photo by Submitted photo

Learned’s Mill, bought by Andrew Brown in 1828, was one of the most active sawmills in the Southwest.

What is it? Natchez historic relics uncovered

By Jennifer Edwards (Contact), | The Natchez DemocratMary Hood (Contact), | The Natchez DemocratAdam Koob (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Sunday, June 21, 2009

NATCHEZ — From the 1880s to present, Learned’s Mill Road in Natchez is quite famous for a variety of reasons.

In 1828, the flatland below the bluff road and next to the river was transformed into one of the most active and well-known sawmills of the Southwest, Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director Mimi Miller said.

“It was one of the most successful sawmills to ever operate in the old Southwest,” she said. “It was a great operation.”

And that still rang true despite several changes-of-hands.

The mill, owned by Peter Little, opened in 1828. Architect and builder Andrew Brown then bought the mill.

Brown built the mansion Magnolia Vale — which still sits at the base of Learned’s Mill Road — and tended to his gardens.

“He had gardens that were nationally famous,” Miller said.

Brown then gave the sawmill to Rufus Learned, who was his stepson and his son-in-law.

Brown and Learned were not related by blood.

“They didn’t grow up like siblings,” Miller said.

Learned had a son, Andrew Brown Learned, who took over the mill and then transferred it to his daughter, Louise Learned.

Louise Brown Learned then married a Peabody, and gave birth to a son, Howard Peabody.

Peabody took over the mill and closed in the 1960s. He died in recent years, and his widow is still alive.

Photo by Hannah Reel

Foliage now covers the former sawmill site on Learned’s Mill Road.

The current resident on Learned’s Mill Road is Louise Peabody, the descendant of the former Louise Learned.

It wasn’t until 30-some years later that Learned’s Mill Road gained national recognition for a different type of engineering.

In 1980, a bluff slide damaged a portion of Under-the-Hill Saloon, killing one person.

City officials were alarmed at the sloughing of the bluff. Fearing a loss of historic properties dotting its edge, they set forth to have a bluff-wide stabilization.

The initiative began under former mayors Tony Byrne and David Armstrong, but it wasn’t until former Mayor Butch Brown’s administration in 1993 that congressional funding was allocated to stabilize the bluffs.

The project began on Learned’s Mill Road.

Though the stabilization construction began in 1997, City Engineer David Gardner is still tickled on how the design came about.

While the majority of the funds came from the U.S. Corps of Engineers, Gardner sought out additional funds to jumpstart the program.

The Natural Resources and Conservation Service was petitioned for funds and $5 million later, Gardner and engineer David Atkins were ready with pen in hand with geotechnical contractors Hayward Baker.

Caught between not wanting to wipe away half of the land with stabilization and complying with historic preservation, Gardner said making a plan was a challenge.

“We had to do it where it would be the least impact to the area, were it would blend and it would not be adverse to historical properties adjacent to it,” he said.

But they came up with a plan — on a napkin.

“We took this napkin and gave it to the engineer for Haywood Baker, and they came up with a design, and that’s how the bluff stabilization was designed, from a napkin,” Gardner said.

The product was an expansive stabilization system that actually changed a few geotechnical standards in the United States, he said.

“It was really nice. Everybody loved it. The preservation commission liked it,” he said.

The engineers were recognized for avoiding excavating while putting up the walls, increasing nail strength and using dried clay particles to fill the mechanical stabilization embankment walls.

“Now, from what I understand, that’s the standard nationwide in how to backfill MSE walls,” Gardner said.

The project, which extended to D.A. Biglane, has won the National Preservation Honor Award in 2003 and was featured on the cover of Civil Engineering Magazine in 1997, which called the project “ingenious geotechnical engineering.”

A family affair

Speeding up and down Homochitto Street, it’s hard to tell where the brick steps on the side of the road cattycorner to Dunleith lead.

But for about 43 bodies, those steps lead to their eternal resting place — Routh Cemetery.

Historic Natchez Foundation Executive Director Mimi Miller said since at least 1818, the cemetery has been the Routh Family plot.

But Miller said it’s not possible to know exactly how many bodies are in the cemetery.

“Moving bodies from a cemetery to another location, like a hometown, was not uncommon then,” Miller said.

Photo by Hannah Reel

Since at least 1818 the cemetery on Homochitto Street has been the Routh Family plot.

And if a record was not made of who was removed from the cemetery, the count could be off.

Miller said records indicate at least three bodies in the cemetery are those of slaves.

And one grave in the plot is marked by a statue of a Newfoundland hound, a breed which saved the occupants live as a boy.

The cemetery was built as the Routh family cemetery when the Routh’s owned Routhland Plantation, which was once in the same spot currently occupied by Dunleith.

And while Routhland is gone, the cemetery remains.

Miller said while it was more common in the county, it was not uncommon for large plantation homes to have their own cemetery.

And while the cemetery’s first recorded occupant was buried 191 years ago, burials in the ancient graveyard still happen.

And for some Natchez residents still with the living, Routh Cemetery will become their home one day.

Alice Zerby, a Routh descendant, will join her late-husband and be buried in the cemetery — when the time comes.

“When I was little, my mother took me there and she said, ‘This is your history, you’re part of this,’” Zerby said.

“And I love that I’ll be there with my ancestors in my history. I think it’s a privilege to be able to be a part of that.”

Last stop in Natchez

Today the open-air pavilion sits empty most days, but in its prime the square structure that sits on Maple Avenue right outside the Natchez City Cemetery was a popular gathering spot.

The pavilion is the last standing streetcar waiting station in the city and serves as a reminder of an era that has long passed.

“That’s the only one left and not a soul in town knows what it is,” said Mimi Miller, executive director of the Historic Natchez Foundation. “Everyone passes it when they go to a funeral, but they don’t know what it is there for.”

The structure was built in 1911, as indicated by the marker hanging on the street side of the pavilion, and was the last stop on the streetcar route that picked people up and transported them throughout the town.

“During that time, people would ride the streetcar or trolley into town for errands and ride it back to the waiting station to go home,” Miller said. “This is one of the best little landmarks we have from that time.”

Photo by Hannah Reel

The last remaining street car waiting station from when the city had a trolly system sits atop Cemetery Road

The covered pavilion offered protection from rain or blistering heat while patrons of the trolley system waited for their ride into town.

Miller said that while all other stations were destroyed after the trolley system became outdated, the one on Maple Avenue remained because it was incorporated into the old Charity Hospital property and then became the part of the property of the Natchez City Cemetery.

And while Miller is sure the spot was a popular in the 1910s until streetcar transportation became obscelete, the stories of the going-ons at the waiting station have likely been lost.

“I would think there isn’t a soul alive today that would have used it that could tell us what it was like,” Miller said.