Family Feud (pages 163-170)
(page 163, par. 1, line 4) Spanish Government House. Architectural details are conjectural, based on the assertion that the surviving House on Ellicott Hill was situated close by, on the same ridge overlooking the Mississippi River, and was constructed in a similar late colonial style, both built within a few years of one another. See Martin, Michael T. Mississippi – A Guide to the Magnolia State, for details and illustrations of the House on Ellicott Hill. Andrew Ellicott and his military escort set up camp on James Moore’s property, where he built the House on Ellicott Hill the following year. The latter house features strong Federal style architectural elements in addition to the broad porches and galleries of the West Indian style. It is one of the oldest surviving structures from Mississippi’s Territorial period, and serves as principal property of the pioneering historical preservationists the Natchez Garden Club.
(page 164, par. 5, line 2) Anthony Hutchins (ca. 1725-1804) Lyman C. Draper’s note: “Colonel Anthony Hutchins was a native of New Jersey; early migrated to North Carolina, and in 1772 explored the Natchez country, settling permanently at the White Apple village, twelve miles from Natchez, the following year, and survived the troubles of the Revolution, and died when past eighty years of age. A wealthy planter, was a brother to Thomas Hutchins, the geographer-general of the United States. His wife was a Conover, from near Freehold village.” See also: Grant, Ethan A. “Anthony Hutchins: A Pioneer of the Old Southwest” Florida Historical Q, 1996, Vol. 74 (4 Spring):405-422; and Ill-Fated Frontier, Ch. 18, Note 2.
(page 168, par. 4) Andrew Ellicott (1754-1820) was an American surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia, continued and completed Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s work on the plan for Washington, D.C., served as a teacher in survey methods for Meriwether Lewis. He served on the faculty of West Point military academy in the final years of his varied career.
Andrew Ellicott took most of 1796 confirming his appointment, putting his affairs in order, and gathering supplies. He set off in the Fall of 1796 from Lancaster for Pittsburgh and the riverine trip toward Natchez. As the Formans and so many pioneers before him had discovered, the trip involved human vagaries of rounding out supplies and outfitting at Fort Pitt, and the variable natural environment of the rivers.
Ellicott finally arrived in Natchez in February 1797. Manuel Gayoso dispatched Stephen Minor north to Vicksburg in a vain effort to persuade Ellicott to leave his military escort there, avoiding a potentially uncomfortable situation of the Spanish garrison at Natchez facing off with several dozen unwelcome American soldiers disembarking at Natchez. But Andrew Ellicott had his mission and was not to be dissuaded. Within days he set up an encampment behind Connelly’s Tavern on the high bluff overlooking the upper town. See: Mathews, Catherine Van Cortlandt. Andrew Ellicott – His Life and Letters; and article by Entry by Silvio A. Bedini in ANB.
(page 168, par. 2, line 4) “his true and absolute property and right” Records of the Spanish Administration, Natchez: Adams County Court House, Chancery archive. Transcript of proceedings for March 11, 1797. Also MDAH microfilm Reel 17798. Op. cit.