Digging Up Your Family

I believe this newspaper article appeared in The Commercial Appeal, August 3, 1940.  It has been transcribed exactly how it appears in the paper.  Both Edmund Richards and Spencer DeMumbrie are my third great-grandfathers.

The article

Edmund Richards

John Spencer DeMumbrie

Old River Boats Depended Upon Dozens Of Woodyards Scattered Along The Route

Police Inspector Clegg Richards’ Grandfathers Operated Two Of Largest-Abraham Lincoln Worked On Old Ferguson Farm Near Here

By Joe Curtis

For nearly 100 years Mississippi River steamboats used cord wood for fuel. Although coal began to come into service as a fuel early in the 50’s, it was not in general use until after the end of the Civil War and even then some boat masters believed good hickory or oak cord wood made a faster and hotter fire under the boats’ boilers.

For a number of years some of the largest woodyards along the Mississippi were located in Memphis territory, because for miles and miles the banks of the river were thick in forests of hickory, white oak, ash, and other hardwoods, which produced hot fires to generate steam rapidly an often saved a boat from falling in disgrace when racing another packet.

Many Yards Near Here

Between Memphis and just below Helena, Ark., there once were about 80 woodyards. In the vicinity of Memphis was the yard owned by Wappannocca Ferguson. Whether it was just above or below the city has never been determined, but a great many oldtime river pilots claimed it was in the big bend running the west side of President’s Island.

Anyhow, there is a story that Abraham Lincoln once worked for Mr. Ferguson. This is how it is supposed to have happened. Mr. Lincoln was returning to his home in Illinois, after making one of his famous flatboat trips down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans between 1830-32. Not having much money with him, he and a number of companions engaged deck passage on an up-space boat.

Evidently, there must have been some slick fellows in the group, because when the boat went in at Wappannocca Ferguson’s to “wood up” Mr. Lincoln walked ashore and by mere chance met Mr. Ferguson. What transpired during their conversation is not known, but Mr. Lincoln said he had been “skinned” and he was given a job on Ferguson’s big farm and worked for him long enough to get money to pay his way home.

Invited to White House

When Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the United States, he extended to Mr. Ferguson a personal invitation to come and visit him at the White House in Washington, and it was accepted. Mr. Ferguson remained in Washington two weeks, so the old story goes.

E. M. Daugherty of Tunica, Miss., writes some valuable information on these old river woodyards between Memphis and below Helena. In a letter, he states that three big yards used to be at Ashly Point owned by Mr. Ashly, the other by a Mr. Clack, and the third by a Mr. Hutcheson. At Commerce, Miss., a man named Smith had a yard. At Mhoon’s Landing, Miss., there was Richards’ woodyard and not far from it was DeMumbrie’s Landing, Miss., and a big yard. Then came the yards at Whiskey Island, owned by Mr. Davis, one at Bordeaux Island, owned by a Mr. Goode. On Fox Island, opposite Austin, Miss., John McCann operated a yard and at Harbert’s Landing was the yard owned by Tom Turner.

Most all these famous landings have disappeared. The villages and towns that once thrived between Memphis and Helena have gone out of the picture, simply because they seem to have served there purpose and as Ol’ Man River had no further use for them, he simply changed his course, either washing away their very foundations or cutting out a new path for himself and leaving them miles away.

Old Pilots Would be Lost

In the bends from Helena to Memphis the changes have been so drastic and numerous no river pilot who ran the Mississippi in the days of Mark Twain would dare to attempt to handle a steamboat today through the sometimes narrow, twisted channels built up between sandbars of thousands of acres.

Mr. Dougherty writes interestingly of a double tragedy on Bordeau Island a number of years after the steamer Pennsylvania stopped at Goode’s woodyard to refuel and then exploded her boilers a few minutes after pulling away from that landing.

This Mr. Goode, writes Mr. Dougherty, always kept considerable money about his premises. His hired man, Charles Ibeck, suspected this and although he watched time and again to see where Mr. Goode hid his gold, he must have been unsuccessful, so he worked out another plan to rob him.

“One day,” continues Mr. Dougherty’s letter, “Ibeck came running to Goode’s house, telling him a cow had bogged down in some swampland. Mr. Goode and Ibeck hurried to the place to save the cow. When passing through a thick growth of underbrush and can, Ibeck, who had carried a axe with him, chopped Goode’s head open and he fell dead.

“Ibeck ran to the house after Mrs. Goode, telling her that Mr. Goode had been injured and she must hurry to him. She followed Ibeck into the canebrake and he slugged her to death with the axe. He then returned to the house and searched it for valuables. Some money was found.”

Took Boat North

The following day, so Mr. Dougherty states, a Cincinnati bound steamboat put in at Goode’s woodyard for fuel. Ibeck supplied her and engaged passage to Cincinnati. He took with him a team of horses, wagon and other valuable farming tools. But, the climax came when a packet from Napoleon, Ark., to Memphis landed at Bordeau three weeks later.

The captain of this boat had a hunch all was not right at Goode’s yard. He had not missed being hailed there in several years. Twice had he passed up the landing because there came no hail, but this afternoon he told the pilot to go in because he believed something was wrong.

Some of the crew investigated the premises. Finding no one in the house, they picked up tracks leading to the cane and swamps where they found the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Goode. Picking up broken threads in the trail, caused the packet captain to trace Ibeck to Cincinnati. There he was investigated at a farm near the city. The team and wagon were identified and when confronted with his accusers, he confessed to murdering the Goodes.

Ibeck was returned to Austin, Miss., for trial. While in jail one day in 1869, three skiff loads of wood choppers came from Arkansas, battered their way into the jail at Austin, took Ibeck out and strung him
up. Mr. Dougherty said the sheriff at Austin then was Frank S. Belcher, who afterward became a big manufacturer.

River Took Plantation

Mr. Dougherty says there have been so many changes along the Mississippi since the day of the woodyard, rivermen of the 70’s wouldn’t recognize it. And, if these changes hadn’t taken place, Inspector Clegg D. Richards, Chief if the Detectives of the City of Memphis, might today be one of the biggest cotton planters in the State of Mississippi, for both his grandfathers, Col. Spencer DeMumbrie and Edmund Richards, owned the largest woodyards along the Mississippi, between St. Louis and New Orleans.

At the death of his grandfather, Edmund Richards, his big plantation on which was the woodyard and a fine colonial residence, was left to Jerome Richards, father of Inspector Richards. But the Mississippi kept gnawing away at it, cutting out acres at a time and carrying it down the river for miles to build up another man’s landholdings and make him richer. Finally, the Richards’ place had only 150 acres left. It was sold. Then what happened? “Well,” said Inspector Richards, “Lady Luck came onto the scene, took Ol’ Man River by the neck, forced him to change his course back like he was in the days of Grandfather Richards, so he built up the old plantation to a larger number of acres than originally were in it.”

And then, way back in about 1853, when the great steamboat Diana and Baltic raced from New Orleans to Louisville, the Diana being a mile or so in the lead of the Baltic when nearing Colonel Demumbrie’s woodyard, blew a whistle to refuel and a barge was taken in low and carried almost to Memphis before it was cut loose and floated back to its old home port in charge of a Negro slave, for both Colonel DeMumbrie and Edmund Richards were big slave owners.

Used Barges for Wood

Colonel Demumbrie is believed to have been the only woodyard man along the Mississippi to own a fleet of barges on which cord wood was loaded for ready use. If a boat went upstream, it towed the barge until unloaded and it floated down to the landing with an attendant guiding and propelling it with a log sweep-like car. If the boat taking a barge in tow was going downstream, the barge was landed at some point for the first upboat to take back to DeMumbrie’s Landing.

The DeMumbrie residence was said to have been the finest along the Mississippi this side of the plantation homes in the Louisiana. Colonel DeMumbrie’s long record of service to the United States went back a long way. He accompanied the Rogers an Clark expedition to the Northwest and upon returning, went to that point along the Mississippi River where he established his woodyard. Mrs. Demumbrie died leaving a little girl. She had been christened Minnie and was reared by a Memphis relative. It was Miss Minnie DeMumbrie who married the late Jerome Richards at Central Baptist Church.

Today, there isn’t a grain of sand left where DeMumbrie’s woodyard and stately plantation residence stood. It wasn’t far from Mhoon’s Landing and the ground on which it stood is now the Mississippi River.

Edmund Richards, father of the late Jerome Richards and Miss Caroline McQueen were married. And there again is a family tree with its branches reaching back to Colonial Days, for Miss McQueen was born on May 11, 1826, a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Freeland McQueen. Edmund Richards settled with his bride on his Mississippi River plantation where he saw steamboating grow from its crudeness to its greatness and now, his grandson, Inspector Richards, points with pride to the days when as a little boy, he rode the old Kate Adams to his father’s cotton plantation and in later years he with other members of the family heard about the cruel Mississippi taking most of it away. That is when his youthful dreams of becoming a rich cotton planter came to an end, he says.