USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30
Elisha Holmes, Jr., settled on Varnal Creek and was the father of Thomas H. Holmes, who married Telitha Duncan, daughter of James Duncan and Winnie Carmon. His daughters were Polly, Ellen,
67
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Emily, Harriet and Sarah, who married George Gartman, and Eliza- beth (Betsey), who married Dave Gartman .*
Benjamin Holmes, the husband of Mary Sumrall, settled on the east side of Magees Creek some two miles north of China Grove. He was a farmer and bell manufacturer. He made them by hand in his shop and supplied the people with bells. He raised a large family of boys and girls and was the father of Dave and Capt. John Holmes, the last captain of the Quitman Guards, and Benny Holmes of the same company; James and Needham and Betsey, Mary Ann and Emily. All the Holmes whose names may be found in the rolls of the several military companies of Pike and incorporated in this book sprung from Elisha Holmes, Sr., and Sally Stovall, those glorious old Georgia ancestors, like the rest of them, who first planted themselves in the wilds of the Mississippi Territory, gave to the Confederacy its heroes and its heroines. .
Darbun Creek, one of the head tributaries of Magees Creek, got its name from Colonel McGowan, an eccentric bachelor, who settled there with his brother, Elijah McGowan, in 1815, along with Drury and Henry Stovall, brothers of Ralph Stovall, the founder of the China Grove settlement, Richard Ratliff and Harrison Bracey. They were all slave owners and progressive and successful cotton planters.
Drury Stovall was born in Georgia in 1770, and his wife, Lucey Wright, was born in the same State in 1780. They were married in
*Isaac Duncan, a son of James Duncan and Winnie Carmon, was murdered by some negroes while plowing in his field. He had previously had a difficulty with negroes named Love and Pink Conerly. Subsequently Love was killed in his cabin by some one on the outside at night, his slayer shooting him through a crevice of the cabin. Isaac Duncan was supposed to be the one who did it, but there was no proof of it, and the grand jury failed to find any against him. This led to the murder of Duncan by negroes who slipped up to his fence and hid themselves and then shot him down at his plow. After disabling him and having him cut off from his own gun, they rushed in on him and, though begging for his life, they beat his brains out and left him. Ike Duncan assured this writer that he was innocent of the killing of Love and he has been informed by others in a position to know that he was not guilty of the crime. Ike Duncan was a mason and master of his lodge, and he was buried by that order, and had one of the largest funerals ever known in eastern Pike County. His murderers escaped punishment.
68 .
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
1803. From them came Charles Green, John Lewis, Thomas Peter, William J. and Felix Crawford Stovall. Charles Green Stovall remained in Georgia and the other brothers settled in the Darbun neighborhood and became the direct ancestors of the Stovall Con- federate soldiers.
Harrison Bracey came from South Carolina in 1815 and married Elizabeth McGowan, a sister of Col. James and Elijah McGowan. They were the parents of Sarah, who married William Mellerd; Mary, who married Hugh Craft; Cynthia, who married Needham L. Ball; Rebecca, who married Calvin Ratliff, subsequently wife of Jackson Holmes; Margaret, who married Sherod Gray, and Lucy, who married Mike Pearson, and Washington and Harrison Bracey, Jr. The latter married Louisa Ball, daughter of Jesse Ball, Sr.
Harrison Bracey, Sr., was a nephew of President William Henry Harrison on the mother's side.
Richard Ratliff settled on Darbun in 1817. He married Mary Stovall (called Polly), daughter of Drury Stovall and Lucy Wright, from Georgia. Richard Ratliff and Mary Stovall were the parents of Franklin, Warren, Calvin, Green, Robert (died young) and Simeon R. Ratlift. Richard Ratliff was a large slave owner and acquired con- siderable means as cotton planter and by general farming.
Simeon R. Ratliff, one of the survivors of the Quitman Guard, is the only one of these sons living. He married Joan Ellzey, one of Pike County's most beautiful girls, at the close of the Civil War.
Joel Bullock came from North Carolina and settled in Marion County in 1818. His wife was Rhoda Davies, whom he married before coming to Mississippi. He was related to William and David Bullock, who settled on Clear Creek. They were the parents of Hugh, Quinney, Davies, Thomas, William, Lemuel and Samuel (twins), Richard, Simeon, Joseph, Rhoda, Delia, Eptha and Louisa, who married Mr. Ginn.
Lemuel T. Bullock, who resided on Varnal, married Joan, a daughter of Jerry Smith.
Jake Smith and his wife came from Germany, first to South Caro- lina or Georgia, and then to Mississippi, and settled on the west side
69
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
of Magees Creek, a few miles north of Tylertown, where they lived and died and are buried. Five children were born to them: Daniel, Jacob, John, William and Salena.
Daniel married a Miss Magee. William married Angeline, daughter of John Magee. John married Miss Morgan. Jacob Jr., married -, and Salena married Hugh Ginn. Sarah, a daughter of Jacob-Smith, Jr., married Leander Sartin.
Benjamin Jones came from South Carolina in 1811, and acquired property on Magees Creek in 1818. He was a gunsmith, and married Polly Harvey, daughter of Michael Harvey. They were the parents of Mike Jones, who married Cynthia Burkhalter, daughter of Daniel Burkhalter and Mary Palmore.
Joel Bullock and Rhoda Davies were married in North Carolina, emigrated to Mississippi and settled in Marion County. Hosey Davies, a relative, and Newton Cowart, also came about the same time, also Stephen and John Regan. These people, with Luke Conerly, formed a group or settlement around Waterholes Church, just outside the line formed by the creation of Pike County.
Huey Bullock married Caroline Smith; Quinney married Liddy Graves; Richard, Miss Magee; Lemuel, Joan Smith; daughter of Gen- tleman Jake Smith; Simeon, Nancey L. Williamson; Joseph, Nancy Ann Davis.
William and Davis Bullock, who settled on Clear Creek in 1812, were a branch of this family.
Governor Bullock, of Georgia, brother of Capt. Theodore Roose- velt's wife, mother of Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, belonged to the same family. Another branch settled in Virginia. They were all Irish stock from England, and came to America prior to the Revolutionary War. There was a branch of the Davis (Davies) family who settled in Laurence County. These people were all known for their high integrity, honest purposes-sub- stantial, law-abiding citizens, adhering to the Baptist faith in religion.
Thomas Bullock had two sons: William and John Thomas. John Thomas was a natural-born ventriloquist, which his schoolmates and play fellows learned of him in childhood, playing hide-and-seek. He
70
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Was wild and daring even in his early years, and during the Civil War, by a ruse, he, with twelve young boys, captured 300 Yankee raiders in Laurence County while out on one of their expeditions from Natchez. He had thirteen Confederate flags, made by the women out of such stuff as they could hastily put together to represent the Confederate battle flag, and placed them in position so as to indicate the presence of so many regiments, and by a ruse drew them inside his lines, and when the proper time arrived the color-bearers exhibited their flags and the enemy discovered that they were surrounded without any hope of escape. Bullock rode out to meet them and asked what they proposed to do, surrender or be slaughtered? "It is a question for you to determine instantly or I will fire on you with my entire com- mand." The officer in charge of the raiders saw the thirteen battle flags waving defiantly from the woods and he yielded at once. Bul- lock ordered them to line up and stack their arms, waved for a courier from his battle line, to whom he gave instructions to have General Bullock's ordnance officer to take care of these guns and to send a guard of twelve men to him at once, and with these he escorted the raiders into Confederate headquarters, where they learned to their mortification the trick played on them. His adventurous spirit knew no bounds, and at the close of the Civil War he joined the Texas Rangers and served with them for years and eventually died in the service of the United States Government as a detective.
It is related of him that he got to be such an expert rider and marksman that he could lean down beside his horse's neck, circle at full speed around a tree and girdle it, firing underneath his horse's neck. The writer was a childhood schoolmate with him and per- sonally knew of his ventriloquism and reckless daring.
Michael Harvey came from Georgia. His wife was Mary Clowers. They first settled on Pearl River, in 1808, below Columbia, the same year that his son, Harris Harvey, was born. They afterwards settled near China Grove. Their sons were: Harris, Daniel, Evan, Thomas, Doc, Mike, Pearl, Sr., Jesse and Jack. There was a Pearl Harvey, Jr., son of Harris, who was a member of the Quitman Guards, 16th Missis- sippi Regiment, who died with the measles at Corinth in 1861.
71
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
The Harveys constitute a large family of descendants. Harris Harvey married Liddy Smith, daughter of Jerre Smith. Dan married Melovie, a sister of Liddy. Each of these brothers raised large families of sons and daughters identified with Magees Creek and its vicinity. Evan Harvey owned property near where McComb City was after- wards located, becoming one of the original pioneers and founders of East McComb. Ruth, a daughter of Michael Harvey, married William Walker, a son of John Walker and Mary Gates, who emigrated to Mississippi in 1814. It is claimed that Michael Harvey dug the first well in Pike County, located on the plantation of Irvin R. Quin, near McComb City. The descendants of these people will be spoken of in future pages of this work, with the same generation of others con- stituting the citizenship of Pike County in this interesting period.
William Ravencraft settled in the Territory in the early part of the century on a little stream forming one of the head tributaries of Magees Creek, which took the name of Ravencraft Creek. Like all other pioneer settlers who built grist mills at that period, he brought his millstones with him fixed on an axle like a cart and drawn by an ox or horse. All the millstones we have any record of brought to the Territory from South Carolina, of which water-mills were con- structed in Pike, were transported this way. South Carolina and Georgia in those early days were fruitful of ingenious and skilled mechanics. William Ravencraft was one of this number. He was a fine cabinet-maker, made wagons, chairs, reels, spinning wheels, looms, shuttles, slays and fancy white hickory hamper baskets, some of which are in use to this day. There was a man here then from Copen- hagen, Denmark, named Henry Mundalow, who made it a business to peddle the products of Ravencraft's shop and those of Wiley Rush- ing, living lower down on Magees Creek. Much of the furniture made by these skilled pioneers was transmitted to their descendants and are in use the present day, though worn by frequent scouring with sand to keep them white. The family in Pike without its spinning wheel, reel and loom, prior to the Civil War, was not considered up-to-date. The long distance to markets, the necessity of self- reliance and living on home products, gave the people, men, women
1
72
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
and girls a schooling which, in after years, demanded of them the exer- cise of those heroic virtues that have made them famous throughout the world for sublime fortitude and unparalleled patriotism. William Ravencraft and Wiley Rushings on Magees Creek and the Walkers down on Silver Creek and the Bogue Chitto; John Warren, Jesse Day and John Stogner, Simpson Laurence and others, though poor in purse, are recalled as the mediums, the founders, the grandfathers of these splendid characteristics of the men and women of Pike County in the days and years that tried their souls. In his early childhood the writer visited many of these places of industry along on Magees Creek, and was familiar with their location over a half century ago. The mill that John Warren built for Ralph Stovall in 1817 below China Grove was the home of his infant years. Visiting this spot sixty years later he finds the foundations, and where his childhood feet toddled a veritable wilderness; and the stone that makes the name of William Ravencraft live in history imbedded in the little stream over which it clattered then .* William Ravencraft's property des- cended to his son Joe, who inherited the mechanical genius of his father and kept up the business assisted by his son George during his lifetime. In the meantime the waters of Ravencraft Creek began to fail and the little grist mill being very small and running so slowly, it took a whole night to grind a hopper fall (about a bushel) of corn.
Thomas J. Connally, the blacksmith, afterward known as "Talla- boly," who married Sally McNabb and was living at " 'Possum Trot," told the story on Ravencraft's mill in his shop one day: That being belated one night on business in that section on account of the absence of roads and darkness he got turned round and didn't know which route to pursue. After awhile he heard a dog baying and concluded to go to it, consoling himself that he would probably get a big fat " 'possum" for dinner for Sally and the children. It was only at intervals the dog would bay, boo, woo! boo woo! Coming nearer he heard a clattering noise and the splashing of water, and now and then, boo woo! His heart leaped with joy over the prospect of that
*Since recovered by Elisha Thornhill on Love's Creek, residing on the old Forest homestead.
73
1
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
fat 'possum. He knew Sally and the children would be fed. He could well afford to lay in the woods all night and sleep soundly too with the assurance that Sally would be provided for. When he reached the baying dog he was struck with astonishment. It was Ravencraft's mill doing its nightly work grinding corn into meal, and the dog in the box eating it as it came out of the chute. He would lick it up and then raise his head and eyes heavenward and boo woo for some more meal. Said he, "I wound my way out of the wilder- ness that night a wiser but sad and disappointed man. No 'possum for Sally."
The sons of Owen Conerly, Sr., settled around him in the vicinity of China Grove, except Cullen, who married Levisa Lewis. He bought the Thornhill place in the fork of Magees Creek and Dry Creek. He erected a set of mills, saw, gin and grist, over Dry Creek above its junction with Magees Creek, bought out a store from Garland Hart, and established a postoffice which was called Conerly's post- OWEN CONERLY The Author's Father office. Owen Conerly, Jr., who after the death of his father in 1848, bought the Gordon place two miles north of China Grove, and in 1852 and 1853 built a mill over Magees Creek there, sold it to his brother James; then it passed to Joseph Luter, and is now owned by Mr. Rushing. William and John R. (Jackie) emigrated to Western Louisiana, the former subsequently returning to Pike.
Maj. Owen Conerly, a nephew of Owen, Sr., was a son of John Conerly in North Carolina. He married Susan Tynes and settled near the Marion and Pike County line, east of China Grove. He was
74
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
a wheelwright, carriage maker and farmer, and was noted for keeping a large flock of goats. He raised a large family of children, sons and daughters who have always been identified with that section of Pike. One of the brothers of Maj. O. William Conerly settled on Pearl River. The children of Owen Conerly, Sr., married as follows: Cullen married Levisa Lewis, a daughter of Martin Lewis, of Marion County.
Owen, Jr., married Ann Louisa Stephens, of New Orleans, a daugh- ter of Samuel James Stephens, an eminent Irish linguist and sur- geon, an attache of the staff of Napoleon Bonaparte, and Ann Lawn, daughter of Buxton Lawn and Mary Dawson, or Dorson, of London, England. She was a school teacher, and came out in this region to Joe Kirkland's, who had married an elder sister, and settled on Kirklands Creek. She was a niece of Col. William B. Ligon's wife, Eliza Lawn.
John R. Conerly married Eliza- beth Tines. William married Caroline Starns, with whom he raised James, Jr., and Mark. Two MRS. A. L. CONERLY Wife of Owen Conerly other sons, John and William, who died young. He subsequently married Margaret Connally, daughter of Price Connally, from Georgia, sister to "Tallyboly" and to William Tyler's wife and to George, Crosby, Jack and Rebecca. They had one daughter, Lulu. James Conerly married Mary Lamkin, daughter of Sampson L. Lamkin, the surveyor. Eliza married Jesse Ball, giving him three sons and a daughter-William, Newton and Needham and Rebecca. Lived on Magees Creek. Emily married Daniel Ball, Marion County. Mary Jane first married Jabez Lewis, brother to Cullen's wife, and raised
75
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
one child, Mira, who married Monroe Smith. She afterward, as widow by death, married Benjamin Lampton, son of William Lampton, a brick mason from Kentucky, who made his beginning on a little farm north of Tylertown, formerly Conerly's postoffice.
Gilbert Grubbs came from Georgia. He married Elizabeth Sandi- fer. She was a daughter of Peter Sandifer, Sr., who settled on Magees Creek in 1820, the year of the great Pacific-Atlantic hurricane, and a sister of William, Jackson, Peter, Jr., and Robert. Gilbert settled on Union Creek in the same period with John Warren. He was the father of Benjamin Grubbs, Peter and Gilbert, Jr. Benjamin Was the father of Henry Grubbs. His wife was Ellen Gartman, a daughter of Bartholemew Gartman, from Germany. Bartholemew Gartman's wife was a daughter of Daniel O'Quin, Nellie, from North Carolina. Her brothers were Daniel, Ezekiel and Jehu O'Quin. Bartholemew Gartman and Nellie O'Quin were the parents of George, David, Josiah, John and Perry Gartman and Cynthia, who married Joe Deer; Katie, who married Charles Carter in Louisiana; Mary, who married Elias Smith; Caroline, who married William Grubbs, and Ellen, who mar- ried Benjamin Grubbs.
George Gartman married Sarah Holmes, daughter of Elisha Holmes, Jr.
Henry Grubbs married Lenoir Angeline Ellzey, daughter of Louis Ellzey and Mary Ann Holmes.
Henry Grubbs owns the plantation on Magees Creek settled by a man named Toney about 1798, who sold it to Robert Sandifer, who built the hewed-log house on it now occupied by its present owner. It passed into the hands of his brother John, who sold it to Sampson L. Lamkin, a son of William Lamkin.
John Snead married Mary Gooch in Georgia. They were the parents of Keziah Snead, who was the wife of William Lamkin, the father of Sampson L. Lamkin the surveyor, and John T. Lamkin, the eminent lawyer of Pike County. The tombstones marking the graves of William Lamkin and Mary Gooch Snead can be seen on this place carefully preserved by Henry Grubbs and his wife.
76
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Dr. McAlpin married Cathorine Wilkinson in North Carolina. She was a sister of Mary and Rebecca, wives of Owen, Sr., and Luke Conerly. With Dr. McAlpin she had two sons, Patrick and Mark. Dr. McAlpin dying early, these two boys were raised and educated by Luke Conerly. Cathorine afterwards married Calvin Magee, a Baptist minister, who emigrated to Sabine Parish, Louisiana. Patrick became a school teacher and taught in the little old log schoolhouse at China Grove. It was here that this writer sat upon his knees and learned to know what A and B were, at the point of his little ivory handled penknife. Fanny Conerly, a sister to Owen, Sr., and Luke, married Cullen Duncan, and becoming a widow she married Elijah Turnage. She was the mother of James Duncan. Polly Conerly, another sister, married - Guy, the father of William Guy, ancestors of the Guys in Amite and Pike Counties.
Chelly married a Blunt in Covington County, and another sister married Isaac Newton in Laurence, and they are the ancestors of the Blunts and Newtons in that section of South Mississippi.
Quinney Lewis was a brother of Martin Lewis and Judge Lemuel (Lammy) Lewis, of Marion County. He and his wife, Patsey (Uncle Quinney and Aunt Patty), were contemporaneous with the Conerlys. They were, like them, devout Methodists. Their home was on Magees Creek some four or five miles below China Grove. They were great pillars of the Church here along with the Woodruffs, the Youngbloods, the Conerlys and the Sartins. Quinney Lewis and his devoted wife furnished two able ministers to the Mississippi Conference, Henry P. and William Bryant Lewis, and a number of their descendants. belong to the ministry. They were the parents of Barney Lewis, one of the pioneer newspaper men of Pike County, located at Holmesville with Robert Ligon. Barney Lewis married Keziah, daughter of Sampson L. Lamkin and Narcissa Sessions.
In 1836 Col. Wm. B. Ligon obtained a large tract of land from the Government about five miles south of China Grove and settled there. Colonel Ligon had lived in Covington and owned a line of schooners working through the lakes and plying between Covington, New Orleans and Pensacola. He had taken an active part with Gen. Andrew
77
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
Jackson in 1814 and 1815. He had participated with the American colonists of Texas in their struggle for independence from Mexico, and was wounded in one of the battles. He was a man of consider- able means when he settled here, and engaged in merchandise, farming and keeping the postoffice, which he had named China Grove. He was a native of Virginia, emigrated to South Carolina, thence to New Orleans, and married Eliza Lawn, daughter of Buxton Lawn, of London, England, and Mary Dawson, or Dorson. He had a brother who lived at Rienza in Tishomingo County. The names of his children are Robert, William B., Jr., John, Buxton, Lemuel T. and Charles A., and his daughters were Mary, Elizabeth Ann, Susan and Martha.
Robert married Angeline Bearden; William B., Jr., married Annor Barr and Mary Stovall, second wife; John, Sally J. Moseby, of Jack- son, Hinds County; Buxton, Miss Barrett, of Hinds County; Lemuel Thomas, Mellie Muse, of Louisiana; Charles died a bachelor; Eliza- beth Ann married Lemuel Jackson Quin-their children are as fol- lows: Irvin Alonzo, who married Lizzie Luter; Martha Eliza, died early; Mary Arvazena, wife of Elisha C. Andrews; Lucy Marcella, wife of William Huey; Alice Cornelia, first husband Sam Stuart, second husband Dr. Cole; Laura Virginia, died young; George Nichol- son Quin, who married Sarah Brumfield; John Ligon Quin, who mar- ried Ida, daughter of Giles Lewis; Lemuel Gracey Quin, who married Alice, daughter of Giles Lewis; Nancey Bridges, wife of Luther Burns; Josephus Murray Quin, who married Minnie Shontell; Sarah Eliza- beth, wife of David Burns; Susan, John Shilling and Martha, Dave Ford.
On account of the part taken by him in the independence of Texas, Colonel Ligon was allotted a large tract of land in Texas by the Repub- lic, but he never thought enough of it to prove and claim it. Land at that time being so cheap in Texas it was not considered worth the expense and trouble to acquire the deed. While engaged in the schooner trade between Covington and Pensacola he owned a negro slave who was one of his trusty sailors, but who was subject to trance spells which sometimes lasted for several days. On one trip he employed two new sailors as helpers on the schooner run by the negro, and they
78
HISTORY OF PIKE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI
being ignorant of the nature of these spells thought him dead and threw him overboard, to the great sorrow of his master. He was a Methodist and pillar in the Church, but not demonstrative in religion. He was a man of high character, honorable purposes, a soldier of worth, and as such and a citizen of Pike County has left an untarnished record to be proudly remembered by his descendants.
In these early years of the settlement of Magees Creek we have no record of any doctors except those of the Thomsonian practice. Owen and Luke Conerly and their wives, "Aunt Polly" and "Aunt Becca," as they were called, were usually relied on in all extreme cases except surgery. Dr. Wiley P. Harris was at Holmesville, fifteen and twenty miles distant. Later on Dr. McQueen came from Washington Parish, and eventually Drs. Booth, May and Payne. Composition tea and lobelia was a favorite prescription for fevers, measles, etc., and a great medicine made by the settlers was called "Black Medicine," concocted from the star grass roots, and given as a spring tonic.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.