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Special lo ihe Item
A diary with daily entnes written by Miss Adeline Russ gives a daily account of a tnp which began in Brunswick County, North Carolina on February 18. 1229 and ended April 14 - 55 days later at Pearlington. Miss.
In an automobile today it would lake less than two days to make that trip but back then travel was much slower by horseback, wagon, cart or on loot.
In the group making this long and arduous trip, in the cold and rain of winter and early spang, over mud roads - sometimes do reads at all but just paths through the wilderness - were several members of the family of Amelia Potter Russ, widow of Sempromus Huss who had died in 1816. Also in the group of emigrants making their way from North Carolina to Mississippi were Bill Poi invent and family. Bill Poitevent was Later to become widely known as an industrialist, ship owucr, farmer and the wealthiest man in this section of the country.
Samuel Poller Huss, oldest son and oldest child of Sempronius and Amelia Potter Kim, was living in Pearlington, Miss., in 1829. How and why Samuel came to Pearlmgtoci is not recorded. The first record of any Huss living in this area ia an old Bible which shows that Samuel married Eliza M. Frierson on Sept. 25, 1817. .
Many of Andrew Jackson's soldiers came back to this lovely land they had passed through on tbetr way to New*1 Orleans, after being mustered out in the spring of 1815, after the battle o/ New Orleans. It is most probable that Samuel Huss was a soldier in Jackson?s artillery and had p?>u>?ri through Pearlington to the battle which so devastated the British in January 1815. It is well known that Jackson's artillery was loaded on boats in Gainesville and Pearlington on its way to New Orleans in December 1814 so I think it is a reasonable assumption that this first Huss in this area first saw Pearlington at that time and, after being mustered out, came back to this little community.**?n..':-. , "*
*? Samuel must have sent back _ glowiqg accounts oi-Pearling-.
* ton for his widowed mother ? and at least part of her children, with some neighbors, left the old home in North Carolina to find a new
Grandpa Thigpen '
home where her eldest son lived.
When the group from North Carolina arrived in Pearlington on April 14, 1829 at the home of Samuel Russ, they found him with a sick wife and five children. According to the record his wife died on May 13 just a few weeks after the arrival of the group.
Mary H. Huss, bom June 10, 1818 and oldest child of Samuel Huss, married Bill Poitevent at a very young age sometime after he arrived in Pearlington Among the other children of Samuel was Luther Huss, the grandfather of the first Picayune Russes.'
According to the diary of Adeline Russ, they left Brunswick County on February 18 at 3 O'clock in the evening, starting for the west and arriving at Little River sometime after 8 O'clock, a distance of 16 miles. It was sleeting on the morning of the 19th and they did not get started until 12 noon, making 15 miles before setting up a camp at a ferry where they spent a pleasant night The morning of the 20th was a pleasant one. They made 19 miles that day, overtaking the Poitevent family and all camped together that night for the first time. The diarist wrote, ??We pitched our tents at dark which were seven in number and the forest was adorned with our lights."
Adeline Huss was 13 years old when she made this trip with her family. In 1838 she married Dr. M??d of Gainesville. Her daughter, Lois A Mead became the wife of Henry Weston in 1858, thus making Adeline Huss the grandmother of the Westons at Logtown.
It would be hard for younger people today, who travel, everywhere speedily and in great comfprt, to even imagine a trip through virgin, forest, over paths rather than roads, in Winter weather with teams that made only a few miles in a whole day. While
On Sunday, April 21 they started at 8 a.m. and traveled tnree to five miles when Bill Poitevent's horse ran away and broke his cart to pieces. It had to be repaired before they could start again. Another cart broke down, too and they made only a few miles that day.
These people had a succession of days when they travelled anywhere from 14 to as high as 25 miles in one day. As there were no bridges back then they crossed many streams on ferries. They travelled over bad roads and through swamps, in cold, and often, freezing weather. The diarist wrote on Feb. 25, ?Travelled 25 miles and camped about dark near Mr. Smoot?s mill where we had grinding done. The next morning was cold and rainy/'
People along the way were most hospitable, Miss Russ writing, ?Sunday the 29th was a cold, windy, rainy day. About 10 O'clock it began to sleet and we were invited to Mr. Ware's home and were kindly treated." They passed through Columbia, S.C., the capitol of that state. For several days it was wet, cold and rainy and the people in the caravan suffered from cold and exposure. A few days later they crossed the Savannah River into Georgia. It is recorded in the diary that they had roads and crossed a number of rivers on ferries as they trudged on Westward.
On March 7, the diarist wrote, ?Aunty Sally became ill and the others went on while Bill Poitevent and family stayed behind with her.? On March 10 she wrote, "A cold, rainy, windy morning we travelled the worst road that ever was travelled and camped in a log cabin five miles from Macon, Ga.? The group visited relatives at Colodensville, Ga. for three days. Due lo extremely bad weather they camped in a large Baptist church on the night of the 16th. The weather
they carried some, feed-^or- continued bad. They continued their teams and food for to ferry across the rivers as*
themselves with them they had to trade for, buy or work for the supplies they needed along the way.
they went through Georgia. After several days they camped within sight of? Montgomery, Ala. setting up
their camp two miles out.
They seem to have hac better weather on &cros> Alabama. The dianst wrote ?We spent the 29th and 30th a'. Uncle Wingate?s." Accordia to this. Judge Wingate, wh; for a long tune had a saw mi at Logtown, must have bee closely related to the travel, ers. Again, they had pieasar. weather as they crossed inu Mississippi. The dianst wroi on April 5th, ?Passed throug a barren level country, paid I to cross the ferry c Le&kesville in Green Count) the poorest village 1 ever sav or ever heard of. We could gc no provisions of any kin neither for love nor money, It the people or the stock."
On April 6 the caravan can to a Mr. DanUler s mill a: had some grinding done. Th travelled the next day, as M: Russ wrote, ?Through t! most desolate country I e> saw, crossed Black Creek Perkins ferry for S1.50 a camped on the creek in Per