and in September, 1779, Galvez captured the British post at Baton
Rouge, and in its surrender Fort Panmure was included. But so strong
was the British sentiment, that the people of the Natchez district did
not quietly submit to a change of rulers, and in 1781, there was a
revolt against the Spanish power, which, however, Galvez very promptly
suppressed. By the treaty of Paris, in 1783, Great Britain ceded to
Spain all of the Floridas south of the 31st., parallel, all north of
that line being recognized by her as within the limits of the United
States, then acknowledged by her as an independent nation. But, under
the British regime, the whole front along the Mississippi River, as far
north as the mouth of the Yazoo, had been included in West Florida,
and had passed to Spain with the surrender of Baton Rouge, in 1781.
Thus being in possession by force of arms the Spaniards were loath
to evacuate in favor of the United States, and with characteristic
pertinacity retained possession till 1798, notwithstanding the treaty
of 1783, and their recognition of the 31st., parallel as the boundary
line by the treaty of Madrid in 1795.
During this period of wrongful possession, Spain dealt with this
section as if it were really a Spanish province, plainly indicating
her intention not to surrender possession except under duress. These
seventeen years form one of the most interesting chapters in the
history of Adams County. Roman Catholicism was the state religion,
and its church was the centre from which the city of Natchez was laid
out. This church was built on the spot where the store of the Natchez
Drug Company now stands. Whilst Protestants were tolerated, they were
not free in the practice of their religion. Parson Cloud, the first
Episcopal minister in this section, was persecuted and driven away,
and many interesting accounts are extant illustrative of the spirit
of Spanish bigotry and persecution. That portion of Natchez between
the church and the bluffs was reserved for residences of the Spanish
grandees,--the English, Irish, and American settlers being assigned to
other portions of the town.
There are still to be found here several old houses built during the
Spanish regime. They are recognizable from having a low brick basement
surmounted by a wooden upper story,--built as if in anticipation of
an earthquake,--a combination of residence and fortification. The old
Postlethwaite house on Jefferson street is such a one. The Spanish made
many grants of land, as though Spain were the lawful sovereign, which
grants were, however, afterwards usually recognized by the American
authorities when followed by possession. The old Spanish records in
the office of the Clerk of our Chancery Court, are a treasure store
for the antiquary and historian. These records are not quite complete,
a portion having been carried away, (it is said to Havana) by the
Spaniards when they evacuated Natchez.
But the United States would recognize no title by adverse possession
on Spain to this fair land, and finally began to vigorously assert her
rights. About Feb. 24th, 1797, Andrew Ellicott arrived at Natchez,
accompanied by a sufficient military escort and clothed with power
as commissioner of the United States to meet the representative of
Spain, to mark out the 31st parallel as the boundary between the two
dominions. He first camped near the present intersection of Wall and
Jefferson streets and there hoisted the American flag.
The Spanish governor, Gayoso, resorted to various subterfuges and
evasion to delay the fixing of the boundary line and the evacuation
of Natchez. It was not till March 29th, 1798, that the Spaniards,
after exhausting every excuse for delay, and under the influence of a
popular uprising supported by the military forces of the United States,
finally evacuated Fort Panmure. And then they left, not by the light of
day, with military honors and with martial music and banners flying;
but like thieves, at midnight they stole silently away. It was only
after this that Governor Gayoso, from New Orleans, issued commissions
to Sir William Dunbar and Capt. Stephen Minor, as commissioners for
Spain and in May, 1798, the work of surveying the 31st parallel was
begun.
The State of Georgia had all along claimed as her own a large portion
of the present State of Mississippi, including what is now the county
of Adams. This territory she had organized as the county of Bourbon in
1785, and she attempted alone to assert her rights against Spain. There
thus arose a conflict of claims between Georgia and the United States,
which was finally adjusted and Mississippi Territory organized by Act
of Congress, approved April 7th, 1798.
Natchez was made the first territorial capital, and Winthrop Sargent
was appointed the first territorial governor. Sargent, by proclamation,
on April 2d, 1799, formed the Natchez District into the two counties
of Adams and Pickering,--the latter name being afterwards changed to
Jefferson.
Under the new regime, population and wealth increased with amazing
rapidity. Treaties were made with the Indian tribes, and great public
roads were opened up,--notably the Indian trail known as the 'Natchez
and Nashville Trace.' This was the great government mail and overland
stage route from New Orleans to the North and East, in the early days
before steamboats plied the water or railroads traversed the land.
As a natural consequence it was infested in the vicinity of Natchez
by daring highwaymen, noted among whom were the celebrated Mason and
Murrel,--heroes of bloody deeds that would have made Dick Turpin pale
with envy.
Along this route, at six mile intervals, were relay stations for
change of horses and for refreshments. The first of these was the old
town of Washington,--now a veritable deserted village. This town was
laid out and named by Ellicott, who, during the delays incident to the
evacuation of Natchez by the Spaniards had removed his camp hither to
the banks of the St. Catherine creek. He camped by a beautiful spring
that still bears his name, and which is now within the grounds of
Jefferson College. Many years ago it was arched over, and a bath-house
was supplied with its crystal water. But even the ruins of this have
all disappeared. The old town of Washington almost rivals Natchez
in its historic associations. Here in 1803 was founded Jefferson
College,--the oldest endowed institution in the Southwest, and from
whence such men as A. Gratz Brown and Jefferson Davis were sent forth
to fight the battles of life. Here also was the celebrated Elizabeth
Academy for girls. The old building was destroyed by fire nearly twenty
years ago, but its brick walls are still standing.
Washington was made the territorial capital of Mississippi by act of
the legislature on Feb. 1st, 1802. Within my memory the old brick
church (founded by the celebrated Lorenzo Dow), and which was also
used as the state-house, and in which the constitutional convention
of 1817 was held, was still standing, just within and to the right of
the entrance to the campus of Jefferson College. The ruins were sold
for old brick, and thus this interesting relic passed away. It was in
this building that the preliminary investigation of the charges against
Aaron Burr was held. He was arrested in January, 1807, near the mouth
of Coles creek, some twenty miles above Natchez, brought to Washington,
and released on bond (which he broke), with Lyman Harding and Benijah
Osmun as sureties. The room occupied by him is still pointed out in the
old Osmun residence on the "Windy Hill" plantation, now owned by Miss
E. B. Stanton. It is about five miles from Natchez.
In its day, the town of Washington was a veritable literary centre,--no
doubt due to the influence of Jefferson College and of the Mississippi
Society. Monette, the historian, and Wailes, the geologist, lived,
died and are buried here, and their old homes still remain. Ingraham,
the author of the "Pillar of Fire," at one time was a professor in
Jefferson College. A few miles distant was the home of Claiborne, the
historian, the rival and compeer of Prentiss.
At Washington Andrew Jackson was encamped in 1813, when he disobeyed
the order to there muster out his soldiers, and instead of doing so,
marched them back to Tennessee for the purpose. And here, a few days
later, were brought some of the British prisoners captured at the
great battle of New Orleans. Two miles from Washington was the home of
General Felix Huston. Within its limits is the grave of Judge Thomas
Rodney.
In the early days, before the institution of slavery had assumed its
subsequent gigantic proportions, resulting in the concentration of
great landed estates in the hands of a few wealthy slave-owners, Adams
county was divided into a great number of small farms, owned by white
settlers. This is evidenced by a study of the titles of the great
plantations, the records showing them to consist of consolidated farms,
in many instances. This is further evidenced by the great number of
private burying grounds scattered throughout the county adjacent to
Natchez and Washington, in which are found tombs with inscriptions
often a century old, and names without a living representative here.
But if slavery produced decadence in one way, it produced growth in
another. Adams county, and especially the suburbs of the city of
Natchez, became the home of wealthy families, owning broad acres, not
only in this but in many other counties, and in the neighboring State
of Louisiana. The beautiful description by Mrs. Hemans, of "The Stately
Homes of England," would have applied almost without change to the
ancestral residences occupied in ante-bellum days, by veritable lords
of the manor, surrounded by all the luxury and refinement which wealth
and slavery could produce. Some of these relics of an unforgotten
past, still remain, such as "Elmscourt," "Gloster," "Llangollin,"
"Longwood," "Auburn," "Inglewood," "Monmouth," "Melrose," "Arlington,"
"Somerset," "Oakland," "Manteigne," "Richmond," "Devereux," "Concord,"
"Sweet-Auburn," "Brandon-Hall," "Selma," "Green-field," "Coventry,"
"The Forest," and others. Many more have been destroyed by the
fire-fiend, and only ruins now remain. "The Forest" the home of Sir
William Dunbar, and "Selma," the original residence of the Brandon
family, were indigo plantations, in the days before cotton was king.
"Concord" is of special interest, as an old Spanish house, and the
residence of Governor Gayoso.
However, with the rapid increase in the population of the other
portions of Mississippi, the controlling influence at first exercised
by Adams County gradually disappeared. This was further affected by the
jealousy of our wealthy land owners which was felt by the inhabitants
of the newer and poorer interior counties. Finally by Act of Nov. 28th,
1820, the General Assembly gave to the present city of Jackson its name
in honor of our great Democratic warrior and statesman, and made it the
future capital of our State.
Thus the sceptre departed from Adams County; and while she has ever
maintained a position in the State of which her citizens are proud,
yet from this time she has ceased to be the political centre of
Mississippi, and the place where its history is made.
Yet hither must Mississippians ever come, as to the cradle in which
the infant State was rocked. Hither will pilgrims journey to visit our
historic shrines and to drink from the primal springs of a glorious
past.
The immortal Prentiss won his first laurels here; and here his ashes
rest (side by side with those of Governor Sargent); while in our city
cemetery sleep Judge Joseph D. Shields, his pupil and biographer,
and the historian Claiborne, his great political antagonist. Vidal,
the last governor of despotic Spain in Louisiana, here sleeps his
last sleep in the land of the free; as does also Alvarez Fisk, the
benefactor of the schools and libraries of both Natchez and New Orleans.
Upon the rolls of our distinguished dead, besides those already
mentioned, are the names of Thomas B. Reed, Edward Turner, Gerard C.
Brandon, Christopher Rankin, Cowles Mead, Wm. B. Shields, S. S. Boyd,
John A. Quitman, John T. McMurran, Robert J. Walker, Anthony Hutchins,
George Poindexter, Lyman Harding, W. C. C. Claiborne, Adam L. Bingaman,
Dr. Cartwright, Dr. Duncan, Dr. Jenkins, John I. Guion, Andrew
Marschalk, and many others.
But it is not her public or professional men alone, who have made the
Historic Adams County of the past. "Her merchants were princes," in
the olden time, when ships from the ocean were moored at the wharves
of Natchez, bringing and taking in exchange the treasures of the
old world and the new. Here one of the first cotton compresses was
established. The old Mississippi Railroad, built in 1836, but completed
only as far as Hamburg, was the earliest in the South and one of the
oldest in the Union. Its old road-bed and massive embankments still
remain,--monuments of the enterprise of our forefathers.
Thus, even after her political supremacy had departed, Natchez still
remained the financial and commercial centre of this State. But the
great financial panic of 1836 and 1837 came, and like a cyclone swept
our prosperity away. This was followed by the terrible tornado of May
7th, 1840, which laid our city in ruins, and numbered its victims
by the hundred, and which is even yet recalled with dread upon each
recurrence of its anniversary.
I have thus endeavored to present, in epitome, an outline of the
history of Adams County, from its earliest settlement to within times
too recent to require research by the historian. I have endeavored
likewise to indicate a few of the most interesting spots which may be
visited by the student of history coming into our midst.
THE HISTORICAL OPPORTUNITY OF MISSISSIPPI
BY R. W. JONES, LL. D.
A writer truly and forcibly says that Americans have been much
readier to do great deeds than to record them--to make those signal
achievements that are worthy of remembrance than to be troubled with
the tediousness of writing them. If this is true anywhere, it has in
the past been unquestionably true of Southern people and Mississippians.
In a recent number of the _American Historical Review_, Albert Bushnell
Hart discussed the "Historical Opportunity of America;" and this led me
to think of the Historical Opportunity of Mississippi.
If anything great and systematic in the line of historical research
and production is to be done in Mississippi we must have organization.
The State Historical Society must have local co-operation; this can
be best effected by Auxiliary Historical Societies co-operating with
the Central Organization.[152] The local Society is the natural centre
of historical activity. We are highly gratified to report a decided
revival of interest in history-writing since the organization of
our State Society; at least there has been a revival as far as the
production of monographs and brief biographies.
The following suggestions are presented with a hope that they will
promote still further the historical work in the State:
1.--The educated young ladies of a locality can be interested in the
finding, classifying, and development of historical material; the
advanced pupils of High Schools and Colleges can be induced to prepare
monographs as a part of their literary work, and all this material
should be carefully calendared. We find as a general rule that the
editors and proprietors of our newspapers are among the most public
spirited of our citizens; they will gladly publish all local material
of historical interest. In this way duplicate printed copies of all
local material can be easily had and copies furnished for the archives
and publications of the Mississippi Historical Society.
2.--An important auxiliary to history is picture-making. Experts with
the Camera and amateur 'Kodakers' can facilitate greatly the work of
the historian by making and cataloguing pictures of important objects
and persons and depositing them in the archives of the local Society
and of the State Society, so that the future historian who may not
be able to visit the localities may yet have satisfactory knowledge
of them. By these means and others we will cultivate a spirit that
actively fosters history; we will cause search to be made for old
Manuscripts, for files of old papers and every thing that will throw
light on our past history. As the author, previously referred to,
states, valuable manuscripts ought as naturally and as readily to find
their way to the archives of history as the meteorite reaches the
Mineralogical Museum.
3.--In the past history of Mississippi, a great many very valuable
papers have been lost and destroyed because there was no known, safe
depository for them. It need not be so any longer, as the State
Historical Society has safe depositories. If we will all search for old
historical material, write up facts and incidents of importance that
have come under our observation, or otherwise to our knowledge, we will
be doing a work creditable to our own names and we shall make possible
the writing of a history that will represent in truthful aspect that
noble race of Southerners to which we are proud to belong, and we shall
show to the world the kindliness of those domestic institutions under
which have grown up the fairest and most attractive women who ever
graced human homes and the highest refinement and honor that have taken
up abode among men.
4.--I have already referred to the public spirit of the press, to
the important service it has rendered to our cause and the confidence
with which we can continue to rely upon its co-operation. In addition,
we _need_ a fund for printing the Society's transactions and those
important articles which receive the Society's endorsement. The
State Legislature would do well to make an annual appropriation of a
few hundred dollars to cover the cost of such publications and thus
encourage the interest and pride of its citizens in that history which
so intimately concerns them and their ancestors. Other states have
set us a worthy example in this important matter. We hope the next
legislature will give this matter favorable consideration.
5.--The marking of historical sights and buildings with marble or
bronze, bearing appropriate inscriptions is a matter of the liveliest
importance. To some this may seem needless, but the more we study and
observe it the more we are convinced of its educational and patriotic
value.
One who goes to England and Scotland, and notes in their great cities
such as London and Edinburgh the numerous monuments, mural tablets and
other devices which commemorate events and characters and deeds will
understand better than ever why the Englishman and Scotchman each is
proud of his race, his government, his country.
In 1896, I visited the old town of Portsmouth, Va., and as I passed
along the main street I saw a marble slab inserted flush with the
pavement, and it told that on that spot the honored and loved Lafayette
stood when he revisited the old Commonwealth and received the grateful
greetings of a people for whom he had put his life into the perils of
war.
The preservation of historical buildings and grounds and the devotion
of them to public and patriotic uses is of the same character and
importance.
The Ladies Association, aided by the eloquence of Edward Everett,
purchased Mt. Vernon and donated it to the sacred purposes of
patriotism. The preservation of the old church at Williamsburg, Va.,
of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, of Monticello as Jefferson left
it--all these and other things of like character not only keep alive
our interest in the great events of the past but sustain and justify
our civic pride.
Is there nothing of this kind in Mississippi that is worthy of loving
care and devotion to public use? Upon the extreme southern border of
the State, where the Magnolia blooms in its native perfection, where
the crested waves of the gulf work the sunbeams and the moon's silvery
sheen into forms of laughing beauty that suggest the noble womanly
character of the wife and the "daughter of the Confederacy," where the
roaring sea, that cannot be hushed, tells of the unconquerable spirit
of devotion to our people and their cause, that stood erect amid all
the indignities and wrongs put upon it by a vindictive and cruel foe;
here we have Beauvoir that is worthy of the care of all Mississippians,
of all Southerners, nay of all American patriots. This property
suitably marked, will furnish one of the grandest of object lessons,
pointing to a man who bravely fought for his country on foreign soil,
who stood as an embodiment of incorruptible principle and splendid
ability on the floor of the United States Senate and who headed a great
popular movement which produced the most philosophic, as well as the
most thrilling period of the history of this country and who shows us
how a great man can maintain his manliness and command respect and
admiration even in defeat and direst disaster.
Let us cultivate the spirit of history. Every intelligent citizen of
our State should take an interest in the Mississippi State Historical
Society and actively promote its objects. Let local Societies be formed
and enthusiasm in their work be engendered; let every item of historic
interest be put in typewritten or printed form and let copies be sent
to the Secretary of the Mississippi State Historical Society and other
copies lodged with the local Society. Let us be careful to mark and
preserve every object of historic interest and to emphasize its value.
Thus we shall show that we are justly proud of our race, our State and
the achievements of our ancestors.
FOOTNOTES:
[152] For the general plan of such organizations, see "Suggestions to
Local Historians" in the _Publication of the Mississippi Historical
Society for 1898_.--_Editor._
NANIH WAIYA, THE SACRED MOUND OF THE CHOCTAWS.
BY H. S. HALBERT.
As Nanih Waiya is so often referred to in the folklore and traditions
of the Choctaws, the writer of this paper has deemed it not amiss to
give some account of this noted mound and, in connection therewith,
some of the legends with which it is inseparably associated.