Newton,
Mississippi, McMullan Cousins and Cemeteries
Through the Internet, I was able to contact and
get to know Ann Burkes of Decatur, Mississippi. Ann is a distant
cousin and is very involved in genealogy. She has been a wonderful
blessing to me in learning more about my great great grandfather,
Thomas Jefferson McMullan. When we got into Newton, we got a room
at the Day’s Inn motel and called Ann and her husband Roger.
They were out and about, so they came by the motel to visit for
a bit. Later, I called Stephen McMullan, whom I had come to know
when Ann and I were trying to find out what had happened to John
McMullan’s tailor’s chest (more on that later). Stephen
had arranged for me to meet his grandfather, Charles
Terrell McMullan, also known as “Mr. Bully”, and more
of his family. I met Stephen and his beautiful wife, Eileen in
Decatur and went to see his grandfather who had just been released
from the hospital a couple of days earlier because of a fall.
While I was at Stephen’s grandfather’s house, I
met two of Stephen’s uncles, a couple of aunts, and his
father and mother. I had a great time visiting with them and
finding out how they came down through the McMullan line. Stephen
had also arranged for me to meet Melvin Tingle of Decatur. Mr.
Tingle is an expert on the history of Mississippi and Newton County.
He has built the Okla Museum in the form of a home in the 1800's
to show how people lived in that era. He is also currently the
Vice President of the Newton County Historical and Genealogical
Society.
Roger and Ann Burkes met me, Stephen
and his mother and father at Mr. Tingle’s museum. Mr. Tingle
showed us many of the things that people in the 1800's would have
used in their everyday life. He also knew a lot about my great
great grandfather, Thomas Jefferson McMullan. Upstairs, in the
museum, was a section map of Newton County in 1846 and I
quickly spotted Thomas Jefferson McMullan’s land marked
on the map. Mr. Tingle also showed me some documents that showed
Thomas Jefferson McMullan had purchased land from the Choctaw
Indians in Newton County. My great great grandfather’s land
was directly east of Decatur. Mr. Tingle told me of General Sherman’s
march through Decatur in 1864 as a part of his Meridian Campaign. Sherman marched east out of Decatur
and burned all of Thomas Jefferson McMullan’s (and many
other’s) property; his house, barn, mill, slaves' quarters, etc. I asked him
what all of the people did when the Union army came through and
he said that they went into the woods. Growing up in the Texas
panhandle, I didn’t see many trees as a child. The woods
in Newton County were a shock to me. I did not know how thick
they were and realize how someone could easily become lost in
them. The citizens of Newton County would take their families,
slaves, livestock and valuables to the woods to hide out from
the Union army. If they did not, the army would take their livestock, food, winter stores and
procure anything of value from the citizens and then burn their
homes and farms. They also poisoned people's wells. Thomas Newton McMullan, a son of my great great
grandfather Thomas Jefferson McMullan wrote the following account that was
published in the newspaper in Newton, Mississippi many years ago:
T.N. McMullan was very young (14 years of age) at the time Sherman’s army
passed their home near Chapel Hill but he remembers that raid
with only bitter memories. In describing the devatation and hardships
during the Civil War, he compared the Civil War with the World
War (the first). The soldier in the World War had a hard time but he did have
food and ammunition as well as a home to return to that had not
been pillaged by an invading army. The people in the South during
the Civil War were about in the same fix as the Belgians were
in during the World War.
The Northerners were not content to free the
negroes but they would ride up to a house, dismount and began
the plundering. They invariably cut up the feather mattresses
and scattered the feathers to the four winds. Trunks and boxes
were rifled or anything of value seized. Outhouses and fences
were torn down and burned. Every animal or fowl that could be
caught was killed. When they couldn’t carry the animals
away, they killed them and left the carcasses lying on the ground.
They didn’t open the doors to the (feed) cribs but knocked the
roofs off and tore the logs away far enough to allow the animals
to feed.
Every storehouse, public building except the
Baptist Church were burned in Decatur. The best homes were destroyed
as well as the homes of the prominent Confederates. Captain M.
Carleton’s home was destroyed due to the fact a negro informed
the soldiers about Capt. Carleton’s position in the Confederate
army. But whenever or whose home they made headquarters was not
burned. |
Mr. Tingle reminded me of two other stories about
Thomas Jefferson McMullan. Although they cannot be corroborated
by any written proof, they are interesting. The 1860 census shows
that Thomas owned fifteen slaves. Before the war started, probably
sometime in 1861, he was able to purchase several more slaves
at a bargain price, thinking that they would bring a better price
after the war. The other story says that the Confederacy was going
to build a water powered woolen mill at Lake Oneida near Enterprise,
Mississippi, south of Meridian. Because the highwaymen (robbers) were so bad in that
part of the country and out of fear of the Union army, Thomas
took $10,000 in gold along Chunky creek by night, to invest in
the mill. Shortly thereafter (probably during Sherman's Meridian Campaign), the Union army destroyed the mill
and Thomas lost all of his investment. The War of Northern Aggression
devastated the economy of the south. The 1870 census shows Thomas
Jefferson McMullan’s wealth being much less than in the
1860 census.
After spending the evening with Stephen McMullan
and his family, I got back to the motel. It was raining and there
were huge thunderstorms in the area. Newton County and several
others were under tornado warnings and tornado watches. It rained
very hard for quite sometime. The parking lot of the motel was
flooded by the time the rain stopped. The next morning, I met Roger and Ann Burkes at their house between Newton and
Decatur. I had originally met Ann on-line. She sent me some photos
of Decatur and some of the graves of my relatives there and she
looked up some information for me. She is one of my many McMullan
relatives in that area. Ann worked as a librarian for many years
at the community college in Decatur and took an early retirement
last year. She is a great researcher and has written some articles
about the McMullan’s. Ann took us to see Thomas Jefferson
McMullan’s and his wife, Rachel Reynold McMullan’s
graves. They are both buried in the Decatur cemetery. There were
many other McMullan’s buried there too. Then Roger and Ann
took us to the Mt. Zion cemetery outside of Decatur. Patrick McMullan,Jr.,
Thomas Jefferson McMullan’s brother, and many other McMullan’s
are buried there. Ann just recently told me that there are at
least two hundred McMullan’s buried in the cemeteries in
Newton County.
After visiting the cemeteries we drove to the
Mt. Vernon Plantation which was owned by my great great uncle
Patrick McMullan, Jr. Several years ago, Captain Albert McMullan
had some engraved granite markers placed around the county with
information about the McMullan’s. One of the markers was
placed at the Mt. Vernon plantation. Sometime between the time
Ann sent me a photo of the marker and a week or so before our
visit, someone pushed the large granite marker over. Fortunately,
it did not break.
After our visit to the plantation, we went into
Newton for some lunch. Ann had told me that she would point out
any McMullan’s in the restaurant but warned me that about
every other person that came in would probably be a McMullan!
While we were eating lunch, it began to rain. It was a good thing
that we had looked through the cemeteries in the morning or we
would have gotten very wet.
After lunch we all drove to see Bonnie and Grayson
McMullan. John McMullan was my first McMullan ancestor that came
to the United States. He was born in Tralee, Ireland in 1740 and
came to this country in 1760. He brought with him a chest made
of cypress wood. While doing some research about him on the Internet,
I found that his chest still existed and was owned by Miley McMullan
of Newton, Mississippi. I tried to find a phone number or address
for Miley and then found out that he had passed away a few years
ago. He had married late in life and never had any children of
his own but did have some step children. I began to worry that
his step children might have taken possession of the chest and
not realized how valuable and important the chest would be to
those of us in the McMullan family. I contacted Ann and she began
a quest to find the chest. I also began to call members of the
McMullan family in the Newton County area. Most of the McMullan’s
I contacted knew nothing about the chest and some of them did
not know Miley. This is how I met Stephen McMullan. I called Stephen’s
grandfather first and he didn’t know anything. Then I called
Doyle McMullan, not knowing that he was Stephen’s dad. Doyle
told me that Stephen had been interested in the McMullan family
history and that he might know something. I called Stephen’s
house and had a wonderful visit with Stephen’s wife, Eileen.
Later, Stephen and I got in touch. All the while, Ann was searching
for the chest and with Harold Graham who is the president of the
Newton County Historical and Genealogical Society, they found
the chest! When Miley McMullan died, the chest was passed on to
Bonnie and Grayson.
Bonnie met us at the door and we introduced ourselves
to her and Grayson. Bonnie took us in and showed us the chest.
There were a lot of old letters and things like that in the chest.
I was amazed to think that it still exists after more than 240
years! Bonnie has a lot of McMullan history in her home. She showed
us old letters and documents. She has the wedding clothes of Grayson’s
grandfather, William Jesse McMullan. While we were there, Bonnie
and Grayson’s son, Shannon came in. His wife, Lori, and
two daughters came in later. We had an excellent visit with them
and then headed back to town.
Before we left Roger and Ann’s home, Ann
gave me a beautiful embroidered and framed Mississippi sign
for something to remember my trip by. Roger gave me some Mayhaw
jelly. I have heard of Mayhaw but have never tasted it. The people
in Mississippi were some of the nicest people I have ever met.
They all made me feel right at home and like part of their families.
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