USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 25
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In the State of Mississippi, in the fall of 1875, there was to be an election to fill the offices of State Treasurer, members of Congress, District Attorneys, State Senators, Representatives, Sheriffs, Chancery and Circuit Clerks, and on down, for all the county and precinct offices, and it was determined that no means should be spared to bring about a sweeping victory for the party supported by the native white people.
A long time had elapsed since the close of the Civil War and the carpetbag-negro government was held over them only by the power of military authority. At the close of the war they were powerless, but in the course of time, through agricultural means, they had be- come strong and self-reliant and were prepared to undertake a more radical course, and when the campaign of 1875 came on they were
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prepared to furnish proof of the power of intelligence over ignorance, vice and stupidity.
The removal of the court house from the town of Holmesville was a question which had agitated the entire population of Pike Coun- ty, and one which created a strong enmity between two of the rail- road towns. The main issue on this question was its central locality. The question was sprung as to the center of population, the railroad people holding that the western portion of the county, being more thickly populated, should have the court house, and the eastern people declaring that it should remain in its present geographical center, declared by law to be the permanent seat of justice.
Summit, which had acquired a larger population than any other town, was anxious to have the court house moved to that place. McComb was in its infancy, and, being made up largely of an immi- grant population, was not in a position to make contention. Mag- nolia wanted it and Osyka, being in the extreme southern part of the county, favored Magnolia. The election decided in favor of Magnolia. The Board of Supervisors rented an old frame building in the lower part of town, near the railroad avenue, and had the records moved from the old clerk's office at Holmesville, and then the quarrel began over the insecurity of the records. The Board of Supervisors proceeded to advertise for the building of a new court house and for the issuance of bonds for the payment of the same. The town of Summit contended that the county was unable to build a new court house and an injunction suit was instituted, which was carried to the Supreme Court, but the removal of the court house and the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors were sustained. During this time the fever of animosity between the two towns had risen several degrees above the normal and the two were so stirred up as to make it absolutely unpleasant for a person living in one town to visit the other. The women even caught the infection and would toss their heads and shake their skirts in derision at each other, which was very hurtful to those of a tender and sympathetic nature. So- ciety functions, in which our Southern women of aristocratic mould took delight, were greatly interfered with by this unhappy state of
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affairs, as a woman of one of the towns might refuse to take part or participate in, if a woman of the other had anything to do with it.
This was a local condition existing at the beginning of the cam- paign of 1875, and when the Executive Committee of the Democratic party began its preparations for the November election the county was in a turmoil over the court house question.
A recent edict of the Republican party indicated that a system of intimidation, as in the past, would be inaugurated, and then the Democrats, Bulldozers and White League determined to overthrow the negro-carpetbag government at all hazards, "peacefully if possi- ble, forcibly if they must," and a regularly organized system of work was determined on.
One important thing was necessary to be done to insure success and to prevent the bloody scenes which were sure to follow, which was the immediate disbandment of Ames' negro militia, then under arms to intimidate them.
On the 13th day of October, 1875, in the town of Osyka, a meeting was held and addressed by David W. Hurst and Isaac Applewhite.
A set of resolutions were adopted and a club formed as an initial move to aid in the coming election. The club was composed of all the best men in the town and was the first to enter the campaign. Isaac W. Cutrer was elected its President and Joe Mallett its Secretary.
On this same day it so happened, by pre-arrangement, that a conference was held by a committee of citizens of different section's of the State, and Governor Ames, in the city of Jackson, when it was agreed that all the militia should be disbanded at once. This was a measure preconceived by the White League and which alone would prevent a bloody revolution throughout the entire commonwealth.
When the people of Pike County put out their ticket it was not certain how the election would terminate. It was so uncertain that a well organized party was necessary.
John S. Lamkin, who was Chairman of the County Executive Committee, issued a call for a meeting of the committee on the 15th of October, two days after the organization of the club at Osyka and the conference meeting at Jackson. The success of the party in Pike
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was so uncertain it was thought best to make an effort to employ or secure the services of a newspaper to be located at the seat of justice, if possible, to aid in the campaign.
In the town of Summit The Sentinel, edited and published by the able veteran pioneer newspaper man of Pike, stood alone. The Sum- mit Times, established in 1866 by Fleet T. Cooper, had fallen into the hands of Capt. John A. Crooker, who converted it into a Republican paper. He sold it to William H. Garland, Jr. Garland had been associated with the Democratic party, but took up the Times in the interest of the Republican party and became a candidate for the State Senate. He was a son of William H. Garland, Sr., one of the original founders of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Company, now the Illinois Central Railroad Company, a leading man in this great enterprise and the first man to build a handsome resi- dence in the town of Summit.
DR. ACHILLES P. SPARKMAN Quitman Guards Wounded and disabled at the Battle of Cross Keys, Va., June 8th, 1862
When young Garland began to make speeches and write strong editorials it was seen that something besides mere organization was necessary. John Quin- cy Travis was a candidate for Sheriff on the Republican ticket against R. H. Felder, Democrat; and Frederick W. Collins, Republican, was a candidate for re-election as Circuit Clerk against Dr. A. P. Sparkman, Democrat.
Dr. Sparkman married Mary E. Vaught, daughter of Maj. W.W.Vaught, one of the charming girls who partici- pated in the banner presentation in 1860. Dr. Sparkman was elected Cir- cuit Court Clerk of Pike County in 1875, and has held that position consecu- tively since then, covering a period of thirty-four years.
. Travis was an ex-Lieutenant of the Quitman Guards and had lost a hand at the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., May 2, 1863.
Sparkman had been a member of the same company and was dan- gerously wounded in the battle of Cross Keys in the Valley Campaign, under Ewell and Stonewall Jackson, in 1862. These facts were not lost sight of by the ex-Confederates of Pike County.
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A delegation of citizens invited the writer, editor of the Amite City, (La.) Democrat, to Magnolia for a conference, the result of which was to establish a paper at once at Magnolia, which was done, and the Her- ald began on the 17th of September, 1875, with the writer proprietor and editor, and when the campaign was opened, its services were given to the candidates nominated by the Democracy.
Frederick W. Collins, the candidate on the Republican ticket, had been holding the office of Circuit Clerk since his appointment by Governor Alcorn and his election in 1873 and gave entire satis- faction to the people, and he was a hard candidate to beat. His magnetism and personal popularity was such that the party he be- longed to even during this period of political animosity, was lost sight of by those with whom he had grown up, but in this election he was pitted against an ex-Confederate soldier-a member of the Quitman Guards-who had become disabled by a serious wound received in the battle of Cross Keys, Va.
R. H. Felder, the candidate for Sheriff on the Democratic ticket, had filled the office by election as the successor of Louis C. Bickham, had been put out by the military, had served as deputy for many years and was a popular man, but he was pitted against a handless veteran. Upon the above four men hinged the election in Pike County.
Upon general principles the issue was white supremacy
During this campaign, according to a correspondent of the New Orleans Picayune, the town of Columbus was fired in fourteen differ- ent places in one day by radical negroes. The fire was quickly extin- guished and the citizens armed and placed the city under martial law. Four negroes were caught in the act of setting fire to the houses and they were immediately shot, and the New Orleans Delta stated that on the 4th of October a consignment of forty boxes of cartridges came in over the New Orleans and Mobile Railroad to William Pitt Kellogg, the usurper, of Louisiana.
These and other circumstances intensified the fever of excitement and a clash between the races was avoided only by the great self- control and counsel of the white leaders.
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The campaign was short, but decisive, in its results for white supremacy. The Democratic party carried the State by forty thou- sand majority.
In Pike County the result was as follows:
State Senator-R. H. Thompson, Dem., over W. H. Garland, Jr., Rep. Representative-James M. Causey, Dem., over C. W. Beam, Rep.
Sheriff-J. Q. Travis, Rep., over R. H. Felder, Dem.
Chancery Clerk-William M. Conerly, Dem., over Gideon Montford, Rep. Circuit Clerk-A. P. Sparkman, Dem., over F. W. Collins, Rep.
Treasurer-Henry S. Brumfield, Dem., over C. S. Simmons, Rep.
Assessor-Samuel R. Lamkin, Dem., over P. F. Williams, Rep.
Surveyor-S. M. Simmons, Dem., over Peres Bonney, Rep.
Coroner and Ranger-E. P. Stratton, Ind., over H. S. Bonney, Dem. (com- plimentary vote).
Supervisors-First District, John G. Leggett, Dem .; Second District, Wal- ter M. Lampton, Dem .; Third District, E. C. Andrews, Dem .; Fourth District, R. L. Lenoir, Dem .; Fifth District, William L. Coney, Rep.
Justices of the Peace-First District, J. M. Varnado, Dem., John A. Walker, Dem .; Second District, J. H. Crawford, Dem., A. F. Lampton, Dem .; Third District, E. L. Reeves, Dem., F. M. Walker, Dem .; Fourth District, S. A. Mat- thews, Dem., W. S. Mount, Dem .; Fifth District, W. C. Harrell, Dem., E. P. Stratton, Dem.
Constables-First District, L. T. Varnado, Dem., Andrew Jackson, Dem .; Second District, Harris Bullock, Dem., William Graves, Dem .; Third District, L. W. Sartin, Dem., Henry Jones, Dem .; Fourth District, H. H. Kuykendall, Dem., G. T. Smith, Dem .; Fifth District, Ed. Ricks, Joe Norris.
The Independent, a Republican paper published at Amite City by R. W. Reed, commenting on this election, said:
"The Magnolia Herald has had its effect. That town has gone Republican."
To which the Herald replied:
"Yes, 'The Herald has had its effect.' Pike County has gone Democratic by 225 average majority, and the force of The Herald has been acknowledged. The town of Magnolia went Democratic. The Republican vote polled here did not live in Magnolia. Most of them were like the great mass of the Repub- lican party : They were interlopers."
" 'Roll on, Thou Deep Blue Sea'!"
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" 'As little as you may think of it,' says The Magnolia Herald, 'somebody is going to get beat next Tuesday.' And The Herald knows who it is just as well as it knows its own party."-Amite (La.) Independent.
Again:
"The Magnolia Herald and other Democratic organs of Mississippi think they have everything fixed to their own liking, and talk gushingly of the 'roll of the deep blue ocean.' The sea is too far distant to be of any service to drown the sorrow of their approaching defeat, but a mighty wave of another color will roll inward and produce some Democratic lashing and heaving that will put the salt water to shame."
To which the Herald replied:
"Your rotten radical concern has been shattered. The echoing thunders of a Democratic victory are heard all over the land and are caught up by the echoing voices of the deep! 'Roll on, thou deep blue ocean, roll!"
And the white-capped waves rolled on.
FROM NEW ORLEANS.
Editor Magnolia Herald:
SIR: Yours of the 24th received. No "loud crowing cocks" in stock. The demand has exceeded the supply. Yours truly,
E. C. PALMER & Co.
"Mississippi is redeemed. Truth and honesty and intelligence have pre- vailed over falsehood, ignorance, fraud and oppression. The hand lifted to crush Mississippi has been paralyzed."
said the Herald.
"The immaculate Stephen A. Douglas, colored, who tried so hard to stick his finger in Pike County politics, did a little fingering over in Amite this time, and the last we heard of him, he was in Summit tracking it after Parker and his layout. He said he 'woods'd it' all the way from Liberty, and that if he dab- bles in politics again he wants somebody to kill him. He had better go back to Massa Tom Green Davidson, of Louisiana,"
said the Herald.
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The largest vote polled in Pike County was between James M. Causey, who received 1,414, against C. W. Beam, who received 1, 188.
An important question to be considered by the farmers and plant- ers of the county was a system of labor that could be relied upon, and a more perfect confidence among the negroes themselves in the duties to which their new conditions had brought them.
The last days of slavery were fraught with many troubles and the negroes were in a fearful condition of unrest, if such may be said, and when the events of the past were brought back to them, they again thought of the dangers of re-enslavement.
The carpetbagger was the barrier which prevented the prosperity that should follow the productions of the Southern States, under a peaceful management of the negro labor. His eternal intermeddling . in the plans of the planters, by exciting them and diverting their minds, was an ever fruitful means of destroying the good that might have been done in the quiet control of the negroes under their former masters.
When the carpetbaggers were compelled to retire, the burden of responsibility to secure an equal protection to the negroes was given to the whites and they proved the certain fact that they were the better friends in all that pertained to their welfare.
In the year 1871, when the great school, which became a part of the State's charge, was put in a fair way to educate the children of the negroes, the voice of reason was heard and they began to see the light which previously had only shown to them in the temples of the strangers who had come to fatten on their ignorance.
Among all the great commonwealths of the South there are none which have given to the negroes a more liberal opportunity than the State of Mississippi.
In the fall of 1875, when the visions of departing freedom came to them, they trembled and felt the force of the white man's power, and when it was shown to them that their fears were groundless, a perfect confidence should thus have been a part of the outcome, but instead of this, it was broken into by the ever-prevailing incubus of political excitement. A better understanding had come to the surface and
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the negroes had understood, but not heeded. If such forces as those used in the past to convince were not necessary, it was considered to be so by the White League.
In a few months after the election, the executive committee gave notice that there would be a national election held in the coming fall and it was desired to keep up all organization and to arrange a plan to insure the success of the white man's party in the State. When we look back and see the condition of things, and see the success of the White League over the rule of carpetbaggers, held in power by the military, it shows the fallacy of not trying to make their past success a fixture; and when it is shown that the future welfare of both races must depend on the superior race now in power, it will be understood why the methods used were resorted to.
"Forget and forgive-this world would be lonely, The garden a paradise left to deform, If the flowers but remembered the chilling winds only And the trees gave no verdure for fear of the storm."
Thus spake 1876 to 1875 as she assumed control over our ever changing destinies.
On the roth day of January, 1876, the town of Magnolia, now the permanent seat of justice, held an election to fill the offices of mayor and councilmen.
At this election Frederick W. Collins, Republican, who had been defeated for the office of Circuit Clerk, was elected Mayor, and the following persons, all Democrats, were elected Councilmen: William M. Conerly, Cornelius C. Gibson, William M. Wroten, and Jonas Hiller; and Henry S. Copes, Secretary, Treasurer and Tax Collector.
Beginning with the new year, Hugh Q, Bridges' name was placed at the head of the Summit Sentinel as associate editor.
The new board of supervisors, composed of John G. Leggett, Presi- dent; Walter M. Lampton, Elisha C. Andrews, Robert L. Lenoir, Wm. L. Coney, John Quincy Travis, Sheriff, and Willlam M. Conerly, Clerk, was organized on Monday, January 3, 1876.
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Wm. Brown & Co.'s bond, contractors for the building of the new court house, was approved and filed.
Judge T. E. Tate, Republican, was confirmed as school superin- tendent by the State Senate.
Charles L. Patton became the owner of the Summit Times and the only newspaper ever published in Pike County in support of the Republican party, and negro government under military domination was expurgated, re-baptized in the folds of white supremacy.
Through the machinations of W. D. Redmond, Dr. Barrett, ex-Sheriff Parker, of Amite County, and a few of their sympathizers about Summit, a company of United States cavalry was stationed at McComb City, with orders, it was said, to protect Redmond and aid him in the discharge of his duties as United States Deputy Revenue Collector.
When the result of the election in Amite County was made known, Parker, Barrett and Redmond fled the county, under a pretended fear of assassination.
It was said that Parker and Barrett were particularly obnoxious to the people of Amite County, but it was denied that there was any animosity entertained toward Redmond, who was connected with a very prominent family of Amite by marriage.
After the election they had been dodging about between New Orleans and Jackson, under the pretense that their lives were in dan- ger. Christmas week, a few planters went to Summit to sell their cotton and buy their supplies. They camped a mile or so from town and during the night were fired upon by a party of negroes and white men, and several of their number wounded. The following day a party of men from Amite County, hearing of the shooting of their friends, went to Summit to make an investigation of the affair and, if possible, learn who were the perpetrators of the deed. During the day more or less excitement prevailed. Some unguarded men became intoxicated and a small row occurred which was promptly quelled. After this another melee was raised at the market house, near the depot, which was quelled by General Cain, Chief of Police, and a few
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citizens. It was said that Redmond was present as a spectator and was not disturbed nor threatened. When the row ceased, the next day, Redmond stepped into the telegraph office and sent a message to Collector Shaunnessey, at Jackson, that he was being driven from county to county by an armed body of men, fifty or sixty in number, and that he could not perform the duties of his office without troops. Shaunnessey telegraphed to Washington, and upon his statement President Grant ordered the troops to be sent.
The citizens of Summit got up a statement of the facts in the case, signed by nearly all the white people of the town, including some leading Republicans, and corroborated by a certificate from Sheriff Travis and Chancery Clerk W. M. Conerly, falsifying Redmond's report of the necessity for troops, but this had no effect, and the troops were sent to McComb City and quartered there among its people.
A committee appointed by the State Legislature, composed of J. E. Leigh, Chairman E. A. Rowan, A. C. McNair and James W. Shat- tuck, reported that the only relieving excuse or feature provided to justify Redmond's charge that he was pursued from Amite County was that, in .a drunken row at Summit, personal threats were made by one or more drunken men, who were not armed, against Redmond, which caused him to leave town, and that the charges alleged in his message to Shaunnessey were false and the demand for troops unwarranted by the facts.
This was regarded as the first step toward an effort in the future to reëstablish the carpetbag government in power. It was a repeti- tion of what had been done in the past and the White League so regarded it, and a more perfect organization of the white people in Pike County was determined on.
In the month of February, 1876, T. W. Cordoza, the negro Super- intendent of Education, was impeached and allowed to resign Feb- ruary 22.
In the month of March, A. K. Davis, the negro Lieutenant-Gover- nor, was convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors and removed from office by the State Senate, sitting as a court of impeachment.
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Charges for impeachment against Governor Ames were preferred and his trial begun. He was allowed to resign March 29th, 1876, and John M. Stone, President of the State Senate, became Governor.
On April 4th, 1876, Rev. William H. Roane died in the town of Magnolia. . He was born November, 1826, near Huntsville, Ala .; was educated at Oglethorpe College, Georgia, and a member of the Presbyterian Church, North, and graduated in the Theological Sem- inary of South Carolina, preached the gospel upwards of twenty years and was a practitioner at the bar in Pike County. He was a mem- ber of the State Legislature and did all in his power for the well-being of the people. He was a classical scholar and a Mason, and deserves to be remembered as one who did much to ward off the perils of a race conflict and other bloody scenes threatened during the troublesome times previously mentioned.
After the impeachment of the negro Superintendent of Education, Cordoza, the negro Lieutenant-Governor, James K. Davis, the resig- nation of Governor Ames, and the instalment of a complete white man's government in Mississippi, the New Orleans, La., Democrat, edited by H. J. Hearsey, had this to say:
"Radicalism has literally gone to pieces in Mississippi. The Mississippians made a heroic fight and won their State. When their Legislature assembled and talked about impeachment, Morton endeavored to intimidate them by his threats, while fierce dispatches announcing that armies of troops were to be. quartered in the State, were sent from Washington, in the New York Herald, and other journals of the same class, raised the stereotyped howl that the South- ern whites were bent on revolution; that so soon as they got in power they began to make war, and other stuff. But the Mississippians didn't bully worth a cent. They told the New York Herald and the people of other States to attend to their own business, and, thinking it time enough to get scared when the troops came down on them with fixed bayonets, they went right ahead, drew up the charges against the rascals who had the State government, got full proof of them and impeached Davis and Ames. This did the business in Mississippi. So soon as it was evident that the Mississippians were in earnest and could only be prevented from doing their duty by being cleaned out vi-et- armis, the bullyism stopped, and radicalism went utterly to pieces. We wish Louisiana could charter the Mississippi Legislature for about a week or ten days." 20
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On April 26th, 1876, the survivors of the Sixteenth Mississippi Regiment had a reunion at Summit. In view of that coming event, Capt. Thomas A. Garner, Capt. Alph A. Boyd, and Ed. H. Mogan, addressed a letter to Gen. W. S. Featherston, inviting him to come to Summit to deliver an address. The Sixteenth had been under General Featherston in Virginia prior to his transfer to the Army of Tennessee. It is considered proper to incorporate General Feather- ston's letter in this book, as the Summit Rifles and the Quitman Guards were members of this regiment and served under him while he commanded the brigade in Virginia, being succeeded by Gen. Carnot Posey:
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