USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 3
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John Black.
March 20
Ranger.
John Wilson
March 20.
Justice of Peace.
Laban Bacot
August 25 .
Sheriff.
Josiah B. Harris
August 25 . ...
Coroner.
James Roberts
September 17. Justice of Peace.
Richard Quin
September 17. Justice of Peace.
Leroy Tatum
September 17. Justice of Peace.
Daniel Quin
September 17. Justice of Peace.
James Hope
September 17. Justice of Peace.
1824.
Laban Bacot ..
January 20. . Assessor and Collector.
William W. Pearson
March 16. County Surveyor.
Henry Richardson March 16
Justice of Peace.
David Bullock
March 16 Justice of Peace.
Robert Love. June 8. Judge of Probate.
Nathaniel Wells
June 8. Associate Justice.
Peter Quin, Jr.
June 23 .
Justice of Peace.
Jacob Coon .
June 23 . Justice of Peace.
Michael Prescott.
June 23
Justice of Peace.
1825.
Robert Love January 15. . . Judge of Probate.
William Wilson
January 15. . . Associate Justice.
Peter Quin January 15 . . . Ranger.
Laban Bacot
February 5 ... Assessor and Collector.
Richard Davidson March 28.
Justice of Peace.
Matthew McEwen
March 28. . Justice of Peace.
Thomas Rule
July 8 Justice of Peace.
Jacob Owens September 29. Justice of Peace.
James Y. McNabb December 26 . Justice of Peace.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
1826.
Names.
Dates.
Commissioned.
Laban Bacot
January 3 ?... Assessor and Collector.
Daniel Sistrunk
April 12 . . .... Justice of Peace.
Davis Barren
January 21. .. Justice of Peace.
John Felder
September 27. Justice of Peace.
1827.
Laban Bacot
February 4 ... Assessor and Collector.
William Dickson
February 8. .. Associate Justice.
Leroy H. Tatum
January Io. .
Justice of Peace.
Stephen Ellis.
January 10. . Justice of Peace.
Daniel Bullock.
April 9 .
Justice of Peace.
James Chamberlain
April 9.
Justice of Peace.
James Roberts
April 9
Justice of Peace.
Thomas Reaves
April 9
Justice of Peace.
William G. Martin
April 9
Justice of Peace.
Peter Quin
April 9
Justice of Peace.
Jacob Coon .
April 9
Justice of Peace.
Jonathan Carter
April 9
Justice of Peace.
William Carter.
April 9
Justice of Peace.
Peter McDonald .
April 9
Justice of Peace.
The act of Congress providing for the formation of the Mississippi Territory into a State government was passed March 1, 1817, fixing the boundaries of said State and providing for a convention to be held by the people to frame a constitution which was to assemble in the town of Washington on the first Monday of July, 1817.
In this convention Pike County was represented by David Dick- son, William J. Minton and James Y. McNabb.
The act of Congress passed April 7, 1798, establishing the terri- torial government of Mississippi provided that it should not be lawful for any person or persons to import or bring into said Territory, from any port or place, without the limits of the United States, any slave or slaves, under penalty of $300 fine and the freedom of every such slave or slaves thus brought in from foreign ports.
Under the laws established by the territorial government every free male person between the ages of sixteen and fifty years were subject to military duty, and every militiaman enrolled for service
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
on foot was required to furnish himself with a musket and bayonet, cartridge box and thirty rounds of cartridges, or rifle and tomahawk, powder horn and bullet pouch, with one pound of powder and four pounds of bullets, six flints, priming wires, brushes and knapsacks. Each horseman was required to furnish himself with a sword, one pistol, twelve rounds of cartridges, three flints, a priming wire, small portmanteau, and such other arms and accoutrements as might be directed by the commander in chief.
In the constitutional convention of 1832 Pike County was repre- sented by James Y. McNabb and Laban Bacot.
The constitution framed then changed the judiciary system, and gives to Mississippi the honor of being the leader in making the judiciary elective.
A high court of errors and appeals, to sit twice a year, consisting of three judges, elected from three districts; a circuit court held twice a year in each county, a superior court of chancery, a probate court and board of police for each county, all elected by the people and by ballot.
EARLY HOME LIFE.
Home life in Pike County in its early settlement and for a genera- tion after was simple and natural. As time grew apace young people grew up, formed attachments and married, then selected a suitable tract of land and, with the help of neighbors and friends, constructed an humble pine-pole hut to begin life with. A little patch was cleared for a garden; a few chickens that the old folks gave them, a pair of pigs, a heifer or cow and calf, and perhaps a pony, constituted the bulk of personal property. The bedstead was of a home-made pattern, framed and held together by interlacing quarter-inch cotton cords, made by hand at the old home, which constituted the bed-spring, but more often it was framed to the walls in one corner of the cabin, and made of ordinary split timber. A three-legged griddle to cook corn hoe- cakes on, a saucepan, a common frying pan and a small oven to bake, sufficed for the kitchen outfit. A common wooden bench and a few three-legged stools would do to sit on until the head of the household
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
could manage to do better. The lands upon which they settled were public property, but the right thus secured must not be disturbed. Wash basins, water buckets, milk piggins and well buckets were made by hand in the shops of those who manufactured the reels, spinning wheels and looms, which all who could must be provided with .. There were no allurements beyond the environments of these simple homes to distract the minds of the beginners of farm life, and their thoughts and energies were concentrated on the development and strengthen- ing of the resources acquired. Love in its primeval purity, strength- ened by mutual confidence, with radiant hope and faith in the Divine Ruler, shone with resplendent beauty. The young husband, with his axe and his rifle on his shoulder, his clear sounding horn swung to his side, with his ever attendant faithful dog, went about his duties with self-confidence and a buoyant heart. The young wife, with rosy cheeks, a loving smile, a happy heart, made the little home an Eden of joy and gave strength to his soul in the battle of life. They drank from the sweetest and most sparkling fountains the inspirations that cement the marriage bonds. On Sunday, hand in hand, they could walk to church together to listen to the exhortations of a pious neighbor and sing:
"Jesus my all to heaven is gone, He whom I fix my hopes upon."
The little pine-pole meeting-house was good enough for them. It may, however, seem very simple to the reader of the present day, who has known only the comfort and luxuries which wealth brings, but the reader of to-day, be he rich or poor, whose ancestors belong to America's past history, sprang from just such people as these, living under just such conditions.
The little boys that went 'possum hunting and were taught to swim and to ride a horse or ox and use the rifle and the shot gun were training for emergencies.
In all ages of the world men have sprung from the simplest con- ditions of life when stirring events called them into action and reached the acme of renown. The great schools might prepare some for high
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
stations and scientific purposes, but there must be those, hardy and strong, who can clutch the cold steel with a fearless hand and dare death in any form when necesssity calls.
The 'possum and coon hunters, the bear trailers and trappers, the grapplers with the wolf and the tiger cat, who sprung from those hardy and brave men and women whose names adorn the pages of this work, are on the rolls, and they are there to tell to the world, along down through the ages, who it was that gave to the pages of their country's history a golden glitter.
From King's Mountain and Valley Forge, from Trenton and the Cowpens, from Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga, from Jamestown and the Talapoosa, the blood of patriotism was transmitted with the advancing years, and in the deep wilderness of the Territory of Mississippi it was made healthy and strong by the necessary activities and rustic life of its people. The great body of the pioneers of Pike came from revolutionary sires, schooled in the science of Indian fighting and the hardships and exposures incident to camp life, the hunt for wild game, and the labor of their farms. They had inherited the characteristics of their fathers and mothers, and they were properly qualified to undertake the mission of establishing new homes in these unbroken wilds and of laying the foundation of a great State government.
The young men from North and South Carolina, Georgia and else- where, offsprings of revolutionary patriots and colonial settlers, thought nothing of putting their young wives on horseback or taking it afoot with their few belongings, armed with combination flint and steel shotgun-rifles, and tramping it hundreds of miles through the wilderness to the Territory of Mississippi; and their heroic wives thought less of the dangers and hardships to be encountered. It is this sort of material from which Mississippians sprung, and it is this sort of blood that has brought lustre to her name. This book will tell you who some of them were, men and women, and where they settled in Pike County.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
CHAPTER II.
In the foregoing chapter an outline of events leading down to the creation and political organization of Pike County has been given.
In the present chapter it is proposed to speak more directly of some of the families that immigrated here and the occupations engaged in in the early settlements on the different streams. It is not proposed to undertake this in detail. The absence of records, and even tradition, connected with many of the original settlers who have passed out of memory of the oldest living men and women in the county, makes it impossible. 1969346
In 1799 John Warren and his wife, Priscilla, settled on the Otopasas (now called Topisaw) below the junction of East Fork and on the west side of. the stream. This property was acquired by Michael Brent in the early fifties or perhaps before 1850. He sold it to Owen Conerly, and from his widow it passed to and through other hands to William Garner. There he constructed a hewed log cabin of yellow pine and opened a little farm. Tradition tells us that there was a small open- ing here when Warren came, indicating that the land had been culti- vated many years before, probably by Indians. The house built by him is on the place yet and in a fair state of preservation. A pecan tree, said to have been planted by him, which has been in bearing for over fifty years, is a monarch now, the oldest and largest known in Pike County, and is perhaps the first pecan tree planted in the county.
Just below and south of this place John Taylor settled, probably near the same time, now owned by S. Cicero Walker The original settlement was on the crest of a high pine ridge overlooking the valley of the Otopasas. Fifty years ago it had grown up into a wilderness again, but again opened and put in cultivation.
John Warren and Priscilla were the parents of Sally Warren, wife of William McCollough, who came to Pike County in 1814, at the age of fifteen. His father, Alexander McCollough, came from Ireland into Georgia. His wife was Miss Marshall from Scotland.
After William McCollough married Sally Warren they settled on Topisaw and became the parents of Winston, Jasper, Olive, Sarah and Melinda McCollough.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Edwin Alford was born in North Carolina in 1792, and after his birth his parents moved to Georgia, where he remained until 1807, when he came to the Territory. In 1818 he married Martha, a daugh- ter of Jeremiah Smith, and settled a place on the Bogue Chitto in the southern portion of the county. They raised six sons and five daugh- ters. Jeremiah Smith came from Lancaster District, South Carolina, in 1808. He moved in a cart, and settled on a place near Dillontown,
IRON BRIDGE Scene on the Bogue Chitto River
where Edwin Alford married Martha. He was the father of Eli' Edwin and Wyatt Smith. He was one of the finest mechanics of his time. He died in 1843 at the age of sixty-one. When these people settled here they had to travel a distance of some twenty miles to a grist mill, located near where the town of Tangipahoa on the I. C. R. R. now stands, to get their corn ground into meal-near where Camp Moore was located during the Civil War.
Daniel Sandell was the son of Henry Sandell and Catherine Nobles, who lived in Orangeburg District, South Carolina, where he was born
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
in 1792. In 1814 he was enlisted in Colonel Nixon's regiment of Mississippi infantry, which was ordered to Florida to reinforce the army engaged against the Seminole Indians He was married to Charity Elenor Corley, daughter of Jeremiah Corley, from Barnwell District, South Carolina, September 17, 1815, a short time before the creation of Pike County, and in 1816 he settled on the well-known Sandell place, west of Magnolia. He was the father of Gabriel, Walter, Rev. John Westley Sandell, Samuel Murray and Monroe, Mary Ann and Martha.
Peter Felder settled the Vaughn place, near Magnolia, in 1811. A Methodist Church was established in this neighborhood, and in 1810 the first Methodist camp meeting was held here. It was after- wards known as Felder's Church.
A grist mill was erected across Sweetwater, a small stream empty- ing in the Bogue Chitto near Walker's Bridge, on a farm settled by Daniel Quin, in 1810, and many people traveled thirty and forty miles to it to have their corn ground into meal for bread.
Daniel Quin was a son of Peter Quin, Sr., who came to Pike County in 1812. He married Kitty Deer. They were the parents of Rodney, William and Frank, and Emily, who married Jeremiah Coney.
In 1798 John Barnes, with his young wife and little daughter, Margaret, then only a few years of age, emigrated from Georgia. They took passage in a large dugout which he constructed out of a cypress tree, launching it on the Cumberland River and floating down the connecting waters into the Mississippi River and landed at Natchez. Barnes was an accomplished young mechanic, and he and his young . wife had only one child, little Margaret, then only five or six years of age. They wanted to come to the far West, to the Mississippi Terri- tory, of which he had heard so much, to settle down in life and build themselves a home. He cut down a big cypress tree, dug it out with his adz and fashioned it and launched it on the turbid waters, put all his belongings in it, and he and his young wife and little Margaret took passage for more than a thousand miles down unknown and perilous streams. With his trusty rifle, a brave heart, a loving, heroic wife, a sweet little child, he pushed off from Georgia's shore and
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
paddled on down, stopping here and there to camp over night under the trees or to kill wild game to supply their needs. When he arrived at the head of Mussel Shoals, a very dangerous continuation of rapids for a long distance, he landed his dugout and was visited by an Indian, who advised him not to undertake to shoot the rapids with his wife and child in the boat, that there was a near cut by a pathway to the river below the rapids which they could take, and that he himself would accompany him and steer the boat safely through. It was already late in the evening, but Barnes wished to pass the rapids at once while he had the Indian to help him through. After the Indian had directed Mrs. Barnes how to go they pushed out to make the descent. Night had overtaken them, and when they arrived at the point where Barnes' wife was to meet them it was late and she was not there and failed to answer to his call or the sound of his horn. The Indian then explained that he forgot to tell her the path forked, and said she must have taken the wrong direction leading out into the deep, dark wilderness, which proved to be true. Leaving the Indian in care of his boat, Barnes, with his gun, his horn and a torch, went out in search of his lost wife and child. Beating back on the trail as directed until he reached the one the Indian surmised his wife had taken, he pursued that for a long distance until at length he found her sitting beneath the trees with her little child hugged up in her arms, patiently waiting for and trusting her husband to rescue them. When they returned to their dugout they found that the Indian had stolen much of their valuables and fled. In due course of time Barnes with his little family arrived safely at Natchez, and afterward worked' his way out to Beaver Creek, in Amite County, where he remained for awhile, when he moved to Pike County and settled on Union Creek - near where Union Church was subsequently erected. He built a grist mill over Union Creek in 1813, and a ginning and carding machine, to prepare rolls for the spinning wheel.
It is a curious fact, that 104 years after Barnes' novel departure from Georgia his romantic adventure should be recorded by this writer, as related to him in person by the first born son of little Margaret, at the age of ninety years, and within a few miles of where he was born.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
In the State of Tennessee at this early time there lived a Widow Sartin, who had a little boy named John. She married a man named Lee, and they moved from Tennessee to Amite County in 1810. Here John Sartin met little Margaret Barnes. Their associations and friendship ripened into love, and when Margaret Barnes arrived at the age of seventeen she became the wife of young John Sartin. They settled in the woods and opened a little farm on Magees Creek, a few miles south of China Grove, which was afterward known as the Woodruff place. It was here that Major Sartin, their first son, was born, November 28, 1812. They were also the parents of William, Joseph, Alfred, John, Leander and James Sartin and Amanda, wife of Martin P. Roberts; Helen, wife of John Boone, and Emily, wife of Jackson Bearden.
William Fortinberry came from Lancaster District, South Carolina, and settled in the southeastern portion of the county in 1819. He died in 1840, leaving six sons and four daughters. One of his sons, W. J. Fortinberry, was a Baptist preacher and spent his life in that section of the county in the cause of the Church. Another son, G. C. Fortinberry, was a member of the 9th Mississippi Regiment of United States Militia, under Col. Peter Quin, in 1825 and 1827. Wyatt Smith married Eusaba Fortinberry.
John Ellzey came from Fairfield District, South Carolina, in 1817. He married Elizabeth Coney, daughter of Aquila Coney from Georgia, in 1823 They were the parents of Frank, James, William, and Daniel Ellzey. His second wife was Indiana Hall. John Ellzey and William Sibley assisted the contractor, Thomas Tompkins, to build the first . jail erected in Holmesville. Shortly after the building was finished and received from the contractor, Tompkins, having committed some little trivial breach of the peace, was the first to be locked up in it.
Thomas Ellzey was the third son of Louis Ellzey, of South Carolina, and came to Mississippi in 1817. He married Mary, a daughter of Daniel Quin, on Sweetwater, near where it empties into Bogue Chitto, at Walker's Bridge, in 1825. He settled on Leatherwood, where he raised a large family. He contracted yellow fever in 1847 while on a business trip to Cov ington, La., during the prevalence of an epidemic,
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
and died with it at the residence of Col. Jesse Thomas, on Leatherwood, before he could be conveyed home. He was a member of the board of police for many years. His father, Louis Ellzey, was a full-fledged Englishman of the noted Ellzey Cragg, a mountain point in England, and his mother was a full-blooded German. Her name was Eve Shafter. They met in South Carolina and married, then immigrated to Pike County and first settled on the Bogue Chitto River near what has been known as Stalling's Ferry. Thomas Ellzey and Mary Quin were the parents of Ross A., Rankin C., Wesley, Jackson, Mary, Harriet, Caroline Sarah, Josephine, Joan, Courtney and Thomas. The Ellzeys sprung from good fighting stock and were substantial citizens in the early history of the county. They were brave, hardy, industrious men and women, accumulators of wealth and could always be depended on in times of peril and emergencies. Ross A. Ellzey, the elder of the sons of Thomas Ellzey and Mary Quin, was born on the 20th of June, 1826, and received his education in the common neighborhood schools of the county. At the age of twenty-six he married Amanda Booker, a daughter of James and Mary Booker, of Clinton, La., and a graduate of the Silliman Institute of that place. In 1848 he was chosen as a delegate to represent Pike County in a railroad convention held in New Orleans, which was the beginning of the agitation of the question of the constitution of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad. In the fall of 1853 he was elected to the Legis- lature of Mississippi and remained a member of that body until he was succeeded by Levi Bacot in 1856. He settled the old Deer place on Magees Creek and pursued, principally, the occupation of a farmer .. He became one of the charter members of the Magees Creek Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 282, in 1866. He taught school in his young days and was for some years a member of the board of school directors, with Henry Badon, William Hoover and George W. Simmons. The other children of Thomas Ellzey and Mary Quin married as follows:
Rankin C. to Mary Thompson, daughter of Hugh Thompson; Wesley to Margaret Brumfield, daughter of Isaac Brumfield; Caroline to Dr. James H. Laney; Harriet to Morgan Coney; Sarah to Samuel McNulty; Josephine to Elisha C. Andrews; Joan to Simeon R. Ratliff ;
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Courtney to William Badon; Jackson to Mary Felder; Mary to Joseph O'Mara, deputy sheriff under Parham B. Williams in 1848. Thomas died early.
William Simmons came from Georgia and settled on Balachitto in 1809. He married Nancy Hope, daughter of James Hope, who settled there about the same time. From them came Solomon and Cyrus Simmons. He was captain of a militia company, and in 1846 was elected to the Legislature with Ephriam Rushing.
Willis Simmons came from Georgia with his wife, Jane Goslin, in 1810, and settled on Bogue Chitto below Walker's Bridge. Their children were Mason, William (Black Bill), Willis, Richard, George, Jackson, Narcissa and Holly. "Black Bill" Simmons married Nancy Rymes, daughter of William Rymes and Nancy Hogg, and they were the parents of Calvin Simmons.
Joseph Barr came from South Carolina in 1802. His wife was Eliza Mellard, daughter of Joseph Mellard, near Monticello in Laurence County. They settled on Magees Creek in the China Grove neighbor- hood. They were the parents of William A., Thaddeus H. S., James A., R. Wesley, Thomas M., and Annor, wife of Wm. B. Lignon, Jr., Caroline, wife of Wiley Elliott, and Amanda, wife of Dewitt Ellzey.
Peter Felder came from Barnwell District, South Carolina, in 18II, and settled what is known as the Vaughn place near Magnolia. As previously stated, he was one of the commissioners appointed by the Governor, under acts of December 9, 1815, to select, procure and fix the permanent seat of justice of Pike County. He filled the position of one of the justices of the Orphan's Court along with William Dickson, Peter Quin and Matthew McEwen, which had jurisdiction in probate matters. He was the father of John Felder, who was born in Barnwell District, South Carolina, in 1793, and married Elizabeth Sandell, near Felder's Church, October 15, 1812. They were the parents of Mary Catherine, who married Seaborn Alford, and Wyatt Westley, Elizabeth G. Gabriel Nally, Levi Darius, Robert Henry and Simeon Noble. John Felder was a leading member of the Methodist Church. In 1840 he settled a farm on Topsiaw and in company with Christian Hoover, Hardy Thompson, David Winborne, Matthew
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
McEwen, Samuel Whitworth, Archie McEwen and Silas Catchings, in 1843, established the Topisaw Camp Grounds. In 1846 he had a water-mill constructed over Topisaw-upright saw, grist and cotton gin, near the camp grounds, under the supervision of Luther Smith, assisted by his sons, Levi and Robert. He and his wife were deeply devoted to their religion, and to them the community owed much in the upbuilding of the Methodist denomination and maintenance of the church and camp meetings held there. Their sons and daughters were all Christian people of the same faith.
Alexander McCollough emigrated from Ireland to Georgia. His wife was a Miss Marshall from Scotland. They were the parents of William McCollough, who came to Pike County in 1814 at the age of fifteen, married Sally Warren and settled on Topisaw. From them sprung the McCollough family: Winston, Benjamin, Jasper, Olive, Melinda and Sarah.
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