Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Call to Order: President Marion Claybrook called the meeting to order at the Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky with approximately 20 members and guests in attendance.

Business: Secretary Melissa Earnest and Treasurer Marvin Downing had prepared the minutes and treasurer’s report and distributed copies to those in attendance. Bob Lochte moved to accept the minutes as presented with Lonnie Maness seconding the motion. The motion carried. John Robertson moved to accept the treasurer’s report as presented with Bob Lochte seconding the motion. The motion carried. Membership dues have remained the same and are payable to Downing for the 11-12 membership year. Earnest, the Journal editor, thanked Ann Adams and the personnel at the University of Tennessee Martin printing department for another wonderful printing of the Journal. Earnest noted this year’s edition was truly a page-turner! Cecelia Edwards showed the progress she has made on the quilt. It basically needs the border and the quilting completed to be finished. In new business, Claybrook presented the following slate of officers for 11-12: President – Gil Mathis; Vice-President – Bob Lochte; Secretary – Cecelia Edwards; Treasurer – Marvin Downing and Member-at-Large – Melissa Earnest. John Robertson and Bob Lochte moved to accept the slate of officers by acclamation. The motions carried for each office.

Program: Claybrook introduced John Robertson as the guest speaker. Robertson has lived in Paducah for more than 50 years, researching its history for many of those years. Robertson added Vonnie Shelton of the McCracken County Public Library had been assisting him in transcribing the letters of Jennie Fyfe. Fyfe arrived in Cairo, Illinois, on her way to Paducah, Kentucky to work as a nurse during the Civil War era. The letters she wrote to her family provide an eyewitness account of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s arrival in Paducah. Fyfe wrote about the Paducah raid while she was in hospital #2 where she could see the rebels arriving. Fyfe eventually began a new part of her life in the spring of 1865 after the Civil War ended. She started working as a teacher and supported the recently freed African Americans in their quest for education. Fyfe was part of the movement devoted to the advancement of freed blacks, especially in Louisiana. She was an accomplished woman in her own right and died from complications of cataract surgery. Fyfe’s grave is in Lansing, Michigan and her letters belong to the University of Michigan, but Robertson and Shelton obtained permission to transcribe them and to have the information presented at the JPHS meeting.

Adjournment: The fall meeting will be held in November in Martin, Tennessee, in conjunction with the West Tennessee Historical Society. Dr. Stan Dunagan will present a program on the New Madrid earthquake. Members and guests were encouraged to take advantage of the half-price admission to the Quilt Museum after the meeting was adjourned.

One hundred and fifty years ago this month the “mothers, wives, sisters and daughters” of Graves County petitioned the Kentucky State Legislature to “guard them from the direful calamity of civil war”.  On May 16, the State Legislature resolved that “this state and the citizens thereof should take no part in the civil war now being waged, except as mediators and friends to the belligerent parties and that Kentucky should, during the contest, occupy the position of strict neutrality”. Four days later, Governor Magoffin notified and warned “all other states, whether separate or united, and especially the United States and the Confederate States, that I solemnly forbid any movement upon the soil of Kentucky, or the occupation of any port, post or place whatever within the lawful boundary and jurisdiction of this state by any of the forces under the order of the states aforesaid”. The State Senate resolved on May 24 that “Kentucky will not sever her connections with the national government, nor will she take up arms for either of the belligerent parties, but will arm herself for the purpose of preserving tranquility and peace within her own borders”. The government of Kentucky had committed itself to the policy of neutrality, but there was a sizable minority in the Jackson Purchase that favored joining the Confederacy.

In recognition of the 150^th Anniversary of the War Between the States in the Jackson Purchase an online resource guide has been developed to assist students and researchers on the events that made the Purchase a significant part of the American Civil War. Click on the link “Jackson Purchase during the Civil War” in the above header to access the website. More Civil War sources will be added as they become available.

We have been able to reschedule our Winter Meeting for February 26, 2011 in the Wrather Museum auditorium.  Meeting will start at 10:30 a.m.

Dr. Mulligan has graciously rearranged his schedule so that he can be our speaker!  As a reminder, his topic will be “The Civil War in Western Kentucky and West Tennessee, 1860-1863″.   Dr. Mulligan will have copies for sale of his book “Badger Boy in Blue: The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke”.

Won’t you make your plans now to be with us?

The historical marker, on the grounds of the Graves County Courthouse,  reads:

“In May, 1861, delegates of seven Kentucky and twenty Tennessee westernmost counties, the Jackson Purchase, met in Mayfield.  Belief in Southern cause, dissatisfaction with Kentucky adherence to Union and Tennessee delay joining South caused convention vote to secede and form a Confederate State.  With Tennessee’s vote to secede, June 8, 1861, proposal abandoned.”

A journalist for the Louisville Journal was present at this meeting and his eye-witness account sent back to his editor revealed that the attendees included from Kentucky:  Henry C. Burnett, then First District of Kentucky Congressional Representative who was later expelled from Congress for his sympathy for the Confederacy (see our posting dated December 20, 2010 titled “South Carolina Secedes!”); R. D. Gholson, a Kentucky native, who resigned the Governorship of Washington Territory in February 1861, because he was “unwilling even for a day to hold office under a…”Republican” president” -  Gholson returned to Kentucky, gathered up his family and slaves and moved to Tennessee for protection; Colonel Lloyd Tilghman; A. R. Boone, member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1861, and from Tennessee:  H. Clay King, prominent Memphis lawyer, Colonel Austin of Memphis, Col. G. W. Bosher, and O. Turner (who wanted western Kentucky and Tennessee to form a military alliance), to name only a few.  Burnett and Gholson both fought in the Confederacy as did, of course, Tilghman.

In addition to the secession question, discussions ensued concerning recruiting soldiers and establishment of two military schools – one each at Columbus and Paducah.  Before the Convention adjourned, Burnett was nominated as the States Rights candidate for Congress.

Before the Civil War ends, Mayfield would be occupied by Union troops under the command of General Eleazor A. Paine, a period  described as a “reign of terror”, the Jews in Paducah would be evicted under General Grant’s General Order #11, of December 17, 1862, and 21 men, women and children from Columbus, KY would be banished to Canada for being southern sympathizers.

Although born in Kentucky (Christian County) on June 3, 1808,  Jefferson Davis’  family moved to Louisiana (1811) and then to Mississippi (1812) where he was raised.  Jefferson attended Jefferson College in Mississippi, and Transylvania University in Kentucky before graduating from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1828.  Davis fought in the Mexican-American War in 1846.

He resigned his military commission to marry Sarah Knox Taylor, daughter of Zachary Taylor, in 1835.  Contacting malaria three months after the wedding, Sarah died.  In 1836 Davis moved back to Mississippi.  Davis married again in 1845 to Varina Howell, granddaughter of former New Jersey Governor Richard Howell.  They had six (6) children but only a daughter, Margaret, survived young adulthood.

Davis served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi’s At-large congressional district from 1845 to 1846; U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1947 to 1851 and again 1857 to 1861; 23rd United States Secretary of War from 1853 to 1857 under President Franklin Pierce.   Davis resigned as a Mississippi Senator on January 21, 1861 and was elected President of the Confederate States of American on February 18, 1861.  The Confederacy continued until May 5, 1865 when its government was officially dissolved.   Captured by Union forces five days later, Davis was held prisoner for two years at Fort Monroe, Virginia.  He was indicted for treason in 1866.  He was finally released on bail and ultimately the case against him was dropped in February 1869.

Davis became president of the Carolina Life Insurance Company located in Memphis, Tennessee in 1869.  At some point afterward Davis went to England and stayed until 1878 when he returned to Mississippi.  Davis wrote a book, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, between 1878 and 1881.  This book did much to restore his reputation in the South.   He completed A Short History of the Confederate States of America, in 1889.

Davis died on December 6, 1889 in New Orleans, Louisiana from an undetermined cause.  He was 81.  Originally buried in New Orleans, his widow had his body exhumed and transported to a Richmond, Virginia cemetery in 1893.

Chickasaw National Capitol Building, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, built 1898

The majority of the Chickasaws, as slaveholders, were secessionists. The Chickasaw and Choctaw in July 1861 declared they were allies of the Confederate States of America.  They served mostly in the First Chickasaw/Choctaw Mounted Rifles under Douglas H. Cooper, who was commanding the department of Indian operations under authority from the Confederate government.   Other Indian tribes and some Chickasaws remained loyal to the Union.  On April 28, 1866, the Chickasaw and Choctaw signed a treaty with the United States which provided an end to slavery, the creating of a leased district for freedmen, payment of reparations to pro-Union Chickasaw/Choctaws, and granting of railroad rights-of-way through their nations.  The annuity payments due these tribes under previous treaties were resumed.   The Civil War did not devastate the Chickasaw as most of the battles took place in the lands of the Creek and Cherokee nations.  Although the Chickasaw did suffer hardships after the war, they did again prosper.

Chickasaw Nation, 1818-1861.  The Levi Colbert who represented the Chickasaw during the negotiations of the Jackson Purchase in 1818 died June 2, 1834 in Colbert County Alabama.  He, his brothers, and their issue were the most influential family in Chickasaw history.   From 1838  to 1846, all the Chickasaw, including the Colbert clan, moved west of the Mississippi because of treaties signed in 1832 and 1834 which declared that no Chickasaw could remain in the east.   They were finally able to move into the Chickasaw District of Oklahoma in 1843.  In 1848, 1851, and 1856 constitutions were adopted creating and refining a government structure consisting of executive (elected governor), legislative and  judicial branches, making the Chickasaw independent, solvent and viable.  Tishomingo was selected as the capital of the Chickasaw Nation.   A Capitol Building was built in 1898 and used until 1906.   Chickasaw Nation’s national headquarters are now located in Ada, Oklahoma.

(Information for this posting gathered from the following sources: Chickasaw Council House Museum brochure, Chickasaw Empire, the Story of the Colbert Family, by Don Martini, 1986, Ripley, MS;  Internet sources at www.chickasaw.net; www.civilwarhome.com; www.itd.nps.gov/cwss, www.natchezbelle.org)

The call for and elections to Secessionist conventions grew among the Deep South states as the time neared for Lincoln’s inaugural, March 4, 1861.  Following South Carolina, Mississippi (January 9, 1861), Florida (January 10, 1861), Alabama (January 11, 1861), Louisiana (January 26, 1861), and Texas (February 1, 1861) seceded.

Earlier, in December 1860, a U. S. House of Representatives Committee of Thirty-Three (one member from each state in the Union) was created to try and find areas on which a compromise could be built to save the Union.   John Crittenden of Kentucky advanced a compromise of six proposed constitutional amendments addressing all the outstanding issues.  However, on December 22, 1860 this compromise was defeated.  Presented to the Senate January 16, 1861 as a request for states’ referendum, after Mississippi, Florida and Alabama had already seceded, it was again defeated.   Between December 22, 1860 and January 12, 1861 two other compromise proposals had been considered and rejected.  On January 17, 1861, former President John Tyler now a private citizen of Virginia, published a document proposing that a final collective effort should be made to preserve the Union by calling a convention of the six (6) free and six (6) slave Border States.  This convention met on February 4, 1861 where attendees had been expanded to include all of the states.    However, none of the Deep South states sent representatives.   Because most of the attendees were “senior statesmen” this convention has been referred to as the “Old Gentleman’s Convention” and “Old Men’s Last Hurrah for the Union.”  At the end of the convention, the final proposal produced differed very little from Crittenden’s.  The work of the convention was finished only a few days before the final session of Congress ended; the Senate rejected the compromise proposal and it never came to a vote in the House.

With the adjournment of Congress, all formal efforts at compromise ended.

Our Winter Meeting will kickoff our Civil War Sesquicentennial observation activities.  We begin with an excellent speaker, Dr. Bill Mulligan, Professor of History at Murray State University (MSU) and 2009 Fulbright Scholar in History at University College Cork, Ireland.  His topic will be “The Civil War in Western Kentucky and West Tennessee, 1860-1863″. Attendees will be allowed to ask questions of Dr. Mulligan at the conclusion of his presentation.

Dr. Mulligan has been teaching at MSU since 1993 and has performed extensive research on the Civil War in western Kentucky.  He has written several works about the Civil War period.  He is the editor of Badger Boy in Blue: The Civil War Letters of Chauncey H. Cooke.  Dr. Mulligan has also been involved in a number of Civil War related public history projects.  Most recently he was the Project Director for the Ohio River Civil War Heritage Corridor which included 32 outdoor interpretative signs and a brochure, completed in 2003-2005.  Local historical societies know Dr. Mulligan well as he is supportive of their efforts and has been very willing to share his knowledge of the Jackson Purchase area.

Our Winter Meeting will be held January 22, 2011 in the auditorium of Wrather Museum on the campus of Murray State University.  It begins at 10:30 a.m.  The public is always welcome at our meetings.

Our kickoff will include a special “prize” to a lucky attendee.  Upcoming celebrations events will also be presented.  Won’t you come and join us!

Our Adopt-A-Student project continues!  If you are, or know of, a student at any level (elementary to graduate school) who would like to attend one of our meetings but need transportation assistance, contact Marvin Downing, JPHS Treasurer, at mdowning37@charter.net to apply.

The Governor of Tennessee when South Carolina seceded from the Union was Isham Green Harris.  Elected in 1857, Harris urged secession after the November 1860 election named Abraham Lincoln president.  Voters in Tennessee initially rejected the idea of secession, especially in the eastern part of the state.  When the Tennessee general assembly finally passed an ordinance of independence and alliance with the Confederacy, Harris prevented the separation of East Tennessee and its alliance with the Union.  Tennessee was the last state to secede, joining the Confederate States of America on June 8, 1861.

Harris remained governor until he was forced to flee the state in 1862 after the fall of Nashville.  Harris volunteered to serve the Confederacy as an aide-de-camp and participated in all of the major battles fought  in Tennessee and by the Army of the West except Perryville.  When Lee surrendered, Harris fled to Mexico City fearing retribution from the Union victors.  In 1867 he moved to Memphis where he again practiced law.

Harris was born in Tullahoma, Tennessee on February 10, 1818.  After attending public aschols and Winchester Academy he moved to Paris, Tennessee and worked as a merchandise store clerk.  He moved to Mississippi to study law, passed the bar in 1841 and returned to Paris, Tennessee to practice.  He had a long political career before dying in Washington D. C. in 1897.

He was a Democrat and his political career began when he was elected to the Tennessee State Senate in 1847, the U.S. House of Representatives in 1849 serving until 1853, Governor of Tennessee from 1857 until 1862 (3 terms), and the U. S. Senate from 1877 until his death in 1897.

Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives  from March 4, 1859 to March 4, 1861 for the 8th Congressional District of Tennessee was James Minor Quarles from the Opposition Party.   The 8th Congressional District in 1860 covered the northwestern part of the state and included the present day counties of Lake, Henry, Weakley, Obion, and Stewart.  Quarles was born in Virginia in 1823, moving to Kentucky in 1833.  He was an attorney admitted to the bar in 1845 and practiced in Clarksville, Tennessee.  During the Civil War he served in the Confederate Army under his brother, Brig. Gen. W. A. Quarles, until the end of the war.  He then moved to Nashville in 1872 continuing to practice law.   He died in Nashville on March 3, 1901.