Copied from the History of Lawrence and Jefferson Davis County, by Eddie Mikell, all rights reserved. E-mail mikell@virginia.edu for purchasing information on Lawrence County and Jefferson Davis County publications available on CD and hard copy. Now available on e-bay! June 30, 1892 AN INTERESTING BIT OF HISTORY A staff correspondent of the Times Democrat, in writing up a sketch of the town of Brookhaven has the following to say of this section apropos of the subject: "On the east of Brookhaven, distant 22 miles, is the historic town of Monticello, the county seat of Lawrence, and the old capital of the State of Mississippi. Monticello is probably the oldest town in the State. At the time when the Supreme Court was located there in 1825, only southern counties were in existence. As the State became more thickly settled toward the north, it was found that Monticello was too far south for the capital and so Jackson, then in the woods, was named. It was at Monticello that the famous Prentiss was admitted to the bar. The town has now 500 inhabitants. Ten years ago it was wiped out by a cyclone. "Monticello is situated on Pearl river. In anti-bellum days this was a locality renowned in Southern history. It was the center of large plantations, the home of scores of wealthy people. Elegant mansions with lovely flower gardens and large grounds covered with ornamental trees and shrubs to be seen on all sides. Mrs. Southworth, in one of her earliest novels, "Pearl of Pearl River," describes the country, one of the centers of the Southern fashionable world. It is not many miles from here where what is sometimes facetiously called 'the ancient capital of the rosin-heel empire," the town of Columbia, is situated. In 1821 this town, by some juggling, was designated the capital of the State, and in 1822 the Legislature met there. Three miles north of the town were the Columbia or Stovall Springs - the ultra fashionable resort of those days. People from the whole country round about and from New Orleans used to come here for the summer season. There was a whirl of gayety at these springs in those days. A grand hotel was erected at Columbia, in onw wing of which the Legislature sat. At the springs also elegant buildings and a hotel were erected. There are many interesting stories told of those days of the gay throngs of a fascinating widow from New Orleans and of thrilling duels and tragic endings. In the summer of 1826 the resort was in its greatest height of gayety and glory. Today the elegant mansions have decayed and crumbled into dust - the grand hotel is rebuilt into a residence and the only real remnant of a brilliant past is the presence of the springs, which flow on in gushing torrents, heedless of the ravages of time. "Pearl river is the great water shed of this section of the country. On the one side it drains the country into the Mississippi and on the other into the Chickasaha. Pearl river is an historic stream. It was first discovered by Bienville in 1699. Iberville sent his brother Bienville on an exploring expedition, and in the journal of the expedition the river is referred to as follows: "Next day we came to a river, falling into the lake, which the Indians called Taleatcha, or river of pearls. Here are found the shells used by the Indians to scrape out their pirogues after they have hollowed them with fire, and in these bivalves beautiful pearls are sometimes found.: The first known white settler on Pearl river was Capt. Simon Favre, who was the Indian agent for the Spanish and afterward the American government. He lived at what is now known as Pearlington. "The war history of Brookhaven and vicinity is interesting. The city was the conscript office foteh locality, and later on became the southern terminus of the Federal lines. A generous number of soldiers were sent to the front from here. Two batteries and three companies were recruited. The famous Hoskins Battery was one of the local corps. It was commanded by Capt. J. A. Hoskins, who started with 160 men used up 300 more, and finally returned to brookhaven after the surrender with a gallant remnant numbering 47. The birth and eath of the battery strangely occurred on the same day of the same month. On May 11, 1861, it was organized and on May 11, 1865, it was paroled. The Federals made four raids into Lawrence county. Gen Grierson came first, then Wilson, then Mann and then Davison with his 3000 men from Baton Rogue. A skirmish too place in Brookhaven and resulted in the killing and wounding of severall men and the capture of Bradford's (local) battery. A peculiar incident was the capture of Gen Mann and his Illinois veteran brigade by a handful of Monticello men gathered haphazard by Dr. Sam Browne. They were well armed, but were rather bushwackers than soldiers. They pursued Gen Mann for 70 miles up to Leaf river and then captured him. In this little band were Judge McNair, the Present Sheriff's father, and Judge G. S. McMillan, the justice of the peace at Brookhaven. Judge McMillan is a brilliant, facile writer and has done muc to preserve the history of his home. The Judge was district attorney, chancello and a member of the Legislature in Monticello. He went there in 1849 and came to Brookhaven in 1879. During the census of 1890 he was the superintendent of the work in this district."