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Potts Camp News
Dale Hollingsworth

Mary Minor and her sisters enjoy outing in Oxford

I was glad to hear from my son, Danny Potts Hollingsworth, in Morristown, Tenn. He and Elizabeth have three sons, Luke, Clark and Jake, all college students. Danny is business leader in a college in Jefferson City-Newson-Courson.

Four-year-old Anna Ross Work spent the weekend with her grandparents, Connie and Andy Work, and attended the auction in Potts Camp with them.

Peggy Ford had eye surgery recently. Pray for her.

My son, Jimmy Hollingsworth and his wife, Martha, of Tupelo visited with me one day last week.

On Monday, March 26, the Marshall County Genealogical Society will meet at the Marshall County Library in Holly Springs. My friend, Sylvia Seymour Akin of Memphis, Tenn., is the editor of their magazine.

Margaret Hart, Jeanette Stone, Nancy Green and Mary Minor enjoyed a trip to Oxford on Friday of last week. They visited the University Museum and saw the Gee’s Bend Quilt Exhibit. They also visited Jimmie Hart at the Rehab Unit of Baptist Memorial Hospital.

Mr. and Mrs. David Greer Jr. were in Las Vegas, Nev., on a business trip recently and visited Hoover Dam.

Congratulations to the H.W. Byers Lady Lions for winning the State Basketball Tournament in Jackson last week.

Annie Ruth Stone spent several days over the weekend with her daughter, Tommy Ann and Gale Goode, in their new home in the Cornersville area, and attended church with them at Cornersville Methodist Church. Emily Stone, daughter of Mitch Stone Jr. and Jeanette, teaches art classes at Potts Camp and other schools. She is very talented. I enjoy their visits. Mitch Jr. is song leader for our Potts Camp Methodist Church. He came and sang for me and others at my home last week.

Steve Price broke his hand while he and his wife Bobbie were moving recently to another area of town. Get well to him!

The tiny Potts Camp Depots with Potts Camp printed on them that someone brought here brought back memories. My dad worked in one like it for 40 years.

Thoughts

II Chronicles speaks for itself: “If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and seek my face and will turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.”

Times have changed since I was a girl! We didn’t have much money, but we worshiped God in our schools and anywhere we wanted to. Local preachers came to the school to speak to us and we sang “God Bless America” and “My Country Tis of Thee!” Even the Christmas cards have changed. Now they say “Season’s Greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas.” When we arrived at school, the coach who held the study hall would read the Bible and pray. (I pray that everyone will turn back to God.)

Prayer list: Henry Tutor, Charles Henderson, Steve Price, Thelma Ford, Sank Owen, Betty Rose Jones, Diane Clayton, Betty Fincher.

History of Potts Camp

It is exciting to recall memories of the past told to us by our ancestors. Picture Indians paddling in their canoe down Tippah River while the squaw cooks on an open fire near the wigwam. They called it Talehatchia.

In 1836, the U.S. government offered to give the Indians the state of Oklahoma and $20,000 a year for 20 years for the state of North Mississippi. Many of the older Indians died trying to reach their new home.

The new land in North Miss. was divided into counties. Marshall County was the larger one.

In 1836, a tall, adventurous man, Colonel Erasmus Ferdinand Potts, rode from South Carolina to Pontotoc to purchase several sections of land in this area. It was 12 miles long and eight miles wide. He also bought land in the Delta but moved to this area.

Erasmus and Elizabeth Potts had three children: Ferdinand Potts, my great-grandfather; James Benton Potts (fought in the war and died young; my dad was named for him); Mary Potts Reid, youngest, married Charles Reid; churches and schools were named for her.

After moving to this vicinity, Col. Potts suddenly acquired the Midas touch. With the help of many workers, Potts produced great quantities of grain for sale on the market and raised hundreds of head of cattle, driving them to Memphis for sale or to be shipped to New Orleans on riverboats.

Col. Potts was the first postmaster in North Mississippi (the only office in this area for many years).

Where Tippah River was forded there was a broad field with wood to burn and cool water to drink. Col. Potts encouraged the travelers on horse back and wagons to use the spot, and he gave them supplies. They called it medicine.

He built a large mansion near Winborn.

When the Civil War started, the colonel was too old to fight, but he spent large sums of money to help the Confederacy.

One day, he blindfolded the workers and had them bury his gold, so they would not know where it was buried. Col. Potts was arrested and died in a prison camp; the gold was never found.

Col. Potts and his wife, Elizabeth Brownlee Potts, and sons are buried in Potts Cemetery near Winborn. We have visited there many times over the years and others have visted, too, including Fred Whaley and sons Rodney and Brett, and others who have lived here. He was my great-great-grandfather.

Did you know?
Richard Simmons

A day in naval history

It is said that on this day of March 9, 1862, modern naval warfare began. For the first time in naval history two ironclad vessels battled. The Union’s “Monitor” and the Confederacy’s “Virginia” met to wage war never before seen.

The Confederate Virginia was originally a U.S. wooden frigate named the “Merrimack” that had been scuttled near Norfolk, Virginia. The Confederates raised the Merrimack and covered its hull with iron slanting plates. It is said the ship looked like a barn roof with ten cannons sticking out of its sides with a smoke stack on top. Nevertheless it was effective.

On March 8, the odd-looking ship sailed into combat with five Union ships that blocked the port of Norfolk. The Virginia quickly sank the USS Cumberland and the USS Congress, and drove the USS Minnesota aground. It was feared the Virginia would sink the entire Union fleet and then proceed up the Potomac River and destroy the Capitol.

The next day, when the Virginia left its birth, it met a surprise. An experimental ship, the Union Monitor, another ironclad, appeared on the scene. The Monitor rode low in the water, having only one revolving turret with two big guns. Witnesses said it looked like a “tin can on a shingle.” This funny-looking ship proved to be just as tough as the Virginia. After three hours of battle, both ships turned and limped away, calling the battle a draw. The Union forces did have the victory as the Virginia port blockade held.

Soon the word of the ironclads battle spread. The age of tall-masted wooden ships had come to a close and a new modern naval warfare had begun. It happened on this day 149 years ago.

Did You Know On

Mar. 9, 1945 – U.S. bombers dropped incendiary bombs on Tokyo.

Mar. 10, 1876 – Alexander Graham Bell succeeded in sending words over a telephone wire.

Mar. 11, 1918 – The first case of Spanish flu was reported, becoming an epidemic that killed over 600,000 Americans and tens of millions worldwide.

Mar. 12, 1912 – Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. in Savannah, Ga.

Mar. 13, 1868 – The Senate began the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.

Mar. 14, 1743 – America’s first recorded town meeting took place at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Mar. 15, 1919 – About 1,000 U.S. soldiers gathered in Paris, France, for the first meeting of the American Legion.

This Week’s Quiz

What spacecraft was first to successfully gather data on another planet?

What spacecraft was first to visit Uranus and Neptune?

What spacecraft was the first to probe and explore a comet’s interior?

What spacecraft landed a rover on Mars to explore its surface?

What spacecraft was first to orbit Saturn?

Answers to Last Week’s Quiz

The Lucky Lady II, a B-50 Super Fortress, was the first to fly non-stop around the world.

The Missouri Compromise was when Congress passed a law admitting Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state in 1820.

The Mustang was produced in 1964 as one of Ford Motor Company’s most successful autos.

Robert A. Goddard developed and launched the first liquid-fuel rocket.

The USS Skate was the first submarine to surface at the North Pole.

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