The Tupelo journal., 1907-07-19
The Passing Of the Old
Fulton Ferry.
BY COL. w. L. CLAYTON.

| remember very we'll crossing
the old ferry one time during the
war with our cavalry regiment.
This way Of carrying!over a boat
load at time did not suit the
swift movement OF the cavalry.
So we moved the boat down
stream a little and fond a place
where it would reach from bank
to bank, and thus making q
bridge of it crossed rapidly. An.
other infi .cnt which happened
with me IN connection with the
old ferry | will relate. | had a
client in Jail at oli Fulton about
1867, as best my memory serves
me, who was not able to pay a
fee. but who said if | would get
the permission of the sheriff to
carry him out home where his
wife was he could get the money
to pay me. | interviewed the
sheriff on the subject and he
consented to it, provided the
prisoner was handcuffed. This
my client readily agreed to, and
/ took him in my buggy and car
ried him across the old ferry and
west and northwest to where his
wife lived, but whom [ found
unalterably opposed to her hus-
band, and much more ready to
give money to prosecute than to
defend him. Passing on back
home one axle of my buggy broke
and left us to ride home double
on the horse without saddle or
blanket. Crossing the old ferry,
my client got off and took it
afoot over the ferry. Getting up
behind me again for safety, we
moved on till we had almost
crossed the bottom, it being then
what the darkies call "dusky
dark" when a limb knocked off
his hat. / had him get off the
horse for the hat, and insisted on
his mounting up behind again.
But he:said no, it WIS but lit
tie distance to walk, ,hnd he would
just walk on in advance of me.
All of a sudden he made a dash
into the thicket, and before l
could get cut my gun and shoot
he was hid from visw. | was
very much mortified over the
matter, and at once put out a re-
ward for my man, and who was
arrested in a few days with the
handouts in his pockets!
| did not have the key and
thought wonderfully strange of
the information; but when | got
to see him and the handouts he
could readily slip them on and
off, and said that when he got
down to get his hat he discovered
he could slip his hands out, and
then for the first time Intended
to escape.
About the last of 1860 or the
first of 1861 there was a man
placed in Jail at Fulton by the
name of John Charles, on a
charge killing some one, whose
name has slipped my memory,
out about Chesterville. We had
then the same old insufficient
Jail they now have there, and
which has been condemned by
all the authorities of the county
except the board Of supervisors
time and again from which all
through the years many prison
ers have been taken by their
friends, and others escaped. It
seems there were living in the
neighborhood of Fulton, or in
the town, or both, some men who
made it a business to assist pris-
oners and their friends from the
old Jail. These men, or some
others, assisted to break into the
Jail and release Charles there
from, and carried him across the
old ferry to liberty and to his
friends. They did not ask the
assistance of Uncle Billy that
night, but took charge of his
boat and used it while the old
man rested in the hands of Nor
pheus, and never knew till the
next morning that his ferry boat
had assisted in the flight Of a
criminal.
After Uncle Billy Landrum
gave up the job of freighting
the old ferry, Uncle Billy Walton
came to the relief of the county,
and was the county ferryman
for many years. He was a diff
erent kind Of man to Landrum,
being tolerably tall, with rounded
shoulders, black, piercing eyes,
long, flowing beard, and hair
over his shoulders, a la Varda-
man, possessing more intelli-
gence than the other Uncle Billy,
a good fellow we'll met, ready to
crack his jokes, and enjoyed a
good, hearty laugh with the best
of them. He possessed the same
patient care for the public and
devotion to his employment that