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Cop,y    i 


History  of  Hinds  County 
Mississippi 

1821  -  1922 


Published  in  commemoration  of  the 

centenary  of  the  City  of  Jackson, 

the  capital  of  the  State. 

1821-22  —  1922 


By 
Mrs.  Dunbar  Rowland 

{Eron  O.  Rowland) 


With  the  compliments  of  the 

MISSISSIPPI  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

Dunbar  Rowland, 
Secretary. 

The  Capitol, 

Jackson,  Mississippi, 
March  22,  1922. 


History  of  Hinds  County 
Mississippi 

1821   -  1922 


Published  in  commemoration  of  the 

centenary  of  the  City  of  Jackson, 

the  capital  of  the  State. 

1821  -  22  —  1922 


By 
Mrs.  Dunbar  Rowland 

[Eron  O.  Rowland)^  '}y\oore) 


JONES  PTG.  CO   JACKSON.  MISS 


Dedicated  to  Anne  Mims  Wright  (Mrs.  William  R.) 
and  to  the  men  and  women  of  the  city  of  Jackson  and 
of  Hinds  county  whose  interest  in  the  preservation  of 
the  history  of  their  State  has  been  an  inspiration  to 
the  author. 


PREFACE 

This  history  of  Hinds  county  is  one  of  the  entire  num- 
ber of  histories  of  the  counties  of  Mississippi  that  the  His- 
torical Society  has  undertaken  to  prepare  for  its  readers. 
The  more  advanced  States  have  many  volumes  devoted  to 
county  history.  With  a  few  exceptions  careful  histories 
of  Mississippi  counties  have  not  as  yet  been  prepared,  and 
in  this  collection  the  author  has  endeavored  to  lay  the  foun- 
dation for  all  writers  who  come  after  to  build  upon.  The 
publication  of  the  history  of  Hinds  county  where  the  State 
capital  is  located  seems  at  this  time,  when  the  city  of 
Jackson  is  contemplating  a  celebration  of  its  one  hundredth 
anniversary,  eminently  fitting.  In  fact  both  the  city  and 
county  could  well  celebrate  together,  as  scarcely  a  year 
intervenes  between  their  legislative  natal  days,  the  county 
having  been  established  February  12,  1821,  and  the  city 
November  28,  1821. 

This  work  has  received  the  commendation  of  the  Secre- 
tary and  other  members  of  the  Historical  Society.  Still, 
as  Roosevelt  has  observed  in  other'  phrasing  is  his  history, 
'The  Naval  War  of  1812"  covering  Jackson's  Coast  cam- 
paign against  the  British,  1813-15,  where  there  are  so  many 
opinions  perfect  history  is  not  possible.  The  author,  how- 
ever, has  striven  to  present  the  important  events  that  helped 
to  make  the  history  of  the  county  and  believes  that  the 
subject  has  been  treated  with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy. 
If  any  important  incidents  have  been  overlooked  she  will 
gladly  receive  such  information  for  future  use. 


<! 


HINDS  COUNTY 

Chapter  I 

Though  not  as  old  as  the  counties  formed  from  the 
Natchez  District,  which  was  partly  settled  when  the  coun- 
try was  a  colonial  possession,  Hinds  County,  nevertheless, 
has  a  history  of  great  importance  in  the  annals  of  Mis- 
sissippi. Situated  in  the  west-central  section  of  the  state, 
it  originally  included  a  region  which  had  long  been  a  center 
of  much  speculative  interest,  since  it  was  territory  greatly 
desired  by  the  national  government,  and  also  by  the  people 
of  the  new  state  of  Mississippi.  George  Poindexter,  then 
governor  of  the  state,  having  become  intensely  interested  in 
acquiring  this  large  area  of  land,  exerted  himself  in  every 
possible  manner  in  bringing  about  an  understanding  with  the 
Choctaw  Indians,  looking  to  a  treaty  ceding  it  to  the  United 
States.  In  1820  Congress  appropriated  $20,000  for  the 
expenses  of  the  treaty,  and  the  Mississippi  delegation  in 
Congress  had  proposed  that  Generals  Andrew  Jackson  and 
Thomas  Hinds  be  selected  to  negotiate  a  treaty  with  the 
Indians.  In  accepting.  General  Jackson  said  he  did  so  be- 
cause he  could  refuse  neither  President  Monroe  nor  Mis- 
sissippi. 

While  Jackson  and  Hinds  were  both  influential  with  the 
Choctaws,  no  farther  back  than  the  preceding  April,  when 
the  former  with  Colonels  John  McKee  and  Daniel  Burnet 
had  received  a  commission  from  the  governor  to  treat  with 
the  Indians,  he  had  been  met  with  the  reply  from  Pushmat- 
aha and  Mushula-Tubbee,  Indian  chiefs,  that  they  were  very 
sorry  they  could  not  comply  with  the  request  of  the  Great 
Father.  ''We  wish  to  remain  here,"  said  the  great  chief- 
tains, "where  we  have  grown  up  as  the  herbs  of  the  woods, 
and  do  not  wish  to  be  transplanted  to  another  soil.  These  of 
our  people  who  are  over  the  Mississippi  did  not  go  there  with 
the  consent  of  the  nation ;  they  are  considered  as  strangers, 
they  are  like  wolves."  This  chief  affirmed  that  they  were 
quite  willing  to  have  them  ordered  back.  "I  am  well  ac- 
quainted   with    the    country    contemplated    for    us,"    said 


Pushmataha,  '1  have  often  had  my  feet  bruised  there  by  the 
rough  land."  They  had  decided  that  they  had  no  land  to 
spare.  If  a  man  gave  half  his  garment,  the  other  half  would 
be  of  no  use  to  him.  ''When  we  had  land  to  spare,  we  gave 
it  with  very  little  talk  to  the  commissioners  you  sent  to  us 
at  Tombigboe,  as  children  ought  to  do  to  the  father." 
They  hoped  for  the  continued  protection  of  their  father. 
"When  a  child  wakes  in  the  night,"  he  eloquently  continued, 
'*he  feels  for  the  arms  of  his  father  to  shield  him  from 
danger." 

The  commissioners  were  sorely  disappointed  by  the  re- 
sult. They  had  been  certain  that  the  Six  Towns  were  ready 
to  move,  and  believed  that  only  a  few  half-breeds  had  made 
trouble.  But  the  Indians  were,  at  the  same  time,  endeav- 
oring to  raise  money  to  send  a  delegation  to  Washington 
for  the  purpose  of  retaining  their  lands. 

However,  the  varied  influences  brought  to  bear  made 
them  consent  to  a  discussion  of  the  treaty,  and  after  many 
talks  and  conferences  in  which  everything  possible  was 
said  to  encourage  them  to  join  their  kindred  who  had  mi- 
grated to  the  territory  alloted  them  in  the  West,  the  ces- 
sion took  place  in  October,  1820,  at  Doak's  Stand.  The 
most  distinguished  chiefs  of  the  Choctaw  Nation  met 
the  American  commissioners.  General  Andrew  Jackson,  and 
General  Thomas  Hinds — the  former  an  envoy  of  the  Na- 
tional government  and  the  latter  a  representative  of  the 
State  of  Mississippi,  in  what  they  designated  the  Council 
Square.  These  treaties  were  usually  attended  with  much 
pomp  and  ceremony  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  and  it  is 
stated  that  Generals  Jackson  and  Hinds  appeared  at  the 
council  in  the  full  uniform  of  generals  of  the  United  States 
Army.  The  Indians  were  still  represented  by  the  cele- 
brated medal  chieftains,  Pushmataha  and  Mushula-Tubbee, 
both  of  whom  were  on  the  best  terms  with'  the  American 
plenipotentiaries  and  full  of  admiration  for  the  military 
honors  they  had  won  in  expelling  the  British  from  the  south- 
ern coast  in  the  War  of  1812.  Jackson,  with  his  usual  sa- 
gacity, decided  what  "chord"     he    declared  he  meant  "to 


touch,"  and  asked  that  he  be  authorized  to  show  the  Choc- 
taws  the  actual  bounds  of  the  new  land  where  they  were  to 
be  perpetuated  as  a  nation.  The  government  had  authoriz- 
ed a  promise  of  a  portion  of  the  Quapaw  cession  in  the  Ar- 
kansas Territory.  John  Pitchlyn  and  his  son,  the  former  an 
official  United  States  interpreter,  were  crafty  abettors  of 
the  treaty  and  represented  to  Jackson  that  Pushmataha  and 
Mushula-Tubbee  were  now  delighted  to  meet  him. 

The  Encyclopedia  of  Mississippi  History  contains  the 
following  account  of  the  memorable  treaty,  which  is  given  in 
full  on  account  of  its  importance  in  the  early  history  of  not 
only  Hinds  county,  but  of  so  many  other  counties  which 
have  been  carved  out  of  it : 

'The  great  council  was  called  to  meet  October  1st,  at 
a  council  ground  on  the  Natchez  Trace,  (between  Natchez 
and  Tennessee),  near  Doak's  Stand,  a  tavern  about  four 
miles  north  of  Pearl  River  in  what  is  now  the  southeast 
corner  of  Madison  county.  William  Eastin  was  appointed 
commissary  and  Samuel  R.  Overton  secretary,  and  Jackson 
and  suite  set  out  from  Nashville  September  14, 1820,  reach- 
ing Doak's  Stand  on  the  28th,  where  they  were  joined  two 
days  later  by  Hinds  and  McKee  and  a  squad  of  soldiers 
under  Lieut.  Graham.  The  commissioners  removed  to  the 
treaty  ground,  about  half  a  mile  below  Doak's,  October  2, 
and  a  few  Indians  came  in  that  evening.  There  was  soon 
evidence  that  some  white  men  and  half  breeds  had  formed 
a  combination  to  prevent;  a  treaty  and  Jackson  and  Hinds 
sent  out  a  talk  urging  the  nation  that  they  must  come  and 
hear  the  talk  from  their  father  or  he  might  never  speak 
again. 

'Tuchshenubbee  and  his  men  were  particularly  offish. 
Mushula-Tubbee  was  on  hand,  but  with  few  followers. 
Gradually  a  better  feeling  grew,  and  after  a  great  ball 
game,  October  9,  the  talk  was  begun.  Three  formal  talks 
were  made  by  General  Jackson;  the  Indians  were  in  long 
and  confused  deliberation  by  themselves,  and  finally  on  the 
18th  of  October,  1820,  the  treaty  prepared  by  Jackson  was 
accepted  and  signed  by  the  mingoes,  headmen  and  war- 


—  8  — 

riors  present.  The  old  chief  Puchshenubbee  was  the  last 
to  yield,  and  an  attempt  was  made  by  some  of  his  people 
to  depose  him.  'Donations'  of  $500  each  were  made  to  him 
and  the  other  two  mingoes  and  John  Pitchlyn,  and  smaller 
amounts  to  others  of  influence,  amounting  to  $4,675,  of 
which  the  ball  players  got  only  $8.  October  22,  Jackson 
and  his  party  started  on  the  return  to  Nashville. 

*The  treaty  was  made,  as  appears  from  the  preamble, 
to  promote  the  civilization  of  the  Choctaws  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools,  and  to  perpetuate  them  as  a  nation  by 
exchange  of  a  part  of  their  land  for  a  country  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  The  nation  ceded  all  within  the  following 
limits:  'Beginning  on  the  Choctaw  boundary  east  of  Pearl 
river,  at  a  point  due  south  of  the  White  Oak  Spring,  on  the 
old  Indian  path;  thence  north  to  said  spring;  thence  north- 
wardly to  a  black  oak  standing  on  the  Natchez  road,  about 
four  poles  eastwardly  from  Doak's  fence,  marked  A.  J.  and 
blazed,  with  two  large  pines  and  a  black  oak  standing  near 
thereto  and  marked  as  pointers ;  thence  a  straight  line  to 
the  head  of  Black  creek  or  Bogue  Loosa ;  thence  down  Black 
creek  to  a  small  lake ;  thence  a  direct  course  so  as  to  strike 
the  Mississippi  one  mile  below  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas 
river ;  thence  down  the  Mississippi  to  our  boundary ;  thence 
round  and  along  the  same  to  the  beginning.'  Roughly 
speaking,  this  is  th^  west  half  of  the  middle  third  of  the 
State,  including  the  south  part  of  the  Yazoo  Delta,  estimated 
at  5,500,000  acres  in  all.  In  consideration  the  United 
States  ceded  to  the  Choctaws  a  region  in  the  west.  The 
Cherokees  had  already  been  traded  lands  in  that  quarter, 
and  the  Choctaw  east  line  was  to  run  from  their  corner  on 
the  Arkansas  river  to  a  point  three  miles  below  the  mouth 
of  Little  river  on  the  Red.  West  of  this  the  Choctaw  do- 
main would  extend,  between  the  Red  and  Canadian,  to  the 
source  of  the  latter.  It  was  provided  that  the  boundaries 
established  'shall  remain  without  alteration,  until  the 
period  at  which  said  nation  shall  become  so  civilized  and 
enlightened  as  to  be  made  citizens  of  the  United  States; 
and  congress  shall  lay  off  a  limited  parcel  of  land  for  the 
benefit  of  each  family  or  individual   in  the  nation.'     Aid 


—  9  — 

was  to  be  given  poor  Indians  who  wished  to  move ;  and  an 
agent,  and  other  assistance  provided  in  the  west;  fifty- 
four  sections  (square  miles)  were  to  be  laid  oif  in  the 
Mississippi  land  ceded,  to  be  sold  to  raise  a  fund  for  the  sup- 
port of  Choctaw  schools  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi 
river;  there  was  another  reservation  promised  to  make  up 
for  the  appropriation  by  some  of  the  chiefs  of  the  $6,000 
education  annuity  for  the  past  sixteen  years.  All  who  had 
separate  settlements,  within  the  area  ceded,  might  remain 
as  owners  of  one  mile  square,  or  sell  at  full  appraised  value; 
compensation  was  to  be  made  for  buildings;  the  warriors 
were  to  be  paid  for  their  services  at  Pensacola;  $200  was 
promised  each  district  for  the  support  of  a  police;  Mushula- 
Tubbee  was  guaranteed  an  annuity  the  same  as  had  been 
paid  his  father. 

"At  the  next  session  of  congress,  $65,000  was  appro- 
priated to  carry  this  treaty  into  effect,  and  in  March, 
1821,  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  secretary  of  war,  notified  the 
Choctaw  agent  at  that  time,  Maj.  William  Ward,  that  he 
was  to  superintend  the  emigration  of  the  Indians.  Blankets, 
rifles  and  other  necessaries,  for  500  were  sent  to  Natchez. 
Edmund  Folsom,  interpreter  for  the  Six  Towns,  had  been 
selected  by  Jackson  and  Hinds  to  collect  those  who  were 
willing  to  go,  and  conduct  them  to  the  promised  land.  Henry 
D.  Downs,  of  Warren  county,  was  appointed  to  survey  the 
land  in  the  west,  and  he  reported  in  December,  that  he 
had  run  the  east  line  of  the  tract. 

"As  soon  as  the  treaty  of  Doak's  Stand  became  known 
in  Arkansas  a  great  protest  was  made.  Congress  yielded 
to  it  and  diverted  the  appropriation  of  $65,000  to  the  mak- 
ing of  a  new  treaty  to  change  the  line  to  one  due  south 
from  the  southwest  corner  of  Missouri.  This  had  hardly 
been  done,  when  Arkansas  asked  a  further  extension,  and 
an  act  was  passed  to  move  the  line  forty  miles  west.  But 
the  Choctaws  stood  firmly  on  the  treaty  Jackson  had  made, 
and  the  result  was  the  treaty  of  Washington  in  1825." 

Claiborne  has  characterized  the  southern  Indian  as  a 
born  politician  and  diplomat,  but  little  in  his  dealings  with 


—  10  — 

the  white  people  in  parting  with  his  lands  gives  any  sub- 
stantial proof  that  he  possessed  these  accomplishments  so 
characteristic  of  a  ripe  if  not  an  over-ripe  civilization.  Not- 
withstanding his  fierce  and  cruel  nature,  others  have  repre- 
sented him  as  a  weak  and  credulous  creature,  but  there  was 
not  so  much  of  the  credulous  in  him  as  the  thoughtless 
might  suppose.  While  yielding  when  insidiously  and  per- 
sistently flattered  with  what^  seemed  a  childish  weakness, 
he  was  in  truth  critical  and  i>esentful  and  nursed  a  grievance 
for  the  wrongs  he  endured  from  the  white  people,  traits 
that  are  born  of  too  much  sincerity  for  the  making  of  good 
politicians  and  diplomats. 

The  treaty  of  Doak's  Stand  and  the  removal  of  the  In- 
dians to  the  west,  the  latter  undertaking  having  been 
placed  in  the  hands  of  Maj.  William  Ward,  met  with  much 
approval  by  the  people  of  Mississippi,  and  everywhere  in  the 
older  southern  states  an  intense  interest  was  manifested  in 
the  new  territory  open  for  purchase  and  population.  With 
its  succession  of  dark,  level,  prairies,  rich  valleys  and  heavi- 
ly timbered  tracts  of  valuable  woods,  it  held  out  rare  in- 
ducements not  only  to  the  younger  sons  of  the  large  planters 
of  the  older  southern  states,  but  to  the  wealthy  planters  of 
Mississippi.  Sensible  of  its  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  com- 
missioners who  had  treated  with  the  Indians  so  success- 
fully, the  legislature  which  convened  the  following  Febru- 
ary,  1821,  passed  the  following  resolution: 

^'Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  in  General  Assembly  convened, 
that  the  thanks  of  the  General  Assembly  of  this  state  be 
presented  to  Major-General  Andrew  Jackson  and  our  dis- 
tinguished fellow-citizen,  Major-General  Thomas  Hinds, 
commissioners  plenipotentiary  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  to  treat  with  the  Choctaw  tribe  of  Indians,  for  their 
patriotic  and  indefatigable  exertions  in  effecting  a  treaty 
with  the  said  tribe  of  Indians,  whereby  their  claim  has 
been  extinguished  to  a  large  portion  of  land  within  this 
state." 

The  newly  acquired  territory  was  still  without  a  name 
and  the  legislature  at  the  same  session  on  February  12,  1821, 


—  11  — 

passed  an  act  declaring  that  "all  that  tract  of  land  ceded  to 
the  United  States  by  the  Choctaw  Nation  of  Indians  on  the 
18th  day  of  October,  1820,  and  bounded  as  above  stated,  shall 
be  and  is  hereby  directed  and  established  into  a  new  county, 
which  shall  be  called  and  known  by  the  name  of  Hinds,"  in 
honor  of  General  Thomas  Hinds,  one  of  the  heroes  in  Jack- 
son's Coast  Campaign  against  the  British  in  1813-15.  After 
conferring  upon  it  one  of  the  most  honored  names  of  the 
state,  the  act  placed  the  new  county  of  Hinds  in  the  then 
First  Judicial  District.  On  February  12th,  1821,  an  act 
was  passed  authorizing  Governor  Poindexter  to  issue  a 
proclamation  "ordering  and  directing  the  election  of  a 
sheriif  and  coroner  for  the  county  of  Hinds."  In  this  man- 
ner the  large  county  which  was  so  often  styled  "the  Mother 
of  Counties"  began  its  existence.  Provided  with  a  govern- 
ment and  endowed  with  all  the  necessary  rights  for  func- 
tioning, the  new  county  lacked  only  numbers  in  her  popu- 
lation, the  remaining  Indians  taking  no  part  in  the  affairs 
of  the  state.  The  pleasant  and  beautiful  region,  so  well 
suited  to  agriculture,  was  rapidly  settled  by  a  wealthy 
slave-holding  class,  and  in  the  more  hilly  districts  and  pine 
forests  a  class  of  small  farmers. 

By  January  21,  1823,  the  legislature  saw  fit  to  create 
Yazoo  County  out  of  Hinds,  and  by  the  same  act  the  county 
of  Copiah,  embracing  what  are  now  Copiah  and  Simpson 
Counties  and  a  part  of  Lincoln  County.  A  little  later,  Feb- 
ruary 4,  1828,  Rankin  County  was  created  from  that 
part  of  Hinds  County  then  lying  east  of  Pearl  River.  And 
again  Hinds  County  on  February  5th,  1829,  surrend- 
ered the  fractional  township  7  in  ranges  2  and  3  to  be  at- 
tached to  Madison  County,  which  was  carved  out  of  Yazoo 
County.  These  townships  were  long  thereafter  called  the 
"Stolen  townships,"  because  the  act  excising  them  from 
Hinds  County  was  rushed  through  the  legislature  by  the 
representatives  of  Madison  County  in  the  absence  of  the 
representatives  from  Hinds  county.  The  several  large 
counties  mentioned,  created  from  the  original  territory  ot 
Hinds,  gave  of  their  area  for  the  formation  of  numerous 
other  newer  counties. 


—  12  — 

When  Mississippi  was  admitted  as  a  State  in  1817,  the 
question  of  the  location  of  the  capital  was  a  troublesome 
one.  Washington  and  Natchez,  the  old  capitals,  were  con- 
sidered too  far  from  the  center  of  the  State;  other  towns 
were  anxious  to  have  the  capital  located  in  their  midst.  It 
was  temporarily  arranged  that  Columbia  should  be  the  seat 
of  government ;  at  the  same  time  it  was  decided  that  a  per- 
manent capital  should  be  located  near  the  center  of  the 
State.  In  1821,  the  legislature,  which  met  in  the  court- 
house at  Columbia,  Marion  county,  appointed  commission- 
ers to  select  such  a  place.  Touching  the  important  early 
history  of  the  capital,  the  following  extract  from  the  En- 
cyclopedia of  Mississippi  History  will  be  found  interesting: 

"The  Choctaw  cession  of  1820  provided  a  central  re- 
gion, and  by  act  of  the  legislature  of  February  12,  1821, 
Thomas  Hinds,  James  Patton  and  William  Lattimore  were 
appointed  commissioners  to  locate  within  twenty  miles  of 
the  true  center  of  the  state  the  two  sections  of  land  which 
congress  had  donated  for  a  seat  of  government. 

"Major  Freeman,  the  suveyor,  estimated  that  the  cen- 
ter of  the  State  was  close  to  Doak's  Stand  on  the  Natchez- 
Tennessee  road  and  Choctaw  line,  in  what  is  now  Madison 
county.  Hinds  and  Lattimore,  accompanied  by  Middleton 
Mackay,  guide  and  interpreter,  set  out  from  Columbia  for 
that  spot  November  12.  They  visited  Yellow  Bluff,  but 
found  it  objectionable,  and  decided  there  was  no  desirable 
place  on  the  Big  Black  or  anywhere  within  the  limits  set 
by  the  legislature.  So  they  returned  to  LeFleur's  Bluff, 
ten  miles  south  of  the  Choctaw  agency.  They  had  passed 
this  bluff  going  up  and  were  satisfied  by  the  beautiful  emin- 
ence north  of  and  continuous  with  the  bluff,  falling  east- 
wardly  into  an  extensive  and  fertile  flat,  and  continued  by 
high,  rolling  land  on  the  west.  A  never-failing  spring  of 
pure  water  in  front  of  the  eminence  and  the  good  water  of 
the  creek,  the  fertile  soil,  abundant  timber,  and  evidently 
healthful  air,  added  to  the  attractions.  The  river  was 
navigable — a  keel  boat  had  gone  up  beyond  the  bluff  several 
times,  the  school  section  of  the  township  was  within  a  mile 
of  the  eminence,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  thirty-five  miles 


—  13  — 

south  of  the  center  was  only  a  recommendation  to  the  pres- 
ent population.  In  their  report  to  the  legislature,  Novem- 
ber 20,  1821,  they  suggested  that  this  was  a  favorable  time 
for  the  experiment  of  a  town  on  the  'checker-board  plan'  as 
suggested  by  President  Jefferson  to  Governor  Claiborne, 
seventeen  years  before,  i.  e.,  the  alternate  squares  to  be 
parks.  The  original  manuscript  map  of  Jackson  made  by 
P.  A.  Vandorn,  now  on  file  in  the  Department  of  Archives 
and  History,  follows  that  plan.  On  November  28,  1821,  the 
legislature  ratified  the  choice,  and  authorized  Hinds,  Latti- 
more  and  Peter  A.  Vandorn,  commissioners,  to  locate  two  ad- 
joining half  sections,  and  lay  off  a  town,  to  be  named  Jackson, 
in  honor  of  Major-General  Andrew  Jackson.  To  this  site 
the  offices  were  ordered  removed  by  the  fourth  Monday  of 
November  1822,  when  the  legislature  should  meet  at  the 
new  capital.  In  April  following,  (1822),  Abraham  Defrance, 
of  Washington,  superintendent  of  public  buildings,  re- 
paired to  the  site,  to  begin  operations,  and  he  was 
soon  followed  by  the  three  commissioners,  accom- 
panied by  a  number  of  prospective  settlers.  The 
town  was  laid  off,  with  Capital  green.  Court  green 
and  College  green  parks,  and  various  reservations, 
and  only  ten  lots  were  offered  for  sale,  the  purchasers 
agreeing  to  build  log  or  frame  houses  by  November. 
Among  the  settlers  were  Lieut-Governor  Dickson,  who  was 
appointed  postmaster  in  October;  Joseph  Winn  and  Maj. 
Jones.  B.  M.  Hines  contracted  to  build  a  State  house  of 
brick,  two  stories  high,  40  by  30,  to  be  completed  October 
15,  for  $3,500.  The  clay  for  brick  and  limestone  for  lime 
were  found  close  at  hand.  There  was  an  advertisement  of 
100  lots  to  be  sold  January,  1823.  G.  B.  Crutcher  started 
The  Pearl  River  Gazette,  and  Peter  Isler  the  State  Register,^ 
which  were  the  first  newspapers  published  at  the  State 
capital. 

''In  1829  the  senate  passed  a  bill  to  remove  the  capital 
to  Clinton,  but  it  was  defeated  in  the  house  by  a  tie  vote. 
The  proposition  was  renewed  in  1830,  and  the  house  voted, 
18  to  17,  to  move  to  Port  Gibson,  but  immediately  recon- 

1.   See  Encyclopedia  of  Mississippi   History,   Leake's  Administration. 


—  14  — 

sidered  the  vote,  on  motion  of  M.  Haile,  and  next  day  passed 
the  bill  for  removal,  with  Vicksburg  as  the  lucky  town,  by 
a  vote  of  20  to  16.  No  change  was  made,  however.  In 
the  same  year  H.  Billingsley,  H.  Long,  Samuel  U.  Puckett, 
Daniel  Wafford,  William  Matthews  and  Hiram  Coffee  pro- 
posed to  build  on  Capitol  square  at  Jackson,  a^  State  house 
to  be  worth  $50,000,  for  which  they  would  take  the  entire 
two  sections  of  land  donated  by  the  United  States,  including 
the  town  of  Jackson,  and  the  additional  land  purchased  by 
the  State,  in  lieu  of  the  lots  already  sold.  This  would'  be 
figured  at  $20,000  and  the  State  would  pay  the  balance  in 
three  annual  installments  of  $10,000.  The  proposition  was 
not  accepted.  But  a  State  House,  as  has  been  seen,  was  pro- 
vided for  the  capital  and  the  constitutional  convention  of 
1832  was  held  therein,  the  constitution  establishing  the  cap- 
ital at  Jackson  until  the  year  1850,  after  which  the  legisla- 
ture was  empowered  to  designate  the  permanent  seat  of 
government." 

Time  has  proved  that  the  commissioners  were  right 
in  selecting  an  ideal  site  for  the  capital  of  the  state.  The 
fact  that  it  is  only  thirty-five  miles  south  of  the  center 
of  the  state  was  greatly  in  its  favor.  The  first  State  House 
built  in  the  new  capital  was  a  small  two-story  building  erec- 
ted on  the  site  that  is  now  occupied  by  the  Harding  Building, 
which  belongs  to  the  Baptists  of  Mississippi.  Here  the  con- 
stitutional convention  was  held.  It  was  the  first  State  con- 
stitution in  which  the  new  county  of  Hinds  had  participat- 
ed and  its  delegates  were  David  Dickson,  James  Scott,  and 
Vernon  Hicks.  The  reception  of  General  Andrew  Jackson 
in  1828  and  the  nomination  of  Robert  J.  Walker  for  the 
United  States  Senate  were  other  notable  events  that  oc- 
cured  in  this  building. 

After  another  heated  controversy  in  which  Clinton 
fought  strenously  for  supremacy,^  the  capital  still  re- 
mained on  the  banks  of  Pearl  River,  having,  as  has  been 
stated,  received  the  name  Jackson  in  honor  of  General 
Andrew  Jackson,  of     whom     Mississippians     were  justly 

1.    Only   one   vote,    cast   by   Bailey    Peyton    in   favor   of  Jackson,    deter- 
mined   the   contest. 


—  15  — 

proud.  The  place  before  the  location  of  the  capital  was 
known  as  LeFleurs  Bluff,  Enochs'  factory  being  the  site 
of  the  trading  post  of  Louis  LeFleur.  The  story  of  its 
growth  forms  a  part  of  this  history. 

The  county  of  Hinds,  as  it  exists  today,  has  a  land  sur- 
face of  847  square  miles  and  is  slightly  irregular  in  shape.  It 
is  bounded  on  the  north  by  Yazoo  and  Madison  counties, 
on  the  east  by  Madison  and  Rankin  counties,  on  the  south 
by  Copiah,  and  on  the  west  by  Claiborne  and  Warren  coun- 
ties. 

The  now  extinct  villages  of  Hamburg,  Amsterdam, 
Antibank,  and  Auburn  P.  O.,  were  among  the  earlier  set- 
tlements in  the  county.  Hamburg,  laid  out  in  1826,  had 
a  brief  career  of  only  two  years.  Its  site,  on;  the  Big 
Black  river,  two  miles  north  of  the  present  Alabama  & 
Vicksburg  railroad  crossing,  was  too  marshy  for  a  perma- 
nent town.  Amsterdam  was  located  on  the  bluffs  two  miles 
above  Hamburg,  and  became  a  village  of  importance.  Dur- 
ing high  water  each  year  it  was  visited  by  steam  and  keel 
boats,  and  was  made  a  port  of  entry  by  act  of  Congress. 
About  1832  half  of  its  population  died  of  cholera,  but  the 
place  continued  to  hold  first  place  in  commercial  import- 
ance for  several  years.  Doak's  Stand,  the  old  treaty 
ground,  was  the  first  county  seat  and  for  a  short  time 
Clinton  was  the  county  seat.  On  February  4,  1828,  the 
legislature  ordered  the  election  of  five  commissioners  to 
locate  a  site  for  the  courthouse,  and;  they  were  directed  to 
place  it  in  Clinton  or  within  two  miles  of  the  center  of  the 
county.  The  center,  however,  was  found  within  two  miles 
of  Raymond  and  this  was  marked  by  a  large  stone.  The 
following  year  by  act  of  the  Legislature  Raymond  was 
made  the  county  seat,  its  prestige  causing  the  remark  that 
Raymond  was  the  seat  of  justice,  Clinton,  of  learning,  and 
Amsterdam,  of  commerce.  Clinton  has  made  good  her  title, 
Amsterdam  expired  beneath  the  double  calamity  of  an 
epidemic  of  cholera  and  failing  to  attract  the  new  railroad 
coming  from  Vicksburg  in  her  direction,  while  Raymond 
still  shares  the  honor  of  being  a  seat  of  justice  and  many 


—  16  — 

of  the  old  county  records  are  still  kept  in  her  repositories. 
At  this  place  the  Hinds  County  Gazette  had  its  birth.  The 
county  being  divided  into  two  districts,  courts  are  today 
held  at  both  Raymond  and  Jackson,  the  latter  place  having 
been  selected  as  the  capital  of  the  state  by  the  legislature, 
November  28,  1821. 

Among  the  United  States  senators  of  Mississippi  from 
Hinds  County  before  the  Civil  War  were  Walter  Leake  and 
Henry  S.  Foote.    The  governors  of  Mississippi  from  Hinds 
County  before  the  war  were  Walter  Leake,  John  I.  Guion  j 
and  Henry  S.  Foote,  and  of  these  more  will  be  said  later. 

Hinds  County,  along  with  the  other  counties  of  the 
State,  shared  the  prosperity  that  marked  the  State's 
financial  history  during  these  years.  Cotton,  the  great 
staple  industry,  held  first  place  in  agricultural  products, 
and  about  this  time  Mississippi  was  largely  furnishing  the 
country  with  cotton  for  clothing  and  numerous  other  pur- 
poses. No  county  in  the  State  was  making  greater  pro- 
gress in  the  growth  of  cotton  and  other  products  such  as 
corn,  peas,  syrup,  and  great  varietis  of  fruits  than  Hinds. 
Though  Hinds  at  that  time  had  no  factories  to  speak  of,  a 
coarse  cloth,  woven  on  hand  looms,  shoes,  and  many  other 
necessaries  were  manufactured  on  the  large  plantations 
for  home  consumption,  such  place  taking  on  the  air  of 
small  industrial  colonies.  The  county  began  early  to  pro- 
duce all  the  food  stuffs  used  by  the  people  and  it  has 
been  handed  down  as  a  fact  that  elegant  dinners  were 
given  on  plantations  in  the  county  which  were  prepared  en- 
tirely of  its  products.  It  was  as  early  as  1823  that  Gov- 
ernor Leake  built  at  Clinton,  then  called  Mount  Salus,  a 
handsome  brick  house.  The  brick,  or  else  the  frame  house 
with  its  large  Grecian  columns,  was  the  accustomed  style 
of  house  erected  on  the  large  plantations,  this  style  of 
architecture  having  become  popular  throughout  the  South. 

It  was  during  these  early  years  that  railroads  became 
a  subject  of  the  liveliest  interest  in  the  history  of  Hinds 
County,  but  few  having  been  built,  the  stage  with  its  relay 
of  fresh  horses  was  maintained  on  many  routes.     One  of 


—  17  — 

the  earliest  railroads  built  in  the  county  was  what  is  now 
the  Alabama  &  Vicksburg.  Its  coming  was  an  event 
celebrated  everywhere  in  the  county.  This  road,  before 
the  Civil  War,  owned  and  operated  a  branch  line  from  Bol- 
ton to  Raymond,  wholly  in  Hinds  County,  but  it  was  torn 
up  and  abandoned  at  the  close  of  the  war  in  order  to  obtain 
rails  sufficient  to  rehabilitate  the  main  line. 

The  religious  life  of  the  county  was,  if  anything,  more 
marked  and  characteristic  than  any  other  feature  of  its 
social  progress.  Though  nearly  all  of  the  Virginia  set- 
tlers were  communicants  of  the  Church  of  England,  the 
difficult  service  of  the  Episcopal  Church  prevented  that 
church  from  spreading  and  the  simpler  rituals  of  the 
Methodist  and  Baptist  churches  were  best  suited  for  the 
use  of  a  pioneer  people  of  varied  religious  creeds.  However, 
both  the  Episcopal  and  Presbyterian  churches  entered  the 
county  early  and  established  themselves,  though  in  a  small 
way,  securely,  wherever  they  appeared. 

While  the  better  class  of  people,  especially  the  slave- 
holders, exhibited  a  manner  and  spirit  touched  with  aristo- 
cratic hauteur,  they  possessed  a  deep  inward  piety  which 
was  generally  expressed  with  much  emotionalism,  especial- 
ly on  the  part  of  the  uneducated;  shouting  caused  by  re- 
ligious fervor  and  ecstasy  was  common  to  both  white  and 
black,  and  among  the  poorer  whites  the  "holy  dance"  was 
often  indulged.  Every  neighborhood  had  its  frame  church 
— in  some  instances  classical  in  design — where  not  only  the 
monthly  Sunday  service  was  held,  but  where  protracted 
meetings  were  carried  on  for  a  week  or  more,  all  day  ser- 
vices, with  dinner  at  the  church,  being  frequently  held. 
During  these  revivals,  generally  held  in  midsummer  after 
the  crops  were  'laid  by,"i  attended  by  both  white  and 
black,  the  latter  occupying  a  gallery  built  in  the  back  part 
of  the  church  for  their  especial  use,  the  people  often  gave 
way  to  religious  emotions  of  the  most  remarkable  nature. 
At  the  close  of  the  revival  each  candidate  for  baptism  was 

1,  A    colloquial    expression    still    used    today,     meaning-    that    the    crops 
had  been  cultivated,  awaiting  fruition. 


—  18  — 

expected  to  give  a  faithful  account  of  his  or  her  experience 
which  often  consisted  of  psychic  discoverLas,  such  as  few 
spiritualists  of  today  have  experienced.  The  women  of  the 
South,  even  where  they  themselves  maintained  serenity  and 
poise  in  their  spiritual  experiences,  regarded  these  revela- 
tions with  a  reverent  spirit.  The  men  sometimes  took 
them  with  a  grain  of  salt,  but  as  a  whole  were  deeply  im- 
pressed with  religious  manifestations,  and  the  people  of  no 
section  of  the  Union  more  earnestly  exhibited  depend- 
ence on  divine  Providence  than  the  people  of  whom  we 
write,  nor  exppsssed  in  their  daily  lives  more  reverence  for 
the  Bible. 

The  men  of  Hinds  County,  in  common  with  those  of 
the  entire  State,  early  developed  a  genius  for  politics  and 
public  speaking,  and  rallies,  with  barbecues  and  open-air 
dances,  were  features  of  the  social  life  of  the  county. 
While  its  women  as  a  whole  were  given  to  the  study  of  so- 
cial and  domestic  questions  these  were  not  lacking  in  keen 
interest  in  public  affairs  and  many  were  brilliant  in  conver- 
sation. 

Such  was  the  growth  of  this  transplanted  Anglo-Saxon 
stock,  and  one  versed  in  ethnology  could  easily  trace  its 
kinship  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles. 

The  history  of  the  county  during  the  period  preced- 
ing the  Civil  War  is  one  of  constant  growth  and  expansion 
along  all  lines.  While  its  people,  as  representatives  of  the 
county,  took  no  part  in  the  War  of  1812  for  American  In- 
dependence, many  of  the  sturdy  pioneer  soldiers  who  served 
under  Generals  Andrew  Jackson  and  Ferdinand  L.  Claiborne, 
and  Colonel  Thomas  Hinds,  had  moved  into  the  new  terri- 
tory, purchased  from  the  Indians,  and  their  sons,  inherit- 
ing the  cavalier's  courage  and  chivalrous  spirit,  were  keen 
and  eager  to  respond  when  in  1846  a  call  came  for 
volunteers  to  hasten  to  the  Rio  Grande  to  strength- 
en General  Zachary  Taylor's  army  during  the  War 
with  Mexico.  Companies  E  and  G  were  immediate- 
ly organized  in  Hinds  County.  From  her  large  brown 
loam  plantations,  from  her  small  hillside  farms, 
from       her       white,       many-columned       houses,       and 


—  19  — 

from  her  little  houses  where  the  lilac  and  syringa  bloomed 
by  the  low  window-sill,  her  young  sons,  forgetting  caste,  rank 
and  profession,  answered  the  call  of  country,  just  as  their 
fathers  had  done  when  the  British  attempted  to  invade  the 
South  in  1814-15,  during  the  War  of  1812.  Company  G 
was  commanded  by  Captain  Reuben  N.  Downing,  with  Wil- 
liam H.  Hampton  and  S.  A.  D.  Graves,  lieutenants.  Com- 
pany E  was  commanded  by  Captain  John  L.  McManus,  with 
James  H.  Hughes  and  Crawford  Fletcher,  lieutenants. 
Worthy  and  honored  descendants  of  these  brave  soldiers 
may  still  be  found  in  the  county's  population. 

Companies  E  and  G  formed  a  part  of  the  famous  First 
Mississippi  Regiment  for  the  Mexican  War,  commanded  by 
Colonel  Jefferson  Davis,  with  Alexander  K.  McClung,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel and  A.  B.  Bradford,  Major.  The  courage 
and  valor  of  this  regiment  at  Buena  Vista  and  Monterey 
have  placed  its  deeds  in  the  class  with  the  most  renowned 
military  feats  of  history.  After  a  year's  absence  the  regi- 
ment returned  home,  to  receive  the  plaudits  of  an  admiring 
people.  Its  welcome  home  was  a  statewide  event  and  will 
be  referred  to  again  in  this  sketch. 

But  military  honors,  political  preferment  and  social  di- 
version were  not  all  that  the  happy,  prosperous  people  of  this 
fast-developing  region  sought.  The  county  has  always  led 
in  educational  aspiration  and  advancement.  As  early  as 
1826  the  Hemstead  Academy,  afterwards  by  an  act  ap- 
proved February  5,  1827,  called  Mississippi  Academy, 
was  incorporated  and  located  at  Clinton,  then  Mount  Salus. 
In  1827  under  the  guidance  of  F.  G.  Hopkins  it  began  a  use- 
ful, though  changeful,  career.  A  lottery,  an  institution 
not  then  viewed  with  the  disapproval  it  is  today,  was 
authorized  by  the  trustees  for  its  support.  The  Hinds 
county  college,  at  Clinton,  after  having  failed  by  one  vote 
to  become  the  property  of  the  Methodists  of  Mississippi, 
passed  to  the  control  of  the  Mississippi!  Presbytery,  to  be 
finally  transferred  to  the  Baptists,  becoming  the  sole 
property  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Mississippi  and  known 
throughout  the  United  States  as  Mississippi  College.     Its 


—  20  — 

history  has  been  one  of  marvelous  growth  and  influence  in 
the  State.  Many  other  strong  educational  institutions 
have  been  established  in  the  county  to  which  reference  will 
be  made. 

It  was  about  1840  that  the  county  began  to  enjoy  its 
first  railroad  facilities,  the  prcdecessors  of  the  present 
Alabama  &  Vicksburg  railroad  giving  much-needed  trans- 
portation and  connecting  it  with  the  Mississippi  River  at  the 
city  of  Vicksburg.  The  first  census  report  made  by  John 
A.  Grimball,  secretary  of  state,  gives  the  county  a  popula- 
tion of  5,340  in  1832.     In  1900  it  had  increased  to  52,577. 

A  favored  region  from  the  standpoint  of  climate  and 
fertile  acreage,  settled  under  the  most  favorable  conditions 
by  a  better  class  than  usually  seeks  the  frontiers,  with  a 
well-established  state  government  upon  which  to  lean  and 
possessing  the  means  with  which  to  begin  the  foundations  of 
a  well-ordered  society,  Hinds  County  did  not  meet  with  the 
misfortunes,  hazards  and  catastrophes  that  mark  earlier 
southern  and  western  settlements ;  still,  obstacles  await  any 
conquerors  of  the  wilderness.  It  was  true  that  lurking  foes 
plotting  the  sudden  massacre  had  disappeared,  but  it  is  a 
far  cry  from  dense  forests  through  which  no  road  runs  to 
the  apple  orchard,  the  church  and  the  school-house.  How- 
ever, history  attests  that  the  county  grew  by  leaps  and 
bounds. 

The  general  development  and  progress  of  Hinds 
County,  which  were  so  marked  during  the  period  preceding 
the  Civil  War,  were  due  to  a  large  extent  to  the  fact  that 
the  capital  of  the  State  was  located  within  its  borders. 
Activities  of  a  varied  nature  found  an  outlet  here.  Many 
large  institutions,  both  industrial  and  educational,  sought 
the  capital  city,  and  the  whole  political  history  of  the 
State  colored  its  history.  Since  the  day  of  the  location  of 
the  capital,  it  began  to  be  recognized  as  the  center  of  state 
affairs,  and  indeed  the  rich  section  throughout  this  region 
before  the  Civil  War  was  a  fitting  support  for  any  state 
capital.  Here  the  slave-holder  had  amassed  large  fortunes ; 
villages,  towns,  and  cities  sprang  up,  and  churches,  schools 


—  21  — 

and  play-houses  were  erected,  if  not  plentifully  in  growing 
numbers,  for  the  use  of  as  prosperous  and  happy  people  as 
existed  anywhere  in  the  United  States.  Politics,  both 
State  and  national,  engaged  the  thoughts  of  the  people  to 
a  large  extent  in  this  county  and  it  was  during  these  years 
that  the  gifted  and  erudite  Henry  S.  Foote  met  such 
past  masters  as  Jefferson  Davis  and  S.  S.  Prentiss  in  ora- 
torical contests. 

Among  the  leaders  of  public  affairs  in  Hinds  County  at 
this  period  were  Henry  S.  Foote,^  William  and  George  Yer- 
ger,  William  L.  Sharkey,  Amos  R.  Johnston,  Albert  G. 
Brown,  T.  J.  Walton,  Fulton  Anderson,  Wiley  P.  Harris, 
David  C.  Glenn  and  John  I.  Guion. 


CHAPTER  II 

Questions  in  national  government  were  now  clamoring 
for  settlement  which  remaining  unsettled  too  long  by  gov- 
ernmental procedure,  culminated  in  the  secession  of  the 
Southern  States,  followed  by  as  fierce  civil  war  between 
the  sections  of  the  cleft  Union  as  history  has  ever  record- 
ed. For  the  preliminary  events  of  secession  in  Mississippi, 
a  close  study  is  recommended  of  the  administrations  of 
Matthews,  Guion,  Whitfield,  Foote,  McRae,  McWillie  and 
Pettus.  See  Encyclopedia  of  Mississippi  History,  Volumes 
I  and  H. 

As  a  reflex  of  the  situation,  in  Hinds  County, 
which  was  the  compendium  of  that  throughout  the  State, 
a  brief  summary  with  some  slight  editing  will  be  inserted 
here  from  the  Encyclopedia  of  Mississippi  History  since  the 
act  of  secession  was  enacted  within  the  confines  of  the 
county  and  is  a  part  of  its  history. 

'Tor  many  years  after  the  formation  of  the  Republic 
few  would  have  questioned  the  legal  theory  upon  which 
the  Southern  Commonwealths  based  their  right  to  with- 
draw from  the  Union,  whatever  resistance  might  have  been 

1.  Foote    resigned    when    governor    of    the    State    in    1851    and    went    to 
California  and   from   there   to   Tennessee. 


—  22  — 

offered  to  actual  withdrawal.  The  wise  men  of 
1787  were  forced  to  appease  many  jealousies  and 
to  adjust  many  delicate  situations  before  the  con- 
stitution could  win  the  necessary  support  to  insure 
its  adoption  by  the  States.  This  brought  about 
the  many  well  known  compromises  of  the  constitu- 
tion, together  with  some  significant  omissions  in  the  in- 
strument. If  the  right  of  secession  was  nowhere  mention- 
ed, neither  was  it  negatived;  nor  was  there  anywhere  a 
grant  of  power  to  the  National  government  to  coerce  a  re- 
calcitrant State.  The  prevailing  early  view  of  the  consti- 
tution and  the  nature  of  the  Union  is  well  illustrated  in  the 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions  of  1798 ;  in  the  attitude 
of  those  New  England  States  which  condemned  the  embargo 
laid  upon  shipping  by  the  National  government  in  1808,  de- 
clared it  unconstitutional  and  refused  to  enforce  it;  in 
1812,  when  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  refused  to 
honor  the  requisition  of  the  President  for  the  use  of  ihe 
militia  of  those  States  without  their  borders,  on  the  ground 
that  the  act  of  Congress  authorizing  the  requisition  was  un- 
constitutional ;  in  1828-30,  when  Georgia  refused  to  obey  an 
act  of  Congress  regarding  the  Cherokee  Indians,  and  de- 
fied the  Federal  authority ;  and  finally  in  1832,  when  South 
Carolina  through  State  convention  and  by  legislative  en- 
actment declared  null  and  void  the  tariff  imposed  by  Con- 
gress, and  was  prepared  to  secede  if  necessary.  All  these 
incidents  serve  to  show  that  the  secession  idea  was  no  new 
one.  Those  States  which  finally  seceded  in  1861  justified 
their  course  by  the  claim  that  the  National  Union  was 
formed  by  a  compact  between  independent  States,  each  of 
which  could  judge  for  itself,  whether  the  compact  had  been 
violated,  and  secede  for  such  violation.  A  State,  by  vir- 
tue of  its  individual,  sovereign  right,  could  repeal  or  with- 
draw its  act  of  acceptance  of  the  constitution,  as  the  basis 
or  bond  of  union,  and  resume  the  powers  which  had  been 
delegated  and  enumerated  in  that  instrument.  This  action 
was  that  of  the  people  of  the  State,  in  the  assertion  of  a 
power  above  that  of  Federal  or  State  government. 

"Apart  from  the  legal  grounds  upon  which  the  right 


—  23  — 

of  secession  was  based,  the  interests  of  the  North  and  the 
South  had  grown  widely  apart.  In  the  progress  of  the 
years  the  social  and  economic  development  of  the  two  sec- 
tions had  diverged  more  and  more."  Though  there  were  a 
number  of  abolitionists  in  the  South,i  ^fter  the  fashion 
of  Henry  Clay's  class,  the  South  as  a  whole,  for  the  pres- 
ent at  least,  felt  that  slavery  was  not  only  in  keeping  with 
Biblical  institutions  but  an  indispensible  economic  necessity 
in  the  production  of  its  great  staples,  cotton  and  tobacco — 
products  which  were  the  mainstay  of  her  prosperity;  that 
since  the  constitution  provided  for  its  existence,  only  con- 
stitutional measures  could  or  should  prevent  it ;  that  it  was 
pernicious  intermeddling  for  the  New  England  reformers 
to  condemn  its  practice  when  New  England  had  recognized 
it  herself  but  a  few  years  before,  and  in  finding  such  labor 
more  of  a  burden  than  otherwise  to  a  largely  sterile  sec- 
tion, had  sold  her  slaves  to  the  southern  planters. 

"Many  events  had  tended  to  intensify  the  feeling  be- 
tween the  sections.  The  South  resented  the  charge  of  moral 
guilt  for  the  original  introduction  of  slavery.  There  was 
certainly  no  basis  for  this  charge,  as  the  South  was  no  more 
responsible  than  the  North.  The  commercial  policy  of  Eng- 
land denied  the  colonies  any  choice  in  the  matter;  they 
were  obliged  to  permit  the  slave-trade  and  to  receive  the 
slaves.  Before  the  year  1808  when  the  Federal  constitu- 
tion authorized  Congress  to  act  in  the  matter,  all  the  lead- 
ing Southern  States  had  voluntarily  abolished  the  foreign 
slave-trade.  It  is  a  fact  familiar  to  all  southerners  that 
the  South  only  tolerated  the  domestic  slave-trade,  as  the 
means  for  the  proper  economic  distribution  of  the  slave  pop- 
ulation. General  hatred,  and  social  ostracism  were  the  lot  of 
the  slave-trader,  who  was  more  often  of  New  England  birth 
than  Southern  born.  Again,  the  South  believed  that  the 
people  of  the  North  condoned,  if  they  had  not  actually 
abetted  the  diabolical  acts  of  the  fanatical  and  blood-thirsty 
John  Brown.     Every  southerner  realized  what  a  hideous 

1.  There  was  in  active  operation  in  Mississippi  before  the  Civil  AVar 
a  strong  society  for  the  emancipation  and  colonization  of  the  Negro  in 
Liberia.  The  colony  planted  there  bore  the  name  of  Mississippiana. 
Captain   Isaac   Ross   in  his   will  gave   all   his    slaves   their   freedom. 


—  24  — 

danger  a  slave  insurrection  meant  to  southern  homes.  The 
South  too  felt  and  demanded  that  slavery  was  entitled  to 
statutory  protection  wherever  it  existed  in  the  Territories 
in  obedience  to  the  law  as  enunciated  in  the  Dred  Scott 
decision.  The  failure  of  many  of  the  northern  States  to  en- 
force the  provisions  of  the  fugitive  slave  law  was  espe- 
cially exasperating. 

"Mississippi  was  represented  by  a  brilliant  delegation 
when  the  Democratic  national  convention  met  at  Charles- 
ton, April  23rd,  including  Jeiferson  Davis,  W.  S.  Barry,  L. 
Q.  C.  Lamar,  Charles  Clark,  Jacob  Thompson,  J.  W.  Mat- 
thews and  S.  J.  Gholson.  The  delegation  reported  the  de- 
mand of  Yancey,  that  the  platform  must  declare  for  pro- 
tection by  Congress  of  slave  property,  the  attitude  to  which 
the  Southern  Democrats  had  advanced  from  non-interven- 
tion. This  was  simply  a  demand  for  strict  compliance  with 
the  doctrine  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 

"The  Northwestern  Democrats,  mainly,  rejected  this 
principle  and  a  platform  was  adopted  which  left  slavery  to 
the  voice  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  territories,  which 
was  the  Douglas  policy.^  Thereupon  the  delegations  of 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida  and  Texas,  and  scattering 
members  of  other  delegations,  seceded  from  the  conven- 
tion. The  convention  ballotted  57  times,  but  Douglas  failed 
to  receive  a  two-thirds  vote,  and  it  then  adjourned  to  meet 
at  Baltimore  June  18.  Jefferson  Davis  opposed  this  rup- 
ture, 'because  he  knew  we  could  achieve  a  more  solid  and 
enduring  triumph  by  remaining  in  and  defeating  Douglas 
*  *  *  But  there  was  no  holding  back  such  men  as  General 
Clark,  Thompson,  Matthews  and  Judge  Gholson.  They 
forced  Alabama  to  stand  to  their  instructions  and  then  stood 
by  her.'  (Letter  of  Lamar  to  Mott,  May  29th).  Afterward 
Mr.  Davis  sent  out  an  address  advising  the  return  of  the 
delegates  to  Baltimore,  and  Lamar  signed  it  with  him. 

"At  Baltimore,  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina  refused 
to  participate  unless  all  the  delegates  from  the  seceding 

1.  Under  the  laws  of  the  United  States  the  territories  had  no  author- 
ity to  enact  laws  of  this  nature;  every  issue  opposed  by  the  South  in- 
volved   an    infring-ement    of   the    national    constitution. 


—  25  — 

states  were  admitted.   There  were  contests,  decided  against 
the  anti-Douglas  men,  and  the  Southern  party  again  seceded. 
The  remainder  of  the  convention  nominated  Douglas  for 
president.     The  Southern  party  met  at  Richmond,  adjourned 
back    to      Baltimore,      and     there,     in     June,    nominated 
Breckenridge.  Meanwhile,  in  May,  the  Constitutional  Union 
party,  identical  with  the  Foote  party  in  Mississippi,  had  held 
a  convention  at   Baltimore  and   nominated  John   Bell,   of 
Tennessee.     It  was  mainly  a  Southern  party,  in  fact,  but  had 
hopes  of  national  support.      The  Republican  party  had  a  con- 
vention at  Chicago  in  May  also,  and  nominated  Abraham 
Lincoln.     Thus  there  were  two  Northern  and  two  Southern 
parties.      Both  sets  were     divided  on  the     old  Whig  and 
Democrat  issues,  but  in  the  South  the  actual  issue  betwean 
the  Beckenridge  and  Bell  parties,  was  secession,  as  the  elec- 
tion of  Lincoln  was  considered  certain. 

*Tn  Mississippi  the  Bell  men  denounced  the  Democrats 
as  having  always  bred  dissension  and  never  having  done 
anything  to  heal  it.  If  Breckenridge  and  Douglas  were 
the  only  candidates  the  issue  would  be  the  same,  they  said. 
The  Natchez  Courier  (Whig)  declared  the  Breckenridge 
ticket  was  supported  by  Southern  sectionalism  and 
Buchanan  corruption.  It  asked,  'Will  you  follow  Yancey 
and  his  clique  in  their  mad  scheme  of  precipitating  the 
cotton  States  into  a  revolution  and  bring  upon  yourselves 
the  horrors  and  desolation  of  civil  war?' 

''When  Congress  adjourned,  'Members  from  the  South 
purchased  long-range  guns  to  take  home  with  them,'  says 
Reuben  Davis.  'The  unthinking  among  them  rejoiced  that 
the  end  was  in  sight,  but  those  who  considered  more  deeply 
were  dismayed  by  the  prospect.  It  was  regarded  as  almost 
certain  that  Lincoln  would  be  elected,  unless  Breckenridge 
or  Douglas  could  be  withdrawn  from  the  field,  and  it  was 
idle  to  hope  that  this  could  be  done.'  Giddings,  of  Ohio,  a 
famous  Abolitionist,  demanded  a  candidate  in  opposition 
to  Lincoln,  but  that  movement  had  little  strength  in  the 
North.  'The  presidential  campaign  was,  as  was  inevitable, 
one  of  extraordinary  violence.' 

"The  Breckenridge     electoral     ticket     was  headed  by 


—  26  — 

Henry  T.  Ellett.  The  Bell  ticket  was,  John  C.  Watson, 
Amos  R.  Johnston,  the  last  of  Hinds  County,  T.  B.  Mosely, 
William  A.  Shaw,  W.  B.  Helm,  Sylvanus  Evans,  Gustavus 
H.  Wilcox.  The  Douglas  ticket  was,  Samuel  Smith,  Frank- 
lin Smith,  B.  N.  Kinyon,  R.  W.  Flournoy,  E.  Dismukes, 
Henry  Calhoun,  Edmund  McAllister.  The  campaign  was 
characterized,  as  it  was  in  the  North,  by  considerable  mili- 
tary parade.  The  Union  party  had  its  big  rallies,  at 
Natchez,  Jackson,  Vicksburg,  and  elsewhere,  as  well  as  the 
Democrats,  and  there  were  many  torch  light  processions. 
There  was  a  Union  meeting  ini  Jackson,  early  in  October, 
under  the  management  of  Fulton  Anderson,  Chief  Justice 
Sharkey,  the  Yergers,  R.  L.  Buck  and  many  other  prominent 
men.  But  there  was  not  much  doubt  as  to  what  the  result 
would  be.  In  October  the  Union  men,  knowing  the  settled 
program,  were  calling  attention  to  the  resolutions  of  the 
convention  of  1851,  that  a  convention  was  illegal,  without 
first  letting  the  people  vote  on  the  calling  of  it. 

"Mississippi  gave  an  overwhelming  majority  to 
Breckenridge.  According  to  the  constitutional  method  of 
election,  provided  to  protect  the  States  from  consolidation, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  assured  of  180  electoral  votes,  far  more 
than  all  his  opponents  together.  Bell  carried  39  votes, 
Breckenridge  72,  Douglas  12.  The  popular  vote  of  the 
United  States  was  by  no  means  so  decisive.  Lincoln  re- 
ceived 1,866,452  votes;  Douglas  1,375,157;  Breckenridge, 
847,953;  Bell,  590,631.  The  great  vote  for  Douglas  was  in 
the  North.  The  opposition  vote  to  the  Republicans  was 
2,823,741 — a  majority  of  almost  a  million,  in  a  total 
vote  of  about  four  million  and  a  half.  The  op- 
position to  Lincoln  had  polled  1,288,611  in  the  North  and 
West  alone.  In  Lincoln's  own  state,  Illinois,  the  opposi- 
tion vote  only  lacked  three  thousand  of  that  polled  by  the 
Republicans.  It  was  really  a  narrow  victory,  and  it  was 
the  part  of  wisdom  for  the  Republican  leaders  to  move  cau- 
tiously. 

"Lincoln  had  said  positively  in  1858  in  the  fa- 
mous debate  with     Stephen  A.  Douglas:     T  am  not     nor 


—  27  — 

ever  have  been  in  favor  of  making  voters  or  jurors  of  ne- 
groes, nor  to  qualify  them  to  hold  office,  nor  to  inter- 
marry with  white  people,  and  I  will  say  in  addition  to 
this,  that  there  is  a  physical  difference  between  the  white 
and  black  races,  which  I  believe  will  forever  forbid  the  two 
races  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  political  equal- 
ity.' This  did  not  suit  the  abolitionists  of  the  North  who 
believed  in  the  social  and  political  equality  of  the  races; 
hence,  the  light  vote  Lincoln  received.  After  his  election, 
however,  it  was  generally  accepted  and  largely  true  that 
he  would  be  dominated  by  the  radical  element  of  the  Re- 
publican party. 

''November  13th,  1860,  Governor  Pettus  issued  a 
proclamation  that,  'Whereas,  the  recent  election  of  Messrs. 
Lincoln  and  Hamlin  demonstrates  that  those  who  neither 
reverence  the  Constitution,  obey  the  laws,  nor  reverence 
their  oaths,  have  now  the  power  to  elect  to  the  highest  of- 
fices in  this  Confederacy  men  who  sympathize  with  them  in 
all  their  mad  zeal  to  destroy  the  peace,  prosperity  and  prop- 
erty of  the  Southern  section,  and  will  use  the  power  of  the 
Federal  government  to  defeat  all  the  purposes  for  which  it 
was  formed;  and  whereas,  the  dearest  rights  of  the  people 
depend  for  protection  under  our  constitution  on  the  fidelity 
to  their  oaths  of  those  who  administer  the  government,'  he 
called  the  legislature  to  provide  'surer  and  better  safeguards 
for  the  lives,  liberties  and  property  of  her  citizens  than  have 
been  found,  or  are  hoped  for  in  Black  Republican  oaths.' 
Gov.  Pettus  also  invited  the  Congressional  delegation  to 
meet  him  in  conference  at  Jackson.  All  attended  but  Mc- 
Rae.  Diverse  opinions  were  maintained.  Some  opposed 
separate  State  action  in  secession.  Some  were  opposed  to 
secession,  unless  eight  other  States  would  consent  to  go  out 
at  the  same  time.  Finally  General  Reuben  Davis  proposed 
that  the  governor  should  recommend  a  convention  to  adopt 
an  ordinance  of  secession  to  take  effect  immediately.  This 
was  carried  by  the  votes  of  Governor  Pettus,  0.  R.  Singleton, 
William  Barksdale  and  Reuben  Davis.  The  governor  then 
showed  the  conference  a  telegram  from  the  governor  of 
South  Carolina  asking  advice  as  to  whether  the  South  Caro- 


—  28  — 

lina  ordinance  should  take  effect  immediately  or  on  the  4th 
of  March,  and  the  same  four  votes  were  cast  to  give  the 
advice  'immediately.'  (R.  Davis,  Recollections,  390.  Also 
see  Mayes'  Lamar,  p.  87). 

"When  the  legislature  convened  at  Jackson,  November 
26,  the  message  of  the  governor  was  immediately  delivered. 
Besides  the  members  and  all  State  officials,  hundreds  of 
citizens  of  Hinds  County  were  present,  the  galleries  of  the 
old  Capitol  and  all  available  standing  room  being  packed 
with  eager,  anxious  spectators.  He  declared  they  had  be- 
fore them  'the  greatest  and  most  solemn  question  that  ever 
engaged  the  attention  of  any  legislative  body  on  this  con- 
tinent,' one  that  involved  'the  destiny,  for  weal  or  for  woe, 
of  this  age,  and  all  generations  that  come  after  us,  for  an 
indefinite .  number  of  generations,  the  end  of  which  no 
prophet  can  foretell  *****  That  Mississippi  may  be  en- 
abled to  speak  on  this  grave  subject  in  her  sovereign  ca- 
pacity I  recommend  that  a  convention  be  called,  to  meet 
at  an  early  date.'  He  argued  at  length  the  doctrine  of  a 
reserved  right  of  secession  by  the  States  of  the  Union,  and 
declared  that  this  was  the  great  saving  principle  to  which 
alone  the  Southern  States  could  look  and  live.  In  after 
years  he  said  he  hoped,  after  the  Republican  party  had 
passed  away,  to  come  back  'under  the  benign  influences  of 
a  reunited  government.'  'If  we  falter  now,'  he  said  in  con- 
clusion, 'we  or  our  sons  must  pay  the  penalty  in  future 
years,  of  bloody,  if  not  fruitless,  efforts  to  retrieve  the 
fallen  fortunes  of  the  State,  which  if  finally  unsuccessful 
must  leave  our  fair  land  blighted — cursed  with  Black  Re- 
publican politics  and  the  freed  negro's  morals,  to  become 
a  cesspool  of  vice,  crime  and  infamy.  Can  we  hesitate, 
when  one  bold  resolve,  bravely  executed,  makes  powerless 
the  aggressor,  and  one  united  effort  makes  safe  our  homes? 
May  the  God  of  our  fathers  put  it  into  the  hearts  of  our 
people  to  make  it.'  Among  the  members  of  the  legislature 
a  written  plan  of  a  Confederacy  was  freely  circulated  and 
published  in  the  Mississippian  of  December  4th.  This  be- 
gan with  the  following  instructions:'  'The  States  of  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Florida  are  believed  to  be 


—  29  — 

ready  to  go  out  of  the  Union.     To  these  states,  let  com- 
missioners be  appointed  now  by  the  State.' 

"On  November  28th  the  legislature  passed  the  Con- 
vention bill,  reported  by  Charles  Clark  in  the  house.  It 
provided  that  an  election  of  delegates  to  a  convention 
should  be  helc^  in  each  county,  Thursday,  December  20th, 
each  county  to  have  as  many  delegates  as  it  had  represen- 
tatives in  the  legislature.  Originally  the  bill  would  have 
allowed  any  'citizen'  to  be  a  delegate,  but  the  senate  insert- 
ed an  amendment  requiring  one  year's  residence  in  the  State. 
The  delegates  elected  were  to  meet  at  the  Capitol,  Monday, 
January  7,  1861,  and  'proceed  to  consider  the  then  existing 
relations  between  the  government  of  the  United  States  and 
the  government  and  people  of  the  State  of  Mississippi,  and  to 
adopt  such  measures  of  vindicating  the  sovereignty  of  the 
State,  and  the  protection  of  its  institutions  as  shall  appear 
to  them  to  be  demanded.' 

''On  the  following  day  resolutions  were  adopted  re- 
questing the  governor  to  appoint  Conimissioners  'to  visit 
each  of  the  slave-holding  Stat>3S,'  to  inform  them  of  the 
action  of  the  Mississippi  legislature,  'express  the  earnest 
hope  of  Mississippi  that  those  States  will  co-operate  with 
her  in  the  adoption  of  efficient  measures  for  their  common 
defence  and  safety,'  and  appeal  to  the  governors  to  call  the 
legislature  into  extra  session  where  that  had  not  been  done. 
Another  resolution  requested  the  State  officers  to  prepare 
a  device  for  a  coat  of  arms  for  the  State  of  Mississippi;  to 
be  ready  by  the  7th  of  January.  Delay  was  not  to  the  taste 
of  the  legislature.  Senator  Buck's  resolve  that  it  would  not 
be  proper  to  take  final  action  without  consultation  with  the 
sister  slave-holding  States,  was  lost,  27  to  3.  The  resolu- 
tions adopted  by  a  large  majority,  after  reciting  the 
grounds  for  complaint,  said,  'That  in  the  opinion  of  those 
who  now  constitute  the  State  legislature,  the  secession  of 
each  aggrieved  State  is  the  proper  remedy  for  these  in- 
juries.'   The  legislature  adjourned  November  30. 

"The  governor  appointed  the  following  commissioners, 
who  visited  the  other  States,  and  addressed  the  legislatures 


—  30  — 

and  people :  Henry  Dickinson,  to  Delaware ;  A.  H.  Handy,  to 
Maryland;  Walker  Brooke  and  Fulton  Anderson,  to  Vir- 
ginia; Jacob  Thompson,  to  North  Carolina;  G.  S.  Gaines,  to 
Florida;  W.  L.  Harris  and  Thomas  W.  White,  to  Georgia; 
W.  S.  Featherston,  to  Kentucky;  Thomas  J.  Wharton,  of 
Hinds  County,  to  Tennessee ;  Joseph  W.  Matthews,  to  Ala- 
bama; Daniel  R.  Russell,  to  Missouri;  George  R.  Fall,  to 
Arkansas;  Wirt  Adams,  of  Hinds  County,  to  Louisiana; 
H.  H.  Miller,  to  Texas ;  C.  E.  Hooker,  of  Hinds  County,  to  ■ 
South  Carolina.  Mississippi  was  herself  visited  by  like 
commissioners.  Colonel  Armistead,  from  South  Carolina, 
and  E.  W.  Fettus,  brother  of  the  governor,  from  Alabama, 
attended  the  January  convention.'' 

The  decisive  step  taken  by  the  governor  of  Mississippi 
at  Jackson  stirred  the  people  throughout  the  State.  Hinds 
County  and  the  capital  city  became  the  Mecca  for  all  the 
determined  secessionists  of  the  State.  The  anti-seces- 
sionists, however,  had  a  following  in  the  county,  since 
Foote  had  lived  here  and  had  built  up  a  strong  party.  But 
in-espective  of  partisanship,  there  was  a  wholly  unselfish 
and  sincere  effort  in  the  county  made  by  such  able  leaders 
as  Judge  W.  L.  Sharkey  to  hold  the  Union  together,  to 
which  policy  Jefferson  Davis  clung  until  it  was  clearly  mani- 
fest that  all  reason  had  fled  the  councils  of  both  the  North 
and  the  South  and  that  it  was  now  a  bitter  and  deep-seated 
contention  over  constitutional  guarantees  that  separated  the 
people.  As  for  the  question  of  freeing  the  slaves,  there 
were,  we  repeat,  numerous  abolitionists  in  Mississippi  and 
throughout  the  South,  but  the  voices  of  these  were  quelled 
for  the  time  being  at  least  by  the  cotton  growers  who  consti- 
tuted the  gentry  of  the  State.  And  who  honestly  doubts 
that  the  reformer  of  New  England  would  not  have  been 
crushed  for  some  time  to  come  had  the  sterile  soil  of  New 
England  been  a  rich  one  adapted  to  the  production  of  such 
profitable  staples  as  cotton  and  tobacco?  By  what  pro- 
cesses of  economic  development  involving  self-interest  the 
New  Englander  became  an  abolitionist  en  masse  would 
make  interesting  history,  when  we  consider  that  there  was 
a  time  not  far  back  that  rabid  spirits  among  them  tarred 


—  31  — 

and  feathered  and  often  mobbed  their  neighbors  for  per- 
nicious interference  in  such  pubhc  questions  as  the  preven- 
tion of  slavery.  As  for  the  institution  itself,  there  remains 
to  be  written  a  truthful  history  of  the  Africans'  develop- 
ment and  improvement  from  a  savage  during  the  period 
of  slavery  in  the  Southern  States.  It  is  a  long  distance  to 
go  from  a  life  in  the  open,  engaged  in  the  art  of  trapping 
a  lizard  or  snaring  a  snake  for  sustaining  a  purely  animal 
existence,  to  the  altar  and  hearthstone  and  the  hand  that 
guided  the  feet  of  this  infant  race  and  shielded  it  when 
unable  to  stand  alone,  should  not  be  forgotten  by  the  his- 
torian. 

Returning  to  my  subject,  secession  in  the  State  of 
Mississippi  was,  in  addition  to  its  underlying  seriousness, 
accompanied  with  an  outward  display  of  romantic  fervor 
that  savored  of  the  days  of  chivalry.  As  has  been  observed 
by  the  writer  in  a  former  article,  the  history  of  the 
world  has  furnished  no  more  remarkable  occasion  than  this 
presented,  nor  groups  upon  its  page  a  no  more  unusual  body 
than  that  which  gathered  in  the  Representative  Hall  of  the 
old  State  Capitol  of  Mississippi  on  the  morning  of  January 
7,  1861. 

The  convention  brought  a  group  of  brilliant  men  to 
the  State  capital,  every  section  of  the  commonwealth  being 
represented.  Immediately  after  convening,  it  appointed  a 
committee  to  draft  an  ordinance  of  secession,  from  its 
ablest  leaders,  and  young  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar  was  made  chair- 
man. When  the  ordinance  had  been  read  and  approved, 
intense  excitement  prevailed,  in  the  midst  of  which  a  large, 
blue  silk  flag,  containing  a  single  white  star,  was  brought 
into  the  convention.  The  emblem  had  been  made,  evidently 
for  the  present  occasion,  by  Mrs.  Homer  Smythe,  of  Hinds 
County. 

The  Irish  comedian,  McCarthy,  who  was  filling  an  en- 
gagement at  the  Jackson  theatre,  on  witnessing  the  thrilling 
scene,  returned  to  his  room  and  wrote  the  first  three  verses 
of  the  famous  song  entitled,  "The  Bonnie  Blue  Flag."  These 
verses     were     printed     by  Col.     J.  L.  Power     in  a     city 


—  32  — 

paper  and  next  day  set  to  music  and  a  week 
later  were  heard  in  New  Orleans,  soon  finding  their 
way  throughout  the  country,  gaining  additional  ver- 
ses in  other  Southern  States.  The  same  conven- 
tion that  passed  the  ordinance  of  secession  made  immediate 
preparation  for  war.  Jefferson  Davis  was  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  army  of  Mississippi.  In  the  personnel  of  the 
secession  convention,  Hinds  county  furnished  Wiley  P. 
Harris,  W.  P.  Anderson  and  B.  S.  Smart. 

The  history  of  Hinds  County  during  the  four  years  of 
the  War  for  Southern  Indepsndence  is  closely  inter- 
woven with  the  history  of  the  city  of  Jackson, 
which  is  largely  similar  to  that  of  many  of  the 
war-swept  cities  of  Virginia  and  of  many  other  Southern 
States  during  this  crisis.  The  city  was  partially  burned 
twice,  and  the  surrounding  country  laid  waste  during 
Grant's  second  invasion  of  the  State  in  1863  when  Vicks- 
burg  was  besieged  and  captured.  The  county  as  well  as 
the  city  was  in  a  state  of  constant  excitement  and  action 
for  much  of  the  time  throughout  the  war  and  every  re- 
source it  commanded  was  generously  expended  in  main- 
taining the  Confederacy.  It  was  during  this  crisis  in  the 
history  of  the  county  that  its  women  manifested  a  spirit 
that  has  given  them,  a  secure  place  in  the  history  of  the 
southern  woman,  for  nowhere  in  the  South  were 
they  more  efficient  and  helpful  and  responsive  to  pub- 
lic duty  than  in  Hinds  County,  Mississippi,  and 
throughout  the  State  as  well.  The  economic  interests  of 
the  country  were  largely  in  their  keeping;  the  crops  were 
planted,  tended,  gathered  and  sold  largely  under  their  di- 
rection throughout  the  war,  during  which  time  they  devel- 
oped a  genius  for  economy  and  conservation  unequalled  in 
the  history  of  the  women  of  any  nation.  And  when  one 
considers  under  what  trying  and  perplexing  conditions  she 
met  her  heavy  responsibilities,  the  war  often  at  her  very 
door-sill,  and  the  slaves  left  in  her  care  being  rendered 
restless  and  disloyal  by  the  invading  foe,  the  poise  she 
maintained  as  a  whole  can  be  accounted  for  in  no  other  way 


—  33  — 

but  that  she  had  drunk  deeply  of  the  divine  fountains  that 
nourished  her  civilization. 

The  military  organizations  of  the  county  during  the 
Civil  War  which  had  grown  to  be  strong  and  it  is  admitted 
prideful,  consisted  of  such  famous  companies  as  the  Burt 
Rifles,  Raymond  Fencibles,  Company  A  of  Withers'  Artil- 
lery, Brown  Rebels,  Mississippi  College  Rifles,  Downing 
Rifles  and  Raymond  Minute  Men.  As  each  of  these  com- 
panies joined  their  regiments,  parades,  public  speak- 
ing, and  the  presentation  of  Company  flags  occurred 
frequently  in  the  city  of  Jackson  and  throughout  the  coun- 
ty. Besides  this  quota  of  splendid  young  troops,  officered 
by  such  commanders  as  E.  R.  Burt,  Edward  Fontaine,  James 
C.  Campbell  and  Joseph  F.  Sessions ;  William  H.  Taylor  and 
Cuddy  Thomas;  Samuel  J.  Ridley  and  W.  T.  Ratliff ;  Albert 
G.  Brown,  John  F.  Rimes  and  Robert  Y.  Brown;  Johnson 
W.  Welborn  and  William  H.  Lewis;  Thomas  A.  Mellon  and 
William  E.  Ratliff;  and  Skilt  B.  McCowan,  all  of  Hinds 
County,  the  county  also  gave  to  the  Confederacy  General 
Wirt  Adams  and  General  Richard  Griffith. 

Many  of  the  Hinds  County  troops  served  in  Virginia 
during  the  war.  General  Griffith  being  mortally  wounded 
at  the  battle  of  Seven  Pines  near  Richmond.  His  portrait 
has  not  only  been  placed  in  the  Mississippi  Hall  of  Fame, 
but  hangs  in  the  portrait  gallery  in  Richmond. 

During  the  year  1863  when  thq  resources  of  the  Con- 
federacy were  well-nigh  exhausted.  Hinds  County  became 
an  almost  solid  battleground.  In  the  path  Sherman  made 
through  it  from  the  south  in  Grant's  second  advance  on 
Vicksburg  lie  a  succession  of  battlefields  than  which  no 
more  historic  ground  can  be  found  in  America.  The  broken 
uplands  lying  between  Jackson  and  Vicksburg  in  Hinds 
and  Warren  counties  were  the  scene  of  action  after  the  de- 
structive march  northward  from  Bruinsburg  and  Port  Gibson 
The  battle  near  Raymond,  the  burning  of  Jackson,  the  battles 
of  Champion  Hill  and  Baker's  creek,  the  one  of  Big  Black 
bridge,  and  the  stubborn  resistance  of  Vicksburg,  form  the 
memorable  campaign  that  wrecked  the  Confederacy  in  the 


—  34  — 

lower  South.  In  the  invasion  of  Sherman,  whose  methods 
of  warfare  were  similar  in  some  respects  to  thoso  of  Ger- 
many in  the  great  World  War,  the  county  was  devastated, 
its  homes  burned,  its  food-stuffs  and  live-stock  consumed 
or  destroy«3d. 

It  is  said  by  a  reliable  authority  that  when  General 
Grant  viewed  the  wrecked  country  from  the  front  porch  of 
a  captured  residence,  he  exclaimed  in  aghast  and  sympa- 
thetic tones,  "What  were  the  people  of  this  beautiful  coun- 
try thinking  of  to  go  to  war?"  When  hostilities  ceased 
Hinds  County  was  exhausted  of  every  resource,  with  a 
burned  capital  on  its  hands  for  restoration,  and  her  wide 
plantations,  on  which  were  empty  barns  and  few  horses  and 
mules,  wholly  unprovided  with  reliable  labor.  To  add  to 
the  gloomy  condition,  a  despotic  military  government  was 
instituted  by  Congress  in  the  Southern  States,  from  which 
Mississippi  suffered,  perhaps,  as  much  as  any  State  in  the 
Union,  much  of  the  misfortune  and  catastrophe  having 
Hinds  county  for  the  stage. 

CHAPTER  HI 

A  brief  resume  of  the  political  events  of  the  years 
directly  following  the  War  for  Southern  Independence  will 
be  given  here  as  a  reflex  of  what  was  taking  place  in  this 
county  and  throughout  the  State. 

At  the  outset  on  the  cessation  of  hostilities  Abraham 
Lincoln  said,  and  it  is  safe  to  think  it  would  have  been  his 
policy,  ''Let  us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  re- 
storing the  proper  political  relations  between  those  States 
and  the  Union."  How  far  he  might  have  yielded  to  the 
demands  of  the  extremists  of  his  own  party  is  a  matter 
for  conjecture.  A  close  study  of  his  life  seemingly  reveals 
a  certain  weakness  when  contending  with  the  strong,  deep- 
ly prejudiced  forces  of  his  party. 

In  the  articles  of  capitulation  Jefferson  Davis  had  sug- 
gested certain  plans  and  stipulations  through  Johnston, 
which  had  been  agreed  to  by  Sherman.     These  were  im- 


—  35  — 

mediately  rejected  by  the  United  States  government.  In 
this  plan  of  reconstruction  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  elec- 
tion of  United  States  senators  and  congressmen  were  con- 
sidered all  that  was  necessary  for  restoration  in  the  Union, 
leaving  the  State  government  and  its  congressional  repre- 
sentatives free  to  settle  as  they  thought  best  all  questions 
about  which  the  people  had  gone  to  war.  Charles  Sumner, 
one  of  the  most  rabid  and  prejudiced '  partisans  in  the  sen- 
ate, advanced  a  theory  that  the  seceding  States  had  by 
their  own  act  lost  the  position  of  statehood  and  had  become 
nothing  more  than  conquered  territory,  and  congress 
henceforth  had  power  to  do  with  it  as  it  willed,  and  to  gov- 
ern it  by  military  form  of  government  as  long  as  it  chose. 

This  was  in  keeping  with  the  policy  of  Thaddeus 
Stevens  of  Pennsylvania  in  which  the  theory  was  advanced 
that  the  State  should  be  regarded  as  conquered  individual 
provinces.  To  this  influence  was  due  the  r«3Jection  of  the 
delegation  that  Mississippi  sent  to  Congress.  The  mild  and 
constructive  policy  of  President  Johnson  and  William  H. 
Seward  was  traceable  to  Lincoln,  while  a  close  study  of  the 
policies  of  Sumner  and  Stevens  reveals  a  desire  and 
determination  on  the  part  of  the  jealous  Puritan  to  crush 
the  Cavalier  South.  It  was  part  of  a  feud  centuries  old  trans- 
planted to  a  new  social  atmosphere. 

The  theory  of  the  Mississippi  legislature  in  1866 
was  that  the  moment  the  military  and  all  forcible 
combinations  against  the  laws  and  authority  of  the  United 
States  were  overcome  and  Federal  supremacy  reinstated  and 
law  and  civil  tribunals  replaced,  the  work  of  preserving  the 
Union  was  accomplished  and  the  States  restored  to  their 
proper  places  and  relation  in  it. 

On  June  13,  1865,  President  Johnson  appointed 
Judge  William  L.  Sharkey  of  Hinds  county  provisional  gov- 
ernor of  Mississippi,  who  immediately  issued  a  proclamation 
to  the  people  in  which  he  called  a  convention  for  framing  a 
suitable  constitution  for  the  State  to  meet  the  new  condi- 
tions arising  out  of  the  prohibition  of  slavery.  Hinds 
County  sent  to  this  convention  William  Yerger,  Amos  R. 


—  36  — 

Johnston  and  George  L.  Potter.  The  reconstruction  policy 
of  President  Johnson,  as  it  applied  to  Mississippi,  may  be 
found  in  the  Encyclopedia  of  Mississippi  History,  Sharkey's 
Administration,  vol.  II,  page  653,  and  Humphrey's  Admin- 
istration, vol.  I,  page  893. 

As  bitter  as  their  recent  failure  had  been  to  establish 
Southern  Independence,  the  people  as  a  whole  accepted  the 
result  calmly,  asking  only  to  be  allowed  to  resum-e  Statehood 
with  as  little  friction  as  possible.  General  Grant  was  right 
after  his  Southern  tour  in  saying  that  the  people  were 
anxious  to  set  up  self-government  in  the  Union.  He  was 
mistaken  in  affirming  that  the  people  cared  for  military 
protection  as  it  existed.  Had  it  been  one  of  honest  pur- 
pose and  intent,  it  would  have  proved  highly  beneficial,  but 
its  presence  caused  nearly  all  the  evils  arising  during  the 
period  of  reconstruction. 

The  State's  affairs  were  in  a  ferment  and  every  loyal 
citizen  was  deeply  concerned  as  to  its  future  position.  With 
the  benefits  obtained  by  President  Johnson's  policy  under 
Sharkey's  administration,  Mississippi  made  another  at- 
tempt to  establish  a  government  by  electing  Benjamin  G. 
Humphreys  governor  with  a  full  list  of  State  officials.  This 
constituted  an  honest  and  capable  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
State  to  reorganize  State  government  in  the  Union  and 
the  people  believed  that  they  were  once  more  a  part  of  the 
national  government,  even  though  the  delegation  to  Con- 
gress had  not  been  recognized.  The  Humphreys  adminis- 
tration, however,  though  permitted  for  a  short  time  to 
exist,  after  military  government  was  established,  was  not 
empowered  with  legislation.  The  military,  now  commanded 
by  Gen.  E.  0.  C.  Ord,  in  the  Fourth  District,  embracing 
Hinds  County,  was  in  full  control  of  the  State.  The  opin- 
ion of  Justice  Tarbell,  Welburn  vs.  Mayrant,  48  Miss.,  653, 
was:  "By  no  refinement  of  reason  can  we  escape  the  fact 
that  there  existed  in  the  State  in  1868  a  pure,  undisguised 
military  government  and  the  military  force  was  not  kept 
there  simply  as  a  police  force,  but  was  sent  there  to  govern 
as  well." 


—  37  — 

''General  Ord  had  two  general  duties — to  preserve 
order  and  to  provide  for  the  registering  of  voters  under  the 
new  law  and  an  election  on  the  question  of  a  constitutional 
convention.  The  election  held  and  convention  ordered, 
General  Ord,  after  nine  months'  service,  asked  for  transfer, 
and  was  succeeded  by  General  Alvin  C.  Gillem,  who  took 
command  of  the  District  embracing  Hinds  County,  January 
8,  1868.  The  United  States  troops  in  the  State  at  that 
time  were  the  24th  and  34th  Infantry  and  two  companies 
of  Cavalry,  posted  at  Vicksburg,  Meridian,  Jackson, 
Natchez,  Grenada,  Columbus,  Holly  Springs,  Corinth,  Du- 
rant,  Brookhaven  and  Lauderdale.  Four  more  companies 
were  brought  in  for  fear  of  disorder  at  the  elections.  Gen- 
eral Gillem,  it  is  thought,  greatly  relaxed  the  rigor  of  mili- 
tary rule,  though  hej  made  more  appointments  to  civil  of- 
fice than  did  his  predecessor.  The  constitutional  convention 
of  1868  assembled  at  Jackson  January  9,  1868,  with  17  ne- 
groes among  the  delegates.  The  delegates  from  Hinds 
County  were  Henry  Mayson  (negro) ,  E.  A.  Peyton,  Charles 
Caldwell  (negro),  and  John  Parsons.  It  was,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  a  crude  and  revolutionary  assemblage, 
anxious  to  do  ,so  many  things  that  it  continued  in  session 
115  days.  The  constitution  it  framed  was  submitted  to 
popular  vote  June  22,  1868,  the  first  time  such  a  thing  had 
been  done  in  Mississippi.  Meanwhile  the  Democratic  party 
was  reorganized,  and  all  its  strength  put  into  the  campaign 
against  the  constitution,  and  for  the  election  of  a  governor 
to  succeed  Humphreys." 

The  returned  Confederate  soldiers  bore  the  changed  con- 
ditions with  remarkable  fortitude  tinged  in  hopeless  moods 
with  a  dull  apathy.  But  when  the  safety  of  the  white  civi- 
lization of  the  South  was  menaced,  an  organization  known 
as  the  famous  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  formed  to  protect  society 
and  its  sacred  institutions  during  a  lawless  and  turbulent 
military  reign,  during  which  every  effort  was  made  to  de- 
stroy the  white  race  in  the  South.  When  the  rock-beds  of 
their  civilization  were  assailed,  pledged  not  to  take  up  arms 
against  the  Union,  there  was  no  other  alternative  but  for 
the  Confederate  soldiers  to  become  a  law  unto  themselves. 


—  38- 

The  Klan  that  operated  in  Hinds  County  was  organized 
at  the  State  capital  and  drew  its  membership  from  all 
classes  of  the  best  citizens  of  the  county.  It  is  a  mistake 
to  think  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  disbanded  because  irregularities, 
as  deeply  as  they  deplored  such,  were  committed  in  their 
name.  As  long  as  the  white  civilization  and  its  sacred  in- 
stitutions were  in  danger  of  annihilation,  the  organization 
performed  its  functions  and  so  soon  as  law  and  order  was 
restored  and  a  civil  government  instituted,  they  with  every 
respect  and  confidence  for  this  power,  quietly  disbanded, 
feeling  that  there  was  no  need  of  a  remedy  when  the  disease 
had  passed. 

''June  4,  1868,  Gen.  Gillem  was  succeeded  in  command 
of  the  Fourth  District,  by  order  of  the  president,  by  Gen. 
Irwin  McDowell,  who,  unlike  Ord  and  Gillem,  had  never 
been  on  duty  in  the  State.  On  the  charge  of  opposition  to 
the  Reconstruction  acts,  he  removed  Gov.  Humphreys  from 
office.  Lieut.-Col.  Adelbert  Ames,  of  the  24th  Infantry, 
(brevet  major-general),  was  appointed  provisional  gover- 
nor, the  function  first  exercised  by  Judge  Sharkey.  Other 
changes  were  made.  State  officers  being  supplanted  by  of- 
ficers of  the  regiments  of  the  State  garrison.  (See  Ames 
Prov.  Adm). 

"Another  day  to  the  election  date  was  added  by  Mc- 
Dowell. Before  he  was  able  to  announce  the  result,  how- 
ever, he  was  removed  from  command  and  Gillem  reinstat- 
ed, a  step  which  met  with  popular  approval. 

"Gillem  announced  on  July  10  the  result  of  the  June 
election.     It  showed  that  the  constitution  had  been  rejected. 

"Two  days  before  the  returns  were  completed,  the  Com- 
mittee of  Five,  of  the  constitutional  convention,  reported 
to  the  Reconstruction  committee  of  congress  that  election 
commissioners  had  been  unable  to  discharge  their  duties 
in  some  counties ;  in  others  there  was  a  reign  of  terror  for 
the  purpose  of  intimidation,  and  that  a  sort  of  boycott  had 
been  proclaimed  to  compel  negroes  to  refrain  from  voting 
the  Republican  ticket.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the  truth,  to 
some  extent,  of  all  these  allegations.     Not  more  than  half 


—  39  — 

the  colored  vote  was  cast.  The  Committee  of  Five  re- 
quested Gen.  Gillem  to  investigate  its  charges,  and  upon 
his  refusal  to  do  so,  the  committee  took  rooms  at  the  capi- 
tol,  and  with  closed  doors  took  testimony  to  support  its  posi- 
tion. After  four  months  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
on  November  3  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  the  consti- 
tution adopted  by  a  majority  of  the  legal  votes  cast,  and  the 
Republican  State  ticket  elected  at  the  same  time.  The 
elections  in  Copiah,  Carroll,  Chickasaw,  DeSoto,  Lafayette, 
Rankin  and  Yalobusha  counties  were  declared  to  be  illegal 
and  void  on  account  of  threats,  intimidations,  frauds  and 
violence.  He  also  claimed!  that  two  Republicans  had  been 
elected  to  the  40th  congress,  and  impeached  the  title  of  a 
number  of  members  of  the  legislature  declared  elected  by 
Gen.  Gillem. 

''Meanwhile  the  committee  had  asked  congress  to  sup- 
port this  conclusion.  The  House  passed  a  bill  July  24,  to 
re-assemble  the  convention  to  frame  a  new  constitution, 
but  it  was  rejected  by  the  senate.  A  Republican  State 
convention  was  convened  at  Jackson,  November  25,  which 
memorialized  congress  to  the  same  eifect,  renewed  the 
charges  of  fraud,  and  adopted  an  address  declaring  that  a 
large  party  in  Mississippi,  in  'defiance  of  the  authority,  and 
regardless  of  the  wishes  of  congress,  had  rejected  in  con- 
tempt all  terms  of  restoration,  and  had  assumed  the  right 
to  dictate  the  terms  under  which  they  would  condescend 
to  be  re-admitted  to  the  Union.'  Similar  conventions 
were  held  in  nearly  every  county.  A  committee  of  six  per- 
sons from  the  state  at  large,  and  two  from  each  congres- 
sional district,  were  sent  to  Washington  to  urge  the  adop- 
tion of  this  policy.  There  was  a  hearing  before  the  Re- 
construction committee.  Gov.  Sharkey  testified  that  the 
election  was  fair  so  far  as  he  knew,  that  many  negroes 
voted  voluntarily  with  the  Democrats,  that  there  was  good 
feeling  between  the  races,  and  that  if  again  submitted, 
with  the  proscriptive  features  omitted,  the  constitution 
would  be  adopted.  Gen.  Gillem  had  the  same  view  of  the 
constitution,  and  denied  that  he  had  opposed  the  reconstruc- 
tion measure,  as  charged  against  him.     J.  W.  C.  Watson 


—  40  — 

said  the  people,  though  opposed  to  negro  suffrage,  would 
have  approved  the  constitution  but  for  the  features  of  white 
disfranchisement.  Another  Mississippi  Reconstruction 
party,  among  the  leaders  of  which  were  A.  Warner,  A.  C. 
Fiske,  Judge  Jefford,  J.  L.  Wofford  and  Frederick  Speed, 
nearly  all  Northerners,  opposed  what  they  called  the  Egg- 
leston  clique,  and  favored  the  policy  which  was  afterward 
adopted. 

"While  the  subject  was  yet  before  congress,  Gen.  U.  S. 
Grant  was  inaugurated  as  president,  March  4,  1869.  The 
overwhelming  support  of  Grant  as  a  candidate  in  1868  had 
its  effect  upon  the  situation  in  Mississippi  and  elsewhere, 
as  indicating  the  inevitable.  After  his  inauguration,  presi- 
dent and  congress  pursued  one  policy.  Gen.  Gillem  was 
removed  from  district  command,  and  the  provisional  gov- 
ernor of  Mississippi,  Gen.  Adelbert  Ames,  was  appointed  his 
successor. 

''Just  before  the  Reconstruction  committee  closed  its 
hearings,  A.  G.  Brown,  Judge  SimralL  and  others,  represent- 
ing the  Democratic  party  of  the  State,  appeared  before  it, 
and  were  given  'a  full  and  patient  hearing.'  An  argument 
between  two  of  these  gentlemen  and  two  of  the  Repub- 
lican committee  was  heard  by  President  Grant.  His  con- 
clusion was  that  the  proscriptive  clauses  in  the  constitution 
were  wrong;  that  the  people  could  not  afford  to  have  an- 
other convention,  and  he  suggested  resubmission  with  the 
objectionable  clauses  stricken  out,  which  Brown  and  Sim- 
rail  approved. 

'The  president's  suggestion  carried  weight  with  con- 
gress, which  considered  two  plans  of  re-submission  of  the 
rejected  constitutions  of  Mississippi,  Virginia  and  Texas — 
one  by  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler,  and  the  other  by  General  Farns- 
worth,  of  Illinois.  The  Farnsworth  plan  was  finally 
adopted,  as  the  basis,  amended  by  Senator  Morton,  of  In- 
diana, to  require  the  State  to  adopt  the  Fifteenth  amend- 
ment to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  before  the 
restoration  of  representation  in  Congress.  This  bill  be- 
came a  law  in  April,  1869,  immediately  after  which  Con- 


—  41  — 

gress  adjourned,  leaving  the  completion  of  the  work  to  the 
president. 

"The  Fifteenth  amendment,  intended  to  reinforce  the 
Fourteenth  amendment,  had  passed  Congress  February 
25,  1869.  It  provided  that  The  right  of  the  citizens  of  the 
United  States  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by 
the  United  States,  or  by  any  State,  on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude,'  and  authorized 
enforcement  by  legislation. 

''By  proclamation  of  President  Grant,  July  13,  1869, 
the  constitution  of  1868  was  resubmitted  at  an  election 
November  30,  1869.  It  was  adopted  with  a  number  of  the 
worst  features  stricken  out.  With  the  large  negro  vote 
all  the  Republican  candidates  for  State  office,  legislature, 
and  congress  were  elected  by  great  majorities.  Ac- 
cordingly the  legislature  of  the  State,  for  the  first  time 
since  1866,  met  in  January,  1870,  under  the  new  constitu- 
tion, the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth!  amendments  were  rati- 
fied, and  the  United  States  senators  were  elected.  All  the 
other  States  had  been  re-admitted  in  January,  1870.  Gen- 
eral Butler  reported  a  bill  in  the  lower  house  of  congress 
February  3,  1870,  re-admitting  Mississippi,  but  with  the 
conditions  of  a  stringent  oath  of  allegiance  for  civil  officers, 
and  pledges  that  the  constitution  should  never  be  amended 
so  as  to  deprive  any  citizen  of  the  right  to  vote,  or  to  hold 
office  because  of  race,  color  or  previous  condition  of  servi- 
tude, or  so  as  to  ever  deprive  any  citizen  of  the  benefits  of 
the  public  schools.  Senator  Morton  in  the  S-anate  added 
other  restrictions.  The  bill  thus  passed  both  houses  and 
was  approved  February  23,  1870.  General  Ames,  who  had 
been  elected  one  of  the  United  States  senators,  issued  his 
general  orders  No.  25,  February  26,  1870,  announcing  that 
the  command  known  as  the  Fourth  military  district  had 
ceased  to  exist."  The  foregoing  summary  covering  military 
rule  has  been  drawn  from  the  Encyclopedia  of  Mississippi 
History. 

Reconstruction  had  for  its  prime  motive  negro  enfran- 
chisement and  white  disfranchisement,  and  throughout  the 


—  42  — 

whole  period  of  reconstruction  the  Republican  party  had 
kept  its  eye  on  the  establishment  of  a  Republican  party  in 
the  South.  Though  the  enfranchisement  of  the  negro  was 
not  as  dear  an  issue  to  the  hearts  of  the  politicians  as  it  was 
to  the  abolitionists,  these  were  determined  to  use  the  negro 
to  insure  a  stronger  representation  in  congress.  Out  of 
this  spirit  grew  the  Fourteenth  amendment  which  constitut- 
ed the  rock  of  offense. 

Though  every  vestige  of  State's  rights  must  be  ignored 
and  congress  must  wholly  transgress  its  authority  in  con- 
ferring suffrage  upon  the  people  of  a  State  without  the 
State  having  any  voice  in  the  matter,  still  it  intended  and 
did  carry  out  this  policy.  In  reference  to  prevailing  condi- 
tions Dr.  Rowland  further  says  in  ''A  Mississippi  View  of 
Race  Relations": 

"The  reconstruction  period  found  the  negro  free;  his 
freedom  was  not  the  result  of  his  own  efforts,  although  in 
most  instances  it  was  his  desire  to  be  free.  The  entire  ab- 
sence of  self-reliance,  his  want  of  experience,  and  his  failure 
to  understand  or  appreciate  his  changed  condition  rendered 
him,  after  his  emancipation,  helpless.  At  this  critical  time 
the  carpet-bagger  invaded  the  South,  intent  on  little  else 
but  gain.     The  pathway  towards  better  things  was  blocked. 

"The  picture  presented  by  some  writers,  of  conditions 
prevailing  in  the  South  during  the  period  of  reconstruction 
may  strike  those  who  know  nothing  of  it  as  too  somber, 
and  some  thinking  and  impartial  men  of  the  North  are  in- 
clined to  believe  that  Southern  historians  overdraw  it.  At 
this  time,  however,  thirty  years  after  the  war,  in  the  light 
of  all  facts  of  history,  the  student  of  that  period  whose 
opinions  are  not  embittered  by  the  trials  of  the  times, 
stands  in  astonishment,  marveling  at  the  patience  and  long- 
suffering  of  the  people." 

CHAPTER  IV 

In  the  foregoing  summary  is  embraced  the  period 
of  1865  to  1868 ;  for  a  study  of  the  period  following,  see  the 
administration  of  Alcorn,  Powers     and     Ames.     With  the 


—  43—. 

close  of  Ames'  administration  in  1875,  though  he  was  still 
governor  of  the  State,  the  old  Democracy  which  had  been  set 
aside  during  the  lawless  and  despotic  reign  of  the  military, 
threw  off  the  Republican;  rule  and  elected  a  Democratic 
legislature,  during  which  session  Ames  was  impeached. 
However,  before  the  articles  of  impeachment  could  become 
effective,  his  resignation  took  place,  March  29,  1876.  John 
M.  Stone  as  President  pro  tem  of  the  Senate  became  Gover- 
nor and  with  his  administration  began  the  re- 
habilitation of  the  State's  political,  financial  and  social  pro- 
gress. These  had  for  ten  years  suif ered'  from  every  con- 
ceivable wrong  and  mismanagement  that  bitter  partisan- 
ship and  sectional  jealousy  could  devise.  In  withstanding  the 
hard  conditions,  opposition  sometimes  brought  on  fierce  con- 
flicts and  riots  took  place  at  several  places  in  the  state. 
Hinds  county  having  a  full  share,  the  one  at  Clinton  being 
the  most  noted. 

Many  able  leaders  who  were  to  place  aureoles  of  light 
around  the  old  State's  brow  with  the  passing  of  years  gath- 
ered in  the  capital  during  this  period,  prominently  among 
them  L.  Q.  C.  Lamar,  J.  Z.  George,  and  E.  C.  Walthall,  and 
it  became  once  more  a  Democratic  center.  Hinds  County 
at  this  time  furnished  such  leaders  as  Amos  R.  Johnston, 
Ethelbert  Barksdale,  William  and  George  Yerger,  T.  J. 
Wharton,  Gen.  Wirt  Adams  and  Frank  Johnston,  son  of 
Amos  R.  Johnston.  Judge  J.  A.  P.  Campbell,  a  native  of 
South  Carolina  and  member  of  the  Confederate  Congress 
from  Mississippi,  on  being  appointed  on  the  Supreme  Bench 
in  1876  by  Governor  Stone,  made  Jackson  his  home.  Sena- 
tor J.  Z.  George  moved  to  the  capital  in  1873  and  made  it 
his  home  for  a  number  of  years.  Of  that  great  political 
coterie  only  a  few  survive,  J.  P.  Carter,  P.  C.  Catchings,  W. 
H.  Sims  and  Judge  R.  H.  Thompson,  the  last  mentioned  later 
becoming  a  citizen  of  Hinds  county.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Democratic  legislature  of  1876.  Among  the 
brilliant  young  members  he  perhaps  surpassed  all 
in  intellectual  power  and  quick  perception.  Few  States 
have  produced  a  better  lawyer  or  a  better  balanced  and 


,—  44  — 

more  profound  thinker.  To  this  add  a  kindly  and  sympa- 
thetic nature  and  a  slightly  peremptory  manner  and  you 
have  the  fine  old  man  to  whom  the  people  of  Jackson  and 
Hinds  County  point  with  so  much  pride. 

The  county  at  this  time,  though  handicapped  from  the 
effects  of  the  war  and  reconstruction,  began  an  era  of  im- 
provement. Its  political  life  was  strong  and  effective;  its 
lands  were  better  cultivated  and  its  towns  began  to  grow, 
and  endeavoring  to  forget  the  past,  as  Amos  R.  Johnston 
so  eloquently  bade  them,  conservation  and  progress  once 
more  became  the  keynote  of  its  existence. 

It  was  in  1886  that  the  educational  system  was  revised 
and  placed  on  a  sound  basis  by  Hon.  J.  R.  Preston,  State 
Superintendent  of  Education.  A  Virginian  by  birth,  he 
gave  his  fine  intellect  and  culture  to  his  adopted  state,  lov- 
ing it  with  an  intense  love  and  ever  jealous  for  its  honor 
and  distinction  at  home  and  abroad.  Many  years  after  Miss- 
issippi, Hinds  County  and  the  city  of  Jackson  had  reaped 
the  benefit  of  his  great  work  for  public  education,  he  settled 
in  the  city,  conducted  one  of  its  best  colleges  and  is  still  a 
citizen  of  the  place.  He  is  one  of  the  three  state  officials 
who  have  survived  that  period.  Capt.  W.  W.  Stone,  and  Col. 
W.  L.  Hemingway,  heroic  Confederate  veterans,  whom  all 
Mississippi  loves,  make  the  trio,  and  the  dignity  and  beauty 
of  their  declining  years  thrill  the  hearts  of  all  who  meet 
them  on  our  streets. 

During  the  years  embracing  1876-1896  many  of  the 
most  distinguished  public  men  of  the  State  became  perma- 
nent citizens  of  the  county,  making  their  homes  in  the 
capital  city;  among  these  were  Gov.  Robert  Lowrey,  Judge 
S.  S.  Calhoun,  Judge  Tim  E.  Cooper,  Judge  Albert  Whit- 
field, Col.  R.  H.  Henry,  of  the  Clarion  Ledger,  Hon.  Edgar 
S.  Wilson,  Col.  W.  D.  Holder,  Judge  Edward  Mayes  and 
R.  E.  Wilson.  Their  varied  service  to  the  county  and  State 
would  make  volumes  of  interesting  reading. 

As  early  as  ]'SV4  among  the  reforms,  prohibition  was 
agitating  the  public  mind,  led     by     such  spirits  as  Bishop 


—  45  — 

Charles  B.  Galloway  and  Col.  W.  L.  Nugent,  representing 
the  manhood  of  the  State,  and  Harriet  B.  Kells  and  Belle 
Kearney,  representing  its  womanhood.  In  1881  Frances 
E.  Willard  visited  the  county  in  the  interest  of  prohibition 
and  met  with  an  enthusiastic  reception  in  the  capital  city. 

The  constitutional  convention  of  1890  met  in  Jackson 
on  August  12,  1890,  with  such  strong  and  capable  leaders  as 
J.  Z.  George  and  Wiley  P.  Harris.  The  delegation  from  Hinds 
consisted  of  Judge  S.  S.  Calhoun,  B.  S.  Fearing,  T.  T.  Hart 
and  Wiley  P.  Harris.  This  convention  in  regulating  the  suff- 
rage question  restored  the  county  and  state  to  further  quiet 
and  order.  Among  the  many  plans  for  progress  the  agitation 
for  a  new  capitol  was  inaugurated  in  the  same  convention, 
Gen.  S.  D.  Lee  offering  the  resolution.  It  was  at,  this  con- 
vention that  Jackson  was  fixed  as  the  permanent  capital. 
In  commenting  on  the  constitution  of  1890,  Judge  R.  H. 
Thompson,  in  an  address  to  the  State  Bar  Association,  said : 
*The  seat  of  government  is  now  fixed  at  Jackson  and  cannot 
be  removed  except  by  vote  of  the  people.  For  many  years 
there  was  no  State  Capital  de  jure.  The  constitution'  of 
1869  made  no  reference  to  the  subject;  it  was  fixed  at  Jack 
son  by  the  constitution  of  1832,  until  1850  and,  thereafter 
until  the  code  of  1880  was  adopted,  Jackson  was  only  de 
facto  the  capital  of  the  State." 

Many  other  notable  events  in  the  history  of  the  county 
and  of  the  city  of  Jackson  occurred  during  the  period;  fol- 
lowing reconstruction,  one  of  which  was  the  establishment 
of  Millsaps  College  by  the  Methodists  under  the  leadership 
of  the  truly  great  and  gifted  Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway 
and  of  Major  R.  W.  Millsaps,  the  latter  being  its  financial 
benefactor  and  lifelong  patron.  This  was  an  important 
step  forward  in  educational  progress  and  the  county  has  in 
this  and  Mississippi  College  at  Clinton  two  of  the  leading 
educational  institutions  in  the  South.  These  have  recently 
become  co-educational. 

Another  notable  institution  of  learning  is  Belhaven 
College  for  Young  Women,  first  confji^/cted  by  Dr.  L.  T. 
Fitzhugh  and  later  owned   by   Hon.  J.  R.  Preston.    The 


—  46  — 

old  site  was  sold  and  the  new  college  established  in  the 
northeastern  part  of  the  city  and  is  now  the  property  of 
the  Presbytorian  Church.  It  was  as  far  back  as  1853  that 
yellow  fever  made  its  appearance  in  the  county  and  city  of 
Jackson  to  be  followed  by  a  like  epidemic  in  1878.  No  more 
heroic  conduct  was  exhibited  by  any  people  when  these 
scourges  from  time  to  time  appeared  than  that  displayed  by 
the  people  of  Hinds  county  and  the  city  of  Jackson. 

The  years  following  the  War  for  Southern  Independence 
and  reconstruction  with  the  exception  of  the  call  for  volun- 
teers for  the  Spanish  American  War  to  which  call  Hinds 
county  responded  generously,  were  years  of  peaceful 
growth  and  progress.  The  decade  before  and  since 
the  building  of  the  new  capitol,  in  1901-1903,  brought  to 
the  county  and  the  city  of  Jackson  many  people  of  culture 
and  wealth,  and  its  social  life,  founded  upon  the  best  ideals 
of  the  South,  despite  the  political  atmosphere  that  in- 
variably surrounds  State  capitals,  is  distinctly  aspiring  and 
is  filled  with  the  altruistic  ideal. 

It  is  not  the  province  of  this  paper  to  give  the  history 
of  the  county  for  the  last  few  decades,  since  its  present 
growth  and  progress  is  amply  set  forth,  in  the  census  at- 
tached, while  its  political  history  awaits  the  future  his- 
torian. I,  however,  could  not  leave  my  subject  without 
recording,  as  a  fore-word  to  the  heroic  history  that  is  yet 
to  be  written  of  the  county's  part  in  the  Great  World  War, 
that  the  spirit  its  people  evinced  during  these  years  was 
every  inch  in  keeping  with  that  manifested  in  such  war 
torn  centers  as  Washington,  Paris  and  London.  In  the  work 
of  restoration  following  the  war  the  people  of  both  Jackson 
and  Hinds  county  have  displayed  the  same  energy  and  wis- 
dom and  the  ability  to  ''carry  on"  that  marked  their  efforts 
during  the  war.  But  with  all  this  we  should  recognize  the 
fact  that  there  is  need  of  improvement  along  many  social 
welfare  lines.  It  is  said  on  all  sides  by  both  priest  and  lay- 
men that  our  civilization  has  along  with  other  sections  felt 
the  breakdown  th;4^  ^inevitably  follows  war.  Though  here 
as  elsewhere  society  has  its  usual  quota  of  presuming,  con- 


—  47  — 

niving,  self-seekers  who  use  both  the  Church  and  the  State 
to  exploit  themselves,  sincerity,  modesty  and  refinement 
are  still  possessed  by  the  majority  of  the  people,  and  family 
life,  in  the  main,  is  sound  and  secure. 

Hinds  County  has  modestly  given  way  to  other  sections 
of  the  State  in  the  matter  of  public  office  and  has  furnish- 
ed no  Governor  and  only  one  United  States  senator  since 
the  Civil  War — Senator  James  K.  Vardaman,  who  was 
elected  in  1911,  at  which  time  he  was  a  resident  of  Jackson, 
having  been  a  citizen  of  Greenwood,  Leflore  County,  when 
elected  governor. 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  historical  and  political  history  of  Hinds  County 
having  been  lightly  sketched,  we  now  turn  to  its  physical 
structure  and  advantages.  It  lies  partly,  as  has  been  not- 
ed, in  what  Hilgard,  a  former  State  Geologist,  designates  as 
the  Central  Prairie  Region  and  Dr.  E.  N.  Lowe,  the  present 
State  Geologist,  groups  in  the  Jackson  Prairie  Region. 
This  constitutes  a  section  of  small  prairies  which  form 
a  belt  varying  from  10  to  30  miles  wide  in  a  direction 
slightly  northwest  and  southeast  across  the  State.  The 
northern  border  of  this  region  extends  from  Yazoo  City 
slightly  south  of  east  through  Clarke  County  and  on  to  the 
Alabama  line.  This  region  embraces  the  northern  portion  of 
Hinds  County. 

The  "shell  prairies"  soil  is  described  by  geologists  as 
"a  heavy,  clayey  soil  of  dark  gray  color,  black  when  wet, 
resting  upon  a  lighter  gray  subsoil  which  passes  at  a  few 
feet  depth  into  the  highly  calcareous  shell  marls  of  the 
Jackson  Formation."  The  soil  is  highly  calcareous  forming 
numerous  gently  rolling  prairies. 

"In  much  of  Hinds  county,  south  of  the  Jackson 
Prairies,"  Dr.  Lowe  in  his  "Survey  of  the  Soils  of  Missis- 
sippi," says,  "the  loam  lies  directly  upon  the  gray  sands  and 
clays  of  the  Grand  Gulf,  the  Lafayette  being  absent  or  but 
slightly  developed.     In  the  vicinity  of  Raymond  the  red 


—  48  — 

sand  is  well  developed,  a  railroad  cut  just  west  of  the  town 
exposing  about  ten  feet  of  loam  and  10  to  12  feet  of  red 
sand  overlying  clay." 

Some  of  the  upland  sandy  and  silt  soils  of  Hinds  coun- 
ty, geologists  tell  us,  are  acid  and  would  be  greatly  benefited 
by  an  application  of  ground  limestone.  The  shell  marls 
and  the  soft  limestones  of  the  Vicksburg  formation  are 
available  and  are  suited  for  this  purpose.  Some  of  the  soil 
of  the  county  could  be  made  suitable  for  the  growing  of 
alfalfa  by  an  application  of  ground  limestone.  The  princi- 
pal crops  now  grown  in  the  county  will  be  shown  in  the 
census  for  1920. 

The  Pearl  River  Valley  cuts  north  and  south  through 
the  whole  Pine  Belt,  and  presents  a  prominent  soil  region, 
worthy  of  separate  consideration.  It  is  a  broad,  second 
bottom,  the  first  bottom  being  usually  rather  narrow,  vary- 
ing in  width  from  two  to  four  miles.  The  greater  portion 
of  it  is  free  from  overflow,  and  except  where  cultivated  is, 
for  the  most  part,  heavily  timbered  with  various  hardwoods. 
The  central  and  southern  portion  of  Hinds  county  is  em- 
braced in  this  region.^ 

The  excitement  of  oil  discoveries  in  Louisiana  and 
Texas  later  extended  to  Mississippi.  Since  the  geological 
structure  of  the  State  in  certain  sections  is  very  much  like 
that  of  Louisiana,  there  was  keen  hope  of  finding  oil  accum- 
ulations. Hinds  County  has  shared  in  the  pursuit  which  so 
far  has  been  fruitless.  But  there  are  other  things  besides 
oil,  and  the  county  is  today  covered  with  a  network  of  rail- 
roads which  give  an  outlet  in  every  direction  for  the  products 
of  its  rich  cotton  and  corn  lands,  busy  factories  and  live 
stock  farms  that  compare  favorably  with  any  in  the  United 
States. 

The  Pearl  River  forming  the  county's  eastern  boundary, 
the  Big  Black  on  part  of  its  western  boundary  and  the  num- 
erous tributaries  of  these  streams  furnish  ample  water 
power.     Besides  this,  numerous  springs  of  mineral  water 

.>-T . 

1.  For  a  further  study  of  this  feature  see  Hilgard's  "Geology  and 
Agriculture  of  Mississippi"  and  Lowe's  "Soils  and  Resources  of  Mississippi." 


—  49  — 

are  found  in  many  places,  Cooper's  Wells,  a  short  distance 
west  of  Jackson,  being  a  health  resort  that  ranks  with  the 
best  in  the  South,  possessing  an  interesting  history  of  its 
own.  Its  natural  scenery  is  good  but  wholly  neglected  and 
it  is  in  need  of  appropriate  buildings. 

The  census  shows  some  decrease  in  population  during 
the  last  decade,  caused  by  an  exodus  of  the  negroes  to 
northern  cities.  These,  however,  were  not  of  the  better 
class  and  constituted  a  shifting  population  that  constantly 
moved  about  in  the  State  before  leaving  it,  The  census 
shows  that  there  are  only  306  white  foreign  born  in  the 
county,  of  whom  65  are  Syrians,  44  English  and  42  Germans. 
This  may  be  a  questionable  advantage. 

Many  prosperous  cities,  towns  and  villages  are  found 
in  the  county.  The  largest  and  most  important  city  is 
Jackson,  the  capital  of  the  State.  It  is  located  on  the 
western  bank  of  the  Pearl  River  and  is  regularly  laid  out  on 
a  beautiful  eminence  which  forms  a  structural  dome  or 
broad  anticline  in  what  might  be  termed  a  valley.  It  is 
the  center  of  a  fine  corn  and  cotton  growing  region,'  situat- 
ed nearly  halfway  between  Memphis  and  New  Orleans, 
and  commands  a  large  territory  for  its  wholesale  trade. 
Timber  of  a  valuable  variety  is  plentiful  in  the  district 
drained  by  the  Pearl  River  and  its  tributaries.  This  river 
is  navigable  during  high  water  for  at  least  100  miles  above 
the  city,  offering  an  excellent  outlet  for  much  local  trans- 
portation. 

The  legislation  dealing  with  the  location  of  the  capital 
is  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  history.  The  first 
state  house  erected  in  the  city  was  a  little,  brick  two-story 
building  costing  about  $3,000.  It  was  used  for  legislative 
purposes  until  1839,  when  it  grew  inadequate  for  the  State's 
increasing  activities.  A  painting  has  been  made  of  this 
building  from  the  legislative  description  found  in  the  pro- 
vision for  it,  and  now  is  in  the  possession  of  the  State  His- 
torical Department. 
(See  Official  and  Statistical  Register,  1917,  page  385). 

In  1833  a  bill  passed  the  legislature  for  the  erection  of 


—  50  — 

a  new  capitol  building  which  now  stands  on  State  Street  at 
the  head  of  Capitol  Street.  Much  of  the  material  used  in 
its  construction  came  from  Hinds  and  surrounding  counties. 
The  effort  made  by  the  women  of  Mississippi  for  its  restora- 
tion covering  a  period  of  fourteen  years  was  a  distinct  tri- 
umph of  historical  culture  in  the  State's  higher  progress. 
For  a  history  of  the  building,  see  page  388,  Mississippi 
Official  and  Statistical  Register,  1917.  A  few  of  the 
many  inspiring  events  that  make  it  one  of  the  most  historic 
buildings  in  the  South  are:  a  visit  from  Kossuth,  the  Hun- 
garian patriot,  an  oration  by  McClung  on  the  character  of 
Henry  Clay,  a  visit  from  General  Andrew  Jackson  when  he 
paid  the  State  a  second  visit,  a  reception  to  Henry  Clay,  the 
Great  Pacificator,  the  welcome  to  Col.  Jefferson  Davis  on 
his  return  from  the  Mexican  War,  the  convention  of  1850, 
the  famous  secession  convention,  the  expulsion  of  Governors 
Clark  and  Humphreys  from  office  during  the  military  reign 
following  the  Civil  War,  the  impeachment  of  Governor 
Ames  in  March,  1876,  the  last  public  appearance  in  the  cap- 
ital of  President  Jefferson  Davis,  and  finally,  the  constitu- 
tional convention  of  1890,  which  assembled  on  August  12th 
and  enacted  the  present  constitution  of  the  State.  It  adds  a 
sacred  touch  that  the  lower  floor  of  the  building,  by  per- 
mission of  the  legislature,  was  used  by  the  various  churches 
in  the  40 's,  and  also  during  the  War  for  Southern  Independ- 
ence. The  Governor's  mansion  was  built  at  the  same  time, 
and  has  a  long  and  varied  history  made  up  of  what  each 
occupant  was  able  to  lend  to  the  story. 

Sixty-three  years  after  the  erection  of  what  is  now 
called  the  Old  Capitol,  a  beautiful  new  capitol  building  was 
erected  in  1901-1903,  situated  on  a  hill  north  of  the  old 
capitol  site  and  on  the  penitentiary  ground.  It  was  com- 
pleted at  a  cost  of  little  more  than  $1,000,000,  during  the 
administration  of  Gov.  A.  H.  Longino.  The  material 
is  Bedford  stone  on  a  base  of  cement,  concrete  and 
Georgia  granite  and  its  height  is  135  feet.  This  handsome 
structure,  built  on  classic  lines,  is  one  of  the  most  stately 
and  imposing  public  buildings  ir>  the  country.     The  build- 


—  Sl- 
ing was  first  occupied  by  the  State  officials,  during  the 
month  of  September,  1903.  The  State  Historical  Depart- 
ment and  beautiful  Hall  of  Fame  are  located  in  the  new 
capitol.  The  dedication  of  the  building  was  made  a  State- 
wide celebration  such  as  has  not  been  witnessed  for  years  in 
the  commonwealth. 

Besides  the  State  capitol,  Jackson  has  many  handsome 
bank  and  office  buildings,  a  large  theatre  and  several  other 
playhouses,  the  institution  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  the 
Mississippi,  Institution  for  the  Blind,  three  orphan  homes 
and  five  institutions  of  learning,  the  more  prominent  of 
which  are,  as  has  already  been  noted,  Millsaps  College  and 
Belhaven  College.  Campbell  College  for  Negroes  is  doing 
good  work  and  the  negroes  of  the  city  generally  are  indus- 
trious, orderly  and  progressive.  The  city  has  one  of  the 
best  school  systems  in  the  State.  The  enrollment  in  the 
seven  graded  schools  is  large  and  it  should  be  a  matter  of 
great  pride  to  know  that  less  than  a  thousand  illit- 
erates are  found  in  the  city's  population. 

Within  recent  years,  Jackson  has  become  the  most  im- 
portant railroad  center  of  the  State.  The  Illinois  Central, 
the  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley,  the  Alabama  &  Vicks- 
burg,  the  Gulf  &  Ship  Island,  and  the  New  Orleans  Great 
Northern  R.  R.  enter  the  city  and  furnish  excellent  traffic  ac- 
commodations in  all  directions.  This  has  resulted  in  the 
rapid  increase  in  the  manufacturing  population.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  capital  invested,  it  has  the  largest  manufac- 
turing output  of  any  city  in  the  South  and  ranks  high  in 
the  number  of  establishments.  Among  the  most  important 
enterprises  are  fertilizer  factories,  cotton  seed  oil  mills, 
iron  foundries,  wood  working  plants  and  ice  factories. 

Well-paved  streets,  splendid  sewerage  and  water 
works  system,  an  electric  street  railway  system  serving 
the  principal  parts  of  the  city,  gas  and  electricity  and  an 
up-to-date  fire  department,  with  modern  stations  and  paid 
service,  constitute  the  municipal  department.  It  has  a 
Chamber  of  Commerce  and  numerous  social  and  benevolent 
organizations,  is  well  supplied     with     beautiful  parks  and 


—  52  — 

playgrounds  and  has  a  fine  Country  Club.  The  small  Con- 
federate park  near  the  Old  Capitol  contains  a  statue  to  the 
Confederate  soldiers,  where  on  the  30th  of  June,  each  year 
the  patriotic  organizations  representing  the  Confederacy 
gather  to  do  honor  to  Jefferson  Davis,  the  only  president  of 
the  Confederacy,  whose  statue  occupies  a  prominent  place 
on  the  monument.  (This  statue  by  legislative  act  will  be 
removed  to  the  Old  Capitol  building.)  Livingston,  Poindexter, 
and  Smith  parks  and  a  number  of  other  fine  parks  are  note- 
worthy additions  to  the  city,  and  to  be  known  as  "the  city 
of  parks''  it  only  remains  for  it  to  purchase  the  historic 
''Winter  Woods,"  where  the  old  Confederate  fortifications 
can  still  be  traced  that  were  thrown  up  to  defend  the  city 
when  Grant's  whole  army  entered  and  partially  destroyed 
the  almost  unprotected  town. 

Numerous  fine  residences  with  ample  lawns  and  every 
convenience  are  found  throughout  the  city,  but  the  people 
have  been  careless  in  conforming  to  a  uniform  or  even  an 
attractive  architectural  design  and  the  appearance  becomes 
irregular  and  patchy  in  places.  Commodious  and  hand- 
some houses  of  worship  for  those  of  the  Baptist,  Methodist, 
Pi-esbyterian,  Episcopal,  Catholic,  Christian  and  Jewish 
faith  are  found  on  the  principal  streets,  some  denominations 
having  several  churches  in  the  city.  Besides  these  there 
are  numerous  churches  of  several  denominations  for  the  ne- 
gro population. 

The  financial  wants  of  the  city  and  county  are  well 
provided  for  in  eleven  banking  institutions.  Among  the 
daily  newspapers,  the  Clarion-Ledger  and  the  Daily  News 
are  Democratic  dailies,  the  latter  having  the  widest  circu- 
lation of  any  paper  in  the  State  and  the  former  making 
good  its  claim  that  it  "prints  all  the  news  fit  to  print  and 
prints  it  while  it  is  fresh."  Vardaman's  Weekly  and  the 
Baptist  Record  are  issued  weekly.  It  remains  for  the  Hinds 
County  Gazette,  published  at  Raymond,  to  enjoy  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  oldest  newspaper  continuously  pub- 
lished in  the  county.  It  has  recently  been  purchased  by  Mr. 
Edgar  S.  Wilson,  who  is  making  it  a  statewide  paper. 


—  53  — 

In  the  foregoing  pages  a  brief  history  of  the  Capital 
City  has  been  given.  It  has  been  said  that  it  contains  fewer 
illustrious  men  than  formerly  but  in  and  out  of  its  more  pre- 
tentious homes  and  its  vine-clad  cottages  still  go  lovely 
men  and  women  with  high  purposes  and  pure  hearts,  and 
the  beauty  o:?  its  life  is  that  some  of  the  loveliest  spirits  a- 
dorn  its  simplest  homes. 

Clinton,  another  landmark  which  has  been  often  re- 
ferred to  in  these  pages,  is  an  old  college  town  of  much  his- 
torical interest  about  ten  miles  west  of  Jackson,  a  paved 
street  after  many  years  threatening  to  make  the  two  places 
one.  In  1831,  Mississippi  College,  which  is  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  atmosphere  of  culture  and  refinement  pervad- 
ing the  town,  had  its  beginning.  Next  to  Jeif  erson  College, 
near  Natchez  in  Adams  county,  this  is  the  oldest  male  col- 
lege in  the  State.  It  has  had  some  depressing  periods  in 
its  history,  but  has  emerged  victorious  in  every  crisis,  and 
today  is  widely  recognized  as  an  ideal  institution  of  higher 
learning  for  young  men,  ranking  with  many  of  the  bast 
in  the  South.  Among  its  alumni  are  some  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished men  in  the  educational  circles^  of  the  country. 
Another  college  with  which  Clinton  is  closely  associated  is 
Hillman  College.  Among  the  surviving  colleges  for  wo- 
men in  the  State,  Hillman  is  one  of  the  pioneers,  and  among 
the  thousands  of  students  enrolled  there  since  1857  are 
many  of  the  most  distinguished  women  of  the  State. 
Here  is  also  located  the  Mt.  Hermon  Female  Seminary  for 
the  education  of  negro  girls.  Governor  Foote  on  a  public 
occasion  in  a  celebrated  toast  characterized  Clinton  as 
*'the  seat  of  learning"  in  the  State.  The  present  growth 
and  progress  of  the  town  is  given  in  the  census  of  1920. 

Edwards  is  an  old,  incorporated  town  of  Hinds  County 
on  the  Alabama  and  Vicksburg  Railway,  26  miles  by  rail 
west  of  Jackson,  18  miles  east  of  Vicksburg,  and  one  mile 
from  the  Big  Black  river.  The  lands  lying  around  it  are 
fruit  and  vegetable  soils,  and  its  people  are  thrifty  and 
progressive.  It  is  an  interesting  place,  set  as  it  is  in  the 
historic  campania  lying  between  Jackson  and  Vicksburg, 


—  54  — 

every  foot  of  which  has  been  tread  by  the  defenders  of  the 
South  against  an  invading  foe. 

Terry,  an  incorporated  post-town  in  the  southeastern 
part  of  Hinds  County,  on  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  is 
16  miles  south  and  west  of  Jackson.  The  town  was  named 
for  William  Terry,  affectionately  referred  to  as  "Uncle 
Bill  Terry,"  a  former  resident  of  the  vicinity.  Truck 
farming  and  market  gardening  are  extensively  carried  on 
in  the  surrounding  country  and  this  station  is  one  of  the 
most  important  fruit  and  vegetable  shipping  points  in  the 
State.  Peaches,  pears,  figs,  plums,  strawberries  and  all  kinds 
of  vegetables  and  fruits  are  scientifically  cultivated  for 
market.  Flowers  are  grown  in  profusion  about  the  homes, 
and  its  people  are  refined  and  well  bred.  The  bank  of 
Terry  was  established  in  1897  with  a  capital  of  $20,000. 
The  census  of  1920  will  show  the  present  condition  of  the 
town. 

Raymond,  one  of  the  county  seats,  is  an  old  place  of 
much  historical  importance  and  interest.  It  is  a  station  on 
the  Natchez  branch  of  the  Yazoo  and  Mississippi  Valley 
Railroad  and  was  the  scene  of  the  first  battle  in  Grant's 
and  Sherman's  march  from  Port  Gibson. 

Utica,  in  the  southwestern  part  of  the  county,  is  an 
incorporated  post-town.  It  is  situated  on  the  Y.  & 
M.  V.  Railroad,  32  -miles  southwest  of  Jackson.  It  is 
hilly,  well-drained  and  surrounded  by  a  rich  farming  sec- 
tion. All  kinds  of  fruit  and  vegetables,  especially  water- 
melons, grow  in  abundance  in  the  soil.  The  town  is  acces- 
sible to  a  large  amount  of  fine  hardwood  timber.  It  ships 
annually  about  10,000  bales  of  cotton.  It  has  two  banks 
with  a  combined  capital  of  $90,000;  two  hotels;  a  public 
school;  an  industrial  college  for  the  education  of  negroes; 
three  churches,  Methodist,  Baptist  and  Christian;  and  a 
Democratic  weekly  newspaper,  the  Herald,  established  in 
1897.  Among  its  manufacturing  enterprises  are  a  brick 
plant,  three  steam  cotton  gins,  and  a  saw  mill.  Many 
organizations  that  embrace  intellectual  as  well  as  material 
progress  are  found  in  this  thriving  little  city. 


—  55  — 

Bolton  is  an  incorporated  post-town  in  Hinds  County. 
It  is  a  pleasant,  small  town  with  many  community  inter- 
ests and  past  historical  associations. 

Halifax,  Orangeville,  Brownsville,  Byram,  Tinnin,  Po- 
cahontas, Green,  Cynthia,  Anne,  Tougaloo,  Dixon,  Norell, 
Champion  Hill,  Institute,  Smith's,  Newman,  Learned,  Duke, 
Cayuga,  Bearcreek,  Chapelhill,  Adams  Station,  Thompson- 
ville,  Inabnet,  Oakley,  Dry  Grove,  Box  Factory,  Moncure, 
Rosemary,  Davis  Spur,  Myers,  Midway,  Palestine,  Siwell, 
Elton,  Bradie,  Van  Winkle,Thompson  and  McRaven  are  small 
places  in  the  county  of  interest,  and  business  enterprise  and 
many  of  these  have  a  per  cent  of  as  good  society  as  is  found 
in  the  State  Capital. 

The  census  of  1920  gives  the  county  of  Hinds  the  fol- 
lowing flattering  statistics : 

POPULATION  HINDS  COUNTY 
Composition  And  Characteristics 

Color  or  Race,  Nativity,  and  Sex. 

Total   population   57,110 

Male   27,492 

Female  29,618 

Native  White 21,078 

Male  10,260 

Female  10,813 

Native  parentage 20,314 

Foreign  parentage  367 

Mixed  parentage 392 

Foreign  white  306 

Male 186 

Female  120 

Negro  35,728 

Male  17,044 

Female  18,684 

Indians,  Chinese  and  all  others 3 

Per  cent,  Native  white 36.9 

Per  cent.  Foreign  born 0.5 

Per  cent,  Negro 62.6 


—  56  — 

Age,  School  Attendance,  and  Citizenship 

Total  under  7  years  of  age 8,293 

Total,  7  to  13  years,  inclusive 9,691 

No.  Attending  School  8,566 

Per  cent  attending  school 88.4 

Total,  14  to  15  years 2,658 

No.  attending  school  2,151 

Per  cent  attending  school 80.9 

Total  16  to  17  years 2,450 

No.  attending  school 1,340 

Per  cent  attending  school 54.7 

Total  18  to  20  yrs.,  inclusive 3,453 

No.  attending  school  635 

Per  cent  attending  school  18.9 

Males  21  years  of  age  and  over 14,616 

Native  white — Native  parentage 5,745 

Native  white — Foreign  or  mixed  parentage 237 

Foreign-born,  white  237 

Naturalized  175 

First  papers  83 

Alien  8 

Unknown  56 

Negro  8,457 

Indian,  Chinese  and  all  others  2 

Females,  21  years  of  age  and  over 15,949 

Native  white — native  parentage  6,112 

Native  white.  Foreign  or  mixed  parentage 289 

Foreign-born  white  110 

Naturalized  50 

First  papers  0 

Alien   32 

Unknown  28 

Negro  9,438 

Indian  and  Chinese  0 

Males,  18  to  44  years,  inclusive 10,491 

Females,  18  to  44  years,  inclusive 12,851 

HINDS  COUNTY 

Land  area  in  square  miles  853 

Total  population,   1920 57,110 


—  57  — 

Per  square  mile  66.6 

Total  population,   1910 63,726 

Total  population,  1900 52,577 

Per  cent  of  increase 

1910  to  1920  —10.4 

1900  to  1910  21.2 

1890  to  1900 33.9 

Population  of  All  Incorporated  Towns  and 
Cities  in  Hinds  County,  1920 

Bolton  494         Edwards   727 

Learned   136         Utica  445 

Clinton  669         Jackson  22,817 

Terry  _ 392         Raymond    500 

ILLITERACY 

Total,  10  years  of  age  and  over 44,834 

No.  illiterate \ 7,011 

Per  cent,  illiterate  - 15.6 

Per  cent  illiterate  in  1910  22.8 

Native  white 17,134 

No.  illiterate  282 

Per  cent  illiterate 11.0 

Foreign-bom,   white   '299 

No.  illiterate 33 

Negro  _ 27,399 

No.   illiterate   6,696 

Per   cent  illiterate   24.4 

Total,  16  to  20  years,  inclusive 5,903 

No.  illiterate  587 

Per  cent  illiterate 9.9 

Illiterate  males,  over  21  yrs.  of  age  _ 2,849 

Per  cent  of  all  males  21  yrs.  of  age  and  over 19.5 

Native  white  113 

Foreign-born,  white 18 

Negro  2,718 

Illiterate  females,  over  21  yrs.  of  age 3,151 

Per  cent  of  all  females  21  yrs.  of  age  and  over 19.8 

Native  white  _ 1 13 

Foreign-born,  white 15 


—  58  — 

Negro  3,023 

DWEUJ^"^-^  AND  FAMILIES 

Dwellings,  No _ 12,121 

Families  No 12,897 

AGRICULTURAL  CENSUS— HINDS  COUNTY 

All  Farms 

No.  farms,  1920  5,951 

All  farmers  classified  by  sex,  1920 

Male  5,381 

Female  570 

Color  and  nativity  of  all  farmers,  1920 

Native  white  1,172 

Foreign-born  white  8 

Negro  and  other  non-white .■ 4,771 

All  Farms  Classified  by  size,  1920 : 

Under  3  acres  ^ 2 

3  to  9  acres  155 

10  to  19  acres 853 

20  to  49  acres 3,354 

50  to  99  acres 789 

100  to  174  acres  412 

175  to  259  acres  173 

260  to  499  acres 130 

500  to  999  acres 49 

1000  acres   and  over  34 

Land  and  Farm  Area  Acres 

Approximate  land  area,  1920 549,120 

Land  in  farms,  1920  391,016 

Improved  land  in  farms,  1920  269,816 

Woodland  in  farms,  1920 73,565 

Other  unimproved  land  in  farms  47,635 

Per  cent  of  land  area  in  farms  71.2 

Per  cent  of  farm  land  improved 69.0 

Average  acreage  per  farm 65.7 

Average  improved  acreage  per  farm  45.3 

Value  of  Farm  Property 

All  farm  property  $17,903,283 

Land  in  farms  9,820,324 

Farm  buildings  3,341,256 


—  59  — 

Implements  and  Machinery  1,001,417 

Live  stock  on  farms  3,740,286 

Average  values 

All  property  3,008 

Land  and  buildings,  per  farm  2,212 

Land  alone,  per  acre $25.11 

Farms  Operated  By  Own»3rs 

No.  of  farms  1,350 

Per  cent  of  all  farms 22.7 

Land  in  farms,  acres 200,568 

Improved  land  in  farms,  acres  120,413 

Value  of  land  in  buildings  $6,055,957 

Degree    of  Ownership 

Farmers  owning  entire  farm 1,171 

Farmers  hiring  additional  land 179 

Color  and  nativity  of  owners 

Native  white  owners  675 

Foreign-born  white  owners  6 

Negro  and  other  non-white  owners 669 

Farms  Operated  By  Managers 

No.  of  farms  .: 44 

Land  in  farms,  acres  29,599 

Improved  land  in  farms  20,133 

Value  of  land  and  buildings $1,400,495 

Farms  Operated  by  Tenants 

No.  of  farms  4,557 

Per  cent  of  all  farms 76.6 

Land  in  farms,  acres  160,849 

Improved  land  in  farms  129,270 

Value  of  land  and  buildings  $5,705,128 

Form  of  Tenancy 

Share  tenants 889 

Croppers 2,289 

Share-cash  tenants  21 

Cash  tenants 511 

Standing  renters  891 

Unspecified  : 6 

Color  and  nativity  of  tenants 

Native  white  tenants  459 


—  60  — 

Foreign-born  white  tenants 1 

Negro  and  other  non-white  tenants 4,097 

MANUFACTURES  HINDS  COUNTY 

Number  of  Establishments 82 

Wage  Earners — Average  number 1,779 

Wages  $  1,418,530 

Rent  and  Taxes 227,657 

Cost  of  Materials 9,827,591 

Value  of  Products  13,789,266 

Value  added  by  manufacture 3,961,675 

Primary  horse  power 7,620 


JACKSON 

November  28,  1821,  April  28,  1822—1922. 

The  Legisl^ature  which  had  convened  in  Colum- 
bia ratified  the  selection  of  the  site  of  Jackson  for  the 
Capital  November  28,  1821.  The  town  was  laid  off  in 
April,  1822,  and  the  State  government  removed  to  the  new 
capital  in  the  autumn  of  1822,  the  legislature  meeting  for 
the  first  time  on  December  23.  Gov.  Walter  Leake  in  his 
message  on  December  24th  congratulated  the  members  on 
the  new  two  story  brick  capitol  building  which  had  been 
erected  for  its  use  in  1822.  This  stood  on  the  northeast 
corner  of  Capitol  and  President  Streets,  now  occupied  by 
the  Harding  Building.  The  site  should  be  marked  with  a 
bronze  tablet  with  the  figures  of  Gens.  Jackson  and  Hinds 
and  Pushmataha  in  bas-relief. 

The  following  poem  is  in  commemoration  of  the 
city's  centenary: 

Fair  City  of  our  hope  we  come 

to  sing  your  praise! 
And  every  glad  tongue  frames  for  you 

sweet,  tuneful  lays. 

You  wake  a  chord  within  our  hearts 

that  sings  and  sings. 
Like  the  swift  whir  of  eager  bird 

on  homing  wings. 

To-day  you  count  the  treasure  of 

a  hundred  years — 
Rich  hoardings  for  your  children's  use 

unmixed  with  tears. 

Your  love  abundant  blesses  all 

who  dwell  beside 
Your  hearthstones  warm  and  pure,  where  peace 

and  hope  abide. 


—  62  — 

Your  pleasant  prospect  lures  men's  feet ; 

with  all  who  come 
You  share  rich  opportunity 

and  heart  and  home. 

Your  heavy  toil  and  sweat  and  grime 

and  every  strife 
But  serve  to  make  your  comely  limbs 

throb  with  new  life. 

It  was  not  always  thus  with  you — 

a  wilding  race 
Left  on  your  page  a  story  we 

would  not  efface; 

And  fame  of  Pushmataha  will 

forever  be 
A  sign  to  teach  men  faithfulness 

and  loyalty. 

The  names  of  Jackson  and  of  Hinds, 

linked  on  your  scroll, 
Are  names  that  Mississippi  holds 

dear  to  her  soul. 

Your  youth  is  clad  in  mail  that  speaks 

of  chivalry, 
For  feat  and  high  adventure  thrill 

its  history; 

Wherever  Liberty's  fair  feet 

have  trod  lone  heights 
Your  valiant  legions  ever  have  been 

her  accolytes. 

When  bugles  sounded  in  the  west 

in  Freedom's  name 
With  Davis,  Quitman,  your  strong  sons 

won  lasting  fame. 


— -63  — 

And  in  your  joyous,  early  prime 

there  was  a  day 
When,  scourged  by  ruthless  war  your  walls 

in  ashes  lay. 

And  every  sacred  hall  and  isle 

and  path  and  street 
For  many  a  bitter  day  were  trod 

by  alien  feet; 

But  with  a  hope  that  dark  despair 

disowns,  disdains, 
Your  fearless  sons  and  daughters  have 

rebuilt  your  fanes. 

Today  in  strength  and  might  you  come, 

as  in  your  youth. 
Girded  to  win  God's  battle  for 

the  right  and  truth; 

While  safe  and  all  unfearing  on 

your  faithful  breast 
Your  children — poor  and  rich  alike, 

securely  rest. 

ERON  0.  ROWLAND. 


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