Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 34

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 34

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The convention met June 3, and Judge Sharkey was made presi- dent. The delegates from Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee were for a declaration in favor of preserving the Union. The minority from South Carolina, Texas and Mississippi, wanted a declaration for resistance. Judge Sharkey opposed extreme measures. The resolutions, drawn up by John A. Campbell, of Alabama, were moderate. But later an address was adopted which denounced the compromise, and expressed Calhoun's conviction that no matter what was compromised, the diversity of interests compelled a con- stitutional amendment or separation.

The Nashville convention was re-assembled in November, 1850; none of the regular Mississippi delegates were present. John J. McRae and two others represented Mississippi, by appointment of Gov. Quitman.

It was resolved, "That we earnestly recommend to all parties in the slaveholding States to refuse to go into or countenance any National convention, whose object may be to nominate candidates for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, under any party denomination whatever, until our constitutional rights are secured." Also that a congress or convention of the slave- 19-II

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holding States should be held, with twice as many delegates as the regular congressional delegations, "to deliberate and act with the view and intention of arresting farther aggression, and, if possible, of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and if not, to provide for their future safety and independence." But the elections of 1851 in the South went strongly against the promoters of this movement. (See Const. Con. 1851.)

Nashville Indian Conference, 1792. Governor Gayoso had the Choctaws to a treaty at Natchez in 1792, and the chiefs had just returned home when the agents of Governor Blount, Anthony Forster and J. R. Robertson, came to invite them to a conference at Nashville, in August. Nearly all the Chickasaw chiefs, including "Chenambe, king of the Chickasaws," were present, but only about 110 Choctaws attended the congress, being dissuaded by Brassheart, a British trader in that nation. John Pitchlyn ex- plained that he could lead the greater part of the Choctaws against the Indians of the Northwest or their old enemies, the Creeks, but they had neither arms nor ammunition and were very poor. They were compelled by circumstances to maintain an appearance of friendship with the Spanish, with whom they must trade. This was corroborated by Ben James, "a man of the first property and probity in the nation." General Pickens, who accompanied Blount, praised the two Mississippi nations that since they had taken the hand of the Americans at Senaca, "it has never been known that a Chickasaw or Choctaw has spilled the blood of an American.

· What makes the President and ourselves unhappy is, that it is with difficulty trade can be extended by the United States to your country." He asked that a trading house be permitted at the mouth of Bear Creek, as granted in the treaty of Hopewell. Pia- mingo, the Chickasaw warrior, was opposed to this on the ground that it would breed trouble. The boundaries were discussed, and guns presented to each of Piamingo's soldiers with St. Clair in 1791, and presents distributed. Particularly, the Indians were sol- emnly assured the Americans were not making war north of the Ohio for land, but to restore order.

Nason, a post-hamlet of Grenada county 7 miles southwest of Grenada the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town. It has a public cotton gin.

Nat, a postoffice of Amite county, 8 miles northwest of Liberty, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.

Natchez. No city in the State can claim such a wealth of his- toric associations and traditions as the famous old city of Natchez. Its commanding situation, terminating in a high bluff overlooking for miles the great "Father of Waters," at once attracted the at- tention of the French, the first white settlers on the soil of Missis- sippi. Here, in 1716, Gov. Bienville caused to be erected and gar- risoned old Fort Rosalie, having a two-fold purpose in mind, to hold in check the warlike nation of Natchez Indians, the primitive possessors of the soil of Natchez ; and also to make of Rosalie a link in the chain of river outposts on the Mississippi, which should for-

STHELDS

SPANISH GOVERNOR

Photo by

"CONCORD," RESIDENCE OF THE FIRST SPANISH GOVERNOR.

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ever serve to protect France in her claim to the Valley all the way. from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. Only brief allusions can be made in this sketch to the long story of French, English, Spanish and early American occupancy. This period of time will be found fully covered by other articles appearing in this work, such as Natchez Indians, Fort. Rosalie, Natchez Massacre, Natchez District, Natchez Trace, British West Florida, Fort Panmure, Early Catholic Missions, Spanish Dominion, Advent of the Flag, Ellicott and Gayoso, etc. See also articles treating of the French, English and Spanish governors, and those covering the administra- tions of Governors Sargent, Claiborne, Williams and Holmes. It is proper to say that the history of Natchez, town and district, forms the bulk of the colonial and early territorial records of Mis- sissippi. Natchez was the capital and center of life for the -old Natchez District, as well as the first territorial capital; its fair fame drew within its influence that first splendid body of English speaking pioneers, whose names adorn the pages of Mississippi territorial history. Throughout the period of statehood, if it no longer dominated affairs as of old, the proud old city has exerted a powerful influence in shaping the destinies of the Commonwealth. Some hint will be given in the following of the glories of the old city during the heydey of flatboat, barge and steamer traffic, when it was an important port of entry, and when Natchez-Under-the- Hill was in its prime; when it was the commercial depot of the State and its wharves were crowded with all manner of craft, and with as motley a collection of sailors and boatmen as any city in the country could disclose. It will suffice to say here that Natchez bore her full share of the burden, during the great struggle between the States. The dark days of Reconstruction which ushered in the years of carpet-bag thieves and negro domination, was an even harder trial than war. She rose with her sister cities in 1875 when the manhood of Mississippi asserted itself and regained for all time control of the State's machinery of government. From this time on dates the era of the modern city. Natchez has kept step with the march of time, and is today a bustling, wide-awake business center, as well as the home of culture and refinement.

The period of French settlement at Natchez was practically ter- minated by the great massacre of 1729. We have the evidence of William Bartram, the naturalist, who visited Pointe Coupée in 1777, that he met an ancient Frenchman who told him that he with many families of his countrymen settled at the Cliffs of the Natchez, under the protection of the fort and garrison, and by cultivating plantations, had developed there a populous, rich and growing colony ; but through the tyrannical conduct of the military com- mandants towards the Natchez Indians, a conspiracy was formed and all would have been wiped out had it not been for the favor of one of the princesses toward the commandant. "However, the settlement was entirely broken up, most of the inhabitants being slaughtered in one night, and the few who escaped betook them-

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selves to their canoes, descending the river until they arrived at this place, where they established themselves again."

Dumont, in his Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, states that MM. Hubert, king's commissary of the colony, and La Page, were the first settlers at Natchez. Le Page had begun to cultivate a plot in 1717, near the site of New Orleans, but abandoned it that year and went to the Natchez with M. Hubert. The latter had made choice of some land on St. Catherine's creek, and here he built a house, which he called St. Catherine's. M. Penicaut, on the other hand, states that M. Hubert came to Natchez in 1720. He had been residing near New Orleans, and moved to Natchez with all his family and sixty laborers and domestics. He made choice of some land on St. Catherine's creek, "and erected a large dwelling house. The land was about a league from Fort Rosalie and ex- tended into the prairies, which he ploughed up, and sowed with French wheat. He afterward erected a grist-mill, a forge, and machine shops, to manufacture arms and agricultural implements. He allowed M. de Montplaisir to locate himself also on land about a league from his own for the purpose of planting tobacco, which succeeded admirably after the first year." (Annals of Louisiana, French Coll. p. 154).

In 1718 M. de la Houssaye, a gentleman of Picardy, France, with fifteen persons, settled on a concession, "near the great village of the Natchez, on a little river (St. Catherine's creek), which now belongs to the author of these annals, who purchased it of them." (An. of La. By Penicaut, French Coll. p. 141). Claiborne says that Houssaye was the first planter who settled at Natchez. M. Peni- caut was still living at the Natchez in 1729, as he is doubtless the same man usually referred to by writers as M. Perricault, spared by the Natchez on account of his skill as a carpenter and boat builder.

Penicaut also states that MM. Pellerin and Bellecourt arrived at Dauphin Island in 1719, with a number of persons "to make a settlement near the village of the Natchez, on the banks of the little river (St. Catherine's) which falls into the Mississippi.'

Hubert strongly urged upon the Council of Louisiana the ad- visability of removing the capital of the colony to Natchez. He was opposed by Bienville who wanted the capital removed to New Orleans. It is probable that Hubert's ownership of the St. Cather- ine concession weakened the force of his argument. He resigned his office under the company and went to France in 1722 in order to regain his health which had suffered; also to present his argu- ment for the transfer of the capital to Natchez. Before his de- parture, he sold his land to M. Dumanoir, who bought it for M. Colly (also spelled Koly, Kolys, and Colis), a merchant of St. Malo, who retained the workmen upon it, on the same terms paid by M. Hubert. MM. Colly and son had just arrived at Natchez in 1729 to inspect their concession, on which they had spent large sums, when the great massacre occurred and they met the common fate.

Many French soldiers and workmen, after obtaining their dis-

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charge from the company, took up small holdings near Natchez, attracted by the excellent soil and climate. Most of them bought their lands from the Indians, who lived about a league from the river. When Charlevoix was at Natchez in 1721, he spoke of a large number of particular grants, already productive, and de- scribed at some length the grant of the Maloins, and that of the Cleracs. (See Charlevoix's Visit). Each of these grants was situ- ated on St. Catherine's, and was four leagues square. The former was the Hubert concession, afterwards sold to M. Colly and asso- ciates of St. Malo; the latter, after first belonging to the Cleracs, was ceded to M. Blanc and his associates, who had previously set- tled at the Yazoo. (See Yazoo Grant). M. Blanc's concession at Natchez was called the "Terre Blanche" concession. Its director in 1729, Sieur Desnoyers, had only arrived from the Yazoo on the morning of the massacre, accompanied by M. Codere, commandant at the Yazoo post and a Jesuit father, Du Poisson. All were slain in the general massacre.

The town was re-established under British dominion, after 1763. For this period see the articles Natchez District, British West Flor- ida, Lyman Colony, Willing Expedition, Fort Panmure, etc.

A valuable insight into the Spanish period is given in the state- ment of William Dunbar, in his claim of title to the "Green," or park, that "A tract of land was granted, by patent, to an individual by the Spanish government ; this land was sold by the first to a sec- ond individual, and considerable improvements made thereon; the Spanish government purchased three hundred acres of this tract, with the view to erect public buildings and establish a town; a church was built, and a small town laid off, and on another part of the land Governor Gayoso caused a large building to be erected for his own residence, at his private expense; but before it was finished it was blown down by a hurricane, and the governor then found it more convenient to rent a house [of Minor] for the use of Government, in which he continued afterwards to reside." Be- fore the evacuation Gayoso conveyed to Dunbar, in payment of public services, 26 acres of this land, and the Natchez corporation afterward attempted to gain possession, on the theory that the land was intended as a park. The matter was carried before con- gress.

Francis Baily, who visited Natchez in 1797, when the United States flag was first raised to stay, said there were "two or three places here which go under the denomination of taverns. I put up at one of them, at which there was a billiard table kept, and paid my landlord a dollar a day, which was enormous, considering the fare; for provisions are not very plenty in this province, at least if we judge from the prices." He hoped for improvement with American rule. "Looking forward to this time, we may pronounce this district to be the most flourishing in the southwest territory ; and the town of Natchez far to excel every other on the banks of the Mississippi. Land in the country is sold for about a dollar an acre; a five acre lot close to the town sold for 150 dol-

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lars. Dr. Watrous bought a lot of uncleared land near the town for four dollars per acre, and it was thought cheap." Upon the whole he thought this an excellent place to settle, if one were willing to "give up the advantages of refined society; though I don't know that this remark is more particularly here than in all young countries : on the contrary, I know several persons here, both Spanish and English, whose conversation and company have been interesting and amusing." This was significant appreciation, from a young Londoner, afterward president of the Royal Astro- nomical Society. "It is situated upon a high hill, which terminates in a bluff at the river, and consists of about eighty or ninety houses scattered over a great space of land. The streets are laid out upon a regular plan; but there is so much ground between most of the houses, that it appears as if each dwelling was furnished with a plantation. There is a fort upon an eminence near the river, which commands both the town and the Mississippi ; but it is in a ruinous condition, and could not be defended against a regular attack." "The houses are chiefly framed buildings; but, though this country has been settled so long, there is that inattention to neat- ness, cleanliness, and the comforts attending theron, that there is in a country just cleared. I have seen houses in this place (and those possessed by persons assuming a degree of consequence in the country) scarcely furnished beyond the first stage of civiliza- tion, when a few boards nailed together have served for a bedstead, and a mattress covered with a bed, etc." "This to be sure, is not universally so; on the contrary, I have seen others fitted up in the neatest manner possible : but then in the greatest plainness, without any of those luxuries which decorate even the cottages of our English farmers." The country homes were log houses on the plantations, generally of one room. The young Londoner was per- mitted to occupy one of these with his party, and provided with a supper of mush and milk, and "yet, even for this rough fare, they had the impudence to charge us a quarter of a dollar apiece."

The city was made the seat of a revenue district, and Dr. John F. Carmichael was appointed collector in 1799. Natchez was incor- porated in 1803 (Hutchinson's Code, 94), and Gov. Claiborne made the following appointments in March of the same year: Samuel Brooks, mayor ; Peter A. VanDorn, marshal ; John Girault, Samuel Neil and Joseph Newman, aldermen. Paul Martel was appointed French consul in 1806, but the duties of the office were performed by Paul Vermonnet until 1810, when Martel finally arrived. In 1808 Jonathan Davis was appointed surveyor of the port. Alexan- der Baillie was collector of the port at Natchez, before 1807, when suit was brought by Seth Lewis, attorney for the United States, against him and his bondsmen, William Dunbar and Edward Tur- ner. Mayor Brooks represented to Governor Holmes in March, 1811, that a "banditti of armed rioters" had committed outrages in Natchez, and Capt. David Becket was ordered to aid the sheriff with his militia company.

The letters of John A. Quitman in 1822 give an interesting pic-

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ture of life in and about Natchez. "Natchez is a bustling place. The streets are lined with carriages, drays and wagons. The rush to the river is incessant. Every hour we hear the roar of the can- non, announcing the arrival and departure of steamers. Hundreds of arks or flatboats, loaded with the produce of the western States, even from the interior of Pennsylvania, here line the landing for half a mile, often lying five tier deep. Under the hill vice and infamy are rampant and glaring, and the law almost powerless. Day and night the orgies of blackguardism and depravity are enacted without shame and restraint. The Sabbath is there particularly a day of profanation and debauchery. The gam- bler, the bully, the harlot reign triumphant, and little jurisdic- tion is taken over their atrocities. . The planters live profusely ; drink costly port, madeira and sherry, after . the English fashion, and are exceedingly hospitable. Your

coffee in the morning before sunrise; little stews and sudori- fics at night, and warm footbaths if you have a cold; bou- quets of fresh flowers and mint juleps sent to your apartment ; a horse and saddle at your disposal; every thing free and easy and cheerful and cordial. Clothing is usually made to order in Philadelphia, of the most expensive materials and most fashionable cut. Our beaux here mostly patronize Wat- son and his average charge is $100 a suit. We have few mechanics, except carpenters, masons and gin-wrights. There is not a shoemaker in Natchez. Our shoes come from the North, boots from Paris, and cost from $10 to $14. Extravagance and expense become familiar."

In 1829, the Southern Galaxy, of Natchez, in humorous rejoinder to the lament of the National Intelligencer, of Washington, D. C., over the demise of the Natchez Ariel, a remarkable newspaper, said : "How long it is since the gentlemen of the Federal city made the discovery that Natchez was in the 'country.' Why, Messieurs, it is an incorporated city, with its mayor and council-Churches, as many, too, as there be in said Metropolis-Court House and Jail-Masonic Hall-Theatre-Circus (locomotive)-Orphan Asy- lum-Societies, learned and unlearned, charitable and uncharitable. Our commerce, too, almost equals that of the Tiber (unclassically, Goose Creek). Our exports are more than four millions of dollars ; our imports fall but little short of the same amount. Natchez, too, is a port of entry, and Uncle Sam, a whimsical dog, took it into his head one day to give us a Light House, which, by the bye, his worthy collector of customs located directly in front of the city."

A stock company held the boards at the Natchez Theatre in the winter of 1828, and in February the elder Booth and his company played for nine nights. Booth was followed by Forrest. See "Powers, Tyrone." The Female orphan asylum, founded in 1816, was supported by the ladies, who, in 1828, expended nearly a thou- sand dollars upon its maintenance, in addition to donations of clothi- ing.

James H. Ingraham thus described his approach to the city by

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boat from New Orleans, in 1835: "The loud and startling report of a cannon in the bows of the boat, making her stagger and tremble through every beam, is the signal that our port is in sight-a pile of gray and white cliffs with here and there a church steeple, a roof elevated above its summit, and a light-house hanging on the verge. At the foot of the bluffs are long, straggling lines of wooden buildings, principally stores and storehouses; the levée is fringed with flatboats and steamers, and above all, tower majestically the masts of two or three ships. The whole prospect from the deck presents an interesting scene of commercial life and bustle. But this is not Natchez. The city proper is built upon the summit level, the tops of whose buildings and trees can be seen from the boat, rising higher than the cliff." He noted that the character of "Natchez under the Hill," notorious throughout the United States, "in wretched rhyme and viler story," had been somewhat improved since the establishment there of respectable mercantile houses and an excellent hotel. The road up, cut on a gentle incline along the side of the cliff for a quarter of a mile, afforded a sensa- tion of mountain climbing. "The city proper consists of six streets, at right angles with the river, intersected by seven others of the same length, parallel with the stream. The front, or first parallel street, is laid out about 100 yards back from the verge of the bluff, leaving a noble green esplanade along the front of the city. From this place the eve commands one of the most extensive prospects to be found on the Mississippi." From the parade each street was entered by rude bridges spanning a brick aqueduct of large dimen- sions, which had been constructed along the whole front of the city, but was then in a neglected condition. Ingraham's entire narra- tion is of interest, (The Southwest, by a Yankee). He declared there was as much style and fine dressing as in Philadelphia, and certainly more than in New Orleans. The principal edifices were the Agricultural bank; the Masonic hall, the first story of which was used as an academy, the only one in the State; the theater, at the edge of the town ; the court house, a fine large square building, opposite the Presbyterian church with its clock tower ; the Episco- pal church in the southeast part of the town, surmounted by a vast dome; Parker's hotel, on one of the front squares, a handsome, costly, three story building, largest in the town; the Mansion house. less of a family and more of a traveller's hotel.

"Natchez is about 400 miles from the ocean-but about to be- come a great seaport, by the aid of steam vessels ascending the current of the Mississippi, towing up ships. The State of Missis- sippi now exports about 225,000 bales of cotton." Niles Register, July, 1833. In the same season 1837-38, 38,000 bales of cotton were loaded at Natchez on ships for Liverpool, and 3,500 for Boston. The steamship "Natchez," built at Brooklyn, was completed in July, 1838, and arrived at Natchez in August, greeted with great enthusiasm.

Let us now glance for a brief space at some of the many stately, ante-bellum homes within and without the city, evidencing a degree

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of luxury and refined taste during the first half of the last century to be found nowhere else in the South. Some of these old homes are century old, and most of them are surrounded by broad acres, embellished with wide, sweeping lawns, drives, gardens and noble shade trees. A majority of them are characterized by the simple, yet beautiful lines of colonial architecture, embracing solid walls of masonry built to withstand the ravages of time, broad verandas supported by classic columns, and lofty interiors, the envy of mod- ern architects. About two miles east of Natchez, stood Concord, the fine old residence of three Spanish governors, Gov. Grand Pré, Gov. Gayoso, and the last representative of the authority of Spain, Gov. Estevan Minor, whose descendants were long in pos- session of the stately home. Concord was built in 1789, but now lies in ruins-the work of the fire fiend. The property now belongs to Dr. Stephen Kelly of New York. Dunbarton, home of the Dunbar family, was distant ten miles from town on the Liberty road; it was erected in 1804, and about it cluster many memories of historic interest. The silver-tongued Seargent S. Prentiss was a tutor here after his arrival in the State, and it was afterwards the home of Col. J. F. H. Claiborne, the historian, whose wife was a Miss Dunbar. When the old home was destroyed by fire in 1884, `an irreparable loss was sustained in the destruction of Col. Clai- borne's second volume of the "History of Mississippi," just ready for the press. Another old home near Natchez is Somerset, which has been in the hands of the Chotard family for more than 80 years. The house is approached by a beautiful drive which winds through a magnificent grove of trees, while the house itself is adorned with an unusually long and wide gallery. The dignity of the home is further enhanced by a charming interior, filled with costly bric-a-brac, china and antiques, and the portraits of three generations of the family. It is a place to delight the antiquarian. Just without the town is Richmond, home of the Marshalls, built by L. R. Marshall early in the last century, and still intact. The Nutt residence, Longwood, although never entirely finished by its builder before the war, Mr. Haller Nutt, is a noble conception of Moorish design, and stands in the midst of a large park. On the Woodville road about two miles from town stands the lovely villa of Glenburnie, whose broad expanse of lawn is approached by a shaded drive. It was formerly the home of Capt. Geo. Ralston and is now in possession of Mr. Bulkly. Opposite is Elmscourt, the beautiful Merrill home, very quaint in design and suggesting an Italian villa. On the same road are Glenwood, formerly the home of Mr. Albert Dunbar : whilst nearer town is Inglewood, the old Calhoun home, which has been in the family for generations. In the same vicinity is old Gloster, enshrouded in trees, the home of Winthrop Sargent, first territorial governor of Mississippi; in the quiet little graveyard hard by is the final resting-place of Gov. Sargent and Seargent S. Prentiss. Forest, Sir William Dunbar's stately mansion, eight miles out in the country, is another victim of the ruthless fire-fiend. The vine-clad columns remain to attest

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 34

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