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Rodney, Mississippi

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Coordinates: 31°51′40.6″N 91°11′59.4″W / 31.861278°N 91.199833°W / 31.861278; -91.199833
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Rodney, Mississippi
Ghost town
Former First Presbyterian Church
Former First Presbyterian Church
Nickname(s): 
"Petite Gulf", "Little Gulf"[1]
Rodney, Mississippi is located in Mississippi
Rodney, Mississippi
Rodney, Mississippi
Rodney, Mississippi is located in the United States
Rodney, Mississippi
Rodney, Mississippi
Coordinates: 31°51′40.6″N 91°11′59.4″W / 31.861278°N 91.199833°W / 31.861278; -91.199833
CountryUnited States
StateMississippi
CountyJefferson
Founded1828
Elevation
82 ft (25 m)
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID676809[1]

Rodney is a ghost town in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States.[1] Most of the buildings are gone, and the remaining structures are in various states of disrepair. The town floods regularly, and some of the buildings have extensive flood damage. The Rodney History And Preservation Society is restoring Rodney Presbyterian Church. Damage to the church's facade from the American Civil War has been maintained as part of the historical preservation including a replica cannonball embedded above the balcony windows. The Rodney Center Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[2]

The town is approximately 32 miles (51 km) northeast of Natchez. It is currently about two miles inland from the Mississippi River. Between the town and the Mississippi are wetlands, including a lake that roughly follows the former course of the river. Atop the loess bluffs behind Rodney are its cemetery and Confederate earthworks from the Civil War.

In 1817, it was three votes away from becoming the capital of Mississippi.[3] In the 1800s, a hybrid strain of cotton and innovations to the cotton gin were developed in Rodney by Rush Nutt. Rodney was incorporated in 1828, and became a major port for shipping cotton with a population in the thousands. By 1860, it had a variety of businesses including multiple major newspapers and Mississippi's first opera house. During the Civil War, Confederate States Army cavalry captured the crew of a Union Army ship who were attending service in Rodney Presbyterian Church, resulting in the shelling of the city. After the war, the Mississippi River changed course, the railroad bypassed the area, and nearly all buildings burned down. The population declined until the town was disincorporated in 1930.[4] In 2010, only "a hand full of people" were reported to live in Rodney.[5]

History

Rodney's landing site was a key waypoint on Native American routes around the Mississippi Delta region.[6] Native American implements and arrowheads have been unearthed between the Natchez Trace overland route and Rodney.[6] The Natchez people likely used the area as a portage between the Mississippi River and White Apple Village.[6]

The area was claimed by the French in January 1763 as "Petite Gulf" in contrast to Grand Gulf, Mississippi upriver.[7] After the French and Indian War, it was ceded to Great Britain.[8] Spain took control in 1781, and gave many land grants in West Florida to Anglo immigrants.[9] American settlers, including the Nutt and Calvit families, moved into the area that would be come Rodney.[10] Spain lost control of the area in 1798,[11][12] and on April 2, 1799, the Mississippi Territory was organized.[13] Three years later, Delaware magistrate Thomas Rodney was sent to Jefferson Parish as a Territorial Judge.[14][15] In 1807 Thomas Rodney would preside over the Aaron Burr trial;[16] Burr was held at Thomas Calvit's home while under investigation for treason.[17] Thomas Rodney became Chief Justice of the Mississippi Territory, and the town was renamed after him in 1814.[18][19] Rodney was more significant to the region than Vicksburg or Natchez in the early 1800s.[7] In 1817, the Mississippi Territory was being admitted as a state, and Rodney came three votes short of becoming the capital.[20]

Growth

Map of the Mississippi River from 1866

Rodney emerged as a thriving river port. It was the primary shipping location for a broad swath of Mississippi, especially for cotton.[21] According to historian Keri Watson, enslaved dockworkers loaded "millions of pounds of cotton" onto steamboats bound for New Orleans.[18] Due to a shortage of legal tender, cotton receipts became de facto currency.[22]

Rodney became a cultural center and incorporated in 1828.[7] Rodney resident Rush Nutt demonstrated effective methods to power cotton gins with steam engines in 1830.[23] The importation of different types of cotton seeds resulted in the breeding of a disease-resistant and easy-to-harvest hybrid that became known as Petit Gulf cotton.[23] The development of Petite Gulf cotton and the Indian Removal Act of 1830 spurred a westward land rush.[18] Many early settlers of Texas crossed through Rodney. Their wagons were poled across the water on flatboat ferries to St. Joseph, Louisiana.[20] Before the Civil War, the town had two major newspapers, The Southern Telegraph and Rodney Gazette.[24][25]

Several historical structures were built during this time including Rodney Presbyterian Church, US President Zachary Taylor's plantation, and portions of Alcorn University, originally a Presbyterian college.[26][19] The initial building that had been used for church services in town doubled as a tavern, serving alcohol outside of Sunday.[27] In 1829, the first steps were taken to erect the red-brick Presbyterian church.[27] One year later, the Presbyterian Oakland College was chartered.[28] The college was built on 250 acres (100 ha) near the town.[29] Zachary Taylor's Cypress Grove Plantation, Nutt's Laurel Hill, and other plantation homes were built around Rodney during this period.[18]

Civil War

Former First Presbyterian Church, with cannonball (circled) embedded above the center second-floor window

During the Civil War, a group of Union Army soldiers were captured at Rodney's Presbyterian Church.[30] Part of the Union's strategy during the Civil War was their plan to advance down the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy in half.[31] The Union's USS Rattler was a side-wheel steamboat, retrofitted into a lightly armored warship.[32] After the Union captured the fortress city of Vicksburg, they took control of river traffic on the Mississippi. Rattler was one of many ships tasked with maintaining this control by preventing Confederate crossings. Rattler was anchored in the river near Rodney's landing in September 1863.[33] Much of the town, including the surviving red-brick church, was directly visible from the water at that time.[3]

When Reverend Baker from the Red Lick Presbyterian Church traveled to Rodney via steamboat, he invited Rattler's crew to come ashore and attend services in what was still Confederate territory.[33] On Sunday, September 13, 1863, seventeen men departed from Rattler to attend the 11 am service.[33] Only a single crewmember brought a firearm to the service.[33] Confederate cavalry surrounded the building when the volume of the choir was loud enough to cover their approach.[33] The troops entered the building and quickly captured the Northern soldiers with some assistance from members of the congregation.[33]

When reports reached the ship, Rattler began to fire upon the town; a cannonball lodged into the church above the balcony window. The shelling ceased when Confederate soldiers threatened to execute their Union prisoners.[3] Lt. Commander James A. Greer aboard the USS Benton anchored upstream near Natchez, admonished Rattler's captain for acting as a civilian during a time of war. He issued orders to arrest any officer found "leaving his vessel to go on shore under any circumstances".[33]

Decline

Rodney Hotel in 1940

Rodney gradually went from a major port to a ghost town after the river changed course.[7] In 1860, Rodney was home to banks, newspapers, schools, a lecture hall, an opera theater, a hotel, and over 35 stores.[34][35] At its peak, thousands of people resided in the town.[3]

A home nearly obscured by sunflowers circa 1940

During the time of the Civil War, the Mississippi River began to change course.[33] A sand bar developed upstream and pushed the river west.[2] Rodney's former shipping channel transformed into a swamp.[33] The Rodney Landing was relocated several miles away from the town itself.[36] In 1869, a fire consumed most of the buildings in town; the Presbyterian church survived.[33] In 1880, German and Irish immigrants arrived and opened new businesses.[37] The railroad bypassed the town. The rail line ran through Jefferson County's seat of government, Fayette, and Rodney's landing was abandoned.[33] In 1930, Governor Theodore G. Bilbo disincorporated Rodney.[7] By 1938, Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State described Rodney as "a ghost river town" that had died when the railroad passed it by.[7]

It was in this state of decline that novelist Eudora Welty found the town.[7] Rodney became a setting in Welty's works including the novella The Robber Bridegroom.[18] Welty wrote, "The river had gone, three miles away, beyond sight and smell, beyond the dense trees. It came back only in flood."[18] Photographer Marion Post Wolcott documented Rodney for the Farm Security Administration circa 1940.[38][39]

Extant structures

Alston's Grocery Store, one of the few remaining structures

A ruined cemetery, several stores, a couple of churches, and few houses remain, in various states of disrepair. The red-brick Rodney Presbyterian Church, built in 1832,[3] is a federal-style church and the oldest remaining building in Rodney.[3][40] The Presbyterian church has fanlights above the doors similar to federal-style homes in Mississippi, like Rosalie Mansion.[40] It was built on on ground high enough to escape the town's regular flooding and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.[41] The Rodney History and Preservation Society purchased the church to conduct repairs.[41] When the church was being restored, the hole created by Union cannonfire during the Civil War was retained and a replica cannonball was placed in the exterior wall.[33] Atop the hill adjacent to the church is a cemetery with graves dating back over a century.[42]

Mt. Zion Baptist Church, overgrown with vines

Mt. Zion Baptist Church was built in 1851.[41] It uses a combination of architectural styles.[2] The pointed arches are Greek Revival, the pedimented gable is Gothic Revival, and the domed cupola is federal-style.[40] Mt. Zion Baptist originally had a white congregation, became a predominantly African American church after the white population began to abandon the town, and is now completely abandoned.[3] Changes in the course of the Mississippi River have resulted in repeated flooding.[41] The structure shows clear signs of flood damage including water lines and rotted floors.[41] The road sign pointing towards the church becomes visible in autumn when the leaves fall away from the vines overgrowing the signpost.[41] Surviving members of the church formed the Greater Mount Zion church several miles away and outside of the flood zone.[3]

Masonic lodge in 2022

Alston's Grocery, built circa 1840, is south of the Presbyterian Church at what was once the intersection of Commerce Street and Rodney Road.[41] The Sacred Heart Catholic Church, was built in Rodney circa 1868, and the entire building was relocated to Grand Gulf Military State Park in 1983.[43][3] The gable-front Masonic lodge was built circa 1890.[41] Only a small handful of people still live in the area, and most of the remaining buildings are abandoned.[3]

Geography

Rodney is located near the southern end of the Natchez Trace, a forest trail that stretches for hundreds of miles across North America. The Trace was started by animal migration along a geologic ridge line.[44][45] The town is approximately 32 miles (51 km) northeast of Natchez, south of Bayou Pierre (Mississippi), and about 2 miles inland from the east bank of the Mississippi River.[7][1][46] It is situated on loess bluffs that are within the Mississippi River watershed and that were once adjacent to the river.[2] Wetlands including a lake that roughly follows the river's old course are immediately west of the town.[47] The town is at a relatively low elevation, and prone to seasonal flooding. When the river ran past Rodney, its position on the lower bluffs above steep river banks created an ideal position for a river landing. Civil War–era earthworks are still present atop the bluffs that rise above the town.[2]

Notable people

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Rodney. Retrieved March 4, 2024. Archived from the original.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Rodney Center Historic District". National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ghost Town on the Mississippi. The Steeple. PBS. January 11, 2013. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  4. ^ Logan, Mary T. (1980). Mississippi–Louisiana Border Country (Revised 2nd ed.). Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Claitor's. LCCN 70-137737.
  5. ^ Grayson, Walt (August 26, 2010). "Rodney Presbyterian Church". WLBT3. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Logan 1980, p. 4.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h McHaney, Pearl Amelia (Spring 2015). "Eudora Welty's Mississippi River: A View from the Shore". The Southern Quarterly. 52 (3): 66–68. ISSN 2377-2050.
  8. ^ Logan 1980, p. 10.
  9. ^ Logan 1980, p. 12.
  10. ^ Rowland, Dunbar, ed. (1925). History of Mississippi, the Heart of the South. Vol. 2. Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. p. 750 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Logan 1980, p. 16.
  12. ^ Haynes, Robert (2010). "Prologue". The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier, 1795-1817. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 1–5.
  13. ^ Logan 1980, p. 17.
  14. ^ Haynes 2010, pp. 132–133
  15. ^ Logan 1980, pp. 18–19.
  16. ^ Logan 1980, p. 19.
  17. ^ Logan 1980, pp. 21–22.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Watson, Keri (Spring 2023). ""You Know Who I Am? I'm Mr. John Paul's Boy"". Southern Cultures. 29 (1). ISSN 1068-8218. Archived from the original on September 29, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Roland, Dunbar, ed. (1907). "Mississippi". Atlanta: Southern Historical Publishing Association. pp. 573–574. Archived from the original on March 4, 2024. Retrieved October 26, 2016.
  20. ^ a b Logan 1980, p. 49.
  21. ^ Logan 1980, p. 58.
  22. ^ Logan 1980, p. 22.
  23. ^ a b Moore, John Hebron (1986). "Two Cotton Kingdoms". Agricultural History. 60 (4): 8, 11. ISSN 0002-1482. JSTOR 3743249. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  24. ^ "Southern Telegraph (Rodney, Miss.) 1834-1838". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  25. ^ Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi: Embracing an Authentic and Comprehensive Account of the Chief Events in the History of the State and a Record of the Lives of Many of the Most Worthy and Illustrious Families and Individuals. Vol. 2. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing. 1891. p. 212.
  26. ^ "Limerick (J. A.) manuscripts". Mississippi Department of Archives and History, ID: Z/1140.000/F. Manuscript Collections.
  27. ^ a b Logan 1980, p. 56.
  28. ^ Logan 1980, p. 57.
  29. ^ "Oakland College". Mississippi Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on March 4, 2024. Retrieved March 4, 2024.
  30. ^ "History of Rodney Mississippi". Archived from the original on March 2, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  31. ^ Wolfe, Brendan. "Anaconda Plan". Encyclopedia Virginia. Archived from the original on March 4, 2024. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  32. ^ "USS Rattler". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Central Arkansas Library System. October 14, 2020. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  33. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Stanley Nelson: The Rattler, the Tensas & Rodney". Concordia Sentinel. September 4, 2019. ISSN 0746-7478. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  34. ^ "Little remains from the once prosperous city of Rodney". The Natchez Democrat. May 13, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  35. ^ Logan 1980.
  36. ^ Logan 1980, p. 99.
  37. ^ Logan 1980, p. 98.
  38. ^ Photographs scanned at: Gomez, Kelly (December 29, 2018). "Ghosts of the Mississippi: The Forgotten Town of Rodney -". Archived from the original on December 8, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  39. ^ "Rodney, Mississippi, Aug. 1940". NYPL Digital Collections. Archived from the original on March 26, 2024. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
  40. ^ a b c Pace, Sherry (2007). Historic Churches of Mississippi. Oxford, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. pp. xi, 137–138. ISBN 9781617034091. Archived from the original on March 5, 2024. Retrieved March 5, 2024.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g h "Preserving a Mississippi ghost town". The Clarion-Ledger. October 31, 2019. ISSN 0744-9526. Archived from the original on March 4, 2024. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
  42. ^ Nave, R. L. (April 21, 2017). "The curious case of the Confederate cemetery". Mississippi Today.
  43. ^ "Church". Grand Gulf Military Park. State of Mississippi. Archived from the original on December 10, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  44. ^ Turner-Neal, Chris (August 29, 2016). "Mississippi History Along the Natchez Trace". Country Roads Magazine. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  45. ^ "Natchez Trace". Mississippi Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
  46. ^ Logan 1980, p. 3.
  47. ^ Logan 1980, pp. 110–111.
  48. ^ "James D. Cessor (Jefferson County)". Against All Odds: The first Black legislators in Mississippi. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  49. ^ "Duggan, Thomas Hinds (1815–1865)". Handbook of Texas. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  50. ^ "Bill Foster". Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved January 2, 2015.
  51. ^ "Bishop Charles P. Greco, 6th Bishop of Alexandria". Diocese of Alexandria. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  52. ^ "AHQ: Black Legislators in Arkansas, 231". Southern Arkansas University - Magnolia. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 17, 2021.

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