Payroll Progress in Mississippi: 1939-1959

It’s one of those things. You’re thinking about getting a new pair of pants and the ones you are wearing rip or you really hate that planter that someone gave you and a kid breaks it. You think about something and serendipitously the universe helps you along. As I gear up for our Smithsonian exhibit in November I am keeping my mind aware of any materials that I come across dealing with “Work.” Last week I came across Payroll Progress in Mississippi: 1939-1959. This document “presents employment and hours and earnings data of the non-agricultural industry for the State of Mississippi coving the period 1939-1959. It also includes for the same period, such related data as population, personal income, per capita income, the Consumer Price Index and the Wholesale Price Index.” Most of the book contains, graphs and charts plotting the rising employment or shaded areas of various concentrations, but to me the most intriguing information is not the hours or earnings, but the actually vocations. The document notes outmoded or declining industries such as knitting and textile mills, stone, clay and glass products, or printing and publishing. Today these industries may exist but at such a small level that it shouldn’t appear in a state publication about Mississippi industry and employment. Living here in the Delta I’m fascinated with the inventiveness of the farmers and to see the evolving avenues of agricultural industry, so it was interesting seeing how the non-agricultural sector of Mississippi has changed.

Digging Up History

All over the nation libraries are celebrating summer reading with a “Dig into Reading” theme. I think this theme is very appropriate for history. I mean, I’m lucky enough to have had the opportunity to literally dig into history. My last semester at Florida State was spent in a cow field as part of my Archaeology class. Our goal was to find an Apalachee encampment. We knew from Archeologist Calvin Jones’ previous research and excavations that Conquistador Hernando de Soto had travel through the area and my professor believed that under the grass and patties, there was the remains of a Native American town. So, we were literally digging up history. Here at the History Room, you too can “dig up history.” Most people use the History Room to dig up old newspaper articles, ancestors, or information about the county and it’s communities. But you can also dig up an old Parchman Prison music album or Chevy’s restaurant soda can koozie. There are so many aspects of historical materials in the History Room. I encourage you to stop by and see what you too can “dig up!”

 

Shleved Dolls

 

So, I’m one of those kids who loved the encyclopedia. It was the Google of my generation. My mother thought she was punishing me when I was sent to the spare room for however long my isolation was to last, yet really she was sending me to paradise. (I know you’re gonna read this Mom, so just think of this as one of the many wonderful resources you were always giving me!) In the closet of our spare bedroom (the timeout zone) were Reader’s Digest Condensed Books and Encyclopedias. She probably thought that a child would never be interested in them, but I sure was. The Reader’s Digests were quick enough that I could get a good start before my time was up. You see by then, the clock had begun ticking in a different way. I didn’t want to be released.  And I could peruse any subject I wanted with the Encyclopedias.  Sometimes I would just close my eyes, open the book, plant my finger and read where it landed. As I grew older my tastes have narrowed and obviously, I’m really into history. Now I like to get on Wikipedia and just browse different historical figures or events. And today…Today I found Shelved Dolls. Blogger, Jennifer Wright writes about many subjects from baking to theater, but my favorite is her Shelved Dolls. Each blog describes a woman in history. From Ovid’s mistress, Corinna to designer, Coco Chanel, she finds tidbits or pieces of their life that is interesting and unusual. I love her little bits of history told with wit and absurdity.  For example, I didn’t know who Edie Beale was , but when I saw the quote “Dude, she literally set her head on fire,” I was intrigued. Her blogs fill that random trivia need that I’ve always had. If you too like to learn about weird and wondrous history, check her out at:

http://www.thegloss.com/?s=shelved+dolls

 

 

 

Sunflower County School Yearbooks

 

Gentry Yearbooks

Some of the many items housed at the Sunflower Archive and History Room are yearbooks.  There are yearbooks from all schools in Sunflower County. Unfortunately, some of the school yearbooks have gaps in the years, like Gentry High School.  The blog this month is a request for help. If you or someone you know has Sunflower County school yearbooks and they don’t want them or will let me scan them. Send them my way!

Thanks,

 

662.887.2153 ext. 123
jdrose@sunflower.lib.ms.us

 

Mary Hamilton and Missisiippi Delta Pioneers

Trials fo the Earth: The Autobiography of Mary Hamilton

This is an invitation for all Sunflower County residents and history lovers to join the Blue Biscuit Book Club in their discussion of Mississippi Delta pioneer, Mary Hamilton's autobiography on January 8^th at 6:00 pm. Family members will be there to review the stories collected by Mary Hamilton and copy-editor Helen Dick Davis in 1933.  This book was first published in 1991 and due to high demand, again in 2012. In the novel, Mary Hamilton recounts her life, from the first time she met her husband in the early 1880's, Frank Hamilton, to his death in 1914.

 

Mississippi Delta pioneers created Sunflower County in 1844. Between the years 1850 and 1870, Sunflower County population increased from 1102 to 5, 015.The earliest pioneers had to clear away virgin timber, drain marshes and defend family, livestock and land from wild predators.  Most living areas were not yet towns, but more like settlements at the landings along the rivers or in remote areas nicknamed “deadenings.” Deadenings were areas created by landowners chopping deep rings down to the cambium layer where the sap flows on trees. This would kill the trees, making them easier to dispose of than green trees. These areas were usually named after the landowner, such as Heathman’s Deadening. Even though these living areas were scattered and isolated, the pioneers maintained a dynamic social calendar. Mundane events such as corn husking or log rolling were transformed into community affairs through a hearty dinner or lively dance.

 

As the population grew, so did the complexity of the communities. Small main street towns such as Ruleville and Inverness became the home to churches, general stores, banks and blacksmiths. Along with burgeoning business came doctors, dentists and postmasters. Each community continued to thrive and create a place called home for generations of Mississippians.

There are several books located in the Sunflower County Room that recounts the formation of the county and individual towns.

 

Recollections: By the Descendants of Early Settlers of Drew, Mississippi –Centennial Historical Committee

Early History of the Town of Ruleville- John Robertson & Tom Conger, Jr.

The Steamboat Era- A.E. Britt

History of Inverness, Mississippi- Don Carol Bell

Promised Land or Sandy Bayou, Drew, MS-Elizabeth Wilson

Fevers, Floods and Faith: A History of Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1844-1976- Marie Hemphill 

Each conveys the story of people who toiled and reveled in the creation of civilized areas out of the Mississippi Delta wilderness.

So come join the Blue Biscuit Book Club Tuesday January 8^th for pioneer Mary

Hamilton’s book, Trials of the Earth!

To learn more contact me at 662-887-2153

Down on Parchman

“Oh listen you men, I don't mean no harm

If you wanna do good, you better stay off old Parchman Farm”

-Bluesman Bukka White

 

In 1894 the Mississippi Legislature purchased land to place all state convicts on and to engage them under state supervision exclusively, in tilling the soil or manufacturing, or both. This was a transition from the previous convict leasing system to penal farming.  Parchman Prison was established in 1900 when the Mississippi Legislature purchased 3,789 acres of land (Sunflower Plantation) for $80,000 from J. M. Parchman, who became the first Superintendent of the penitentiary.  The acreage was located in north Sunflower County between Drew and Rome, MS. 

James Vardaman, Governor of Mississippi from 1904-1908, believed in remunerative labor, especially convict remission.  He considered Parchman to be a moral hospital to treat patients (convicts) with labor and incentives infused with Christian doctrine.  Parchman concentrated all convicts under a unitary management system and was to be self-sufficient.  Convict laborers were divided into field camps, each growing its own food and cash crop.  The field camps would spread to facilitate proper classification and confine violence.  In 1917, Parchman consisted of the administrative Front Camp, twelve field camps, a sawmill, a hospital, a women’s camp, a brickyard, and a carpenter’s camp. Parchman looked as it would for the next 70 years.  

When a convict was installed at Parchman, he was fingerprinted, photographed, physically examined and Bertillon measurements were taken.  He was issued horizontal striped duck trousers and duck shirts known as “ring-arounds.”  Female convicts were issued button up shirts and skirts with vertical strips known as “ups-and-downs.”  “Trustees,” male prisoners who were armed guards, were distinguished by their vertical stripes.   

Like many prison systems in America, Parchman was known as a place of fear and violence.  Racial conflict and corporal punishment demarcated Parchman as what William Faulkner described as “destination doom.” The “Trustee” system and Black Annie perpetrated the fear and continued violence. Yet, sometimes it is these brutal conditions that allow people to share their anguish and despair through music and words. 

As part of a WPA project in 1939, John Lomax and his wife, Ruby, recorded work songs and chants while inmates were performing a group task, such as hoeing the fields as well as blues songs sung by inmate musicians.  The Lomax's, in part, focused on Parchman at that time because it offered a particular closed society shut off from the outside world.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWWgN7837Tk

 

Literary refuge was through The Inside World.  The prisoner’s created a monthly magazine-like newsletter. It was filled with fictional stories, poems, personal accounts and art by prisoners.  The Inside World allowed prisoners to relate their hopes, disappointments or advice to other inmates and their families.  It was a creative outlet for expression in an extremely controlled environment.

 

Parchman Prison’s history is not pretty or admirable, but it is Sunflower County history and should be recognized for its influence on not only our community, but the state.

October is Archives Month!

What is an Archives?

Informally defined, an archives is a collection of unpublished documents and other materials preserved for research use.  An archives is a place where one-of-a-kind materials are kept. It’s the place where you can find out right from the “horse’s mouth” what really happened and how the people who experienced it felt about it.   It is the place where a researcher can go back to the original, unmodified materials, getting the primary story.   These types of materials range from photographs and personal letters to oral histories and organizational records.

But an archives does not only keep the physical evidence of the past, but the non-tangible that comes with the materials. The sorrow of families who lost loved ones to war, the joy of announcing the birth of a new member of the community or the warning to heed our past to create a better future. Archives keep all these objects and thoughts prepared and preserved, available and ready for researchers to uncover and disclose.  Unfortunately, because archives do not suture wounds, pave roads or grow corn, its importance is not immediately apparent. Many only see hoarded papers and wasted funding. So I challenge all history lovers and erudite people to speak up for the preservation of our history. To remind those who have influence in our local, state and federal policies and funding that archives hold the proof of our past, that helps us understand our present and create a better future.  As many have heard,

Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it.