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states that Hempstead “was the first delegate in congress from the western side of the Mississippi river, representing Mi88onri Territory from 1814 to 1814.” This is a mistake. Hempstead was elected to congress November, 1812. Daniel Clark was a delegate in congress from the Territory of Louisiana (or, more properly speaking, the Territory of Orleans, as it was then officially known), from 1806 to 1809, and Julien Poydras from 1809 to 1812. There was only a narrow strip of country east of the Mississippi river, extending as far as Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, belonging to the territory at that time. In August, 1812, the legislature elected Allan B. Magruder and Jean Noel Destrehan United States senators. Destrehan resigned before taking his seat and Governor Claiborne appointed Thomas Posey, a native of Charles county, Maryland. In December of the same year the legislature elected James Brown, a great-uncle to B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, in place of Posey. All of these sat in congress before Hempstead, and it is not likely that any one of them resided in the narrow strip east of the Mississippi river. Hempstead was a man of great ability and incorruptible honesty. His standard of political and private morality was very different from that of the average congressman of to-day.could even now paint an exact likeness of it, though it was torn down about forty-four years ago. Its every line, inside and out, is indelibly impressed upon my memory. It stood within a few feet of where the present building is located. It was of hewn logs, had a puncheon floor and a olapboard roof. It had one door fronting south, made of split timbers, bung on wooden hingesand fastened with a wooden latch, which was raised from the outside by a leather string. It could be truthfully said of it that the latch string hung outside except when some mischievous urchin cut it off. On the north was one window, twelve inches high and twelve feet wide. On the east was a wooden chimney plastered with mud and its capacious fire-place lined with a rough wall of flat stones. The only plank about the structure was fastened to the wall beneath the window, at an elevation of about twenty degrees, and served as a writing desk. The benches were made of split logs, smoothed with an ax and supported with wooden pins inserted into holes made by a two-inch auger. My recollection is that the smoothing process was not very carefully done, and that the wooden legs were a great deal longer than mine. Ofthose attending this school I remember Benedict E. Fletcher, John Hammonds, William S., Willis K. and J. | Mater.have forgotten which.You also mention Athanasius Mudd'■*' .-Z ‘ *,as a graduate of Georgetown college. He was likewise a very successful teacher and a man of liberal education. He bought Hill’s land built on, it and lived there until his death, which, if I remember correctly, occurred in January, 1851. He was the only child of Dr. Joseph Mudd, who,when his oldest brother, Henry, my great-great-grandfather, and his youngest brother, Richard, were serving under Washington throughout the whole of the Revolutionary War, was pursuing his studies in Europe. Mr. Mudd was not a graduate of Georgetown, and I do not think he ever attended that institution. His father, after spending some fifteen years at the greatest universities of the world(at that time, namely thlt;£e of Paris and R,ome, was still a very rich man for that day. It is reasonable to suppose that he desired his son to get the benefit of the best schools of this country. The university of Georgetown was only empowered to confer donees in 1815. By that time Mr. Mudd had completed or nearly completed his education. He was entitled to the degrees of A. M. and LL. D. I heard him discussing the subject of colleges one day with Rev. Daniel Lyne, and I am reasonably sure that he named Yale as his AlmaJoseph A. Mudd.
Newspaper Details
Troy Free Press
Troy, Missouri, US
Fri, Jan 25, 1901
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Jerry E.
NA, 03 Feb 2019
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