Rodney, Mississippi

Rodney, Mississippi
Ghost town
Former First Presbyterian Church
Nickname(s):  "Petite Gulf", "Little Gulf"
Rodney, Mississippi Rodney, Mississippi
Coordinates: 31°51′40.6″N 91°11′59.4″W
Country	United States
State	Mississippi
County	Jefferson
Founded	1828
Elevation	82 ft (25 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
GNIS feature ID	676809

Rodney is a ghost town in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. Most of the buildings are gone, and the remaining structures are in various states of disrepair. The town floods regularly, and some of the buildings have extensive flood damage. The Rodney History And Preservation Society is restoring Rodney Presbyterian Church. Damage to the church's facade from the American Civil War has been maintained as part of the historical preservation including a replica cannonball embedded above the balcony windows. The Rodney Center Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The town is approximately 32 miles (51 km) northeast of Natchez. It is currently about two miles inland from the Mississippi River. Between the town and the Mississippi are wetlands, including a lake that roughly follows the former course of the river. Atop the loess bluffs behind Rodney are its cemetery and Confederate earthworks from the Civil War.

In 1817, it was three votes away from becoming the capital of Mississippi. In the 1800s, a hybrid strain of cotton and innovations to the cotton gin were developed in Rodney by Rush Nutt. Rodney was incorporated in 1828, and became a major port for shipping cotton with a population in the thousands. By 1860, it had a variety of businesses including multiple major newspapers and Mississippi's first opera house. During the Civil War, Confederate States Army cavalry captured the crew of a Union Army ship who were attending service in Rodney Presbyterian Church, resulting in the shelling of the city. After the war, the Mississippi River changed course, the railroad bypassed the area, and nearly all buildings burned down. The population declined until the town was disincorporated in 1930. In 2010, only "a hand full of people" were reported to live in Rodney.

History

Rodney's landing site was a key waypoint on Native American routes around the Mississippi Delta region. Native American implements and arrowheads have been unearthed between the Natchez Trace overland route and Rodney. The Natchez people likely used the area as a portage between the Mississippi River and White Apple Village.

The area was claimed by the French in January 1763 and named Petit Gouffre, or "Petite Gulf" in contrast to Grand Gulf, Mississippi upriver. After the French and Indian War, it was ceded to Great Britain. Spain took control in 1781, and gave many land grants in West Florida to British immigrants. Land that would become Rodney was granted to Mississippi planter Thomas Calvit in 1791. Spain lost control of the area in 1798, and on April 2, 1799, the Mississippi Territory was organized. Three years later, Delaware magistrate Thomas Rodney was sent to Jefferson Parish as a Territorial Judge. In 1807 Thomas Rodney would preside over the Aaron Burr trial; Burr was held at Thomas Calvit's home while under investigation for treason. Thomas Rodney became Chief Justice of the Mississippi Territory, and the town was renamed after him in 1814. Rodney was more significant to the region than Vicksburg or Natchez in the early 1800s. In 1817, the Mississippi Territory was being admitted as a state, and Rodney came three votes short of becoming the capital.

Growth

Map of the Mississippi River from 1866

Rodney became a cultural center and incorporated in 1828. It was the primary shipping location for a broad swath of Mississippi. Rodney resident Rush Nutt demonstrated effective methods to power cotton gins with steam engines in 1830. The importation of different types of cotton seeds resulted in the breeding of a disease-resistant and easy-to-harvest hybrid that became known as Petit Gulf cotton. The development of Petite Gulf cotton and the Indian Removal Act of 1830 spurred a westward land rush. Many early settlers of Texas crossed through Rodney. Their wagons were poled across the water on flatboat ferries to St. Joseph, Louisiana.

Rodney emerged as a thriving port on the Mississippi. According to historian Keri Watson, enslaved dockworkers loaded "millions of pounds of cotton" onto steamboats bound for New Orleans. Due to a shortage of legal tender, cotton receipts became de facto currency. The town had Mississippi's first opera house and, before the Civil War, two major newspapers, The Southern Telegraph and Rodney Gazette.

The initial building used for church services in town doubled as a tavern, serving alcohol on other days. In 1829, the first steps were taken to erect the still-standing red-brick Presbyterian church. One year later, the Presbyterian Oakland College was chartered. The college was built on 250 acres (100 ha) near the town. Zachary Taylor's Cypress Grove Plantation, Nutt's Laurel Hill, and many other large plantation homes were built around Rodney during this period.

Civil War

Former First Presbyterian Church, with cannonball (circled) embedded above the center second-floor window

During the Civil War, a group of Union Army soldiers were captured at Rodney's Presbyterian Church. Part of the Union's strategy during the Civil War was their plan to advance down the Mississippi River, dividing the Confederacy in half. The Union's USS Rattler was a side-wheel steamboat, retrofitted into a lightly armored warship. After the Union captured the fortress city of Vicksburg, they took control of river traffic on the Mississippi. Rattler was one of many ships tasked with maintaining this control by preventing Confederate crossings. Rattler was anchored in the river near Rodney's landing in September 1863. Much of the town, including the surviving red-brick church, was directly visible from the water at that time.

When Reverend Baker from the Red Lick Presbyterian Church traveled to Rodney via steamboat, he invited Rattler's crew to come ashore and attend services in what was still Confederate territory. On Sunday, September 13, 1863, seventeen men departed from Rattler to attend the 11 am service. Only a single crewmember brought a firearm to the service. Confederate cavalry surrounded the building when the volume of the choir was loud enough to cover their approach. The troops entered the building and quickly captured the Northern soldiers with some assistance from members of the congregation.

When reports reached the ship, Rattler began to fire upon the town; a cannonball lodged into the church above the balcony window. The shelling ceased when Confederate soldiers threatened to execute their Union prisoners. Lt. Commander James A. Greer aboard the USS Benton anchored upstream near Natchez, admonished Rattler's captain for acting as a civilian during a time of war. He issued orders to arrest any officer found "leaving his vessel to go on shore under any circumstances".

Decline

Rodney Hotel in 1940

Rodney gradually went from a major port to a ghost town after the river changed course. In 1860, Rodney had multiple banks, barbers, dentists, bakers, hotels, taverns, doctors, and over 35 stores. At its peak, thousands of people resided in the town.

A home nearly obscured by sunflowers, by Marion Post Wolcott, circa 1940

During the time of the Civil War, the Mississippi River began to change course. A sand bar developed upstream and pushed the river west. Rodney's former shipping channel transformed into a swamp. The Rodney Landing was relocated several miles away from the town itself. In 1869, a fire consumed most of the buildings in town; the Presbyterian church survived. In 1880, German and Irish immigrants arrived and opened new businesses. The railroad bypassed the town. The rail line ran through Jefferson County's seat of government, Fayette, and Rodney's landing was abandoned. In 1930, Governor Theodore G. Bilbo disincorporated Rodney. By 1938, Mississippi: A Guide to the Magnolia State described Rodney as "a ghost river town" that had died when the railroad passed it by.

It was in this state of decline that novelist Eudora Welty found the town. Rodney became a setting in Welty's works including the novella The Robber Bridegroom. Welty wrote, "The river had gone, three miles away, beyond sight and smell, beyond the dense trees. It came back only in flood." Photographer Marion Post Wolcott documented Rodney for the Farm Security Administration circa 1940.

Extant structures

Alston's Grocery Store, one of the few remaining structures

A ruined cemetery, several stores, a couple of churches, and few houses remain, in various states of disrepair. The red-brick Rodney Presbyterian Church, built in 1832, is a federal-style church and the oldest remaining building in Rodney. The Presbyterian church is located near the center of town on ground sufficiently elevated to escape the regular flooding. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972. The Rodney History and Preservation Society purchased the church to conduct repairs. When the church was being restored, the hole created by Union cannonfire during the Civil War was retained and a replica cannonball was placed in the exterior wall.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church, overgrown with vines

Mt. Zion Baptist Church was built in 1851. It has a Greek Revival/Gothic Revival style. Mt. Zion Baptist originally had a white congregation, became a predominantly African American church after the white population began to abandon the town, and is now completely abandoned. Changes in the course of the Mississippi River have resulted in repeated flooding. The structure shows clear signs of flood damage including water lines and rotted floors. The road sign pointing towards the church becomes visible in autumn when the leaves fall away from the vines overgrowing the signpost. Surviving members of the church formed the Greater Mount Zion church several miles away and outside of the flood zone.

Masonic lodge in 2022

Alston's Grocery, operated by the Alston family beginning in 1915, is south of the Presbyterian Church on what was once Commerce Street. The Sacred Heart Catholic Church, built in 1869, was located at the southern end of town. In 1983, the entire building was relocated to Grand Gulf Military State Park. The gable-front Masonic lodge was built circa 1890. Only a small handful of people still live in the area, and most of the remaining buildings are abandoned.

Geography

Rodney is located near the southern end of the Natchez Trace, a forest trail that stretches for hundreds of miles across North America. The Trace was started by animal migration along a geologic ridge line. The town is approximately 32 miles (51 km) northeast of Natchez, south of Bayou Pierre (Mississippi), and about 2 miles inland from the east bank of the Mississippi River. It is situated on loess bluffs that are within the Mississippi River watershed and that were once adjacent to the river. Wetlands including a lake that roughly follows the river's old course are immediately west of the town. The town is at a relatively low elevation, and prone to seasonal flooding. When the river ran past Rodney, its position on the lower bluffs above steep river banks created an ideal position for a river landing. Civil War–era earthworks are still present atop the bluffs that rise above the town.

Climate

Rodney has mild winters and warm summers. The average yearly precipitation is about 60 inches (1,500 mm). Flooding issues stem primarily from the Mississippi River overflowing.

Notable people

• James Cessor, member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1871 to 1877
• Thomas Hinds Duggan, former member of the Texas Senate
• Bill Foster, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Charles Pasquale Greco, Bishop of Alexandria in Louisiana from 1946 to 1973 and Supreme Chaplain of the Knights of Columbus from 1961 to 1987
• Reuben C. Weddington, former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives
• Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States built his Buena Vista plantation just south of Rodney.

See also

• Lists of ghost towns in the United States

External links

Media related to Rodney, Mississippi at Wikimedia Commons