MY SHARE--GEORGE POINDEXTER--A SUDDEN OPENING OF A
COURT OF JUSTICE--THE CALDWELL AND GWINN DUEL--JACKSON'S OPPOSITION TO
THE GOVERNOR OF MISSISSIPPI.

The Counties of Wilkinson, Adams, Jefferson, Claiborne, and Warren are
the river counties carved from the territory first settled in the State
of Mississippi. The settlements along the Mississippi came up from New
Orleans and went gradually up the stream. The English or American
immigration to that river antedated but a very short time the war of
the Revolution. The commencement of this war accelerated the
settlement, many seeking an asylum from the horrors of war within the
peaceful borders of this new and faraway land. The five counties above
named constituted the County of Bourbon when the jurisdiction of the
United States was extended to the territory. Very soon after it was
divided into three counties--Wilkinson, Adams, and Jefferson; and
subsequently, as the population increased, Claiborne and Warren were
organized and established. These counties were named after John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, General Wilkinson, General Warren, who fell at
Bunker's Hill, and General Ferdinand Claiborne, a distinguished citizen
of the Territory. As a Territory, Mississippi extended to and comprised
all the territory east to the Alabama River or to the Georgia line. In
fact, there was no distinct eastern boundary until the admission of the
State into the Union.

The leading men of the communities first formed in the five counties on
the Mississippi were men of intelligence and substance. The very first
were those who, to avoid the consequences of the war of the Revolution,
had sought security here. Some, who conscientiously scrupled as to
their duty in that conflict--unwilling to violate an allegiance which
they felt they owed to the British crown, and equally unwilling to take
part against their kindred and neighbors--had left their homes and come
here. There were not a few of desperate character, who had come to
avoid the penalties of the criminal laws of the countries from which
they had fled. The descendants of all these constitute a large element
of the population of these counties at the present moment. Some of
these sustain the character of their ancestors in an eminent degree;
others again are everything but what their parents were.

One feature of the country is different from that of almost any other
portion of the United States. The descendants of the first pioneers are