Mound Bayou, Mississippi One Place Study

Date: [unknown]
Location: Mound Bayou, Bolivar, Mississippi, United States
Surnames/tags: One_Place_Studies Mississippi Black_Heritage

Back to One Place Studies Project

Contents 1 Mound Bayou, Mississippi One Place Study 2 Tasks 2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 Bolivar County 2.2 History 2.3 Business and Community Infrastructure 2.3.1 Original Settlers of Mound Bayou 2.3.2 Mound Bayou Veterans 2.3.3 Mayors of Mound Bayou 2.3.4 Notables 2.4 Cemeteries 2.5 Publications 3 Sources

Mound Bayou, Mississippi One Place Study

• Wikidata: Item Q867508, en:Wikipedia
• WikiTree Profiles that link here
• Google Earth Map

Tasks

1. Develop a section on the role Mound Bayou played in the Civil Rights Movement
2. Create profiles from the cemetery memorials on FG; link/connect to the Home colony folks if possible.
3. Create a spreadsheet (DONE) and profiles from the list on the Home Colony.
4. Connect!

Introduction

Between 1863 and 1864, the Freedmen's Bureau took over the Davis Bend plantations in Warren County (formerly owned by the Jefferson Davis family) and established the Home Colony. It was given the name Home Colony as a home for the formerly enslaved.

The Freedmen's Bureau register reported the names, gender, age, former owners, and former residence for over 900 residents during 1863-64.^[1]

In October 1866, Benjamin Thornton Montgomery a former slave of Jefferson Finis Davis and later Joseph Emory Davis, asked Davis to lease the Hurricane and Brierfield Plantations to him. Instead "he transferred ownership to Montgomery on 19 November 1866." This decision offered an expedient way for Davis to avoid a Union backlash while keeping the property under Davis family control. Montgomery used this opportunity to build a third plantation home, Ursino, on the property, and took charge of his own very successful cotton enterprise run solely by former slaves at Davis Bend. Until his death in 1878, Montgomery's enterprise ranked among the state’s top cotton producers.^[2]

In 1867, Benjamin T. Montgomery placed an advertisement in the Vicksburg Times inviting former slaves to join the community.^[3] Montgomery became the first African-American official elected in Mississippi when he became Justice of the Peace of Davis Bend in 1867. For about ten years the plantation prospered under Montgomery. He established a general store with his son Isaiah called, Montgomery & Sons that served the whole community.

Around 1876, the Davis family seized back their land when the Montgomerys had a bad crop year and missed a loan payment. ^[4] Montgomery died the following year in 1877 leaving the future of the settlement to his sons. It would take about ten more years before the Montgomery family left Warren County to find, purchase and develop the first all black city in the nation called Mound Bayou.

Bolivar County

In its early years, Bolivar County was almost entirely agricultural. In its first census in 1840, 838 people worked in agriculture, while only 5 were employed in manufacturing and commerce, while the county’s population consisted of 384 free whites, 1 free black, and 971 slaves.

By 1860 Bolivar’s 9,078 slaves constituted 87 percent of the population, the fourth-highest ratio of slaves to free people in Mississippi.^[5]

Geography			Population
Continent:	North America		County	Year	Persons
Country:	United States		Bolivar	1840	971 slaves
State/Province:	Mississippi		Bolivar	1860	9,078 slaves
County:	Bolivar			Bolivar	2020	30,308
City:	Mound Bayou			2020	1,535
GPS Coordinates:	33.880556, -90.728056
Elevation:	44.0 m or 144.4 feet

History

Mound Bayou aka The Jewel Of the Delta, was the nation’s largest and most self-sufficient African American town post Civil War. It was established in 1887 and incorporated in 1898. It was founded by Isaiah T. Montgomery (mayor), and Joshua P. T. Montgomery (postmaster)^[6], and their cousin Benjamin Titus Green^[7], all of whom had been slaves at the Davis Bend Plantation in Warren County.
Isaiah Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green, purchased the 840-acre land for $7 per acre. The men paid $420 down with the balance due in five annual payments. The spot selected was named Mound Bayou after the “large Indian mound located at the convergence of two bayous which drained the territory.” ^[8]The initial settlers of this community created a productive and prosperous standard of living.

Isaiah Montgomery

The prototype for Mound Bayou was the former Davis Bend Plantation, which under the administration of Joseph E. Davis, older brother of Jefferson Davis, and a devotee of Robert Owen’s theories on labor practices, allowed for the creation of a self-sufficient, cooperative, and educated workforce. They gained expertise from their slave-era experiences that served the development of the town: Isaiah Montgomery and Benjamin Green in business matters and Joshua Montgomery in the practice of law.

In July 1887 Isaiah Montgomery was commissioned to serve as land agent for the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad. The railroad needed towns to create a customer base. Although primarily focused on white settlers, railroad officials also sought to exploit the possibilities provided by black laborers looking to establish their own communities. This search led the railroad to recruit Montgomery and a handful of other African American agents.

Once all involved agreed on a location for the Mound Bayou settlement (some seven miles west of the Sunflower River and fifteen miles east of the Mississippi River), in Bolivar County, then Montgomery set out in search of potential settlers.

The first wave brought members of his extended family and included both Joshua Montgomery and Benjamin T. Green. Isaiah Montgomery eventually targeted other former Davis Bend residents, many of whom had worked both with and for the Montgomerys. He later traveled to other parts of the Deep South to entice former slaves to come to Mound Bayou. As a result of his inspired planning and recruiting, Montgomery developed a revenue stream from a combination of commissions and land sales, and as settlers poured in from throughout the region, Montgomery and Green founded the town’s only sawmill.

Follow this link to view Mound Bayou Images

Business and Community Infrastructure

Charles Banks, developed a thriving business infrastructure complete with a governing body, banks, merchants, cotton gins and warehouses, and a public school system, all outside the reach of the surrounding white-dominated towns.

Charles Banks

Presidents of the NNBL

These successes began to draw notice from around the country, as Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie, Julius Rosenwald, and other noted figures became supporters of the town’s vast enterprises.

The town included, 6 churches, a train depot, 3 schools, 40 businesses, 3 cotton gins, a zoo, library, bank, and a hospital. ^[9]

There was also a cotton seed oil mill. In 1907, Charles Banks, Isaiah Montgomery, and Booker T. Washington began organizing for the enterprise which would become the ultimate reflection of the progress of Mound Bayou—The Mound Bayou Cotton Seed Oil Mill. It was billed nationally as an all-Black enterprise. It was endorsed by the State Negro Business League. Mound Bayou became the largest black town complete with social, economic and political freedom.

Presidents of National Negro Business League:

Booker T. Washington, President

Charles Banks, Mound Bayou, Miss., 1st Vice-President

Frederick Douglas Patterson, Greenfield, Ohio., 2d Vice-President

Dr. Samuel G. Elbert, Wilmington, Del., 3d Vice-President

Harry T. Pratt, Baltimore, Md., 4th Vice-President

J.A. Lankford, Washington, D.C., 5th Vice-President.

In 1942 Mound Bayou became home to central Mississippi's first hospital when the Knights of Tabor, a progressive African American fraternal order, built a forty-two-bed facility staffed by physicians from the Meharry Medical School in Nashville, Tennessee.

The second half of the twentieth century saw a series of business setbacks, fluctuating markets, antagonism from surrounding areas, and political infighting began to wear away at its legacy, and by the late 1960s the town had become another struggling Delta community. However, those who were born and raised in Mound Bayou, carry a great deal of pride with them and pass along the legacy of this historical place to their children.

Excerpted and edited from an essay in the Mississippi Encyclopedia by Joel Nathan Rosen, Moravian College.^[10]

Original Settlers of Mound Bayou

• Original Settlers of Mound Bayou

Mound Bayou Veterans

• War of 1812:
• Civil War:
• World War I: World War I Veterans
• World War II: World War II Veterans
• Vietnam and Korean War:

Mayors of Mound Bayou

• Mound Bayou -- Mayors

Notables

Those who were born, lived, worked or died in Mound Bayou, but not necessarily original settlers.^[11]

1. Charles Banks banker, real estate agent (~1900) and wife Trenna Booze Banks
2. Medgar Wiley Evers moved to Mound Bayou in 1952 and his wife, Myrlie Louise Evers-Williams (née Beasley; born March 17, 1933)
3. Lewis Ossie Swingler (c. 1905 – September 25, 1962) was a pioneering African-American journalist, editor, and newspaper publisher. Swingler died on September 25, 1962, in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, of a heart attack.
4. Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (March 4, 1908 – May 1, 1976); American civil rights leader; Howard transferred, in 1942, to the hospital of the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor in Mound Bayou, and took over as the first chief surgeon.
5. Harold Robert Perry, S.V.D. (October 9, 1916 – July 17, 1991); was an African-American clergyman of the Catholic Church
6. Fannie Lou Hamer (née Townsend; October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977); civil rights leader
7. Kelly Miller Smith, b. October 28, 1920 – d. June 3, 1984; preacher, author, and civil rights leader
8. Katie Beatrice (Green) Hall, b. April 3, 1938 – d. February 20, 2012; U.S. Representative from Indiana from 1982 to 1985 introduced the legislation for MLK day holiday.
9. Sir Lattimore Vernon Brown was an American southern soul singer who performed with Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Etta James, Jackie Wilson and Muddy Waters.
10. Edward Benjamin Townsend (b. April 16, 1929 – d. August 13, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, producer and attorney
11. General Columbus Crook, b. February 28, 1945; musician (living)
12. Mel Reynolds, b. January 8, 1952; disgraced politician (living)
13. Lorenzo Gray, b. March 4, 1958; baseball player (living)
14. Kevin Henry, b. October 23, 1968; football player (living)
15. Russell Holmes, Massachusetts state representative (6th Suffolk) b. 1969 (living)
16. Dr. Robert Smith (living)
17. Milburn James Crowe (1933-2005)

Cemeteries

Please see Wikitree's Bolivar County, Mississippi, African-American Cemeteries category for profiles of those interred in the following cemeteries.

1. Mound Bayou Cemetery Complete per FG (more names from archivist)
2. Beautiful Star Church Cemetery Complete per FG
3. Mound Bayou Memorial Gardens 202 profiles - Complete per FG
4. Hearon Cemetery
5. Azion Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery Complete per FG (Memorials need to be created from photos taken by USBH member and profiles to follow, but as of Sep 2023 this cemetery is complete).
6. Wanderer's Home Cemetery 85 memorials needed.
7. Haywood Family Cemetery 21 profiles - Complete per FG
8. Saint Gabriel Cemetery Complete per FG

Please see the space page Mound Bayou Cemeteries for the history and location references to the above cemeteries.

Publications

The following publications include information found both on the Internet and in public libraries about Mound Bayou:

• A Town Owned by Negros: Mound Bayou, Miss., An Example of Thrift and Self-Government by Booker T. Washington
• The Jewel of the Delta: Mound Bayou, Mississippi by Susan James (blog)
• The Negro At Mound Bayou by Aurelius P. Hood
• The Mound Bayou Story, Sanctuary, Refuge, Oasis, a booklet created by Milburn Crowe, John Martin and Luther Brown. Revised in 2019 by Drs. Linda and David Belt
• "Preservation and Public History in Mound Bayou, Mississippi" (2022) Honors Thesis by Bray, Walker
• "Mound Bayou: The Growth of Idea (1865-1924)" by Steven A. William (Thesis at the Cleveland Public Library).
• Dissertation: “Take the Mountain”: The International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor and the Black Health Care Initiative in the Mississippi Delta, 1938 – 1983 by Katrina Rochelle Sims, August 2016
• 1928 article in the New York Age about Eugene V. Booze and family raising 1M as permanent memorial to founder.
• 50th Anniversary Souvenir Program, 1937

Sources

1. ↑ Mississippi, Freedmen's B...Office Records, 1865-1872:"Mississippi, Freedmen's B...Office Records, 1865-1872"
   Catalog: Records of the field offices for the state of Mississippi, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872
   Image path: Mississippi, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1865-1872 > Davis Bend > Roll 16, Register of freemen at the home colony, undated > image 3 of 33; citing NARA microfilm publication M1907 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
   FamilySearch Image: 3QS7-L92Y-CHRL (accessed 22 April 2023)
2. ↑ Mississippi Encyclopedia, Davis Bend Plantation
3. ↑ Newspapers.com, The Vicksburg Daily Times, Nov 21, 1866, (Vicksburg, Mississippi) p. 2
4. ↑ Mississippi Folk Life, A Place Apart, Mound Bayou
5. ↑ Mississippi Encyclopedia, Bolivar County
6. ↑ Employment:"U.S., Appointments of U. S. Postmasters, 1832-1971"
   The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-Sept. 30, 1971; Record Group: Records of the Post Office Department; Record Group Number: 28; Series: M841; Roll Number: 67; Volume Number: 45
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1932 #633073 (accessed 18 August 2022)
   Post Office Location: Mound Bayou, Bolivar, Mississippi; Name: Joshua P T Montgomery; Volume Year Range: 1875-1892; Appointment Date: 14 Mar 1894.
7. ↑ Probate:"Tennessee, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1779-2008"
   Probate Records (Shelby County, Tennessee); Author: Tennessee Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions (Shelby County); Probate Place: Shelby,Tennessee
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 9176 #1773187 (accessed 18 August 2022)
   Benjamin Titus Green probate.
8. ↑ Black Then, Mound Bayou, MS
9. ↑ https://misspreservation.com/2011/07/13/bank-of-mound-bayou-charles-banks-a-chief-lieutenant/
10. ↑ https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/mound-bayou/
11. ↑ Notables

See Also: The Mound Bayou Voice 1971

• Women of Mound Bayou
• NPS - National Register of Historic Places (Stamped registration form with maps)
• MDAH -National Register of Historic Places - larger with photos but no maps and no stamp
• Mississippi Department of Archives and History Mound Bayou Photo Album
• WikiTree contributors, "Benjamin Thornton Montgomery (1819-1877)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Montgomery-16345 : accessed 31 January 2023).
• Mapping the Freedmen Bureau - Home Colony
• The Weekly Democrat-Times published an announcement on 26 April 1890 in Greenville, Bolivar County, Mississippi calling for a meeting on 9 May 1890 of representative colored men from all territory adjacent to the Mississippi River and subject to inundation. The announcement lists 35 attendees.1890 Newspaper: A Good Move, "Newspapers.com", The Weekly Democrat-Times (Greenville, Mississippi) Sat, Apr 26, 1890, page 5, Newspapers Clip: 10155191 (accessed 17 May 2023) This article contains the names of the most substantial colored citizens of the Delta. The Times will note the proceedings of the Convention called with Interest.
• Dissertation: “Take the Mountain”: The International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor and the Black Health Care Initiative in the Mississippi Delta, 1938 – 1983

Videos:

• The Most Remarkable Town in the South
• YouTube Videos about Mound Bayou