Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 95

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 95

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Toomsuba, a village in the eastern part of Lauderdale county, on the creek of that name, and a station on the Alabama Great South- ern R. R., 12 miles east of Meridian. It has 3 churches, several stores and a money order postoffice. Population in 1900, 175.

Topeka, a postoffice in the southwestern part of Lawrence county, and a station on the Natchez, Columbia & Mobile R. R., 15 miles east of Bogue Chitto station.

Topisaw, a hamlet in the north-central part of Pike county, on the creek of the same name, 12 miles northeast of Magnolia, the county seat. It has rural free delivery from Summit. Population in 1900, 46.

Topton, a postoffice of Lauderdale county, and a station on the Mobile & Ohio R. R., 6 miles northeast of Meridian.

Torrance, a post-hamlet in the southern part of Yalobusha. county, on the Illinois Central R. R., about 8 miles south of Coffee- ville. It has 2 churches and an academy. Population in 1900, 32.

Touchstone, a postoffice of Simpson county, situated on Big creek, 12 miles northwest of Mendenhall. Population in 1900, 18. The town has an excellent school.

Tougaloo, a postoffice and station of Hinds county, on the Illinois Central R. R., 7 miles north, northeast of Jackson. This is the seat of Tougaloo University, a colored school organized in 1869 (q. v.). Tougaloo had a population of 26 in 1900. It has a money order postoffice.

Tougaloo University. The college grounds were purchased in 1869 by the American Missionary association, a farm of 500 acres, 7 miles north of Jackson, with mansion and outbuildings. In 1870

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two large college buildings were erected by aid received from the Freedmen's bureau-Washington hall, and a dormitory for girls.

At the beginning of his administration, 1870, Governor Alcorn urged the purchase by the State of the association's buildings and land at Tougaloo, for "a high school and agricultural college" for negroes. The act of incorporation, May 13, 1871, provided for joint control in conjunction with the Missionary society, which already had a preparatory department in operation. A board of trustees was chosen, headed by R. C. Powers. The first president was H. R. Revels, who took this position at the expiration of his service as United States senator, in 1871.

Washington Hall afterwards burned, and later Strieby Hall and Ballard Hall were erected. The college had a normal department of which the State took charge in 1872, making it the State Normal School for negro teachers. This arrangement lasted for several- years, when the State trustees failed to agree with the management of the other departments of the institution and the appropriations were discontinued. In 1880, however, a board of visitors was ap- pointed by the legislature, and afterward appropriations of $2,000 to $3,000 were made each year for its support.

There is a graded course, having primary, intermediate and gram- mar grades ; a preparatory course of three years ; a normal course of four years; an industrial course of three years, which may be followed by an apprentice course, and an agricultural course.

Toulmin, Harry, Territorial judge for Washington county, was born in Taunton, England, in 1767, son of Dr. Joshua Toulmin. He was a dissenting preacher several years in Lancashire, and came to Norfolk, Va., in 1793, where he established a seminary. Thence he was called to the presidency of Transylvania university, which he resigned upon appointment as secretary of state of Kentucky. He published a "Description of Kentucky," the "Magistrate's As- sistant," a "Collection of the Acts of Kentucky," and a "Revision of the Criminal Laws of Kentucky," while in that State, and as secretary promulgated the celebrated Resolutions of 1798. Presi- dent Jefferson appointed him judge for the county of Washington, to succeed Judge Kirby, deceased, November 22, 1804, whereupon he came down the river, sailed from New Orleans to Mobile, and up to the Tombigbee settlement. His first court was held at a place which, in memory of Goldsmith's vicar, he named Wake- field, about twenty miles below St. Stephens. He was also post- master, preached and officiated at funerals and marriages, made Fourth of July orations, practiced medicine gratuitously, and in general was the head of the settlements. In 1806 he was selected to make the first digest (q. v.) of the laws of Mississippi Territory, published at Natchez in September, 1807. He wrote eloquent ap- peals to the government for relief of the inhabitants of Washington county from Spanish obstruction of the river trade, and at the same time held in restraint the plots of Col. Caller to drive the Spaniards from Mobile. Finally, he was compelled to put Caller and Reuben Kemper under arrest in 1811, and a great outcry was made about

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this; the grand jury was persuaded to make a presentment against him, and the general assembly to memorialize congress.

"There was a congressional investigation," writes Judge Mayes; "but so far from being condemned, he was vindicated with applause as a most efficient and deserving officer." Mr. Poindexter an- nounced his opinion in congress that the charges were not only un- founded, but proceeded from corruption. The record of the legisla- tive investigation is on file in the Department of Archives and His- tory, and one of the charges against Judge Toulmin is, "that wit- nesses were examined at the point of the bayonet." However, when he was elected to the legislature in 1813, he was denied a seat, but this was on the ground that the functions of judge and legislator were incompatible, although there was no law to that effect applying to the territory. Judge Toulmin had charge of the organization of Mobile county in 1812, but after the occupation of Mobile preferred to remain at his plantation home near Fort Stod- dert. He continued in the office of judge until the Territory was divided, after which he served several years in the Alabama legis- lature. He published a digest of Alabama laws in 1823. His death occurred at Wakefield, December, 1824. (Brewer). He left two sons, and seven daughters, one of whom married. Maj .- Gen. E. P. Gaines.

Toulmin's Digest. The first digest of the laws of the Mississippi Territory was made by Judge Harry Toulmin, who reported Jan- uary 19, 1807, that he had completed the work in pursuance with the resolution of the legislature at its last session. Considering that the population originated in a British colony, and that the settlers must have brought them the laws of the parent state, which the Spanish occupation in "ignorance of the acknowledged bounds" did not abrogate, he felt "inclined to adopt the opinion that the statute as well as the common law of England, as it stood previous to the settlement of Florida, makes a part of the law of the Mis- sissippi Territory." But, "aware that the general impression" in the Territory did not correspond with that view, he introduced "a very partial and limited view of the English statutes," noting in the margins the source from which the text was derived. He suggested that the adoption of some special statutes of some of the American states might render the code complete without reference to the English statutes. After this was printed, in the same year, Toulmin was informed by letter from Mr. Bradford that one or two great errors had been made. In a letter to Governor Williams, from Fort Stoddert, he said he was ignorant what these errors were 1inless one were an act of the legislature abolishing jury trial for slaves, which he considered contrary to the ordinance of 1787. It was afterward said that changes were made in the manuscript while it was in the hands of the general assembly for inspection. The printing of this digest was completed by Samuel Terrell, at Natchez, in September, 1807. In February, 1808, "the general as- sembly, after some few alterations, and amendments, adopted the Digest as the law of the Territory. The assembly at the same time

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required Judge Toulmin to add to his digest all the laws passed at that session, and declared that when so enlarged it should bear the title of "The Statutes of the Mississippi Territory, revised and digested by the authority of the General Assembly ;" and that, after the ensuing October, all the laws of the governor and judges, all acts of the general assembly of the Mississippi Territory, and all statutes of England and Great Britain, not contained in the said volume of statutes, should cease to be of force and validity in the Territory. Judge Toulmin was also requested by the assembly to prepare a set of forms and brief general principles for the infor- mation of justices of the peace, and to furnish the public printer with such ordinances and acts of congress as related to the Missis- sippi Territory, to land titles within the same, to crimes and mis- demeanors, and the intercourse with the Indian nations, with the articles of cession between the United States and Georgia ; and that the whole be added to the volume of statutes. The digest of Judge Toulmin, thus enlarged, . is of value, not only on account of the genius and ability displayed in its adaptation, but also on account of the knowledge it affords of the origin and progress of our jurisprudence." (Lynch's Bench and Bar.) Toulmin's Magis- trates' Assistant was published by Samuel Terrell, the State printer in 1807.

Towns. The State supreme court has given the following defi- nition of a town (60. Miss., 46) : "A town, in its popular sense has been defined to be a congregation of houses so reasonably near each other that the inhabitants thereof might be fairly said to dwell to- gether." The law of 1898 authorizes the governor to proclaim any "village, town or city" incorporated, with certain boundaries and name, upon petition of two-thirds of the electors thereof, when the place contains at least one hundred inhabitants and the required notice of incorporation has been given. The governor may exercise a sound discretion, and deny the petition for good reason. (Atty- Gen. Rept., 1904).

Track, a postoffice of Scott county.

Trading Posts, U. S. The first government trading house for the Choctaws was established under an act of 1796, when John McKee was Indian agent for the eastern part of that nation. It was estab- lished a few miles from Fort Confederation, the Spanish name of Fort Tombecbé, and McKee resided there and traded goods for peltry. A more elaborate system of government "factories" was provided later.

Upon the recommendation of Governor Claiborne, the "factory" for the Choctaws was located on the Tombigbee river, in 1802, that site being chosen because it would more effectually compete with the Pensacola and Mobile trade of the British merchants. Undoubtedly, also, Claiborne desired to divert the Indians from their visits to Natchez, which were burdensome to the white popu- lation, and considered a nuisance by all the governors, Spanish and American. Joseph Chambers was appointed factor for the Choc- taws, and goods were sent to Fort Adams in the fall of 1802. The

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sudden hostile orders of the Intendent Morales very likely were cal- culated to check this competition with Panton, Leslie & Co. The United States was forbidden to ship goods through New Orleans to Fort Stoddert, and the right of free deposit was suspended for all American commerce. In November Chambers and his goods were in Natchez district, blockaded by the Spanish orders, and Claiborne was considering the advisability of establishing the trading post for the Choctaws on the Mississippi river. When it was decided to adhere to the Tombigbee location, Gen. Wilkinson was busy running the Natchez district line, and the trading post was delayed until 1803.

Chambers was joined by George S. Gaines, a native of Virginia, who came from Gallatin, Tenn., as assistant, in 1805. In 1806 Chambers resigned and Gaines became factor in 1807. In 1822 he and his partner bought out the government store, and conducted the business afterward as a private one. The system of government factories was discontinued in 1825.

Says Pickett (Alabama, II, 234) : "The parsonage of the old Spanish church was used as a skin house, and the blockhouse served the purpose of the government store. . . To this establish- ment the Indians-principally Choctaws-and sometimes the Amer- ican settlers, brought bear's oil, honey in kegs, beeswax, bacon, groundnuts, tobacco in kegs, and all kinds of skins and peltries, to pay for which the Federal government usually kept a stock of coarse Indian merchandise, besides all kinds of iron tools, ploughs, arms and ammunition. In the fall the furs and hides were packed in bales and shipped to the Indian agent at Philadelphia." Gaines, at first, came often in collision with the Spanish revenue authori- ties at Mobile, who exacted duties, delayed his vessels, and upon one occasion came near putting him in the calaboose for venturing to remonstrate. Hence the government authorized Gaines to open up communication through the Chickasaw country, and he was able to obtain permission, not for a wagon road, but a horse path, from Colbert's Ferry to John Pitchlyn's on the Tombigbee, whence his goods could be conveyed by boat down to St. Stephens.

In his latter years George S. Gaines wrote: "If our Indian agents were all as patriotic, able and indefatigable in the discharge of their duties as the late Col. Silas Dinsmore and Col. John McKee, they would rarely attain to as much influence with the Indians as respectable private traders. The Choctaws were fortunate in their private traders and white inhabitants. Major John Pitchlyn, United States interpreter, was an excellent man, of sterling integrity, great liberality and devoted to the government. The brothers Lafleur and Charles Juzant, Frenchmen, were very worthy men; Benja- min James, a Virginian, was a good man ; William Riddle, a Scotch- man, and John Garland, an Irishman, were honest and well-dis- posed. Indeed, there were but few white men mong the Choctaws of bad character, and they were despised by the Indians."

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Tralake, a postoffice and station of Washington county, on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., about 18 miles southeast of Greenville, the county seat. Leland is the nearest banking town.

Trapp, a post-hamlet of Neshoba county, 6 miles west, south- west of Philadelphia, the county seat. Population in 1900, 40.

Travis, a postoffice of Amite county, on the east fork of the Amite river, 8 miles southeast of Liberty, the county seat.

Traxler, a postoffice of Smith county, 6 miles west of Raleigh, the county seat.

Traynham, a postoffice of Coahoma county, situated on Hopson Bayou, 8 miles south of Clarksdale, the nearest banking town.

Treaty of Beaufort. "In 1785 South Carolina instituted suit against Georgia before congress, under the ninth article of the Confederation. On June 1st of this year Georgia was summoned to appear on the second Monday of May, 1786. The case - was adjourned from time to time until September 4, 1786, when both States appeared by their agents. Proceedings were then in- stituted and a court was appointed to try the case, which was to sit in New York, June 4, 1787. No judgment was ever rendered by this court, in consequence of the compromise of the suit be- tween the parties." (Garrett, in Confed. Mil. History.) Both States appointed commissioners early in 1787, to settle the dis- putes, and they concluded a convention at Beaufort, April 28, 1787. The claims of South Carolina were these: (1) for lands "lying between the North Carolina line and the line run due west from the mouth of Tugaloo river to the Mississippi, because the river Savannah loses its name at the confluence of the Tugaloo and Keowee rivers, consequently that spot is the head of the Savan- nah ;" (2) for all the lands from the Mississippi river eastward, north of Florida and south of the south line of the Georgia char- ter, that is to say, the line the latitude of Atlanta, Ga., and Gren- ada, Miss. Georgia excepted from this claim what had been assigned southward on the coast to Georgia by royal proclamation in 1763, and would make the westward limit of Georgia, south of the Atlanta line. a line from that locality to the head of the St. Marys river. The commissioners agreed that the Savannah river boundary line should be continued in the Tugaloo river and its most northern branch, as the main source of the Savannah, up to the North Carolina line, if there were any stream to follow so far north, if not, then South Carolina should own west to the Missis- sippi along the northward of a line due west from the ultimate source of the Tugaloo. As to the other and more important west- ern region, south and west of the Georgia settlements, South Carolina relinquished all claim.

On March 8 of the same year, however, the South Carolina legis- lature, declaring "this State is willing to adopt every measure which can tend to promote the honor and dignity of the United States and strengthen the Federal Union," authorized the cession to the United States of a part of the northern strip in dispute, namely, all north of a line due west from the head of the southern

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branch of the Tugaloo. This cession was accepted by congress, August 9, 1787, and this Twelve-mile strip was the first area in what is now Mississippi to become public domain, under the policy of westward cession. For this reason the first congressional en- actment regarding Mississippi territory, refers to the region "south of the cession made to the United States by South Carolina."

Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs. This treaty was negotiated by Gen. James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, with the mingo (or "king") and sixteen head men of the Chicka- saws. Presents of $700 worth were made, and permission gained to build a wagon road on the Natchez trace, northward to the mouth of Bear Creek, on the Tennessee river, and on to Miro dis- trict, or Nashville. The United States had been granted five miles square at the mouth of Bear Creek in 1784, but this had never been occupied, as the Spanish party among the Chickasaws had remonstrated. Of the Chickasaws the commissioners said: "We with pleasure bear testimony to the amicable and orderly dispo- sition of this nation, whose greatest boast is that they have never spilt the blood of a white man; but, with these dispositions they are not so far advanced in the habits of civilization as their neigh- bors the Cherokees, though they discover a taste for individual property, have made considerable progress in agriculture, and in stocking their farms, and are desirous to increase their domestic manufacturers." After this convention, Col. Butler and eight com- panies of the Second infantry were ordered up the Tennessee, the route was changed to east of Bear Creek, and Samuel Mitchell, Chickasaw agent, and two Indians were deputed to mark the line.

Treaty of Chickasaw Council House. This treaty was made Sep- tember 20, 1816, and followed the Creek war, and the cession by the Creeks of the land in Alabama southwest of the river Alabama, adjoining the first Choctaw cession on the east. Together with the Choctaw treaty of the same year, it opened up land north of those two cessions, but only east of the river Tombigbee, giving Alabama a great lead in opportunity for development, over both Mississippi and Georgia. The Chickasaws relinquished all claims north of the Tennessee river, and all title south thereof, and east of Caney Creek and the Gaines road (or ridge path), and the Tom- bigbee river south of Cotton Gin Port, where the road touches it. The treaty was made at the "long house" of the nation, at the Chickasaw Old Fields (Lee county) by Gen. Andrew Jackson, Gen. David Meriwether, and Jesse Franklin, and "the whole Chick- asaw nation in council assembled." The consideration was an annuity of $12,000 per annum for ten years; $4,500 cash for im- provements, and $100 each to Chinnubbee, king of the Chickasaws, Tishomingo, Coahoma (William McGillivray), Samuel Seeley, the Colberts, Brown, and a number of others. Gen. William Colbert was also given a life annuity of $100. Four reservations were made for the Colberts and others. The government also agreed to allow no more peddlers to enter the Chickasaw country. That part of this purchase, about 408,000 acres, which was found to lie in

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Mississippi State, was organized as the county of Monroe, in 1821. According to the present county lines, the cession in Mississippi form the eastern part of the counties of Tishomingo, Itawamba, Monroe and Lowndes.

Treaty of Choctaw Trading House, concluded at St. Stephens, October 24, 1816, relinquished, in connection with the cession by the Chickasaws in September, all the land claimed by the two na- tions south of the Tennessee river, and east of the Gaines road and Tombigbee river, of which a part lay within the bounds of the State of Mississippi, as defined in 1817. The Choctaws ceded that part east of the Tombigbee river between the mouth of the Oktib- beha and the first Choctaw cession line. The treaty was made by Gen. John Coffee, John Rhea and John McKee, and the "mingoes, leaders, captains and warriors of the Choctaw nation in general council assembled." The consideration was $10,000 in goods, then - delivered, and an annuity of $6,000 for 20 years.

Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, 1830. By the year 1829, the original two million acres in the Natchez district open to settle- ment, had been enlarged to include about half the area of the State, through purchase by the United States government from the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes. There was not a rapid demand for the lands already opened. Only about one-third of the Choc- taw purchase of 1820, which embraced Hinds county and the main portion of the Yazoo delta, had been disposed of either to settlers or speculators. Nevertheless there was a tremendous pressure by speculators for more lands, and the people generally were easily persuaded that it was time for the Indians to move. In his mes- sage of 1829 Governor Brandon declared that the prosperity of the State was greatly retarded by such a large portion of fertile lands remaining in the possession of "savage tribes of Indians, who, as they progress in civilization, become attached to the soil and can- not be induced to remove by the policy heretofore used of treating them as a sovereign people, and will, eventually set up for them- selves a government, professing to be an independent sovereignty within our limits, in defiance of the authority of the state. These things cannot be tolerated, consistent with our best interest, honor and safety." This impatience with the established Indian policy of the government, led to the act of the legislature, 1829, extend- ing the jurisdiction of the justices and courts of certain adjoining counties over all the Indian territory.

Trouble was feared on this account, but the governor was able to report a year later that "the acknowledgment on the part of the general government, of the right of the States to exercise an unlimited sovereignty over all territory within their chartered limits, is a source of much gratification, and at once puts to rest the question which portended great difficulty between many of the states, our own amongst the number, and their Indian population." He suggested that the legislature, if it assumed sovereignty, must also take care to pass laws for the government and protection of the Indians; but that would be very difficult. The authority of

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their chiefs must first be annulled, and this would be improper until some provision was made for other officers. And the gover- nor frankly added, "The extension of the laws of the state to the Indians will be received by them with feelings of jealousy and dis- trust, from the view that such a measure was adopted with a view to harrass and thereby coerce them to remove." The legislature responded with the act of February, 1830, that proposed to abol- ish all the Indian laws and customs and extend over them the law of Mississippi, and prohibited any person from assuming the office of chief or mingo, under penalty of heavy fine and imprisonment. These laws were not seriously enforced. At the request of the United States government after the treaty of 1830 they were, in effect, suspended by the governor, so far as they related to Indians. There were similar circumstances in Georgia, involving much de- fiant talk and proceedings. But the result was the same-the Indians were frightened into going west. In March, 1831, the United States supreme court decided that the action of the Geor- gia courts in sentencing four missionaries among the Creeks to four years in the penitentiary at hard labor was contrary to the laws and treaties of the United States and therefore null and void. In the following month the treaty was ratified by which the Creeks agreed to move west of the Mississippi.

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Mississippi : comprising sketches of towns, events, institutions, and persons, arranged in cyclopedic form Vol. II, Part 95

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