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Note: (Editor's Note: This is a reprint of the column "This and That" written by the late Bee King of Mendenhall which appeared in the Simpson County
News on May 2, 1940)
John Gideon Rials operated the mill he built at the head of the creek
until about 1840. He then sold it to a man named Walker, who enlarged the
dam, put in new equipment and added a cotton gin. Walker operated the
mill until about 1885 and then sold it to a man named Fields. Walker
moved to California and Fields added the wool carding machine to the mill
and operated the mill until May 1886 when he sold it to CHARLIE BURNS
who continued to operate it until his death in 1889. Burns was a very
public spirited man and took great interest in the affairs of his
neighborhood. When the Methodist Church built by Rials and Brown in 1835
was destroyed, Burns, who added a saw mill to his plant, furnished the
lumber to build a new church and contributed a great deal otherwise in
its erection. In 1876 he gave a great fish fry picnic on the 4th day of
July and invited the county at large to attend. He had the mill dam cut
and nearly all the water drained off and great numbers of men went in the
pond with gigs and buckets and caught thousands of fish. Mr. JOHN BURNS,
a son of CHARLIE BURNS told me recently that there was an immense crowd
there, but there was enough fish for all. Nearly everyone brought dinner,
and lemonade was furnished free. Speeches werte made by Judge Gowan, Joe
Meade and R.E. Rhodes, all lawyers of Westville.
Meade was editor of the Westville News at that time. He founded the paper
in 1872. Mr. Burns was a boy at the time but remembers a great number of
the people who were at the celebration. Among those present were John and
Jim Reed, E. Husbands, Felix Clarke, Sol Brown, A.J. and Johnnie Brown,
Needham
McClendon, Peter Grubbs, Abram Hutson, D. Williamson, Pleas Walker, John
and
Jesse King, James Mangum, John Coleman, John Millis, Alex Boggan, and
many others with their families. Of the young men of that time he recalls
that E.M. Brooks, A.H. Brown, J.I. Bishop, Henry King, Charlie
Williamson, Jeff Hutson, Dave Hays, I.K. Brown and E.K. Williamson were
there. Besides these there were numbers of others that he cannot recall,
or did not know. The picnic was a great event for that time, being the
first fourth of July celebration held in the county after the Civil War.
Mr Burns told me that his father assisted in building the tabernacle on
the hill near the Baptist Church. The Tabernacle was built by both the
Methodist and Baptist and was used by both denominations until it was
destroyed by the great cyclone that struck that neighborhood many years
ago. The Baptist Church was also destroyed by the same cyclone. Charlie
Burns was a Sunday School teacher in a class in 1884, gave a picnic at
the upper end of the mill pond and a great crowd was there. As it was
given in honor of his Sunday School class, he took great pains to make it
a day to be remembered. He had many swings made for the children of the
class, as well as other things to delight a child. He furnished music and
free drinks, had recitations and singing. Everybody was delighted and as
he desired, the day was long remembered.
Poor fellow, a few years later, in 1879, he was thrown from a mule and
killed. The death of few men of the county was ever more regretted. Of
him may be so truly said, "He lived in a house by the side of the road
and was a friend to man."
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