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formation about old Center. He remembered seeing soldiers drill there •: in preparation for going to either 'the Mexican or Civil war-he did not remember which. He remembered when practically all trials led to Center. He told me that as a young man he used to ride a horse, or walk from the old Lee homestead, where Leetown now is, to Walkiah Bluff to attend parties or social gatherings. He said there was no such thing as a road like we have now but just trails, some of them wide enough for a wagon to travel over. He would cross Catahoula creek and hit the old trail from Center to Walkiah. He told me of remembering well the old Jackson Military road cut through the heavy pine timber and of passing through Picayune where there was only one house on this old trail in what is now the corporate limits of this city. One time he went to a home of a Mr. Stockstill. Big rains came, probably such as we have been having lately and the streams got up so that he was about two weeks getting back home, as there were no bridges back then. He also told me of a mai} going from somewhere up on Pearl River to Center to get his marriage license to be married the next( Sunday. The creeks got up andj he was gone for about three i weeks. His folks and the girl s folks wondered what in the world had become of him, some of them speculating that maybe he had fled the, country. But when the water I went down, he showed up and the marriage took place. The J descendents of ttys couple live but that way still.’-	|
Rev. T^G.^Varilada, whoi died in his nineties, and earlier wrote: “My grand-father Jones was sent here as ; a peace officer when this area was incorporated as Mississippi territory in 1812 He was the third white settler in that Immediate area. He was born in the Allegheny mountains in Georgia and was used to a rough jungle life as well as the nature and characteristics of Indians. He was a full blooded red Irishman, his father coming direct from the old country. He
..iarried a bride who was born in Sweden. They had three children when the government sent him here as a peace officer . He settled in the midst of the Choctaw Village and seat of government which stood east and just across the branch from Caesar. Chikala was then the Choctaw chief.
I My grandfather helped build the first jail there near where his house stood. They dug a pit about 8 feet deep, then cut logs and tapered up to a point somewhat like we used to build bird traps, and then cut a hole in the top. They would let the prisoners down by a ladder. When the ladder was removed there was no way of escape. Food and water were let down by a rope. At this place was born Zadiariah Jones who became cue of the most useful men of his day in this section in the church and civic life, also as a mechanic. Grandfather made close friends of the Indians and was loved by them in his after years.” Jones has many descendents now in the Caesar area. He lived, after the Indians were gone, for many years at this old place.
Center was a village with a post-office, log courthouse, a jail, an inn- or hotel, a bar room, one or more small stores, and a few homes for county officers and others. Henry Necaise, an old Negro who died about 40 years ago at 110 years old told me of going to Center as a boy to a murder trial in which some of his folks were involved. Some man was called as a witness. The judge told him to be seated in the witness chair, but the man continued standing. He was again told to take the witness chair, when he said, “Judge,
I rode a mule 3U miles to get here and I am so sore I can’t
sit down.” The judge, and everybody laughed. The man was allowed to continue standing.
Murrel, one of the most notorious robbers ever to operate in this section with a wide reputation as a hold-up man and killer, was once arrested and put in this old 'dungeon at Center but before he could be tried confederates came in and rescued him from
■J
th? jail, or h	. ibed someone
to let him out. Anyway, he got out and was never tried. \
George Bilbo and Mrs. Caz Stockstill have both told me of : stories their grandmother used to tell them in the long ago about old Center. As a 1 child she told them of going to the old Indian dances which were always held under the same old big tree. Fires for light would be built in a drde around this old tree and the-, Indians would start early in the night with their dance-which always ended at sun up. They danced and sang all night. I myself as a child used to go to the Choctaw dances up -in Jasper County where there " would always be a big crowd, not only on Indians but of white people.
Bilbo and Mrs. Stockstill also told me that their grandmother would tell of the many Indian teepees,v' wigwams, or whatever you call them that were located between Playground branch and Catahoula creek, saying there must have been anywhere from 50 to 100 of." them there all inhabited by ■" Indians.
Jackson’s army camped at ^ this location on its way from Alabama to New Orleans in the fall of 1814. This was an*} ideal camp site as the land dry natured, lies well an< there is plenty water available.
The first county officers at* Center were William Hunt,; Clerk of the Superior and County Court; Duncan McCall, sheriff; and later Elihu*! Carver was sheriff; Thomas"
Hunt, Assessor and Collector*,, Roger A. Heron, Justice of ther Peace; Joseph Villis, Justice ] of the Quorum (I think this I was the same as the board of 1 supervisors now); William W^ Walker, Clerk of the Super loci Court of Law and Equity .'In’ 1946 the courthouse was^ moved to Gainesville. Center^ died when the courthouse^ moved. The Indians left about I the same time.
This has been a story of this j section right here where wej live just a short time agojj What will be here 100 year-from now?
I want to express my tha to the many, many people who have told me of reading these! old time stories.	.	J