 1905 was $2,570,564 and in 1906 it was $2,881,652.60, which shows an increase of $311,088.60 during the year.

Wilkinson, Edward C., a native of Virginia, who became a lawyer at Natchez in early manhood. Henry S. Foote met him there in 1831, and they were friends until the death of Wilkinson a few years before 1861. Foote referred to him as "a consummate scholar, an erudite lawyer and an upright and pious gentleman. After hav- ing achieved much success in his profession, and after having sur- rounded himself with multitudes of friends and admirers, he became. involved in a tragic affair in the city of Louisville, Ky., of most melancholy import, which resulted in his being tried for murder, amid the raging of a furious local excitement, and in his being, in the end, honorably acquitted." In defense of Judge Wilkinson, S. S. Prentiss made one of the ablest speeches of his life. After 1831 Wilkinson made his home at Yazoo City, "where his memory is yet profoundly respected." (Lynch, Bench and Bar, 138.) He was the uncle of Senator Walthall, who was named for him.

Wilkinson, James, was born in Maryland in 1755, and had com- pleted a course of study in medicine when the War of the Revolution drew him to the army. Being commissioned a captain he went with Benedict Arnold on the expedition to Canada in 1775. Through successive promotions he became a colonel and adjutant-general on the staff of General Gates. He was chosen by Gates to carry to Congress the news of Burgoyne's surrender, and though phenom- enally slow in the journey, Congress gave him a brevet as brigadier- general, and he was appointed secretary of the board of war, of which Gates was president. Subsequently, in a moment of con- viviality, he revealed the plot to retire General Washington from command, known as the Conway cabal. He was compelled to re- sign his brevet, and was no longer in active service during the Revolution. After the war he removed to Kentucky and in 1787 embarked on the great intrigue which formed his chief notoriety.

Wilkinson arrived at New Orleans first in June, 1787, and then began his acquaintance with Daniel Clark, Sr., whose nephew was afterwards his bitter enemy. According to his own story he was anxious to arrange for colonization of the Natchez district, and secure an outlet for Kentucky produce. He admitted that he oper- ated upon "the fears, the avarice and the ambition of those with whom I negotiated, before I could hope for any prospect of suc- cess." But his triumph was complete. He first obtained a permit from Miro to introduce $35,000 worth of Kentucky produce into New Orleans. This was a monopoly ; not, as he coolly observes in his Memoirs, a favor to the people of Kentucky. As to what he paid for the monopoly the Memoirs are silent; but the Spanish archives are. eloquent.

After this he was the recipient of a pension from the Spanish government, and was regarded by the governor of Louisiana as special agent. He continued in the river trade until 1791 when he applied for a commission in the United States army, and was made

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a lieutenant-colonel, on the strength of advice that he would in that situation be less dangerous to Kentucky. Upon the sudden death of General Wayne he became brigadier-general in command of the army. He came to Mississippi territory in 1798, bringing with him a luxurious coach and four horses. (See Occupation.) Of this period of his life the historian Pickett wrote: "General Wilkinson deserves to be remembered for many important public services, among which are the treaties which he made with Indian tribes, and the military organization of new counties. He wrote with astonishing ease, and always expressed himself well. He was, unquestionably, a man of genius, as well as of much usefulness ; yet he had always been suspected of allowing personal considerations to control much of his military and official conduct. However, now acting with great zeal and fidelity, he stationed troops at dif- ferent points on the line of demarkation, from Fort Adams, upon the Mississippi, to Pearl River, and caused Fort Stoddert to be built. While his headquarters were at Natchez, he made an ad- vantageous treaty with the Chickasaws, obtaining their consent, among other things, to the cutting of a road, to remain as a high- way, extending from the Cumberland district to the American set- tlements of Natchez. He made another treaty, with the Choctaws, for a road from Fort Adams to the Yazoo river. The old boundary between the British and Choctaws was also confirmed by him and marked anew. He likewise repaired to the distant Oconee, and, near a fort named in honor of him, made a treaty with the Creeks. The fearless, wise and patriotic agents, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, were associated with General Wilkinson in all these treaties, and, with him, travelled from the Chickasaw bluff, backward and forward, over this Indian world, encountering its dangers, and sharing in mutual hardships." (Alabama, II, 180.)

When Wilkinson was at Fort Adams in 1803, after surveying the Natchez boundary, he received a letter from Thomas Power, re- garding the proposed French occupation of New Orleans, saying: "The prefect has on several occasions, in talking of you, made use of very illiberal language, and that not in private, but in public and numerous company. He has said, among other things, that your character was perfectly well understood in France ; that your principles were not at all enigmatical; that you had tricked and deceived the Spanish government." Turreau, the French minister, wrote to Talleyrand in 1805: "General Wilkinson is forty-eight years of age. He had an amiable exterior. Though said to be well informed in civil and political matters, his military capacity is small. Ambitious and easily dazzled, fond of show and appearances, he complains rather indiscreetly, and especially after dinner, of the form of his government, which leaves officers few chances of for- tune, advancement and glory. He seems to hold to the American service only because he can do no better. General Wil- kinson is the most intimate friend, or rather the most devoted creature of Aaron Burr." It was because President Jefferson de- sired the support of Burr to offset the attacks of John Randolph

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on the Madison plan for settling the Yazoo fraud claims, that the president violated the Jeffersonian principle of separating civil and military power, in 1805, by appointing General Wilkinson gover- nor of the Territory of Louisiana, north of Claiborne's Territory of Orleans.

Next, in the general's career, came his spectacular exposure of Burr's "treason." But the political ramifications and moral aspect of this affair interested John Randolph. In his memoirs Wilkin- son wrote (1815) "I can distinctly trace the source of my perse- cutions, for the last eleven years, to the celebrated John Randolph of Roanoke, who is entitled to all the credit to be derived from the cunning, zeal, perseverance and perfidy displayed in his complot- tings against the character of a man whom he feared and hated." He said he merely happened to meet Randolph, "from the vortex of whose malevolence it was impossible I should escape." Ran- dolph sought his indictment for misprision of treason, but failed. Whereupon the Virginian wrote: "The mammoth of iniquity es- caped; not that any man pretended to think him innocent, but upon certain wire-drawn distinctions that I will not pester you with. Wilkinson is the only man that I ever saw who was from the bark to the core a villain." "What seemed to be the indictment and trial of Burr became, in a political point of view, the trial of Wilkinson, with John Randolph acting as accuser and President Jefferson as counsel for the defence, while Chief Justice Marshall presided in judgment." (Henry Adams, Hist. U. S., III, 343). During the Burr trial Andrew Jackson denounced Wilkinson on the streets as a traitor. Swartwout jostled the general on the sidewalk and posted him as a coward when he refused to fight. Wilkinson challenged Randolph December 29, 1807. Randolph refused to meet him, whereupon the general posted the congressman. The administration party in Congress was compelled to support Wil- kinson, on account of the attitude of Randolph. Daniel Clark, whom the general had endeavored to ruin in connection with the Burr affair, feeling that the crisis had come, put in Randolph's hands copies of letters that had been previously withheld, one of which was the cipher letter Philip Nolan was said to have brought to Gayoso at Natchez, February, 1797; also Carondelet's order to hold $9,640 subject to Wilkinson's order, dated January 20, 1796.

Gen. John Adair, after the Burr trials, returned to New Orleans and sought an interview with Wilkinson, at his headquarters, and being denied this, published a statement in the newspapers, saying, "There is not a man living, who, to my knowledge, has been en- gaged in any treasonable project, or received a pension for treason- able purposes from any foreign government, Gen. James Wilkinson excepted ;" also, that the general was a coward and merited no. weapon but a horsewhip. The situation in Congress was intensified by a letter from Col. F. L. Claiborne to Delegate Lattimore. Nev- ertheless, Wilkinson was assigned to command at New Orleans when war was feared in 1809. Then came the Terre aux Boeufs. scandal, reports of the terrible sufferings of the soldiers whom he

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had encamped in a swampy place near New Orleans, with the re- sult that they were taken with the fever. There was a great furore and the government ordered a transfer of the troops to Mississippi. It took Wilkinson about three months to obey this order, but fin- ally, in October, 1809, the army was encamped at Columbian Springs, Fort Dearborn, and other points, with headquarters at Washington. Of the two thousand men, 795 died and 166 deserted. Brig .- Gen. Wade Hampton was put in command of the department in December, and Wilkinson was ordered to Washington to answer charges, but did not depart until February.

The famous court martial of Gen. Wilkinson convened at Fred- erickstown, Md., September 2, 1811, and, after several adjourn- ments, was concluded early in 1812. Nine payments of money to him by the Spanish government, upon the pension which it was alleged he received, were specified, in amounts of $6,000, $10,000, "two mule loads," etc. One item was $9,640 sent by Governor Car- ondelet in January, 1796, to New Madrid, and in the summer of that year delivered by Thomas Power to Philip Nolan for Wilkinson; another of $10,000 paid at New Orleans, between December 7, 1803, and April 21, 1804. It was also charged that in a conference with Daniel Clark, at the camp at Loftus Heights, in October, 1798, Wilkinson asserted a claim against the Spanish government on account of his pension, and asked Clark to propose to Gayoso that he should transfer to him the famous plantation near Natchez, known as Concord, in payment of the obligation. He was charged in a number of counts with treasonable negotiations with Power, Leonard, Armesty, Carondelet and Gayoso; with associations with Aaron Burr; with maladministration regarding the transfer of troops to Natchez in 1809, and some minor offences. The court found that Wilkinson had no relations with the Spanish governors but a trade concession at New Orleans, on account of which the payments were made; that he had been incorruptible since his appointment as general; and in brief, that "General Wilkinson ap- pears to have performed his various and complicated duties with zeal and fidelity, and merits the approbation of his country."

He was ordered to New Orleans to take command of the Terri- tories of Orleans and Mississippi, in April, 1812, and early in 1813 he took possession of Mobile, the Spanish commandant afterward being denounced by his countrymen as a traitor. In the summer he was promoted to major-general and called to the Canadian fron- tier, his first military command of any consequence. His campaign there was a miserable failure, but he was not entirely to blame for that. In January, 1815, he was called before a court martial at Troy, N. Y., on charges of neglect of duty, drunkenness and con- duct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, and was found not guilty and honorably acquitted of all charges. Retiring from the army, he published his memoirs in three volumes in 1815. Subse- quently he removed to Louisiana, and thence to Mexico, where he died, December 28, 1825.

The proof of his connection with Spain was not available until

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search was made in the Spanish archives. The Spanish governors retained copies of his letters, and sent the originals to court. Elli- cott had a theory that the general and the Spanish governors were in a conspiracy against both Spain and the United States to estab- lish an independent empire. If so, the Aaron Burr conspiracy was a mere echo of the original enterprise. Possibly Wilkinson had different motives at different periods. That which was invariable in his policy was selfishness, falsehood and treachery. He was a soldier on "business methods."

Willet, a postoffice in the southern part of Washington county., 3 miles west of the Big Sunflower river, and 7 miles east of Hol- landale, the nearest railroad and banking town.

Williamsburg, the capital of Covington county, is located at the geographical center of the county, 65 miles southeast of Jackson, and three miles west of the main line of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R. Ora station, on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., is the nearest railroad point, and Collins, 5 miles to the north, is the nearest banking town. It became the county seat at the time of the or- ganization of Covington county in 1819 and is located in a farming, grazing and lumbering district. It has two churches, and a good school. Population in 1900, 475. In 1904 the court house was de- stroyed by fire and has not been rebuilt. (The above sketch of Williamsburg was written in May, 1906, and in October, 1906, the county seat was changed from Williamsburg to the thriving little city of Collins on the main line of the Gulf & Ship Island R. R.)

Williams Case. "One the 9th of November, 1897, the case of Williams against the State, then pending in the supreme court, on appeal from the circuit court of Washington county, wherein Wil- liams had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death, was affirmed and a day named by the supreme court for the execution of the death sentence. Williams, being a man of African descent, denied, through his counsel, the right of the court, organized under the present constitution of the State, to try him, because, he alleged, the constitutional convention was illegally organized, in not ad- mitting Hon. Wheat, a delegate elected from Pearl River county, to a seat in the convention, and hence the constitution framed by it was invalid. Williams appealed to the supreme court of the United States. There has been no more important case before the supreme court of the United States carried from this State since its admission into the Union in 1817." (Message of Gov. McLaurin, 1898). The governor appointed C. B. Mitchell to represent the State as special counsel. The question presented to the court was, "Are the Provisions of the Constitution of the State of Mississippi and the Laws Enacted to Enforce Them Repugnant to the Four- teenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States?" The court held that there was no conflict and no discrimination between the races. It was decided that equal protection of the laws was not denied to colored persons by a State constitution and laws which make no discrimination against the colored race in terms,

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 116

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association Number of Pages: 1032

Author: Rowland, Dunbar, 1864-1937, ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Atlanta, Southern Historical Publishing Association
Number of Pages: 1032