A Little Bit of History:
Choctaw Co. Families

This page has been created for short stories about families of Choctaw Co. If you have a story about your Choctaw Co. family, please submit it to Jackie Rhodes. With your help, this page can contain a lot of genealogical information that will be beneficial to others. Thank you.

This early history was dictated by Belle Gordon Southward, age 84 and submitted by Rena Young. If you would like to contact Rena about this story or other information on this family, please feel free to contact her.

My mother, Alice Wade CAMERON, came from MS in 1874 with three of her sisters and their families, and other relatives and friends. They left Choctaw Co, near French Camp, Tues, Nov 3, 1874, bound for TX, which was then the "far west".
The following people formed the company:
1. George Washington GORDON and his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Cameron GORDON and their seven children: Neal Archie, Charles Thadeus, Alma Belle, Alice Leah, George Garner, William Oscar and Roy Allen.
2.  Charles E. ABBIE and his wife, Mahala, and their four children: Sallie, Jack Williams, Kate, and Marie Ellen.
The GORDON's covered wagon was drawn by a yoke of oxen, and the ABBIE's wagon was drawn by mules. Each family had a tent.
They camped at a schoolhouse the first night, and the children had a wonderful time, as it was their first camping experiences; and the next day, they saw their first train.
On Saturday, they reached the Yazoo River where they waited for four other families,that were going to TX, to join them. These families were from near La Grange, MS. The following families made up this group:
1.  John L. HILLYER and his wife, Cynthia (CAMERON) HILLYER, and their four children: Beulah Alice, Floy Alma, Charles Alexander and Sarah Lucy.
2.  Thomas Rufus HARRIS and his wife, Flora Ann Belle Zelda (CAMERON) HARRIS and their one child: Cora Imogene. Also, Mrs. GORDON's, Mrs. HILLYER's and Mrs. HARRIS; sister, Alice Wade CAMERON, a young lady (my mother).
3.  Perryman GARVIN and his wife, Annie, (Mrs. GARVIN was a sister of John HILLYER) and their three children: Will, Abe and Johnny.
4.  Mr. Jim SHANNON and his wife (Mrs. SHANNON was a sister ofMr. GARVIN) and their two children: Eddie, Sissy and Mrs. SHANNON's mother, Mrs. GARVIN.
Two of their covered wagons were drawn by oxen and two were drawn by horses.
They made camp on the bank of the Yazoo River Saturday night. They arranged their cooking in groups of twos: Gordon and Abbie; Harris and Hillyer; Garvin and Shannon. and
Sunday morning, they decided that it was better camping ground on the other side of the river, so they crossed on a ferry boat, two wagons at a time. There they camped all day Sunday, as Mr. GORDON did not believe in traveling on Sunday.
Two days after crossing the Yazoo River, they entered the MS Swamp. It was a forest of trees and cane thickets, with a very narrow road; and extended to the MS River, ninety miles away.
At night, they would cut away the cane to have a place to build their camp fires, and they would feed the fodder to their animals.
About every twenty-five miles, they would come to a farm or plantation where the cane and trees had all been cleared away, and crops of all kind were being raised. Here they would get new supplies for their trip.
The women would cook enough at night for their dinner the next day.
Having crossed the Tomspanby (Tomspanbee) River on a ferry boat, they came to a little store where they replenished their supply of groceries.
Traveling on a short distance, a bear crossed the road. Two of the men having guns, Mr. GORDON and Mr. ABBIE, decided to get the bear.
They couldn't agree which way the bear went, so they each went in opposite directions.
Mr. GORDON wandered around in the cane for a while, but seeing no sign of the bear and noting the denseness of the swamp, decided he would give up and go back to the wagon.
At this time, a drizzling rain was falling, but Mr. ABBIE, so intent on getting the bear, rambled on not noticing the rain or the denseness of the forest. When he suddenly realized he couldn't hear the wagons, he fired his gun, but failed to get an answer. He again fired his gun, using his last shell; but again, no answer.
He decided to try to find his way back to the road, but didn't walk very far until it began to grow dark.
He came to a tree and decided it would be some protection from the rain; so he leaned his gun against the tree and sat down close up to it, deciding it was the best place to spend the night. In a few minutes after he sat down, a mother bear and a cub passed in a few feet of him; but luckily, they didn't see him.
When darkness came, it was so dense he couldn't see his own hands and the slow rain continued all night. Footsore, weary and hungry, he slept very little and gladly welcomed the coming dawn.
Considering his gun of no help to him, as he had used up all his ammunition, and as it was heavy to carry, he left it leaning against the tree and set out to try to find his way back to the wagons.
About noon of that day, he came to a clearing and found a farmhouse. The people took him in and gave him food and water. He told them his story and told them that his company had planned to camp the night before near a river called Sunflower.
The farmer told him that was about 30 miles from his farm, but that he would take him to the river in his wagon and he could follow the river to the camp -- and he did.
Mr. ABBIE walked all afternoon and far into the night until he was overcome by sleep and fatigue and just had to stop. Early dawn found him again on his way, and early in the morning; he came to the ferry on Sunflower River, to find hispeolpe had crossed over to the other side and made camp waiting his return. They had decided to wait another day before starting on. Some were fearful that the bears or robbers had made away with him.
All the money his family had was in his pockets, $300.00.
When Mr. ABBIE reached the ferry, he sat down on the bank hoping the ferryman would soon come back over the river.
Pretty soon, some of the young boys of the camp, who were hunting ducks, came down to the bank on the other side. Mr. ABBIE called, "Shoot one for me". Were they surprised, and needless to say, there was great rejoicing when they rushed back to camp with the good news.
They lost no time in getting him ferried across the river to the camp and to his wife and children.
The next morning, they were on their way and finally reached the mighty MS River, which they crossed on a span steam boat and came into AR -- then on to TX without further mishap.
They made camp at Paris, TX while the men hunted permanent locations.
They were all farmers, so all stopped in Lamar Co and did some farming for a year; then the GORDONs went to Cook Co and the HILLYERs and HARRISes followed.
Before starting on this trip from MS to TX, the women did much preparation; the chief of which was making clothing to last them a long time. They carded and spun thread out of cotton and wool, then dyed the thread and wove it into cloth.
The men also had a lot of preparations to make, and their main thing was to have a supply of grease for their wagon wheels, as they had to be greased every morning. To secure this, they burned pine trees and took the resin and cooked it until it was a black substance called tar.
It wasn't long until the rest of the Cameron's came to TX. Nancy CAMERON, a sister of the other CAMERON women, a spinster school teacher; came with Uncle Bill HARVEYand his wife and ten children. (Uncle Bill was a brother of Lucy CAMERON -- mother of these Camerons that came to TX. Their father, Tom HARVEY, and his wife, were both part Indian.)
The Camerons were of Scotch ancestry. Camerons from Scotland settled in NC, then some of them migrated to MS. Lucy (HARVEY) CAMERON married Archer CAMERON in MS and their children all finally came to TX. They are: Mary Elizabeth, Cynthia, Nancy Maria Jane, Thomas, Kay, Belle Zelda and Alice Wade.
My mother, Alice Wade CAMERON lived with different ones of her brothers and sisters. She was living in Montague Co, TX, where she met my father, Daniel Webster HUGHES, then a young school teacher who hailed from MO.
They were married sometime in 1877. They had planned to be married at her brother's, Kay CAMERON's, where she was living at that time. My father got his license in Montague and Uncle Kay lived just over the line in Cook Co; so they all went over into Montague Co and my mother and father were married in a buggy.
My father's father was Samuel HUGHES. Samuel's father came from Ireland and settled in TN, Giles Co.
I don't know who my father's mother was before she married Samuel HUGHES. I think she had been married before, and it was the third marriage for Samuel HUGHES.
There were, altogether, in my father's family, 21 children by all marriages of his father and mother.

1850 US Census, Choctaw Co., MS, p775 Peacock, Joseph Allen 37 M SC Farmer
Elizabeth 37 F H.W.
Achlen 12 F
David 10 M
Joseph 7 M
George 7 M

Joseph Claud Peacock married Thelda Elmira California McGarrah and together they raised 13 children.        
Joseph Claude was a civil war veteran. He enlisted in the 30th  Mississippi Infantry Company I along with Joseph Allen his father, and other members of his family. This company of men fought in the Battle of Lookout Mountain that was overrun by Union troops. During this battle on November 24, 1863, he was captured by enemy troops, only six months after he was hospitalized in Chattanooga, Tennessee by order of the surgeon. After his capture, he eventually transferred to Rock Island Prison in Illinois, where he remained until the end of the war.
After the war, he walked home to Choctaw County where he spent the remainder of his life raising his family, farming, and attending the duties of his ministry. Joseph Claud Peacock founded the Woods Springs Baptist Church in Choctaw County.
He and his Wife Theldra are buried in the cemetery there.
One of his children, Joseph Henry Peacock, was also a preacher and preached at the same church his father had founded.