The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 214
641 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
jected, but she was adamant; they scolded; she persisted. At last
they yielded.
Jane Wilkinson and James Long were married at Propinquity
on May 14, 1815. Three days later they left on a two-month
"traveling excursion." On returning they settled at Port Gibson,
where he practiced medicine.12 Either this little outpost was
too dull for Jane, or she could see no future in it. She had lived
three years in Natchez and had seen fortunes made and a gracious
way of life made possible for those willing to take chances. Now
she made her second important decision, and it was a fateful one.
She persuaded her young husband to give up medicine for the
life of a Mississippi planter. They bought a plantation at Walnut
Hills, where they spent the two happiest years of their lives.
Here their first child, Ann Herbert, was born on November 26,
1816.1Y
The place at Walnut Hills was probably little more than a
wilderness plantation. One historian, however, describes it as a
"beautiful old colonial home in a magnificent grove of trees,
broad lawns and old fashioned gardens."'4 No authority has been
found for this picture. After two years they sold this home, and
Long went into "the mercantile business" in Natchez.
Another two years passed, and Long must have prospered if
he had any ability as a merchant. Natchez was the jumping off
point for all sorts of traders, expeditions, and business ventures.
It was the door to the frontier, the vast, unknown West. What
his real worth was is not known, but he later asked $8o,ooo as
remuneration for losses in Texas.
This was the age of revolutions and filibusters who became
heroes or traitors, depending upon whether or not they were
successful. Aaron Burr visited Natchez. General James Wilkinson,
his collaborator, whom all accounts except Alexander Bell's call
Jane's uncle, was in near-by Mobile. Herman Blennerhassett, the
third member of the triumvirate, was a cotton planter in
Mississippi from 1818 to 1822.16 Sim6n Bolivar was winning suc-
cesses in Venezuela, and the Mexicans were revolting against
Spain.
12Ibid.
iSBell, Daughter of Maryland, 126.
14Houston Post, June 6, 1937.
1lEncyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed. (24 vols.; Chicago, 1947), III, 718.214
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953, periodical, 1953; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101145/m1/260/?rotate=90: accessed June 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.