Publications of the Louisiana Historical Society, New Orleans, Louisiana

went to Pensacola, returning to Fort Mimms November 14, then took Old Trails due west, camping at Corson's Ferry, November 18, and at Liberty, near Amite City, December 5, 1814, and at Sandy Creek, near Baton Rouge, on December 13, 1814, whence the famous march to New Orleans.

His journal shows that after the Battle of New Orleans, March 15, 1815, the orders were: On the 17th instant the brigade of Tennessee volunteers, mounted gunmen, under my command, will commence its march to Nashville, in the State of Tennessee; "the route by which I shall march will be to Baton Rouge, Washington, W. T. McKearin's Choctaw Line, Choctaw Agency, Chickasaw Agency, Tennessee River, Colbert's Ferry, Columbia and to Nashville." This bears out Mr. J. W. Milner's statement of the return route of General Jackson.

The original documents being the road route by Mr. H. Toulmin, contained in a letter to General Jackson, dated Pearl River, 27th of November, 1814, has enabled me to add something to the description of the old Federal road usually given. This old road was originally an Indian trail. By treaty with the Creeks, November 14, 1805, it was formally recognized "A horse path through the Creek country, from the Ocmulgee to Mobile." By 1811, it had expanded to the other with immigrants from the western part of the territory. It was the great highway in the south Atlantic seaboard and interior of Georgia to the whole of south Alabama and Mississippi. Its influence was far-reaching. It survives and is in part still used. It entered Alabama near Fort Mitchell, in Russell County, and passed through the present County of Russell, Macon, Montgomery, Lowndes and Butler, formed a part of the boundary line between Monroe and Conecuch Counties, and continued through Baldwin and Washington Counties. In the early days many forts were located on it. Fort Mitchell, Russell County; Fort Bayne Bridge and Fort Hull, Macon, Mt. Meigs, Montgomery County; Fort Dale, Butler County, and Fort Montgomery, in Baldwin County. Many celebrities traveled over this road. Lorenzo Dow and wife, Peggy Dow, Vice-President Aaron Burr, and General Lafayette and other celebrities. About 1807 it was extended westwardly from old St. Stephens to Natchez. (Thomas M. Owned, LL.D., Director of Alabama State Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.)

The original letter of which I speak, now in my possession, in giving a route of General Jackson from the Tombigbee to Baton Rouge, says: "N. B.-The Federal Road opened by order of General Hampton and laid off by Captain Gaines, leaves the Mississippi Road at this place and crossed Pearl River lower down." He then locates points on the road as follows: Mimms Ferry, on Black Creek; Chapman's Ferry on Bogue Chitto; Tchefuncta, Springfield, Bookster's Bridge; Baton Rouge (via Taylors). Including the distance from Tombigbee to Mimms Ferry, it made 261 miles.

These original documents, over 100 years old, which necessarily give the exact route and stopping place every few miles, of the party, establish that the outlines of these old trails as exhibited even on the best maps, are accurate only in general detail and that in truth and in fact, these old Indian traces or trails are, in the main, forgotten trails, and that the march of time of one hundred years or more, which has brought a later-day civilization, has covered them up and buried them in the dim, forgotten past.

Their exact existence today we are enabled to locate in the great National Cemetery of Trails, as it were, by a few headstones, scattered here and there, just as when one wanders in the old graveyards of bygone years and finds an old headboard or stone with the name and some simple inscription of a notable character, who had enjoyed fame and distinction, and had been a useful servant of the public, but now forgotten.

I have not mentioned all of the famous trails or roads, like Boone's Lick and others, but if anybody's pet road has been overlooked I offer my profuse apologies.

Resolutions on the Death of John J. Rochester.

To the Members of the Louisiana Historical Society:

Your undersigned committee, appointed to prepare a tribute out of respect to the memory of our deceased fellow-member. JOHN J. ROCHESTER, beg to report as follows:

While not entirely unprepared for the sad event, the members of this Society and the community in general were greatly shocked to hear that on the night of Tuesday, November 9th, Mr. John

J. Rochester departed for the great beyond, for while we knew that he had been for some time in failing health, our latest information was that he was improving and might soon be able to again resume the duties of life.

Mr. Rochester was born in Salem, Kentucky, and though he lived in New Orleans for sixty-five years of his life, dying at the age of seventy-one, thus having passed the biblical term of three score and ten, and while a loyal and devoted citizen of Louisiana, he never forgot his native state, and was always true to its ideals and traditions. By reason of his father's services as a Kentuckian in the War of the Revolution, Mr. Rochester early became affiliated with the Sons of the American Revolution and held many important offices in the Louisiana Division thereof.

To him, more than to any other person, was due the organization of some years ago, of the Kentucky Society of Louisiana, of which he was the first and, up to the time of his death, the only secretary, and which was the one society of natives of another state which took an active part in connection with this Society and others in historical and patriotic ceremonials.

Mr. Rochester was, for many years, a very active member of this Society, serving on many important committees and taking an active part in the work of the Society in all its celebrations and particularly in connection with the centennial celebrations of 1903, 1912 and 1915, though the condition of his health did not enable him to work as actively in the last event as in the others.

As chairman of the committee of the Society to receive the "New Orleans" in 1912, the replica of the first steamboat which ever navigated the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, he created so much interest and enthusiasm in that important event as to have the work of the Society commented upon and recognized throughout the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.

He was one of the organizers of the movement to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary, in 1910, of the unveiling of the monnment to Henry Clay in this city, in which the Kentucky Society joined this Society, and during the ceremonials read a very interesting paper connecting Henry Clay with certain incidents in this city.

During his incumbency as chairman of the Membership Committee of the Society, the membership thereof was almost doubled.

Mr. Rochester had been selected for a very important function in connection with the Liberty Bell reception of November 19, but before that day arrived he was with us no more forever.

We shall miss his genial face, his kindly greetings, and his loving personality, and shall ever remember him as a personal friend of every member of the Society.

We feel that we can do no better in closing this feeble tribute than to repeat part of the memorial prepared by the Wholesale Drummers' Association, of which he was president for many

years:

"In the passing of JOHN J. ROCHESTER, New Orleans lost ne of its substantial citizens in every sense of the word. Not the amount of largess which he distributed earned for him this distinction, for it must be stated that he died possessed of few earthly goods, but in the manner in which he performed his duties as a man and member of the community.

"In any undertaking which had for its purpose the advancement of New Orleans, or the betterment of his fellow-man, John J. Rochester could be found in the forefront of the fight.

"He was truly a lover of man, as his every act proves. Slow to judgment, but quick in action when this was demanded, he tempered his course always with kindliness and courtesy.

"To him, more than any other man or factor, can the Wholesale Drummers' Association be thankful for its years of progress and prosperity. No work was too much, no duty too arduous, for him to undertake in its behalf. No meeting found him absent from it.

"The warm clasp of his hand, the kindly gleam of his eye, are gone, but only as part of the order of this existence; they are not forgotten. His place will be hard to fill.

May his be the reward for faithful performance of duty, for living the righteous life; for helping make happy the life of others; for being a man among men.

To his bereaved wife and daughters (one of whom, Miss Jennie Rochester, is a member of this Society), we extend our most sincere sympathy, and ask that these resolutions be spread upon the minutes of the Association, on a page specially devoted thereto, that copies be sent to his family, and furnished to the press of New Orleans, and to the organizations herein named.

Respectfully submitted,

W. O. HART, Chairman;
HENRY RENSHAW,
T. P. THOMPSON.

ANNUAL REPORT OF TREASURER, LOUISIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY-W. O. HART.