Alphabet File page 88

    William died at age 42 on the threshold of a promising national career. But for   17 years, he was one of the most important men in public service in what was then the great Southwest Frontier.  He was a champion of Jeffersonian liberalism and spokesman for Western democracy.

 

 

 

 FERDINAND LEIGH CLAIBORNE (1771 - 1815)

 

 

 

   Brother of W.C.C. Claiborne, Ferdinand served as commander of the militia of Mississippi Territory. He won renown as an officer under General Mad Anthony Wayne. He resigned from the army in 1802 and went to Natchez during his brother’s administration as governor  of the Territory.  There he became a merchant and married the daughter of Colonel Anthony Hutchins, the English Tory who was one of the leaders in the abortive 1781 revolt against Spanish rule at Natchez.

 

  He resumed his active military career in 1811 when, upon the recommendation of Governor Holmes, he was commissioned brigadier-general of the militia of Mississippi Territory. Two years later he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers in the U.S. service. He organized a brigade of Louisiana and Mississippi volunteers and was ordered to Fort Stoddert where he arrived July 30, 1813 to guard the frontier against the Creek Indians.

 

   A month later a massacre at Fort Mims occurred during which more than 500  of its occupants were scalped and mutilated  after a front gate had been banked with sand and could not be  closed, and an Indian attack came. Brigadier-General Claiborne, because of his overall  responsibility for the safety of the frontier, was severely criticized for this disaster.

 

  Two years later, his wealth dissipated in public service (he personally paid for transportation, food and care of his men), broken in health by exposure, and in spirit because of the criticism of those who could not forget the carelessness at Fort Mims, for which one of his officers, Major Daniel Beasley was actually to blame.

 

   General Claiborne died at age 44 in 1815. One of the last dramatic acts of his life, which cost about his last dollar, was to brilliantly illuminate his home and grounds in celebration when news reached Natchez of  the victory of Jackson’s army at the Battle of New Orleans.

 

 

 

JOHN FRANCIS HAMTRAMACK  CLAIBORNE (1807 - 1884)

 

 

 

  The son of Ferdinand, J.F.H. Claiborne was known as “the Confederate Yankee” for his support of the Confederacy even as he aided the Union during the Civil War.

 

  After General Claiborne’s death, John was sent to Virginia to be educated. He planned to remain in Virginia, but because of his delicate health, he returned to Natchez where he took over the newspaper then published by Andrew Marschalk, Mississippi’s first printer. 

 

  Before he was 21 John was the Democratic candidate of Adams County for the Legislature, to which he was elected for  three consecutive terms. He was nominated for Congress in 1835 by the first Democratic State Convention in Mississippi, was elected by a large majority and arrived as the youngest member of Congress.

 

    He was respected by some and reviled by others when he was appointed president of the Board of Choctaw Commissioners to adjudicate claims of the Indians under the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, which were the basis of  much corrupt speculation which Claiborne exposed, treading on the toes of interests  so influential that they could employ S.S. Prentiss on  a contingency fee of  $100,000 to defend them.  Claiborne’s life was repeatedly threatened and he was twice challenged to duels which he refused  to accept. His unwavering action crushed the speculation and ruined those involved. However, Claiborne found it the better part of valor to leave the unfriendly atmosphere of Mississippi and take refuge in New Orleans.

 

   There he traded in land, cotton and slaves, but being a novice in business, lost his money and was taken into custody like a common  debtor. Later he went back to newspaper editing, but the collapse of his poor health  led him to consider buying the Laurel Wood Plantation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. (See accompanying story.)    Despite little experience in plantation management, Claiborne made a success of growing sea island cotton.

 

   With the onset of the Civil War, Claiborne remained secluded at Laurel Wood as long as he could to avoid taking sides. Although a government employee, it could  be assumed that he would be loyal to the South, especially as he owned 100 slaves. Still, even though he decided to openly support the Confederacy (He was commissioned to administer oaths and handle deeds and other papers for the Confederacy and during the war bought thousands of dollars of Confederate bonds.) he also decided to secretly serve the Union.

 

  Claiborne’s intrigue during the war was known to the Confederacy, but in the absence of absolute proof  of traffic with the enemy, it was unable to interfere. He was not a common spy working behind the lines; he was a  prominent Coast citizen and presumably a loyal Confederate supporter. Perhaps most important, in his strategic position at Laurel Wood he was under the constant protection of the federal gunboats that blockaded the Coast.  When the war was over, Claiborne immediately swore allegiance to the United States and aligned himself with the carpet-bagger  government of Mississippi.

 

   He continued to live quietly at Laurel Wood until 1870 when he inherited the Dunbarton Plantation at Natchez and moved there. He spent the remaining years of his life completing his monumental history of Mississippi for which he is famous, and which was started at Laurel Wood during the war.

 

 

 

              LAUREL WOOD

 

 

 

    The Claiborne Plantation, known today as the Baldwin Plantation, was originally named Laurel Wood. The structure still stands on Mulatto Bayou, two miles southeast of Pearlington. The area was settled in 1712 by John B. Saucier and known as Grand Plains. Its name was changed to Claiborne about 1870.

 

    Laurel Wood was built by Louis Boisdore with slave labor on a 40-acre tract on a French Land Grant about 1800. Its timbers were grown and hewn on the place and its bricks made by slaves. Col. J.F.H. Claiborne bought the property in 1853 and occupied it until moving to Natchez in 1870.

 

   The structure is a planter’s type with broad front gallery and dormer windows, the main floor resting on high brick piers. The gallery is reached by a single flight of stairs. Its roof is supported by hand-hewn columns across the floor. There is a wide central hall from which large, high-ceilinged rooms open. The walls in the hall and dining room are decorated with paintings of fishing and hunting scenes by Coulon, a New Orleans artist. Atop the building is a square observatory which offers a view of the Gulf across the vast stretch of marshland.

 

       It is said that the brick piers running under the house were originally joined by iron bars to form giant cages used for temporary restraint of Negro slaves when first brought from Africa. It was expedient to keep them in confinement until they became submissive and would not endanger or frighten the slaves in the regular quarters.  The ruins of the old slave quarters are at the rear of the house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources:

 

 

 

copyright 1963 article by Ray M. Thompson, The Daily Herald; M. J. Stephens Collection, File III, 00350;  James E. Brieger, Hometown Mississippi; Bill  Jenkins, editor, Pearlington: Church and Community, 1991; Nola Nance Oliver, The Gulf Coast, 1941.