USA > Mississippi > Pike County > Pike county. Mississippi, 1789-1876: pioneer families and Confederate soldiers, reconstruction and redemption > Part 8
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Benjamin Youngblood, in company with Maj. Benjamin Bickham and John Brumfield, came from South Carolina in 1811. The latter went to Washington Parish. He and wife were detained in Marion County by the birth of his son, Joe, and remained there until their death at the age, respectively, of ninety years.
Quinney Lewis and his wife, Martha, came from North Carolina about 1820 and settled on the east side of Pearl River, fifteen mil 's
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south of Columbia. They remained here for some twenty-three years and associated themselves with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and were devout Christians. In 1843 they moved to Pike County and settled on Magees Creek five miles south of China Grove, and pursued the occupation of farming for twelve or fourteen years and then moved to Holmesville. They were known as Uncle Quinney and Aunty Patty. He was born May 28, 1794, and died on his place near Holmesville in 1881. She was born in 1800 and died in 1875.
They raised six sons, viz .: Barney, the founder and editor of the Holmesville Southron; Martin, Lemuel, Henry P., William Bryant and James W. Lewis.
Their daughters were Celia Ann, who married Warren Alford; Mary Jane, who married Chestine Allen; Abigail married Ralph Regan in 1845; Elizabeth married Hyram Ware, first husband, killed during the Civil War, and John D. Warner, second husband.
Quinney Lewis, with such help as he could get, constructed the old Pine Grove Church, west of Magees Creek, about 1844. He and his wife were ardent workers in the cause of Christianity during their entire lifetime, after their conversion while residing in Marion County. There was not a married couple in Pike County who were manifestly more devoted to each other and to their religion than they were. They took life easy, were always happy and could always find time to go to church, to Sunday-school and to prayer-meeting, and their doors were open for the entertainment of friends on all occasions.
About 1856 two of their sons, Henry P. and William Bryant, were converted to religion and became associated with the Methodist Church. Great spiritual revivals were held at Pine Grove and at China Grove, and it was at the latter place that William Bryant delivered his first exhortation when not more than sixteen years of age, and after this the two brothers became permanently associated with the Mississippi Conference.
WHEN THE STARS FELL.
In 1833 a great meteoric display occurred. There are a few people living in Pike County yet, white and black, who have a vivid recollec-
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tion of this wonderful phenomena. It was on a dark night, and the shower was so great and brilliant as apparently to set the whole heavens ablaze. The ignorant and superstitious were frightened and thought it portended the destruction of the earth, and they resorted to prayer. The event has been handed down and spoken of by those who were living then as "When the stars fell," and many old negroes of the present day date their birth back to that period.
In 1849 and 1850 a temperance organization, known as the Sons of Temperance, was organized and maintained at Holmesville and at China Grove. This organization excluded women as members.
In 1859 and 1860 another temperance organization, known as the Social Circle, sprung into life, taking in boys and girls from fifteen up and men and women.
Martin Lewis, a brother of Quinney Lewis, came from North Caro- lina in 1820. His wife's name was Nancy. They first settled on Ten Mile Creek near Waterholes Church, in Marion County, near the dividing line of Pike. He afterwards moved to Stovall Springs, above Columbia, where he died in 1857. He and his wife had several sons; Samuel, Josiah, Henry, Barney, Jabes and Silas. Josiah married a Miss Smith; Henry's wife was Eliza Faulk.
Joseph May came from South Carolina in the latter part of 1700. He was the father of Joseph May, Jr., who married Clarisa Daughtery from Tennessee, and they settled on the head of Magees Creek on the old homestead yet known as the Jo May place. Their children were Joda, who married Annie Maxwell, of Laurence County; Obed, who married Mary Lenoir, a daughter of Hope Lenoir, of Marion County; Dr. William M. May, whose first wife was Mary Wilson, of New Orleans, La., and second wife Margaret Badon ; Jared B. May, bachelor, Co. E., 16th Miss. Regt., A. N. V .; Robert, who married Narcissa Cooper, daughter of Fleet Cooper, of Laurence County; Satina, who married Robert Bacot; Madaline, who first married Wm. G. Ellzey (Dutch Bill), and being left a widow, married Henry Badon after the Civil War; E. D. May married Rachel Ginn.
James Andrews, who came from Georgia, married Miss McGraw in Pike County. Their children were Thompson, William, Burrell
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and Felix and Minerva, who married Garner Gates and lived in Holmes County.
James Andrews' second wife was Rachel Gullage, and they were the parents of Jack Andrews.
Thompson Andrews married Lizzie Pearson; Burrell married Mary Walker, daughter of John Walker. They were the parents of Elisha C., Thomas J., Wm. Pinkney, John Warren, Zebulon P., James Berkley, Sarah Jane, Rhoda Elizabeth and Charlie Lee ..
James Andrews settled on Bogue Chitto in early 1800.
Thompson Andrews and Lizzie Pearson were the parents of Mar- tha, who married Thomas Brent; James, Mac and Felix.
Felix Andrews, Sr., married Widow Thigpen, of Holmes County, and were the parents of Warren and Wilkes Andrews.
GREAT LAND EXCITEMENT.
In the early fifties a great excitement was started in Pike County by John King. An order had been issued by the Interior Department under statutory provisions authorizing the entry of lands at twelve and one-half cents an acre, giving to all free persons of lawful age the right to purchase 160 acres and as many more acres as he might wish at $1.25 an acre.
A large number of people had squatted on lands under the territor- ial government and under the early State government, and had failed to secure patents. John King suddenly pounced on a few farms and began the work of ousting or trying to remove the original settlers. This procedure not only obtained in Pike, but throughout the State, and the people became aroused. The example of John King was fol- lowed by others, and no man who had failed to apply for a patent on the lands he had settled was safe, or did not feel so, even from his near neighbors. The very fact that anyone of lawful age should secure 160 acres under the "bit law" and thousands of acres more at $1.25, brought about the condition of peril for the homes they had spent so many years in building and placed them at the mercy of land grabbers, who were rushing to the State land office for speculative purposes. The land office was located at Washington, near Natchez, in Adams
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County, to which the people flocked from all parts of the State to enter land and to try to save their homes from the clutches of the speculators and grabbers, who had no regard for squatter sovereignty or rights of first settlement. There never was such an excitement known in the history of the land office. Accommodations could not be had for the large numbers in Natchez and Washington and the vicinities, and the people camped out until they could get a turn at the register. It was a long, slow, tedious siege. Mr. Wm. White- hurst, the receiver, was severely taxed in labor as well as patience. An incident occurred at the land office during this eventfal period which has been transmitted as relating to Pike County. Rev. J. H. Harris, a Methodist minister, who was well known in Pike County, was one of the seekers for real estate from some other portion of the State, and so was Michael Jones, from the head of Varnal Creek in Pike County. Jones got in the line of "take your turn" ahead of Harris, and when his turn came he occupied the attention of the receiver in trying to properly locate his claims to such a length as to wear the patience of those behind. and particularly Harris, who was extermely anxious to get in. Harris composed the following lines and pinned them over the door for the amusement of all the others in line:
Accursed the owl that ate the fowl, And left the bones for Michael Jones; No mortal man hath seen the like Of such a monster, here from Pike.
CHAPTER IV.
John Hart came from England and settled at Newborn in North Carolina. His wife was a Miss Bryant. They raised a son named John Bryant Hart and a daughter named Sally. From Newborn John Bryant Hart went to South Carolina, joined the Colonial Army and engaged in the Revolutionary War against Great Britain with South Carolina troops. He married a Miss Gill and came to Missis-
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sippi Territory in 1800 and settled on the Bogue Chitto River about a mile from Bogue Chitto station. He and his wife raised four sons, James, John, Joseph and Isaiah, who preceded him and settled in the same locality on the Bogue Chitto. Joseph Hart belonged to Andrew Jackson's command in the Florida War against che Seminole Indians. In May, 1861, at the age of seventy years, he joined the Bogue Chitto Guards under command of Capt. R. S. Carter, and was elected second lieutenant and served with distinction through the war.
John Hart married Martha Meredith from Fairfield District, South Carolina. Her father was killed while moving to Mississippi by an Indian at the Chattahoochie River, who threw a chunk at another man, striking him and killing him, which resulted in an Indian killing. The Harts were descendants of Pocahontas stock. John Hart and Martha Meredith were the parents of Dr. R. T. Hart, who married Selena, daughter of Peter A. Quin and Tamentha Gray.
Sherod Gray came from Richmond, Va., about 1820 and married Mary Hamilton, sister of Dr. Hans Hamilton, who was born and raised near Holmesville, where he taught school. He procured land near where Walkers Bridge now stands across Bogue Chitto and built a mill over Loves Creek. He employed a man named Beasley to build his residence, a fine two-story building, on a plan almost identical to those of N. B. Raiford, Owen and Luke Conerly, Christian Hoover, Richard Quin, Gilbert Gibson, Wright B. Leggett, James B. Quin, Henry Quin and others along the Bogue Chitto. They were large two-story buildings with shed roofs on either side dropping below the upper story, sash and blind windows, with rooms on front and back, giving half-front and half-back gallery, usually brick chimney at each end and fireplaces down and upstairs. The upstairs were some- times divided into one large and two small rooms and sometimes a wing was extended from one end of the residence for a dining-room, the kitchen being set back away from it. Some of these old residences are standing yet, notably those of N. B. Raiford, on Magees Creek, and Christian Hoover, east of Bogue Chitto; a number of them were destroyed by fire. The old home of Christian Hoover has one of the finest front-yard gates perhaps ever constructed in Pike County.
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Such houses as these were not constructed by the first settlers. The first were usually made of peeled pine poles, notched in at the corners, for immediate use, then added to. The next grade being double penned, hewed log houses, open entry, front gallery and back and shed rooms. The floors were first made of split punchings or boards, and the roofs were covered with boards weighted down with poles cleated to make them secure.
The children of Sherod Gray and Mary Hamilton were as follows: Margiman, who married Rachel Andrews; Thaddeus, who married Selena Burris; Cicero, who married Isopline Butler; Lemuel, who married Ellen Guinn; Sherod, who married Margaret Bracey; Isaiah, who married Sally Gardner; Cathorine, who married John H. Magee; Eviline, who married Ray Harvey and Ben Crawford, second hus- band; Sophia, who married Reel Thompson and John Hucabee; Selena, who married Hatton Weathersby; Margaret, who married William Jones; Tamentha, who married Peter A. Quin.
Near Sherod Gray's plantation, or on a part of it, was a muck swamp which was a noted resort for dangerous wild animals, such as wild cats, panthers and bear. In the fifties the Gray boys killed a large Bengal tiger in this swamp. While a boy visiting there at this time the writer saw the hide of this animal stretched and tacked on the wall of a building, and it was here that he was afflicted with one of the most violent attacks of the "buck-ague" a mortal ever had, while on a deer drive with Cicero and Sherod Gray and John Colqu- houn. They had fixed it so as to drive the deer to his stand. After awhile the dogs started yelping faintly, but louder grew.
"And faintly farther distant borne,
Was heard the clanging hoof and horn."
The cold chills flashed through the youngster's physical organism. He shuddered. There was a sense of congestion approaching, a smothering and gasping for breath. Presently the deer was seen standing in the open road, within thirty feet of him, mildly looking at him. He became struck with a semi-blindness. He reeled, stag- gered, threw his gun down and it fired somewhere in the direction of
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where this innocent little animal stood looking at him. It was the trying ordeal of his life. He must have drawn blood, but there was no actual proof of it. It is true the dogs set up a more animated yelp, but that was all. The horn sounded a recall, and-
"Back limped, with slow and crippled pace, The sturdy leaders of the chase."
The boys came in to find the would-be hero-of the occasion crest- fallen and sick.
Silver Creek Church (Baptist) was constituted on Silver Creek, near Louisiana line, in 1814, by Thomas Batson, William Iles, William Busby, Silas Bullock, Joshua Stockstill, Loflin Fairchild, William Bond, Henry Bond, John Thompson, Frederick Craft, David Hines, Walter Jacobs and Willis Simmons. Rev. Nathan Morris was called to supply this church as minister July 15, 1816, and was succeeded by Jesse Crawford in 1835.
Still Creek, a small stream forming one of the head tributaries of Tangipahoa, was first settled by William Bagley Like many other sections in Pike at that time it was a wild, outlandish country, a wilderness of wild cane, full of bear, wolves and other dangerous ani- mals. The bear were so bad at times that they would come into the yards at night and attack the hogs in the lots and pens, where they could get at them easier than chasing them through the cane. The men never went out day or night without their guns and knives and dogs. Bagley owned a whisky still and learned the bear's fondness for sweetened whisky, which enabled him to trap many of them. He made peach brandy and corn juice, as the settlers called it. It is related that there was an old lady in the neighborhood whose people had emigrated and brought her from a wheat-growing country and she had a dislike to cornbread. She used to say that she never did like corn in any shape or fashion until Bill Bagley got to making that corn juice; she could manage to worry down a little of it then. Still Creek thus got its name.
William Bagley settled the Powell place, between Still Creek and the Tangipahoa. Bagley acquired considerable wealth here raising
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hogs, cattle and horses, and making corn juice. He sold out his interests in Pike years after his coming and went to Covington, La., to engage in other business, and there died of yellow fever.
John Kaigler came from South Carolina prior to 1810 and settled on that tract of land east of Holmesville, lying between Bogue Chitto and Otopasas, erecting his residence on the latter stream above its junction with Bogue Chitto near. to where the bridge now stands. His wife was Rebecca Wells. She rode horseback part of the time, and he walked, carrying his noted double-barreled shotgun-rifle. They brought all their belongings with them, and had a rough, adven- turous trip. At this place is where Andrew Kaigler was born in 1811, according to the best obtainable evidence which was transmitted from father to son and other members of the family. If this be true it "knocks the honors" off of Joe Tuff Martin's and Wild Bill Smith's claims that they were the first boy children born in Pike County. There were many disputes between them as to which was entitled to the honor on occasions in Holmesville when they would meet around the festive board.
John Kaigler was a hard-working man and careful manager, and the beautiful South Carolina girl who elected to share his perils in the long wilderness tramp from South Carolina to Mississippi was a strong support in laying the foundation and building up their home and fortune.
John Brent, Sr., and William Cothern, Sr., were contemporaneous with John Kaigler and his wife.
Andrew Kaigler married Mary Levisa Noland, born and raised near Woodville in Wilkinson County, where his father had moved, leaving Adam, a trusty negro slave, in charge of his Topisaw planta- tion. Andrew subsequently returned to the original home, where he remained in after life. Their sons were George, Frank, Phillip and Willie, and their daughters Jane and Julia.
A sister of Andrew Kaigler, Rebecca, married John A. Brent, son of John Brent, with whom she had two children, William E. and Fanny Brent, wife of Col. Preston Brent.
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William Cothern settled the Turnipseed place on Topisaw prior to 1815. His wife was Nancy Gates, and they were the parents of Elijah Cothern, whose wife was Cathorine Dunaway, daughter of Jonathan Dunaway, and they were the parents of John, Joseph and William Cothern.
Carters Creek derived its name from John Carter, who settled John Cothern's place and built a mill over that stream above its junction with the Topisaw.
John Brent, Sr., Hezekiah Williams, Thomas Guinea and one of the Newman family were early settlers along on the Topisaw.
Isaac Saddler came to the Mississippi Territory with the Walker family in 1814 and settled on a tract of land which afterward became a part of the Hoover plantation.
Judge Christian Hoover settled his place in 1823. His wife was Mary Newland Nails, and he lived on this place until his death. He served as probate judge of Pike County for several years, and was a Representative and Senator in the General Assembly. He acquired considerable wealth as a cotton planter and owned over a hundred negroes. His sons were William, Thomas and Christian. William was a minister and Chaplain of the 33d Mississippi Regiment, C. S. A. He married Martha S. J. Thompson, near Greensburg, La. Thomas was a lawyer and died young. Christian became a doctor and mar- ried Miss Barnes, of Marion County.
One of Judge Hoover's daughters, Mary, married Benjamin C. Hartwell, from the State of Maine, who came to Jackson in 1836 and settled in Pike County in 1850.
Julia Hoover married Dudley May, from Kentucky, disabled at the battle of Shiloh. Eliza (Dump) Hoover married George K. Spencer, of Columbus, Ga. Nancy Hoover married George Wells, of Amite County. They were the parents of Nannie Wells, left an orphan. Sarah Hoover married Thaddeus C. S. Barr.
Henry Bond and his wife, Miss Muse, came from Georgia and settled on the Balachitto, on what is known as the William Allen place. Their children, Preston, married Annie Muse; Thomas, a Baptist preacher, Rebecca Felder; Henry, Samentha Dickerson; Rebecca, Louis Bal-
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lard; Liddie, Willis Mullins; Betsy, Jesse Barron; Milton Napoleon married Mary C. Wilson and settled in Amite County.
Gabriel Allen was one of the first settlers near Holmesville. He was the father of Felix Allen and was from Tennessee.
Felix Allen was the father of Chestine Allen, who married Jane Lewis, daughter of Quinnie Lewis, and Cathorine, the wife of Westley Kline, the grocery keeper of Holmesville, with his first wife, Cath- orine Williams, who died in Tennessee, he came to Mississippi in 1814 and settled on Bogue Chitto below Silver Creek Church. He had twin daughters, Cathorine and Olivia, born in Tennessee with his first wife. In 1828 he married Olivia M. McGehee, of Amite County.
Wm. M. Allen married Julia McGehee. His second wife was Louisa J. Bickham, daughter of Thomas Carroll Bickham, of Wash- ington Parish.
Mrs. Nancy Bridges, who was the mother of Frank and Linus Bridges, and lived on Leatherwood, was a daughter of Peter Quin, Sr., who came to Pike (then Marion) in 1812, and settled on Topisaw, and sister to Daniel, Peter, Jr., Henry, Richard and Rev. and Dr. Hugh Quin.
Col. Peter Quin, Jr., came to Pike in 1815 and settled at Holmes- ville. He married Martha Cathorine Moore in North Carolina. Her mother was a Miss Murray, sister of the author of Murray's Grammar. Their children were Hugh Murray, Peter C., Irvin Moore, Josephus R., Lemuel J., Selena, wife of Dr. George Nicholson; Cynthia, wife of Dr. Leland; Courtney, wife of Dr. Jesse Wallace, and Dewitt Clinton. .
Daniel Quin, son of Peter, Sr., married Kitty Deer, and they were the parents of Rodney, William, Frank and Emily, wife of Jere- miah Coney.
Henry Quin married Elizabeth Graham, and their children were Peter G. Quin, Arthur and Henry G. and Minerva, wife of General Cain; Amanda, wife of James Garner, Amite County; Mary, wife of Thomas Garner, Amite County; Elizabeth Hugh, wife of Dr. Vincent Jones Wroten.
The following are the children of Dr. Wroten and Elizabeth Hugh Quin: Margaret Elizabeth; William Monroe, who married Eleanor
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Lombard, adopted daughter of Robert Lea, of St. Helena Parish, Louisiana; Dewitt Henry, who married Eliza Sprich; Kate Minerva, wife of Charles E. Davis, of St. Helena Parish, Louisiana; Mary Eloise.
Dr. Vincent J. Wroten was a son of Wiley H. Wroten and Margaret Jones, early pioneers from South Carolina, who settled on Topisaw, where he was born the 2d of May, 1818. He was educated in the common schools of the country, and in his early manhood read medi- cine. He was graduated from the Kentucky Medical College and held a high rank among the members of his profession. He was married to Elizabeth Hugh Quin in 1844, after which he settled on a farm on the Big Tangipahoa River, in the western portion of Pike County, and pursued the practice of medicine in connection with his agri- cultural interests. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was an ardent temperance leader in the latter forties and early fifties, when the Sons of Temperance sprung into existence and the Social Circle temperance organization was estab- lished. He settled in Magnolia in 1872 and represented Pike County in the Legislature that year and in 1873, and was regarded as one of its ablest members. Dr. Wroten was a natural-born gentleman in the true acceptation of the term; polished by education and Christi- anity. He was a peacemaker among men and was sought in counsel by those in trouble. He loved the Church and its fellowship. He sprung from the throng of true nobility that swelled the ever-filling ranks of the new Territory and State of Mississippi in its pioneer days. He left the imprint of his sublime nature behind him and transmitted it to his descendants. He knew no word that would crush another's heart. He was so refined and gentle, so sympathetic, that his great heart melted in the presence of distress or suffering, and the angel of mercy gave to him the sublime attribute of peaceful pleasure in giving relief and comfort to the helpless and distressed. And he has left to his family and friends a name and reputation without blemish.
His son, Dr. William Monroe Wroten, was a member of Stockdale's cavalry, under General Bedford Forest of the Confederate Army, and his name appears on the roll of that company. He succeeded his
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distinguished father in the practice of medicine at Magnolia, where he still resides, and acknowledged to be one of the leading physicians of the county.
Richard Quin, also son of Peter, Sr., married Mary Graham, sister to Henry Quin's wife, and they were the parents of James B. Quin, Peter A., William Monroe, Hillary and Richie.
Col. Peter Quin was a man of broad views, strong character and moral influence. In 1819 he presided as superior justice of the Orphans (probate) Court. He was one of the trustees of the town of Holmesville, under an incorporating act of 1820, and when the Orphans Court system was abolished in 1822 Peter Quin was elected probate judge, being succeeded by Robert Love in 1824. During his incum- bency as superior justice a circumstance known as the Sibley Incident occurred, which has been handed down as part of the judicial pro- ceedings had in the pioneer establishment of law and justice in the new county.
Westley Kline, a son-in-law of Felix Allen, kept a small whisky shop in Holmesville, the first we have any record of in the county. The building was constructed of pine poles, peeled and notched up at the corners. The floor was made of split punching. The roof was also made of poles notched together so as to give it the proper incline. This was covered by long clapboards and weighted down with poles cleated so as to hold them fast. This was the customary way of build- ing houses in the absence of saw mills and nails. The door and window hinges were made of seasoned oak or hickory, and the locks were wooden slide bolts that worked in sockets fastened to the inside of the door and a wire key shaped to suit. Jesse King was a justice of the peace. On one occasion there was a large gathering in Holmes- ville, and Kline's establishment was a popular resort. When night came on Kline was compelled to close, as the law required him to keep an orderly house, and a row had taken place in which Wm. Sibley was concerned. He had left his coat and hat in the grocery, but he succumbed to force of circumstances and took a long snooze under the shadows of the "Widow Phillips," the noted whipping-post (oak tree), that stood on the public square. When he woke up he thought
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