Mary Winston's Letter - 1894

Mary Peachy Smith-Demyers Winston
1828-1895 At Home
Apr. 27 1894

Mrs Ella Harris

Dear friend
Please to send me that what you promse(sp) me of Sidney's
by so doing you will oblige

Your Resp
Mary Winston

Home for Mary was near Hazlehurst, Copiah County, MS. Mary was born about 1828 in Alabama. She was a slave of Peachy Ridgway Taliaferro and later his son Richard. According to oral tradition, Mary is believed to be the daughter of Peachy R Taliaferro with my 3rd great grandmother Peggy Demyers.

Mary is named in the probate records of Taliaferro, along with her husband Andrew and two of their daughters, Malinda and Sidney.

What of Sidney's did Ella Harris have? Did she owe Sidney money? Did Sidney leave behind clothing, hat, tools? Did Ella Harris make a promise to give Sidney a gift?

I am also curious about the writer. Did Mary write the letter, one of her children, grandchildren, or a neighbor?

How Does Mary connect to my family tree?
Mary is the half sister of my 2nd great grandmother
Alice Demyers Overton Usher.

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Lucy Ella Rice married Lewis Bingaman Harris. The couple was associated with Gustavus family of Copiah County. Read about Andrew Gustavus and the Harris family here. Ella is connected to the Taliaferro family through marriage.

Source: Harris (Lewis Bingaman and Family) Papers
Z/0983.000/S
Box 3
Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Amanuensis Monday Lindsey Impressed by the Governor - 1863

Received of C. B. N. Rice one negro man slave named Lindsey aged 49 years with axe, impressed by the govenor(sp), the said C. B. N. Rice is entitled to one month's pay and commutation.

Hazlehurst Miss Febry 14th 1863
A P Barry Maj Com

Impressment was the informal and then, beginning in March 1863, the legislated policy of the Confederate government to seize food, fuel, slaves, and other commodities to support armies in the field during the Civil War (1861–1865). From Confederate Impressment During the Civil War

As a citizen of the Confederacy, Charles Benjamin Nicholas Rice was obligated to give his property for service. Lindsey was the property of Rice and was to do as he was told. Rice was to be paid, not Lindsey.

I searched the census records for Lindsey in 1870 and 1880 Copiah County censuses. I did not find a Lindsey of the right age in the county.

C. B. N. Rice was a slave owner in Copiah County, Mississippi, near Hazlehurst, owning over forty slaves in 1860. C.B.N. Rice was born in 1803 in South Carolina, died in 1868 in Copiah County. He married Mary Ann Macon. Two of the couple's daughters, Lucy Ella and Elizabeth, married into families who enslaved members of my family.

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Lucy Ella Rice married Lewis Bingaman Harris. The couple was associated with Gustavus family of Copiah County. Read about Andrew Gustavus and the Harris family here.

Elizabeth Rice married Joseph Brown. They owned members of my Sinclair and Overton family. See Elizabeth Rice Brown's 1855 inventory and appraisement listing of slaves here.

Source: Harris (Lewis Bingaman and Family) Papers
Z/0983.000/S
Box 1, Folder 3
Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Andrew Gustavus - Part 2

A few weeks ago, the photograph of Andrew Gustavus was identified. In a previous post, I wrote about how we discovered his name. You may read about it here.

Andrew was born about 1856, the son of James Gustavus and maybe Sarah Macon. He was a success at farming and got himself a wife, Lucy Watson. The couple married, 03 Feb 1885, in Copiah County, MS.

They had two sons, one was deceased by 1900. Their remaining son was Joe, born about 1887. Thomas Moore, a 26 years old nephew, was in the household and he along with Joe helped with the farming. The family was still farming in 1910; Joe was out of the household and a niece and nephew was in the household, eleven years old siblings Jack and Josie Scott.

Andrew was 67 years old in 1920. His wife Lucy died during the spring of 1915, Joe was grown and gone, and farming alone was likely too much for Andrew. He left the rural community near Heaths Store and moved to town, to Hazlehurst. Rachel came with Andrew to town or maybe he met her there. According to census records, they were man and wife in 1920.

The 1920 census listed his occupation as a farmer working his own account. Andrew is still a farmer, in 1930, but he is now a worker; by 1940 the occupation line is blank. Per the oral history, Andrew lived behind Miss Nell Harris, which the census records of 1930 and 1940 support.

Nell Harris was the daughter of Lewis Bingaman Harris and Lucy Ella Rice. Lewis died in 1891, leaving his wife Lucy to raise a family of five daughters and one son.

Andrew lived in the rear of this house in the woods.

Lucy Ella Rice was the older sister of Elizabeth Macon Rice. Elizabeth married Charles Adams Taliaferro. Charles and his father Peachy were the slave owners of a branch of my paternal family members.

By 1940, Nellie was in the house alone with a couple of lodgers. Andrew was a widower since the 1930 census. I saw one record where Nellie died about 1961. I don't know when Andrew died but I know he lived beyond 1943.

I was hoping Andrew was connected to my Durr family, my father's paternal family. Surprisingly, he is connected to my father's maternal family, a nice surprise.

The lady is Nellie Harris in her home.

Lucy Gustavus' Death Certificate, Andrew's Wife
Photographs Courtesy of Georgia Wise

Amanuensis Monday Found Love in the Slave Pen

Slave Pen
Alexandria, Virginia
Image courtesy of Library of Congress

This is a bitter sweet testimony from Jane Harris Burnett who found love in a slave trader's pen in Richmond, Virginia. She and her future husband Robert Burnett likely were frighten, sold from family, not knowing where they were going and concerned about the new owner. John Torrey purchased them in Natchez, maybe at the Forks of the Road Slave Market. I wonder if Torrey was looking for a couple or if one or both asked him to buy them both.

Deposition A of Jane Burnett
Federal Pension Case of Jane Burnett (Widow of soldier Robert Burnett)
March 23rd 1898
Union Church, Jefferson County, Miss
I and Robert Burnett were bought by Mr John Torrey a number of years before the war from the traders at Natchez, Miss; I had become acquainted with Robert at Richmond, Va., where the traders first had us. My name in Virginia had been Harris, but on Mr Torrey's plantation I went by the name of my new owner. I took up with Robert Burnett at the slave trader's yard at Richmond, Va., and lived with him as his wife until his death in April four or five years ago; I cannot give you the exact date of his death. We were never divorced. Robert Burnett died of dropsy of the heart, so Dr McLean who treated him in his last sickness told me. When the Yankees had taken Natchez, Robert Burnett left for that place and enlisted in Co. C, 58 USCT, in which he served three years. After his discharged he returned home.

General Affidavit of John Torrey
In the year of 1852 February I bought them in Natchez, Miss and they lived as man and wife until 1863 when he went in the war and after he returned in 1866.

Source: Federal Pension Records of Robert Burnett
Private Robert Burnett of 58th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry
Digging up the Past at a Richmond Jail

Amanuensis Monday Will of Thomas Taliaferro

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THOMAS TALIAFERRO

I, Thomas Taliaferro, being of lawful age and of sound and disposing mind hereby make and declare this my last will and testament.

Item first. It is my will that my beloved wife, Bertha Taliaferro, have the horse and mule named Tobe which I now own.

Item Second. I give to my son Thomas Taliaferro, Junior, the horse mule named Mack together with the double wagon, harness, plow tools and all other farm tools and implements on the place which I reside and all such tools and implements of which I may die seized and possessed.

It is my will that my land be divided equally between my six children to-wit: Thomas Taliaferro, Junior, Henry Taliaferro, Vernon Taliaferro, Rosa Belle Taliaferro, Annie Thomas, Mattie Taliaferro, Fred Taliaferro, Rocksie Harris and my wife Bertha Taliaferro, share and share alike, except I give to my said wife her share in the said land on which the residence in which I now live stands, together with the out houses, barnes(sp) on this land.

It is my will that the said land be kept together and not sold or disposed of by my said children or either of them for a period of ten years from my death, and this provision also applies to my wife.

It is my will that my wife and my son Thomas Taliaferro pay my funeral expenses out of their respective shares, equally, and any other debts that I may owe at the time of my death

I nominate and appoint my son, Thomas Taliaferro, my executor of this my will and I direct that he be not required to make any bond as such executor or to make application to any court or to account to any court.

Thomas Taliaferro his X mark, Sr.

Witness my signature this the 16 day of February, 1917.

Witnesses
J. M. Scott
W. H. Wilson

Thomas Taliaferro shared the same slave owner, Peachy R Taliaferro, as members of my paternal family.

Thomas wrote in a 1915 letter that he no longer wanted Bertha as a wife. I guess he changed his mind about a divorce since he includes her in his will.

Thomas died 04 May 1917.

Source: Copiah County Will Book A
Page 335

Amanuensis Monday Eli Hilson Assassinated by Whitecaps

The Leader Newspaper
Brookhaven, MS
Dec 23, 1903

Eli Hilson, a negro living about eight miles from Brookhaven was assassinated within about a quarter of a mile of his home Saturday evening, while on his way home from town alone in his buggy. The bullet which killed him entered the side of his head near the ear and came out at the mouth. Death seems to have been instantaneous. The horse went on home, and his owner was found dead in the buggy on his arrival.

Coroner Geo. Lambright, Jr., visited the scene of the murder Monday, impaneled a jury and held an inquest, the verdict being that the deceased came to his death by a gunshot wound at the hands of parties unknown.

Last Winter Hilson, who lived on a farm of his own and was prosperous, was warned by the whitecaps to leave, which warning he disregarded. About three or four weeks ago his home was visited in the night by whitecaps and several volleys fired into it. His wife was sick in bed at the time, with an infant only a few hours old. He still disregarded the warning, and remained on his place. Saturday, he brought a young daughter to town in his buggy to spend Christmas holidays with his brother G. N. W. Hilson, of this city, and as he was returning home between sunset and dark was assassinated. Hilson is the second negro murdered by whitecaps in that portion of Lincoln county within the last month.

From all The Leader can gather of the facts and circumstances, it is a disgraceful state of affairs and calls loudly for determined action and corrective measures by law abiding citizens and all law officers of the county. An old farmer who lives several miles below where this murder occurred stated while in The Leader office Monday, that about all the negroes had been frightened out of his neighborhood, and that all white farmers who had more lands than they could work themselves were left without labor and that these lands will have to lie out, uncultivated.

The Leader is informed that it is the intentions of the British and American Mortgage Company which has been an extensive loaner of money on farm lands in this county, to stop all further loans and instruct its agents and trustees to foreclose all mortgages that are not promptly satisfied before the situation grows worse and the lands become less valuable.

Our local banks share this same feeling of distrust and uneasiness and will either be forced to refuse loans in localities where this disturbance of negro labor prevails, or else demand greater security and a higher rate of interest on such loans as are advanced.

The situation is indeed a serious one to the farmers and the financial interests of the entire county, to say nothing of considerations of humanity and our boasted Christian civilization; and these dastardly whitecaps outrages ought to be suppressed and those who commit them hunted down and brought to justice.

Eli Hilson, Jr., was born about 1863 in Mississippi to Eli and Elizabeth Weathersby Hilson, died 19 Dec 1903 in Brookhaven, MS. He married Hannah. The couple's children were: Abe, Luna, Luella, Julia, Willie, Harvey, Lewis, Arbella, Letha, Manerva, and baby. After Eli's death, his widow lost the land.

Eli's grandson, Stanhope Harris, married my mother's cousin Luella Markham.

Photograph Courtesy of Library of Congress

Whitecapping - Losing the Land
Were there convictions in Eli Hilson Case?

Sunday's Obituary A Well Known Negro Passes Away

Eli Hilson, Sr., who had lived in Lincoln County for over 40 years and was a familiar figure to a great many of The Leader's readers, died at the home of his son in McComb City on Dec. 20th, at the advanced age of 92. Before the war Eli belonged to the Weathersbys, of Amite county, and was a faithful and trusted servant of his old master and his family. He raised five sons and five daughters in this county, all of whom survive him except Eli, Jr., who was murdered in Dec 1903. He was thrifty and industrious and up to a few years ago when he became enfeebled by age, always made a good living for himself and family and enjoyed the confidence and respect of his white neighbors. For the last four years, he lived with his children. The body was brought from McComb to Brookhaven and buried in the church yard at Mt Olive, near which the old man lived for so many years.

Eli Hilson's burial is at Greater Mount Olive MB Church of Brookhaven, MS.
Direct descendant Carolyn Betts is standing in front of church

Eli Hilson's grandson Stanhope Harris married maternal cousin Luella Markham.
Eli was born about 1820 in North Carolina per census records. He died Dec 20 1904.

Newspaper article from Brookhaven Leader, Jan 04, 1905, page 4.
Photograph is courtesy of Carolyn Betts.

Wordless Wednesday - Luella Markham Harris b. 1886

b. 1886 in Lincoln County, MS
She probably died in the Chicago area where the family was located on the 1930 census.
Daughter of Alexander Markham and Sallie Smiley
Sister of Mary, Luther, William, John, Alex, and Jim
Wife of Stanhope Harris
Mother of Josie May and Estella

Luella is my mother's first cousin twice removed.
Photograph Courtesy of Carolyn Betts