Vaiden—Kosciusko—Carthage—Raleigh—Junction with US 84. State 35.
Vaiden to Junction with US 84, 141.1 m.
Graveled roadbed two lanes wide.
Accommodations in towns.
State 35 cuts through a narrow slice of the State that until recent years was hemmed by pine forests and isolated by lack of transportation facilities. The lumber industry, following on the heels of the railroad, was the first outside influence to stamp itself upon it, destroying a large part of the barrier of pines. As the lands were cleared they were in the northern section converted into pastures and toward the south developed into farms with diversified crops. Thus, two new industries were ushered in.
The creamery and condensery at Kosciusko are among the largest in the State; the vegetable produce and watermelons of the southern section are noted for their superior quality. Throughout the area the rugged beauty of hills and the rich redness of soil contribute to wayside charm. Southward the highway skirts the notorious Sullivan’s Hollow, the scene of more bloodshed and crime than any other part of the State, and around which extravagantly colorful stories have been woven.
State 35 branches S. from VAIDEN, 0 m. (325 alt., 648 pop.) (see Tour 5, Sec. a), which is at the junction with US 51 (see Tour 5, Sec. a).
The highway runs through a region with broad cultivated fields, solid-looking farmhouses, and clustered tenant cabins, then through heavily forested hills and red gullies. At 4.1 m. the route crosses the Big Black River, S. of which is a gloomy region deeply wooded with thick-leaved hardwood. Here and there is a paintless weathered cabin in a clearing with a small corn patch; occasionally smoke from a mud-chinked chimney is seen curling above the tall tree tops. The highway mounts steadily to the crest of a high ridge revealing a panorama of wooded valleys, and drops again at 9 m. into a smaller swamp and crosses Scoopchitto River, a shallow meandering chocolate-colored stream. Between the river and Kosciusko lies a tableland free of trees and used for grazing. This is the heart of one of the State’s best dairying sections.
KOSCIUSKO, 24.9 m. (430 alt., 3,237 pop.), clings to the sides of a series of ridges, its narrow paved streets ascending tortuously to the courthouse square on the crest of the highest hill. Viewed from the grassy square, the town is a mixture of the old and the new; dilapidated frame buildings stand shoulder to shoulder with compact brick ones; rambling Victorian houses, with magnolia-littered yards, contrast with small new cottages and bungalows; neatly asphalted streets come to dead ends at the edges of deep ravines or wander beyond the corporate limits as country lanes.
The town was settled about Red Bud Springs, now dry, which, it is said, appeared after the earthquake of 1811, though the Indians asserted they were formed when the great chief Tecumseh stamped his foot in Detroit. When Andrew Jackson marched back from the defense of New Orleans, he followed the Natchez Trace and, because of an abundance of good spring water, pitched camp in what is now Kosciusko’s principal business district.
Originally the little overnight station on the Trace was called Peking because its founder hoped that the connotations of a foreign name would prove attractive to settlers, but the meager food and poor accommodations provided by the taverns caused the town to be known as “Peakedend.” The name was in time changed to Paris; but, once more, the effort to dignify the struggling village with a grand title was made in vain. The name was completed to Parrish, possibly because of a family of outlaws (members of the Murrell clan) living here; then it became Perish. Finally the present name was chosen, honoring the Polish hero of the American Revolution, under whom a grandfather of a council member had served. The village was incorporated in 1836.
In 1845 a girls’ boarding school, Beechwood Seminary, was established here, and several years later a male academy. By 1859 the village had developed such cultural appreciation as to organize a stock company, the stock of which was sold at $10 a share in order to found a library which, when opened, had 389 well-selected books. The collection included histories, biographies, travel books, and general reference material but no fiction. The present Attala Co. Library was organized in 1931 under the direction of the Mississippi Library Commission.
Until 1920 the town’s chief business was the marketing and shipping of produce of Attala and neighboring counties. At that time the lumber industry was clearing off the timber and in its wake dairying developed. In 1928 a creamery was established to care for the dairy products of the county and the next year the Pet Milk Co. built a condensery. Both industries speeded the development of the town, yet Kosciusko has been slow to relinquish its village ways.
Such pleasures as checker-playing and domino games are still a part of the social life. Each fall an Old Fiddler’s Contest is held in the courtroom of the courthouse before judges and a large audience. While prizes are offered to the best players on various instruments, the fiddle receives the most attention. There are several prizes for performances on this instrument, the contestants being divided according to age. “Yankee Doodle,” “Turkey in the Straw,” and “Leather Breeches” are favorite tunes. The winners of the contests usually receive small amounts of cash and runners-up receive such commodities as flour, coffee, and sugar. The giving of the latter is a custom dating from a time when such everyday articles were luxuries.
Music of a more modern and standardized type is taught in the public schools.
KOSCIUSKO MOUND, on the schoolground, was built by 3,000 local children during the Centennial celebration of 1934; each deposited a small cupful of earth brought from their homes, duplicating a mound near Krakow, Poland, honoring Thaddeus Kosciusko. Near the mound is a NATCHEZ TRACE MARKER at a point where the old route formerly ran.
WILLIAMSVILLE, 28 m. (200 pop.), is built around a large yellow pine lumber mill, with the mill’s commissary the only store. There are but few dwellings, a majority of the workers living in Kosciusko.
Between Williamsville and Carthage the highway threads its way through the densest forests along this route, much of it the virgin timber. The woodlands, covered with pine needles, have a clean appearance, and the smell of the trees is fresh and sharp. Every mile or so the highway climbs a ridge that presents a view of the rugged country. In autumn, when the red and yellow leaves of sweet gum and oak stand out against the evergreens, the scenery is notable for its vivid coloring.
HOPOCA (Ind., final gathering), 39 m. (5 pop.), is the site of an old Indian village. It was settled by Gen. Nathan B. Forrest in 1832, and is the point where the Choctaw gathered prior to their removal west of the Mississippi. Gen. Sam Cobb, Indian chief who led the faction opposing the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, made his home here. His log cabin, about which numerous Indian relics have been found, is standing but it is in poor condition.
CARTHAGE, 50.5 m. (998 pop.), the seat of Leake Co., has a modern white stone COURTHOUSE. The whole of the village, from the courthouse to the frame store buildings and shaded dwellings, is seen at a glance, and only the steeples of two white frame churches break the low skyline. On Saturdays Indian families living on reservations to the E. and in the backwoods come here to buy supplies and to sell their gayly colored woven baskets. The town is known throughout the State because of the Leake Co. Revelers, a group of local musicians who are keeping alive the old folk songs of the section. Their instruments vary from the saw to the harmonica.
Left from Carthage on State 16 at 1.5 m (L) to PEARL RIVER INDIAN DAY SCHOOL, typical of the Government-controlled schools for Indian children. In addition to the basic subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, carpentry, agriculture, and home economics are taught. Recently attempts have been made to familiarize the Indian children with the folklore and legends of their race.
At 52.3 m. the highway crosses Pearl River.
WALNUT GROVE, 63.3 m. (753 pop.), is an old town that has received a new life with the establishment of a large lumber mill. Practically every white frame house has been built recently and sits behind a neat whitewashed picket fence.
South of this point the country gradually loses its shut-in appearance, the pines growing fewer, and many local roads intersect the highway. This is a section of small hill farms, where even before the War between the States the people were making comfortable livings from the soil. Their surplus vegetables and small amounts of cotton are marketed in Forest.
HARPERVILLE, 70.8 m. (179 pop.), once a lively agricultural town, was burned by General Sherman on his march from Vicksburg to Meridian, and has never recovered. The G. C. HARPER HOME, the only ante-bellum structure and the village showplace, follows early architectural ideals in its straightforward two-story, square design. Of frame construction, it is sturdy but in bad condition.
HILLSBORO, 73.6 m. (200 pop.), was formerly the seat of Scott Co., and a town antagonistic toward Forest because of the location of the latter on the railroad. When Forest was named the country seat in 1866, Hillsboro people tore up the first foundation for the courthouse, burned the second, and carted away the third, brick by brick. Only by a legislative act in 1873 was the seat permanently established at Forest. Hillsboro has dwindled to a store or two and a few scattered frame dwellings.
1. Left from Hillsboro on a graveled road to the OLD JOE ROLAND HOME, 3 m., a log house held together by iron pegs and interesting as a good example of early dog-trot architecture.
2. Right from Hillsboro on a local dirt road is GUM SPRINGS, 4 m., seven springs within a few feet of each other, each with a different mineral content. They received their name because of the large gum trees growing around them. In 1863 Sherman’s soldiers camped here for several weeks during his raid along the Alabama & Vicksburg R.R. A Holiness Tabernacle is on the hill above the springs, and during the summer old-fashioned revival meetings are held.
FOREST, 81.7 m. (481 alt., 2,176 pop.) (see Tour 2), is at the junction with US 80 (see Tour 2).
At 83.4 m. is a NEGRO C.C.C. CAMP. In the woods two miles S. of the camp is the REFORESTATION LOOKOUT TOWER, not visible from the highway.
Between Forest and the southern end of the route the virgin pines have been cut away to a great extent. The rugged hillsides, thinned of their trees and split by huge crevices, show a magnificently colored clay soil that runs the gamut from a startlingly rich red to a deep bruised purple. Plowed fields, small farming communities, and infrequent sawmills are seen at intervals.
At 87 m. is a good example of a Mississippi hill farm with a comfortable farmhouse, painted outhouses, and several hundred acres of cotton.
The highway now climbs a steep ridge through fine stands of second growth pines and hardwood trees.
RALEIGH, 107.6 m. (583 alt., 219 pop.), built on the top of a small plateau with orange-colored gullies surrounding and encroaching upon it, has discarded the colorful excesses of backwoods settlements and, according to James Street, has reckoned itself a cultural center. It has transferred its interests from the doings of the “hollow folks” to the south to politics. Court sessions are the inhabitants’ chief diversion. Not seasons but court terms mark the annual cycle, thus: “I hope to see my corn up by spring court” or “I’m going to house-clean after court is over,” or “Come and stay with me next court week.” The SMITH CO. COURTHOUSE, a large red brick building Greek Revival in type, has a dignity out of keeping with the informal village clustered about it. HARRISON HOTEL, on Main St., is an ante-bellum building, used by Civil War soldiers as a recreational center and a hospital. The JACK TULLOS HOME, across the street from the hotel, is of the usual plantation type and was built of hand-hewn timbers, before the war. For many years the local Negroes have believed the OLD RALEIGH CEMETERY to be haunted, because of the strange noises that come from it. The phenomenon has been explained by the fact that a cave in the cemetery echoes the sound of approaching traffic on the highway, the noise strangely like the rustling of wings. Raleigh is the birthplace of Daisy McLaurin Stevens, onetime President-general of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Right from Raleigh on a clay and sand road is COHAY, 7 m. (1,092 pop.), a progressive farming and marketing center. Legend states that Jackson’s men crossed Rahoma Creek south of town on their way to defend New Orleans, and on the bridge that spans the creek Jessie Craft served his volunteer troops a sumptuous banquet before they left to join the Confederate Army in 1861.
Between Raleigh and Taylorsville the landscape has the beauty of an unspoiled countryside. Small cotton and corn patches end on the edges of dark pine woodlands, where virgin trees stand clean, straight, and tall. Blackberry bushes and Cherokee roses grow lush beside the road. Farmhouses with adjoining orchards and vegetable patches evidence the dependence of the people upon the land.
TAYLORSVILLE, 124.6 m. (805 pop.), was a static little village, backwoods in appearance and character until 1925, when the first lumber mill of this section was built. The town changed almost overnight; the main street was paved, a drug store was built, and filling stations were erected on the corners. But unfortunately the timber was soon exhausted and the mill ceased to operate except for short periods of the year. At present (1937) the remnants of the once fine forests are being used by the naval stores factories at Laurel, and the dynamiting and hauling of these stumps is the principal business at Taylorsville today. The so-called INDIAN BATTLEFIELD has not been explored, but the large number of arrowheads found here seem to indicate that it was once the scene of an Indian battle. On the schoolyard is the GRAVE OF GENTLE SOUTH WIND, a young Indian girl who was killed by her father Onubee in a drunken rage. Her youth and beauty made her fate especially pitiable, and sympathetic white settlers marked her grave, which they keep well-tended.
Right from Taylorsville on State 20, a graveled road, is MIZE, 8.4 m. (429 pop.), known by the nickname “No Nigger” and acknowledged the capital of SULLIVAN’S HOLLOW. Mize was reputedly settled by “Hog” Tom Sullivan, whose neighbors by the nickname suggested indirectly the reason for the disappearance of their hogs.
The Hollow, a long narrow valley lying south of Mize, has been the source of so many tales of feuds and bloodshed that it is now impossible to separate fact from legend. Every Mississippian knows of it and uses its name as a synonym for lawlessness. It was first inhabited by nine Sullivan brothers, fierce Irishmen who brought with them from the South Carolina mountains the clannish customs of that section. Moving into the Hollow in 1810, each brother homesteaded a 160-acre plot, and each cut a ditch around his land to separate it from his brother’s. At the mouth of the stream along which the farms lay, they built a lumber mill, a gristmill, and a cotton gin. The collection of mills and farms was called Bunker Hill for some reason satisfactory to the Sullivans, but soon came to be known as “Merry Hell,” because of the fights taking place there. The brothers continued to clear the land and to increase their farms until they had the entire valley under cultivation. Their arrogance, increasing with their prosperity, caused them to be hated and feared by the neighbors, many of whom moved away. “Wild Bill,” a son of Hence, one of the nine brothers, was the most notorious of the clan. But though he brawled, fought, and caroused up and down the Hollow throughout his life, he managed to outlive the War between the States, the World War, and, more remarkably, the Sullivan Feud, dying peacefully in his bed. Alleged to have killed more of his kinsmen than any other Sullivan, he was given the title “King of the Hollow.” Neace, brother of Wild Bill, was the most magnificent specimen physically. Tall, straight, gaunt, he had a dark beard that reached below his waist. Once after a rough and tumble fight at Shiloh Church in which two men were shot to death, Neace, with blood pouring out of his intestines exposed by knife wounds, got up and walked 200 yds. and mounted his horse. Stories of the efforts of officers to enforce the law on the Sullivans were favorite local jokes. A sheriff and his deputies once attempted to arrest Bill and Neace, but the brothers stopped their plowing and, forcing the officers into a barn, locked them in. On another occasion, Bill and Neace placed a sheriff’s head between the rails of a heavy split-rail fence and left him there to starve. In 1874, however, after Bryant Craft was shot for some good Sullivan reason, a serious attempt was made to apprehend Bill and Neace, who took to the swamps and remained in hiding for four years. At the end of that time they gave themselves up for trial, but a fire of mysterious origin destroyed the courthouse and the records of indictment against them. They never came to trial.
Some of the earlier Sullivan men were very small, the youngest of “Small Jim’s” children being called “Runty Bill.” The boy hated the name and was extremely sensitive about his dwarf-like stature. Legend has it that Runty Bill on one of his solitary walks was given a drink from an acorn cup by a woodland elf; the liquid was an elixir promoting growth and strength. After that he and all his descendants were of splendid physique. Because of his superior size he was able to win from one of his smaller brothers the girl both loved, and it is said that the notorious intra-clan feud originated in the enmity which resulted. The fight broke out about 1860 and the offspring of the brothers were drawn into the argument. Fighting words were hurled, and the feud lasted until 1910. Fights, ambuscades, and wholesale executions were frequent. Brothers slew brothers and families arrayed themselves agains. in-laws. The fiercest battles were fought at Shiloh Church on Bunker Hill. Once, the members of one faction caught a member of the opposing faction and hitched him to a plow. Then, after plowing him all day, they locked him in the ox’s stall and fed him fodder. Saturday afternoons, regardless of the weather, the men of the clan gathered in Mize and the wise citizenry remained at home, content with the knowledge that, come Sunday morning, fewer Sullivans would be in the world than had been the day before; the Sullivans bullied, swaggered, and insulted one another until the desired fight began.
One Sullivan reformed and reported not only his own sins but also those of his kinsmen to the preacher. Immediately his unappreciative kinsmen destroyed his mill, burned his farm house and timber, and rode him out of the Hollow on a rail. At a ball game in Mize in 1924 a squabble arose over a technicality and a fight supplanted the game. After the fight was finished two persons lay dead and a half dozen were seriously wounded.
Notwithstanding these activities the Sullivans were excellent farmers. They were always prosperous and raised good cattle. Wade Sullivan offers a reason for their success: “We watch all the times it thunders in February and, in April when them days come, we kiver our garden up. It will sho’ frost on them days. Then, too, we allus plant all day on Friday before Easter.”
While lawlessness is by no means a thing of the past in the Hollow, the Sullivans have become more cautious in their ways. Occasionally, at election time and during county fair week, someone will go berserk and act Sullivan, but community spirit is against such reversions. Many of the more peaceable Sullivans have moved away to less turbulent areas to make honored names for the family.
Between Taylorsville and Hot Coffee the highway makes a steady upward climb over the top of a chain of steep ridges. Far away are low-lying valleys framed in forests of longleaf pines, and more remote hills are a vague enchanting blue.
HOT COFFEE, 13I.8 m., is hardly more than a gin, several frame houses, and a conspicuously new brick-constructed store building sprawling beside the road, but because of its name it is known throughout the State. According to James Street, immediately after the War between the States, J. J. Davis of Shiloh swapped a sabre for a sick horse, swapped the horse for a wagon, swapped the wagon for another horse, and after a week of such swapping found himself with enough cash to start a store. He gathered his possessions and came here, building a store by the old Taylorsville-Williamsburg Road. He hung a coffee pot over his door, and served coffee that was both hot and good, made of pure spring water and New Orleans beans. He used molasses drippings for sugar and the customer could have either long or short sweetening; he refused to serve cream, saying it ruined the taste. Politicians from Taylorsville and Williamsburg patronized the store, serving coffee to their constituents and anyone else that happened to be around. Travelers coming by on their way from Mobile to Jackson drank Mr. Davis’s coffee while eating the food they brought with them. Old Mr. Davis died in 1880 and one of the boys from Sullivan’s Hollow took over the management of the place. One day a drummer stopped and ordered coffee. “What’s the name of this place?” he asked. “Ain’t got no name. Just Davis’ sto’,” said the owner. The salesman started to drink his coffee, but it was too hot. He strangled and sputtered, “Mister, this is hot coffee,” which was all right with the “sto’keeper.” The same day another drummer came through. “Ever given this place a name?” he asked. “Yessir,” came the answer quickly, “this is Hot Coffee.” The present village store occupies the site of the one in which Davis made his coffee.
At 141.1 m. is the junction with US 84 (see Tour 11), 1 mile E. of COLLINS (see Tour 7, Sec. b).