[Granville-Hough] 23 July 2009 - SULLIVAN\222S HOLLOW \226 THE LAND AND THE WAY OF LIFE

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

SULLIVAN’S HOLLOW – THE LAND AND THE WAY OF LIFE

Many people who have heard of Sullivan’s Hollow ask where it is. Is it 
all of Smith County? Is it partly in Covington County? Is it 
Southwestern Smith County?
Is it all on Ocohay Creek or its tributaries? Geographically, it is not 
a large area, just the headwaters drainage area for a small stream which 
flows into Ocohay Creek. This stream is now called Sullivan’s Hollow 
Creek. It is most of Section 24, Township 10, Range 16 West, Smith 
County and part of adjacent Section 19, Township 10, Range 15 West. All 
the land of which Thomas Sullivan, Sr, was seized and possessed in 1855 
when he died lay in those two blocks of one square mile each. What other 
land he had in the area had already been passed to adult sons by that 
time, or is accounted for in other records. It is said he had 480 acres 
in the two sections at the time of his death. (GWH: I was born 18 Dec 
1922 in section 5, Range 16 West, about six miles diagonally northwest 
of the Sullivan home; however, it was on land which had been owned by a 
Sullivan grandchild, Louisa (Sullivan) Ware and her husband, Newton 
Jasper Ware.) While Sullivan’s Hollow is really just a small place you 
could fully explore on foot in a few hours, imaginary Sullivan’s Hollow 
has grown and grown until it surely covers Beat 3, all of Smith County, 
or most of Smith, Simpson, and Covington Counties, or even beyond, 
wherever 10,000 Sullivan descendants have settled.

The Land. Before Smith County became open for white settlement after 
1833, the Choctaws had villages on the most fertile creeks and rivers 
and knew the area well. They had trails on the creeks, and they had 
short cuts on the ridge land between river basins. Though they had no 
maps nor written language, every creek and prominent spring or landmark 
had a name, which was passed on orally, generation to generation. When 
they made land cessions, they knew where the boundaries were, much more 
clearly than the white people with whom they negotiated. One such 
boundary was that of the north/south Simpson-Smith County line, which 
followed the ridge dividing the Okahay and Okatoma Creek basins. You can 
still follow an old Indian trail on this ridge for miles without 
crossing a stream. Water to the west flows into Simpson County and 
Okatoma Creek. Water to the east flows into Okahay/Cohay Creek in Smith 
County. Beat 3 of Smith County starts at the ridgeline (Simpson County) 
and includes all the land to Cohay Creek and a few miles beyond. After 
surveying from the Choctaw Base Line (roughly along Highway 20), this 
Beat was within T10N and and included R16W and R15 W. This 128 square 
miles is the area mostly known as Sullivan’s Hollow, as it is where most 
Sullivan descendants lived. The remainder of Beat 3 is north of the Base 
Line, but it has fewer Sullivans.

People who came soon after 1833 were mostly frontier white people 
looking for enough fertile land on some creek to grow food and make a 
living. They built log cabins from the wood at hand and learned to 
follow Indian customs in hunting and fishing. Smith County was along the 
edge of the longleaf pine belt stretching from South Carolina into East 
Texas. As one moved north into Scott County, the soil changed and 
different trees grew; however, Beat 3 was a land of longleaf pine on the 
sandy hills with a little bottom land along the streams. There were two 
major streams rising in Smith County, those of Leaf River in the east, 
which flows south into the Pascagoula River, and Strong River in the 
northwest which flows west into Pearl River. All Beat 3 land drains 
through Okahay/Cohay Creek into Leaf River except for a few hollows on 
the Simpson County line which drain into Okatoma Creek, then on to Leaf 
River. Beyond the Okatoma basin to the west is the Bowie Creek basin, 
which also drains southeast into Leaf River.

All the state of Mississippi was obtained by the U. S. government by 
cessions from Indian tribes except the part originally in West Florida. 
This part, south of the 31st parallel, is now the six counties of Pearl 
River, Stone, George, Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, and part of Forest and 
Perry. The part of Louisiana which was also part of West Florida, 
between the Mississippi River and Pearl River, is still called the West 
Florida parishes. This land was obtained by the French or Spanish from 
the Choctaws before 1765, and it passed to the English after the Seven 
Year’s War. (The English had captured Manila and Havana, which they gave 
up in exchange for West and East Florida.) The Choctaws did not claim 
this territory after 1765, though there were a few Indian villages along 
the coast. After the Revolutionary War, it was Spanish territory, part 
of West Florida.

The British made two treaties with the Choctaw tribe which affected the 
Natchez and Mobile districts. On 26 Mar 1765, they defined the Natchez 
District as it was a river outpost north of the 31st parallel, and on 28 
Mar 1765, they defined the Mobile District. These treaties were 
clarified and renewed with the U. S. Government in 1801-02. The 
Mississippi Territory was formed in 1798, and it included all the 
territory now in MS and AL except that of West Florida. The first 
capital was at Washington, MS. There were white people in Natchez 
District, in Mobile District, and in Northern AL at Huntsville and in 
what is now Jackson County. The Natchez District was organized into 
counties, Adams and Jefferson in 1799, Claiborn and Wilkinson (from part 
of Adams) in 1802, Amite (from part of Wilkinson), Warren, and Franklin 
(from part of Adams) in 1809.

On 17 Dec 1801, the Choctaws agreed to two things: the size of the 
Natchez District and the right of the U. S. to build a road from Natchez 
to the Mero District (Nashville) in TN. The Chickasaws also agreed in a 
separate treaty to the Natchez Trace. The road opened the way for the 
people who established the counties listed above. Settlement of 
Southwest MS proceeded from the Mississippi River eastward.

On 17 Oct 1802, the Choctaws relinquished their claims to any land 
between the Tombigbee-Mobile Rivers and the Chickasawhay Rivers from the 
31st parallel to Buckatuna Creek on the north. This opened the way for 
settlement of the Washington District, Mississippi Terr., and people 
moved in from the GA frontier and from the Fort St Stephen’s area north 
of Mobile. This land is now mostly in AL, but it was once home to 
Walkers, Houghs, Bilbos, Boykins, Sullivans, Hartleys, Tews, Watts, and 
others whose descendants are all across southern MS.

After Mississippi Territory was established in 1798, there was an effort 
to establish overland connections with the Washington District and 
Mobile. McClary’s Path was an Indian trail from Mobile northward to the 
Hewanee towns of the Choctaws, then westward to the Natchez District. It 
is not clear how the path went, but it probably passed by the Choctaw 
villages on Leaf River then to the settlements in Simpson County, then 
on to Natchez. It was well known to both whites and Choctaws. It was 
this line which was to become the boundary on 16 Nov 1805, when the 
Choctaws ceded their lands south of the line which now runs as the 
southern border of Clarke, Jasper, Smith, and Simpson counties. This was 
the Piney Woods country, originally called the Pine Barrens. It had been 
cultivated, in a sense, by the Choctaws. They burned it every winter, in 
order to get new browsing growth for deer. The longleaf pine, being 
resistant to fire, became the dominant tree. But the river and stream 
bottom lands were fertile enough to grow crops, and slavery was soon 
established by the new settlers along the rivers. Counties were soon 
established in this piney woods country, with Wayne in 1809, Green in 
1811, Marion in 1811, Lawrence in 1814, Pike in 1815, and Covington in 
1819. These were large counties, but with few white people. They were 
later divided into new counties when more white people came. The West 
Florida area south of the 31st parallel was not part of Miss. Territory 
and could not be used for east-west travel without Spanish permission. 
Restless entrepreneurs wanted the land and, sensing a weakness in 
Spanish rule, moved in and declared it independent as the West Florida 
Republic in 1810. Rather than get into a faraway war over land of little 
value, Spain turned the area over to the U. S. and Mississippi took 
control. The Spanish kept Mobile.

The white groups, moving through the Creek nation from east to west, 
were cause for Creek concern. They rose up in 1812, under British 
instigation, and exterminated about one-third of the people living in 
Washington District at the Fort Mims Massacre and in other raids. 
General Andrew Jackson turned the tide at Horseshoe Bend, and the Creeks 
were forced to make concessions which opened the way for settlers along 
their Southern border. This became the Three Chop Way and the trickle of 
immigrants became a steady stream. At first the Three Chop Way went to 
the Tombigbee area, but it shifted northward at different times until it 
was almost east to west from SC.

All the Indian tribes were coming under pressure to cede their lands and 
move west to the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). On 20 Sep 1816, the 
Chickasaws ceded part of their Alabama lands. On 24 Oct 1816, the 
Choctaws ceded all their lands east of the Tombigbee River. By this move 
the Huntsville settlements (formerly isolated in the north) could travel 
to the Tombigbee settlements. In 1817, Mississippi became a state, 
dividing along a North-South line from near Fort St Stephens. This left 
the eastern half of its land as Alabama Territory for two more years, 
when it too, became a state in 1819.

The new state of Mississippi worked with the U. S. government to get 
another Choctaw session at Doak’s Stand on the Natchez Trace on 18 Oct 
1820. This cession gave up what was some of the tribe’s best hunting 
lands. Of particular interest to us is Simpson County, which was formed 
in 1824, after being part of Copiah in 1823, and Hinds in 1821. Rankin 
was formed in 1828. Records of people in early Simpson County might well 
be found in Copiah or in Hinds counties before they were recorded in 
Simpson. Many of the early settlers in Simpson county moved north from 
Lawrence County, while others came from Wayne county or from AL. Jackson 
was developed in Hinds County as the new state Capitol.

The Choctaws made their final cession at Dancing Rabbit Creek on 27 and 
28 Sep 1830, turning over all their lands east of the Mississippi River. 
The Choctaws then left the land of their birth and trekked to a 
Mississippi River crossing south of Memphis, then on to an unknown area 
to the west called the Indian Territory. This opened the land of Smith 
County, which was formed in 1833. Its Beat 3 was the final Southwest 
corner of the Choctaw Nation of Mississippi. The County has 642 square 
miles, and it was settled from Simpson and Rankin Counties on its west, 
Covington County on its South, and from all the other southern counties 
in MS and some in AL. The people had to build homes and clear land, so 
there was not a church or school in the county in 1837. There were 
enough people who could read and write to establish a county government, 
and court was held in 1837 on 5 May and 1 Dec. The first post office was 
at Raleigh, which had 37 people in 1837. The second post office was at 
Leaf River, exact location not now known. John Thornton was the first 
representative in the state legislature. Thornton is a name well known 
in Beat 3, and he could have been the most educated man there.

The Way of Life. Nearly all the people who moved into Beat 3 of Smith 
County were experienced in living in the United States in longleaf pine 
areas. The 1850 census shows very few people of foreign birth. All spoke 
English, though you had to listen carefully to Scotch Presbyterians. 
Their twangs must have taken five generations to die. The early settlers 
of Beat 3 moved from Simpson County, as did the Sullivans, or from Pike 
County, as did the Carters, Millers, Coles and Walkers, or from Marion 
County, as did those from SC, or from Wayne County, as did Houghs and 
other families. Typical states of birth were MS, AL, GA, and SC. Those 
born in what is now AL might give either AL or MS as birth state, as MS 
and AL were not divided until 1817. They sought the same kind of land 
they had learned to handle, with mixed farming and stock raising. Their 
earlier history is of some interest to genealogists, but you can hardly 
mention this history without discussing their religion.

The first churches were established a few years after the county was 
formed and were Baptist, Presbyterian, or Methodist. Later, there were 
congregations of evangelical Protestants. This author never knew either 
a Catholic or a Jew in Smith County. There was a very clear knowledge 
about Catholics because of the history of early Natchez, which had been 
under Catholic Spain from the end of the Revolutionary War until 1797. 
Baptists in Beat 3 remembered that Spanish officials who found you 
worshiping as a Baptist would send you to work in the silver mines of 
Northern Mexico, and no one ever returned. Grandparents of Coles, 
Carters, and others who settled in Beat 3, had been the earliest 
settlers on Cole’s Creek, Northeast of Natchez, named Barrio Gayoso by 
the Spanish, and they had their Baptist church there which met in 
various homes. It later had a meeting house, indeed it was the first 
Protestant church in Mississippi. After the Spanish left in 1798, these 
Cole’s Creek Baptists had children move to Amite County where they 
established Baptist churches, then on to Pike County, where they 
established Baptist churches, then to Beat 3 in Smith County, where they 
established Zion Hill Baptist Church. They took their history of 
persecution by the Spanish Catholics with them. Later, they established 
Oak Grove Baptist Church, then New Sardis Baptist Church, then Shady 
Grove Baptist Church. Their cousins across the county line in Covington 
County established Shiloh Baptist Church. The Methodists were in Mize 
and to the North of Mize. The Presbyterians with their Scotch names and 
twangs worshiped at Calvary in Beat 3, or over the county line at Sharon 
Presbyterian Church in Simpson County. Concord Baptist Church was a 
county line church established by Ware families directly from GA. Its 
community was between the Presbyterians of Calvary in Smith County and 
Sharon in Simpson County. By 1900, anyone living in Beat 3 was within 
walking distance of a Protestant church.

One of the characteristics of the early Baptist Churches, and perhaps of 
the other denominations as well, was the settlement of disputes among 
families within the church rather than going to Raleigh to court. 
Literally, hundreds of cases were probably settled in the churches 
through the years. However, this only worked for people who truly 
believed and were willing to accept the discipline of the church or of 
the collective community. If you disdained the church and flouted its 
teachings, it was a long way to Raleigh to the County Court House. There 
were Justices of the Peace, but their most frequent duty was marrying 
people, not adjuticating disputes. Some did their best, and established 
lasting reputations, as did William Howell in Sullivan’s Hollow, Sid 
Richardson in Covington County, and others.

Not having large tracts of fertile farm land, Smith County did not 
attract the most educated class of settlers. In fact, the author of this 
discussion never met anyone in Smith County he would have called a 
Southern Aristocrat, or even a descendant of one. They were all common 
folks, mostly white with some black, about half proud to say they owned 
the farms they worked, with the less fortunate cousins renting or 
share-cropping the land they worked. About a third of the adults who 
registered for the WW I draft could not sign their names. Some Sullivan 
descendants as late as WW II wound up in the Army’s basic training 
illiteracy schools where they learned to read and write. They could 
already shoot well enough.

For the land-holding stable families, self-sufficiency was the order of 
the day. You grew what you needed, and at least half your land would be 
in support crops for your work animals, hogs, and cattle. The cash crop 
which was devastating to the soil was cotton, which was in its final 
throes by the 1930 decade. The county lost half its population and 
abandoned at least half its land (for row-cropping) in the 1940 decade 
during and just after WW II. Much of the county became part of the 
Bienville National Forest. To regain the topsoil and fertility the 
county had in 1833, when the Choctaws began to depart, it will take at 
least a thousand years.

The wild hogs of the Piney Woods were said to be compelled to find food 
by rooting up the land for whatever they could find, an existence 
described as “Root, Hog, or Die”. A share-cropper named Jim Parker who 
married a Sullivan descendant of the Bowen family was proud to say that 
he was born “white and free, and when he became 21, he was turned loose 
in Smith County and told to Root, Hog, or Die.”