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« C PICAYUNE ITEM, WEDNESDAY, Auousi =, »»•*
Aiiklana
First name of Hancock's county s<
By S.G. THIGPEN SR.
Specialtothe Item The original name for the first county seal of Hancock County was Aiiklana In the Choctaw Indian language this word means, in English, "Center "
Because this Indian word was difficult to spell and still more difficult to pronounce, Americans who had come in much greater numbers after the American occupation beginning in )8ll called the place Center instead of referring to it as Aiiklana.
Hancock Ccur.ty when first created embraced all of what is now Hancock County, all erf what is now Harrison Counts, and the south two-thirds oI what is now Pearl River County
When is became known that statehood would be granted the State of Mississippi, the people in what was tc become the big county of Hancock held a mass meeting at the Burnt Meeting House, a bar, inn and restaurant on the old Gainesville to Columbia road 12 miles northwest of what is now Picayune.
After much discussion at the well attended meeting it was agreed that the name of the new county would be Hancock to honor the man by that name
Grandpa Thigpen
accessible as all roads and trails through the area crossed or ended at Center; it was located of the gently sloping turtle back strip of land that stretched back from the confluence j>f Catahoula creek and PlaygrouncT~Bran-gh. with perfect drainage It was the long time town ot tne Choctaw Indians and had been for centuries; the Indian chiefs lived there, they held their pow-wows there and most important it was site of the Indain ball games which drew almost everyone in the area
The trails or roads of the choctaws from a!! directions, led to Center. Center was also the cross roads for the old Bouie mad laid out by French engineers during the Frencfc occupation and the newly opened road over which Andrew Jackson marched his soldiers and hauled, his Equipment and supplies for. battle of New Orleans. / )t
The old Bouie road ran through Center from the coast
set on anything except logs in 30 years "
By 1837 Harrison county had been formed out of the East half of Hancock county. Also many of the Indians, if not most of them had been granted new lands in the Indian territory undfJ the TVeatv i£Doftkfr Stand of 1&3Q Many of the Indains had left the Center area Conditions had greatly changed since 1817. As a matter of coavenMBce io matt
the county fiMt was_____
a|ftyvin». tap, fhe old road lam pv Andrew Jackson's engineers is^tiU in use across The noriK^en<r~oT Hancock
pounty with only a few changes From old Center to the southwest this old road has t>een qKanged Tn only a few places. Daniel Cooper whose father was an early setUer.yj miles northeast pf Picayune liEed to talk of the old days.
His father or grandfc; to tell of the old ro* remembering seeing • way cleared for the nn of the heavy equiprr supplies used in the I New Orleans He lik« of the old people 3 constant stream of we three whole days pass old place and of th>-marching through way to New Orleans i of 1814.
This movement of J army through virgi. in quantity of supF number of men, is * the biggest such op* its kind in the hist United States
Pakenham, the general was reput * greatly surprised army had been ab'i from Alabama ang " such a short jjme.
It wouid be inlere-old Jackson mill* would be markcj Jackson and Harrc les as it has been p done through Han Pearl River Countitf ly this operation wa« greatest things ever in this section of th»
who signed the Declaration of j to Bouie. which was located \ ,,	_	./
Independence	\ where Hattiesburg now is It/
At this mass meeting they did not agree on the site for the county seat. A committee was named to travel over the whole area and talk to the people and come back to another called meeting with their recommendations for the location of the county seat.
u*»rp ipstru<**eci t<"> select as the county seat a site that would be most convenient to the most people. After spending some time in their travels over the area they recommended as the county seat $e. old Indain town of tenter. There were several outstanding reasons why Center was made the county seat of Hancock County: the old Indian town was pearer the center of the population.,#! that time; it was more
was surveyed to follow the divide between the waters of Volf river and Pearl river and was an important early road ”"The Jackson military road was built from Alabama across the north ends of what are now Jackson, Harrison and Hancock counties and had
T,od» rr^re	3	gr^c!
territory to the east. The practical way for Jackson to have moved his Army would have been by water, but it was too dangercus to think of moving this army through the Gulf of Mexico as English warships were expecting such a move and were ready to sink the American soldiers who would not had a navy to protect them.
Jackson’s army camped for a time on their way to New_ ’ Orleans at Center. Signs of the 'Vvens used to cook the soldier's food are plainly visible there now
Center was for many years, probably hundreds of years, the most important Indian town in South Mississippi. Rev. Vamado, bom in 1870 was the grandson of the first Indian agent, or agent of the U.S Government to be sent to Center in 1811 Rev Varnado remembered hi? mother telling when he was a chi'd -r	on special
occasions a “Thousand rjamp fires'’ ct this old Indian town.
In 1817 the first courthouse in the history of Hancock County was built at Center. Its location has recently been ' marked out along with the old nearby dungeon
For a number of years, people from as far away as Biloxi and the Gulf C ast had to go to Center, now known as Caesar, to court and to attend to other public business. Murrell, nortorious highwayman of that time was put in jail there, but escaped, it being charged that he bnbed his way out. An old ma;* more than SO years ago told me this story: A man from one of the most distant points in the old county was summoned to court to sit on the jury at Center. When the jurymen took their seats this old gentleman kept standing The judge asked him to sit down He was reported to have said. “Judge, I can‘t sit on them chairs and benches—I haven't
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