USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 4
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Matthew and Archie McEwen came from Carolina in 1800 and settled on Topisaw. James, a son of Matthew, married Nancey Barnes, widow of John Barnes, who was once probate judge of Pike County. Nancey was a Bearden before she married John Barnes and was the mother of Pinkney and W. Clinton Barnes.
John Walker was a native of Virginia, born in 1785. He emigrated to Georgia and married Sarah Gates, who was born in 1790. They emigrated to the Mississippi Territory in 1814 and settled on Topisaw. They were the parents of Jeremiah, William, John E., David C., Augustus, Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, Zebiah, Martha and Elisha Walker.
John E. Walker was born January 28, 1815, the year after his parents came from Georgia, and was the first child of the Walker family born in Pike. His brother, William, married Ruth Harvey, daughter of Michael Harvey, who settled on Pearl River in Marion County in 1808, where Daniel Harvey was born in 1812.
There was a William Walker who settled on Silver Creek in the southern portion of the county, who was a cabinet maker, not related to the Topisaw family. He came from Georgia and married Jane Duncan, a daughter of Cullen Duncan and Fanny Conerly, subse- quently wife of Elijah Turnage. The following are the names of
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
their children: Martha Ann, who first married her cousin, James Duncan, and becoming a widow married John Cothern; Sarah Jane, who remained single; Barbara, who married John Estess; Pollie died early; Annie, who married William Rushing; Levisa, who mar- ried Charlie Rainey; Margaret, who married Harper Garner, son of Calvin Garner and Ruhamie Ward of Laurence County, from South Carolina; Cornelius, who married Nannie Boone, daughter of Skinner Boone; Wesley, -.
This William Walker's elder daughters became expert in their father's trade, being his only help. Sarah Jane never married and gave her entire time to her father in the workshop, where they made spinning wheels, reels, looms, chairs and other articles of furniture by hand and with the use of a turning lathe run by water power, milk piggins, water buckets, churns, etc. Much of the furniture manu- factured by them has been in use seventy-five years. A small arm- chair, with a rawhide bottom, made of white hickory, bought from them for the writer in 1846 is yet in use and well preserved.
P.oda Walker married Nathaniel Wells, being his second wife. He was major of a regiment during the Florida War. His father, Thomas Wells, belonged to the colonial revolutionists, and was killed in the memorable battle of Kings Mountain, North Carolina, in 1780, where the English General Ferguson was defeated, 'killed, and his entire force captured after a most gallant and sanguinary conflict with the mountaineer forces under the gallant commands of Cols. Campbell, Shelby, Sevier, McDowell, Cles eland, Williams and Winston, which turned the tide of the re olutionary war in favor of the strug- gling Americans, of which Jen'erson said: "It was the joyful enuncia- tion of that turn in the tide of success that terminated the Revolution- ary War with the seal of our independence." And Daniel Webster said: "When to be patriotic was to endanger business and homes and wives and children and to be ready also to pay for the reputation of patriotism by the sacrifice of blood and life."
It will be seen in future pages how these eloquent words spoken by these master minds connected with a government these illustrious southern patriots fought so hard and heroically to establish, will
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apply to their descendants eighty years after this glorious victory at Kings Mountain.
With Rhoda Walker, Wells had two sons, Eleazor and James, and two daughters, Rhoda and Elizabeth.
William Cothern married Nancey Gates, from Georgia, and settled the Turnipseed place on the east side of Topisaw, five miles north of Holmesville, in 1815. They were the parents of Elijah Cothern, who married Cathorine Dunaway, daughter of Johnathan Dunaway, and they were the parents of John, Joseph and William Cothern. One of the first grist mills run by water power built in Pike County was constructed across Carters Creek on the plantation owned by John Cothern, which was settled by John Carter, one of the earliest settlers, from whom this creek took its name.
Turnipseed, above mentioned, married Miss Brent, daughter of John Brent, sister of John A., William, Mike and Jacob. He was a large slave owner and worked them in the production of cotton. He was a man of fine intellectual qualities. His children with Miss Brent were Laura, who married Ben. Briley; Clifton, who married Miss Ada Marshal, whose father settled in Holmesville after the Civil War and was a lawyer; Harris, who became a dentist; Berkley, who mar- ried Mary Huffman.
Lazarus Reeves came from South Carolina and settled on Clear Creek in 1811. This little stream rises west of Summit, running in an eastern direction, emptying into Bogue Chitto near the plantation of Laban Bacot. Lazarus Reeves was the father of John Reeves, who settled on Clear Creek in 1812, and Alfred Reeves, who settled on' Topisaw, and Zachariah Reeves, Baptist preacher.
The Bogue Chitto Baptist Church was constituted and located on a place subsequently owned by Alex. McMorris, on the Bogue Chitto River, on the 31st day of October, 1812, by Lazarus Reeves, Annis Dillon, Priscilla Warren, Sarah Norman, John Brent, Sr., William Denman, John Warren, Sarah Thompson, Sarah Denman and David McGraw. This church was afterwards moved to Carters Creek, and Zachariah Reeves was connected with it during his lifetime. He was a man who wielded a great influence over the followers of his
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faith. He was contemporaneous with Rev. Jesse Crawford of Silver Creek and Rev. Wm. J. Fortinberry at New Zion. They were not educated men. Their learning came from the common schools of the community, such as could be afforded by the pioneer fathers and by a faithful and sincere study of the holy scriptures and the inspira- tion that sprung from the rugged experiences of their time, and they were regarded by those who adhered to their faith and followed in the footsteps of their teachings as men of power-plain, homespun leaders and teachers of God's word, who could touch up their followers and bring them to the foot of the Cross in this interior wilderness and make them children of the Messiah. In those days their church houses were mostly built of round pine poles or hewn logs, and the people wore plain clothes. The women went to church in calico and home- spun dresses, and wore their fly bonnets, and the old grandmothers their frilled caps and specks, and the young girls thought themselves lucky to be decked off on meeting days with a few red ribbons. There was no butterfly flutter nor makeup of the rouge and the kid glove. A little cinnamon sometimes, when it could be had, constituted the main article of perfumery, and they were often glad to get that, as an attractive feature. Their splendid beauty, in these healthful pine woods regions, was a gift of nature from nature's God. They inherited from their mothers and grandmothers all the attributes of fortitude, patience, industry and loving kindness; and they grew up as women worthy indeed to become the mothers of the young heroes who served under the Southern Cross, led by such men as commanded the Con- federate forces in the great Civil War.
And it might be well for the present day generation of young men and women to profit by learning more of the early training and the chivalrous manhood and womanhood that stepped so proudly forth in the early sixties to bear the brunt of one of the most stupendous conflicts against overwhelming odds known in the annals of war. They got their early training, from an educational and religious point, in these little log cabin school houses and churches.
John Reeves was the father of Jesse, William E., Elijah and Warren, and Leah, wife of William Williams; Lenora, wife of Jasper
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
McCollough; Jane, wife of Pink Cole, and Mary, who lost her first husband, Ruben Williams, in the Confederate Army, subsequently wife of David Forest. At the compilation of these notes in 1902, Wm. E. Reeves, then eighty years of age, possessed and exhibited to the writer a photographic group of the above-named four brothers and sisters, all living.
Edward Gatlin settled a place on Clear Creek a short distance above its intersection with the Bogue Chitto River in 1815 and built 1 a mill over it which was run by water power. The plantation is now
occupied by John Thompson. The spot where the present residence stands is one of the most picturesque in that section of the county.
Col. James Gatlin was a son of Edward and Elizabeth Gatlin, who emigrated to Pike County in 1812 from South Carolina. He married Rosalba Wells, a daughter of Nathaniel Wells, one of the colonial soldiers of the Revolution, of Kings Mountain fame, and his wife, Elizabeth, also from South Carolina. They were married at the old Wells homestead, south of Johnston Station, in 1831. Their children were: Julia; Zebulon B. Gatlin, who married Martha Hoover; Eliza- beth Gatlin, who married Dr. Germany; Mary Gatlin, who married Mr. Anderson; * John B. Gatlin, Lieut., who married Amanda H. Strickland. Ebenezer Gatlin commanded Summit Rifles, at Blood Angle, battle of Spottsylvania, Virginia, May 12, , 1864, mortally wounded; Thomas Gatlin, died in Confederate war service; Nathaniel W. Gatlin; William Gatlin.
The following persons settled homes along Clear Creek and Bogue Chitto between 1810 and 1818:
William and David Bullock, in 1812; I. N. Simms, L. Leggett, B. Gatlin, Ezra Estiss, T. Gatlin, R. Williams, N. Williams, E. John- son, W. McNulty, Michael McNulty, in 1816; J. McNulty, in 1811; David Cleveland, Vincent Garner, J. Andrews, W. Andrews, David McGraw and Robert Love, in 1811; A. King settled a part of the Hardy Thompson plantation in 1811; David Cleveland, on what is yet known as the Cleveland place, in 1811; J. Denman and R. Hamil-
*See Dixie Guards.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
ton, in 1815; C. Ryals, 1817; Peter Quin, Sr., on section 22, in 1813; Peter Quin, Jr., in 1817.
The lives of these men and their descendants were closely asso- ciated with all that section of the county between Holmesville and the northern boundary of the county on both sides of the Bogue Chitto River and along Clear Creek. B. Jones settled on Clabber Creek. It is to be regretted that the writer, though using great efforts, has failed to obtain better information regarding their families. Many of them were prominent in political affairs of the county. Michael McNulty erected a mill across Clear Creek at the same spot where Stuart's mill now stands. He was the father of William and Sam McNulty, of whom more will be said further on in this work.
Laban Bacot was born April 23, 1776, in South Carolina, and married Mary Letman in 1797. They emigrated from South Carolina to the Mississippi Territory in 1807, coming down the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to Natchez and settled on Beaver Creek, in Amite County. They subsequently settled on the Tansopiho, near where Chatawa now stands. He was the son of Samuel Bacot, who was born in 1745 and married Margaret Alston. To them were born Samuel, Susana, Elizabeth, Maria Louisa and Mary Lucinda. His wife, Mary, died in 1812, and he then married Margaret M. Love, April 23, 1822, and they became the parents of Lorinda, wife of Joe Tuff Martin; Robert, Levi, William, Adam Bacot and Julia; also Rachael, who died in infancy.
In 1817 Mississippi was admitted as a State in the Union, and David Holmes, who had served as Governor since 1809, was elected Governor by vote of the people. Laban Bacot was elected at this time Sheriff of Pike County, succeeding David Cleveland, who had held that position since the organization of the municipal government of the county. It has often been erroneously stated that Laban Bacot was the first sheriff of Pike County. Under the territorial government David Cleveland was selected and commissioned as sheriff upon the organization of Pike County and served as such until the State was admitted into the Union, in 1817, when there was a general election held and Laban Bacot was the first elected sheriff of the county
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after the State's admission into the Union. During his incumbency he lived on a little farm seven miles north of Holmesville, on one of the small tributaries of Clear Creek. There being no public office buildings in Holmesville, he constructed an office on his farm, of peeled yellow pine poles, notched together and hewed down on the sides, which he used as the sheriff's office, being the first one built for that purpose in the county. This little log cabin, the first sheriff's office erected in the county, is yet standing in the yard on the planta- tion he subsequently settled on Clear Creek above its junction with Bogue Chitto, owned by his son, Levi, and is in a good state of preser- vation. Laban Bacot was re-elected in 1821 and served continuously until 1826, when he was succeeded by T. Norman.
During Bacot's term the whipping-post law was in vogue, and it sometimes became his duty to execute the sentence imposed, and if the judge thought the case an aggravated one he would order the sheriff to "have it well laid on."
On one occasion while court was in session a disturbance occurred at a whisky shop (then called grocery) near-by, and the judge ordered the offender to be brought into court. He was materially intoxicated and incapable of self-locomotion, and the sheriff returned without him. The judge again ordered that he be brought into court. Bacot ordered Parish Thompson, a powerful man with a loud, coarse voice, to bring him in. Thompson shouldered the fellow, packed him into the courtroom and piled him over in front of his honor, at the same time saying, "Where will you have him, jedge?" There was a law in force at this time which read as follows: "Any person who shall break into any house in the night time with the intent to take, steal or carry away any property therein, shall be adjudged guilty of bur- glary, and upon conviction thereof shall suffer death."
There was a little oak tree standing near the southeast corner of the public square which was used by Sheriff Bacot in the discharge of his duties as a whipping-post. This tree acquired the name of "Widow Phillips," as a man by that name was the first to be tied to it and receive a dressing with the official cat-'o-nine tails, for the commission of some trivial offense.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
"Widow Phillips" grew large and strong and got to be a giant oak, spreading its massive branches far out, affording a splendid shade in after years for those in attendance on court. It lived to be a hundred years old and then died, and in 1902 it lay prone upon the earth, cut down by the axman. Thus passed away the last relic of the whipping-post of Pike County.
Jeremiah and Sire Magee settled on Collins and Magees Creeks near the junction of the two streams in 1811. About this time, or perhaps earlier, Dickey Magee built a grist mill over Collins Creek a little above the ford where the Monticello and Covington road crosses it. Portions of the foundation of this mill can yet be seen at times. It has been observed that under certain actions of the water there is a deposit of earth which hides if trom view; then again, the deposit is removed and the foundation is visible. When a small boy the writer crossed this ford and saw the water pouring in limpid beauty off the old foundation. Fifty-two years later he visited this spot and saw portions of the foundation still preserved and uncovered by the earth though under water. Some years after this mill went to decay another one was constructed some distance above it at a more eligible place with higher and narrower banks. These old mill ponds have grown up with large trees and where the upper mill stood a hill has been formed by the accumulation of alluvial thrown up by frequent high floods of water coming down from the cultivated lands and hills above.
William Willis Magee, a brother of Sire and Jeremiah, was one of the first Baptist preachers coming to this country from South Caro- lina. Josiah Magee settled on Dry Creek opposite the town of Tyler- town.
Josiah Martin and his wife, Elizabeth Glass, came from North Carolina and settled on Big Tonsopiho, where Joseph T. Martin (known as Joe Tuff) was born, April 13, 1812. He always claimed to be the first boy child born in Pike County. The fact is he was not born in Pike County, but in Marion County, because there was no such a county as Pike when Joe Tuff was born. Major Sartin was close after him, for he was born on Magees Creek November 28th, of the same
4
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
year. It was about three years after these remarkable events, 1815, before Marion County had this valuable and historical territory plucked from her great body. At any rate, be it said to his honor, Joe Tuff was born in that portion of Marion County which became a part of Pike. There were three other brothers, sons of Josiah Martin and, Elizabeth Glass: Wm. G. Martin, who married Sally Wicker; James B. Martin, who married Mary Pearson; Jack Martin, who lived and died a bachelor; and Eliza R. Martin, who married John McNabb, leaving no issue.
Joe Tuff married Lorinda Bacot, daughter of Laban Bacot, the sheriff, with whom he raised a large family of children. Joe settled down to farming, was a "hale fellow, well met," and often a con- spicuous figure on public occasions; a good-hearted man and a pros- perous farmer and citizen.
THE MC MORRIS FAMILY.
It has previously been stated in this chapter that the Bogue Chitto Baptist Church was constituted and located on Bogue Chitto on a plantation owned by Alexander McMorris. There were two by this name, Alexander, Sr., and Alexander, Jr.
The elder Alexander McMorris was from Scotland. His wife, Elizabeth Baxter, was also from Scotland. They emigrated to America and were married in Edgefield District, South Carolina, at the close of the Revolutionary War, where they lived until their children were nearly all grown, when they came to Mississippi and settled in Amite County. Alexander McMorris, Jr., was their son.
Joseph Herrington, of Irish descent, and Anne Brown, of English parentage, were married in Sumpter District, South Carolina, where all their children were born. They then moved to Tennessee, where both died, after which their children moved to Mississippi and also settled in Amite County. Among these children was Esther Herring- ton, who became the wife of Alexander McMorris, Jr., in 1842, and in 1843 he bought the place on Bogue Chitto, where the church was organized in 1812, and lived there until his death, in 1850.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Alexander McMorris, Jr., and Esther Herrington had two children: Richard H. McMorris, who married Mag- gie Jones, and Esther Ann McMorris, who married Isaac Charles Dick.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Alexander McMorris married Wesley H. Thomas, and they were the parents of Mary M. Thomas, who married William Powell; Baxter Thomas, who married Ettie Norell, of Jackson, Miss., and Wesley A. Thomas, who married Miss Willie Smith, of Vicksburg, Miss.
Baxter Thomas was the first white child born in the town of Summit.
ISAAC C. DICK of the Summit Rifles. 16th Mississippi Regiment, Color Bearer. Severely wounded in desperate charge at Cold Harbor. Subsequently member Washington Artillery
Alexander McMorris, Jr., had a sister named Nancy, wife of Hardy Thompson, who lived east of Bogue Chitto on the road leading to Holmesville, and was a large slave owner and cotton planter.
Isaac Charles Dick, who married Esther Ann McMorris, was a son of Jacob Dick, who was born in Switzerland and emigrated to France. His wife was Susanne Jonté of France. They were Hugue- nots. They and their families came over to New York, where Jacob Dick and Susanne Jonté were married, after which they moved to Louisville, Ky., where Isaac Charles Dick was born. He afterwards went to New Orleans, and when the railroad reached Summit he drifted there and subsequently married Esther Ann McMorris.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
The following article has been copied from the New Orleans Daily Delta:
"We were shown by Mr. Isaac C. Dick, of 1914 Jackson Avenue, this city, a Bible printed in the year 1568. It is printed in double column, in Latin and French-one column being the translation of the other. In connection with this volume is the royal privilege of the king, which was absolutely necessary before a literary work could be issued. It is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, Bibles heard of in this country-being 330 years old. It has the original bind- ing save the back and corners. Mr. Dick's grandparents became possessed of this old volume in France, it being left at their home by one of Napoleon Bona- parte's officers on the occasion of that emperor's march to Germany in 1806. It is in a remarkable state of preservation, and the print is very legible."
Capt. Westley Thomas, above mentioned, who married Widow McMorris, was a member of Jefferson Davis' Ist Mississippi Regiment in the war with Mexico and participated in all the fighting done by that command in Mexico.
Joseph Catching and his wife, Mary Holiday, moved from Georgia and settled on the Bogue Chitto, two miles below Holmesville in 1812. They had five children, as follows: Thomas Catching, who married Miss Clendenon, and lived in Hinds County, the parents of T. C. Catch- ing, ex-Congressman, Mrs. Mary Baird and Mrs. Nannie Torry; Benja- min Catching, who married Miss Hickenbottom and resided in Copiah County; Silas Catching, who married Miss Ann Drake and lived in Pike County; Sally Catching married Robert Love; Seamore Catching married Sarah Smith, who came from North Carolina in 1812. They had two sons, Charles and Joseph, aged twenty and eighteen, killed in the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee. They had a son, Seamore, who married Miss Ada Marshall; Silas married Jennie Lilly, of Hazlehurst, and lived in Somerset County, Kentucky. John married Maggie Duffy, and also resided at Somerset, Ky.
Sally May Catching married Robert M. Carruth, of Amite County.
Florence married Frank Causey, of McComb City, and Wm. Love Catching married Miss Winnie Nall, of McComb.
In 1812 John Smith settled on the Bogue Chitto four miles below Holmesville. His wife was Elizabeth Love, and they were the parents of James (Wild Jim Smith), Narcissa, Margaret and Sarah.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Narcissa married Judge James B. Quin, Margaret, H. F. Bridges, and Sarah, Seamore Catching, the father of Sally May, Robert M. Carruth's wife. Mrs. Carruth has in her possession a copy of the Ulster County Gazette, Vol. II, published at Kingston, N. Y., under date of Saturday, January 4, 1800, ruled in mourning for the death of Gen. George Washington, who died December 14, 1799, aged sixty-eight, containing the proceedings of the United States Senate in reference to the death of this illustrious citizen, the Senate's address to the President and his reply from which the following is copied:
"Among all our original associates, in the Memorial League of the Conti- nent, in 1774, which first expressed the sovereign will of a free nation in Amer- ica, he was the only one remaining in the general government. Although with a constitution more enfeebled than his, at an age when he thought it neces- sary to prepare for retirement, I feel myself alone, bereaved of my last brother; yet I derive strong consolation from the unanimous disposition which appears in all ages and classes, to mingle their sorrows with me on this common calamity to the world.
"His example is now complete and it will teach wisdom and virtue to mag- istrates, citizens and men, not only in the present age, but in future generations as long as our history shall be read. If a Trajia found a Pliny, a Marcus Aure- lius can never want biographers, eulogists or historians.
"JOHN ADAMS." "United States, Dec. 22, 1799."
In memory of this event the Ulster County Gazette contains the following:
ON THE DEATH OF GENERAL WASHINGTON.
BY A YOUNG LADY.
What means that solemn dirge that strikes my ear?
What means those mournful sounds-why shines the tear? Why toll the bells the awful knell of Fate? Ah! why those sighs that do my fancy sate? Where'er I turn the general gloom appears, Those mourning badges fill my soul with fears;
Hark! yonder rueful noise-'tis done-'tis done !-
The silent tomb enshrines our Washington. Must virtues exalted yield their breath ? Must bright perfection find relief in death? Must mortal greatness fall? A glorious name!
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
What then is riches, honor and true fame? The august chief, the father and the friend, The generous patriot-let the muse commend! Columbia's glory and Mount Vernon's pride There lies enshrined with numbers at his side! There let the sigh respondent from the breast, Heave in rich numbers-let the growing reft Of tears refulgent beam with grateful love; And the sable mourning our affliction prove. Weep, kindred mortals-weep-no more you'll find A man so just, so pure, so firm in mind; Rejoicing angels, hail the heavenly sage; Celestial spirits the wonder of the age.
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