Alfred Lewis Todd of McComb MS

Alfred Lewis Todd10, (Wilmer L.9, Henry8, Ezra L.7, Ezra L.6, James5, James4, James3, Samuel2, Christopher1) born May, 13, 1876, in New Orleans, La., married at McComb City, Miss., Adele Ford, who was born Jan. 14, 1884, in McComb City, Miss., where they were living in 1918. Child: 2819. Belden Wilmer, b. Aug. 22, 1902.

The Natchez and the French

Natchez Under the Hill

But alas for the poor Natchez! An evil day brought the pale-faces among them in the year 1716, who built the Fort Rosalie among them and in it garrisoned, as a matter of course, a body of soldiers as a protection in their intended aggressions upon and usurpations of the Indians rights; and from that day the sun of the Natchez’s happiness began to wane, but to speedily set forever in the oblivion of utter extermination. As an introduction, Cadillac, on his way up the Mississippi river to search for gold and silver, stopped at Natchez. As soon as the Indian … Read more

Biography of Francis Lester Hawkes

The old saying, that North Carolina is a good place to start from, is the key-note to the greatness of her people, as well as a term of reproach as accepted by them. All great men must seek the large centers of civilization in order to give to the world their message, but the great principles of their lives come from the land of their birth. A State is to be measured by the number of its good and great men, and not by material or physical predominance. Even intellectual gifts and culture cannot make a people great, but may … Read more

Slave Narrative of Mrs. Phoebe Bost

Interviewer: Frank Smith Person Interviewed: Phoebe Bost Location: Campbell, Ohio Place of Birth: Louisiana Place of Residence: 3461 Wilson Avenue, Campbell, Ohio Youngstown, Ohio. Mrs. Phoebe Bost, was born on a plantation in Louisiana, near New Orleans. She does not know her exact age but says she was told, when given her freedom that she was about 15 years of age. Phoebe’s first master was a man named Simons, who took her to a slave auction in Baltimore, where she was sold to Vaul Mooney (this name is spelled as pronounced, the correct spelling not known.) When Phoebe was given … Read more

Early Exploration and Native Americans

De Soto and his band gave to the Choctaws at Moma Binah and the Chickasaws at Chikasahha their first lesson in the white man’s modus operandi to civilize and Christianize North American Indians; so has the same lesson been continued to be given to that unfortunate people by his white successors from that day to this, all over this continent, but which to them, was as the tones of an alarm-bell at midnight. And one hundred and twenty-three years have passed since our forefathers declared all men of every nationality to be free and equal on the soil of the North … Read more

Biography of Samuel R. Parkinson

The name of this gentleman is so inseparably connected with the history of Franklin, its up-building and its progress along commercial, educational and church lines, that no history of the southeastern section of the state would be complete without the record of his useful career. He was one of the first to locate in Franklin and is numbered among its honored pioneers. A native of England, he was born in Barrowford, Lancastershire, April 12, 1831, a son of William and Charlotte (Rose) Parkinson, who were likewise natives of that country. He was only six months old when his father died, … Read more

Biography of William A. Horan

Rev. William A. Horan, late pastor of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, at Freeport, Ill., was born in Pierce township, DeKalb Co., Ill., on Feb. 2nd, 1851, and is the son of the late Patrick M. and Mary (Hanaghan) Horan. Patrick M. Horan was a native of Ireland,, and was born in the year 1800. When a young man he removed to England, where he served in the British army. In 1839 he married Mary, a daughter of Malachy Hanaghan, of county Mayo, Ireland, their union resulting in the birth of twelve children, five of whom are still living. In … Read more

Why Not Bigger Than London

The great Creole city’s geographical position has always dazzled every eye except the cold, coy scrutiny of capital. “The position of New Orleans,” said President Jefferson in 1804, “certainly destines it to be the greatest city the world has ever seen.” He excepted neither Rouge nor Babylon. Put man’s most positive predictions are based upon contingencies; one unforeseen victory over nature bowls them down; the seeming certainties of tomorrow are changed to the opposite certainties of today; deserts become gardens, gardens cities, and older cities the haunts of bats and foxes. When the early Kentuckian and Ohioan accepted nature’s highway … Read more

Vaundreuil and the Chickasaws

Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil

At this juncture of affairs, May 10th 1743, the marquis of Vaudreuil arrived at New Orleans, and assumed command of the colonies, Bienville having been again deposed. As soon as the Chickasaws learned that Bienville had been superceded by a new governor, they sent four of their chiefs, at the close of the year 1743, to sue for peace; but Vaudreuil informed them he would enter into no treaty with them, unless they would drive all English traders from their territories; and not even then would he treat with them unless in concert with the Choctaws. Thus again were the Chickasaws … Read more

Fauborg Ste. Marie

If one will stand to-day on the broad levee at New Orleans, with his back to the Mississippi, a short way out to the left and riverward from the spot where the longvanished little fort St. Louis once made pretence of guarding the town’s upper river corner, he will look down two streets at once. They are Canal and Common, which gently diverge from their starting-point at his feet and narrow away before his eye as they run down toward the low, unsettled lots and commons behind the city. Canal Street, the centre and pride of New Orleans, takes its … Read more

Biography of Jacob Kamm

No history of navigation upon the Willamette or Columbia would be complete without reciting the part borne by the subject of this sketch. From the time the demands of travel and commerce created business of any magnitude in this direction, down to the present time, he has been more or less prominently connected with this interest, and especially important was the part he bore in the incipient stages of its development. He was born in Switzerland, December 12, 1823. At the age of eight, with his father, who had resigned his commission as captain in the Swiss army, he came … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Eugene Fuller

Of EUGENE FULLER, the second child of Timothy Fuller and Margaret Crane, the following notice taken from the annual obituary college record, by Joseph Palmer, M.D., published by the “Boston Daily Advertiser,” gives some account: – “Eugene Fuller, the eldest son of Hon. Timothy and Margaret (Crane) Fuller, was born in Cambridge, Mass., May 14, 1815. After leaving college in 1834, he studied law, partly at the Dane Law School in Cambridge, and partly in the office of George Frederick Farley, Esq., of Groton, Mass. After his admission to the bar, he practiced his profession two years in Charlestown, Mass. … Read more

Establishment of Fort Gibson in 1824

Fort Gibson in 1875

By Act of Congress of March 2, 1819, Arkansas Territory was established July 4, embracing substantially all of what are now the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma; though the civil government of Arkansas Territory was limited to that section lying east of the Osage line, divided into counties, and embracing approximately the present state of Arkansas. That west of the Osage line was the Indian country, and in later years became known as Indian Territory. James Miller of New Hampshire was appointed the first Governor of Arkansas Territory, and among the duties of his office was that of supervision of … Read more

Biography of James T. O’pry

James T. O’pry, one of the representative and enterprising merchants of Colton, has a well equipped general merchandise store, centrally located on Front street opposite the Southern Pacific Railroad depot. Captain O’Pry came to Colton in February 1888, after years spent in active business pursuits in New Orleans, and in the next month established himself in mercantile pursuits. He also purchased a five-acre tract of orange land from the Colton Water Company and commenced horticultural industries by planting it with budded orange trees; and he is also interested in real estate in Colton, Glendora and other places. He is a … Read more

Biography of Benton O. Johnson

Benton O. Johnson, one of Redlands best known and highly respected citizens, is a native of Connecticut, born at Bethlehem, April 20, 1855. His parents were David and Sophia (Stone) Johnson, both of whom came of old Connecticut families, and the father a merchant. B. O. Johnson was but two years of age when his parents removed to the South. They resided at various places throughout the Southern country, among them New Orleans, Matamoras, Brownsville, etc., and the outbreak of the civil war found the elder Johnson carrying on the dry-goods business. In 1863 the family left the South and … Read more

Biography of John F. Sheehan

JOHN F. SHEEHAN. – The gentleman whose name heads this brief memoir, an excellent portrait of whom appears in this history, has been a leading business man and resident of Port Townsend, Washington for almost thirty years. Mr. Sheehan is a native of the Sunny south, and was born in Baltimore Maryland, in 1840. When but an infant he suffered the irreparable loss of his father by death. His widowed mother then, with her two sons, our subject being but eighteen months old, paid a visit to Ireland, and at the end of one year returned to Baltimore. John F. … Read more

Slave Narrative of Moses Smith

I was born in New Orleans, but don’t remember anything about that place for I was sold to Master Jack Dunn when a little boy and moved to Paris, Texas. Master Jack and his wife, Suda, owned four pretty big farms around Paris and he was kept busy all the time going around to each of them, with me going along sometimes on a horse beside him. He’d be gone for a week at a time, come home and get some home cooking, clean up and be gone again. There was twelve slave families on the farm where I lived … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edwin Beard

Edwin Beard and his wife, Mary Bell, of Ireland, came to America and settled in Augusta Co., Va. They had William, John, David, Charles, and Samuel. The latter was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. He married Sarah Craig, of Staunton, Va., and settled first in Pennsylvania, from whence he removed to Kentucky in 1792, and to Missouri in 1827. His children were John, William, David, Samuel, Absalom, James, Mary B., Sarah L., and Elizabeth. William was a soldier in the war of 1812, under Gen. Harrison. He married … Read more

Gov. Perier and Bienville

Bienville

While the English east of the Alleghany mountains were adopting active, but secret measures, to stop the progress of French colonization on the banks of the Mississippi river, their traders were meeting the French traders every where among the southern Indians, and their mutual animosity and competition causing frequent quarrels, oft terminating in collisions, in which the unfortunate Indians always became involved on the one or the other side. But the French, at an; early day had excited the animosity of the Chickasaws by failing to protect a band of their warriors who had solicited an escort from Mobile to … Read more

A Hundred Thousand People

What a change! The same Governor Villeré could not but say, “The Louisianian who retraces the condition of his country under the government of kings can never cease to bless the day when the great American confederation received him into its bosom.” It was easy for Louisianians to be Americans; but to let Americans be Louisianians!-there was the rub. Yet it had to be. In ten years, the simple export and import trade of the port had increased fourfold; and in the face of inundations and pestilences, discord of sentiment and tongues, and the saddest of public morals and disorder, … Read more