Tallula, Issaquena County -- Cotton and corn are the staples. The prospects now are very bad -- both crops ruined by high waters. This county almost all overflowed.

The Vicksburg Herald says: There are the most flattering prospects presented to the planters in Issaquena county. We never saw finer corn any where, and the cotton is in a cleaner and better condition than any we have seen since the war.

New York Times. New York, New York, March 13, 1873

FIRES
Incendiarism and Murder of Four Persons in Mississippi
Memphis, Tenn., March 12 -- The Vicksburg (Miss.) Herald of the 8th ist. says: "The steamer R.B. Hurl arrived yesterday, and her officers bring further particulars of the Rolling Fork fire and loss of life. The store of Messrs. Ring & Moore, as before stated, was destroyed by fire during Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning the charred remains of Jesse Moore and Mrs. Moore, Mr. Goodhue, and a child named Billy Jones were taken from the debris ... Mr. Joe Tyng [Ring] has been missing, and it is feared also that he has been foully dealt with. It was supposed at Rolling Fork that Mr. Tyng [Ring] had gone to Vicksburg on the steamer a day or two previous to the occurrence, but nothing has been heard from him by his friends here. Billy Jones, the child, was seven or eight years old, and the son of a well-known raftsman, who had left  Billy with Mr. Moore while he was engaged in other sections of the country. Rolling Fork Landing is on the Sunflower River, at the mouth of a short stream, which connects the Sunflower with Deer Creek. The store of Ring and Moore, the only house at the landing, was used as a storing depot for all goods put off there. It is supposed that there were a good many inflammable goods in the building at the time of the fire, and an explosion -- supposed to be gunpowder -- was heard for several miles around. The murdering of four or five persons and the burning of a house to conceal the crime, is enough, of course, to arouse all sections of the country adjacent, and great excitement prevails. No clue, at the trators of this horrible crime. Two suspicious looking characters had been seen in the neighborhood previous to the occurence, and they have disappeared. The body of Mr. Goodhue was brought to this city and buried from St. Paul's Church, yesterday afternoon."

Genealogical Notes:

1870 Issaquena County Federal Census:

Page 285B
Tallula PO
Schola Precinct
315-115
Joe Ring: age 38, Farmer, France
Barbara: Keeping House, New York
George: 4, Mississippi
Joe: 6, New York
John: 2, Mississippi

Page 287B
Tallula PO
Schola Precinct
366-366
Jesse Moore: age 28, Dry Goods Merchant, Pennsylvania
___ Moore, age 16, Keeping House, Mississippi

Only a Few Bones: A True Account of the Rolling Fork Tragedy & Its Aftermath
by John Philip Colletta 

Daily Democrat. Sedalia, Missouri, March 13, 1873

A most horrible murder has been perpetrated at Rolling Fork, Miss., and the victims, four in number, afterwards burned. Robbery is supposed to have been the object of the murderers.

Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago, Illinois, July 15, 1882

Jackson, Miss., July 14. -- Judge Jefferds of Issaquena County, ex-judge of the Supreme Court, has been nominated for Congress by the Republicans of the old "Shoestring" district.

The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia, July 4, 1883

Vicksburg, July 3. -- A special to the Herald from Mayersville, says that Richard Gregg, a noted negro politician of this state, and clerk of the circuit and chancery courts of Issaquena county, dropped dead yesterday of heart disease.

Evening Observer. Dunkirk, New York, August 1, 1883

Mayersville, Miss.: Ben Hardy and two other men employed at the Government works fell off a pile driver and were drowned near where five men were drowned by the capsizing of their skiffs on Saturday.

Perry Pilot. Perry Iowa, August 18, 1883

During a severe storm several skiffs in the river near Mayersville, Miss. capsized, and five men, all colored, were drowned.

New York Times. New York, New York, December 29, 1884

Found Dead in the Road
Vicksburg, Miss., Dec. 28 -- Horace Lawrence, a well-known citizen of Issaquena County, this state, was found dead on the road to-day. His head was horribly fractured. It is supposed he was assassinated.

Evening Observer. Dunkirk, New York, March 20, 1885

E. Jeffords, of Issaquena County, Miss., lately Representative in Congress of the "Shoe-string" district, died suddenly at the Washington Hotel, Vicksburg, on the 19th of heart disease.

Semi Weekly Age. Coshocton, Ohio, January 8, 1886

His Property Attached
Vicksburg, Miss., January 6 -- Deputy United State Marshal Raum attached the property of W.K. Ingersoll in Issaquena County, upon judgement from the United States Court. The attachment was based upon a judgement in favor of W.G. Hamerlin, a broker of Detroit, Mich., for $15,000. Mr. Ingersoll is one of the leading attornies of this city, and his planting and mercantile interests in Issaquena County are very large. He places his liabilities at $95,000 and his assets at $152,000.

New York Times. New York, New York, November 25, 1886

Wade Hampton Hurt
Vicksburg, Miss., Nov. 24 -- Senator Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, is almost much a Mississippian as he is a Carolinian. For many  years, and possibly now, he owned more property in this state than in the one he represents in Congress. In Issaquena County are situated his plantations, and when he is not in Washington he visits them. He is in Issaquena now recovering, or about recovered, from an injury received in his favorite sport of hunting. He was riding in the swamp a few days ago when his gun was caught by a twig and fired off. The charge entered his horse's head, instantly killing him, and throwing him back upon the Senator, who was pinned to the earth. After long and laborious efforts the Senator succeeded in extricating himself. He was bruised considerably and worn out, but still he had to walk to the plantation, nearly five miles away. As he is an old man the task was too much for him, and he was confined to his bed for several days.

The New York Times. New York, New York, January 16, 1887

A Mail Robber Caught

Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 15. -- A gentleman from Vicksburg reports that this morning as the north-bound train on the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railroad neared Rolling Fork, in Sharkey County, Miss., the mail bag was snatched off, it was thought by the agent of the train. Later, however, it was found under a cottonseed house near the station cut open and rifled of its contents, consisting of about 100 letters from Mayersville and Rolling Fork and two registered letters from the latter place, one containing $54 and the other a draft. A clue was at once obtained and in few hours the robber was captured nine miles below Rolling Fork. On his person $36 were found answering the description of the money stolen, and over $400 in drafts from the stolen letters. Papers in his possession reveal the robber as a sewing machine agent from Louisiana by the name of Charles R. Anderson. He had been around Rolling Fork for several days passing under the name of C.L Service. He was lodged in jail. He had papers showing that he had robbed the mail on the same road in December last. He will be held to await the arrival of an Inspector.

The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia, August 18, 1889

Emma Wade Anderson, Mayersville, Miss.: I have been reading The Weekly Constitution; like it better than any paper we have. I am not going to school now, our school closed in March. We are living in the country. The new branch of the L., N.O. & T. railroad is about one mile and a half from me. I enclose 25 cents for the confederate home. My papa was a confederate soldier. I would like to correspond with one of the cousins.

Mitchell Daily Republican. Mitchell, South Dakota, March 27, 1890

Skipwith, Miss., Under Water -- The Surrounding Country Inundated
Vicksburg, March 27 -- The levee at Skipwith in Issaquena county, fifty miles south of Greenville, has broken. The town of Skipwith is now under water. The lake in Washington county and Riverside branch of the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas railroad will go under. The break is 200 feet wide.

New Oxford Item. New Oxford, Pennsylvania, April 4, 1890

News has been received here regarding the trouble at Skipwith, about eight miles north of Vicksburg. This town has about six hundred inhabitants and, with the exception of one house, it has been swept entirely out of existence. When the levee broke the crevasse widened to about 700 feet, and through this the waters rushed at a velocity of from six to eight miles and hour ploughing out an immense cavity wherever an obstruction was presented. The center of the break has reached a great depth. The main current from the break coursed diagonally through the town, where everything seemed to give way before it. The debris which has caught in timber and underbrush in the rear of the town was filled with chickens, turkeys and goats, while the carcasses of horses, mules and milch cows gave gave evidence of the disaster to the domestic interests of the village. So sudden has been the inundation that no one had more than time to make a hasty run for the intact portion of the dyke north of the crevasse. Few saved even a full suit of clothes. With Mayersville, Fitlers, Hayes and other towns surrounded and threatened with a lake like that of Skipwith, the desolation and ruin wrought by the waters has come to a frightful proportion. One by one trains on the various river saide roads in the Mississippi Valley have been abandoned. One twenty-eight mile stretch of track to Hampton was all that remained on which trains ran out of Greenville on Sunday, and the town is left as on an island, having only a river communication with the outside world.

The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas, May 25, 1891

A novel insect has appeared by millions in Issaquena county and is destroying the corn as fast as it comes up. Many fields have been replanted thrice already and the bugs are now more numerous than ever. They are the western chinch bug, hitherto unknown in this territory. Chinch bugs from Kansas infected with disease have been sent to Issaquena and placed with the native bugs in the hope that the disease may check their multiplication. Planters are much distressed by this new enemy. Up to this time the bugs have not attacked cotton.

The News. Frederick, Maryland, April 22, 1897

Memphis, April 22 -- The sixth break in the Mississippi delta levee system occurred at 10 o'clock yesterday at a point a few miles south of Lake Providence, La., on the Mississippi side of the river. The break is a large one, and a great volume of water is rushing into Issaquena county, Miss. This county, with the adjacent counties of Sharkey and Yazoo, have already been partly inundated from the earlier breaks, and yesterday's crevasse, it is believed, will not materially affect the situation in that vicinity. The water is gradually spreading over Madison parish from the Biggs crevasse, and it will be several weeks before it subsides.

The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas, April 14, 1900

Vicksburg, Miss., April 13 -- Manager Hollingsworth of the Sate convict farm at Sandy Bayou, Issaquena County, was shot and instantly killed by a negro trusty today. The negro, who was acting as cook, secured a rifle and following Hollingsworth, shot him down without a word of warning.

The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia, March 23, 1903

Water Slopping Over Levees

Vicksburg, Miss., March 22 -- Officers of the steamer, City of St. Joseph, which reached here this afternoon from Greenville report a critical state of affairs along the Issaquena county front. All along the line the water is almost level with the crown of the levees and at several points it is slopping over. New work is sluffing badly, and at Fitlers a great cave has appeared on the old levee. Into this cavity 2,000 sacks filled with sand have been dumped without perceptible effect. Inspector Dulaney, who is in charge of the work there, has about decided to cut the old levee at half a dozen places, as a sudden break would be disastrous to the new levee further back. This is vigorously opposed by people living between the levees and feeling is said to be running high. At Duvals and from Brunswick to Chotard there is imminent danger at several points where large forces of laborers are working day and night. The City of St. Joseph brought in more than a hundred refugees, men, women and children, from the Davis and Kiger places, and will go back as soon as discharged for others who are imperiled by back water. Four hundred head of stock have been concentrated on the high places at Australia awaiting removal, but it is feared that most of these will be swept away before a boat can be secured for brining them out. On the Louisiana side about Pitcher's Point conditions similar to those at Fitlers exist, and despite the optimism of engineers and levee board officials it is feared that it will be impossible to hold the line much longer. The guage here tonight registered 50.6 and rising and the under-the-hill section of the city, embracing the wholesale district, the railroad shops and compresses is pretty well covered with water.

The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas, April 11, 1904

Memphis, Tenn., April 10. -- A special to the Commercial Appeal from Rolling Fork, Miss., says: A report reached here tonight to the effect that a portion of the levee at Baleshed, Issaquena County, had caved in, seriously impairing the strength of the embankment and causing grave fears of a crevasse. Large forces of men are engaged in building what is technically known as a "turn-around" at the cave-in, and this precaution, it is thought will prevent an inundation should the levee break. The run-around is an embankment back of the levee extending in a half circle from a point on the embankment above the cave-in to a point below it. Baleshed is six miles south of Mayersville. The cave-in at Baleshed is the only threatening development thus far reported from the entire levee system of the State.

The Dallas Morning News. Dallas, Texas, August 20, 1909

Vicksburg, Miss., Aug. 19. -- The first bale of cotton of the season, consigned here by I.C. Culaney of Grace, Issaquena County and classed as strict middling, was bought today by the Cotton Exchange at 31c. It was raised from Kentucky seed in order to beat the boll weevil by fast growth.

The Atlanta Constitution. Atlanta, Georgia, May 28, 1912

Vicksburg, Miss., Aug. 19. -- C.C. Sanford, a wealthy planter of Issaquena county, was shot from his horse and instantly killed at the village of Valley Park today by J.R. Bass, who had been employed by Sanford as a bookkeeper. Bass asserts that he acted in self-defense.