By Evelyn Sillers Pearson
As published in “The History of Bolivar County,” D.A.R., Mississippi Delta Chapter Publication, 1948
Mississippians, and especially those of Bolivar County, are justly proud of the fertile and productive soil of “Imperial Bolivar,” as this county has been called, and of the commercial achievements of its people. Yet the people who live in this fertile Delta should be proud also of its history and of the splendid men and women who settled it and who had so great a part in shaping the affairs of the county in its early days. The people of New England point with pride to the Pilgrim Fathers who braved the dangers of ocean voyage and of severe winters in a wilderness inhabited by hostile savages, thereby settling and making possible the New England of today.
And so, too, should the people of Bolivar County point with pride to the early settlers, true pioneers of this splendid Delta country. For while there were no dread savages in this country, there were dangers no less hazardous to be encountered. There was the mosquito whose sting poisons the body with malaria, the dense forests inhabited by many wild animals, the unhealthful swamps teeming with poisonous insects and reptiles, the impure drinking water, in which were often deadly germs, the annual overflows of the Mississippi River before the days of the levees, and there were countless other hardships and dangers endured by these brave pioneers while Bolivar County was in the making. Yet these men, for the most part, had been used to a life of ease, and even luxury, as they were in the main planters and sons of planters who held large tracts of land and slaves in other parts of Mississippi and other Southern states. Hearing reports of the richness of the soil and the wonderful timberlands of the Delta, they came to clear up these lands and make homes for themselves and their families along the banks of the Mississippi River. It seems that the rich soil drew to it men who were equally rich in intellect, bravery, honesty, and high principles; who were not afraid to blaze the trail for those less hardy who might come after them. These men and women did not falter when the pioneer spirit called them to give up their comfortable, safe homes to make others in the wilderness of a new country. Among these splendid pioneers were Joseph Sillers and his wife, Matilda Clark Sillers, George L. Gayden, and James M. Owen, a short sketch of whose lives is given below.
Before the Revolution, the Sillers family came to America from Perthshire, Scotland, and settled in North Carolina. Among the Scotch emigrants who came over with the Sillers were the Torreys, the Stuarts, the Camerons, and the DeVanes, all settling in North Carolina.
About the time that Mississippi became a state, all of these Scotch families immigrated to Jefferson County, Mississippi. Walter Sillers, founder of the Sillers family in Mississippi, was married in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Miss Mary Mourning Kane, and brought his young wife to his new home. He was a large slaveholder and owned plantations in Warren and Jefferson Counties. His seven children were: John, Susan, Anne, Joseph, Mary, Robert, Raiford, and Walter. John, Mary, and Walter died in childhood. Susan married Jesse Darden a large planter of Jefferson County, and Anne married Blount Stuart, son of one of the Scotch emigrants from North Carolina, who had settled in that county. Joseph married Matilda Clark, and Robert married her sister Belle, daughter of James Clark, of “Hawthorndon,” their plantation home near Fayette. They were sisters of General Charles Clark, a colonel in the War with Mexico, and a general in the Confederacy.
When war was declared with Mexico, Joseph Sillers was living on the plantation in Warren County. He immediately volunteered, enlisting in Captain Crump’s company of Warren County, which belonged to the regiment commanded by Jefferson Davis, and was in the battle of Monterey and other battles. Upon his return to civil life, he married and engaged in planting on his Warren County plantation, later removing to Jefferson County.
Having been preceded by his wife’s brother, General Charles Clark, Joseph Sillers came to Bolivar County in 1854, accompanied by his wife and three small children: James, Anna, and Walter. He purchased a plantation on what is now Lake Beulah, then the Mississippi River. Fearing the caving banks of the river, he sold his first holdings, bought land just back of his first place, and named it “Woodlawn”; it is still owned by his children. This plantation he cleared and put into cultivation, building a comfortable temporary dwelling while planning for the usual “big house” of the Southern plantation, to be built later. But war came so soon that the colonial home was never built. Joseph Sillers took his place among the leaders of his adopted county at once and was one of the first levee commissioners in 1856, of Bolivar County.
At the outbreak of the War Between the States, Joseph Sillers enlisted in Montgomery’s company, subsequently Cameron’s company, of which he was first lieutenant. In 1864, he was captured by the Federals and sent to Vicksburg for exchange. In April 1865, before the exchange could be effected, he died a prisoner of war, and was buried by the Federals in the Federal burying ground at Vicksburg. His grave has never been located by his family, who did not know of his death for weeks, or even months after he died. His young widow was left with three children to care for, and desolation and despair all around her. The older son, James, died unmarried in 1884. The daughter, Anna, married Charles Farrar, a Confederate soldier, and lived in the county until her death in May 1924. One son survives her, John H. Farrar. Walter Sillers, born March 2, 1852, in Jefferson County, Mississippi, who came to Bolivar County in 1854, though not an actual pioneer of Bolivar County, has done as much for the upbuilding of this county as anyone who has lived in it. Foremost in his work are the levees, and he has been identified with every movement for better levees since his boyhood. In the dark days of Reconstruction he was a leading spirit, and was a loyal son of the South in her degradation and sorrow. Never seeking office of any kind, he has served many years in many responsible positions, all showing the respect and trust of his fellow citizens. His son, Walter, Jr., is taking his place in the esteem and confidence of the people and in service to his county, being an able lawyer and public-spirited man. He is now serving his eighth term in the state legislature and is Speaker of the House of Representatives. He married Lena Cable Roberts, daughter of Senator W.B. Roberts and his wife, Minnie Poole Roberts, of Rosedale, Mississippi, and lives in Rosedale.
Walter Sillers has four daughters: Mary Warfield, who married N. Chapman Skinner, of Greenville, Mississippi, and now lives in Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Florence Carson, who married Harry C. Ogden, of Chicago, Illinois, now living in Rosedale; Evelyn, who married John L. Pearson, of Rosedale, Mississippi; and Lillian Burrill, who married Vernon Holleman and lives in Washington. One little daughter, Anna, died in infancy.
So for seventy years the Sillers’ have been identified with every interest of Bolivar County, and to none other is due more appreciation for public service to Bolivar County than to this family.
Robert Sillers, a brother of Joseph Sillers, who married the sister of Matilda Clark, can to Bolivar County from Jefferson County after the Civil War, where he engaged in planting until his death in 1881. His son, Emmet, left Mississippi in his youth, and his daughter, Jennie, married Captain J.L. Perkins, of Bolivar County. She died, leaving two small daughters and one son, all of whom have left the county.
William Sillers, a lawyer of Port Gibson, cousin of Joseph Sillers, owned the “Asia” plantation on Egypt Ridge in 1849. He married Carolina Stuart, sister of Mr. Blount Stuart, of Jefferson County. He did not move his family to Bolivar County before the war. He came to this county about 1880 with his daughter, Molly Robson, to live on the plantation, where he died about 1888. Mrs. Robson afterwards married Mr. Frank Acree, and died without children. Another daughter, Fannie, first married Mr. Charles Fox and later, Mr. W.J. Saunders, both of Texas.