Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1913-03-28
Early ReCOlleCtiOnS
of Old NOxubee.
Quitman. Miss, March q, 1911


TO The Beacon:
Along about 1863 the important item
d aalt got to be question and l re-
member that all who had smoSe houses
resorted to the plan of digging up the
dirt floors and putting the dirt in bar
rels (ash-nopper fashion, and running
water through it and taking the water
and boiling it down until it would leave
crystalized crude, and pounding the
crude up and using it for salt. but the
quantity that was realized in this way
was too small to last long, and after 1t
had been exhausted, Mr.. Sebron jack
son, who lived two miles north Of Shu-
qualak, was prevailed upon by the peo-
pie of the neighborhood to take two or
three Of his wagons and teams, with
sufficient number of his negroes, and 60
overland to the salt wells near Opelou-
sas, La. and make supply of salt and
bring back and sell to the people, which
he did, and this was continued each
year through to the surrender and in
this way the Shuqualak neighborhoed d
suffered but little for salt.
The old building and outhouses where
Mr.. Jackson then lived may still be
seen on the left of the rock cut, going
north from Shuqualak, and a little
further south Of the place the war
time home of Stepney Martin, father Of
Henry Martin. who now lives just east
of Macon.
Sebron jackson was the father of the
Sam jackson, the livestock dealer, who
committed suicide at the stock landing
in New Orleans a short while ago, an
account of which, because of his promi-
nence in the live stock business, ap-
peared in all the most prominent daily
papers, the same being prepared and
handled by the associated press.
Not long ago / saw in the BEACON
J an account of the appalling cyclone
that visited Macon in 1873, and as !
was living there then. conducting a
\ newspaper, the old Mississippi Sun, !
will briefly give my recollection Of II.
q AT that time Macon had three papers,
{ .y, s'Tae Beacon, i'bss Bee'ssand
.sTha Mississippi Sun, :, the former be-
4 Ing published by the lamented Phil
Ferris; The Bee by the. late Col. R. W..
Phillips and The Sun BY the writer.
The printers on the ''Sun'' then were
j. X. Almon, now connected with the
editorial department of the Scimitar, at
Memphis. Tenn; J. E. Dunlap, now
president of the Peoples Bank of
Plaquemine, La; Joe Shoemaker. who
died in the eighties while publishing a
paper. the "Neshoba Democrat" at
Philadelphia, Neshoba county; and
Lloyd Shoemaker, now of your city.
In those days about half the patron
age of country newspapers came from
the wholesale merchants of the cities
where the local merchants traded, and
about once month went to Mobile on
soliciting trip. and on the evening
that the cyclone struck Macon | boarded
the train there under clear sky, about
$3.50 as now remember, little dreaming
of the terrible catastrophe that was so
soon to follow and that death lurked so
near for so many of those who were
standing around me at the depot at the
time.
At that time E. S. Horsford was the
first division superintendent of the Mo-
bile & Ohio R. R., with Headquarters at
Macon, and W. O. Mcmahon, (now in
MOBILIZE, was train dispatcher, and the
Western Union had an Office up town.
Well, after having journeyed without
event as far as Beaver Meadow. when
the ram pulled out from that town
(about 9 q. n.y. the conductor came
running bsck in the ladies coach where
Twas sittin- and handed me telegram
which was sent to me to Beaver Meadow,
in his care, which. when broken open.
was found to contain the following sad
message,
"Oyclone just passed over this town.
j At the depot not building intact and
Z 13 known to be dead Wires down con-
Meeting uptown Office and nothing can
i be heard from up there. Board north
I, bound at next station and come home.
[Signedl W. 0. McMahon,
! Train Dispatcher. /"
My feelings can be better imagined
thar descuibed. It seemed hard to
realize that utter destruction could
come to such bright and happy scene
in so short time, but what worried
me most was the vagueness of the mes
sage as to the uptown condition where
my family and my all were situated.
=: Imbued with these direful thoughts
and forebodings, I boarded the north
bound' at the next station and the
trip back seemed a thousand miles, but
at Z a. m. the train reached Macon, |
alighting from it to see the happy scene
of a few hours before one of death and