Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 4

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 4

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through all the toil, difficulty and danger attending the settlement of a new country, have improved those lands (which at that time were considered of little or no value) at the expense of vast labor and treasure, until they have risen in value from ten to thirty dol- lars per acre. Under the Spanish government those settlers re- mained in quiet and peaceable enjoyment of their lands, because the British claims (with which our citizens are now threatened) were considered as invalid. They lay dormant and would forever have slept, had it not been for the event of the United States get- ting possession of the territory-an event which has been hailed by every emigrant from the United States, and of whose govern- ment they have shown themselves worthy, and have handsomely supported by their conduct during the late war."

Mr. Robertson, chairman of the congressional committee to which this memorial was referred, reported Feb. 12, 1816, pointing out that congress had impaired the security of titles guaranteed in the Georgia settlement, and recommending a bill for quieting and adjusting claims to lands in the Territory. In this report it was said :

"It is not for the committee to say whether the British grants are void on account of their magnitude, because the conditions on which they were made may not have been performed, or because they were disregarded by the Spanish authorities and the tracts covered by them regranted as vacant land. Nor do they deem it incumbent on them to decide how far Spain was founded in keep- ing possession, granting lands and performing other acts of sov- ereignty over the country, from the date of the treaty of peace of 1783 to the time of her yielding it up in 1798; or how far she had a right to annul the grants previously made by the British govern- ment. In ascending to the source of the evils which exist, and which threaten with vexations the most intolerable, or entire ruin, a numerous and respectable portion of our fellow citizens, they are found to flow from an omission on the part of the United States to take an earlier possession of the country in question; and there- fore, the present inhabitants, who may be the innocent victims of the course pursued, are, in the opinion of the committee, clearly entitled to the just and benevolent interposition of the govern- ment."

At this time Seth Hunt was the most active claimant of lands under the British grants. The claims presented by him covered 72,190 acres, to be located above and below and around Natchez, at Loftus Heights, on the Homochitto, Bayou Pierre and Buffalo. These claims were based on grants to the earl of Harcourt, Ad- miral Bentinck, Thomas Comyn, Admiral Ferguson, Admiral Mc- Dougal, Admiral Sir Richard Onslow, Sir William Dalling, Maj. Francis Hutchinson, John Bradley and others, twenty-four in all. Besides, there was the claim of the Earl of Eglinton for 20,000 acres, F. A. Haldimand for 1,500, Sir G. B. Rodney for 5,000, Au- gustin Prevost for 9,000, Elihu Hall Bay for 16,375, Alexander McCulloch, of South Carolina, for 3,700, Admiral Spry for 3,500,

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Thaddeus Lyman for 20,000 on Bayou Pierre, John Stevenson, 3,000, Mrs. Wegg, 3,000, Philip Barbour 2,000 at Grand Gulf. These made the total number of grants prosecuted 38, and area claimed 174,465 acres, in the most closely settled part of the Mis- sissippi country.

In 1818 the matter was referred by congress to William H. Crawford, secretary of the treasury, for an opinion, and he reported a bill for the settlement of claims, but it appears that congress took no action, leaving the claims to be adjusted under the law of 1803 and the amendments thereto.

See Domain, Law of.

Land Commissioner. The constitutional convention of 1890, by ordinance, required the legislature to provide for the elec- tion of a Land Commissioner at the general election in 1895, for a four years' term of office, to have charge of the swamp and over- flowed lands, the Internal Improvement lands, the records of the office of Surveyor-general turned over by the United States to this State, the Chickasaw school lands, the Sixteenth section and In- demnity lands, the lands forfeited for non-payment of taxes, and all other public lands and land records of the State not otherwise provided for. Accordingly, Col. John M. Simonton was elected in November, 1895, for a term of four years, beginning in Jan- uary, 1896. (See Swamp Lands.) Upon the death of Col. Simon- ton, in 1898, the governor appointed E. H. Nall, who has since then held the office by election. His last report shows sales of lands in 1903-05, of $143,000.

In 1899 Warren county secured in the chancery court an injunc- tion against the sale by the land commissioner of a tract of land in Issaquena county, the county claiming title under the acts of congress and the legislature regarding levee lands. On appeal to the supreme court, the claim of the county was sustained.

Land Grants, French, 1717-21. The Western Company sent over a large number of settlers to Louisiana during the years 1717-1721. Numerous concessions, or grants of land, were made also to private individuals at this period of time. Among the more important ones was a grant of 16 leagues square to John Law, about 30 miles above the mouth of the Arkansas, where he established a post. One on the Yazoo, to M. le Blanc and others ; one at Natchez to M. Hubert; one on the Red river to M. Benard de la Harpe ; one at Point Coupee, to M. de Meuse ; one at the Ton- icas, to M. de St. Reine; one at Baton Rouge, to M. Diron d'Ar- taguette; one at Bayou Manchac, on the west side of the river, at the Bayagoulas, to M. Paris Duvernay; one at the Tchoupitou- las, to M. de Muys; one at Cannesbrule, to the Marquis d'Artag- nac; one on the Black river to M. de Villemont; one on the Pas- cagoula river to Madame de Cheaumont; one at the Bay of St. Louis and Old Biloxi, to Madame de Mezieres; one at Natchez to M. de la Houssaye, also on the Quachita ; one at the Houmas, to the Marquis d'Ancenis.

The owners of these grants were wealthy and prominent people

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in France. They were expected to send to the colony agents, laborers, tools, implements, etc., and to proceed at once to the cul- tivation of the soil. These various grants were described in some detail by Father Charlevoix, who inspected them all in his journey down the Mississippi in 1721. The failure of John Law in 1720 had seriously affected the operations of the Western company, and had almost put a stop to immigration and the improvements on the concessions. Things were at a standstill. This was the condition of affairs which prevailed at the time of his visit, and we need not be surprised that he reported the concessions in a very un- favorable light. The plantations were either devoid of laborers for the most part, or the ocupants were so lazy and incapable that their poverty "very unjustly disparages a country which will ren- der a hundred-fold of whatever is sowed in it." Though he found the numerous grants, which had cost so much labor and effort, and whose fabled richness had created such a sensation in France, in a wretched condition, he nevertheless declares that he has never heard Louisiana lightly spoken of, "but by three sorts of people that have been in the country, and whose testimony is certainly to be rejected. The first are the mariners, who, from the road off Ship Island or Isle Dauphin, could see nothing but that island quite covered with barren sand, and the still more sandy coast of Biloxi, and who suffered themselves to be persuaded that the entrance of the Mississippi was impassable for ships of a certain bulk, or that it was necessary to go fifty leagues up this river to find a place that was habitable.

The second sort are poor wretches who are being driven out of France for their crimes or bad conduct, true or false, or who, whether to shun the pursuit of their creditors, have engaged them- selves in the troops or in the grants. Both these looking upon this country as a place of banishment, are disgusted at everything. They do not interest themselves in the success of the colony, of which they are members against their inclination.

The third sort are those who, having seen nothing but poverty in a country on which excessive expenses have been bestowed, at- tribute to it what we ought entirely to cast on the incapacity or on the negligence of those who had the care of settling it. You also know very well the reasons they had to publish that Louisiana contained great treasures, and that it brought us near the famous mines of St. Barbe and others still richer, from which they flat- tered themselves they could easily drive away the possessors (the Spaniards) ; and because these idle stories had gained credit with some silly people, instead of imputing to themselves the error, in which they were engaged by their foolish credulity, they have discharged their spleen on the country, where they have found nothing of what had been promised them." Journal of Father Charlevoix, His. Coll. of La., part III, pp. 187-8).

The concession on the Yazoo was obtained by M. le Blanc, French Minister of War, M. le Compte de Belle-Isle, M. le Mar- quis d'Asfeld and M. le Blond, brigadier engineer, the last named

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being in the colony with the title of director-general. On De- cember 14, 1720, the ships l'Elephant and le Dromedaire arrived at Ship Island bringing 250 people for this concession, including the officers MM. Dillon, Fabre, Duplessis, Leviller, La Suze and La Combe. This grant was about nine miles from the mouth of the Yazoo, and was protected by Fort St. Peter (St. Claude), and a small garrison of soldiers.

M. de la Harpe, who visited this concession early in 1722, wrote as follows of it: "About thirty arpents of this concession is cul- tivated, but the rest of the soil is so thin and sandy, that it can never be cultivated, besides the situation is unhealthy. The course of the Yasous from its mouth is northwest, and then it turns and runs north-northeast a half league to the stone bluffs, upon which is situated the establishment of M. le Blanc. The cabins of the Yasous, Courois, Ossogoula, and Ouspie are dispersed over the country upon mounds of earth made with their own hands, from which it is inferred that these nations are very ancient, and were formerly very numerous, although at the present time they hardly number two hundred and fifty persons." The settlement was de- stroyed, and the inhabitants butchered by the Indians, December 12, 1729, a short time after the massacre at Natchez. (See Western Company : Charlevoix; Fort Rosalie; Fort St. Claude.)

Land Grants, Spanish. "Lands were obtained with little diffi- culty or expense. The immigrant made his selection of any unoc- cupied parcel, and presented a written request for an order of sur- vey. If no obstacle intervened, the governor issued the order, and on the return of the plat and the payment of very moderate fees for surveying, the grant issued. Many settled under the order of survey merely, if the survey could not be immediately made. The earliest Spanish order of survey in the Natchez district, is dated April 20, 1784, and the latest, September 1, 1795." (Clai- borne, p. 140).

The grants of land by the Spanish government in the Natchez district began to be made in considerable abundance in 1787, and continued until the district was surrendered to the United States. Among the grants were the following, Celeste Hutchins, 1,000 acres near White Cliffs, 1788; Cato West, 1,500 on Cole's creek, 1789; Daniel Burnet, 2,000 on Bayou Pierre, 1790 and 1795; Ab- ner Green, 665 on West Bayou Pierre, 600 on the Mississippi, 135 on St. Catherine, 1789; Maria Green, his wife, 500 on Second Creek, 1788; Gerard Brandon, 800 on west Bayou Sara, 1790; Gabriel Benoist, 1,600 on Fairchild's creek, 1788, 1,000 on Cole's creek, 1793; Benajah Osmun, 600 on Bayou Sara, 1795; Anthony Hutchins, 1366 on the Mississippi, 1789-90, 2,146 on west Cole's, 1790, 242 on Cole's 1795; Narsworthy Hunter, 1,000 on Cole's creek, 1795; Adam Bingaman, 3,898 on Bayou Sara and St. Cath- erine, 1788-89; William Dunbar, 4,950, mainly on Bayou Sara waters, 1787-95: Ann and William Dunbar, jr., 2,000 on Feliciana creek, 1793 ; Stephen Minor, 500 on Mississippi, 1786, 1,015 on Sec- ond creek, 1787, 13 in Natchez, 1795, 1,000 on Second creek, 1792,

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1,180 on Big Black, 1795, 875 on Mississippi, 1795; Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, 242 near Natchez, 1794.

All the Spanish land titles were recognized by the United States after occupation of the territory, so far as the claimants were in the actual possession and use of the land on the day of the treaty of San Lorenzo, by which Spain relinquished her claim to the region. (See British Land Claims.)

"The titles derived from the Spanish government were of two grades ; orders of survey, and complete patents, the former being the incipient or incomplete form of the latter. To procure a grant of land, the applicant addressed a requéte, (request or petition) to the Spanish governor, in New Orleans, and hence, from the cor- ruption of the word, the term ricket, by which one class of the claims were known to the early settlers. If the petition was granted, an order of survey was issued by the governor to the Surveyor-General Don Carlos Trudeau, to cause the land prayed for to be surveyed and put into possession of the petitioner. This duty was performed by the deputy-surveyor of the district, and the survey being approved and returned, accompanied by a plat, the governor thereupon granted his patent; the usual fees being paid in all the stages of the process by the grantee." (Wailes, Report of 1854.)

Many occupants of land contented themselves with the warrant of survey, without going to the expense of obtaining a patent, and as Gov. Claiborne reported in 1802, "this species of title is esteemed here as very strong, in an equitable point of view ; and I am well informed they were viewed as legal under the Spanish govern- ment, and, by custom, the proprietor was authorized to sell after three years' occupancy."

William Vousdan was at one time the surveyor for the district of Natchez, and was succeeded by William Dunbar.

"The grants of the Spanish government appear to have been confined to persons actually residing on the lands; but they were made indiscriminately on every unoccupied tract, whether the same had been previously granted by the British government or not ; nor did they discontinue making concessions, even after Spain had, by the treaty of October, 1795, recognized the right of the United States to the whole territory north of the 31st degree of north latitude. Until the evacuation, which was delayed for nearly two years, had taken place, grants were issued, sometimes bearing their real date, and sometimes, as is alleged, antedated."

Incomplete grants were more common in Spanish than in English titles, "it having been customary until the American settlers at Natchez requested patents, to consider a Spanish order of survey, when executed and returned, as a sufficient title; whilst, on the other hand, few settlers are obliged to claim under incomplete British titles, as they generally applied, in lieu of them, for Span- ish grants, and now claim under them." (Report of Madison com- mission, 1803.)

Strangely, the treaty of 1795 made no provision to protect those

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who had been given title to land by the Spanish in the region re- linquished by that treaty. In 1798 the Spanish colonial authori- ties declared the treaty would not be carried out until some ar- rangement was made on the subject between the two governments ; but nothing was done, and the remonstrance seemed a mere pre- text to cover other reasons for delay.

Antedated grants were also a subject of much discussion. The principal claims thus under suspicion, were to William Vousdan, Robert Moore, Thomas Burling, James Moore, Sarah Scott, Wil- liam Moore, James White (2,200 acres), Margaret Thompson, Jacintha Gallagher (who became Jacintha Vidal), and were mostly on Bayou Sara and Bayou Pierre. The list included a grant to William Dunbar for a lot in Natchez. In December, 1801, Gov. Claiborne wrote to the secretary of state :

"Subsequent to the ratification of the treaty with the United States and Spain, and shortly before this district was evacuated by the Spaniards, the Spanish governor and his agents granted to some of their favorites much valuable land, and in order that the grants, upon inspection, might appear legal, they were made to bear date previous to the treaty. This kind of conduct is known to have been practiced, and indeed some persons who have been benefited by the fraud are stated to me to have avowed it. In some instances the fraudulent grants were made for lands which had been previously bona fide granted, and in a case of this kind, where suit has been brought, the holder of the fraudulent grant (which was eldest in date) obtained a recovery. In the inferior court, where the case was first inquired into, parole testimony was ad- mitted to invalidate the antedated grant, and the defendant ob- tained a verdict; but, upon appeal to the superior court, the parole testimony was declared inadmissable, and, of course, the plaintiff suceeded." The legislature proposed to enact a law authorizing the admission of the excluded testimony, but the governor advised against this for the present, but could see no way according to the rules of law to remedy the wrong. The question was cleared up by the ruling of Levi Lincoln, attorney-general of the United States, May 11, 1802, that "nothing can be clearer than that all grants made by the Spanish government after the ratification of the treaty by which the land was ceded to the United States, are void," and further that "the only question is, when was the patent granted, not when it was executed, or what is its date?" Finally, after much litigation it was established as a principle of law that the Spanish government had no rightful authority to grant lands in the Natchez district after Great Britain, in 1783, had acknowledged the limits of the United States to include the district. But the congress had full power to recognize such of the grants as it deemed advisable.

Land Laws, Spanish. The instructions regarding new settlers, issued by Gov. Gayoso at New Orleans, Sept. 9, 1797, were that unmarried immigrants, those not farmers, must reside four years before they would be granted lands. There must be an under-

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standing that the children of settlers must become Catholics, if they were not, and no Protestant preacher would be admitted under any circumstances. "To every new settler, answering the foregoing description and married, there shall be granted 200 ar- pents of land; 50 arpents shall be granted for every child he shall bring with him." It was further provided that where a settler brought negroes he should be allowed 20 arpents for each negro, but never to exceed 800 arpents in all to any one proprietor. "It is necessary, by all possible means, to prevent speculation in lands." "No lands shall be granted to traders, as they live in the towns, they do not need them." "Immediately on the arrival of a new settler, the oath of fidelity shall be required of him." If married he must submit proofs of the same, show what is his property and what his wife's, and make this representation correctly, or forfeit his property. "The new settler to whom lands have been granted shall lose them without recovery if in the term of one year he shall not begin to establish himself upon them, or if, in the third year, he shall not have put under labor ten arpents in every hundred." There was no right to sell until three crops had been raised on one-tenth of the land.

Land Offices. The first enactment of the United States con- gress regarding the lands of Mississippi territory, bears date March 3, 1803. The territorial government was established in 1798, but the authority of the United States to provide for the rights of the inhabitants in the lands they held and regulate the sale of vacant lands, was not clear until after the agreement with Georgia in 1802.

This act provided, "That, for the disposal of the lands of the United States within the Mississippi Territory, two Land Offices shall be established in the same: one at such place in the county of Adams, as shall be designated by the President of the United States, for the lands lying West of 'Pearl River,' sometimes called 'Half-way River'; and one at such place in the county of Washing- ton, as shall be designated by the President of the United States, for the lands lying East of Pearl River; and for each of the said offices a Register and Receiver of Public Moneys shall be ap- pointed," etc., the same regulations being made as in the North- west territory.

Until more land than the old districts of Natchez and Mobile, north of latitude 31°, should be acquired from the Indians, it was the duty of the register in each district to act with two persons to be appointed by the president, as a commission to adjust the claims arising from grants and other acts of the former governments of the country.

On July 9, 1803, Edward Turner, of Mississippi, was appointed register of the land office for the lands lying west of Pearl river. He was reappointed Nov. 18, 1804. On March 3, 1805, Thomas Hill Williams, of Mississippi territory, was appointed register for the county of Adams, west of Pearl river, and the latter was suc- ceeded by Nehemiah Tilton, of Delaware, by appointment Jan.

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10, 1811. East of Pearl river Joseph Chambers was the first regis- ter. The commissioners appointed were Thomas Rodney, of Del- aware, and Robert Williams, of North Carolina, for the western district, to have their office at Washington; and Ephraim Kirby, of Connecticut, and Robert Carter Nicholas, of Kentucky, for the eastern district. to have their office at St. Stephens.

The board for the district west of Pearl river "convened at the town of Washington on December 1, 1803, and continued open for the reception of claims until July 3, 1807, when it was ad- journed sine die, after having received for record 2,090 claims. Some of these claims were subsequently contested in the high courts of the United States." There were no public lands to be disposed of ab initio, except such as might be found unclaimed in the Natchez district. Settlers upon the land, who were in posses- sion March 3, 1803, were to have the preference in becoming pur- chasers at the price then fixed by law for public lands, and these constituted the main class of pre-emptors.

April 21, 1806, it was enacted that persons entitled to a right of pre-emption by virtue of certificate from the commissioners, should be allowed until Jan. 1, 1807, to make the first payment, when, if they failed so to do, their right became void. As for those without title who were actual settlers in 1798, they were donated 640 acres to each male settler of full age. Finally, by act of Jan. 10, 1808, every person the head of a family or of full age, who on March 3, 1807, actually inhabited and cultivated a tract of land not claimed under a land commissioners' certificate, and had ob- tained permission to reside on the lands under the act of March, 1807, should have the right of preference in becoming a purchaser of not to exceed 640 acres, and be allowed until Jan. 1, 1809, to make the first payment.

Sept. 19, 1808, the Mississippi house of representatives, F. L. Claiborne, speaker, adopted a memorial to congress, asking further indulgence in making the first payment. It was represented that the planters "have been cut off from every hope of payment by an act of that government to which they were indebted. It has been deemed expedient to suspend, by embargo, our mercantile opera- tions, and thereby our produce lies, unsold and unsaleable in our barns. The policy of this measure is nowhere admired more than by the people of this territory but we deplore the severe and destructive effects which will inevitably accompany the operations of the law. if the payments due to the United States are rigidly exacted." The committee on public lands re- ported adversely to the petition, saving the pre-emptors already had had a longer time for making their first payment than other purchasers, and had enjoyed the selection of the best lands without competition. In March, 1808, the first Choctaw purchase was ordered opened to sale, and thereafter the land office had to deal with the original sale of land outside of the historic ground of Natchez district. and sales were made under the general land laws of the United States.

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Under the act of 1808 Thomas W. Murray, of Virginia, was register, and Lemuel Henry, receiver, at St. Stephens, for the dis- trict east of Pearl.

Before the Choctaw cession of 1820 there were 4,792,000 acres of land sold in Mississippi and Alabama, for $17,656,549, of which $5,577,057 had been paid.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 4

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