USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Each man wore a white cap, from the edges of which floated a piece of cloth extending to the shoulders. Over the face was a white covering with eye holes and an opening for the mouth. On the front of the caps of the Hawks appeared the red wings of a hawk as an en- sign of rank. From the top of each cap was a spire or spike 18 or 20 inches high, covered with the same white material and supported by wire. These uniforms were easily folded and concealed within a blanket and kept under the saddles without discovery. It was only a question of two or three minutes to dismount, unsaddle; doff the uniform and be on the move as if suddenly coming out of the bowels of the earth. The men were provided with various devices to create consternation among the superstitious. Their eyes looked like balls of fire at times, and sulphurous fumes emitted from their ranks. Several buckets of water was a commom draught for a man who suffered the intense thirst incident to the regions of heat below, where it was thought he made his abiding place. In companies of one and two hundred men, thus disguised at night, the spectacle was terrorizing, but the organization was composed of level headed men, trained Confederates who knew no fear.
The operations of the Ku Klux Klan were not confined to their own precincts altogether, as the United States soldiers were on the alert. They were ever watchful and any work to be done at home was often performed by those living many miles away, strangers to the community, who were notified by a relay system of couriers when messages could be sent long distances without any one being missed, except for a few hours, from the neighborhood. Lou- isianians worked in Mississippi, and vice versa, and so with counties and districts. If any serious work was to be performed it was some-
251
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
times prefaced by some public demonstration or amusement, when the home Klan had everything fixed, the criminal located and watched. The distant Klansmen appeared and mingled with the people, com- ing in from different quarters as others without a suspicion of their mission. Their mystic signs enabled them to recognize each other and to arrange the details of their operations. When night came they assembled in the vicinity and donned their disguises for them- selves and horses, which were folded in their blankets, and a great apparition seemed to rise from the earth, and before the criminal suspected that danger lurked near him he was in their clutches. He was then taken to a place presided over by the Grand Cyclops, where witnesses were presented and a thorough investigation had. If adjudged guilty, when day dawned the culprit would be missing and sometimes found in his neighbor's yard, a dead proposition, or found dangling from the limb of a tree, and sometimes officials who were obnoxious and oppressive in their acts or exhibited a disposition to overawe the white people, were given the opportunity to break- fast on the carcasses of their unscrupulous henchmen and pets.
The thief and rapist, the murderer and the instigators of negro supremacy and self-importance had a poor show in the days of Ku Kluxism. Those who were under the ban of suspicion in minor cases were often warned by the mystic letters K. K. K. posted where they were sure to see them. They observed the laws which governed the different degrees of crime, but they executed those laws in their . own way in proportion to the nature of the crime.
In May, 1865, Governor Charles Clarke called an extraordinary ses- sion of the Legislature to meet in Jackson, and the same month was arrested by General Osband, of the United States Army, and was sent to Fort Pulaski and there imprisoned, for the reason only that he had served the Confederacy and happened to be Governor at the close of the war of a State whose interests had been identified with that government. Judge Wharton, in describing his arrest, says:
"The old soldier, when informed of the purpose of the officer, straightened his mangled limbs as best he could and with great diffi- culty mounted his crutches, and with a look of defiance said: 'General .
Mel
252
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Osband, I denounce before high heaven and the civilized world this unparalleled act of tyranny and usurpation. I am the duly and constitutionally elected Governor of the State of Mississippi, and would resist, if in my power, to the last extremity the enforcement of your orders. I only yield obedience, as I have no power to resist.' "
A more glaring piece of tyranny and deviltry could not be thought of at this time than the infamous act of the officer who thus assailed a shattered veteran and legally elected Governor of a State, whose life was so nearly spent and whose beautiful character was con- spicuous in the history of his country. A man worn with age and mangled beyond ability to walk without crutches, thus forced from his high position and carried under a military guard and impris- oned in a felon's cell at Fort Pulaski, beyond the borders of his own State. After the ejection of Governor Clarke the executive office was for the time being occupied by General Osterhaus.
Subsequent to the preformance of this disgraceful act the Presi- dent of the United States, Andrew Johnson, who had been inaugu- rated after the assassination of President Lincoln, appointed William L. Sharkey Provisional Governor. When he thus became the head of the executive department he called what has been termed "the Abortive Reconstruction Convention," August 14, 1865, which de- clared the ordinance of secession "null and void," and recognized the abolition of slavery in Mississippi. It also called a State elec- tion at which General Humphreys was chosen. But the military assumed the role of superior authority, and under it all persons were required to appear at the courthouse and record their oath of alle- giance before they were allowed to pursue their regular avocations or transact any legal business. State sovereignty and individual liberty were wiped out. In Pike County Robert H. Felder had suc- ceeded Louis C. Bickham as sheriff under Governor Clarke's admin- istration. He held over until after the appointment of Governor Sharkey, when he was deposed by order of the military because he could not take the iron-clad oath. His brother, Levi D. Felder, was appointed and Robert filled out the term as his deputy.
253
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Hon. Dunbar Rowland, in the Mississipi Official and Statistical Register of 1904, page 589, has the following to say of the Black and Tan convention in 1868, called during General Humphrey's administration in pursuance of the Congressional plan of recon- struction, which had been adopted when "General Ord, who had just completed revising the electorate of the State," called an election to determine whether there should be a Constitutional Convention. Of course the proposal was carried:
"Both the tragic and comic masks are needed to do justice to that notorious convention. It was a motley group, with a slender conservative membership, but composed chiefly of negroes and "carpet-baggers," both equally ripe for plunder. Ignorance and corruption combined, and there was such another revel as the "Broecken " could never match, This august body met in the Hall of Representatives on January 7, 1868. "Buzzard" Eggleston of Lowndes County, whose name bears witness to a certain unclean rapacity, was elected President. The compensation of members was the first question raised. A committee was appointed to report a schedule dis- posing of that important matter. Its report was most liberal in tone. Long and interesting were the debates, but it was finally decided that the president should receive $20 per diem and the members $10, exclusive of mileage. The official reporter and secretary were given $15 per day each, and a number of other superfluous officers were provided for at the rate of $10 per day. The hour had come and the harvest was ripe for the loyal Republican contingent. Protest against extravagance on the part of the few Democratic members was fruitless. One offered a resolution declaring the convention illegal, and the members not entitled to compensation. There was a long uproar and loud cries for his expulsion. Another suggested that after the expiration of twenty days each member should pay his own expenses. His language was . denounced as "insulting" and he was requested to withdraw. A new spasm of indignation came when the superintendent of the city gas works sent the convention word that he would have to be paid in advance for all the gas used, as he doubted the solvency of the State and the convention. A reso- lution was passed declaring that no night sessions would be held. The con- vention triumphed only to be met by a new annoyance. It was observed that the newspaper reporters did not prefix "Mr." to the names of the negro delegates. The reporters were promptly excluded from the sessions after that."
"The important offices of the State were held by white Democrats. This called for reform. A resolution was offered appointing a committee of seven to memorialize Congress to declare all civil offices vacant and to vest the appointment in the convention, Heroic efforts were made to exploit the treasury under the guise of appropriations for the relief of indigent and suf-
.
254
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
fering freedmen. The scheme failed because General Gillem, Military Com- mander, refused to sanction the appropriation."
"After a session of a month it occurred to several members that they were sitting for the purpose of framing a Constitution. They hastened to repair the oversight. A committee was appointed to prepare a draft and report in three days. Prompt at the time the report was made the franchise pro- visions, depriving a large section of the intelligence of the State of the right to vote, attracted main attention. They were debated long and bitterly, the few conservative members making a last vain stand. Fights were of frequent occurrence and feeling ran high. Finally the obnoxious provisions were adopted. The democratic members indignantly resigned and went home. Provisions were made for submitting the Constitution for ratification, and the convention adjourned on May 18th. It is a matter of history how it was rejected and adopted in 1869 without the franchise qualification. The con- vention had cost the impoverished State about a quarter of a million of dollars."
In June, 1868, General Adelbert Ames was appointed military Governor, who sent a body of soldiers under Colonel Biddle and ejected Governor Humphreys, taking military possession of the executive department himself, under instructions from General McDowell, military commander of the district.
The reader may be curious to know why this was done when the State had been moving along smoothly for some time under Governor Humphreys. The Constitution adopted by the Black and Tan con- vention was rejected in June following its adjournment. This was followed by the immediate appointment of a set of interlopers, more commonly known as "carpetbaggers," from Northern States, as officers to fatten on the spoils of war.
After Ames took forcible possession of the executive office he ap- pointed Peres Bonney, an old citizen of Pike, Clerk of the Probate Court, ousting William M. Conerly, who had been legally elected. Bonney. was a Republican and had been a member of the Black and Tan convention.
Levi D. Felder was ejected and superseded by the appointment of Charles B. Young as sheriff, a stranger to the people and an ex- Union officer, who, it was said, had commanded a negro regiment in the war against the South. Young was a Canadian Irishman, and was sent to Pike County by Ames to act as sherift without bond.
255
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
His coming, under the circumstances, revived and stirred up the ani- mosities of the people. His course in office, favoring negroes over whites and using them in the arrest of white people, intensified their animosity to a high degree. To be placed under the domination of negroes and held there by the powerful hand of the military was revolting, to say the least of it.
A man named Joseph W. Head, charged with the killing of Abra- ham Hiller, of Magnolia, was arrested by Young, assisted by negroes. Head was handcuffed by them and taken to prison. He had friends who sought revenge, as well as his release. After this Young mys- teriously disappeared and was never seen nor heard of afterwards.
Various theories have been offered as to the manner of his taking off. The writer has traced all of them. The body of Charles B. Young never left Pike County. He was overhauled on the road leading from Holmesville to Magnolia and shot to death by men in sympathy with Head and with those he was sent to Pike County to oppress, and his body buried in a hole dug for that purpose in the southwest corner of Hardscrabble plantation, two miles south of Holmesville, and his grave can be located where mentioned.
It was discovered by the Board of Supervisors after Young's disappearance that he was defaulter in about twelve thousand dol- lars in warrants and money, about one thousand dollars in tax money. This was substantiated by inquiries being made by parties living in Can- ton, Miss., as to the value of these warrants on the market. Noth -. ing was ever done toward their collection from the county, as the holders were advised that they had better not undertake it.
On one occasion, while making a speech, Governor Ames was asked by a man in the audience what about his sheriff Young in Pike County? His reply was: "I have information that the bones of Chas. B. Young are now bleaching in the Bogue Chitto Valley." The information obtained by the writer leads him to the conclusion that the usurping Governor was correct. It was a lesson to be duly heeded by him, as well as his successors. He saw the danger which threatened the commonwealth in his hands if he attempted to repeat the appointment of men not living in the county and not identified
256
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
with its people, and it was a proof of the extremity to which men were driven to rid themselves of their oppressors and to counteract the desperate measures of the military authorities to overturn white supremacy and blot out Anglo-Saxon blood in the South.
James L. Alcorn being inaugurated Governor March 10, 1870, he reversed the policy of Ames. Governor Alcorn knew the temper of Mississippians, and his plan was to make appointments from the best who could meet the requirements under the Reconstruction Acts of Congress. He appointed Ansel H. Prewett, of Magnolia, as Young's successor, which gave general satisfaction.
This good man, while in the discharge of his official duties, con- veying the prisoner Head to Vicksburg for safe keeping, until his trial could be had, was assassinated on the cars at Bogue Chitto Station, and his son, Elisha Prewett, and his deputy, W. L. Coney, wounded by Head's friends and rescuers, who held up the train for that purpose and all made their escape. It was said that they were formerly members of the noted Quantrell partisan rangers that operated in Missouri and the Trans-Mississippi.
At this critical period there was a man come to the front who exerted himself and wielded an influence to save Pike County from the scenes of blood that threatened it. Wherever Ames' policy was attempted to be carried out these chaotic conditions were multiplied. Negroes unaccustomed to being petted and given the hand of fel- lowship in equality with the white man, as they now were by the carpetbaggers and camp followers seeking their votes and their admiration, were growing insolent to those who had previously been their masters. This was a fatal step made by the powers at Wash- ington. Had they left the negroes to be controlled by their late masters and gradually become acquainted with their new conditions the troubles would not have been so great. The efforts of their lib- erators to install them in the main offices of the government and to
ecome the law making and law executing power was a thing too preposterous to be considered by the intelligence of the South. It was purely a fool's errand when the Government of the United States undertook such a task.
Toas coli
BENJAMIN LAMPTON Of Tylertown Appointed Sheriff of Pike County by Governor Alcorn to succeed Ansel H. Prewett
258
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
W. H. Roane, a Presbyterian minister who resided in Magnolia, was elected to the Legislature in 1870, while Alcorn was Governor, and clung to the policy of Alcorn in appointing to office none but native or adopted white citizens whose interests were identified with the people.
With this policy carried out there would be less danger of a con- flict between the races, which was daily threatening the entire com- monwealth. Roane succeeded in having Benjamin Lampton ap- pointed to succeed the lamented Prewett, and he appointed Peres Bonney Probate Clerk and Frederick W. Collins Circuit Clerk.
In 1871 an election was held. Wm. M. Conerly, Dem., was elected Probate Clerk and Fred. W. Collins, Rep., was elected Circuit Clerk, both serving until the fall election in 1875, when Conerly succeeded himself and Collins was succeeded by the election of Dr. A. P. Spark- man, who has held the office consecutively ever since.
Benjamin Lampton was succeeded in 1871 by the election of John Q. Travis, Rep., beating Robert H. Felder, Dem.
W. M. Conerly held the office of Probate Clerk until the fall elec- tion of 1879, when he was succeeded by the election of W. C. Vaught.
From the close of Ames' military administration, March, 1870, the expenditures of the State government were as follows:
In 1869, white rule $ 463, 219 71
In 1870, negro rule 1,061,249 90'
In 1871, negro rule 1, 729, 046 34
In 1872, negro rule 1, 596, 828 64
In 1873, negro rule 1, 450, 632 80
In 1874, negro rule 1,319, 281 60
In 1875, negro rule 1, 430, 102 00 In 1876, white rule. 591, 709 00
Here is a proof of the systematic robberies carried on by the powers of darkness and light mixed, and a proof of the utter inca- pacity of those forced upon the people to govern them, and the white people, not the negroes, had to meet these heavy expenditures.
The Reconstruction Act was a measure which disclosed all the venom that could be incorporated into a law, and with it came an army
259
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
of adventurers in search of the spoils which they expected to obtain by the confiscation of property and by ingratiating themselves in the love and affections of the nation's wards. Adelbert Ames was the man to do their bidding, and when it became necessary to make appointments he favored those who were not of the manor born and gave to the newly enfranchised negro the same honors bestowed on the white carpetbaggers. Troops were quartered in different parts of the State to suit the necessities of the case upon the least complaint made by those in authority. A large body were kept at the State capital as a forcible reminder, and it was sometimes the case they were sent to places of public worship to overawe the people when ministers were dragged from the pulpit for declining to offer up prayers for the rulers and daring to protest against the wrongs per- petrated on the people.
As an illustration of the character of stories invented by the carpet- baggers to bring troops to places desired, the writer reproduces an article credited to the Meridian Gazette, printed in the Magnolia Herald:
"TERRIBLE VANDALISM IN JEFFERSON AND CLAIBORNE.
ALCORN UNIVERSITY DESTROYED-HORRIBLE DESTRUCTION OF HU- MAN LIFE!"
"A body of White League Ku Klux from Louisiana, five hundred strong, well mounted and equipped with Winchester rifles and navy sixies, crossed the Mississippi River at Rodney, spreading terror and dismay to the peaceful inhabitants of that village. They moved upon Alcorn University, arriving there about daylight, where they are now bivouacked. Here have been enacted scenes at which humanity and civilization shudder.
"We are carried back to the days of cannibalism. This body of lawless invaders is under the command of Colonel Blood, a notorious desperado who has hitherto operated chiefly in Texas and Arkansas. As soon as they had tethered their horses and spread their tents in the beautiful groves of Oakvale, a detail of thirty men were sent into the chapel of the university, where all the pupils and professors were at prayers. Without a word they shot down the professors and pupils, and carried the little fat ones screaming to the camp. They alleged, amid coarse jokes and brutal laughter, that the old bucks were too tough for broiling purposes. They wanted tender steaks. When they reached the camp, these innocent youths were slaughtered and cut up into steaks and roasts, barbecued and eaten by the vandal host.
dr
1
260
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
"Alas, that I should live to see a State in the American union relapse into cannibalism! I wish I had died before my eyes were blistered with such a sight, my ears pierced with such screams, my soul sickened with such horror! Alcorn University is no more! It has been eaten up by white cannibals.
"Not content with this terrible feast- this orgy of the demons-the same band are now scouring Jefferson and Claiborne Counties with blighting effect. All the tender little negro children are carried to the pot. They live only on human flesh and they are men of enormous appetites. An infant weighing twenty-five pounds will furnish food for one day for only four of these terrible gormandizers, and they all fastidiously refuse to eat tough meat. They shoot the men and drive the women in droves into the river, where, of course they are drowned. The colored population in this fertile but fated region has almost disappeared. This terrible band have killed six thousand men, drowned four thousand eight hundred and sixty women and eaten one thousand six hundred and seventy-five healthy children within the last five days.
"It is believed they have virtually cleaned out the illstarred Counties of Jefferson and Claiborne. Where they will now go, God only knows.
"It is believed in Jackson, in official circles, that the whole purpose of this Louisiana invasion was to intimidate the negro by a little so-called wholesome killing and eating and drowning, in order to enable the Democrats to carry the election. The facts have been presented to Governor Ames, and I understand the Governor will promptly despatch to the Attorney General of the United States and ask for troops. It is to be hoped he will succeed in getting the whole army of the United States in Mississippi, for all good citizens must deprecate such lawless and inhuman outrage as I have described.
"I send you this without signing my name, or indicating the place from which I write. Such is the reign of terror in this unfortunate section that my life would not be worth a button if it was known that I had given you these awful facts.
"P. S .- Since writing the above, I have visited the Southern portion of the State and find the same affairs existing there. In Wilkinson, Amite, Pike and Marion it seems as if the whole Ku Klux population of Northeast Louisiana, commonly known as the Florida parishes, had concentrated in these counties and are holding one grand barbecue of negroes. Such fearful and barbarous destruction of human life practiced there-it would seem past mortal descrip- tion. At Rose Hill, in Amite County, they roasted seventy-five at one time and about two hundred of those Louisiana cannibals feasted on them; and out at a little place called Tylertown, in Pike County, where there are two water- mills, I am told they have been keeping about three hundred large sugar kettles stewing with negro hash, and then can scarcely supply the demand; and they tell me that the citizens in these localities have been thinking, for some time, of making application for troops. The fact is there is not a negro or white radical in this whole section of country that will dare to go to the polls unless the troops come, for Tylertown has always been noted for such remarkable events!"
261
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
The reader will understand that the above is a burlesque, but it is a fair sample of the reports circulated and presented to the au- thorities in order to induce the dispatch of troops to desirable points where there was any chance for the Democrats to carry the election, and there were thouasnds of people who actually believed the cir- cumstances set forth in the above letter to be true, and it was a most excellent incentive to the military authorities to comply with the request. It may be safely said that truth is turned into burlesque by the ingenious framing of the Gazette article.
There was no fiction about the organization of the Ku Klux Klan, and the White League, nor in the determination of the white people of Mississippi and Louisiana to overthrow the regime of scandal that was besmirching the names of these great States. Side by side as sisters they had risen to a high fame and the destiny which awaited one must fall to the other. Their people were united by all the ties that could bind them to each other. It was a law of self-preserva- tion that prompted them to act in harmony.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.