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« C PICAYUNE ITEM, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25,1876
A iiklono
First name of Hancocks county seat
By S.G. THIGPEN SR.
Special to the Hem The original name for the first county seat of Hancock County was Aiiklana. In the Choctaw Indian language this word means, in English, “Center.”
Because this Indian word was difficult to spell and still more difficult to pronounce, Americans who had come in much greater numbers after the American occupation beginning in 1811 called the place Center instead of referring to it as Aiiklana.
Hancock County when first created embraced all of what is now Hancock County, all of ,, what is now Harrison County and the south two-thirds of what is now Pearl River County.
When is became known that statehood would be granted the State of Mississippi, the people in what was to become the big county of Hancock held a mass meeting at the Burnt Meeting House, a bar, inn and restaurant on the old Gainesville to Columbia road 12 miles northwest of what is now Picayune.
After much discussion at the well attended meeting it was agreed that the name of the new county would be Hancock to honor the man by that name who signed the Declaration of Independence.
At this mass meeting they did not agree on the site for the county seat. A committee was named to travel over the whole area and talk to the people and come back to another called meeting with their recommendations for the location of the county seat.
They were instructed to select as the county seat a site that would be most convenient to the most people. After spending some time in their travels over the area they recommended as the county seat the old Indain town of Center. There were several outstanding reasons why Center was made the county seat of Hancock County: the old Indian town was nearer the center of the population at that time; it was more
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accessible as all roads and trails through the area crossed or ended at Center; it was located of the gently sloping turtle back strip of land that stretched back from the confluence of Catahoula creek and Playground Bran* ch, with perfect drainage. It was the long time town of the Choctaw Indians and had been for centuries; the Indian chiefs lived there, they held their pow-wows there and most important it was site of the Indain ball games which drew almost everyone in the area.
The trails or roads of the choctaws from all directions, led to Center. Center was also the cross roads for the old Bouie road laid out by French engineers during the French occupation and the newly opened road over which Andrew Jackson marched his soldiers and hauled his equipment and supplies for battle of New Orleans.
The old Bouie road ran through Center from the coast to Bouie, which was located where Hattiesburg now is. It was surveyed to follow the divide between the waters of Wolf river and Pearl river and was an important early road.
The Jackson military road was built from Alabama across the north ends of what are now Jackson, Harrison and Hancock counties and had made more accessible a great territory to the east. The practical way for Jackson to have moved his Army would have been by water, but it was too dangerous to think of moving this army through the Gulf of Mexico as English warships were expecting such a move and were ready to sink the American soldiers who would not had a navy to protect them.
Jackson’s army camped for a time on their way to New Orleans at Center. Signs of the ovens used to cook the 1 soldier’s food are plainly visible there now.
Center was for many years, probably hundreds of years, the most important Indian town in South Mississ* ippi. Rev. Vamado, born in 1870 was the grandson of the first Indian agent, or agent of the U.S. Government to be sent to Center in 1811. Rev. Varnado remembered his mother telling when he was a child of seeing on special occasions a “Thousand camp fires” at this old Indian town.
In 1817 the first courthouse in the history of Hancock County was built at Center. Its location has recently been , marked out along with the old nearby dungeon.
For a number of years, people from as far away as Biloxi and the Gulf Coast had to go to Center, now known as . Caesar, to court and to attend to other public business. Murrell, nortorious highwayman of that time was put in jail there, but escaped, it being charged that he bribed his way out. An old man more than 50 years ago told me this story: A man from one of the most distant points in the old county was summoned to court to sit on the jury at Center. When the jurymen took their seats this old gentleman kept standing. The judge asked him to sit down. He was repor led to have said, “Judge, I can’t sit on them chairs and benches—I haven't
set on anything except logs in 30 years.”
By 1837 Harrison county had been formed out of the East half of Hancock county. Also many of the Indians, if not most of them had been granted new lands in the Indian territory under the Treaty of Doaks Stand of 1830. Many of the Indains had left the Center area. Conditions had greatly changed since 1817. As a matter of greater convenience to most people, the county seat was moved to Gainsville 1837. 'Hie old road laid by Andrew Jackson's engineers is still in use across the north end of Hancock
County with only a few changes. From old Center to the southwest this old road has been changed in only a few places. Daniel Cooper whose father was an early settler six miles northeast of Picayune liked to talk of the old days.
His father or grandfather like to (ell of the old road and of remembering seeing the roadway cleared for the movement of the heavy equipment and supplies used in the battle of New Orleans. He liked to tell of the old people seeing a constant stream of wagons for three whole days passing their old place and of the soldiers marching through on their way to New Orleans in the fall of 1814.
This movement of Jackson's army through virgin forests, in quantity of supplies and number of men, is said to be the biggest such operation of its kind in the history of the United States.
Pakenham, the British general was repurted to be greatly surprised that this army had been able to move from Alabama and Florida in such a short time.
It would be interesting if the old Jackson military road would be marked across Jackson and Harrison counties as it has been pretty well done through Hancock and Pearl River Counties. Certainly this operation was one of the greatest things ever to happen in this section of the state.
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