The Future Town of Randolph, TN
An Advertisement in The Mississippi Statesman and Natchez Gazette, Thursday, November 08, 1827; Issue 46; column A
RANDOLPH
In the settlement of a country, destined from its soil, climate and local situation to be exclusively agriculture, nothing is of greater importance, than that facilities should be afforded to the farmer for the exportation of his produce, and the importation of those articles of consumption which he must necessarily seek at a distant market. Amongst the list of conveniences indispensable to his interest, places of deposite favorably situated for the reception of his exports and imports, stand most pre-eminent. In vain may navigable streams offer their aid to transport his property to its destined market, unless at convenient points it can be secured, protected and preserved, to await the ordinary mode of commercial intercourse; but whilst for his surplus produce a place of deposite is secured, the advantages of finding combined with it a market on the spot for that surplus and the means of purchasing near his home, all the necessaries which habit has required for the comfort and enjoyment of life, must strike, with irresistible force, every inquiring mind.
Impressed with those considerations, the proprietors of the land immediately below the mouth of Big Hatchie, offer to the public the opportunity of realizing the views above stated. They have laid off a town in the county of Tipton, to be known by the name of RANDOLPH, situated on the upper end of the second Chickasaw Bluff; about half a mile below Big Hatchie, and fronting on the bank of the Mississippi River about half a mile. The bluff at this point is lofty and commanding, affording a view of that majestic stream for the distance of twelve miles in each direction, including a prospect of the embouchure of the Big Hatchie.
Between the foot of the bluff and the river, lies a plain, of the width of from eighty to two hundred yards, which is never overflowed at the highest stages of the annual floods; this offers the most favorable site for warehouses and other buildings more immediately connected with the business of the river. There is at this time a convenient road from the summit of the bluff to the water’s edge, which proves the practicability of obtaining easy access from the landing to every part of the town. A warehouse has been for some time erected at that point, free from inundation, yet so situated that the lading may be removed from the guards of a steamboat, directly into the door of the house. Many similar situations are there to be found, as the landing for boats of any description at this place, is not excelled at any point between the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans. At this point the Mississippi runs nearly south, until it reaches the spot where the warehouse now stands; it then turns gradually to the west. One striking advantage resulting from this fact is, that boats descending the river, by the natural impulse of the current, will almost without further labor than giving them direction from the rudder, land directly at the warehouse.
Within the limits of the town of Randolph, are four fine springs, breaking from the bluff and running into the river, and a fifth in the Southeast corner of the town, which runs off in a bold stream in a south eastern directions. – Those springs are all supplied with water abundantly during all seasons of the year, and therefore obviate the necessity of using the water of the Mississippi at any time, but more especially during the summer and autumn.
The country extending on the east, and south west of Randolph is elevated, healthy and fertile, finely timbered, and abounding with springs, inferior to none in the Western District. There are no swamps, lakes or bayous to interrupt the intercourse between the town and the interior of the country, east, south, and south west, at any season of the year. From the town of Covington, the seat of Justice in Tipton county, fourteen miles distant, a good road has been opened to a point within four miles of Randolph, and will shortly be completed the whole distance; another is also about to be opened to the settlement of Big Creek, in Shelby County, and thus the whole country south of Big Hatchie, will have an easy intercourse with the town by land at all seasons.
In advertisements of this description it is too common to deal in fiction, and indulge imagination to a romantic extent to the future glories of the projected town. The proprietors of Randolph are unwilling to adopt a custom “maps honored in the breach than in the observation” the situation speaks for itself in stronger terms than they could possibly use. But when we reflect upon the facts of its being at the mouth of the most important stream in the western district of Tennessee – a stream flowing for two hundred miles through a wealthy population and fertile country, which must transport all its produce by means of that stream, that the Mississippi affords communication safe and speedy with the grand emporium of the commerce of the United States, the West Indies, and South America, we may surely venture to assert that it must become a town of importance, inferior to none in Tennessee.
The sale of lots in Randolph will commence on Monday the 19th day of November next and continue from day to day until completed. They will be sold to the highest bidder, on a credit of one and two years. Bond and security being given by the purchaser.
JOHN T. BROWN
ROBT. COTTON
H. BEDFORD
KELSEY H. DOUGLAS
JOSEPH W. McKEAN
D. W. WOOD
HIRAM BRADFORD
August 14, 1827
(Transcribed by Rita Morgan)