Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 51

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 51

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Mr. William A. Love of Lowndes county thus sketches the end of his career: "In. 1834 he sold his lands on the Robinson Road and at the date of his death in 1835 was living at Waverly, now in Clay county, where he was buried. Sometime after the burial of Major Pitchlyn, his grave was desecrated by unknown persons in search of treasure, and this coming to the ears of his sons then in the west, one of them came and removed his remains to the Indian Territory."

Pitchlyn, John, Jr. John Pitchlyn, Jr., was a son of Major John Pitchlyn by his first wife. There is nothing to record of his early life, and it is reasonable to conclude that his early career did not materially differ from that of the average half-breed Choctaw of the period. The first official mention of his name is as a first lieu- tenant and quartermaster of a battalion of Choctaw warriors in the service of the United States, from March 1, to May 29, 1814.

He was commonly known as Jack Pitchyln or simply "Jack," and after the War of 1812, he lived on the Robinson Road, a few miles west of Columbus, and pursued the avocations of merchant, farmer, and stock raiser. He married a daughter of one of the Colbert's, prominent in the Chickasaw Nation, near Pontotoc. He appears to have borne an excellent reputation when sober, but intoxicated, was a dangerous citizen. Many crimes are laid at his door when under the influence of liquor, and he seems to have finally met a tragic end as a result of one of these drunken frenzies. While drunk he killed his half-brother Silas, a crime certain to be avenged by the Indians. After a short interval, he emerged from a period of hiding, and appeared openly in the Chickasaw nation, in the vicinity of Cotton Gin Port. Here his Indian enemies found him one night after supper while strolling in the suburbs of the village, and promptly shot him before he could draw his weapon in self defense.

Pitchlyn, Peter Perkins. Peter Perkins Pitchlyn, son of Major John Pitchlyn, was born in 1806 on Hashuqua creek in what is now Noxubee county. He received a good schooling at Nashville, Tenn., and on his return home he married a daughter of David Folsom and afterwards lived a few miles south of the present town of Artesia on the western edge of a beautiful prairie. He

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was a farmer and stock raiser by profession, and was an esteemed member of the community in which he lived. He seems to have had ample means and was the owner of ten slaves. When the Choctaws moved west of the Mississippi, he sold out all his inter- ests and went west with his nation, where he was prominent for many years in the councils of his people. (Lowndes County, Pioneer Settlers, Wm. A. Love).

"At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 Pitchlyn was in Washington attending to public business for his tribe, and as- sured Mr. Lincoln that he hoped to keep his people neutral; but he could not prevent three of his own children and many others from joining the Confederates. He himself remained a Union man to the end of the war, notwithstanding that the Confederates raided his plantation of 600 acres and captured all his cattle, while the emancipation proclamation freed his one hundred slaves. He was a natural orator as his speeches and addresses abundantly prove. According to Charles Dickens, who met him while on his visit to this country, Pitchlyn was a handsome man, with black hair, aquiline nose, broad cheek bones, sunburned complexion, and bright, keen, dark and piercing eyes. His death occurred at Wash- ington, D. C., in 1881, and he was buried in the congressional cem- etery there, with Masonic honors, the poet, Albert Pike. delivering a eulogy over his remains. (Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.)

Pittman, a postoffice of Marion county, 10 miles southwest of Columbia, the county seat, and nearest railroad and banking town.

Pitts, a post-hamlet of Calhoun county, about 14 miles northeast of Pittsboro, the county seat. Population in 1900, 26.

Pittsboro, the county seat of Calhoun county, is an incorporated post-town, 30 miles east, northeast of Grenada. Coffeeville, on the Illinois Central R. R., is the nearest railroad and banking town. The land on which the county seat was located in 1852 was do- nated to the county by Ebenezer Gaston, and the first name of the settlement, Orrsville, was changed to Pittsboro at a meeting of the board of supervisors, July 26, 1852. The county board held its first recorded meeting at Pittsboro, February 13, 1853; the court house here was completed in 1856, at a cost of about $10,000. The town received its name for an early settler. Several large mills are located here, also three churches and a male and female acade- my. There are two newspapers-the Calhoun Monitor, a Demo- cratic weekly established in 1900, T. M. Murphree and J. B. Going, editors and publishers; The Calhoun News, a Democratic weekly established in 1901, G. L. Martin, editor and publisher. Population in 1900, 254.

Plain, a post-hamlet of Rankin county, on the Gulf & Ship Is- land R. R., 6 miles south of Jackson. Population in 1900, 82. Flor- ence is its nearest banking town.

Plantation Life. "The towns and villages of Mississippi, as in European States," wrote J. H. Ingraham in 1835, "are located per- fectly independent of each other, isolated among its forests, and

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often many leagues apart, leaving in the intervals large tracts of country covered with plantations, and claiming no minuter sub- division than that of county. Natchez, for instance, is a corpora- tion one mile square, but from the boundaries of the city to Wood- ville, the next incorporated town south, there is an interval of thirty-eight miles. It is necessary for the planters who reside be- tween towns so far asunder, to have some more particular address than the indefinite one arising from their vicinity to one or other of these towns. Hence, has originated the pleasing custom of naming estates, as in England. These names are generally selec- ted with taste, such as Monmouth, Laurel Hill, Grange, Mag- nolia Grove, The Forest, Cottage, Briars, Fatherland, and An- chorage-the last given by a retired navy officer to his plantation. The name is sometimes adopted with reference to some character- istic of the domain, as The Oaks, China Grove, New Forest, etc., but more frequently it is a mere matter of fancy. Each town is the center of a circle which extends many miles around it into the country, and daily attracts all within its influence. The ladies come in carriages to shop, the gentlemen on horseback to do business with their commission merchants, visit the banks, hear the news, dine together at the hotels, and ride back in the evening. The Southern town is properly the Exchange for the neighboring planters, and the Broadway for their wives and daugh- ters. Showy carriages and saddle horses are the peculiar characteristics of the moving spectacle in the streets of south- western towns. During the season of gayety, in the win- ter months, the public assemblies and private coteries of Natchez are unsurpassed by those of any city, in the elegance, refinement, or loveliness of the individuals who compose them. But fashion and refinement are not confined to Natchez. In nearly every county reside opulent planters, whose children enjoy pre- cisely the same advantages as are afforded in the city. Drawn from

. the seclusion of their plantations, their daughters are sent to the north, whence they return in the course of time with improved

minds and elegant manners. . Elegant women may be found blooming in the depths of forests far in the interior."

"Many of the stately and beautiful plantation homes of the old Mississippi aristocracy still stand to bring forth pleasant memo- ries of the past," writes Dunbar Rowland (M. H. S. Publ. III, 91). "They are to be seen here and there as loving reminders of all that was true, noble and gentle in the lives of their princely owners. How beautiful they seem as they stand in the solitude of a brilliant and stormy past. They were looked upon by the lordly masters of the Old South as blessed and favored homes in a land where intellect, wealth, happiness and good breeding reigned supreme. How stately and grand they look, massive, graceful and enduring, they seem to be grim sentinels to remind a new gener- ation of a noble and heroic past. There is a sorrow and pathos about them that tenderly appeals to the new life and new impulses that everywhere surrounds them. As one of our most brilliant 28-II

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writers has said: 'The sorrow that is common makes tender the bitterness of the fierce, cruel past, and the kisses that rained on the faces of the dead turn into caresses of consolation for the living.'" One of these homes was Anandale, home of the Johnstons. Near old Livingston also, was Cottage Place, home of John Robinson. Many such homes are mentioned in biographical sketches in this work. Mrs. Deupree has preserved descriptions of some of the most famous in her contributions to the Historical society.

"The Mississippi cotton planter had a genius for hospitality; his home was constantly crowded with guests, and they were made to feel that their coming was a pleasure and their departure a sor- The coming of Christmas was the most important row.

event in a Mississippi plantation home. Large house

parties were always features of the holiday season.

For

weeks the lordly and hospitable planters would keep open house. A grand ball room was a common feature of the Missis- sippi home. Card playing was indulged in by all, and a game of whist was always called for in the evening after supper."

J. H. Ingraham, in describing a ride out from Natchez, about 1825, wrote: "A huge colonnaded structure, crowning an abrupt eminence near the road, struck our eyes with an imposing effect. It was the abode of one of the wealthiest planters of this State; who, like the majority of those whose families now roll in their splendid equipages, has been the maker of his fortune. The grounds about this edifice were neglected; horses were grazing around the piazzas, over which were strewed saddles, whips, horseblankets, and the motley paraphernalia with which planters love to lumber their galleries. On nearly every piazza in Mississippi may be found a washstand, bowl, pitcher, towel and water bucket, for general accomodation. But the southern gallery is not constructed, like those at the north, for ornament or ostentation, but for use. Here they wash, lounge, often sleep and take their meals." Calling at the home of another wealthy planter, he was found "sitting upon the gallery, divested of coat, vest and shoes, with his feet on the railing, playing in high glee with a little dark-eyed boy and two young negroes, who were chasing each other under the bridge formed by his extended limbs. Three or four noble dogs, which his voice and the presence of his servant, who accompanied me to the house, kept submisive, were crouching like leopards around his chair. A hammock contained a youth of fourteen, fast locked in the embrace of Morpheus, whose aide-de-camp, in the shape of a strapping negress, stood by the hammock, waving over the sleeper a long plume of gorgeous feathers of the pea- fowl. There are many private residences, in the vicinity of Natchez, whose elegant interiors, contrasted with the neglected grounds about them, suggest the idea of a handsome city residence accidentally dropped into the midst of a partially cleared forest." Usually the tract about the residence was used as a pasture lot for horses.

The most magnificent homes in the vicinity of Natchez were

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built in what was called in 1835 the "great cotton era." "Perhaps no State, not even Virginia herself, which Mississippi claims as her mother country, could present a more hospitable, chivalrous, and highminded class of men, or more cultivated females than this, during the first few years subsequent to its accession to the Union."

The planter, wrote Mr. Ingraham, works on his plantation a cer- tain number of slaves, say thirty. Each slave ought to average from seven to eight bales of cotton during the season, especially on the new lands. An acre will generally average from one to two bales. Each bale averages four hundred pounds, at from twelve to fifteen cents a pound. This may not be an exact estimate, but is not far from the true one. Deducting $2,500 for the expenses of the plantation, there will remain a net income of $11,000. Now. suppose this plantation and slaves to have been purchased on a credit, paying at the rate of $600 a piece for his negroes, the planter would be able to pay for nearly two-thirds of them the first year. In the way above alluded to, numerous plantations in this State have been commenced, and thus the wealth of a great num- ber of the opulent planters of this region has originated. Incomes of $20,000 are common here. Several individuals possess incomes from $40,000 to $50,000 and live in a style commensurate with their wealth. To sell cotton in order to buy more negroes-to make more cotton to buy more negroes, ad infinitum, is the aim and direct tendency of all the operations of the thorough-going cotton planter ; his whole soul is wrapped up in the pursuit. There are some who work three or four hundred negroes; though the average number is from 30 to 100. Many of the planters are northerners. When they have conquered their prejudices, they are thorough-driving planters, generally giving themselves up to the pursuit more devotedly than the regular planter. Their treatment of their slaves is also far more rigid. Northerners are entirely unaccustomed to their habits, which are perfectly under- stood and appreciated by southerners, who have been familiar with Africans from childhood; whom they have had for their nurses, playfellows and 'bearers,' and between whom and themselves a reciprocal and very natural attachment exists, which, on the gen- tleman's part, involuntarily extends to the whole dingy race, ex- hibited in a kindly feeling and condescending familiarity, for which he receives gratitude in return. On the part of the slave, this at- tachment is manifested by an affection and faithfulness which only ceases with life. Of this state of feeling which a southern life and education can only give, the northerner knows nothing. In- experience leads him to hold the reins over his novel subjects with an unsparing severity, which the native ruler of these domestic colonies finds wholly unnecessary."

"We regarded slavery in a patriarchal sense," wrote Mrs. V. V. Clayton. "We were all one family, and as master and mistress, heads of this family, we were responsible to the God we worshipped

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for these creatures to a great extent, and we felt our responsibility and cared for their souls and bodies."

"The prevailing type of the Mississippi planter in those days was proud, big-hearted, broad, liberal and brave. The men of that time enjoyed the good things of life, their lives were worth living, and good cheer, brightness and good humor came with their com- ing. The Mississippi planter was magnificent in every thing; great in his strength, great in his weakness. There was nothing small, cowardly, or weak about him. When he joined in the morning prayers of his church, it was with a reverential, devout and penitent spirit. He looked upon every true woman of his acquaintance as a God-sent ministering angel, and no one was allowed in his presence to even intimate that a woman was not everything that was true, pure and lovely. He was the ablest ex- pounder of a constitutional democracy, and yet he belonged to an aristocracy the most exclusive that America has ever seen. Was he a bundle of contradictions? His character was well rounded and consistent throughout. First of all he loved his wife and children and ancestors. His home and friends had the next place in his heart. He loved his State with an eastern devotion. That he loved his country is attested by the blood that he shed in the land of the Montezumas in defense of its flag. In con- ducting the details of business he was not a success. He took a small part in the actual management of his farming operations. He was generally lord of all he surveyed as he stood and gazed on his beautiful cotton fields whitening in the morning light. He lived near to nature and his soul was in harmony with the peaceful rest and joy of a God-favored land. He associated labor and slavery together ; hence he looked upon physical toil as a degrada- tion and beneath the dignity of a gentleman. He modeled his life after that of the Virginia planter of the old school, and religiously followed the teachings of the old feudal aristocracy of England. He had a passionate fondness for statecraft oratory and politics. He knew the letters of Madison and Hamilton in the Fed- eralist as few men have since known them. He delighted in the orations of Demosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, Burke, Henry and Hayne. He took his opinions of public policy from Jefferson, Jackson, Clay or Calhoun. He was much given to political discus- sion; he was always right, sir, and his adversary was always wrong. What was his was the best the world afforded ; what be- longed to others was theirs without envy on his part. He was high strung, passionate and quick to take offense. He was a man of superb courage, unwavering integrity and unsullied honor." (Rowland.)

Plantersville, an incorporated post-town in Lee county, on the St. Louis and San Francisco R. R., three miles southeast of Tupelo the county seat and the nearest banking town. The town lies in an artesian basin, and there are a number of wells here, affording a supply of soft, pure water, obtained at a depth of from 300 to 400 feet. It has a money order postoffice, an express office, 3 stores, a

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saw mill, a cotton gin, a church and a school. The population in 1900 was 187.

Plattsburg, a village in the southwestern part of Winston county, about 15 miles from Louisville, the county seat, and about 25 miles southeast of Kosciusko. Noxapater is the nearest banking town. It has a money order postoffice, several stores, 2 churches, a good school and a cotton gin and grist-mill. The population in 1900 was 151 and has not materially increased since then.

Pleasant, a postoffice of Attala county, on the Aberdeen branch of the Illinois Central R. R., 4 miles southwest of Kosciusko, the county seat.

Pleasantgrove, a post-hamlet of Panola county, 8 miles west of Sardis, one of the county seats and the nearest railroad and bank- ing town. It has 2 churches and several stores. Population in 1900, 62.

Pleasanthill, an incorporated post-town in the northern part of De Soto county, on Camp creek, an affluent of Coldwater river, 24 miles southeast of Memphis. Miller, on the K. C. M. & B. R. R. is the nearest railroad station, and Hernando, on the I. C. R. R. is the nearest banking town. It has several stores, two churches and a Masonic Institute. Population in 1900, 230; the population in 1906 was estimated at 300.

Plummer, Franklin E., was a native of Massachusetts. He worked his way to New Orleans before he was twenty-one years old, became a school teacher in Copiah county, Miss .; began the practice of law at Westville a year or two later, without any prep- aration, and with a library consisting of Poindexter's Revised Code, a copy of the acts of the last session of the legislature and a vol- ume of Blackstone ; was remarkably successful; went to the legis- lature as often as he chose, and became a power in that body. In 1829 he announced himself for congress, which was regarded as a piece of impertinence by the older politicians, but he was elected, defeating Wm. L. Sharkey and others; was reelected as often as he presented himself, beating the most popular men in the State. His platform was: "Plummer for the people, and the people for Plummer." He and Gov. Runnels were bitter enemies. Each was a founder of a town within the present limits of Grenada. Plummer's town was Pittsburg, Runnel's was Tulla- homa, and the rivalry between the two towns was similar to that between their founders.

In 1835 Plummer was invited to Natchez by the men who had been his political opponents. The banks were thrown open to him, and he made out his political slate with his name at the head for United States Senator. In a stylish barouche, with a servant in livery, he started on his canvass. He was then in the height of his popularity and power, but his alliance with capitalists was fatal. He was no longer one of the people, but had formed "aristocratic habits" and was defeated. This caused him to lose courage. He neglected or abandoned his profession, became a sot, lurking in

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mean places with low associates. He died at Jackson in an obscure cabin in 1847.

Plumpoint, a post-hamlet in the northern part of De Soto county, near the northern boundary line of the State, 12 miles distant from Hernando, the county seat. Population in 1900, 23.

Pluto, a post-hamlet in the southwestern part of Holmes county, on the Yazoo River, 15 miles north of Yazoo City, the nearest banking town. Population in 1900, 25.

Plymouth, an extinct town of Lowndes county situated seven miles above Columbus on the Tombigbee river, at the mouth of Tibbee creek. County tradition claims that DeSoto camped here on his journey of exploration to the Mississippi. Other local tra- dition recites that Bienville erected fortifications at this point and made it his base while campaigning against the Chickasaws, and not Cotton Gin Port, as commonly stated in the books. Still others assert that the remains of the old cedar fort, which was taken down by the present owners of the site of old Plymouth, the Canfields, were the remains of a fort built by General Jackson while operating against the Creeks. Says Dr. Lipscomb, in his History of Colum- bus and Lowndes County: "After the settlement of the Choctaw lands began Old Plymouth became a site of considerable importance on account of its facilities for crossing the river at a shallow ford nearby, and as a place for the storage and shipment of cotton. It was also considered a beautiful spot, with its prodigious growth of large cedars, for the location of the homes of the neighboring set- tlers. James Prowell, Sr., Orlando Canfield, Sr., John Morgan, Sr., and John Cox, Sr., built residences there. The Irbys, Billing- tons and Mullens erected warehouses and stores. Richard Evans, Esq., and his brother, Dr. Evans, and Mr. L. N. Hatch, also settled there, and in 1836, the town was incorporated, and laid off into squares, and streets, and was the prospective rival of West Port just below, and of Columbus, across the river. It became a trading point of importance ; a great number of bales of cotton were shipped from there, but the place proved so unhealthy and the death rate so great that it was abandoned. The planters moved to their plan- tations and the merchants and lawyers to Columbus."

Plymouth, a postoffice of Pontotoc county, situated on Pontotoc creek, 7 miles southeast of Pontotoc, the county seat. It has a cotton gin.

Pocahontas, a village in the northern part of Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 12 miles northwest of Jackson. It has a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 100.

Poindexter, George, was born in the county of Louisa, Va., in 1779. His ancestors were French Protestants, who left France for England to avoid the persecutions of Louis XIV, and emigrated soon afterward to Virginia. His parents were possessed of con- siderable wealth before the Revolution, but suffered great losses thereby, and when George Poindexter was left an orphan at an early age, he had only a small patrimony with which to procure an education. This gave out before he had carried as far as he wished

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his study of law at Richmond, and he was obliged to begin the practice at that city. A year or two later he came to the Missis- sippi territory, then under the governorship of Winthrop Sargent. At the age of twenty-three years he opened a law office at Natchez, and devoted himself industriously to the work of his profession, immediately attracting attention by his remarkable force of char- acter. Into the field of politics he also entered, with principles derived from the "Virginia school" of 1798-99, and an unwavering loyalty to Thomas Jefferson. When Claiborne became governor he appointed Poindexter attorney-general. In 1805 he was elected to the general assembly, and in January, 1807, delegate to congress, where he took his seat in December. He met Aaron Burr in Jan- uary, 1807, and arranged for his meeting with Mead. This epi- sode he fully appreciated. H. S. Foote, in his history of Texas and the Texans, mentions that Poindexter "on the occasion of the cap- ture at Cole's Creek, officiated as a sort of diplomatic agent be- tween Governor Mead and the great Conspirator, and was after- wards professionally connected with the trial in Washington. I have heard from the lips of Mr. Poindexter a full account of both affairs; than which nothing can be imagined more ludicrous."

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 51

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