NATCHEZ, Miss. – Today marks the 220th anniversary of Natchez being formally organized when Mississippi’s territorial legislature incorporated the town March 10, 1803, to give local leaders governmental powers.
While Mississippi’s oldest municipality was first settled in 1716 by French pioneers, it was another 87 years until an official government was formed to impose order in the frontier town that had become part of the United States.
Natchez’ governing body met for the first time in April 1803, a month after the town’s incorporation, according to historical accounts. The Natchez Common Council consisted of 15 appointed and elected officials, including the mayor, council members, city clerk and others. Territorial Gov. Wm. C.C. Claiborne appointed Samuel Brooks mayor and five other officials. Natchez voters elected the other city leaders.
Among the early controversies facing them were complaints from Natchez’ wealthy elite about high taxes. City government was run by middle-class residents, who used their taxing authority to make rich planters and businessmen pay for much of the costs of city services. A high tax, for example, was imposed on the opulent carriages that only wealthy people owned.
City officials in 1805 successfully fended off affluent Natchez residents who petitioned for annulling the city charter of incorporation.
The local leaders also annoyed the populace of Natchez Under-the-Hill, the area down by the river where taverns and boat landings were located. Tavern keepers apparently thought city license fees were too high. Also galling to some denizens was the city’s ban on Under-the-Hill gambling, especially since horse-race betting was allowed for prosperous Natchez residents at the track on the upper town’s outskirts.
The city charter was revised in 1809 to change the Common Council to a seven-member Board of Selectmen elected by Natchez voters. The president — as the mayor was then called — was elected by and from the selectmen. The city’s governing body in later years was again renamed to become the Board of Aldermen as it’s known now, with the mayor being independently elected by voters.
Revenues for running the city in its early years came from a variety of sources, such as public lotteries and taxes on land, boats and slaves. City officials even taxed dogs. By 1812, Natchez had built a city hall, jail, firehouse and other facilities on the public square two blocks east of the river bluff.
Three Natchez leaders in the early 1800s went on to higher office. Brooks, the city’s first mayor, became Mississippi’s first state treasurer. Former mayor Edward Turner served as state House of Representatives speaker, attorney general and chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Former selectman Thomas Reed became a U.S. senator.
The main sources for this article: Antebellum Natchez by D. Clayton James and A New History of Mississippi by Dennis Mitchell.
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