Washington, Territory Capital
The following account of Washington as
it was in 1805 is taken from Claiborne's Mississippi as a
Province, Territory, and State, pages 258-260:
"The town of Washington, six miles east of Natchez, in a rich,
elevated and picturesque country, was then the seat of
government. The land office, the Surveyor Generals office, the
office of the Commissioners of Claims, the Courts of the United
States, were all there. In the immediate vicinity was Fort
Dearborn and a permanent cantonment of the United States troops.
The high officials of the Territory made it their residence, and
many gentlemen of fortune, attracted by its advantages, went
there to reside. There were three large hotels, and the
academical department of Jefferson College, inaugurated by
Governor Claiborne, was in successful operation. The society was
highly cultured and refined.
The conflicting land titles had drawn a
crowd of lawyers, generally young men of fine attainments and
brilliant talents. The medical profession was equally well
represented, at the head of which was Dr. Daniel Rawlings, a
native of Calvert County, Maryland, a man of high moral
character arid exalted patriotism, eminent in his profession,
and who, as a vigorous writer and acute reasoner, had no
superior and few equals. The immigration from Maryland, chiefly
from Calvert, Prince George and Montgomery counties consisted,
for the most part, of educated and wealthy planters the
Covingtons, Graysons, Chews, Calvits, Wilkinsons, Freelands,
Wailes, Bowies, and Magruders; and the Winstons, Dangerfields,
and others from Virginia, who for a long time gave tone to the
society of the Territorial capital.
It was a gay and fashionable place,
compactly built for a mile or more from east to west, every hill
in the neighborhood occupied by some gentleman's chateau. The
presence of the military had its influence on society; punctilio
and ceremony, parades and public entertainments were the
features of the place. It was, of course, the haunt of
politicians and office hunters: the center of political
intrigue; the point to which all persons in pursuit of land or
occupation first came. Was famous for its wine parties and
dinners, usually enlivened by one or more duels directly
afterward. Such was this now deserted and forlorn looking
village, during Territorial organization.
In its forums there was more oratory, in
its salons more wit and beauty than we have ever witnessed
since, all now moldering, neglected and forgotten, in the
desolate graveyard of the ancient capital."
Extinct Towns|
AHGP Mississippi
Footnotes:
1. The fate of the
town of Washington, which was a station on the old Natchez
Trace, illustrates this point. Although the town can hardly be
spoken of as extinct, it now retains only a fragment of its
former greatness, the buildings of Jefferson College and a few
other houses being the only structures left out of the large
number of imposing edifices of former years.
Source: The Mississippi Historical
Commission Publications, Volume V, Edited by Franklin L. Riley,
Secretary, 1902.
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