Two towns, one in
Georgia and one in Mississippi, share a common history. Both towns are
approximately the same size and both are county seats. Both of the county
courthouses were built at the turn of the twentieth century, and both towns owe
their existence to the railroad which brought commerce and industry to the
area. And both towns, as it turns out, are named for the same man, a railroad
engineer. The Mississippi town began when the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern
Railroad was located a short distance east of the original county seat, which
was incorporated in 1829 and known for having a “killing every week.” With the
coming of the railroad, the “new” town grew rapidly and the old county seat
began to wither away. In April 1872, the Mississippi Legislature allowed the
county board of supervisors to hold a vote to determine whether the county seat
should be moved. Naturally, the fast-growing railroad community won and the
original brick courthouse was disassembled and moved (it would later burn). In
Georgia, the Macon & Brunswick Railroad Company built the railroad line in
from both ends of the termini, from Macon southeast and from Brunswick
northwest. The railroad was completed in 1869 and a town sprang up at the place
where the two lines met. Previously a small hamlet known as Handtown (named for
a local family), the growing community, incorporated in 1877, became the county
seat of Jeff Davis County in 1905. A county courthouse was constructed the next
year. In both cases, the new county seats were named not for a local politician
or prominent citizen but for the railroad engineer who gave the towns life by
placing the railroad there. The engineer's name was George Hazlehurst.
Born in 1824, George
Hall Hazlehurst (left) was one of sixteen children and the son of Robert Hazlehurst,
who was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Educated in Pennsylvania,
Hazlehurst's first engineering job was as a surveyor in Florida, but soon found
his specialty was in railroads. Among his earliest and more important
appointments was as the engineer in charge of selecting the route of the New
Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad in Mississippi. Commissioned by
the State of Illinois in 1851 (with support from both Stephen Douglas and
Abraham Lincoln), the railroad was intended to connect Chicago and New Orleans.
Completed just prior to the Civil War, the railroad, as it turned out, was
extremely valuable to the Confederates, who used it to transport troops and
supplies (and, ironically, thousands of Illinois soldiers fought throughout the
war to disrupt the line). Hazlehurst took the job knowing the difficulties
which lay ahead, including the very real threat of disease, as his predecessor
had died of yellow fever while constructing the railroad. Hazlehurst completed
it, though, and earned enough credit to be hired for similar jobs across the
South, including the Macon and Augusta and Macon and Brunswick railroads in
Georgia, the Montgomery and Eufaula in Alabama, the New Orleans, Shreveport and
Alexandria in Louisiana, and the Pensacola and Atlantic in Florida. Along each
line, depots like the one pictured above in Milton, Florida, were constructed
and towns sprang forth like mushrooms. Thanks to industrious men like George
Hazlehurst, the South, before and after the Civil War, was being transformed -
for better or for worse - by the new rail network.
In 1858, George
Hazlehurst married Irene Wingfield Nisbet. By doing so, he became distantly
related by marriage to Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), the architect of the
second United States Capitol in Washington and the "Father of American
Architecture." Though Latrobe died before Hazlehurst was born, both wound
up working on public waterworks projects. In fact, Latrobe died of yellow fever
in 1820 in New Orleans while working on that city's waterworks. Almost fifty years later (in 1868),
Hazlehurst purchased the Chattanooga Water Company (right), which had first been
established in 1856 and improved by U.S. Grant's army during their occupation
of the city in 1863. After purchasing the Chattanooga Water Company, Hazlehurst
constructed a nine-million gallon reservoir and a pumping station to supply
water to the local citizens. Remnants of Hazlehurst's Lookout Water Company are
still in operation today.
While working in
Chattanooga, Hazlehurst lived near his brother-in-law, James Cooper Nisbet, in
the vicinity of Rising Fawn, Georgia. Nisbet, like Hazlehurst, was born in
Macon, Georgia. Before the Civil War, he and a brother moved to the Chattanooga
area to run a large plantation called "Cloverdale." In 1861, he
organized a company in the 21st Georgia and served as captain until promotion
to colonel of the 66th Georgia Infantry. During the Chattanooga campaign in the
fall of 1863, "Cloverdale" was briefly occupied by Union troops. With
his regiment stationed in the area, Col. Nisbet (left) went to visit his plantation
and narrowly avoided capture while enjoying a lunch of "chicken-fixings
and flour-doings" at Hazlehurst's home. Wounded at Antietam, Nisbet was
later captured during the Atlanta campaign on July 22, 1864, near Decatur,
Georgia, and was sent to prison at Johnson's Island. After the war, he returned
home and served in the state legislature and in Georgia's constitutional
convention. A devout Presbyterian and an active Confederate Veteran, Col.
Nisbet died in 1914 after working for the Acme Kitchen Furniture Company in
Chattanooga. He is perhaps best known today for his memoir Four Years on the
Firing Line, published in 1914. As for George Hazlehurst's service in the
Confederacy, however, the record is a bit murky. Although Hazlehurst is
frequently referred to as a "Colonel" and is given credit in some
sources with designing the defenses of Vicksburg (in reality it was Maj. Samuel
Lockett), there is scant evidence that Hazlehurst served to any great extent in
the Confederate army. Hazlehurst is listed a Confederate engineer (with the
rank of captain) and likely served in some capacity with the military railroad
in Georgia and perhaps elsewhere. However, his rank of "colonel"
appears to be a post-war (and perhaps self-made) promotion.
George Hazlehurst was
not the only member of his family with a career in engineering. James Nisbet
Hazlehurst, born in 1864, studied under former Confederate general Kirby Smith
at Sewanee and followed in his father's footsteps as a civil engineer. The
younger Hazlehurst established a solid reputation across the South working on
railroads and public utilities in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida,
Louisiana and Mississippi, where in the late 1890s he designed the water
systems for both Grenada and (oddly enough) Hazlehurst. He was also a prolific
writer and published a book called Towers and Tanks for Water-Works (right) in 1907 (no
doubt a best seller). When the United States entered the First World War,
Hazlehurst volunteered his services and was given the rank of Major. Assigned
at first to Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood's staff, Hazlehurst was sent overseas in
September 1917. As a civil engineer, his duties in the army frequently involved
water supply systems, but in the fall of 1918 he was assigned the task of
examining damages to buildings in Brussels, Belgium. While on this duty he died
of disease on February 9, 1919
George Hazlehurst
continued working on railroads and other engineering projects after the Civil
War, and in fact was working on the Mississippi Valley railroad when he died in
1883 of malaria. George is buried in Macon's city cemetery alongside his first wife, who died in 1873 and his second wife, Josephine, who died in
1882, along with most of the Hazlehurst family. Hazlehurst had a career filled with construction and engineering projects
and in the process had a hand in building the modern South. Most importantly, perhaps,
he left behind his name for the people of two Hazlehursts.
Photo and Image Sources:
(1)
New Orleans and Great Northern RR: http://jimjanke.com/civilwar/money.htm
(2)
Hazlehurst: http://www.findagrave.com
(3)
Milton depot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensacola_and_Atlantic_Railroad
(4)
Chattanooga Water Works: http://www.loc.go
(5)
Nisbet: http://www.findagrave.com
(6)
Book: http://openlibrary.org/book
(7)
Hazlehurst grave: http:www.findagrave.com
Among the most
recognizable and historic churches in Mississippi is the First Presbyterian
Church of Port Gibson. Known for its unique steeple, adorned not with a cross
but with a golden hand pointing toward heaven, the church is among several
houses of worship located on Port Gibson's beautiful, tree-shaded "main
street," officially designated as Highway 61 but still known by most,
appropriately, as Church Street. Completed in 1860, First Presbyterian Church
was likely constructed by a local builder James Jones, who worked on a similar
church building in New Orleans. The interior of the Romanesque Revival church
is simply elegant, and includes, among other things, three chandeliers from the
Robert E. Lee, which was involved in
the most famous riverboat race in history against the Natchez in 1870. For more than 150 years, the congregation has
lovingly taken care of their beloved church, including the most famous finger
in Mississippi. The story of how the golden hand wound up on the church's
steeple (whether or not it is merely legend) is tied to the congregation's
first pastor. And, as it turns out, he has an interesting family history.
The congregation that
became First Presbyterian began in 1807 and was first called Bayou Pierre
Presbyterian Church. Located several miles west of present-day Port Gibson, the
original church building was far from the elegant edifice on Church Street. In
fact, it was a crude log building perched on a bluff overlooking Bayou Pierre,
built in response to the work of three missionaries sent to the Mississippi territory
by the Carolina Synod to establish preaching stations. By the 1820s, the
congregation had grown sufficiently to move to the new community of Port Gibson
and built a larger church, which stood until 1860. A reconstructed log church (left)
is now located at Point Lookout. The site of the original congregation at Bayou
Pierre was the scene of fighting during the battle of Port Gibson on May 1,
1863. During the engagement, the right flank of Brig. Gen. Edward Tracy's
brigade of Alabamians was anchored at Lookout Point, as it is now known. Soon
after 8:00 in the morning, as his brigade began to trade fire with the
advancing Federals, Gen. Tracy was killed in action. According to Sgt. Francis
Obenchain of the Botetout Artillery (the only Virginia unit in the Vicksburg
Campaign), "a ball struck him on the back of the neck passing through. He
fell with great force on his face and in falling cried 'O Lord!'" Tracy
(left) died instantly. His body was carried into town and left at the home of Judge Lemuel
Baldwin after the Confederates retreated and then buried in the town’s cemetery.
In May 1, 1866, on the third anniversary of the battle, Edward Tracy's coffin was
disinterred and taken back to the Baldwin house, where the Presbyterian
minister, a Rev. Price, performed religious services. After the service was
completed, Tracy’s body was taken to the steamboat landing for the long trip
back to Macon, Georgia, where he rests today. 
The first regular pastor
of Port Gibson's Presbyterian Church was Dr. Zebulon Butler. A native of
Pennsylvania, Rev. Butler attended theological school at Princeton, after which
he went as a missionary to southwestern Mississippi. Arriving in Vicksburg, he
received a "cordial reception" and began organizing a prayer meeting
and Sunday School. After a year in Vicksburg, he became pastor of the little
church at Bayou Pierre. Upon arrival, he began "gathering the few
professing believers together" and visiting house to house, where "he
pressed the truth upon the attention of an unevangelized population." Some
of the "unevangelized" no doubt included members of the Methodist
faith, which had been established in the area by the pioneering circuit riders
Tobias Gibson and Lorenzo Dow some two decades earlier. In addition to his evangelical
zeal, Butler was also an advocate of the Colonization movement, which aimed to
slowly dismantle slavery by relocating blacks to Africa, a position also
espoused by the prominent Methodist clergyman William Winans, who, like Zebulon
Butler, was a Pennsylvania native. Zebulon Butler remained in Port Gibson for
the rest of his life and tended to his flock for thirty four years. He died in 1860 and is buried in Port Gibson's historic Wintergreen Cemetery. 
Born in 1803, Zebulon
Butler came from a prominent family. His grandfather, also named Zebulon
Butler, was born in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1731. A soldier and a Colonial
leader, he fought in the French and Indian Wars and then led a group of
settlers into the Wyoming Valley, an area claimed by both Pennsylvania and
Connecticut. Butler was a Connecticut Yankee in the intermittent fighting which
occurred throughout the valley among settlers from the two colonies who made
claims to the same land (in addition to the various tribes who still lived in
the valley). The skirmishing over the land claims, sometimes referred to as the
Pennamite Wars, would not be resolved until long after the American Revolution,
when the area was finally granted to Pennsylvania. During the Revolution, Zebulon
Butler represented the Wyoming Valley in the Connecticut Assembly and served as
a colonel in the Connecticut Line. In 1778, he was defeated in battle by a
Loyalist force under the command of John Butler (apparently no relation). The
Loyalist force included men from the Iroquois and Delaware and some British
regulars. After the battle went against Butler, his men retreated to a
fortified position at Forty Fort. What followed is still described as the “Wyoming
Valley massacre,” depicted in the painting above. According to the account, the Indians executed and then
scalped many of the prisoners and by dawn the "carcasses floated down
river, infesting the banks of the Susquehanna." Zebulon Butler escaped,
however, and returned to his home in Wilkes-Barre, where he died in 1795.
Among Col. Zebulon
Butler's sons was Lord Butler. Although born with an exceedingly patrician
name, 'Lord' was his mother's maiden name and would be used several times in
the family tree. Lord Butler served in numerous offices in Wilkes-Barre and the
region (by then a part of Pennsylvania), including county treasurer, state
senator, postmaster and clerk of courts. He was also appointed as a brigadier
general in the Pennsylvania militia and, as such, is known as "Gen."
Lord Butler. In a history of Luzerne County (Pa.) published in 1893, he was
described as "tall — more than six feet — straight as an arrow, his countenance
manly, with bold Roman features, his manners grave and dignified." He was
apparently quite strict and humorless, as no one dared approach him "with
a joke or a slap on the shoulder." Although he was praised for his
republican ideals and noble character, he was "decided in his political
opinions, and free in expressing them" and would "neither shake hands
with nor smile" when meeting anyone with whom he disagreed, even when
running for office. It is little wonder, then, that his son Zebulon would choose
to go to the wilderness of Mississippi to spread the Gospel and, perhaps, to
escape his father's overbearing personality.
As already noted, Rev.
Butler's time in Port Gibson was fruitful, as he remained pastor for thirty
four years. In addition to his work with the Colonization Society, he was also
actively involved in the dissemination of religious tracts and literature,
becoming an agent for the American Tract Society and the Calvinistic Magazine. Admired as a pastor, at least one family
chose to name their son after him. Zebulon Butler Gatlin (left), born in 1832 in Pike County,
served in Co. H, 39th Mississippi Infantry. Along with the rest of
his regiment, he was captured during the siege of Port Hudson and served time
in prison. Out of six Gatlin brothers who served in the army, three died in the
Civil War. Zebulon Butler Gatlin died in 1893. Ironically, although named for a
Presbyterian minister, he joined the Methodist Church and even had a son who
became a Methodist preacher. 
Rev. Zebulon Butler in
his day was known as a great preacher “who depicted the fiery furnaces of hell
in terms scorching enough to make the most hardened sinner quiver.” During his
sermons, he often raised his fist with a “quivering index finger jabbing toward
Heaven.” In the years just prior to the Civil War, he urged his congregation to
build a new church and it was almost complete when he died on December 23,
1860. The first service held in the new church, ironically, was his own funeral. Wishing to find a suitable memorial for their beloved preacher, the members of
the congregation decided to erect a hand pointing toward heaven on top of the
steeple to mimic his oft-seen gesture in the pulpit. According to other
accounts, the hand was first carved in 1859, prior to his death. Either way, it
is likely in recognition of Rev. Butler’s influence and dedication to his
congregation. The first hand was carved from wood and covered with gold leaf.
Eventually, time (and perhaps woodpeckers) took care of that one and it was replaced
about 1900 with the current 11-foot tall metal hand. Today, the church with the
golden hand is recognizable the world over, a fitting tribute to a pastor who
served his congregation well for more than three decades. 
