Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 45

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 45

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The following statistics from the twelfth United States census for 1900 relate to Farms, Manufactures and Population :- Number of farms 491, acreage in farms 81,793, acres improved 9,241, value of land exclusive of buildings $192,260, value of buildings $106,010, value of live stock $213,380, total value of products not fed $160,- 182. Number of manufactures 32, capital invested $1,040,015, wages paid $200,646, cost of materials $432,527, total value of prod- ucts $874,579. The population in 1900 was whites 4,904, colored 1,793, total 6,697, increase over the year 1890, 3,050. The popula- tion in 1906 was estimated at 10,000. The total assessed valuation of real and personal property in the county in 1905 was $2,523,828 and in 1906 it was $5,099,256, which shows an increase of $2,575,428 during the year.

Pearl River Settlements. Outside of the Natchez district, as late as 1830, the most populous settlement was upon Pearl River ; "but those eastern settlements were constituted of a different people ; most of them were from the poorer districts of Georgia and

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the Carolinas. True to the instincts of the people from whom they were descended, they sought as nearly as possible just such a country as that from which they came, and were really refugees from a growing civilization consequent upon a denser population and its necessities. They were not agriculturists in a proper sense of the term; true, they cultivated in some degree the soil, but it was not the prime pursuit of these people, nor was the location sought for this purpose. They desired an open, poor, pine country, which forbade a numerous population. Here they reared immense herds of cattle, which subsisted exclusively upon the coarse grass and reeds which grew abundantly among the tall, long-leafed pine, and along the small creeks and branches numerous in this section. Through these almost interminable pine forests the deer were abundant, and the canebrakes full of bears. They combined the pursuits of hunting and stock-minding, and derived support and revenue almost exclusively from these. They were illiterate and careless of the comforts of a better reared, better educated and more intelligent people. They were unable to employ for each family a teacher, and the population was too sparce to collect the children in a neighborhood school. These ran wild, unwashed and uncombed, hatless and bonnetless through the woods and grass, followed by packs of lean and hungry curs, hallooing and yelping in pursuit of rabbits and opossums, and were as wild as the In- dians they had supplanted, and whose pinebark camps were yet here and there to be seen, where temporarily stayed a few strolling, degraded families of the Choctaws. Some of these pioneers had been in the country many years, were surrounded with descendants, men and women, the growth of the country, rude, illiterate and in- dependent. Along the margins of the streams they found small strips of land of better quality than the pine forests afforded. Here they grew sufficient corn for bread and a few of the coarser vege- tables, and in blissful ignorance enjoyed life after the manner they loved. The country gave character to the people; both were wild and poor ; both were sui generis in appearance and production, and both seeming to fall away from the richer soil and better peo- ple of the western portion of the State. Between them and the inhabitants of the river counties there was little communication and less sympathy ; and I fancy no country on earth of the same extent presented a wider difference in soil and population, espec- ially one speaking the same language and professing the same re- ligion. Time, and the pushing of a railroad through this eastern portion of the State, have effected a vast change for the better, and among those quaintly called piney-woods people now are families of wealth and cultivation." ("The Memories of Fifty Years," by W. H. Sparks, 1870.)

Pearson, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., 5 miles southeast of Jackson. Population in 1900, 23.

Pease, Henry R., "the first reconstruction State superintendent of education, was a northern man, an ex-Union soldier, and an

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agent of the Freedman's bureau. In 1865, he became superinten- dent of education in Louisiana by military order. Later, he was appointed superintendent of the educational department of the Freedmen's bureau in Mississippi, and upon the readmission of the State to the Union, was elected superintendent under the new constitution. It devolved upon him to organize the system of free schools. His competency was never questioned, but the demand of the colored race for office, in 1873, caused him to be set aside for a negro named Cordoza, who, at the time of his election, was under indictment for malfeasance as circuit clerk of Warren coun- ty." (Garner's Reconstruction).

Pecan, a postoffice of Jackson county, on the L. & N. R. R., 12 miles west of Pascagoula, the county seat. Population in 1906 was estimated at 100

Peden, a post-hamlet of Kemper county, 8 miles northwest of Dekalb, the county seat. Population in 1900, 43.

Peelers, a postoffice of Warren county, situated on Eagle Lake, near the Mississippi river, about 12 miles above Vicksburg.

Peete, a post-hamlet of Grenada county, on the Yazoo & Missis- sippi Valley R. R., about 14 miles west of Grenada, the county seat. Holcomb is the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 50.

Peetsville, a postoffice in the southern part of Copiah county, 10 miles due west of Wesson, the nearest railroad and banking town, on the Illinois Central R. R.

Pegram, a post-hamlet of Benton county, 12 miles northeast of Ashland, the county seat.

Pelahatchie, an incorporated post-town of Rankin county, on Pelahatchie creek, a tributary of the Pearl, and on the Alabama & Vicksburg R. R., 25 miles east of Jackson. Brandon is 10 miles west. It lies in a cotton growing section, and has two churches and a school. The Pelahatchie Bank was established in 1904 with a capital of $10,000. Population in 1900, 325.

Pemberton, John Clifford, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., August 10, 1817, and graduated at West Point in 1837, after which he went on duty in the Seminole war in Florida. As an officer of artillery he served under both Taylor and Scott in Mexico, in 1846-47, in all the battles, winning the brevets of captain and major. He contin- ued on active duty in the army until secession, when he refused advancement in the Union army, became an officer in the Virgin- ia service and organized the artillery and cavalry troops of that State. He was promoted to brigadier-general in the Confederate service in 1861 and to major-general in January, 1862. He suc- ceeded Gen. Robert E. Lee in command of the department of South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida, in March, 1862, and in October was promoted to lieutenant-general and transferred to command of the department of Mississippi and East Louisiana. His task was, under the general command of J. E. Johnston, to- meet the combinations of Gen. U. S. Grant and retain Confederate control of the Mississippi river. See War of 1861-65, and Vicks- burg campaigns and siege. After his exchange Gen. Pemberton

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resigned his commission and was assigned to duty with the artil- lery about Richmond, where he served with the rank of lieutenant- colonel until the end of the war. He removed from Virginia to Pennsylvania in 1875, and died at Pen Llyn, Pa., July 13, 1881.

Penantly, a postoffice of Jasper county, 9 miles north of Pauld- ing, the county seat.

Penicaut, Jean, author of the Annals of Louisiana, from 1698 to 1722, was born at La Rochelle, France, about 1682, and accom- panied the first expedition of d'Iberville to the Mississippi in 1698 as a ship's-carpenter on one of the vessels of the squadron. He was employed in various capacities in the colony until the year 1720, when he purchased the concession of M. de la Houssaye, on St. Catherine's, at Natchez. He himself states that he sailed for France on the 6th of October, 1721, at the advice of Bienville, in order to secure medical treatment for an affection of the eyes. He evidently returned again to Natchez, however, as there is frequent mention of him under the name of M. Perricault, as one of the few Frenchmen who escaped at the time of the Natchez massacre in 1729. He left behind in manuscript the "Annals of Louisiana,"

from 1798 to 1722, which found its way into the King's library at Paris, and is an important record of what took place in the country for more than twenty years after the arrival of the first expedition of d'Iberville. Charlevoix referred to it as a work of merit in his travels in New France, and said it afforded him important infor- mation which he could not obtain elsewhere.

Penitentiary. After 1817 the first recommendation of a peniten- tiary was made by Gov. Holmes, (see his administration). The next official voice on the subject was the utterance of Gov. Bran- don in January, 1827: "It may be the policy of the legislature at as early a period as our resources will justify, to establish a peni- tentiary. Punishments through a spirit of revenge, for the infrac- tion of penal laws, are or ought to be unknown to a civilized com- munity. The object, then, can be no other than to reform the offender, and at the same time to protect society from a repetition of the offence-these can be effectually accomplished only through the medium of a penitentiary. To inflict ignominious punishment on the offender and then turn him back upon society, so far from producing reformation, only prepares him for the commission of the worst of crimes. To protect society, then, it becomes necessary to resort to capital punishments, not commensurate with the of- fense. the infliction of which is attended with uncertainty." He suggested that the labor of prisoners would not only be self-sup- porting, "but, in the course of time, productive of a revenue."

A. L. Bingaman reported a resolution in 1833 that the commis- sioners appointed under the resolution of December, 1832, be con- tinued to make further report, as the finances did not permit expen- diture at that time for a penitentiary. Action was recommended by Gov. Quitman in January, 1836. But it was not until 1840 that the brick work of the keeper's house and of the east wing of the prison was completed, and most of the carpenter's work. "The

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east prison contains 150 cells on three stories conformable to the Auburn system of prison discipline," which was hard labor during the day and solitary confinement at night.

The first prisoners were admitted April 15, 1840. The first keeper, elected by the legislature in the same year, was Charles M. Hart. In 1847, 220 convicts had been received since the open- ing, and about 85 was the average number of inmates. One pris- oner when committed was 106 years old, 13 were held for negro stealing. The institution gradually grew into a great industrial establishment. It occupied the site of the present Capitol, and was surrounded by a lofty brick wall. In 1860-61 and later the penitentiary was mainly used for the repairing and remodelling of rifles, the mounting of cannon, manufacture of munitions of war, etc., and when Jackson was occupied by Sherman in July, 18.63, it was destroyed as a factory. Before that, the inmates had been released or sent to Alabama. See War of 1861-65.

In the constitutional convention of 1865 it was proposed to punish the crimes of grand larceny, robbery, rape, arson and bur- glary, by hanging, because there was no punishment except con- finement in the penitentiary and there was no such institution in existence. Mr. Hudson, of Yazoo, declared that the country was terrorized by bands of outlaws, even cotton was stolen on the way to market. But the majority of the convention approved the at- titude of Amos R. Johnston, that such bloody legislation would not remedy the condition. The legislature of 1865 appropriated $30,000 for repairing the penitentiary. Capt. A. J. Herod, State architect, reported in October, 1866, that the building was suffi- ciently repaired for comfortable use. There were then 131 inmates, who were being worked in a brickyard, and in the rebuilding. It was estimated that $65,000 more was needed for complete re- pairs.

Gov. Humphreys, in his message of October, 1865, noting the in- creasing number of inmates of the penitentiary, inability to find all employment in confinement, and the increasing expenses of supporting them, said, "Some relief may be found by re-adjusting the criminal laws so as to limit the punishment in the penitentiary to certain classes of crimes and authorizing punitive labor for minor offences within the limits of the respective counties." Jan- uary 24, 1867, he reported: "The penitentiary has been leased, under an act of the legislature, to Messrs. J. W. Young & Co., for a term of fourteen years. They have executed a penal bond in the sum of $100,000, for the faithful performance of the stipula- tions of the contract. The State is bound to deliver the convicts at the penitentiary. Some legislation is now needed to en- able the superintendent to comply with the stipulation, as the law defraying the expenses of their transportation was repealed at your last session."

A resolution approved by Gov. Humphreys in February, 1867, authorized the lessees of the penitentiary to work such convicts as were without mechanical skill, and were not sentenced for certain

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heinous crimes, "at any work, public or private, upon railroads or levees, or dirt roads or other works, where the labor used does not require the possession of mechanical skill and does not conflict with the mechanical skill and labor of the State." It was provided that this working out should be under rules ap- proved by the State superintendent and governor, and no convict should be so worked without his first giving his consent in writing, or employed in any work that might impair health. This arrange- ment was to be in force for three years, and (it appears, in consid- eration therefor) the lessees were required to pay the expenses of removing all convicts to the penitentiary.

Gen. Gillem, while commanding the military district, in 1868, leased the penitentiary to Edmund Richardson. Gov. Alcorn said in his message of March, 1870: "I object to the principle of that contract for the reason that it virtually supersedes the State's con- trol over its convicts; and, while tending to degrade agricultural labor, abolishes, in effect, the infamy and the penalty attaching in well-ordered society, to crime." Hence he took pleasure in ob- serving that the military lease to Richardson, though it ran to November 1, 1870, could not survive the restoration to civil gov- ernment. He declared that convicts should not be worked outside the walls of the penitentiary. "The shocking spectacle of a group of men followed by keepers with loaded rifles, ready to shoot them as though they were dogs, lowers that sentiment of well-ordered society which surrounds human life with sanctity." But "if we must employ our convicts outside of the penitentiary," the senten- ces for a certain class of crimes should be to labor on public works. The Richardson lease continued, was extended by Alcorn, and the extension confirmed by the legislature until March 1, 1872.

Governor Powers, in 1872, noting this extension said: "The policy of leasing for a period of years the convicts sentenced to confinement in the penitentiary, to be paraded throughout the State and placed in competition with free labor, is calculated, in my judgment, to corrupt public morals, degrade industry, pervert justice and thwart the true objects of punishment." The number of convicts then on hand was 234. Upon his recommendation the legislature provided for the purchase of a farm of 500 acres, and the building of a new penitentiary thereon. Meanwhile, the contrac- ting of prisoners within the old penitentiary was authorized, and employment outside was limited to public works.

Under the Richardson lease the State paid $18,000 a year to the lessee for feeding, clothing and working the convicts, besides bearing the expense of bringing the convicts to the penitentiary, which was about $12,000 a year.

The board of inspectors under the law of 1872, was B. B. Eggles- ton, R. J. Alcorn and George Charles. The Richardson lease having terminated, they made a contract May 10, 18:2, with W. P. Dunnovant & Co., for employment of convicts; lessee to assume all expense connected with the prison, and to pay the State $8,000 per annum for the use of the convicts and machinery. The work

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outside was to be only on public works. The board selected a site for the new penitentiary, 500 acres about four miles north of Jack- son, in January, 1873, and asked an appropriation to begin work. The site was donated by the city, in competition with a donation by Canton. In 1872 a large number of the convicts were employed outside on public works. Gov. Powers was gratified by the pros- pect of a new penitentiary, on completion of which "the leasing system of' working convicts outside the walls will end."

But the panic of 1873 and political opposition stopped this pro- ject. The building of a cotton factory was begun in 1874, with an appropriation by the legislature, in order that employment might be furnished all convicts within the old institution. But the pris- on was so crowded that cell room was lacking ; the financial depres- sion made further building inadvisable, and Gov. Ames recom- mended working short term convicts on the roads.

An act of 1875 provided that pending the building of the new penitentiary, the management of the penitentiary might contract for the feeding, clothing, guarding and maintenance of the convicts or any number thereof, and for the labor of the same, and for the use inside the walls of the penitentiary, of the machinery of the penitentiary, the contract to relieve the State of all expense of main- tenance, clothing and guarding, and to continue until January 1, 1880, with permission to work the convicts outside the penitentiary, no restriction being made as to the kind of work. Bond was re- quired of the contractor, and the governor was authorized to cause inspections of the food, clothing and treatment.

At the same time an appropriation of $27,500 was made for en- larging the old penitentiary. In 1875 200 convicts were kept within the walls and 373 leased out.

An act of 1875 also authorized the supervisors of 46 counties to put prisoners and convicts upon public works of the counties. reviving what is known as the "chain-gang," which has existed from the earliest days; also to lease the prisoners to contractors on public works. This was recommended by the Tax-payers con- vention.

After the political revolution of 1875 the plan of a new peniten- tiary was abandoned, and the leasing system was continued under the act of April 15, 1876, under which the penitentiary inspectors leased the convicts, buildings and property, June 9, to J. S. Ham- ilton and J. L. Hebron, the lessees to pay the State $1.10 for each convict over 400 in number, and bear all expenses except the salary of the State superintendent of the penitentiary. The new lessees made arrangements with the old sub-lessees under the act of 1875, French & Forbes, and obtained control of the convicts. "From 1876 to 1884 some changes were made in the management of the penitentiary but not in the interest of the convicts. Commissioners were appointed to offer the entire penitentiary plant, including con- victs, for lease to the highest bidder for cash or on credit, and it was provided that the leasing of convicts to private persons should continue. From the beginning of this infamous system to

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1884, these wretched prisoners seem not to have had one cham- pion, who, for humanity's sake, would lift a voice of protest in their behalf." (J. H. Woods.) In 1880, when the leases authorized in 1875 expired, a board of public works was created, with a mem- ber from each congressional district, the rent value of convicts was put at $50 a year besides his keep, and there was provision for operating a bagging factory and a wagon factory by the board of public works. The board of public works leased the penitentiary and all property pertaining thereto, for six years from January 1, 1881, for $39,420 a year, to Jones S. Hamilton, R. H. Allen and J. A. Hoskins. The laws against mistreatment were made more stringent and the superintendent was required to give greater at- tention to the care of the prisoners. The barbarism of the system continued to arouse public resentment, which culminated in the winter of 1884 when the legislature was in session. A squad of 18 convicts were shipped through Vicksburg from a delta plantation, on their way to the prison hospital at Jackson. Their half-naked bodies showed signs of cruel goaders and tortures, their fingers and toes were frost-bitten and they were hardly able to walk. The city authorities compelled the guard to take them through the city in covered wagons, but a newspaper dared to publish the facts. A committee of the house of representatives of which Jeff Nelson was chairman, investigated the working of convicts on farms and railroads, and showed the brutalities and cruel commercialism of the system. A few newspapers had the courage to print the report before it was stolen from the files. Capt. Frank Johnston, later attorney-general, began a relentless war on the system, for which he was honored in 1890, by privilege of the floor of the constitu- tional convention. In 1886 the convicts were leased to the Gulf & Ship Island railroad, which had already held them under an assigned lease. The legislature of that year seriously considered the problem. There were 800 to 1,000 convicts and the prison at Jackson could not accommodate them. The large number was due to a law defining the stealing of certain domestic animals as felony, regardless of value. The legislature created a Board of Control (q. v.) composed of the railroad commissioners, empowered to protect the convicts, and the superintendent of the penitentiary was required to visit the places where the convicts were worked once every month. But the public was not satisfied with these measures, and the legislature of 1888 was compelled to order an investigation. It appeared that there had been much improvement, but there remained the same tendency to brutal treatment. The only remedy provided was the greater concentration of the con- victs under the management of the Gulf & Ship Island railroad company. A campaign was made before the constitutional con- vention of 1890. Statistics were produced showing that the aver- age terms of imprisonment in western penitentiaries were 3 to 4 years, in Mississippi over 41/2 years, including boys sentenced for life. The highest death rate in six western prisons was 21/2, the others all being below 11/2 per cent. The death rate in Missis-

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sippi was 10 to 15 per cent. The average death rate of white convicts was 5 per cent., of negroes 11 per cent. The convention of 1890 submitted the convict question to a committee composed of R. A. Dean, W. S. Featherston, George G. Dillard, J. H. Jones, W. F. Love, J. Alcorn and J. S. Sexton. They reported: "Be it ordained by the people of the State of Mississippi in convention assembled that from and after the 1st day of January, 1895, the system commonly known as the convict or leasing system shall be unlawful, and from and after that date the hiring of State con- victs to individuals or corporations shall cease."

"The leasing system was common to all the Southern States, except Kentucky and probably Virginia. It is difficult to under- stand how a system so barbarous could have been tolerated in any Christian community. It was evidently the product of human rapacity grafted upon the conditions that a defunct slavery had left behind it." (J. H. Jones, M. H. S. Publ. VI, 111.) Under the constitution of 1890 the State Farm system has taken the place of the old penitentiary. See Board of Control and Penitentiary Farms. Pursuant to an act of 1900 the buildings and brick wall of the old penitentiary were torn down to make way for the new capitol.

Penitentiary Farms. The constitution of 1890 requires that "No penitentiary convict shall ever be leased or hired to any per- son or persons, or corporation, private or public or quasi public, or board, after December the 31st, A. D., 1894, save as authorized in the next section, nor shall any previous lease or hiring of con- victs extend beyond that date; and the Legislature shall abandon the system of such leasing or hiring as much sooner than the date mentioned as may be consistent with the economic safety of the State.

"Sec. 224. The Legislature may authorize the employment under State supervision and the proper officers and employes of the State, of convicts on public roads or other public works, or by any levee board on any public levees, under such provisions and restrictions as it may from time to time see fit to impose; but said convicts shall not be let or hired to any contractors under said board, nor shall the working of convicts on the public roads, or public works, or by any levee board ever interfere with the prepar- ation for or the cultivation of any crop which it may be intended shall be cultivated by the said convicts, nor interfere with the good management of the State farm, nor put the State to any expense.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 45

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