The following is a guest-post by B. T. Collins, great-grandson of Jasper Collins, and great-great grandson of John H. Powell. John Hathorne Powell was Jasper’s father-in-law, and also Jones County’s delegate to the Mississippi Convention of 1861, where delegates voted to take the state out of the Union.
One of the people that has probably been overlooked is John H. Powell. The Powells came from Georgia and arrived in Jones County about 1843. The Powells owned a few slaves. John served as postmaster in Ellisville and was Justice of the Peace and later Probate Judge. When Jones County held the election for representatives to the Mississippi Secession Convention John Powell Received 166 votes and Baylis received 89 votes. This is a different figure from that reported in Ethel Knight’s “The Echo Of the Black Horn”. Nevertheless it was sufficient to show that the majority of those who voted were Unionist.
John went to Jackson and on the first vote he voted against secession but subsequently went along with the crowd and voted for secession. When he came home he had been appointed Provost Marshal by General Vandorn and Beal. He wrote to the Governor asking for instructions as to his duties and if he were entitled to any compensation.The Powells were a religious family and were instrumental in establishing the Indian Springs Baptist Church just west of Laurel. Around the end of the war in October of 1865 they sold out in Jones County and moved to Smith County. Later John and some of his family set out for Alvarado, Texas. They were active in the Alvarado Baptist where he acted as moderator. John and his wife Eliza Spears Powell are both buried in the Alvarado Cemetery.
I have often wondered about the relationship between Jasper and his father-in-law John. It couldn’t have been very cordial but who knows. He was my gr. gr. Grandfather on Gatzy’s side of the family. [note: Gatzy Powell was Jasper Collins’s wife]
Transcribed document of delegate election from Jones County:
The following is a true action of an election began and held on Thursday the 20th day of December A. D. 1860 in Jones County for one delegate to the State Convention to be held at the city of Jackson on the 7th day of January next (1861).
Delegate
John McCormick Baylis rec’d eighty nine votes (to secede) 89 (35%)
John H. Powell, Jr. one hundred & sixty six votes (not to secede) 166 (65%)The State of Mississippi
Jones County
I, E. M. Devall Sheriff and General Returning Officer of Jones County do certify the above to be a true return of an election held in Jones County on the 20th day of December AD 1860 for one delegate to the State Convention on the 7th day of January next as returned to me by the managers and clerks of said election.
