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When Center, Hancock, was really the center
By S• Grady Thigpen, county historian
(A previously unpublished story)
If you had lived where Picayune now Is between 1812 and 1846, your courthouse and county seat would have been at old Center about V4 mile east of where Caesar church now stands. If you had lived at Bay St. Louis, Pearlington, Byrd's Chapel, Derby, Savannah, Kiln, Steep Hollow you would have gone there to pay taxes, get marriage licenses, and go to court, etc.
Center, the county seat of Hancock County, was located on a beautiful sloping hammock by which runs dear.** sparkling Catahoula creek on the east side and Playground branch, an ever running little stream of cool clear water, on the west side. Old homes and old time communities were usually built where water was plentiful.
No better spot could have been found for the county seat from the standpoint of water, of the land itself. The land there is a rich sandy loam underlaid with red clay gently, sloping toward the two streams, with perfect drainage.
Besides water and drainage there were other reasons why Center was selected as the county seat of newly formed Hancock County. For one, thing it was almost in the geographic center of the county. Another reason was that it was the main Indian community and center of population of this whole area and had been for probably hundreds of years. The big chief of the Choctaws in this area made his headquarters there. All roads, maybe I should say all trails, led to this community. It was there that the Indians held their pow-
formation about old Center. He remembered seeing soldiers drill there "in preparation for going to either the Mexican or Civil war-he did not remember which. He remembered when practically all trials led to Center. He told me that as a young man he used to ride a horse, or walk from the old Lee homestead, where Leetown now is, to Walklah Bluff to attend parties or social gatherings. He said there was no such thing as a road like we have now but just trails, some of them wide enough for 6 wagon to travel over. He would cross Catahoula creek and hit the old trail from Center to Walkiah. He told me of rejnemberlng well the old Jackson Military road cut through the heavy pine timber and of passing through Picayune where there was only one house on this old trail in what is now the corporate limits of this dty. One time he went to a home of a Mr. Stofckstill. Big rains came, probably such as we have been having lately and the streams got up so that he was about two weeks getting back home, as there were no bridges back then. He also told me of a maq going from somewhere up on Pearl River to Center to get his marriage license to be married the next Sunday. The creeks got up and he was gone for about three weeks. His folks and the girl’s folks wondered what in the world had become of him, some of them speculating that maybe he had fled the country. But when the water went down, he showed up and the marriage took place. The descendents of this couple live k
wows,:
that way *w. w i\w. v meetings of other kinds. It	Rev. L.G. Vajnado.^ who
there that »he Indian ball *	—-1
games nij^oh ! ball
took place, pretty as we now have basket tournaments here in Picayune. . .	...	•*,
The original name for this community was an Indian name meaning “center,” or ‘'coming together," or ‘‘where everybody meets up.” When the white people came in they used the corresponding English name and called it Center. It seems to have been by far the biggest Indian settlement in this whole section of the country. Miss Elsie Farr in her most interesting story of the old place where the R.H. Crosby place now%ands stated that when the old Indian chief who lived there sold that property, he with the other Indians of his tribe went to Center to live.
The big Indian town was located further up the slope from where the Hancock County Courthouse was built and was centered somewhat north of the present road between Catahoula Creek and Playground branch. There is much evidence to show that Indians lived there. Members of the Bilbo family who now own this property have told me of finding arrow heads, flints and other things when they plowed and worked the land. George Bilbo told me that they had plowed up many skeletons and bones, skulls
died in Ifils nineties,' and earlier wrote: ‘‘My grandfather Jones was sent here as a peace officer when this ares yyas incorporated as 'Mississippi territory ui lBlSr* He was the third white settler in that immediate area. He was born in the Allegheny mountains in Georgia and was used to a rough jungle life as well	as	the	nature	and
characteristics of Indians. He was a full blooded red Irishman, his father coming direct from	the	old	country.	He
married a bride who was born in Sweden. They had three children when the government sent him here as a peace officer. He settled in the midst of the Choctaw Village and seat of government which stood east	and	just	across	the
branch from Caesar. Chikala was then the Choctaw chief, i My grandfather helped build the first jail there near where his house stood. They dug a pit about 8 feet deep, then cut logs and tapered up to a point somewhat	like	we used to
build bird traps, and then cut a hole in the top. They would let the prisoners down by a ladder. When the ladder was removed there was no way of escape. Food and water were let down by a rope. At this place was born Zachariah Jones who became one of the most useful men of his day in this section in the church and
sit down." The Judge, and everybody laughed. The man was allowed to continue standing.
Murrel, one of the moat notorious robbers ever to operate In this section with a wide reputation as a hold-up man and killer, was once arrested and put In this old dungeon at Center but before he could be tried confederates came In and rescued him from the Jail, or he bribed someone to let him out. Anyway, he got out and was never tried.
, George Bilbo and Mrs. Car Stockstill have both told me of stories their grandmother used to tell them in the long ago about old Center. As a child she told them of going to the old Indian dances which were always held under the same old big tree. Fires for light would be built in a drde around this old tree and the ‘Indians would start early in the night with their dance which always ended at sun up. They danced and sang all night. I myself as a child used to go to the Choctaw dances up in Jasper County where there would always be a big crowd, not only on Indians but of white people.
Bilbo and Mrs. Stockstill also told me that their grandmother would tell of the many Indian teepees, wigwams, or whatever you call them that were located between Playground branch and Catahoula creek, saying there must have been anywhere from 50 to 100 of them there all Inhabited by Indians.
Jackson’s army camped at this location on its way from Alabama to New Orleans in the fall of 1814. This was an ideal camp site as the land is. dry natured, lies well and* there is plenty water available.
The fira county officers at Center were William Hunt,
.aeFfc	ai>3
County Coun; Duncan* Me*' Call, sheriff; and later Elihu Carver was sheriff; Thomas
Hunt, Assessor and Collector; Roger A. Heron, Justlcc of the Peace; Joseph Villis, Justice of the Quorum (I think this was the same as the board of supervisors now); William W. Walker, Clerk of the Superior Court of Law and Equity. In 1946 the courthouse was moved to Gainesville. Center died when the courthouse moved. The Indians left about the same time.
This has been a story of this section right here where we live just a short time ago. What wjll be here 100 years from how?
I want to express my thanks to the many, many people who have told me of reading these old time stories.