Selsertown | |
|---|---|
 "Seltzer or Ellicotsville" c. 1816 | |
  Selsertown | |
| Coordinates: 31°37′41″N91°14′10″W / 31.62806°N 91.23611°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Mississippi |
| County | Adams |
| Elevation | 400 ft (122 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| GNIS feature ID | 686071 [1] |
Selsertown is a ghost town in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. [1]
A Plaquemine culture platform mound is located there, once known as the Selsertown Mound [2] but currently known as Emerald Mound. [3] The mound is 35 feet (11 m) in height, with two secondary mounds at either end of its summit that rise even higher. It once had a total of six to eight mounds on its summit but only the two on the ends have survived. It covers 6 acres (2.4 ha). [4] It was described as being of "extraordinary size" in the 1848 book Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley [5] and it is the second-largest Pre-Columbian earthwork in the United States, after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois. [6] The mound dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE and is the type site for the Emerald Phase (1500 to 1680 CE) of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology. [7] It was still in use by their descendants, the historic era Natchez people, as their main ceremonial center. [6] Emerald was abandoned by the time of the French colonial period, and the hereditary chief of the Natchez had his capital at the nearby Grand Village Site. [8] This settlement was one of the last active expressions of the platform mound building culture along the Mississippi River. [9]
Early names for Seslertown that referred to American surveyor Andrew Ellicott included Ellicott's Spring, [10] Ellicotville or Ellicottville. [11] The dividing line for the earliest subdivision of Mississippi Territory, Adams and Pickering counties, ran through Ellicottville. [12] This name was most commonly in use during the first decade of the 1800s. [13] [14] The National Intelligencer of Washington, D.C. reported that Governor W. C. C. Claiborne was hosted at a "sumptuous dinner" put on by militia officers and "several respectable citizens of Jefferson County" at which toasts were made to Thomas Jefferson himself, the Congress, and "The COMMERCE of the MISSISSIPPI, and DESTRUCTION TO THE POWER THAT MOLESTS IT," and to "The farmers of the Miffiflippi territory—we venerate the plough." [15] The Ellicotville cotton gin and mill was listed for sale in 1813, [16] and notice was published in 1815 that the refurbished gin had reopened for business. [17]
Selsertown was the third stop on the Old Natchez Road. Beginning in Natchez, the road traveled northeast through Washington, Selsertown, Uniontown, and many other communities until it ended in Nashville, Tennessee. [18] The United States required jurisdictions through which the Trace passed to commit to development of a tavern or inn every six miles on the trace. George Selser built an inn at this site, which opened in 1780. A British traveler named Francis Bailey stayed at "Seltzer's tavern" in July 1797, recording in his journal, "We found there was no beef to be got in the place; but our host obliged us by killing an ox on purpose for us, which he dried and prepared fit for packing. We stood in want also of biscuit, which we could not readily procure here. There was only one man who knew how to make it, and that was a baker in the fort, who was a Spaniard, to him we applied, and after a good deal of entreaty (for he was obliged to do it clandestinely) he made us a quarter of a hundredweight. Here we got our horses fresh shod, and likewise had some iron hobbles made for them, to prevent their being stolen by the Indians." [19] In 1808 there were three taverns in Seltsertown, and seven other buildings. [20]
John McCullum eventually became the owner of the inn. [3] A sign outside of the inn, while owned by McCullum, read "Intertainment for Man and Baste." [21] The inn caught fire and was destroyed during the American Civil War. [3] [21]
Adams County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,538. The county seat is Natchez. The county is the first to have been organized in the former Mississippi Territory. It is named for the second President of the United States, John Adams, who held that office when the county was organized in 1799. Adams County is part of the Natchez micropolitan area which consists of Adams County, Mississippi and Concordia Parish, Louisiana.
Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi; its western border is formed by the Mississippi River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,260, making it the fourth-least populous county in Mississippi. Its first county seat was located at Old Greenville until 1825, which no longer exists, before moving to Fayette. The county is named for U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. One of the first of two counties organized in the Mississippi Territory in 1798 along with Adams County, it was first named Pickering County and included what would become Claiborne County. Originally developed as cotton plantations in the antebellum era, the rural county has struggled with a declining economy and reduced population since the mechanization of agriculture and urbanization of other areas. In 2020, its population of 7,260 was roughly one-third of the population peak in 1900. Within the United States, in 2009 rural Jefferson County had the highest percentage of African-Americans of any county. It was the fourth-poorest county in the nation.
Natchez is the only city in and the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 14,520 at the 2020 census. Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia, Louisiana, Natchez was a prominent city in the antebellum years, a center of cotton planters and Mississippi River trade.
The Natchez Trace Parkway is a limited-access national parkway in the Southeastern United States that commemorates the historic Natchez Trace and preserves sections of that original trail. Its central feature is a two-lane road that extends 444 miles (715 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. Access to the parkway is limited, with more than 50 access points in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. The southern end of the route is in Natchez at its intersection with Liberty Road, and the northern end is northeast of Fairview, Tennessee, in the suburban community of Pasquo, at an intersection with Tennessee State Route 100. In addition to Natchez and Nashville, larger cities along the route include Jackson and Tupelo, Mississippi, and Florence, Alabama.
Washington is an unincorporated community in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Located along the lower Mississippi, 6 miles (9.7 km) east of Natchez, it was the second and longest-serving capital of the Mississippi Territory.
The Anna site is a prehistoric Plaquemine culture archaeological site located in Adams County, Mississippi, 10 miles (16 km) north of Natchez. It is the type site for the Anna phase of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on September 14, 1993.
The Emerald Mound site, also known as the Selsertown site, is a Plaquemine culture Mississippian period archaeological site located on the Natchez Trace Parkway near Stanton, Mississippi, United States. The site dates from the period between 1200 and 1730 CE. It is the type site for the Emerald Phase of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology and was still in use by the later historic Natchez people for their main ceremonial center. The platform mound is the second-largest Mississippian period earthwork in the country, after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois.
Natchez On-Top-of-the-Hill Historic District is a historic district in Natchez, Mississippi that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
The Plaquemine culture was an archaeological culture centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley. It had a deep history in the area stretching back through the earlier Coles Creek and Troyville cultures to the Marksville culture. The Natchez and related Taensa peoples were their historic period descendants. The type site for the culture is the Medora site in Louisiana; while other examples include the Anna, Emerald, Holly Bluff, and Winterville sites in Mississippi.
Seven segments of the historic Natchez Trace are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Also there are additional NRHP-listed structures and other sites along the Natchez Trace, which served the travelers of the trace and survive from the era of its active use.
Mangum Mound Site is an archaeological site of the Plaquemine culture in Claiborne County, Mississippi. It is located at milepost 45.7 on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Two very rare Mississippian culture repoussé copper plates have been discovered during excavations of the site. The site was used as a burial mound during the Foster Phase of the culture and is believed to have been abandoned before the 1540 expedition of Hernando de Soto.
Foster's Mound is a Plaquemine culture archaeological site located in Adams County, Mississippi northeast of Natchez off US 61. It is the type site for the Foster Phase of the Natchez Bluffs Plaquemine culture chronology. It was added to the NRHP on September 2, 1982 as NRIS number 82003091. The mounds are listed on the Mississippi Mound Trail.
The Mazique Archeological Site, also known as White Apple Village, is a prehistoric Coles Creek culture archaeological site located in Adams County, Mississippi. It is also the location of the historic period White Apple Village of the Natchez people and the Mazique Plantation. It was added to the NRHP on October 23, 1991, as NRIS number 91001529.
Coon Box, also Coonbox and Raccoon Box, is a placename in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. Coon Box is 5.9 miles (9.5 km) north of Fayette. The Coon Box Fork Bridge, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is located one mile southwest of Coon Box.
Bruinsburg is an extinct settlement in Claiborne County, Mississippi, United States. Founded when the Natchez District was part of West Florida, the settlement was one of the end points of the Natchez Trace land route from Nashville to the lower Mississippi River valley.
Abijah Hunt (1762–1811) was an American merchant, planter, slave trader, and banker in the Natchez District.
The Glass site is a Plaquemine culture archaeological site located approximately 9.5 kilometres (5.9 mi) south of Vicksburg in Warren County, Mississippi. Originally the site had four platform mounds surrounding a large open plaza, but land leveling for modern farming techniques and looting by pothunters mean only portions of three have survived into the 21st century. It was a major ceremonial center that was contemporaneous with other large Plaquemine sites including Emerald, Holly Bluff, and Winterville and whose main occupation period occurred during the protohistoric period from 1500 to 1650 CE. Parts of the site were excavated by Clarence Bloomfield Moore in 1910 and 1911, and by Lauren Elizabeth Downs in 2007-2009. The mounds are listed on the Mississippi Mound Trail.
Quigualtam or Quilgualtanqui was a powerful Native American Plaquemine culture polity encountered in 1542–1543 by the Hernando de Soto expedition. The capital of the polity and its chieftain also bore the same name; although neither the chief nor his settlements were ever visited in person by the expedition. Their encounters consisted of messages sent by runners and a three-day long canoe battle on the Mississippi River. Multiple archaeological cultures, archaeological sites, and protohistoric and early historic period Native American groups have been proposed by historians and archaeologists to identify the polity, but their identity will probably never be known with any degree of certainty. The chroniclers of the DeSoto expedition said the chiefdoms near the Mississippi River, especially Guigualtam, were the best they encountered during their three-year journey through the southeastern United States.
Old Greenville is a ghost town in Jefferson County, Mississippi, United States. The town was located along the old Natchez Trace and was once the largest town along the Trace. Nothing exists at the site today except the town's cemetery.
Mississippi Highway 553 (MS 553) is a state highway in Adams and Jefferson counties in southwestern Mississippi. The highway runs from U.S. Route 61 (US 61) in Stanton, loops to the west around US 61 and the Natchez Trace Parkway to Fayette, and extends further north to Harriston. Within Jefferson County, MS 553 passes numerous locations on the National Register of Historic Places.
Municipalities and communities of Adams County, Mississippi, United States | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| CDPs | ||
| Other unincorporated communities | ||
| Ghost towns | ||