Most people seem to associate the history of the old homes of Columbus with the Civil War but I think of a much earlier time. Columbus is the product of a war but it is not the Civil War, as it was actually settled as a result of the turmoil surrounding the War of 1812. Though most of the homes of Columbus’ earliest days are lost or so deeply buried in later houses as to not be identifiable, a few have survived retaining their early flavor.
The founding of Columbus involved a series of settlements and events stretching from 1810 to 1821. The origins of the town are tied to John Pitchlynn’s 1810 residence across the river at Plymouth Bluff. It was there that in 1813, Fort Smith, a small but important log blockhouse, was constructed during the Creek Indian War. In October 1814 none other than Davy Crockett arrived there to be resupplied on his way to join Gen. Coffee’s Tennessee troops and Andrew Jackson. In 1816, the land on which Columbus now sits was ceded to the U.S. by the Choctaw Nation.
It was also in 1816 that, at the suggestion of Andrew Jackson, Congress authorized construction of a military road providing a direct route between Nashville and New Orleans. The road’s survey was completed by September 1817 and placed its Tombigbee ferry crossing at the site that became Columbus.
A “so called” Thomas Thomas built the first house overlooking the ferry crossing in the fall of 1817. The house may have been built for William Cocke, the former Chickasaw Indian Agent and early Columbus resident who was living on the Tombigbee by June 1818.
By the summer of 1819 a community had been established at the site which was believed to be in Alabama. In December 1819, the community was referred to in an Alabama legislative act as the Town of Columbus. In those early, formative days of settlement most of the building construction was of log but a few were frame.
The first frame house in Columbus was built by Gideon Lincecum in 1819. The first brick house was probably built by Silas McBee in the early 1820s.
In the early days of Columbus there was a cultural mix of people with French and Spanish roots coming up the Tombigbee from Mobile, meeting settlers with English and Scottish roots coming overland through Tennessee and Georgia. Into that mix were found the Choctaws and Chickasaws, who were already here. The legacy of that mixing of cultures is found in the diversity of Columbus’ architecture.
Within the present city limits of Columbus only a few houses remain that date to the earliest years of the town’s settlement. The oldest house in Columbus and probably north Mississippi is the Cedars. It was originally a one-room log house probably built by Vardy McBee about 1818. The house was enlarged in 1835. The Cedars sits on top of a hill overlooking the Military Road three miles north of the original town. The earliest recorded owner of the property was Vardy McBee.
It was in January 1821 that the Cotton Gin Port-Columbus area was declared to be in Mississippi and not Alabama. In February 1821, Monroe County, Mississippi, was established and Columbus was incorporated as a Mississippi town. The oldest surviving building within the original town limits is the Ole Homestead, which was probably built by Charles Abert in 1825. It is a frame vernacular raised cottage that was originally two rooms over two rooms facing the Tombigbee River. In 1835 an east wing was added and the house was reoriented to face College Street. The house resembles a miniature version of Madam John’s Legacy, a French Colonial house in New Orleans.
The Cartney-Hunt house was built between 1824 and 1828 just outside the town limits on present day Seventh Street. It is a brick Federal Style house and is probably the oldest surviving brick house in north Mississippi. It looks much like the early 19th century brick row houses found in Georgetown, D.C., or Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.
Within present day Columbus, but outside of the original town limits, are several other surviving log houses. The Cedars was mentioned earlier. Hickory Sticks on Seventh Street North is a double pen log house built during the 1820s and enlarged about 1834. Buttersworth on Fifth Avenue South was a log dog-trot built in the 1820s and enlarged during the 1840s. There are probably a few other log structures buried inside of later houses. While people often think of the early houses in Columbus being log cabins, the construction of wood frame houses began in 1819 and brick a few years later.
The antebellum homes of Columbus are not just the white pillared mansions associated with the Civil War era South. Houses dating to Southern frontier times are also be found. During the Columbus Pilgrimage, the Cedars (ca. 1818) and the Ole Homestead (ca. 1825), will be part of the Tour on Sunday afternoon April 12. The Cartney-Hunt House (between 1824-1828) is a bed and breakfast.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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