Historic Natchez Foundation

Most of these sources concern Gerard Brandon. Visited the Foundation on November 17 and 18, 2015. The filenames refer to photographs I took.

Dunbar Merrill Flinn Papers

These papers were found in the attic of Dunbar Merrill Flinn after her death circa 2007 and brought in by a family member in a suitcase, not long after Brandon Hall was donated to the Foundation by the Diefenthal family foundation.

Box 1

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  • Letter from Aaron “Tip” Stanton to his wife Ella Brandon Stanton describing a Christmas dinner at Brandon Hall in 1868. (Folder 40)

Box 3

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  • An 1863 bill from Polkinghorne & Rawes, the gravestone makers who created the markers for graves of Brandon’s children. (Folder 87)

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  • An 1869 labor agreement between C. S. Brandon and Gerard Brandon and several freedmen—Willis Jacobson, Henry Stanton, and John Proby—who are to paid one-third of the crop produced, minus advances. (Folder 88)

Forrest Flinn Collection

Forrest Flinn, son of Dunbar Merrill Flinn, later brought the remainder of the papers in Dunbar Flinn’s attic to the Foundation around 2013, in a metal box. These items were all found in Box 2 of the collection.

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  • A typed genealogy page about the Brandon family, with children’s names but few dates.

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  • Bible pages containing Brandon family information. Date unclear.

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  • A list of slaves and values, along with smaller amounts in pencil next to each name that may be “wages” or hiring rates. The pencil marks were made in 1859, and at least some of the slaves appear to be associated with the Cane Brake plantation.Some with last name “Proby.”

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  • An 1858 statement of account between Brandon and slave traders Griffin and Pullum. Brandon purchases eight slaves valued at $10,060 and gives “girl Marthy” worth $850, reducing his tab to $9,210. The back lists the names of the people purchased. There is a name that looks like “Hety w. child,” but the name is hard to read.

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  • Brief note by C. S. Brandon authorizing James Newman to settle a claim against a William M. Shaw for bales of cotton he had purchased from her.

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  • Jesse Andrews sends “Joshua Bell (colored)” to collect money he is owed by Brandon in 1868.

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  • Letter from Varina S. Brandon to her brother, Gerard, consoling him on family deaths in 1859 caused by the Princess explosion. Urging him to thoughts of faith and eternity.

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  • An 1858 cover letter for an invoice from New Orleans merchants Mandeville & McIlhenny for items shipped to his “Monclood” plantation. There are numerous financial papers concerning Mandeville and McIlhenny in this collection; I only photographed a fraction.

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  • An 1854 note forwarded notice of receipts for cotton sold by a factor in New Orleans, which has been credited to Brandon’s account in their Natchez office. (Buckner and Newman appear to be the names of two members of the firm.)

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  • Miscellaneous notes from late 1850s or early 1860s discussing business with New Orleans cotton factors including George Connelly and Co. as well as aforementioned firms.

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  • Noice that G. C. Covington is giving Brandon his power of attorney and “full power and authority over all my property in the state of Texas,” dated October 1864.

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  • On January 31, 1865, G. C. Covington, potentially one of the Refugees to Texas, provides “a list of my negroes, & other property” there made from memory. He authorizes Brandon to “have the management of my affairs in Texas.” It accompanies the power of attorney he has sent. Another man he had left in charge, “Mr. Bryant,” has not responded to any requests for information. There are a total of 68 enslaved people listed, from the estate of Levin Covington, and they were taken to Texas by a Mr. F. D. Pickens.

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  • A September 17, 1865, letter from G. C. Covington to Brandon, written from New Orleans, with further discussions about the Refugeed Slaves and plantations in Texas and whether to attempt to cultivate plantations there. He believes Bryant has been persuading people to stay in Texas, when he wants them to come back to Mississippi to work plantations there. “I am willing to hire them all, & that they shall all have their old homes again. Of course they will get such wages as is agreed upon in the Country.” He doesn’t think the wages will be high, but he will pay more than board. “At any rate tell the negroes for me tis best for them to come home, I will hire them all.”

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  • Notice from George G. Garner & Co, a New Orleans factor, in 1867.

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  • Receipts concerning sales of slaves by Griffin and Pullum to Brandon, dated 1859. All warranted “sound in mind and body and slaves for life” and “free from all claims what so ever.”

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  • Letter from a New Orleans factor concerning the quality of cotton received from Brandon, dated 1860.

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  • T. C. Holmes writes in May 1863 from Pinhook to say he has “taken my negroes to your place for shelter” and wishes permission to work the land.1 He had tried to get to Shreveport or the Red River but had met Yankees and panic-stricken locals who would not give provisions.

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  • A few samples from a large folder of bills and ledgers from Mandeville and McIlhenny, Brandon’s cotton factors in New Orleans. The 2288 image is from a bill of sale for 116 bales of cotton dated June 19, 1856, not long after Henrietta Wood would have arrived.

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  • Miscellaneous correspondence with New Orleans cotton factors. In 2301, a letter from Mandeville & McIlhenny dated 1858 reports sale of cotton from Monclova and Cane Brake, and reports that “under the influence of a spasmodic demand, our market looked up a fraction yesterday, middling 11 @ 11 1/4 [cents] not firm @ the 1/4 [cent].” In 2303, dated 1854, another letter reports lackluster proceeds and explains “the quality of the last shipments indicated very apparently the damages sustained from storms, and we found the quality of the first picking not so well handled as last year.”

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  • Note from Henry Metcalfe settling account in 1862. “The conduct of your boy Cain was unexceptionable.”

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  • Letter from H. H. Middleton in Robertson County (misspelled as Roberson), dated February 15, 1867, concerning affairs there: “Since you left I have been trying to get as much cotton picked as I could but it has been rather a slow business.” Tom, Mose, Bill and Sam Carter have died “and you can guess how much time was lost from that. Ben is still very ill and I reckon he will die.” Discusses how much cotton he has ginned, accounts with Ranger and Co. in Galveston, cargo at Millican. “We have about 45 names on contract for wages and 19 [in that?] for the crop which will give us hands enough to cultivate the place.” He says “I have most of my old Freedmen” available to pick. Discusses Brandon’s suggestion of an engine, but Middleton worries it might make “a squabble with Able.” All in all he believes “we are among the fortunate ones” because many places have no hands, and only a few of their hands (some named) have left or won’t sign a contract.

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  • Letter from H. H. Middleton to Brandon, dated November 3, 1867, from “Refugee Plantation” in Robertson County (this time misspelled as Robinson). Discusses attempts to get his cotton picked with “those that did not contract, and with some of my old freedmen.” He is afraid he will not get a very high price for the cotton he has raised. Discusses dealing with Ranger and Co. in Galveston. Notes that “the hands that are working for part of the crop are doing better than the others, as a general thing, they will finish planting corn in a few days.” Mentions that a “Dr. Richardson has eight Irish to cultivate the Able Place, and there are many places that have but few hands.” One local planter “lost 200 Bales in the field, so much for free labor.” Also says that Williams has left to return to Mississippi but will return soon.

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  • A power of attorney granted by H. H. Middleton of Adams County, MS, to Gerard Brandon, dated December 18, 1865, and witnessed by the county clerk of Milam County, Texas.

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  • A letter from S. R. Newman in New Orleans to Brandon, dated April 16, 1864, says that “Mrs. Brandon could sue in her name, but the suit would have to be a civil one.” Also discusses some losses to someone named Shaw that will be difficult to recover; concerns some cotton sales.

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  • Another letter from S. R. Newman concerning cotton business.

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  • An 1870 letter from Ranger and Co. concerning some dividends on stock that Brandon has purchased for himself and his family in a cotton press company.

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  • Some 1867-1868 correspondence from Ranger and Co. to Brandon about his account with them. The company’s letterhead appears on these letters, and identifies them as “Cotton Factors and General Commission Merchants.”

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  • Letter from H. H. Middleton to Brandon, dated Sterling (Texas), November 24, 1868. Though the crop was better than expected, it wasn’t very good, and the gin house burned down in October. “It has left us in a bad fix as there is not a house to put cotton in and have to pile it in the field. … It appears there is always something to disappoint my hopes.” He knows he owed Brandon money but won’t be able to pay for a while, due to expense of moving his family to Texas and drawing on Ranger for money to do so. He expresses some disapproval of Ranger’s honesty in handling his accounts. “He told me last winter he wanted me to live on this place for a number of years. Now he is trying to sell or rent it so I will have to look out for a new home for my family.” He contemplates bankruptcy. “It makes me very unhappy to know that I cannot pay those that I owe but it is not my fault as all I had was in negroes and they were taken from me and left me nothing to pay with.” He asks Brandon to find out how much he owes to various firms, as well as to the estate of McCoy.

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  • Cotton correspondence from a Galveston firm, Wolston, Wells & Vidor, from 1873.

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  • An 1859 condolence note on the deaths in his family.

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  • An 1858 note to P. A. [Phillip?] Brandon from S. W. Mosby concerning a disagreement they had. “I now write to inform you that it was only jest and that by the expression ‘Go to hell,’ which I used was meant as all mean it, as play.”

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  • G. C. Covington letter to W. L. Bryant, dated at Selma [Plantation] in 1865. He had placed his business in Bryant’s hands “some time last summer” and had not received any word from him, except for rumors. “Your sisters gave me this piece of intelligence, after you had been absent about two months, viz., ‘that you had found my negroes & intended to move them to your neighbourhood,’ but nothing satisfactory since.” The letter was delivered by “our mutual friend Mr. Gerard Brandon,” whom he had asked “to take charge of my business whenever he returned to Texas.” He has power of attorney to “take charge of my negroes & other property.”

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  • A receipt for $1,300 worth of Confederate bonds purchased by Brandon in May 1864.

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  • An April 17, 1863, account with R. Rawes for tombstones for Brandon’s daughters Sarah and Agnes.

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  • A few samples from a very large file folder of checks written by Brandon, many drawn on W. A. Britton & Co. in Natchez, and written to (among others) Mrs. E. S. Miller, David Turner, B. J. Sandford, A. Metcalfe, and E. Poole.

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  • A receipt for payment to the Shamrock pilot for ferry crossings of “4 colored men,” butter, and “Poole with plows,” dated October 19, 1866.

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  • Ledger sheet for Brandon’s account with Ranger and Co. from November 1867 to January 20, 1868.

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  • An 1874 note from Wolston, Wells, & Vidor, concerning dividends on stock in the Press and Wharf.

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  • An account of sales of cotton by Ranger & Co. from 1867, for 32 bales sent by railroad from Millican.

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  • An 1865 account with Ranger and Co., dated in Houston June 15, 1866. Includes records of payments “to cash from” Groesbeek, H. H. Middleton, Stoneham, Williams, J. S. Able of Able Family, et al.

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  • Miscellaneous cotton sales receipts, sampled from a very large folder.

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  • An 1862 receipt for the rental of a pew in Trinity Church in Natchez.

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  • Unsigned draft of a letter to Adams County Board of Supervisors about the illicit sale of cotton seed at night.

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  • A few samples of tax receipts from a much larger folder, including several from Tensas Parish in Louisiana.

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  • An 1865 template for an affidavit concerning cotton grown in Robertson County. Mentions Millican as a delivery point, and includes a statement that “the late so called Confederate States never had any claim whatever” on the bales mentioned.

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  • An 1862 payment order signed by E. Poole at Canebrake Plantation (perhaps where Poole was an overseer).

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  • A receipt signed by William Moore at Brandon Hall, dated 1866.

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  • Miscellaneous other financial papers, including more payment orders signed by Poole, a bill from an overseer on the Monclova Plantation in Louisiana, etc.

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  • A military pass dated July 8, 1863, giving Brandon permission to pass from Alexandria to Leon County, Texas, which was perhaps his original destination.

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  • A newspaper clipping in which a retired black minister is seeking descendants of A. P. Merrill for help in locating his enslaved ancestors.

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  • An 1871 labor agreement between Aaron Stanton and “the undersigned Freedmen & women,” all of Adams County. Half of the crop would go to Stanton and the other half to the party of laborers, who include Job Baker Sr., Frank Benson, Charles Coleman, Flora Robinson, Harry King, Godfrey Hardy, Mose Coleman, Lizzer Hardy.

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  • More labor agreements from 1872 and 1872 with Aaron Stanton and freedpeople, including Cain Carter, Henry Skinner, George Washington, Dunbar Washington, Jerry Washington, Walter Washington.

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  • Finding aid for the Forrest Flinn Collection

Vonkersburg Family Collection

Susan Vonkersburg in Tuscon, Arizona, brought her collection four or five years ago. Her grandmother was Agnes Stanton Kinsman, daughter of Ella Brandon and Aaron Stanton. Most of the letters I photographed were found in Agnes Kinsman’s cedar chest and were delivered to HNF in a small box.

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  • A letter from Gerard Brandon to his daughter, Ella, dated October 21, 1863, from Texas. He received a letter from her via her brother, and he has read it many times, “invariably with tears.” He says that “anxious, gloomy feeling about those (I believe) I love so fondly and deeply comes over me too often when alone.” He expects they also feel anxiety for him, “but then there was this difference you knew I was safe from downright foes, when I knew you were liable to insult from Yankees as well as contrabands.” He has often been tempted to start home right away, but would have to walk as his horse “Old Sam is about used up.” He sees from her letter that “your Uncle Jim” (James C. Brandon) has crossed the river and he has been hoping to see him, especially in case some sickness comes upon him. “In case I should get right bad off I would like to know he was some where near me.” He fears that “many who have been accustomed to ease & affluence will have to struggle in future for a living, nor do I feel that the property I have brought here is entirely safe for many expect an invasion of this state and in some sections there are many who are not true southerners and some who would be right down enemies.” He has heard rumblings from locals who say the poor man is “fighting to save the property” of the rich “and after the war they would have a divide.” He says he has “made some rough notes of incidents” to share with her and intended to send them with “Jim” (his son) “but cannot well do without the book.”2 Various disparaging comments about the quality of life in Texas and the local population. “I pray that all my children understand that their happiness and welfare have been the aim of my life, & would like them to know that any course I may take will be abandoned when I find it will fail me in my object or intention.” Fearing he might never see her again, “I thought I would write that to impress fully on you how much I love you, and to see you happy I would conceed anything.”

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  • Letter from Gerard Brandon to Ella, dated September 10, 1865, from Roberson County, Texas. He apologizes for writing on the “Holy Day” but notes his time is no longer his own. It has been so long since he could regularly go to church that “I feel often as if I had fallen, & had relapsed into a state of sin and indifference.” He says that “in this section a man cannot have a quiet Sabbath, for if not annoyed by the negroes, very likely 1/2 dozen whites who know no regard for anything human or divine will come on business or to hear what they can & to talk of things that are of no interest to me,” even though he has to listen if he wants to make business ties. His only choice is to remember that “when in Rome we must do as they do in Rome.” He hopes he is not a bad man and consoles himself “with the belief that … I would not, & have not intentionally wronged or injured any of my fellow man.” He apologizes for his long absence: “You must all know it would be very trying to me to be seperated [sic] from those I love so dearly for eighteen months, but then I knew of no other way to bring 500 bales of cotton ‘to home.’” He had actually hoped to make something more like 800 bales, but his calculations have changed, “for I do not hope to make more than a living from free negro labor any where.” He plans to try for one year and then try something else. Mentions an offer to go into commission business in Galveston. He thanks her for updates on the state convention. He says “I cannot feel well for any measure that robs my family of so many valuable negroes as I had collected for them, particularly when such a measure brings them from affluence to a very limited means. But for that act my dear you would on the 12th proximo have had turned over to you a very handsome property, one which would have made you highly independent, as it is your portion will be but a trifle. Oh my! how sad it makes me, how often and continually I grieve & fret to think the labor & frugality of your G. Father & Uncle all goes to naught, and then I reproach my shortsightedness in continuing to invest in that way, & then too that I held on the property when I might have sold it (at a low price) for specie, but then I had confidence in the powers & people who have lost us our cause.” The whole family will have to accept “we are poor.” He had hoped to sell his horse for a bridal present for her, but she will “have to take the will for the deed.” He hopes to arrange for “Sanford to remain here another year” and even hopes he may be able to find someone to take the cattle train so that he can return home by sea and drop in for her wedding supper. If he can’t, he sends his blessings on the marriage. “You ask for my blessing & forgiveness. Do not for a moment feel that you have not my blessing, and I can very easily forgive you for loving a handsome young man.” He hopes she will be married by an Episcopal clergyman and that her brother will “give you away.” He hopes he has written what she needs to hear to believe in his “reconciliation to what you believe to be for your happiness.” Cross-writing on first page reads: “Tell your brother I had not time to reply to his letter today but [will] do so on Thursday or Saturday. I am sorry he did not give me instructions as I requested about his stock and suppose from his silence he wishes me to do as I think best. If such is the fact & I leave any property here I will leave them. I have written four long letters, and talked to quite a number of niggers, as you persist in calling the freed Americans.”

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  • Letter to Ella from Gerard Brandon dated Owensville, October 29, 1865, which he notes as his twenty-fifth wedding anniversary. “… in casting my mind back I find much to be happy at, & many things to feel satisfied with myself for, but like all erring & sinful mortals I have very many acts & sayings to regret, & to plead for mercy from our Saviour, and at same time for many hasty & crusty a speech & manner to plead with my good & kind, loving & indulgent & forgiving wife …. She took me a green boy as it were from the world, knowing me to be a little wild [or mild?], & knowing me to be of stock fond of life & fun, & has made me a business man and one who is sober & steady.” He implicitly is giving her advice for dealing with her husband Mr. Stanton. He is doing his best to “close up my business here.” He has 200 heads of cattle “ready to start” but can’t find anyone to take them. He also complains about cotton picking: he has ginned only 35 bales: “just think of 75 pickers until this time picking 80 bales, for I find it will by delay and wasting be short of calculations, in fact all calculations are worthless. I can make none with certainty about when I will be able to leave.” He had also learned that “Mr. Able” had become suspicious of Brandon’s intentions and feared he would flee home without “paying the rent on his land.” Of his formerly enslaved laborers, he says “my free gents & ladies are doing better now than for some time back, most are anxious to make a crop here next year, so my mind is relieved on that subject for the present until they change theirs again.” He refers to something Ella has said about reading a letter he addressed to her mother, in which he confided something to Mrs. Brandon only because he feared it might embarrass Ella. Refers to Lottie’s ill health. Signed “with respects to Mr. Stanton.” An envelope addressed to “Miss E. E. Brandon” is included.

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  • Letter from Aaron Stanton to his wife written “off Galveston” in February 1866.

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  • Letter by Gerard Brandon to “my dear Ella,” dated June 10, 1866. He is sending by Middleton “the long talked of bridal present, $260,” with apologies for the small amount. “I always get mad when I think how little I can do for you my child compared with what I expected at one time, however this is useless.” Sends his love to “Tip” (Aaron Stanton).

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  • Letter from Gerard Brandon to Aaron “Tip” Stanton, dated “Brazos Sunday 17th June 1866.” He is “really home-sick already,” but he doesn’t have much time to think about it bceause “I am closely engaged from early dawn until ten at night.” He has “every prospect of a good crop.” “Some of my friends are endeavoring already to persuade me to continue to cultivate here another year, saying from all reports they have from ‘the papers’ that things are much more prosperous here than in any of the cotton states. This I believe and think also that it is the easiest country to cultivate in I ever saw, altho’ this season has been an exception, yet I have made up my mind not to be cut off [from] home in this way any longer.” He will consider, though, seeing if he can make an arrangement to have some interest in Texas. But he would “have to depend for the most part on strangers for labor as most of my Freedmen are determined to leave Texas at the end of this season.” He reports on a recent rain, and his “about sixty acres” planted with corn should benefit. “But I think at same time that Charlotte is right when she says it will about be a breakfast for the Freedmen as they are using the [roasting?] ears ver freely. They are a queer people seem to consider every thing on the place as free for them, take many liberties.” He reports on a recent Bureau trial of several cases, which resulted in Ben being “hung … up for several hours for threatening the life (& attacking with a loaded gun) John. Gave them a long talk explaining the law on many points very fully (how learned they are becoming) & I hope his visit may benefit them & me very much, for they do try my patience greatly. I am disgusted & think often this is my last attempt at managing Freedmen, but I know I have a destiny to fullfill [sic] and as it is with and among them, I do not believe that I am an earnest when I think or say so.” He hasn’t heard from Judge Ogden about trial between Hughes’ creditors and myself. He has advised Charlotte to have “the Gin on Cane Brake insured” for $6000. Also discusses some deals concerning wood on the property. “Persons who engage in any enterprise have some risk to run.” He is glad to hear he and Ella have “been at B. Hall so much” and asks him to “eat a few peaches for me, and help Jim to guard the orchard, for if the morals of Freedmen have not improved it will require two or three to keep them out.” He seldom receives a newspaper and when he does “the talk is all about cotton, weeds & Freedmen.” He hasn’t had time to go hunting despite being surrounded by deer. Sends his love “to all the family, to the Dr & folks.” Complains of severe asthma on this trip.

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  • Letter from Gerard Brandon to his daughter Ella Stanton, dated “Brazos Home 23rd July 1866.” He returned to Texas to help get the crop “cut out” and “cleaned out.” She and her mother have been urging him to hurry and return home. He has had some bouts with asthma and fever. “I had not heard of Mr Bryan’s misfortune in being overflowed but know the Trinity has for several hundred miles ruined all crops on its banks. I am glad Mr. [Conner?] was enabled to enforce his contract & hope the yankee rascals will be made to suffer in their most vulnerable part, the pocket.” He discusses the presence of General Joseph Kiddoo and the Freedmen’s Bureau in Texas. Kiddoo he considers “the most sensible efficient officer in the business, conducts matters on the white man principal, makes Freedman, planter and all do right, has companies of cavalry convenient to all sections where many negroes are, and tells them that the U. S. government is interested in having a cotton crop made & gathered, & that if they do not go on with their duties & fulfill contracts that these men are there to make them, and on some plantations they have treated the Freedman pretty roughly using the sabre (?) in the place of our old strap.” He discusses one freedmen who was given “an old fashioned whipping” by “Dr. Jones” for leaving the plantation, but when the freedman complained to the Bureau, “the officer in charge of the cavalry … tied the fellow up for two hours telling him to do his duty, conduct himself right, then if Dr. Jones or any one whipped him they should suffer but that he was not there to protect niggers in idleness, meanness or impudence.”3 He thanks her for news of Cane Brake plantation, and says he sometimes wishes that he had “insisted on a cash rent instead of shares” there. He is sorry to hear “Jim is discouraged but suppose with such a season he could not well be otherwise.” He also thanks her for papers since they are “a treat in this interior section.” In his letter he includes a cotton boll as a “sample of the new crop.”

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  • Collection Finding Aid

Adams County Court Records

Using the spreadsheet index provided me by Kim Welch.

Case 10334 (1854, Group 1850, Box 26, File 101)

  • State of Mississippi versus Pierce Griffin and William Pullum for unlawful importing and selling of slave from Virginia and Kentucky named General, “without having previously obtained a certificate, signed by two respectable freeholders in the county of the State from whence said slave was brought, containing a particular description of the [clothes?] and complexion of said slave together with the name age and sex of the said slave,” which certificate was supposed to be registered with the Probate County Clerk. Spreadsheet index says this case was dismissed.

Case 10317 (1855, Group 1850, Box 26, File 84)

  • John Tucker vs. Griffin and Pullum. Tucker complains that they sould him an unsound slave named Malinda for $1,100 by Bill of Sale dated February 4, 1854, and demands the full amount refunded plus interests and costs. The sheriff Metcalfe could not find Griffin and Pullum to deliver the summons, which he was charged to do on November 28, 1854.

Case 10326 (1854, Group 1850, Box 26, File 93)

  • Benjamin Gilbert vs. Griffin and Pullum. Case dismissed. The plaintiff sued for unsoundness in the December 26, 1853, sale of “Negroes Ben aged 18 years & Elizabeth aged 16 years.”

Case 10301 (1854, Group 1850, Box 26, File 68)

  • State of Mississippi vs. Little Jordan, a Slave. Gerard Brandon was summoned to the courthouse in May 1855 to appear as a witness in this case, together with “Frances, Jamie and Mary, slaves of said Gerard Brandon.” He was summoned as a witness both for the plaintiff and the defendant. Little Jordan, also a slave of Brandon’s, was indicted for murder of Big Jordan on December 30, 1854. The jury convicted him of manslaughter and sentenced him to have the letter M branded onto his hand.

Case 10295 (1854, Group 1850, Box 26, File 62)

  • Probate lawsuit by Martha Hoggatt against Richard Williams and Gerard Brandon, executors of her husband’s estate. Regards some “blooded stock” at Cedar Grove that Hoggatt had removed. Case 10298 probably related to this one.

Case 30128 (1858, Group 1850, Box 25, File 49)

  • Chesley Coffey vs. Griffin and Pullum. An unsoundness complaint regarding a slave named Elleck. Details about how a slave for sale was stripped and inspected at Griffin and Pullum’s place of business.

Case 30200 (1857, Group 1850, Box 27, File 62)

  • Cicero Stampley vs. Griffin, Pullum & Co.. An unsoundness complaint regarding a slave naed Hannah.

Case 21816 (1852, Group 1850, Box 15, File 62)

  • Thomas James vs. Thomas Hall, executor for James H. McCoy. Unsoundness case regarding a slave named Jane Wilson. James Brandon one of multiple witnesses called.

Case 9215 (1868, Group 1860, Box 30, File 115)

  • Case of larceny against Edmund Reynolds (Freedman) for stealing a horse from Brandon.

  1. The location may be a “Pinhook plantation” near Waterproof in Tensas Parish, where Brandon owned land. An internal clue in the letter is a reference to a Mr. Hughes, who also had a plantation in Tensas. See menn1964, 400, 404; discussion of first owner of Pinhook.

  2. Likely the diary he kept in Texas.

  3. This Dr. Jones could be “D. C. Jones,” mentioned in parker1955, 166. On Kiddoo, see richter1991, 79-145.