USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 5
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Mrs. Carruth also has the beautiful silk, gold fringed Master Mason's apron with the symbolic emblems of that ancient order, worn by her grandfather, Joseph Catching, who as well as being a pioneer of Pike was a member of Rising Brotherhood Lodge, No. 7, of Holmesville, and a certificate of membership of Joseph Catching, 15th of May, in the year of Masonry 5830 (1830) signed Thonly L. White, W. M .; Jimmerson Statham, J. W .; Arak Wilson, Sect. Also a certificate of membership of Joseph Catching from Holmesville Lodge, No. 69, dated January 1, 1847, A. L. 5847, signed George Nicholson, W. M .; James Kenna, S. W .; J. B. Statham, J. W .; Sam A. Matthews, Sect.
GEORGE III.
George III of England was born on the 4th of June, 1738. On tho 27th of May, 1759, he was married to Hannah Lightfoot. He died on the 29th of January, 1820. They had a son, Buxton Lawn, whe married Mary Dawson (or Dorson), a granddaughter of the Lord Mayor of London of the same name. Buxton Lawn and Mary Daw- son were the parents of the following named children : Buxton, Robert, Henry, Mary, Betsy, Cathorine, Susan, William, Ann and Eliza. Of these, Robert, Mary, Eliza and Ann drifted to New Orleans, after coming over to New York in company with their mother, in search of the husband and father whom they missed on his return to England, and died there soon after.
Robert Lawn (changed to Layton) married Susan Gilchrist, first
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
wife, and Margaret Newman Hewes, New Orleans, La .; Mary married Charles K. Porter, New Orleans, La .; Ann first married Mr. McKit- rick, and then Samuel James Stephens. With McKitrick she had one daughter, Mary, who was the wife of Joe Kirkland. Eliza married William B. Ligon, Sr.
Ann Louisa Stephens, daughter of Ann Lawn (Widow McKitrick), was the wife of Owen Conerly, and mother of this writer.
Joe Kirkland had a son named Dud, who was a Mexican War veteran, lived and died in East Feliciana Parish, La .; also a son named Weston.
Ann Lawn Stephens was the mother of Cathorine, who married John C. Huey, New Orleans, La .; Cecelia, who was the wife of William Forshey, a sculptor and portrait painter, from Missouri, lived a while in Holmesville-had previously been a member of the Louisiana Legis- lature, and was Mayor of Brookhaven in the sixties.
It is a curious circumstance how the grandchildren of the King of England strayed away from there and became identified as they have been with Louisiana and Mississippi. Ann Louisa Stephens, Mrs. Huey and Mrs. Forshey and the children of William B. Ligon, Sr., with Eliza Lawn, being the great grand children of that monarch.
Samuel James Stephens, husband of Ann Lawn, was a native of Ireland, highly educated, an eminent physician and surgeon, and an attache of the staff of Napoleon Bonaparte. He possessed a miniature likeness of himself and Bonaparte taken together and set in gold, showing a strong resemblance between them and evidencing a close friendship. He was one of the volunteer exiles from France who came to Louisiana after the fall of his illustrious chief. He met and mar- ried Mrs. McKitrick and lived in Covington and New Orleans. Ann Louisa, his daughter, was well educated, spent some of her younger days with her brother-in-law, Joe Kirkland, and with her uncle and aunt, Col. William B. Ligon and wife, She taught school at China Grove, where she met young Owen Conerly and married him in 1838, in her twentieth year of age. She read and spoke French fluently. She was a woman of fine mental qualities, a great reader, historian and conversationalist, and was regarded as one of the brightest and
A
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most intellectual women of her time who lived in Pike County. She was a fluent writer and occasionally contributed to the local news- papers-in later years established in Holmesville. She was musical and poetical, an ardent Methodist in religion, and lived and died in the faith.
There is no language this writer can command which will enable him to pay a just tribute to his beautiful and gifted mother. Around the family fireside and in the sanctity of a home, in his childhood, youth and young manhood, he imbibed the inspirations of her soul. Whatever talents he may possess, manifested in a perusal of this book, he owes to her and a father who had an intellect as clear and bright as the waters that flow from the most beautiful fountain.
The Laytons, descendants of Robert (Lawn) Layton and the Hewes connected with this branch; the Porters, the Hueys, Gilchrists and the Prestons of New Orleans are all connections of George III and Hannah Lightfoot; springing from Robert Lawn, Mrs. Eliza Ligon, Mrs. Mary Porter, and Mrs. Ann Stephens.
In Pike County, all the descendants of the children of Col. William B. Ligon and Eliza Lawn and those of Owen Conerly, Jr., and Ann Louisa Stephens, are direct descendants; also the children of Mrs. Cecelia R. Forshey, widow of Wm. Forshey, now of Texas. She had only two children, Cecelia and Florence, the latter being the wife of John W. Coffee.
Reddick Taylor Sparkman came from Bunkham County, North Carolina. His wife was Nancy Woodward Pearson, of Edgefield District, South Carolina. They were among the early settlers of Holmesville. Reddick Sparkman was a first-class mechanic and con- tractor and built many of the first fine residences of Holmesville. He was one of the builders and owners of the Holmesville Hotel, which subsequently fell into the hands of his son-in-law, William R. Johnson, who married his daughter Martha, the widow of - Rich- mond. One of the residences built by him is still standing and is the home of Dr. Lucius M. Quin. In company with Thomas Arthur he constructed a water-mill over a small bayou below town through which the water was turned from the Bogue Chitto by the construc-
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tion of a rock dam above. The machinery was run by means of a large undershot wheel. It was an upright saw and grist mill. He was major in the militia of the county and an active politician, being a democrat when the Whig party existed. He served as sheriff for several terms, the exact dates being given elsewhere in official lists.
Reddick Sparkman and Nancy Woodward Pearson, his wife, were the parents of the following children: Martha E., whose first husband was Mr. Richmond, the father of Dilla and Reddick Richmond; her second husband was William R. Johnson, the hotel keeper, and her third husband R. Y. Statham, who first married her sister Ann Maria and was left a widower.
Cynthia Adaline, who married James A. Ferguson.
Victoria, the wife of Frank M. Quin.
Alvira, the wife of Capt. John Holmes.
The names of their sons are Thomas Wiley, William L. and Achilles P. Sparkman. Thomas Wiley died in his youth. William L. was killed at the time of the breaking of Lee's lines at Petersburg, Va. He belonged to the Quitman Guards and was on the skirmish line when they (Harris' Mississippi Brigade) were ordered to assemble in Fort Gregg and hold it at all hazards. He fell before reaching the fort. Achilles P. Sparkman was severely wounded in the abdomen, pene- trating the bladder, in the battle of Cross Keys, Va., during the cele- brated Valley Campaign, when Stonewall Jackson and R. S. Ewell joined forces to drive N. P. Banks out of Winchester, which disabled him for life. Mention of him will be found in future pages of this work. He married Mary E. Vaught, the daughter of Maj. W. W. Vaught, who was a quartermaster in the Confederate Army.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
CHAPTER III.
CHINA GROVE AND MAGEES CREEK.
China Grove was first settled and owned by Ralph Stovall, in 1815. He settled on land about one-quarter of a mile from where the China Grove schoolhouse and church have stood since established. At the foot of a steep elevation there is a splendid freestone, cold water spring, east of the church, that formed an ever-flowing branch which bubbled on down westward and emptied into Magees Creek. This spring and branch afforded ample water for domestic purposes and for stock. At this period of the first settlement of the community under the Stovall regime, the church erected here belonged to the Baptist denomination. There was a grove of China trees set out in the grounds around the schoolhouse, which was a little log building (the original church house), and the church yard, which gave it the name of China Grove. Ralph Stovall employed John Barnes, the grandfather of Major Sartin, and constructed a set of mills over Magees Creek, about a mile south or southwest direction from the church, and his residence, run by water power.
These mills consisted of an upright saw, a cotton gin and press, a rice pestle mill and fan, for cleaning, and a grist mill. It was built across the stream at the foot of a bluff, which afforded a good embank- ment on the east side. Drury and Henry Stovall, brothers of Ralph, settled a few miles north of China Grove at this same period. Richard Ratliff in 1817, Benjamin Youngblood in 1816, Ben Jones in 1818 and Joseph Thornhill in 1812.
In 1822 Owen Conerly and his brother, Rev. and Dr. Luke Conerly, emigrated from North Carolina, Duplin County. They were sons of Cullen Conerly and Letticia. They married sisters. Owen married Mary and Luke married Rebecca, daughters of William Wilkinson and Elizabeth. The latter left no issue. Owen and Mary were married January 14, 1808, in the town of Fayetteville, N. C., county of Cum- berland. When they came to Mississippi, Owen Conerly purchased all of Ralph Stovall's property at China Grove. Rev. and Dr. Luke Conerly settled near by in Marion County, on the headwaters of the
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Pushepatapa, in the vicinity of Waterholes Church. After this the church house property which had been used by the Baptists, being included in the act of sale, was turned into a Methodist Church. The children of Owen Conerly and Mary Wilkinson were Cullen, William W., John R., Eliza, Owen, Emily, Luke (died early), Rebecca (died early), Cathorine (died early), Mary Jane and James, Melissa and Susan (died early).
Some of the early settlers of Magees Creek, more or less identified with China Grove, were Parish Thompson, James Craft, Zachariah McGraw, Owen Elliott, John Merchant, school teacher and preacher; James Reed, James May, William Reed, Noah Day, chairmaker; Jacob Smith, Joseph May, William Boon, Stephen Ellis and Joseph Newsom.
In 1813 Sartin's Church was established by John Sartin, Joseph Newsom, James Reed, John May, Joseph May, Owen Elliott and Stephen Ellis.
Stephen Ellis was a school teacher and minister of the gospel, and was one of the prime movers for the establishment of a church here, as well as being a pillar of strength to pioneer Methodism in this sec- tion. The house constructed here was built of peeled pine logs and was used as a house of worship, a day school and a Sunday-school, with Stephen Ellis as the minister, teacher and superintendent. This man took such a conspicuous part in the spiritual, intellectual and social upbuilding of Magees Creek that he and his brother, Ezekiel Parke Ellis, afterward district judge of the Florida Parishes, La., deserve more than a passing notice in these reminiscences. They were the sons of John Ellis, born in Virginia, and connected with the Tucker and Randolph families, whose father was a man of great force of character, a planter and a Christian. Their mother was Sarah Johnson, born in Virginia also, and connected with the Kershaw and Lowry families of that State.
John and Sarah Ellis moved to Georgia and thence to Pike County, Mississippi, and afterwards to Louisiana, in the territorial period. The Ellis families of Copiah and adjoining counties are of the same stock. George, John, Reuben, Stephen and William Ellis were names of members of this branch.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
William Millsaps, of Browns Wells; T. J. Millsaps, of Hazlehurst; Mrs. Sally Wadsworth, widow of Rev. Wm. Wadsworth, and Dr. George E. Ellis, of Utica, Miss., are among those recalled as offshoots of the Mississippi branch of the family.
When tidings of the massacre at Fort Mims reached South Missis- sippi Stephen Ellis, still in his teens, joined a company of mounted riflemen, raised in Pike, Marion and adjoining counties, and with this volunteer command served under General Coffee in the little army of Gen. Andrew Jackson, then operating in Alabama and Georgia against the hostile Indians and their British allies. He saw hard service under Coffee, who was Jackson's great cavalry chief, in that fearful wilderness campaign. He participated in the sanguinary battle of the Horse Shoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River, where defeat broke the power and spirit of the Creek Indians for all time, and he took part in other minor engagements, served faithfully until the close of the war and was honorably discharged. He was a fine reconteur and delighted in entertaining his hearers of recollections of Jackson and Coffee, Houston and Davy Crockett, and of the pompous bearing and self-importance of the Choctaw chief, General Pushmataha, one of Jackson's brigadiers.
Stephen Ellis married Mary Magee, sister of John, Hezekiah and William Magee. He moved from Pike County to near Franklinton, in Washington Parish, Louisiana; was a successful planter and man of considerable means. He was a man of deep religious convictions, a preacher of force and earnestness, logical and zealous, and his minis- try resulted in lasting good. He was a great reader, strong thinker and writer. He delighted to teach the young and spent years of his. life thus. He was for years superintendent of education and held other positions of trust. He possessed engaging manners, fine social qualities. He was handsome and happy hearted, content and true in friendship. His only living son is Stephen R. Ellis, of Acadia Parish, Louisiana. His daughters living are Mrs. Melissa Wiggins, of Sharon, Miss., widow of Rev. David M. Wiggins; Mary, widow of Rev. Benj. Impson; Gabriella, widow of Hugh Bateman, and Mrs. Ellen Babington, wife of Robert Babington, of Franklinton, La.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
His descendants include the family names of Ellis, Burris, Wiggins, Simms, Impson, Bateman, Babington, Hartwell, Sykes, Lampton, Bickham, Maggee and others. One daughter, Sara Ellis, married Judge James M. Burris, another Rev. L. A. Simms, and another Jason Bateman. He died at his home near Franklinton about 1869 in the seventy-ninth year of his age, the triumphant death of a Christian, carrying along with him in the eternal hereafter the sweetest recollec- tion of those who survived him.
There are many people yet living in Pike County and elsewhere who remember this good man, who were children then. His beautiful character, his love of children, his zeal in religion and the uplifting and upbuilding of the Methodist Church in Pike County and in Wash- ington Parish are indelibly stamped upon their memories. Tradi- tions of him have gently and sweetly floated down the stream of time-among the descendants of those who clustered about him, from the head waters of Magees Creek to where the earth has been made holy and sacred as his last resting place in Washington Parish, Louisiana.
Ezekiel Parke Ellis lived in Pike County on Magees Creek and taught school also in the early history of the county. He was twelve years younger than his brother Stephen, and therefore figured later on. He married the youngest daughter of Col. Thomas Cargill Warner, who served under Gen. Andrew Jackson at New Orleans in 1814 and 1815, and was judge of the probate court of Washington Parish, Louisiana, for many years.
Ezekiel Ellis became a lawyer and was judge of his district for many years, dying at Amite City in 1884 at the age of seventy-nine years. He, like his illustrious brother, was a man of splendid intellect, moral influence and force of character and transmitted his splendid virtues to his sons and daughters. His son, E. John Ellis, was a lawyer and brilliant orator, a man of great personal magnetism, a member of Congress from the Second Louisiana District from 1875 to 1885, dying in Washington City, D. C., in 1889. Stephen D. Ellis, a practicing lawyer at Amite City and Surveyor of the Customs of the Port of New Orleans under President Cleveland, and Thomas Cargill
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Warner Ellis, senior judge of the civil district court of New Orleans, are living. The latter was closely associated with Gov. John McEnery during the celebrated dual government in Louisiana, of Wm. Pitt Kellogg and John McEnery, and took an active part in the overthrow of the disgraceful carpet-bag regime in that State in the reconstruc- tion period. He has always been a man of fine intellect, clear views, legal acumen, an elegant and forceful writer, a true, noble-hearted, lasting friend, and while filling the ardent and responsible position of senior judge of the civil district court of New Orleans has also filled the chair of law lecturer at the Tulane Institute in that city.
EZEKIEL PARK ELLIS
One daughter of Ezekiel Ellis is the widow of Rev. John A. Ellis, of the Mississippi Conference, who was chaplain of the 29th Tennessee Regi- ment of the Confederate States Army. The above named sons all served honorably through the Civil War, in the Army of Tennessee. It is the splendid qualities possessed by such men as Stephen and Ezekiel Ellis and transmitted by them to their descendants that has thrown around the early history of Pike County a halo of romance, and gives to the Writer of this epoch an inspiration and a labor of love.
During this early period of China Grove there were few postoffices, mostly located at the county seats of justice. There was none at China Grove until 1836, when the first postoffice was located through the efforts of Col. William B. Ligon at his plantation on Magees Creek, ยท a few miles south of China Grove, and he made postmaster. It was given the name of China Grove postoffice through him. It was subse- quently moved to Raiford's store, three miles nearer to the church,
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
and afterwards, in the fifties, to Packwood's store, about three- quarters of a mile south of the church. China Grove is about equi- distant from Holmesville and Columbia, and the residence of Owen Conerly being located at the crossing of the Monticello and Covington road and the Holmesville-Columbia road, made it a central and con- venient stopping place for travelers. Owen Conerly and Mary Wilkin- son raised five sons: John R. (Jackie), Cullen, William, Owen and James, and three daughters: Eliza, Emily and Mary Jane, and they all became settlers on Magees Creek or near it. Owen Conerly, Sr., kept his mill in operation attended by his son, Owen, Jr., until his death, about 1848, after which the property was sold at administra- tor's sale and fell in the hands of Needham B. Raiford, the Methodist minister, who at that time filled the pulpit at China Grove. Owen Conerly, Sr., and his brother, Luke, were among the organizers and principal supporters of the Methodist Church at this place up to the death of the former and the removal of the latter to Western Louisiana, in 1848.
After the sale of his father's China Grove property and the mill, Owen Conerly, Jr., having purchased a place higher up on Magees Creek, settled by John Gordon in 1817, erected a saw, grist mill and cotton gin. He sold a portion of this property to Thomas J. Con- nally, a blacksmith, who named these places " 'Possum Trot," from which the 'Possum Trot road leading from there to Tylertown derived its name.
In 1812 Peter Sandifer came from South Carolina on pack horses and first settled at "Thick Woods" near Baton Rouge, La., and from there he came to Magees Creek and settled a few miles below China Grove on the west side of the creek below Conerly's mills, through which lands the 'Possum Trot road runs. This was in 1820. During that year the noted Pacific-Atlantic hurricane, commencing on the Pacific Ocean, passed through the country to the Atlantic somewhere in North Carolina. It made a swipe through Pike County, striking in from Amite County along a little stream which derived its name, Hurricane Creek, from that circumstance. It struck in and swept over the old McCay settlement near Muddy Springs, where the Spinks
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
PETER SANDIFER IN BEAR FIGHT SCENE ON MAGEE'S CREEK, 1820.
brothers live, following a course a little south of Holmesville and through below China Grove where Peter Sandifer had settled. It was about one-half mile wide and did great damage outside of its central line by the side currents, destroying timber and other things as it passed. It wiped Sandifer's improvements off the face of the earth. Neigh- bors were far apart in those days, but it was customary to help each other in all cases of emergency, so the Magees and Thornhills, lower down on the creek, and others were summoned to his aid. On account of the abundance of bear and panthers, wolves and wild cats, it was
.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
unsafe to leave women and children unprotected. In this instance, as well as others, they took their wives and children, their guns and dogs, along with them. When they reached Sandifer's the men went to work to put up a new house, some cutting blocks and some pine poles and peeling them, and some riving boards, and the women to making preparations for their meals. There was a spring some dis- tance away which afforded water, and the children were sent there for water. When they reached the spring a large black bear had posses- sion of it. . The children were greatly frightened upon meeting the bear so suddenly and their screams brought out the entire fighting force with their guns, knives and dogs. The bear, however, was undismayed and stood his ground against the big pack of trained dogs, and a genuine battle ensued. It was difficult to shoot the bear without endangering the lives of the valuable dogs engaged in the conflict, so the men let the fight go on until finally the bear picked up one of the most valuable of the dogs and proceeded to caress him vigorously while folded in his massive arms. The dog screamed for dear life, and this was too much for the owner and he and others rushed in with their big knives and the battle became one of exciting interest until bruin succumbed at last from loss of blood. This was a noted bear fight, but one among many of such incidents that hap- pened in that section of the county. Magees Creek had a wide, flat bottom, which was in those days covered with a very thick under- growth and wild cane, affording suitable hiding places for these wild animals. In this neighborhood Daniel Burkhalter and his wife, Mary Palmore, had settled on Varnal, which empties into Magees Creek just above Sandifer's. Their settlement was on the hill near the ford where the Holmesville and Columbia road crosses. They owned a negro slave woman who had some children. One was a child just sitting alone, and was left in the yard with the larger child to mind it, while the grown people were out at work. A large, fat coon came up in the yard and caught the little child by the cheek and held on to it. The screams of the children brought the mother to the house to learn the cause and the coon refused to let go. Then the master came and had to choke the coon to death to make it let go the child's cheek.
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HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
The wild animals and birds afforded great sport to the early settlers as well as meat in abundance for their families.
Daniel Burkhalter and Mary Palmore were the parents of Henry, William, John and James Burkhalter, and Eliza, who married Joseph Luter; Cynthia, who married Mike Jones; Mary, who married William Kaigler; Sarah Ann, who married Frank Leland; Louisa; who mar- ried Willis Magee, and subsequently Elbert Magee.
Indian Creek is one of the head streams of Magees Creek, and got its name from being the camping-grounds of the Choctaw Indians. It was first settled by William Boon and his sons later on and by the father of Wiley Elliott, who married Caroline Barr.
William Boon had four sons: John, Richard, Frederick and Skinner Boon. John married Helen M. Sartin.
Joseph Thornhill, who settled in this community in 1812, married Elizabeth Fitzpatrick in South Carolina. The following are the names of their children: Liddy, who married Claiborne Rushing, of lower Magees Creek; Polly, who married Jack Reddy, upper Magees Creek; Evan J., Lucella, John, Hiram, Joseph Patrick and William Thornhill, who was the father of Dr. Jo. M. Thornhill.
Elisha Holmes, Sr., came from Georgia with his wife, Sally Stovall, a sister of Drury, Ralph and Henry Stovall. They settled on Collins Creek in the early part of 1800, contemporaneously with the Magees. They were the original ancestors of the extensive Holmes family in Pike County. They were the parents of the following children: Cole- man, who married Polly Ann Foil, sister of William Foil, from Georgia ; Josiah, who married Agnes Sumrall; Benjamin, who married Mary Sumrall; William, who married Jane Foil, sister of Ann; Jesse, who married Nancy Sumrall; James, who married Nancy Shirley; Cynthia, who married David Brumfield; Betsey, who married Isaac Brumfield; Jennie, who married Willis Brumfield; Elisha, who married Mary Roberts, daughter of David Roberts, from Georgia, and Berry, who never married.
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