as a boundary. It crosses rivers not far above their mouths and seems
singularly unsuitable. It makes one State own the source and another
the mouth of all streams. It was put in the treaty of 1782, whereby
Great Britian acknowledged American independence, for policy, because
it confined the Spaniards to the coast, which they could neither use
nor defend. Historically it was so selected because Great Britian
had made it by proclamation of October 7, 1763, the north line of
West Florida, and West Florida was captured from her by Spain in
1780. But why had it ever been made the boundary of Florida? The only
reason apparent is that Great Britain in 1763 wanted to get immediate
control only of the harbors and did not care to have her colonial
governments clash with the Indians. The territory above was by the same
proclamation made crown lands and reserved for the use of the savages.
This policy was reflected in the great Choctaw treaty at Mobile March
26, 1765, when a tract was ceded "the boundary be settled by a line
extended from Grosse Point, in the Island of Mount Louis, by the course
of the western coast of Mobile Bay, to the mouth of the eastern branch
of the Tombigbee River, and north by the course of said river, to the
confluence of Alibamont and Tombigbee Rivers, and afterwards along the
western bank of Alibamont River to the mouth of Chickianoce River, and
from the confluence of Chickianoce and Alibamont rivers, a straight
line to the confluence of Bance and Tombigbee rivers; from thence, by
a line along the western bank of Bance River, till its confluence with
the Tallatukpe River; from thence, by a straight line to Tombigbee
River, opposite to Atchalikpe (Hatchatigbee Bluff) and from Atchalikpe,
by a straight line to the most northerly part of Buckatanne River, and
down the course of Buckatanne River to its confluence with the river
Pascagoula, and down by the course of the river Pascagoula, within
twelve leagues of the seacoast; and thence, by a due west line, as far
as the Choctaw nation have right to grant." The twelve leagues from
the coast bring us to about this line of 31°, as closely as could be
determined without a survey. It is true that on the Tombigbee land was
ceded up to Hatchatigbee Bluff; but that was a reaching, in the only
way possible, towards the new north boundary of West Florida as already
fixed in 1764--an east and west line drawn through the mouth of the
Yazoo River.[143]
But while it is true that by the treaty of 1782 Great Britain thus
acknowledged the south boundary of her revolted colonies as the line of
31°, it is not less true that she did not then own so far south. Spain,
who was in possession, recognized the boundary through the Yazoo mouth,
and, in fact, Great Britain in this treaty proposed to do the same
thing if she re-acquired West Florida. Walnut Hills and Natchez on the
Mississippi, Fort Confederation and Fort St. Stephen on the Tombigbee
were strong Spanish posts and all above 31°.
The all-conquering Galvez was governor-general for a year after that
treaty and would certainly have maintained the Spanish rights by force
of arms if necessary. But his successor, the politic Miro, lived to see
a rapid American growth west of the mountains, and the death of the
active King Charles III. and the French Revolution wrought a change in
Europe. The weak Charles IV. let his wife and her notorious paramour,
Godoy, rule Spain.[144] It so happened that French successes led to
peace, but Godoy thought that Spain would soon be at war with England
and that therefore peace with the United States was important for
Spanish-America. At all events he suddenly assented to the demands of
Thomas Pinckney, the American envoy, and on October 27, 1795, signed
a treaty whose second article declared 31° as the boundary from the
Mississippi to the Chattahoochee, and thence east by a line from the
junction of the Flint and Chattahoochee to the head of the St. Mary's
River.
The colonial authorities could never believe this agreement _bona fide_
and sought by delay to give the court a chance to undo the treaty. In
1797 the Spanish minister declared the United States guilty of bad
faith in making friends with England by Jay's treaty. A commissioner to
run the line had to be as much of a diplomat as of a surveyor.
Such, at least, was the opinion of Andrew Ellicott, whom President
Washington in the last part of 1796 sent by way of the Ohio and
Mississippi to act for the United States. Baron de Carondelet, the
governor general, was to represent Spain. Ellicott arrived at Natchez
on February 24, 1797, and until he left on April 9, 1798,[145] his
time was taken up in negotiations with commandant Gayoso de Lemos or
encouraging the dissatisfied citizens there to claim the rights of
Americans.[146] Among the prominent men there named by Ellicott were
those on the revolutionary committees,--Anthony Hutchins, Bernard
Lintot, Cato West, Isaac Gaillard, William Ratliff, Joseph Bernard,
Gabriel Benoist, Peter B. Bruin, Daniel Clark, Philander Smith and
Roger Dixon.
The permanent committee was composed of the last eight and Frederick
Kimball, who lived below the line. These were really the government
until the organization of the Territory. Gayoso admitted the neutrality
of the district even before the Spaniards evacuated the town on March
30, 1798. Hutchins was a disturbing factor for a time, organizing a
counter committee of safety and correspondence. Among his friends
were Thomas Green, James Stuart, Ashly, (a Baptist minister,) Messrs.
Shaw, (an attorney,) Davis, Justice King, Abner Green, Hocket, and Mr.
Hunter, afterwards member of Congress from the Territory. Ellicott
says that Gayoso declined to let Hutchins move below the line and that
he therefore remained, to be prominent in Mississippi.[147] Of the
299 pages of Ellicott's printed Journal, the first 176 are taken up
with events before beginning the survey. General Wilkinson accuses him
of officiousness with the Spaniards and of gross immorality on board
his boat on the river. It may be true, but Wilkinson is no reliable
authority, although he ought to have been a good judge of rascality.
Ellicott had been in public life before. He was a Quaker of
Pennsylvania, and about 1789 ran the western line of New York, and
afterwards the lines of the District of Columbia and the streets of
Washington. In 1791 he was commissioner to run the line between Georgia
and the Creeks.[148]
On the present occasion he had with the party an escort of soldiers,
at least part of the time under the gallant Captain John Boyer. The
plans annexed as an appendix to the Journal must largely be those of
David Gillespie, who did the actual surveying, and his report or
journal would have been of greater value than Ellicott's. Ellicott
acted as astronomer, but generally was the outside man. He was in New
Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola, St. Marks and circumnavigating Florida,
while Gillespie was quietly plodding the forests, running a guide line
and by offsets establishing the true latitude of 31°. But nothing from
Gillespie can now be found at Washington and even Ellicott's original
report seems to have shared the fate of so much else in the vandal
destruction of the capital by the enemy in 1814. For the Spaniards
Captain Minor acted as surveyor, with Patrick Taggert as assistant, and
Mr. Dunbar, (later of Mississippi Territory,) as astronomer.
The American side was better provided with instruments than the
Spanish, having fourteen kinds in all.[149] They consisted of two
zenith sectors (the larger one having nearly six feet radius), "both
principally executed by ____ Rittenhouse," a large achromatic telescope
made by Dolland of London, with terrestrial and celestial magnifying
pieces, besides two small telescopes for taking signals, a transit and
equal altitude instrument made by Ellicott and used in the New York
and Washington surveys, a regulator made by Ellicott, an instrument
of eight inches radius for taking horizontal angles, constructed by
George Adams of London, three brass sextants, one by Ramsden being of
"superior style," a surveying compass made by Benjamin Rittenhouse
"upon the newest and most approved style," two "excellent" stop
watches, two "excellent" cases of drawing and plotting instruments, two
four-sided copper lanterns for tracing the meridians and directions
during celestial observations, an apparatus to protect the water in
using an artificial horizon, consisting of covered cup, &c., and two
two-pole chains of common construction. On the Spanish side were only
an "excellent" sextant, graduated by the vernier to 10 seconds, an
astronomical circle executed by Traughton of London, itself "a portable
observatory," "executed in a masterly manner," and an old surveying
compass of poor construction. The sextant and circle had been the
property of Dunbar, and were acquired from him by Governor Gayoso.
Ellicott and party sailed from Natchez down the river and at
Clarksville began work. On April 11th, he says, they "set up the clock,
a small zenith sector, and proceeded to take the zenith distance of
pollux, for five evenings successively, the first three, with the
plane of the sector to the east and the others with the plane west.
From the result of those observations, it appeared that we were three
miles and two hundred and ninety perches too far north. This distance
my assistants, Messrs. Gillespie, Ellicott, Jr., and Walker, traversed
with a common surveying compass and chain, to the south, in order
to discover (nearly) a proper place to encamp, and set up the large
sector, to determine the first point in the line with accuracy. When
this traverse was completed it was found to be impracticable to convey
our instruments, baggage and stores directly from Clarksville to the
most eligible place, owing to the extreme unevenness of the country on
the one hand, and the banks of the Mississippi not being sufficiently
inundated on the other, to give us a passage by water through the
swamps and small lakes; it was therefore determined to descend the
Mississippi to the Bayou Tunica (or Willing's Bayou); from whence I
understood we could convey our instruments, stores and baggage, either
by land or water, almost to the place of beginning; though not without
some difficulty. The distance from Clarksville to the Bayou Tunica by
land is but eight and a half miles, but by the Mississippi more than
fifty.
"On the 24th we left Clarksville, and arrived at the Bayou Tunica on
the 26th, being detained one day by head winds.
"On the 27th my assistants were sent to carry a line east from the
termination of the traverse already made, into the high land, and
on the 28th I went and examined the country over which the guide
line passed, and fixed upon a very elevated situation, about one
thousand four hundred feet south of it, for our first position; but
the difficulty of getting our instruments, baggage and stores to it,
appeared much greater than I first expected. A party of our men were
directed to open a road from the height already pitched upon, to
Alston's Lake; the distance was about one mile. The road was completed
on the 30th, and on the first day of May we moved and encamped on the
top of the hill. Our instruments, baggage, &c., were first carted from
the Bayou Tunica to Alston's Lake, into which I had previously taken
through the swamp two light skiffs: the articles were then taken by
water, up the lake to the point where our road from the hill struck
it, and from thence packed on horses to our encampment. The country
was so broken, and covered from the tops to the bottoms of the hills,
with such high, strong cane, (arundo gigantea,) and a variety of
lofty timber, that a road from the Bayou Tunica, to our camp, could
not be made by our number of hands, in less than a month passable for
pack-horses.
"Our observatory tent being worn out by the military, who had no tents
when they arrived at Natchez, I was now under the necessity of erecting
a wooden building for that purpose; which I began on the 2d of May, and
with the aid of four men finished on the 4th, and set up the clock, and
large zenith sector; but the weather being unfavorable, the course of
observations was not began till the 6th, and was completed on the 16th."
On the 21st he was joined by Captain Minor and on the 26th by Dunbar.
June 1st Gayoso, who succeeded on the death of Carondelet, came with
his suite and examined the line as determined; but he then returned to
New Orleans, leaving Minor to represent him.
Ellicott in the 5th volume of the American Philosophical Society
Transactions (reprinted as an appendix to his Journal) quotes from
Dunbar the following account of the establishment of the point on the
Mississippi River:--
"On the 28th of July, the line then approaching the 10th mile, and
learning that the waters of the inundation were retired within the
banks of the Mississippi, so that the lands were become sufficiently
dry to give firm footing to the labourers, the astronomer for his
Catholic Majesty taking upon himself the extending of the line through
the river low ground to the eastern margin of the Mississippi. The
party allotted for this service did accordingly encamp at the point D,
pushing the line forward. Judging the present a convenient position
for verifying the direction of the line, the astronomer for His
Catholic Majesty established his observatory near the point D, and made
____observations with the circular instrument placed in the direction
of the tangent____.
"The line being extended to the margin of the Mississippi on the 17th
of August, the measurement from the point D, was found to be 2 miles
and 180 perches English measure, (or 2111.42 French toises.) At the
distance of 1 and 2 miles at the points X and Y, were erected square
posts surrounded by mounds of earth, and at a distance of 88 French
feet from the margin of the river, and in the parallel of latitude was
erected a square post 10 feet high surrounded by a mound of eight feet
in height. On this post is inscribed on the south side a crown with the
letter R underneath; on the north U. S., and the west fronting on the
river, Agosto 18th, 1798. Lat. 31° N. In erecting the mile post, due
regard was paid to the quantity of the offsets."
Their second camp was at Little Bayou Sara. Thence on their progress at
first was slow on account of the cane, twenty to thirty-five feet high,
matted with vines, and the many short, steep hills, besides the rainy
weather. They hardly averaged a quarter of a mile per day. The Choctaw
Indians, through whose country they passed, never disturbed the party,
however, therein contrasting with the Creeks beyond Mobile River the
next year.
While on Little Bayou Sara they learned of the formation of Mississippi
Territory and the appointment of Winthrop Sargent as governor.[150]
The new governor arrived in Natchez August 6th, and General Wilkinson
on the 26th, but Sargent's health did not permit him to organize the
government until the next month.
But Ellicott was now outside civil complications. He made new
encampments on the line at Big Bayou Sara (whence Dunbar returned to
his home near Natchez,) Thompson's Creek, Darling's Creek and Pearl or
Half Way River. At Thompson's the observations covered the satellites
of Jupiter by night, and the sun by day. After leaving Thompson's Creek
they had much trouble crossing swamps and rafting over deep streams.
Those named on his map are Comite, Beaver Creek, Amite, Ticfaw,
Tanchipahoe, and Boguechitoe, all easily recognized. The soil generally
was poor, covered with pines on the sandy uplands. He naively tells
us that while at Darling's a confidential letter from the Spanish
governor-general to a Spanish officer "fell into my hands for a few
hours." What right he had to open and read official correspondence
between officials of a power with whom his country was at peace does
not appear, but espionage went so far at this period that an American
commandant at Natchez had tried to intercept Ellicott's own letters.
Evidently Ellicott thought the end justified his own means. For he
discovered that improper correspondence had been carried on between
Spanish officials and "some gentlemen in the western part of the
Union," and that nearly $20,000 had been shipped from New Orleans in
that connection. Ellicott copied the "interesting parts" and dispatched
them to the Department of State. This may account for Wilkinson's
hostility.
November 17-19 was occupied cutting a road through the cane brake,
building rafts and ferrying across Pearl River. Here they had trouble
getting provisions. Supplies and the large sector had arrived by
water at a bluff at the mouth of the river, but the boat could not
pass two natural rafts that blocked up the stream, as they often did.
Gillespie succeeded in cutting through, but provisions meantime ran
out except beef. Fortunately a small supply was secured by pack-horse
from Thompson's Creek, and after two weeks Gillespie came back from New
Orleans, bringing a few barrels of flour. After arranging for Gillespie
to correct back to Thompson's Creek, and Daniel Burnet to carry the
guide line on to the Mobile, Ellicott himself went down the river, and
thence through the Rigolets to New Orleans, where he arrived January
4, 1799. There he obtained supplies, conferred with Gayoso, and took
observations with his six feet sector.
Meantime the guide line was plodding eastwardly through the forests.
At 117 miles from the Mississippi the party passed the Hatcha-Lucha
(Black Creek) and about 168 miles they crossed the Pascagoula (now
Chickasawhay) a little above where the Slapacha (Leaf River) falls in.
This last is called Estopacha in other documents of the time. Thence on
nothing special occurred until they reached the Mobile River, where the
guide line had diverged 517.44 perches too far north.
The observatory had been erected before Ellicott's arrival from New
Orleans in his schooner by way of Mobile. Observations (solar and
lunar, of Castor and Pollux, &c.) were made from March 18 to April
9, 1799. Here the large sector was used, and the transit and equal
altitude instrument also. Finally a boundary stone was set up, marked
(according to the Journal) on the north "U. S. Lat. 31° 1799," and on
the south "Dominos de S. M. C. Carolus IV. Lat 31° 1799." This piece
of brown sand-stone, about three feet high is still in place near
the Southern Railway and is the basis of all surveys in south-west
Alabama.[151] During this time Gillespie went up the river to St.
Stephens. With a Haddley's sextant he determined the latitude of that
place, and he also made a sketch of the river. Ellicott himself
determined the latitude of Mobile and the point at the mouth of the Bay.
Among the most serious problems of the survey was carrying the line
across the Mobile River and adjacent swamps. The only feasible way was
found to be for parties on each side to make fire and smoke signals at
certain intervals on the high lands to the east and west.
While Ellicott was at Pensacola, with Colonel Hawkins, trying to
arrange with the Spanish commandant to secure the neutrality of the
Creeks, his party pushed the line forward from the Mobile to the
Escambia and Coenecuh Rivers above their junction. The matter of the
Indians was never satisfactorily arranged, but the survey proceeded.
On the Coenecuh, however, he notes that the more pressing enemies were
flies and "musquitoes," which made every observation a matter of great
pain. Among these was the transit of Mercury in May, 1799. Thereafter
they crossed the White Cedar Creek, Yellow Waters, and between the
321st and 334th miles crossed and re-crossed the larger Choctaw River,
now the Choctawhatchee, and its branch, the Pea River. Between that
and the Chattahoochee were a number of streams and lakes, but he names
only the Waters of Chapully (Chipola River.) In fact, little or no
account is given of this part of the survey, as Ellicott was not in
the party. He sailed from Pensacola and finally met the others on the
Chattahoochee.
There he was surrounded by hostile Indians and had difficulty
establishing in September 1799 the mound at the junction of the Flint.
He then left the party and went by sea around Florida to the St.
Mary's, while Gillespie apparently worked overland to the sources of
that river. There, as at the beginning of the Mississippi, Ellicott
built a terminal mound.
But at the Chattahoochee, 381 miles from the Father of Waters, ended
Mississippi Territory. And there we must bid adieu to Ellicott and the
south line alike of Mississippi and of Alabama. Spain retired below
that line in 1798-9, and before 1820 the United States had acquired
the territory south of it even to the Gulf. As a boundary between
countries the parallel of 31° has become obsolete; but the Quaker's
work in running out the old British line still remains important, for
it separates much of Mississippi from Louisiana and much of Alabama
from Florida. The stone on Mobile River is only a point of departure
in surveying; but the mounds on the Mississippi, the Chattahoochee and
St. Mary's bound civilized States instead of savage hunting grounds, as
when they were made, and one at least still bears Ellicott's name.
FOOTNOTES:
[143] Colonial Mobile, pp. 185, 294; 7 Statutes at Large, p. 55.
[144] 4, Am. Hist. Rev. p. 62, &c.; 7 Stat. at Large, p. 140.
[145] Ellicott's Journal, pp. 40, 177.
[146] But at least he did not turn cannon on Gayoso and compel him to
evacuate, as stated (p. 45) in Jones' Introduction of Protestantism.
[147] Ellicott's Journal, pp. 141, 282.
[148] Winsor's Westward Movement, p. 266; Ellicott's Journal, App. p.
45.
[149] Ellicott's Journal, App., p. 44, &c.
[150] Colonial Mobile, p. 342; Ellicott's Journal, p. 182.
[151] Picture in Colonial Mobile, p. 295, shows Ellicott to be
inaccurate as to lettering.
ELIZABETH FEMALE ACADEMY--THE MOTHER OF FEMALE COLLEGES
BY BISHOP CHAS. B. GALLOWAY, D. D.
I believe that Mississippi can justly lay claim to the honor of having
established the first chartered institution for the higher education
of young women in the South, if not in the United States. Though
called an Academy, it did full collegiate work, had a high standard
of scholarship, and conferred degrees. The institution was located
at Washington, six miles east of Natchez. Washington had been the
brilliant and busy little Territorial Capital, and was then the center
of social and political influence.
A recent visit to the site of that venerable school enabled me to
gather much valuable information about its work, and heightened my
appreciation of its vast educative and spiritual influence upon the
history and destiny of the Southwest. The walls of the spacious
building still stand, but the merry voices that rang through its halls
only live in the sweet echoes of a distant past. Borrowing a style of
architecture from the Spanish of Colonial times, the structure was
two and a half stories high, the first of brick, the others in frame.
A fire consumed it twenty years ago, leaving only the solid masonry
as a memorial of the educational ambition and spiritual consecration
of Early Mississippi Methodism. Some of the grandest women of the
Southwest received their well-earned diplomas within those now charred
walls, and went out to preside over their own model and magnificent
homes. The early catalogues contain the names of fair daughters who
afterward became the accomplished matrons of historic families. For
many years the Elizabeth Female Academy was the one institution of
high grade in the entire South for the education of young women. All
others have been followers and beneficiaries of this brave heroine of
Mississippi.
The grounds and buildings were donated to the Mississippi Conference
by Mrs. Elizabeth Roach in 1818, and in her honor the institution was
called the Elizabeth Female Academy. The year following a charter was
granted by the Legislature, of which this is a copy:
"_An Act.
To Incorporate the Elizabeth Female Academy._
"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State
of Mississippi in General Assembly convened, "That an Academy be, and
is hereby established near the town of Washington, in the county of
Adams, to be known by the name of the Elizabeth Female Academy, in
honor of Mrs. Elizabeth Roach, the founder thereof, to be under the
superintendence of John Menifee, Daniel Rawlings, Alexander Covington,
John W. Briant, and Beverly R. Grayson, and their successors who are
hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, to be known by the
name and style of 'The Trustees of the Elizabeth Female Academy' and
they and their successors are hereby made capable of receiving real and
personal estate, either by donation or purchase, for the benefit of the
institution, _not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars_, of suing
and being sued, and of doing and performing all other acts, and shall
possess all other powers, incident to bodies corporate.
"Sec. 2.--And be it further enacted, That all vacancies that may happen
in the said Board of Trustees, either by death, resignation, refusal
to act, or removal from the State, shall be filled by the members of
the Methodist Mississippi Annual Conference: provided however, that all
such vacancies may be filled by the said Board of Trustees, to continue
until the meeting of the said conference next ensuing such vacancy, or
until they shall fill the same.