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!T7* xcept for two small cemeteries sur--*-J rounded by woods, there are few re-I minders today of Old Augusta, which in J 1822 was the most important settle-
!ment in the piney woods east of the _?Pearl River. Established on the Leaf "??River in 1809 by the Carter and Hodges families, the town served as the county seat and as the site of the first U.S. Government land office in Mississippi.
In the flush days before the Civil War, Old Augusta was a prosperous little river port, with several stores, a large inn,-a courthouse and jail, two churches, a school and a Masonic lodge.
"But the hottest thing the town had going for it was its slave market,? said Parker. ?People came from all over to buy slaves, and, of course, they carried large sums of money with them.
?The place offered rich prizes for outlaws, and, with its surrounding stretches of wilderness, made an excellent hideout with plenty of secluded spots from which to ambush travelers,? Parker said.
In those days, this section of the Mississippi Territory was a primitive, rowdy and often dangerous place to live and through which to travel, and
would give no direct answer ? shrewdly eluding the inquiries.?
According to Police Chief Parker: ?They hanged him near the old cemetery, and the story goes that Copeland shouted from the gallows that he could see the place where he?d buried his gold from where he was standing and that if they?d only turn him loose, he?d lead them to it.
?But they hanged him anyway.?
Where is Copeland buried? ?There are lots of stories about that, too,? said Parker. ?One story says they buried him outside the cemetery, near the spot where he was hanged, another says he was taken across the river to a smaller burial ground and buried in the northeast corner.
?Some people say he was later dug up and placed on exhibition for a while in Jackson,? Parker said.
a s for Old Augusta, it had rid itself of ?^?Copeland, but its glory days were over. After the Civil War, townspeople managed to exist by rafting logs down the Leaf River to communities along
the story of the Copeland gang is typi-cal of the bands of outlaws that roamed ! the area, preying on settlers and travelers alike.	y-
Copeland, one of the most notorious '? of the gang leaders, was born near the Pascagoula River in 1823 and report-;*? edly committed his first theft by the time he was 12. Before he was 15, he^j had burned the Jackson County Court-' house to destroy an indictment against ^ him.
y 1839, Copeland had joined a band of outlaws which raided large towns ^ like Mobile and then fled into the wilderness, where they robbed and murdered people in Louisiana. Florida and Texas.
Copeland apparently became the leader of the gang after the outlaws retired to a hideout somewhere on Red Creek ? near present-day Wiggins, Miss. ? and there murdered several members whom they suspected of being spies. It was shortly after this that Copeland reportedly buried $30,-
000	in gold in the Catahoula Swamp. He was captured and executed before he could recover it, and, as far as anyone knows, it has never been found.
Frequent skirmishes and shootouts with bands of outraged citizens led to the decline and eventual fall of the Copeland gang.
Early in the 1850s, Copeland himself was stabbed in a fight, and a posse led > by Sheriff Pitts trailed him eventually to Mobile, where he was captured.	j
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the Gulf Coast, but the town?s days, of prosperity never returned.	norto
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When tne railroad came through shortly after the turn of the century,
Old Augusta was by-passed, and-most of the townspeople moved to th^n'ij^W'^ settlement, along the tracks, which be-V came New Augusta, three miles awiy. ?. Gradually, the buildings in the old^^yn V fell into ruin, and the piney woods g. began to reclaim the site. , all b
The triangular plot of ground Wftjch marked the center of Old Augusta is : thick with pine and cedar trees tj)(^y, ' ; and its stillness is broken only by-4he calling of birds and the* rustlingfof small woodland creatures in the under-. growth. But in one corner, overgrgwn with vines and redolent with the aroma ?*, of wet leaves, a depression.in the damp ? earth and scattered piles of broken i bricks mark the site of the old jail . where Copeland was confined b^fpfe ?? his execution.	^
But there is nothing else to mark the site ? only the whisperings of the^ibe trees and the memories that always haunt a place like Old Augusta. _________