Charles Jedediah Wall Owned Oak Grove Plantation in Gillsburg, Mississippi

Charles Jedeiah Walsl owned Oak Grove Plantation on which Gillsburg, Mississippi was established. Charles was born on June 27, 1797 in Beaufort District, South Carolina  and died in Amite County, Mississippi.  A woman named Irene Foster had a daughter with Charles. Their daughter was named Minerva Walls.

According to the 1840 United States Federal Census, he owned eight enslaved people. He filed a patent on seventy-six point thirty six acres on November 10, 1840. 

Bates School Named in Honor of an Early Black Settler Ephraim Europe Bates

Ephraim Europe Bates was born in 1834 in Amite County, Mississippi. He died in 1910 in Amite County, Mississippi. The school for African American children went from first grade to six grade and was named in honor of Ephraim Europe Bates.  The school was established in 1880. The  old school was built on five acres of land and was less than five miles form the new school. The school had as many as 700-800 students. The Bates family donated the land for the school.

According the 1900 United States Census Europe was married to Eliza Jackson Bates. He had a three stepchildren living in the house with him; Willie, Albert, and Mary Green. Two grandchildren; Dewy and Ewy Bates. They weren't twin, there is a big age cap between the two grandsons.

Europe was married twice; first to Vicey and secondly to Eliza. Listed on the 1870 United States Federal Census is his wife Vicey and children; Sallie, Howell and Ellen Bates. Although their daughter Susan Bates was listed on this census, she was their daughter.  On this census they had his named spelled as Ephraim Bates. 

He was issued a patent on 165.64 acres of land on Sept 1883 in Amite County, Mississippi.

Indian Arrowheads Collection at the McComb, Mississippi Library

Display of Indian Arrowheads
Photo Credit: Dr. Antoinette Harrell

I visited the library in Magnolia, Mississippi the first thing that caught my eye was the display of Indian Arrowheads. Some of them were found in the yards of the local people. It appeared that some where purchased from others states according to the tags. 

Negro Baptizing in the Tangipahoa River

Baptizing's are held in the river, where sometimes as many as one hundred Negroes are baptized in one way. Negro preacher and about ten or twelve elders from an aisle for them to pass on down to the baptismal hole, while several hundred on the bank sing, "I am going down to Jordan to be baptized.

Bibliography:

Mississippi Department of Archives 1902-1907. WPA

Source Material for Mississippi History Pike County, Vol. 57, Part 2