Washington, Mississippi

The townsite was established near a water source known as Ellicot's Spring. Washington became the second territorial capital, when the seat of the Mississippi Territory General Assembly was moved from Natchez to Washington on February 1, 1802. Fort Dearborn, located at Washington, was for a time the largest military installation then extant in the United States, with more than 2,000 soldiers stationed there, including such notables as Brigadier General Leonard Covington and future General Winfield Scott. It was established in 1802 to protect the newly relocated capital of the Mississippi Territory. British traveler Fortescue Cumming visited in 1808 at which time he "counted thirty scattering houses, including one store, one apothecary's shop, three taverns, and a gaol." Two enslaved men were convicted of the murder of Thomas H. Green, son of territorial treasurer Abner Green, and executed April 23, 1810, at Washington, Mississippi Territory. The community, and nearby Woodville, both made public gestures in support of the Monroe administration during the lead-up to what became the War of 1812. As of 1813, celebrations might be held at DeFrance's Hotel. According to a history of Methodism in Mississippi, the church at Washington "became the most popular preaching place in all the country. The congregations were large and appreciative, many of whom, from time to time, were sweetly drawn into the gospel net...The social meetings of the Church were highly appreciated and well attended...Washington was now in the zenith of its glory and prosperity." Surnames of white families that lived in or near Washington were Bowie, Calvit, Chew, Covington, Dangerfield, Freeland, Grayson, Magruder, Wilkinson, Winston, and Wailes. According to a 1906 survey of "lost villages of Mississippi": The Mississippi constitution convention of 1817 met in Washington at the Methodist Meeting House (which was purchased by Jefferson College in 1830). Mississippi's first constitution was written and adopted here, and the state's first legislature convened here in 1817. The preliminary trial of U.S. vice-president Aaron Burr occurred under some nearby oak trees. After Mississippi was admitted to the union in 1817, the legislature met once in Washington, and afterward in Natchez. In the late 1810s there was a yellow fever outbreak in the town, which had previously been considered a "salubrious climate" compared to Natchez, and the disease killed "a number of the best citizens, so that people were restrained from fixing their family residences there." The Natchez Trace fell out of use as a U.S. post road by 1824, consequent to the development of the steamboat, and "from this date (1825–26) a variety of natural causes contributed to its depopulation until for a score of years it has been nothing more than a scattered village." By the 1840s the "old village" already represented a "forgotten society." ==Geography==

's map of Washington, Mississippi Territory Architecture Elizabeth Female Academy, considered to be the first women's college in the state, was established at Washington in 1818. For most of its history, it was a degree-conferring college; it closed in 1845. Clear Creek Baptist Church, erected in 1825 and one of the oldest churches in Mississippi, is located in Washington. In 1836, it was the site of a meeting of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, which was reorganized under President Ashley Vaughn of Natchez. The convention, or association, contained 122 churches, 56 clergy, and 4287 members. The congregations would have reflected the majority-black population of the area, where most workers on the cotton plantations were slaves. The town also has Washington Methodist Church. These were the two prominent denominations at the time of settlement. Both recruited slaves and accepted blacks as preachers in many locations. Before the American Civil War, both the national Baptist Association and Methodist Church split over the issue of slavery, and southern congregations established separate organizations. Parks Washington is the location of Jefferson College, now known as Historic Jefferson College. It is operated as a state historic park and museum by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The college was created by an act of the first General Assembly of the Mississippi Territory in 1802 and was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, then-president of the United States. Although chartered in 1802, it did not open as a school until 1811. Operated as a boys' academy, it continued in this capacity (but for a few brief, temporary closures, due to war, fire, remodeling and the like) for the next 153 years. It closed its doors for good in 1964. Jefferson College operated mostly as an all-male, college-preparatory academy. For a period it operated as Jefferson Military College, a military-style boarding school for high-school boys. Jefferson Davis attended Jefferson College as a 10-year-old boy in 1818, when it had the status of a boys' academy. John James Audubon was a teacher there from 1822 to 1823. ==Culture==

Scenes of the lost silent Civil War film The Heart of Maryland (1921) were filmed in Washington. Some of John Ford's film The Horse Soldiers (1959), set during the Civil War and starring John Wayne, was filmed here. Portions of Disney's movie The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993) were filmed here and in Natchez. == Notable people ==

• Thomas Affleck (1812–1868), Scottish-American horticulturist • Bill Allain (1928–2013), 59th governor of Mississippi, 1984–1988 == See also ==