Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 29

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 29

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William Dunbar wrote: "This gentleman was aide-major of the post of Natchez, and attended the governor [ Gayoso] officially, almost perpetually, and was certainly more intimately acquainted with his motives and actions than any one here, his secretary only excepted, who is a Spaniard [Joseph Vidal]." "He is said to have endeared himself to his countrymen, the American settlers, by his acts of friendliness and protection, and was applied to on all occa- sions, in cases of difficulty." (Wailes.)

His attachment to Natchez district was increased by his mar- riage to a daughter of John Ellis, of White Cliffs. When Gayoso became governor of Louisiana, after the arrival of Ellicott, Capt. Minor acted as commandant at Natchez, and civil governor until the evacuation in the spring of 1798. Capt. Guion wrote to Gen. Wilkinson, May 5, 1798: "Captains Minor and Vidal are still here. The first is an American (at heart). The latter says he is a consul. I say he is-perhaps so." Minor served on the boun- dary commission, for running the line between the United States and the Floridas, in 1798-99, in place of Gov. Gayoso, and was with the surveying party to the Chattahoochee river.

In 1804-5 he was listed as an officer of the Spanish boundary commission of Louisiana, as a captain in the Spanish army. He gave a safe conduct to Walter Burling, sent by Wilkinson to the governor of Mexico in 1806. Captain Minor then had his home at Gayoso's old plantation, Concord, and, says Claiborne's history, "was an opulent planter, extremely hospitable, and lived in elegant style." But he did not purchase that plantation until sometime

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after the evacuation. "A part of the Minor family still resides near Natchez at a charming home called Oakland, which is a part of the original grant made to Don Estevan Minor. Oakland is famous for its avenue of liveoak trees, of which the branches inter- lock though the trunks stand eighty feet apart." (Deupree.) Gov- ernor Minor had a brother, John Minor, who was at Natchez dur- ing the absence of Stephen Minor on the survey. William J. Minor, son of the captain, resided at Concord, after the decease of his father. Minor's second marriage was to Catherine Lintot, and five children were born to them. Captain Minor died at Concord in 1815.

Minot, a postoffice in the northern part of Sunflower county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 35 miles distant from Indianola, the county seat.

Minter City, a post-village in the northern part of Leflore county, on the Southern, and the Mississippi Valley railroads, about 18 miles northwest of Greenwood, the county seat. It has a money order postoffice, an oil mill, and a brick and tile factory. Population in 1900, 170.

Miro, Estevan, was a Spanish officer at New Orleans, who gained promotion to colonel commanding the Creole regiment, during the conquest of West Florida by Galvez, and succeeding Galvez as governor of the province, including the Natchez district. He made the treaty of 1784, at Pensacola and Mobile, with Alex- ander McGillivray and the Southern Indian nations, binding them to Spain; and engaged the services of James Wilkinson and others to promote the separation of the Western country from the United States. He was popular outside of his own domain, as was evi- denced by the naming of the Cumberland river region "Miro dis- trict," in his honor. In October, 1790, he wrote to his home government, asking a place in the department of the Indies, in Spain. "I have now had the honor," said he, "of serving the king, always with distinguished zeal, for thirty years and three months, of which, twenty-one years and eight months in America." He was a native of Catalonia; his wife was a Macarty, of New Or- leans. Judge Martin wrote of him that though he was not bril- liant, like Galvez, he had sound judgment, a high sense of honor and an excellent heart, united suavity of temper with energy, was remarkable for strict morality, had a fair college education and was master of several languages. He sailed for Spain in 1791, "where he continued his military career, and from the rank of brigadier-general rose to that of mariscal de campo, or lieutenant- general."

Mish, a money order post-hamlet of Covington county, and a station on the Gulf & Ship Island R. R., 6 miles north of Williams- burg, the county seat, and 3 miles southeast of Mt. Olive, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 21. A large saw mill is located here and the population in 1906 was estimated at 100.

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Missionary, a hamlet of Jasper county, 6 miles north of Paulding, the county seat. The postoffice here has been discontinued and mail now goes to Paulding. Population in 1900, 57.

Missions, Early Catholic. With the exception of the chaplains who are known to have accompanied De Soto in his luckless wan- derings through Mississippi in 1539, Father Marquette was the first Catholic priest to set foot on Mississippi soil. In 1673, with Joliet, he explored the great river, termed on his autograph map the River de la Conception, as far south as the mouth of the Ar- kansas river. His work was one of exploration and preparation, and he probably held little communication with the Indians. Nine years later, Father Zenobius Membre, Recollect, accompanied the expedition of LaSalle as chaplain, to the mouth of the Mississippi. He has left us an interesting narrative of that celebrated voyage. On their way down the river, every effort was made to obtain the friendship of the various Indian tribes. Father Membre calls the Natchez by the name "Natchie"; says the narrative, "Although their village lay three leagues inland, the sieur de la Salle did not hesitate to go there with part of our force. We slept there and received as kindly a welcome as we could expect."

Before 1698 the seminary of foreign missions at Paris, France, had established a branch in Quebec to train missionaries for the New World. The first Catholic missionaries sent in 1698 by the Bishop of Quebec into the newly discovered southern field were priests from this seminary. They were Father Francis Jolliet de Montigny, superior, who settled among the Taensas, a nation closely akin to the Natchez; and afterwards among the Natchez ; Father Anthony Davion, who pursued his missionary labors in what is now Wilkinson county, and who planted the cross on a high rock, known by the French as Roche a Davion until 1764, when it was called Loftus Heights, and subsequently and ever since as Fort Adams ; the third priest sent at this time was Father Francis Buisson de Saint Cosme, who began a mission among the Tamarois, an Illinois tribe above the Ohio; he later took the place of Father Montigny among the Natchez. When d'Iberville came in 1699 to plant the first French colony on the Mississippi, he brought with him as chaplains Father Bordenac, who was later left as chaplain of the garrison at Fort Biloxi, and Father Anas- tasius Douay, Recollect, who had been with LaSalle's expedition, from 1684-88, and has left a very full narrative of LaSalle's attempt to ascend the Mississippi, in 1787. Father Anastasius does not appear to have remained long in the colony, however. In 1699, Revs. Berzier Bouteville and Saint Cosme, a younger brother of the Father Cosme, above mentioned. arrived on the Lower Mis- sissippi from Canada. In July, 1699, Fathers Montigny and Davion, having learned from the Indians that the French had made a set- tlement at Biloxi, were welcome visitors at that post. October 1, 1702, Father Davion and Father Limoge, a Tesuit priest, went to Biloxi to inform the French that Father Foucault, his servant, and two other Frenchmen had been murdered on the Yazoo river

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by two Courois Indians, who were serving them as guides on a trip to Mobile. It would seem that Father Davion abandoned his mission among the Tonicas for a time, as La Harpe records that December 21, 1704, "the chiefs of the Tonica nation came to Fort Mobile to solicit the return of Father Davion to their village, which he had abandoned since the death of Father Foucault, who had been killed by the Curois, instigated by the English, and in concert with the Yasous." In 1706, Father Saint Cosme, the elder, became sick and started down the Mississippi from Natchez. January 1, 1707, Rev. Father Berzier, Grand Vicar of Quebec, arrived at Mobile from his station among the Tamarois, and re- ported that Father Saint Cosme had been cruelly murdered by the Chitamaches of La Fourche. Bienville thereupon induced the Biloxis, Bayagoulas and Natchez to make war on them and they were nearly exterminated. Father Davion was finally forced to abandon his mission among the Tonicas on account of the hostility of the Indians, who were instigated thereto by the English, and went to Mobile. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Quebec had caused Father la Vente and four other priests to be sent to the colony from France. La Vente came as Vicar-General of the colony, and con- temporary records would seem to indicate that he devoted more time to stirring up trouble against Gov. Bienville than to mission- ary efforts.

When the Company of the West was formed in 1717 under the auspices of the Duke of Orleans, the charter required the company "to build at its expense churches at the places where settlements were formed ; to maintain there the necessary number of approved ecclesiastics, in order to preach the holy Gospel there, perform divine service and administer the sacraments under the authority of the bishop of Quebec, the said colony remaining as heretofore in his diocese." "In 1722," says the Rev. B. J. Bekkers in his sketch of the Catholic Church in Mississippi, "the company took up the matter. The year before, the Jesuit Father Charlevoix (q. v.) had travelled through the French colonies in North Amer- ica (he made extended visits at the Yazoo and at Natchez), and after his return to France had told of the great spiritual destitu- tion of the colony." As a result of this report, it was arranged to have the Capuchin fathers take charge of the French settlements, and Jesuit fathers from France were placed in charge of the mis- sions among the Indians. In that portion of the province of Louisiana embraced in the State of Mississippi, the following as- signments were made: The Capuchin Father Philibert was given the mission at Natchez. The Jesuit Father Maturin le Petit was sent to the Choctaws; Father Seoul to the Yazoos; Father Bau- douin to the Chickasaws. On the recall of Father le Petit to New Orleans, Father Baudouin took his place, and assisted by Father Lefevre labored among the Choctaws for 18 years. We are indebted to Father le Petit for a very full account of the man- ners and customs of the Natchez tribe, including an account of the great massacre of 1729. Father Philibert happened to be away

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from Natchez and escaped the common fate; the Jesuit father du Poisson, from the Arkansas post, however, happened to be at Nat- chez at the time and was slain, as was Father Seoul at the Yazoo on December 11. Father Doutrelou was severely wounded by the Yazoos at this time also, but managed to escape. Still another Jesuit met his fate on Mississippi soil in 1736. Father Lenat had accompanied d'Artaguette from the Illinois post on his disastrous expedition into the Chickasaw country to assist Bienville. He perished with the commander and other officers at the stake.

The Jesuit order was finally suppressed in France in 1761 and all the missionaries in the province of Louisiana were hunted down and deported to France, their property confiscated and their churches and chapels destroyed.

As a result of the seven years war between England and France the latter country lost her possessions in the new world, and, with the exception of the brief period 1779-98, when the Spaniards were in control of the province of West Florida, Catholic missionary effort entirely ceased. Under the Spanish regime, the Bishop of Salamanca sent four Irish priests to Natchez, about 1790, the Revs. Wm. Savage, Gregory White, Constantine McKenna and Michael Lamport. When the province became part of the United States by the treaty of San Lorenzo, they all returned to Spain and the territory of Mississippi was without a Catholic priest.

Catholic missionary labors thus cover nearly a century of time. Despite great individual effort and heroism amid savage condi- tions of life, it is doubtful if many converts to Christianity were made in Mississippi, or if any lasting impression was made on the Indian tribes. (See Shea, History of Cath. Church, and Bek- kers, Miss. Hist. Soc. Publ., VI, 351.)

Missions, Protestant. Before the departure of the Catholic priests the Protestants had done much missionary work, but in violation of the laws of the province. The first Protestant to preach in the new territory was Rev. Richard Curtis, a Baptist, who settled on Cole's Creek near Natchez, with a number of emi- grants from North Carolina in 1780. His work was effective, and the first Protestant church in Mississippi was established by him. But his preaching aroused the indignation of the Spanish govern- ment, and to escape being sent to the mines in Mexico, he fled through the wilderness to his old home and did not return until the United States got possession of the territory. The Baptists were active in the early missionary work. Soon after Mr. Curtis began his work Rev. Tobias Gibson, a Methodist missionary, came to the territory, followed by Moses Floyd, Lanner Blackman and T. C. N. Barnes, also Methodists, who did effective work. The pioneer preacher of the Episcopalians was Rev. Adam Cloud, who came in 1792. He did missionary work until 1795, when he was sent to New Orleans in irons, and to escape the punishment of slavery in the mines went into exile in Georgia and South Caro- lina. The Presbyterians came as soon as the Americans gained possession of the country. They established missions among the

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Indians and did active missionary work among the negroes on the plantations.

Towards the close of the eighteenth century a Congregational- ist preacher named Bullen came from New York and attempted to establish a mission near the present site of Pontotoc. He put up some buildings, but his enterprise was a failure, as a result of the imprudence of his two deacons.

In 1818 Revs. Kingsbury, Gleason, Touse, Hooper Cushman and others established a mission called Mayhew in East Mississippi, but afterwards removed to a place they called Hebron, three miles from the present site of Starkville. In August, 1818, the Elliott school was established on the Yalobusha in the Choctaw nation, by the American Board for foreign missions. At these missions the boys were taught farming, and the girls how to spin, weave, knit and keep house. Eighty scholars were reported in 1822, when the board was about to open school at Mayhew.

Mayhew mission school (near Columbus) was established by Dr. David Wright, who taught and preached to the Indians for several years. His daughter, Laura, born at Mayhew in 1824, was educated at Mt. Holyoke, Mass., and taught school in Mississippi for 40 years.

The Cumberland Presbyterian church in Tennessee established a school in the Chickasaw nation in October, 1820, which was in charge of Rev. Robert Bell, previously a resident of Monroe county, Miss. He taught a school two and a half miles northeast of Cotton Gin Port, and in 1834 settled near Pontotoc. In October, 1821, the missionary society of the Presbyterian synod of South Carolina and Georgia, established a mission among the Chickasaws at Monroe Station, the movement to this end having been begun in 1819, the region having been visited by Revs. David Humphries and T. C. Stuart in 1820. Stuart established the mission, aided by two men as farmer and mechanic. William Colbert, grandson of the original settler, became an elder in the church they organ- ized. A branch mission was established at "Pigeon Roost," the station being called Martyn, under Rev. W. C. Blair, of Ohio.

The Six Towns Mission Station was established by a gentleman by the name of Bardwell in 1825. He was probably from New England, and the Indians among whom his mission was located were known as the Six Towns tribe. A comfortable log dwelling was built, also a log church and school house. The location of this mission was in Jasper county. The missionaries supplied the natives with school and church privileges and worked among them eight years, but their work, though done in a spirit of self sacrifice, did not amount to a great deal.

The later missionary work, aside from church extension work among the whites, has been among the negro population.

Mississippi. Originally the name of the river. Peter Pitchlynn, in a letter to the Columbus Whig, in 1861, traced the derivation of the word to the Choctaw, mish sha sippukni, which he trans- lated "beyond age." Du Pratz sought to explain the name Mecha-

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sepi as a contraction of Meact Chassipi, meaning "the ancient father of waters." It appears, however, that the Southern Indians did not give the river such a name when the earliest explorers reached the coast. The name given by the gulf coast Indians was written by the French as Malabouchia.

Meechee Seepee, or something sounding like that, was the name given the river by the Indians of the Northwest, visited by La- Salle and Marquette. The meeche or "Missi", is the same in meaning as the Micco of the Creeks and other Muscogees, mean- ing great as an adjective, and chief as a noun. The Michi of Michigan is the same word, and possibly the Massa of Massachu- setts has a like derivation. Mississippi means great water, or great river. It would be more accurately spelled Missisippi, the French orthography, or Misisipi, the Spanish form, both pronounced Mee- seeseepee, which is probably close in sound to the Indian spoken words.

The river was known to the Spaniards in the 16th and 17th cen- turies chiefly under the name of the Rio del Espiritu Santo, (q. v.) or the River of the Holy Ghost. It was also called by them the Rio Grande del Florida, the Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo, or simply the Rio Grande.

By the French it was given the title of La Palisade, on account of the numerous upright snags and young cotton-wood trees found on the bar and passes at the mouth. After its exploration by Marquette and LaSalle, it was called the Colbert in honor of the great minister of Louis XIV. Subsequent to the founding of the French colony by Iberville in 1699, it was named the St. Louis, for the King. But these names all yielded in time to the ancient Indian name.

Says F. L. Riley (Hist. of Miss., p. 349), Pere Marquette was the first to introduce the name, as Mitchisipi (pronounced Mee- cheeSeepee), into geography (1672). Charlevoix, in his publica- tion of 1744, gave the name as Misisipi or Micissippi. Hennepin (1698) spelled Mechasipi or Mechacebe. Daniel Coxe gave it Merchacebe. The present spelling is adapted from the French and Spanish spelling, the consonants being doubled to indicate the short sound of i.

Mississippi Bankers Association. This organization was formed in 1889 and its object was to "Promote the general welfare and usefulness of banks and banking institutions, and to secure uni- formity of action, together with the practical benefit to be derived from personal acquaintance and from the discussion of subjects of importance to the banking and commercial interests of the State of Mississippi, and especially in order to secure the proper considera- tion of questions regarding the financial and commercial usages, customs and laws, which affect the banking interests of the entire State, and for the protection against loss by frauds." The associa- tion held its first meeting on May 22, 1889, when the following were elected as its first officers : Samuel S. Carter, president of the First National Bank of Jackson, president; W. A. Pollock, presi-

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dent of the Bank of Greenville, vice-president; B. W. Griffith, cashier of the Capital State Bank, Jackson, secretary and treasurer. The names of the organizers, together with the institutions repre- sented, are: F. F. Becker, cashier, Commercial Bank, Brookhaven ; Lawrence Foote, of Foote & Smith, Canton; J. C. Smith, president, Bank of Crystal Springs, Crystal Springs; V. L. Terrell, vice-presi- dent, Bank of Crystal Springs, Crystal Springs; H. P. Davis, pres- ident, Bank of Durant, Durant; W. A. Pollock, president, Bank of Greenville, Greenville; Thomas Mount, cashier, First National Bank, Greenville; J. Robertshaw, cashier, Merchants & Planters Bank, Greenville ; J. W. McLeod, cashier, Merchants Bank, Grenada ; I. N. Ellis, cashier, Merchants & Planters Bank, Hazelhurst; B. W. Griffith, cashier, Capital State Bank, Jackson; R. W. Millsaps, president, Capital State Bank, Jackson; S. S. Carter, president, First National Bank, Jackson; O. J. Waite, cashier, First National Bank, Jackson; C. C. Kelly, Kosciusko; R. W. Jones, Jr., cashier, Merchants & Farmers Bank, Macon; H. V. Wall, First National Bank, Meridian; G. Q. Hall, vice-president, Meridian National Bank, Meridian; J. H. Wright, cashier, Meridian National Bank, Meridian ; A. G. Campbell, cashier, First National Bank, Natchez ; Bem Price, cashier, Bank of Oxford, Oxford; W. D. Lawson, pres- ident, Bank of Pickens, Pickens ; R. A. Campbell, Bank of Summit, Summit; J. P. Roach, president, First National Bank, Vicksburg; W. S. Jones, cashier, Merchants National Bank, Vicksburg; Lee Richardson, president, Delta Trust & Banking Co., Vicksburg; G. D. Able, cashier, Bank of Water Valley, Water Valley ; T. M. Moseley, cashier, First National Bank, West Point; J. C. Purnell, of Purnell & Hawkins, Winona; Charles Roberts, Bank of Yazoo City, Yazoo City. The present officers of the association are : B. L. Roberts, president ; J. W. Keyes, vice-president ; B. W. Grif- fith, secretary and treasurer. At the annual meetings addresses, in conformity to the purposes of the association, are delivered, which are published in the annual reports.

Mississippi Battalion, 1809. December 7, 1808, in obedience to the order of the president Governor Williams ordered the organ- ization of a picked battalion of 335 officers and men, to be com- posed of infantry and riflemen, chosen out of the brigade by volunteering or otherwise. High water prevented the rendezvous planned in January, and it was postponed until February 15. Maj. Andrew Marschalk was assigned to command by the gov- ernor. February 17 they were ordered to be put in marching order. July 6, 1809, Governor Holmes, ordered the command to be disbanded, in pursuance of orders from President Madison, who expressed his thanks to the corps for their readiness to answer a call for service.

This was part of the military preparation for war with France or England, a state of war on the high seas actually existing. For earlier battalions, see Militia.

Mississippi Bubble. See Western Company.

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Mississippi City, the former capital of Harrison county, was at one time one of the important Gulf coast towns, on the Louisville & Nashville R. R., 71 miles east of New Orleans. It has a money order postoffice, an express office, an excellent hotel, several churches, and private and public schools. The fine beach here at- tracts many visitors, and the climate is mild and salubrious. Popu- lation in 1900, 534; the population in 1906 was estimated at 800. The town seems to have a prosperous future before it and is both a summer and winter resort of note.

Mississippi College. This fine old institution, one of Missis- sippi's famous seats of learning, had its origin in a charter granted by the legislature to Hampstead Academy, at Mount Salus, in 1826. Next to Jefferson College, it ranks as the oldest male college in the State. In 1827 the legislature changed its name to "The Mississippi Academy," and, with F. G. Hopkins as its first principal, the school entered on its long career of usefulness. The founders had a pur- pose in the use of the title "Mississippi," and the legislature gave it state recognition, donating it for a term of five years, to date from Feb. 25, 1825, the income from such portions of the 36 sections of land granted by congress in 1819 for the aid of an institution of learning, as had then been leased. In 1829 the State loaned to the academy $5,000 to aid in completing the necessary buildings, and the following year its name and grade were changed to that of "Mississippi College." It never attained its ambition, however, to become a State institution. Mr. Elliot, elected in 1836, was the first president, while the Rev. Daniel Comfort, an "Old School" Presbyterian, became the first denominational president of Mis- sissippi College in 1842, at which time the citizens of Clinton ceased their attempt to manage the college as a private institution, and placed it under the exclusive control of the Clinton Presbytery. Augustus M. Foote, Jr., of Jackson, afterwards a well known lawyer, was its first graduate, and the first to receive a diploma from a Mississippi college; Robert Campbell was the first to be given the degree of A. B. in 1846. The institution remained under Presbyterian control for a period of only eight years. During this time its success was only partial. There were three changes in the presidency, and constant changes in the teaching force. The patron- age was disappointing, and in 1850, by resolution, the Presbytery turned the college over to the citizens of Clinton once more. The same year the college with all its franchises, free from debt, was tendered the Baptist State Convention, sitting at Jackson. The offer was accepted and it has since been under the control of that denomination. While the college was free from debt, it was with- out permanent endowment. Mr. I. N. Urner became principal of the preparatory department, and subsequently president of the col- lege. When the session opened in the fall of 1850 under the new auspices, there were three teachers and 84 students. The college prospered until the outbreak of the war between the States, at which time it boasted a faculty of six members, and a student body of over 200. A new college chapel had been erected at a cost of

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 29

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