"If I had the pen of a ready writer," Clayton wrote, "enabling
me to give a pen-picture of the appearance of the virgin forests in
these olden times, covered with the upstretching trees, with
occasional vines entwining them from top to bottom, loaded with
wild grapes or luscious muscadines, and the plains and hillsides
waving with beautiful wild flowers, it would read like a fairy
tale." Olden times take on a nostalgic glow in these "pen pictures"
of early days in Northeast Mississippi. The chivalry, the tall
tales, the Indian lore, the social customs, and the local
characters portrayed here provide intimate descriptions of how
people lived in Lee and Itawamba counties during antebellum times
and during Reconstruction.
Washington Lafayette Clayton reflected over such scenes of his
life and wrote these pen pictures nearly a century ago as
reminiscences of better times. In sixty-five articles originally
published in the Tupelo "Journal" in 1905 and 1906, he recorded the
life of the Southern frontier of 1840 to the 1860s. These records,
preserved here in one volume, are valuable resources for
historians, for descendants of Mississippi pioneers, and for those
who wish to perceive the nature of simpler times.
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