USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 24
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Judge Simrall's speech on character, in which he alluded to Judge Magee, the defendant's father, in Wilkinson County, a Christian gentleman and devoted adherent of the Methodist Church, whose house was always open for the hospitality of its ministers, was one of the finest ever delivered in the Pike courthouse. John T. Lamkin, in the magnitude of his superior genius on testimony and evidence, eloquence and moral influence, stood for three mortal hours before the jury in defense of a client who had acted solely in self-defense. Judge E. McNair was on the bench. A compact mass of humanity filled and surrounded the courthouse.
Judge Cassidy followed "Brother Hartley," as he spoke of him in the beginning of his address to the jury. All of his witticism, invective, anecdotes and ridicule, condensed and doubly distilled, as only Hyram Cassidy could do it, was hurled at "Brother" Hartley." He told the jury how the "Brother" had so often received the hos- pitality of Burris Magee's father, whose beautiful character Judge Simrall had portrayed, said grace at his table and eat the food his beloved and Christian mother had prepared for him, accepted his money and shared in the support he had given his church, and in the plentitude of his gratitude he had come here and volunteered his services in the prosecution of Judge Magee's son for doing only that which was the first law of nature, self-preservation.
Judge Cassidy stated, in closing his address, that out in Franklin County there was a certain cross roads where there was a whisky shop, a blacksmith shop and a race track; to say nothing of other matters that men indulged in where grand jurors were not generally allowed as guests or participants. About a mile west of this place was a farmer who had some noted breed of pigs, not long ushered into existence. About the same distance east of the cross roads was another farmer who wanted a pair of those pigs and had spoken for them. He owned an old negro named Ben. At the cross roads grocery the proprietor owned a gip that had recently presented the establishment with a hamper basket full of puppies. So neighbor Jones sent Ben over to neighbor Smith's with a basket to bring him the pair of pigs he had spoken for.
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Ben stopped at the grocery, and in order to get a few dashes of "de side shuffle," and "de piggin whing," the boys gave Ben a good jigger of red eye, who, of course, was free to tell them what he was going over to Mr. Smith's for.
Ben went over and got a pair of the pigs from neighbor Smith, put them in his basket and tied a sack over them, but was inately persuaded to stop over at the cross roads for another drink, and while he was doing the dancing act to the old familiar tune of "Hog- eye" the boys made the exchange and put a pair of puppies in Ben's basket in place of the pigs.
When Ben got home he was gladly welcomed by his good master Jones.
"Well, Ben, have you got my pigs?"
"Yasser, Master, and dey's fine pigs, too, dat dey is!"
Ben opened the basket.
"Why, Ben, these are puppies. I told you to bring me a pair of neighbor Smith's fine pigs."
Ben's eyes dilated. "Fore God, dey is puppies, fur a fac, but dey wus pigs when I put em in dar."
"Go back and tell Mr. Smith I want pigs, not puppies."
Ben shouldered the basket, but was again inclined to stop at the grocery.
"What's the matter, Ben?" asked the boys.
"Gwine back to Mr. Smith to git dem ar pigs Master sont me fur. When I got home wid em dey wus puppies."
The boys entertained Ben with another jigger and "old Jim Crow," while the puppies were exchanged for the pigs, the basket covered again and Ben sent on to farmer Smith.
"What's the matter, Ben, don't want the pigs?"
"Oh, yasser, Master says he wants de pigs, but dese is puppies."
"Take the cover off, Ben, and let me see," said Smith. "There, you dam fool nigger, don't you see they are pigs?"
Ben was astonished. "Fore God dey is pigs, but dey wus puppies when I got home wid em."
The same trick was repeated at the cross roads, and when Ben
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got home the second time and opened the basket there were the puppies. Farmer Jones got wrathy and told Ben to take them back. Ben was outwitted, but after a moment's philosophizing he raised himself up and said, "Master, fo God, if I wus you I wouldn't hab nutting to do wid dem tings. I fotch em here and deys puppies, I take em back and deys pigs; dey kin be eider pigs or puppies."
And, gentlemen of the jury, said Cassidy, this is the deplorable condition in which we find "Brother" Hartley. He can be either pig or puppy, and has acted both in connection with this trial. A min- ister of God's word, sharing the kindness and hospitality of this defendant's home, the tender ministrations of his devoted Christian mother, and then volunteers to prosecute her son and place the hangman's noose about his neck for doing that which he himself would have done under similar circumstances-to save his own life, take that of his antagonist, if he had a spark of manhood about him.
Magee was justly acquitted, but the previous record and noto- riety of Pike County jurors in cases of the killing of a human being by another made it doubtful. There was a splendid animal standing near the public square waiting the verdict, which nothing in Pike County could overtake, in case its rider felt the necessity of fleeing from a cruel and unjust verdict.
David W. Hurst, who was a regular attendant of the Holmesville courts, was a citizen of Liberty, Amite County, in the zenith of his career as a lawyer. He was a man of great ability, and while a warm personal friend of John T. Lamkin he was usually his opponent in great contests before the courts in Holmesville, and more particu- larly in cases against the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Company. He was a persistent and stubborn fighter and full of sarcastic wit. He was a warm personal friend of Judge John E. McNair, but disliked one of the Chancellors (Berris), before whose court he had considerable practice. On one occasion they had a case up in which the rights of a girl minor were involved, and her advocate asked the Chancellor if she were entitled to a sewing ma- chine. The Chancellor hesitated and stammered sew-sew-ma-
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chine-machine-and asked one of the other lawyers if she did and he could tell. Hurst spoke up and said yes, of course she has, and then he casually remarked that the Chancellor was all right now, as he had something with peddles he could work with his feet, and didn't need any brains.
On one occasion he was examining a negro witness about a fight and asked what the man hit the other one with.
"With his fist," said the witness.
Then what did the man he hit with his fist do?
"Why, he retreated backward," was the answer.
Hurst, in commenting on the testimony of the witness, said he had often heard of retreats, but this was the first time he had ever heard of a retreat being made backwards. .
After the close of the Civil War, Joe Tuff Martin engaged in the mercantile business in Magnolia in partnership with Capt. Jo. Miller.
Joe Tuff got into a scrap with Gen. William Cain. The General was too big a man for him and got him down and Joe fought and bit and scratched all he could and the best he knew how, until some of their friends pulled the big General off of little Joe Tuff. When Joe Tuff got up he said, "Well, by golly, I can say what no other man is able to say, and that is I am the only man who ever fought under General Cain, a distinction, by golly, that belongs only to Joe Tuff."
A negro named Martin Russell, who had served in the Yankee army, settled in Magnolia. He was a man of fairly good education . and knew how to cultivate the friendship of the white people in order to further the interests of Martin Russell. He lived there during the exciting political campaign of 1876, and was used by the Democrats in the organization and leadership of negro Democratic clubs. Martin thought he could see that the future feathering of his nest depended largely on that of a brush pile, and to be set up in business, which he was after the campaign was over, but eventually failed and had to fall back on his book learning for a livelihood and engaged in school teaching for his race. His school grew so large that it became neces- sary for him to have an assistant. He was a good judge of human nature and was urged to go before the Board and plead his case for
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an assistant teacher, and he did so, making a forcible and polite address before that body, which it was decided by hearers would be effective and secure what he asked.
When he came out of the courthouse he was complimented on his sensible and forcible address by some of his white friends, who believed his speech was convincing and that he would get what he asked.
"I don't know, gentlemen," said he, "this Board aint got on any drawers," and he failed, as he expected.
Prior to 1861 Holmesville was a great place for horse racing. On one occasion a man came riding down Main Street from Louisiana leading a little long-haired, flop-eared Creole pony. The California House, which was then in its prime, had its complement of loafers and customers. Passing this place some one asked the stranger what he was going to do with that long-haired goat.
"Never mind about the goat, it can win all the money any of you may have to risk on a race."
The stranger put up his horses at Wm. Johnson's livery stable and stopped at his hotel, and then sauntered leisurely out on the streets and about the California House and got up some talk on horse racing. He boldly remarked, while in a drinking mood, that he would put up his "goat" pony against anything in the town on a quarter dash, wheel and go, without bridle or rider, and the boys took him up. Saturday was the day fixed for the race.
Eugene Weathersby had recently bought a large, long, active Tennessee horse from a drove, and the Holmesville sports decided to put this horse against the pony on the day of the race. The news got out in the country and the town was crowded. There was an old field below town and a level stretch from Owen Conerly's mill on the river below, and this was the place selected to make the run.
At the appointed hour Weathersby's horse was trotted out with one of the best jockey riders on his back. A little boy came after- wards leading the sleepy looking pony with a halter on and a red girth around its body.
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Two to one on the horse, and bets went flying through the crowd that came in from the country. Hundreds of dollars were put up and the Louisiana stranger took every bet he could get offered against his pony.
After all the preliminaries were arranged the animals were taken down to the mill to make the start, the stranger leading his pony. They were placed in position with their heads in the opposite direc- tion from which they were to run. At this moment the pony opened her eyes and cut them back in the opposite direction. Her master patted her on the neck and spoke a few words of kindness to her and she nerved herself for the contest. Weathersby's horse had won considerable money in other races and his backers felt sure of an easy victory. The owner of the pony unhooked the halter rein and at the word "Go" the pony reared and whirled on her hind, feet and shot off like an arrow and was a hundred yards away before Weath- ersby's horse got fairly started, and as she ran out at the judges, stand, 300 feet in the lead, she kicked up her heels and, circling the grounds with wild prairie style, came trotting back to the stand.
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CHAPTER VII.
NEWSPAPERS.
In 1840 Henry Smith Bonney first entered a newspaper estab- lishment as apprentice in the office of A. W. Forsyth at Liberty, in Amite County. He was a son of Nancy Floyd and Perez Bonney, who were married at Soco, Maine, May 16, 1819, and immigrated to Holmesville in 1831.
NELSON P. BONNEY Summit Sentinel
Their children were William, Hen- ry Smith, Samuel, Joel and Harriet, who married Major Gibson, and twin daughters, Mary Louise and Martha Elizabeth, dying young.
Perez Bonney was born in the Province of New Brunswick Novem- ber 26, 1797.
Henry Smith Bonney married Miss Evelyn French Adonis, daughter of J. Q. Adonis and Pella Experience Davy, of Massachusetts. She was a sister of Lucy Whitmore Adonis, the wife of Curlette and then Henry Francis, the carriage maker at Holmesville, and subsequently the wife of Joseph Page.
After serving his apprenticeship for two years at Liberty, Henry S. Bonney, in 1842, established a newspaper business for himself at Holmesville, calling it the Holmes- ville Whig, then the Quarto Whig, and later the Planters' Free Press. In 1847 he went to New Orleans and worked on the New Orleans Bce and the Commercial Bulletin.
In the meantime Barney Lewis and Robert Ligon established the Southron at Holmesville.
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In 1851 Henry S. Bonney, after his marriage, returned to Holmes- ville and for the next two years was employed on the Southron, when he bought the material of the office and established the Holmesville Independent, which he continued up to 1862, when he joined the Holmesville Guards, organized by John T. Lamkin, who became Captain of the Company and was attached to the 33d Mississippi Regiment under Col. David W. Hurst, C. S. A. In 1869 he moved to Osyka and started the Reporter.
After the railroad entered the county and depots were located, John Waddill established the Grand Trunk Magnolian at Magnolia. This was succeeded by the establishment of the Magnolia Gazette by J. D. Burke.
After the close of the Civil War Fleet T. Cooper established the Summit Times, which subsequently fell into the hands of Capt. John A. Crooker and changed from a Democratic to a Republican paper. Crooker sold it to William H. Garland, Jr., who conducted it in the interest of the Republican party in 1875.
In 1870 Henry S. Bonney discontinued the Osyka Reporter and moved to Magnolia and began the publication of the Eureka Cen- tralian. This enterprise, like its predecessor, was short lived and he moved everything to Summit, which was aiming to become the lead- ing town in the county, and here he established the Summit Sentinel, which still lives as the grandchild in the fifth degree of the Holmes- ville Whig.
Henry S. Bonney was the pioneer editor and newspaper man of Pike County. He possessed persistent and staying qualities and was an acknowledged able and fluent writer, and down to the present time, for sixty-three years, his name and the influence of his papers, through his own long term of services, and that of his son, Nelson P. Bonney, has been associated with Pike County, the latter with the Sentinel for thirty-four years, but in fact with his father's business from childhood on the Holmesville Independent.
Henry Smith Bonney and Evellyn French Adonis were the par- ents of the following children: Nelson P. Bonney, editor Summit Sentinel; Mrs. E. E. Lavison, Washington, D. C .; Mrs. W. T. Head,
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Terry, Miss .; Miss Flora A. Bonney, Summit; C. D. Bonney, New Orleans, La .; R. M. Bonney, Terry, Miss.
Nelson P. Bonney's wife, whom he married in 1881, Was Miss Alexis A. Fournieque, of New Orleans, La.
In 1875 Luke W. Conerly, who was editing the Amite County Democrat, in Amite City, Tangipahoe Parish, La., was urged, by his old comrades and friends in Pike County, to establish a partisan cam- paign paper at Magnolia to aid in the defeat and overthrow of the Republican regime that had held sway since the close of the Civil War.' He had for the previous eight years been connected with the stirring events of Louisiana in the struggle of her people during the reconstruction era and was at this time an adherent of the John McHenry State government, and was at the time commander of a company of young men at Amite City training for service in support of the White League. Louisiana was making the great struggle of her life and so was Mississippi to re-establish the supremacy of white rule now under the dominating power of Republican carpet- bag-negro rule, supported by the military of the United States Gov- ernment over the Southern States.
Yielding to the solicitations of his friends, he bought an old ex- . tinct newspaper outfit at Ponchatoula, La., and shipped it to Mag- nolia. He was given a room in the store of Cornelius C. Gibson, and with the assistance of James Ballance, an experienced printer, on the 17th of September, 1875, he issued the first number of the Magnolia Herald, and continued as its proprietor and editor until 1878, when he sold it to Henry C. Capell and Charlie Lee. J. D. Burke afterwards got possession of the office material and revived the old Gazette.
In 1875 the McComb City Intelligencer, devoted to immigration and industrial pursuits, was established with W. H. Townsend as editor.
After the overthrow of the Republican regime in the county the Summit Times was consolidated with the Sentinel under the name Times-Sentinel and subsequently changed back to the Summit Sentinel.
Richard B. May, a little lad, picked up a card press in 1874 and
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procured some cards and paper and printer's ink, with a few words of encouragement from this writer, and began his newspaper career. He afterward drifted to New Orleans and learned book binding, and later on established the McComb City Enterprise.
After J. D. Burke's last venture with the Magnolia Gazette it was owned and edited by John S. Lamkin. It then became the property of D. M. Huff and from him it passed to H. H. Norwood.
CHAPTER VIII.
In Louisiana, a detachment of Federal soldiers, under one Colonel De Trobiand, marched into the legislative halls of that State, while in session, and forcibly ejected Louis A. Wiltz and Robert L. Luckett therefrom, at the point of the bayonet, without a substance of reason except that they were Democrats and dared to expose the infamy of those in control of the State government; and, in 1875, the further out- rage of driving Governor John McEnery out of the executive office, to which he had been duly and legally elected by a majority of over 14,000 votes, and installing William Pitt Kellogg, an imported politician, were so criminal in their nature as to arouse the white people of Louis- iana to a state of revolution. These circumstances, being a repeti- tion of the scenes perpetrated in Mississippi, instigated by the most infamous designs on the liberties of the people, and the threatened destruction of their racial character, were the means of bringing to the front the perfect manhood and intellect of the two States.
Away from the scene of action one could not realize the efforts of those whose homes were involved and their masterful self-control. They had resisted every attempt to Africanize their States, and while doing so, carefully avoided coming again in conflict with United States troops, which was the only hope of the negro-carpetbag element. They could create a revolution in their own States and struggle on · until the future should develop something to give relief. Nothing
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but the full power of the United States army among them could stay their determination to drive our their oppressors. Politically the negroes were a unit.
The White League and the Bulldoozer organizations were formed in both States, the latter being more on the order of the Ku Klux Klan. This organization had its origin in the early seventies, and was com- posed of the agricultural element of the country, whose property had been so repeatedly depredated on by thieves. They were unable to get redress through the courts in numerous instances, and, as a means of self-protection, they banded together and hunted down the crim- inals and punished them in their own way, which, in most cases, was done by a vigorous application of the bull whip; and "bull-whipped" got to be a common phrase and a common remedy to punish depre- dators on the live stock and fowls of the farmers.
In the roll of the Summit Rifles, recorded in this book, will be found the name of Louis Wagoner, who served through the war in Virginia as a Confederate soldier. He was a blacksmith and was liv- ing in the town of Clinton, in East Filiciana Parish, La., at the in- ception and beginning of the organization of Bull Whippers. Becom- ing irritated with some one on an occasion when he was in his liquor, he remarked: "Tam him, I'll bull dosch him." The word then grew to bulldose, then bulldoozer, and lastly bulldozer. This organization was a strong one and existed in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana and in the southern counties of Mississippi. It was made up principally of farmers, or those engaged in agricultural pursuits, and originated purely and simply for mutual self-protection of each other from the depredations of thieves and criminals. It has been wrongfully charged against the merchants of the Florida Parishes of Louisiana and of the Southern counties of Mississippi that they were responsible for this on account of their oppressions of the farmers and greed for gold, by driving them into such an organization. This proposition is simply one of theory set up by those who are practically unacquaint- ed with the facts. It was natural for every merchant in Pike County and elsewhere to try to benefit his financial condition, and, being men of business experience, they knew their own welfare depended on the
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welfare of the intelligent farmers of the country. While there may have been a few cases of unjust and oppressive dealings which invited retaliation from the Bulldozer organization, or members of it, the fair minded, impartial reader will scarcely entertain the proposition that the merchants, on account of their worship of the god-gold, can be held responsible for this organization. In its very inception this writer became familiar with all the causes and fretful conditions which led to the necessity of a unity of action among neighborhoods to protect themselves from criminals. He got right in among these people at the time in East Filiciana, St. Helena, Tangipahoe and Washington Parishes and elsewhere, consulted with them and learned from their own lips the causes which made them feel the necessity of an organization which would give security to their property and their families. Arm chair philosophers, ministers of the gospel and news- paper theoretical writers, have been misled themselves and have indulged in false theories and given current circulation to false pub- lications against the Bulldozer organization of South Mississippi and the Florida Parishes of Louisiana. A theory based on false premises is more sinful and has a more deplorable effect than the acts reputed to the Bulldozers. The writer is not summarizing on hearsay nor theory. There is a difference in obtaining facts by mixing with the operators, and basing conclusions upon reports received from afar off. In these days the country was flooded with criminals of all classes- whites as well as negroes. Horse-stealing, cattle and hog-stealing, and sheep-stealing pervaded the land
Negro camp meetings became a chronic disease; their zeal and enthusiasm in religion was encouraged by ministers of the gospel for their good. Their camp meetings extended through weeks at a time, becoming an unbearable nuisance, at which time the chickens, hogs and cattle of the white farmers who needed their labor were conspic- uously thinned out. It was freedom, and these imitating worshippers assembling in large bodies for weeks at a time, must be fed, and they had little of their own to subsist upon; and while the mass of them were supposed to be conforming to the well-wishers of the various de- nominations, squads were scouring the surrounding country at night,
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doing the commissary act on chicken roosts and corn cribs, cattle herds, sheep ranches and pig sties. In one immense gulley in East Filiciana was found the heads of one hundred and fifty cattle, thrown in there by these negro camp meeting love feasters, stolen from the planters and farmers in the vicinity. The Writer afterwards worked one of the leaders of this gamg on a sugar plantation in Louisiana.
The frequent mysterious disappearance of stock and products of the farm during these religious revelries made it necessary for the farmers to get together and make investigation and devise ways an 1 means to check, if not entirely break up, these depredations. They were traced to the correct source and the farmers saw it was necessary to have some unity of action, and hence, formed into squads, and, as these criminals could not be reached with any certainty of punish - ment by the courts, they resorted to the whipping post, and to secure themselves against legal process for taking the law in their own hand ;, it became obligatory upon all the neighbors to become members ( f the law and order society. Hence the Bullwhippers-hence the Bull- dozers. This organization continued to grow, but its inception an 1 formation had no relation to the merchants at the time, nor to any political motive. It afterwards drifted in that direction and became identified with the White League. The White League organization was formed in every parish in Louisiana, its purpose being to over- throw the carpetbag and negro rule of the State.
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