Pen Pictures of the Olden Time - July 28, 1905 This article was written in the Tupelo Journal on July 28, 1905, page 1, by Col. W.L. Clayton, a former resident of Old Richmond:


I would like very much to include in these Pen Pictures a history of all the young men with whom I went to school at  the old Martin Academy, tracing their lives through the intervening years, and see what kind of a workman Capt. Martin proved to be.  But I cannot do this to my own satisfaction, and I feel that it would not do justice to the dead of them, nor prove satisfactory to the living, who might read these lines.  I will, therefore, only undertake to say a few words about them.  They were a very fine set of boys.  No trouble was ever given by any of them to the master, nor the trustees, and peace and good fellowship reigned between themselves.  Of the number, five made lawyers, J. D. Williams, Perry Nix, J. T. Richey, J. S. Clayton and the writer of these papers.  Possibly others may have gone into the legal profession, but I only know of these.   Three became physicians, G. C. Bessonet and Ed and Will WrenFrank Richey moved to Arkansas in the fall of 1856, and settled at Camden, and there remained until some time after the war; and when the time came, he enlisted in the Confederate service, and was a gallant soldier, losing his right arm in battle, and after the close of the war, settled down again at his profession, was elected to the office of land commissioner of his adopted state, and died only a few years ago, honored and respected by all.  As to Perry Nix, I only know that he went to the Lone Star State in about 1859, and settled there as a practicing lawyer.  I know nothing of his war record, but knowing Perry as I did, I do not think I would miss it much if I were to assume it was equal to that of any.  I have simply heard through others a few times since the war that he was still in Texas.  John D. Williams and I were a little more closely associated than any of the others.  In 1856 he removed to Arkansas, and there remained about a year as a practicing lawyer, when he returned to the old home, and then entered Irving College in Tennessee, and remained there till he graduated, which I think was three years.  By that time the whole South was a camp, and he entered the service of his country in Capt. Martin's company, and I think as its first lieutenant, and was promoted to captain, and finally to lieutenant colonel of the regiment, and no braver or more gallant soldier or officer entered the service.  He was finally captured at Atlanta on the 22nd of July, 1864, and remained a prisoner till the close of the war.  In October, 1865, he entered into partnership with me at Fulton, and remained with me till September, 1866, when we dissolved in order that I might receive my brother, J. S. Clayton, into business, and soon thereafter Col. Williams moved to Tupelo, and settled the place now owned and occupied by W. A. Dozier.  He continued in the practice of law up to the time of his death, which occurred something over twenty years ago.  He was a hard worker, careful in the preparation of his cases for trial, and a good advocate.  He was a candidate for the district attorney at the time of his death, and I know was very hopeful of success, for I had a talk with him about his prospects shortly before his death.  He doubtless contracted the disease from which he died from exposure incurred in presenting his claims to the office during circuit court at Okolona.  My brother, J. S. Clayton, was admitted to the bar in Fulton in October, 1866, just before the county of Lee was organized.  He entered the service of the Confederacy in an infantry regiment, but I do not remember the number, and was from it transferred at his own request, to the 12th Miss. cavalry, Col. Inge's regiment, and served through the war.  He entered into partnership with me in the law as soon as he was licensed, he then residing in Verona and I in Fulton.  He soon thereafter removed to Tupelo, and built and settled the place where Prof. Francis now lives, and on March the 7th, 1871, I also moved from Fulton to Tupelo, and settled the place now owned and occupied by B. F. Clark.  In February, 1879, my brother left the state and settled in Cleburne, Texas, where he now resides.  He has been happily married twice, first, to Miss Ann Murphy, of old Richmond, and secondly, to Mrs. Lizzie Williams, widow of Col. J. D. Williams, and who was also originally - that is when Col. Williams married her - from near the same place where he found his first wife.  He was a safe and reliable lawyer, but after moving to Texas he quit the practice of law and has since followed merchandising.
    Drs. Bessonett and Will Wren are both dead.  Dr. Bessonett lived in Guntown for many years, for a time practicing his profession, and part of the time in the drug business, and made a success of both.  He was genial and companionable, having few if any enemies.  Dr. Will Wren was killed by J. A. Monaghan and whom he killed in the same unfortunate difficulty.  Dr. Wren was very successful as a physician. Dr. Ed Wren is still living, practicing his profession to the satisfaction of his patients and friends in Monroe county, Miss.  Both were gallant Confederate soldiers.  W. C. Bessonett was a merchant, and then elected Chancery Clerk of Lee county, which office he filled creditably for eight years.    He now lives with one of his daughters in one of the north-western states.  There were two of the Fisher boys, Platt Bull Fisher, but the christian name of the other has escaped me.  I have learned that one or both of these boys was killed in the war.  There were two of the Stovall boys who were nearing manhood, J. P. Stovall and Dallas StovallDallas has been a merchant for years at Saltillo.  They both made gallant Confederate soldiers.   J. P. Stovall might have been a lawyer or doctor either, if he had so chosen, but he chose the quiet life of the farmer, after all the most independent life a man can lead.  The mental strain is less, the freedom more, and the home life more satisfactory.  He has the pleasure of looking out upon his growing crops and lowing herds and cackling fowls, and being under no one's command, except that of his own wife.  My understanding is that all these other young men whom I have named made good soldiers in the cause of the South. I know that Billie Bessonett received a severe wound in the ankle, which has given him much pain and trouble all these years.  Whig Richie was a boy about sixteen when we attended the Martin school, gentle and kind, not inclined to study, but so timed in his conduct as to keep on the good side of the teacher, and never gave any offense to anyone.  But it was the general opinion that Whig would never make a success in life, yet I have heard that he went into merchandising, made fine money, and was and is respected by all who know him.  As for myself, I will only say, I may speak occasionally of what I have done and suffered, on the theory that "he that bloweth not his own horn, it shall not be blown," to use the classic language of Col. Russell O. Beene, of auld lang syne.
    Some merchants only last for a season, and many only for a little longer time.  But in old Richmond in 1855, there was a firm of merchants doing business then under the name of Raymond and Trice, composed of Alfred H. Raymond and Robert L. Trice, and they continued their business there until the Mobile and Ohio Rail Road was built, and then moved themselves to Verona, where they were connected in business in one way or another till the death of Mr. Raymond, and now a son of each is engaged together in business in the town of Tupelo, under the firm name of Trice Raymond Hardware Co.  I dealt with Raymond and Trice from 1855, more or less, for many years and I must say I never dealt with more square and accommodating gentlemen than they; and then when you owed them and could not pay, all they asked of you was good faith and an honest effort to pay, and they would indulge you as long as you could ask.  They collected their debts without suit, and you always thought, in dealing with them, you were in the house of your friends.  When I went to Richmond, I was not quite nineteen, a poor boy without means, and even having no money with which to pay board, clothing and books, and I must say the merchants and those with whom I boarded treated me superbly, and Raymond and Trice were among them, for they all sold me on credit, and Col. W. M. Pound and J. B. White with whom I boarded, never asked me for a dollar; and in the fall of 1856, after eating their grub and wearing clothes for fifteen months, I went on an unexpected visit with my uncle to Jefferson county, Alabama, and finding a good school awaiting me there, I came not again till the fall of 1857, and yet not one of them all ever wrote me they wished their money.  Those were the good old times of long ago.  Who would not joyfully pay such men, and remember them too with gratitude all these years.  Who can beat the record?
    Old Richmond scored it with me.  I never pass her deserted site, but I remember the kindness of hers to me in the long ago.