The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1906-03-16

bought a section OF land about
thirteen miles west Of Fulton on
the Pontotoc and Fulton road, and
built a lot of cabins for his
slaves, whom he moved to the
plantation. He also built a log
house for his family to summer
in, and he and the family used
to come out to the plantation du-
ring the summer and live there.
Wiley Clifton was very genial
and companionable, man, and l
used to see him and family when
/ was a boy visiting at my ia
theirs house, and although a
mere boy and he a middle-aged
man, took a great fancy to him.
He made a handsome property
merchandising at Fulton, and
built the incest and most COM
Portable residence in the town.
Lands are rather poor round Full
ton, and he having bought slaves
in number sufficient to stock a
good sized plantation, planted
them on a fine tract of land, and
which is still known as the Cliff
ton section. | never knew where
Clifton came from to this coun-
try, but he was early at Fulton,
as remember my father doing
business with him for several
years before even 1850. He was
a man of ordinary height, COM
pactly built, rotund body, straight
as an arrow, high and broad fore
head, sparkling eyes, full of
laughter and good humor, digni-
fed bearing, and a man with as
many friends as any one who
ever lived in the old town. Just
as he got ready to live, so to
speak, he was called to die.
There was a fearful epidemic of
typhoid fever in the summer and
fall of 1856, and this caught and
carried him off. He left a very
interesting family of children,
but / do not now intend speaking
of but one, a son named Eugene.
He was tall, slim, fine looking
young man, just merging into
manhood when the war tocsln
sounded in 1861. He was pre-
possessing in his manners, and
popular with both old and young,
and being the Oldest son, was the
idol of his mothers heart, and
she regretted so much to have him
90 into the army, but with that
devotion to the cause of the South
which characterized and sustain
ed so many mothers and wives
during the war, she sent him
forth to battle for his country's S
cause. In March, 1861, and near
the last of that month, Eugene
bade farewell to his loved ones
and shouldered his musket and
marched off to Pensacola, Fla,
and there served in the army till
some time in the summer of that
year, when he was stricken and
died, and his body was brought
back to Fulton and deposited
alongside his father. His fam
lily were very much attached to
him, and they had his last letter
published in the Fulton Flag, a
paper which was successor to the
Fulton Herald, and the mother
kept and treasured that paper
all through the receding years.
When he wrote the letter he was
in high hopes of being in a fight
with the enemy and of being en-
abled to fall in the conflict, if
die he must. | know something
of the love and devotion of a
mother for such a letter from
such son, and can imagine the
tear-dimmed eye, and throbbing
heart Of such a mother reading
such letter through all the wait
ing years, but none can know
what it really means without a
mothers heart and a mothers
experience. But when a mother
is also a widow, and has a fine,
manly son on whose strong arm
she hopes soon to rest for succor
and comfort, and that son is ta-
ken by his country and offered
as a sacrifice upon her altar, the
anguish Of heart is greater, and
the mother more disconsolate.
There is but one balm to the
wound, and that is devotion to
duty by the lost son and a sense
Of love of country inducing to
the devotion on behalf of the
mother. Ioften see the grave of
bright and sparkling Eugene in
the old grave yard at Fulton, and
think of our association in the
army.
DR.. McWilliams also had,a sol
der boy, some yeas younger
than Eugene Clifton, and who
entered the army somewhat later
| in the war, named Pryor, who
twas a very interesting character
also. He was Dr.. Mes. only
son, and a very quiet, lnobtru-
sive kind Of boy, fond Of home
folks, but the fire Of patriotism
spread to his heart, and he told
father and mOther he ronst Of