M. A. MILLER'S SKETCHBOOK OF 1860
                    CORINTH: THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
                       OF A MISSISSIPPI BOOMTOWN

Chapter II. The Organization and Settlement of Tishomingo County.

     After  a  long  and tiresome journey,  Matthew  Amos  Miller
stepped out of the railway car he had occupied since boarding the
train in Memphis, Tennessee. What met his eyes as he walked across the
boarding platform that day was a bustling little boom-town scarcely
six years old. All around him were the sights and sounds of progress.
For in 1860, Corinth, Mississippi, was a town full of hope and
promise. It is not known why Miller was in Corinth but posterity has
greatly profited by his visit. During his stay, Miller made a series
of detailed sketches showing the entire town as it looked in 1860. His
sketches provide an invaluable and unparalleled view into the
pre-Civil War life of a railroad boom town in north east Mississippi.

     In order to more fully appreciate 1860 Corinth, it is necessary
to understand the early history of the region. The territory of
Mississippi was organized on April 7, 1798, and was bounded on the
west by the Mississippi River, on the south by Spanish West Florida,
on the east by Georgia, and on the north by an imaginary line running
due east and west and striking the Mississippi at the mouth of the
Yazoo River. In 1786 the state of South Carolina ceded to the United
States government a twelve-mile strip of land adjoining the southern
boundary of Tennessee and extending from the Mississippi to the
western line of Georgia. This area was added to the Territory of
Mississippi in 1804. This land, which had been originally granted by
the king of England to South Carolina, thus became the northern part
of old Tishomingo County. In 1794 Georgia sold for a sum of $500,000
the 21,500,000 acres of land which now comprise the greater part of
the counties of Tishomingo, Tippah, Marshall, DeSoto and a portion of
Tunica to four private companies. This sale, which was concluded by a
legislative enactment, was known as the "Yazoo Sales". This sale was
later declared void by the state legislature of Georgia and all of
the land west of the present western boundary of this state was sold
to the United States government, and later ceded to the Territory of
Mississippi. [1]

     In  March 1817, the Mississippi Territory was  divided,  the
eastern half being organized into the Alabama Territory, and  the
western  portion admitted into the Union as the State of  Missis-
sippi  on December 10, 1817.  The Chickasaws  relinquished  their
title  and claim to all the lands within the bounds of the  State of
Tennessee by a treaty signed in 1818, but they still  retained
possession of a large part of the territory of Alabama and  North
Mississippi.   The Chickasaws ceded their lands in North
Mississippi  and Alabama to the United States government by the
treaty of Pontotoc  concluded on October 22, 1832.(Appendix A,  Map 1)
The United  States government agreed to have the  whole  country
surveyed as soon as possible and then offer the land for sale  at
auction.  The land in North Mississippi was surveyed between  the
years  1832 to 1835 and a government land office  established  at
Pontotoc. [2]

     On  February  9,  1836, the  Mississippi  State  legislature
passed an act dividing the ceded Indian lands into ten  counties-
Tishomingo, Tippah, Marshall, DeSoto, Tunica, Panola,  Lafayette,
Pontotoc,  Itawamba, and  Chickasaw.(Appendix  A, Maps  2  and  3)
Tishomingo  County was named for for one of the leading chiefs of the
Chickasaw Indians and, as one of the largest  counties  ever formed in
Mississippi, it was often referred to as the "State  of Tishomingo".
Tishomingo  County contained all of the  land  now included  in  the
counties of Alcorn, Prentiss,  and  Tishomingo. The  act  dividing the
Indian lands into counties  required  that each  county organize and
hold elections for a board  of  police. The act also required that the
geographical center of each county be  located and the county seat be
located within five  miles  of this point. [3]

     On  the  6th  and 7th of May 1836, elections  were  held  in
Tishomingo  county  for  the purpose of electing  said  board  of
police.   The  board then issued an order for an election  to  be held
on the 27th and 28th of May, 1836, for the purpose of electing the
following county officers:  Judge of probate court, clerk of  probate
court,  clerk of circuit  court,  sheriff,  coroner, surveyor,
ranger,  treasurer, and assessor  and  tax  collector. During  the
June session of the board of police the  county  was divided  into
five districts.  At this same meeting  an  election was  ordered  to
be held on the 24th and 25th of  June  for  the purpose  of electing
two justices of the peace and one  constable for each police district.
[4]

     Now that the board of police had successfully established  a
stable county government they turned to the issue of locating the
county  seat, the meetings of the board and the sessions  of  the
probate  having  been held in private residences  throughout  the
county.   In  accordance with the act of  the  legislature  which
required  that the county seat be located  within five  miles  of the
county's  geographical center, and after  establishing  this central
point the board accepted a gift of sixty acres  of  land within  the
legal limits from Armistead Barton.  At  the  August meeting  of  the
board the "court square" was  located  and  the entire tract of land
ordered surveyed into lots which were subsequently  offered for sale
beginning on the 11th of  October.   The board of police named the new
town Cincinnati. [5]

     Many of the citizens of the county objected to the use of  a
northern name for Tishomingo's capital city.  After much  persuasion
the board changed the name to Jacinto. [6]  The next  work  of the
board was to appoint an auctioneer and proceed to  sell  the lots  of
the new town to the highest bidder.   Fifty-three  lots were sold for
the sum of $10,000 and the remaining land was to be sold in January of
1837.  The purchasers at once began to build a town  in  a  new county
in an area recently  occupied  mostly  by Indians.  The board granted
the first license to run a tavern  or inn on November 7th, 1836.
Shortly thereafter two more  licenses were  granted  for the same
purpose.  With these  three  inns  or hotels  being licensed, a court
house being erected, a number  of businesses and residences being
built, the town of Jacinto quickly  assumed definite and substantial
proportions.  Most of  these buildings were of log construction. [7]

     The board of police next turned their attention to the question
of good roads for the county. The first public road in Tishomingo
county was ordered to be built from the county seat running from
Ripley to Memphis, Tennessee. Roads were also laid out from Jacinto to
the Tennessee River, from the southwestern corner of the county to the
county seat, and from Jacinto to the Alabama state line. Every
able-bodied man in the county between the ages of sixteen and fifty
was required to work on the public roads twelve days out of each year.
Surprisingly, county records show that every person subject to road
duty performed the required number of days. Immigrants were constantly
arriving in the county buying land and building houses. Roads were
thus a public necessity. It is fair to assume that boys under the age
of sixteen worked on the roads and that the maximum number of work
days per year was exceeded by some. [8]

     The year 1836 was a fairly prosperous year for the  citizens of
Tishomingo county.  Nearly everything the people needed  they produced
themselves.  An abundance of wheat, corn and  peas  was grown,  as
well as a little cotton.  The clothing and shoes  worn by  everyone
were made at home.  Those things which could not  be produced at home
were bought at Eastport, a steamboat landing  on the  Tennessee  River
which had been established  prior  to  the organization  of the
county.  Steamboats from all points  on  the Tennessee,  Ohio and
Mississippi rivers docked at  Eastport  each week  carrying
passengers, freight and mail, the mail being  distributed throughout
the county by pony mail riders.  Eastport was located approximately
nine miles to the northeast of the town  of Iuka and during the 1840's
and 50's was a very important place in the life of the county. [9]

     There  were  many other communities other than  Jacinto  and
Eastport  in early Tishomingo county.  Farmington (a contraction of
Farming  Town), a small village located in  the  northeastern section
of  the county, was settled by white men  in  the  early 1800s  long
before the Treaty of Pontotoc was  signed.   Pioneer settlers from
Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas arrived in the area  shortly
after 1800 and established a Baptist church  around which the small
town grew.   This small log building was  located beside  a
wilderness  road which ran north and  south  near  the center  of the
village.  Soon after the settlers  completed  this building,  nearby
land was laid aside as a burial  ground. [10]  The first  dead  were
buried here around 1820. [11]  In the  early  1800s, Mississippi  was
not a state and this area was known as  "Madison County of the
Mississippi Territory" and as such it was under the laws  of  the
United States and the  Territory  of  Mississippi. After Mississippi
was admitted as a state in 1817 and  Tishomingo County  created in
1836, Farmington was finally  incorporated  in 1838.    In 1839
Farmington Academy was established near the town for  the purpose of
educating the local students.  By 1839  Farmington had several
houses, general stores, a post office,  blacksmith  shop,  and a
wheat-fan manufacturing plant that  sold  its products  all over the
state.  On February 5th, 1849,  a  Masonic Lodge was chartered.

     Another  small  Tishomingo county village of  importance  in
antebellum days was that of Kossuth.  Kossuth, laid out in  1849-
1851, was first named New Hope.  A Colonel Polk purchased all  of the
land  upon which the town was built and sold  lots  only  to those
citizens who agreed to the condition that no whiskey saloon should
ever  be built on said property.  If this  condition  was violated
the land would revert to Colonel Polk's  heirs. [12]  From December 4,
1851 to  July 14, 1852 Louis Kossuth, a Hungarian who had been exiled
for his involvement in the revolutionary struggle for independence
from Austria,  toured the United States.  He was considered  to be a
hero by many Americans.   About  two  hundred and  fifty  poems,
dozens of books, hundreds  of  pamphlets,  and thousands of editorials
were written about him. [13]  Apparently  the citizens of New Hope
read about Kossuth and desired to have their village named for this
revolutionary hero.   Colonel Polk and the postmaster Major Wallace
wrote to the U.S. Post Office Department and requested that the name
New Hope be changed to Kossuth.  This request  was  granted and the
village has been known  as  Kossuth since. [14]

     Rienzi was another small village of Tishomingo county.   The
origin  of the name Rienzi is unclear.  According to one  legend, an
Indian chief, living in what later became Tishomingo  County,
established his camp on a bluff which he called Rienzi.   Another more
probable source for the name comes from the  Roman  patriot Cola  de
Rienzi who lived from 1313 to 1354 A.D. during the  rule of  Emperor
Charles IV.  Before the village of Rienzi  was  first settled  a book
by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton entitled Rienzi:  The last of the Roman
Tribunes was published in London on December 1, 1835.   This  book  is
the most likely source  for  this  unusual name. [15]

     The  original town was located one mile west of its  present site
beside the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.   After  the  railroad came
through the area in 1860, the entire community moved to  be situated
along the railroad tracks.  This action very likely  is the  only
reason there is still a village known as Rienzi.   Many of
Tishomingo's  early towns are only place names  today.   Even though
it moved, Rienzi was a prosperous settlement by the  outbreak of the
Civil War.  It consisted of seven or eight stores, a post  office,
school building, a carriage shop. wagon  and  paint shop, and Union
Church. [16]  Rienzi has the honor of having held the first county
fair in Tishomingo county.  The Tishomingo  Agricultural  and
Mechanical Society was formed in 1858 and  the  first fair held in
October 1859 under the auspices of this society.   A second  fair,  as
successful as the first, was  held  in  October 1860.  A third fair,
scheduled for 1861, was not held because  of the  unsettled  nature of
the county due to the beginning  of  the Civil War. [17]

     One  of the earliest white settlements in Tishomingo  county was
known as Danville.  This community was first known  as  Troy but  its
name was changed to Danville when the post  office  was established
because there was already a Troy in Mississippi.  The town was
incorporated in 1848.  This town was located on the  old Reynoldsburg
Road near the Tuscumbia River.  On the west side  of this early
village was an abundance of fresh water springs  suitable for a
tanyard which soon became one of the area's landmarks. The  first
circuit court in the county was held in a  small  log house in this
community.  By the Civil War this town had  several houses,  a  large
church building and a Masonic  Hall.   Danville never  had  more than
150 inhabitants at any given point  in  its history.  This size is
typical for most early settlements in  old Tishomingo county. [18]

     About four miles south of the present site of Corinth  there was
an area known in the early 1840s as Gum Branch.   Sweet  gum thickets
covered  the low bottom land of the  area.   The  stage coach  line
ran through this area and the coaches  would  almost invariably  bog
down in the mud while crossing this bottom  land. The citizens in this
area eventually built a corduroy road across the  bottom  which was
used until the coach  transfer  ceased  to operate.   In his American
Notes, English author Charles  Dickens describes  his  journey over a
corduroy road from  Cincinnati  to Columbus, Ohio as follows;  "A
great portion of the way was  over what is called a corduroy road,
which is made by throwing  trunks of  trees  into a marsh, and leaving
them to settle  there.   The very  slightest  of the jolts with which
the  ponderous  carriage fell  from log to log, was enough, it seemed,
to have  dislocated all  the bones in the human body." [19]  The ride
across  Gum  Branch was undoubtedly much the same.

     The U.S. Census of 1840 gives the total population of Tisho-
mingo county as 6,681.  As this census was taken only four  years
after  the  formation of the county, it is reasonable  to  assume that
there were not more than 5,000 people in the county  at  the time it
was taken in February 1836.  The land area of the  original county
was 923,040 acres, or 1,286 square miles.  To pro rate the  land would
have allowed over 700 acres to every  man,  woman and child in the
county. [20]

        The surface of the county was  covered mostly with timber
although there were occasionally small  glades and open prairies.
There was very little undergrowth or  chaparral  although the bottom
lands were covered with  cane.   Because the  heaviest timber grew in
the low lands the earliest  settlers cleared  and farmed small
sections of the sandy loam soil of  the rolling  hills. As the
population grew, small areas of the  rich alluvial bottom lands were
cleared for cultivation.  Almost every type  of soil found in the
South was encountered in some part  of the  huge  county.  Many of the
pioneer  families  brought  their slaves  with  them, and at the close
of the first year  of  local government,  records show that there were
several hundred  slaves in the county. [21]  The first recorded sale
of slaves in  Tishomingo County  was  on May 18, 1837.  On that date
Joseph  Carter  paid David Carter $2,000 for four slaves "one woman
named Rachel,  one man named Abraham, one man named Peter and one girl
named Violet, all  of whom are sold sound, healthy and sensible." [22]
The  assessment roll for 1842 shows that there were 758 slaves in the
county as  well  as 2 free Negroes.  The number of free white polls
at this date was 1,099. [23] The steady population growth of the
county can be seen in the 1850 census which was the second census
taken in  the county.  This census shows an increase of 8,809 citizens
over  1840 to give a total of 15,490 people living in Tishomingo
county. [24]  Of this figure, only 13 percent were slaves. This  was
the  lowest percentage of slaves for any county in Mississippi. [25]
The  U.S.  Census of 1860 shows the population of the  county  as
24,149 with 4,990 of this number as slaves.  These three censuses
clearly  show the steady increase in population that the  county
enjoyed before the Civil War.  These figures also show that while
slavery did exist in Tishomingo County it was not as significant a
part  of the economic, social or cultural scene as it was  in many
other parts of the state.

     As the population of the county increased so did the  wealth and
prosperity  of its citizens.  Each town in  the  county  was growing
at a rapid pace.  New businesses were being  established each day.
Vast timbered areas were rapidly being cleared and the logs sawn into
lumber by the many mills which operated around the county.  In the
towns themselves the early log houses were  being replaced  by
handsome frame cottages.  The planters  and  farmers were  clearing
more  and more land and planting  more  and  more crops.   Surplus
produce  was shipped to Eastport  and  then  to markets  outside
Tishomingo  county.  The town  of  Jacinto  had expanded  so far that
not a single lot of the original town  site remained  vacant.  The
board of police voted in April to build  a new court house to be
erected in Jacinto.   This  building  was originally to have been of
frame construction but the plans  were changed to  have  a brick court
house built  instead.   The  new building was completed by September
1853, and the  last  payment for it made in October 1854. [26] In
January of this same  year  a great deal of time had been devoted to
the appointment  of  road overseers for  the year.  At this meeting
170  were  appointed. This figure suggest the large number of miles of
public road  in the county. [27]

     Eighteen Fifty Four was  a year of great change in Tishomingo
county  for that was the year the railroads came.  The survey of the
Memphis and Charleston  and the Mobile and Ohio railroads [28] through
the county showed that the two lines would cross at right angles  on
the half section of land belonging to William Lesley.  By  autumn of
1854 a few small buildings were erected a half mile  east  of this
crossing. This village was named Cross City.   Because  of the
impending importance of this new village the board of  police ordered
the construction of two new roads which would link  Cross City to
Kossuth and Danville.  The town began to grow rapidly and several
licenses were granted to operate hotels and  taverns  in the new town.
[29]

        By 1855 Cross City had grown to such proportions that  its
incorporation was suggested.  At the suggestion of  the town's  first
newspaper editor, the name was changed  to  Corinth after  the great
city which was a center of transportation,  culture and commerce in
ancient Greece.  The bill requesting  incorporation was introduced
into the state legislature and the  charter  granted  on March 12,
1856. [30]  The  Memphis  and  Charleston Railroad,  completed  in
1856, gave Corinth its  first  passenger service  in  November of that
year. The last  spike  ceremony  to celebrate the railway's completion
was held near Corinth on March 27, 1857.  The Mobile and Ohio was not
completed until  January 10, 1861. [31]

        In 1857 the Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church,  Corinth's first
brick building, was erected.  Corona Female  College,  a large three
story brick building surmounted by  a  dome, founded  by Reverend L.B.
Gaston, was erected in 1857.   Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian and
Christian churches were organized  in 1858. [32]  By 1861, the
population of the town had reached  approximately 2,800. There were
several substantial businesses and many neat  and attractive private
residences as well as a  good  brick hotel located at the crossing of
the railroads. [33]

        The great  distance from Corinth to Jacinto caused the
residents of the rapidly expanding city to petition for a division of
the county into  two circuit  and chancery court districts.  A bill
was  framed  and passed  by the legislature  and was approved by the
governor  on December  14th, 1859.  Corinth was made the seat of
justice  for the new district.  A committee was appointed to raise the
necessary  funds to provide a place suitable for the holding of court
in  Corinth.  In 1857 Messrs. Mitchell and Mask had presented to the
city of Corinth block no. 85 in the center of the town as  a location
for  a city hall.  It was unanimously decided  by  the committee  to
build  on this site a combination city  hall  and courthouse.  Work
was begun at once and a two story building  was completed.  According
to the official records this building was a frame building.  But based
on the drawings made in the year  1860 by Matthew  Amos  Miller this
building was built  of brick  and greatly resembled the courthouse at
Jacinto. [34]

     The  1860  census  of Tishomingo county, or  the  "State  of
Tishomingo"  as it was known to some, shows that  the  population had
increased  by 8,659 since the last census giving  the  total
population  of the area as 24,149 people.  From this same  source it
can be seen that the production of cotton in the  county  for the
years 1859-1860 was 11,479 bales.  The number of slaves under sixty
years of age in the county in 1860 was 4,673.  These slaves were
owned  by  686 citizens.  The largest slave  owner  in  the county was
John Caraway who owned 39.  Most of the slave  holders owned  only
from one to half a dozen slaves.  A careful study  of the assessment
roll of Tishomingo county for the year 1860  shows the  county as one
of the wealthiest counties in the  South  with the total assessed
valuation of property at $10,000,000.00. [35]

     Tishomingo county was rapidly changing in 1860.  The  coming of
the railroad to the county in the mid 1850's and  the  subse- quent
growth of Corinth was quickly changing the county's econom- ic, social
and political scene.  The boom of Corinth signaled the death  of many
of the oldest communities in the county.      This was the situation
that M.A. Miller found when he visited  Corinth in 1860.  Corinth was
a boom town in the truest sense.  This town which, in 1860, had a
population of 2,800 citizens was easily the largest  settlement in the
county and was growing daily. [36]

     This  was  the  town  that  M.A.  Miller  sketched.   Miller
sketched  the  entire  downtown business district  and  the  most
impressive  residences  as  well as  many  significant  buildings
surrounding  the  town.    An interesting point to note  is  that most
of  the buildings Miller sketched were built of  lumber  or brick. The
only log building on Miller's sketches is a small log stable. This
scarcity of log structures shows the growth in  the number  of lumber
mills since the county's  early  days. [37]  This extensive use of
finished lumber and brick also shows how serious the citizens were to
make a permanent city.

     Corinth in 1860 was a rapidly expanding town with great hope for
the  future.   Unfortunately that hope was  dashed  by  five
devastating  years of war and it took many years for the city  to
rebuild.   It  is  fascinating to be able to see  how  this  town
looked  in  1860  when it was barely  six  years  old.   Miller's
sketchbook  is  the only source that  shows  antebellum  Corinth.
Practically  every  building Miller shows in his  sketchbook  was
built after 1854. [38] This document is so very valuable because  it
preserves  a town that was virtually destroyed by the  Civil  War and
Reconstruction.   Very few communities have  as  valuable  a historic
document as M.A. Miller's sketches.


Chapter III.  MATTHEW AMOS MILLER: A BIOGRAPHY



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