Bolivar County Mississippi
Prentiss13
The town of Prentiss was named after that brilliant orator,
Sargent S. Prentiss, whose memory at that time had not been
honored with the name of any county or town in the State. The
life of this place was short, being comprised within the space
of about seven years. It was laid off early in 1856, its
location being upon the Mississippi Eiver, immediately opposite
the town of Napoleon in Arkansas. At that time this latter town
had a population of seven or eight hundred people. It has also
long since disappeared from the face of the earth, having been
undermined and swallowed by the great river upon which it was
located.
As the town of Prentiss owed its origin to the selection of its
site for the county seat of Bolivar County, large and commodious
public buildings, a brick court house and jail were at once
built and the place grew rapidly for a few years. When the War
Between the States began in 1861, it had a population of about
two hundred, a good hotel, and a newspaper, the Bolivar Times.
Judge F. A. Montgomery, of Rosedale, Mississippi, says:
"Prentiss was really the first county site and had the first
jail in the county, I had almost said the first courthouse; for
the shanty which had been used for that purpose could hardly be
dignified by that name. This was a little frame building, the
court room being about twenty feet square with two small rooms
about ten feet square, for clerk's office and jury room. When
the new court house was built this little house was standing in
the yard of Judge Joseph McGuire, one of the earliest settlers
in the country, whose descendants still live, honored citizens
of the country, and whose plantation adjoined the town of
Prentiss. Small and unpretentious as was this building, I have
seen Judge John I. Guion preside in it, and it was from one of
his terms at that place that he returned home to die. Succeeding
him, that great Judge, J. Shall Yerger, presided in it one term,
while the new courthouse was being prepared. Great causes had
been heard and determined in the old house by great judges, who
heard great lawyers discuss them, and it would be interesting to
tell of some of them if my plan permitted."
"The history of this old court house is unique, and deserves to
be told.14 Its first location was
on what was then the Mississippi river, but is now Lake Beulah,
and about three or four miles below the town of Rosedale, one of
the present seats of justice of Bolivar county. An old field at
this place, still known as the old court house field, marks the
spot where it stood. I am not sure that the place ever had a
name. One of my earliest friends in the county, William
Sackville Cook, who has long since gone to his reward, was at
that time clerk of the courts and gave me its history. As it
stood at this place several years without attracting any
settlers, the people of the county decided to move it. The whole
structure was put on a flatboat and carried down the river to
Bolivar Landing. After remaining here a few years, it was again
put afloat, this time on two flatboats, and towed up the river
to Judge McQuire's place, where, like the ark on Mount Ararat,
it found its final resting place. Bolivar county was then a
wilderness and, indeed, was almost unknown until a short time
before the new court house was built, when its fertile soil and
the hope of protection by the levees, then just being built,
attracted the attention of wealthy planters everywhere, and they
came in great numbers to avail themselves of the chance to
purchase the rich lands.
"The local bar of the county at that time was small, consisting
of only two or three young lawyers, but the county afforded a
rich harvest for able lawyers from abroad; for its rapid
development made much litigation about land titles, and such men
as William Yerger, Fulton Anderson," Marshall and Walter Brooke,
of Vicksburg; Smith, of Washington county, and Alcorn, of
Coahoma County, were regular attendants upon the courts which
were held at Prentiss.15
War brought destruction to the promising little town of
Prentiss. In the early part of 1863, a Federal force landed at
this place and applied the torch not only to the public
buildings but to private residences as well, and in a few hours
not a house remained save one small building on the outskirts of
the town. In this house a few sessions of the probate court were
held after the war, but it, too, has long since disappeared. The
site of the town has been swallowed up by the waters of the
Mississippi River.
Extinct Towns|
AHGP Mississippi
Footnotes:
13. The following sketch
is based principally upon facts obtained from Judge F. A.
Montgomery, of Rosedale. Mississippi.
14. A brief mention of
this interesting bit of local history will be found in
Goodspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi,
Vol. L, p. 243.
15. Perhaps the best
evidence of the ability of this gentleman is shown by a
criticism of him by the talented Henry S. Foote, who, in trying
to break the force of one of Mr. Anderson s prosecutions, said,
"The zeal and ability of the young District Attorney is
dangerous to the liberty of the citizens."
Source: The Mississippi Historical
Commission Publications, Volume V, Edited by Franklin L. Riley,
Secretary, 1902.
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