1877 – Long letter from a Piney Woods minister to a district judge pleading for support of Pascagoula River lumbermen whose businesses were being systematically destroyed by hostile federal marshals during Reconstruction

Moss Point, Pascagoula, Mississippi, 1877. Unbound. Very good. This six-page letter was written by S. J. Bingham to R. A. Hill. It is datelined, “Moss Point – Pascagoula [Mississippi] Dec 11. 1[8]77.” In nice shape. There is no mailing envelope. A transcript will be provided.

In this letter, Bingham, a Piney Woods Presbyterian minister, implores Hill, a federal judge appointed by President Johnson, to protect Pascagoula lumber mill owners and workers from the systematic efforts by federal marshals to destroy the region’s timber business and regional economy. While Bingham makes no mention of the marshals’ motivation, it would be quite likely (truncated) they were related to aggressive attempts by federal officials to punish southerners during Reconstruction following the Civil War. Bingham’s letter reads in part,

“I wish to call your attention to the condition in which . . . our Mill men, & nearly all of the employees & their families, are brought by the unlawful seizures of logs, lumber & so by the United States marshals at this place – acting under the guise of law. [Their] logs are cut in counties north of Pascagoula on lands within a mile or mile & a half of rivers . . . and when floated to this place are offered in this market for sale. . .. The Mill men having no knowledge of the owner of said logs except the man claiming & offering the logs for sale do buy the said logs in all good faith without any interest or knowledge of violating any law either state or US. . .. This business [is] conducted on legitimate principles [and] our Mill men are men . . . irreproachable character. . .. The logs now in possession of the Mill men are logs cut off of private land as is shown by affidavits made before an officer of the law by the seller [but] the US. Marshals do not regard the claims or the oaths of private citizens. . .."

"The case of Mr. Deney is typical.] “Certificates show that he has wished to deal honestly. These certificates he has offered to the Marshals to examine, but they refuse to examine them. And with full knowledge that these certificates are held by Deney . . . the Marshals have proceeded to seize the logs, the yard lumber, the boom, and a vessel loaded with this lumber. . .. They have ordered [him] not to saw any more [and] his mill now stands still . . . he can neither saw nor sell any of it. The vessel he could hire to other parties but it sands seized with some 40,000 feet of his own lumber in it. . .. You thus see a man acting in all good faith in strict regard to law is prevented from sawing his own logs . . . selling his own lumber lawfully sawn and of using his own vessel. . ..

“How long are these Marshals, unscrupulous & unlawful in their proceedings, . . . are they to be permitted to ride over all law, State & US . . . designed to protect private citizens in their possessions? How long will they be permitted to trample all law & private rights under their feet & seize & hold private property. . ..

"All individual & private enterprises are stopped for the Mills give employment to employees & bread to 4 or 5000 persons. [There is] much suffering already and very soon . . . many thousands will be brought to want for nearly every body here . . . depends in great part on the money received from the mills for support. . .. We appeal to you . . . and ask if nothing can be done for our relief. Can the marshals not be required to release all private property . . . and let the mill men go on with their business. And thus give support, by employment to the people of this section, all of whom claim that they have not violated any law. . ..” . After Judge Hill, in turn wrote a letter to the Attorney General of the United States, the marshals were apparently ordered to halt their illegal actions, as the Piney Woods lumbering business returned to normal.

Ironically, vengeful ‘reconstructive’ persecution of Piney Woods was misplaced. As the region was never suitable for cotton, much of its population, including Judge Hill, viewed the Civil War as a “planters’ war” and never supported secession. In fact, the region’s federalist sympathies spawned an anti-Confederate guerilla war that was depicted, although only with partial accuracy, by Matthew McConaughey’s portrayal of Newton Knight in the 2016 film Free State of Jones.

(For more information see, information about Bingham and Hill available through ancestry.com, Hickman’s “Logging and Rafting Timber in South Mississippi, 1840-1910” in the Journal of Mississippi History, 2017, “Piney Woods” at the Mississippi Encyclopedia website, “Port History” at the Port of Pascagoula website, and “The Free State of Jones” at the ScreenRant website. Judge Hill’s letter to the Attorney General is available in Lexis-Nexis microfilm collection, Letters Received by the Attorney General, 1871-1884: Southern Law and Order.)

No doubt unique. At the time of listing, there does not appear to be any other information about the Reconstruction lumber seizures except for several microfilm letters in the Lexis-Nexis collection. . (Inventory #: 010404)