ROAD TRIP 6
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Today in Mississippi
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January 2018
Time for a
fter the holidays I try to start the New Year off with a road trip somewhere that’s a long way from my house. It’s a pleasant thought in the middle of December when everything is so hectic. Knowing that after all of it is over I can get some real “peace on earth” while I unwind on my way to somewhere interesting. Since I live in the Jackson Metro area, there are all sorts of places that qualify as a long road trip from my house. In the past I have headed down to Wilkinson County in the southwest in the “chin” of Mississippi. Mississippi January is a litSeen tle cold for the by Walt Grayson Clark Creek Waterfalls down there. But there is always a neat story around Woodville. In the other direction, Tishomingo State Park up northeast is a fun place in the winter. Well, I like it in winter. There aren’t a lot of people there in the cold months. And there is nothing better on a winter night than a wood fire and an open hearth like in the cabins there. But this year I am thinking I will head for Sandy Hook south of Columbia and do a story about the John Ford Home. It’s a couple of hours from where I live. The house is an elevated pioneer-type home built about 1809. The beams are
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ax-hewed logs from the first timber cut from the virgin forest. All heart pine. The architecture alone makes the house significant. But there’s more to it than how it’s built. There’s also the fact that Andrew Jackson stayed there. I was there several years ago. Myra Boone, who showed The John Ford Home is owned by the Marion County Historical Society. You can Google it to get directions and find out when you can visit. me around, told me Photo: Walt Grayson that Andrew Jackson was there on his way to is reason enough to go there. Plus it’s a the way over in Natchez. But the politithe Battle of New Orleans in 1814. But he had to get John Ford’s consent to stay cals in Natchez wanted to keep everything couple of hours from my house. because, as Myra put it, “He was an ugly- intact so they would have influence over Walt Grayson is the host of “Mississippi the whole shebang. talking man and he drank.” As more people moved into the north- Roads” on Mississippi Public Broadcasting In exchange for getting to sleep inside, television, and the author of two “Looking ern and eastern areas, however, the posiJackson had to swear off swearing and Around Mississippi” books and “Oh! That tions flip flopped. Now it was the piopromise not to drink. And, oh yeah, he Reminds Me: More Mississippi Homegrown neers who wanted to keep the territory as Stories.” Contact Grayson at had to go to prayer meeting. The Marion County Historical Society, a whole state and the Natchez folks who walt@waltgrayson.com. wanted it divided, because the political who owns the house, calls the room where Andrew Jackson stayed “The Presi- clout had shifted away from the river and Medicare Supplements into the interior. (I think I got most of dential Suite,” although technically he Low Rates! wasn’t president yet when he stayed there. that right.) (Female age 65, “Plan F” = $111.19 ) Anyway, a statehood convention was The John Ford home is also pertinent held at the John Ford home. The Territoto the recent Mississippi Bicentennial. Statehood was a complicated process. For rial Congressional Delegation had already been working on making a state (or starters they had to decide how big the Insurance Agency states) from the territory. But the petition state should be. P. O. Box 5277, Brandon, MS 39047 The Mississippi Territory encompassed drafted at the John Ford home pushed 1-800-463-4348 the issue across the finish line. all of what is now Mississippi and AlaE. F. Hutton nor its agents are affiliated with the Federal Medicare Program. Andrew Jackson’s room and statehood bama. Natchez, way over in the west, was the Territorial Capital. When statehood was first discussed, settlers in the east wanted to split the territory because they figured their interest couldn’t be served all
E. F. Hutton
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