VICKSBURG - THE DISCOVERY
by Roger C. Haynes
Many of us have seen the battlefields and parks of Gettysburg, and Manassas, cried, openly and to ourselves that so many died in one of Americas greatest shames, The Civil War...
Our story starts here because often times the war was considered to have been fought in the eastern states, between Pennsylvania and Georgia, but there was oh so much more.
In 1861 the Confederate advisors knew what they had to do, protect Vicksburg, Mississippi at all costs, for it was a thriving river town with railroad as well as river traffic. It was not until the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862 that they built "works" or gun emplacements high on the two hundred foot bluffs that over look the river and all the traffic on it.
The Federal troops twice tried to dig a canal across the peninsula where the Mississippi River doubles back and passes by Vicksburg, but both times the river would rise unexpectedly and spoil their plans. Battles failed to gain the slightest foothold on the city, in early 1862, then in November, Grant started a long tedious campaign that would not end until July fourth 1863 when Vicksburg finally surrendered its tiring troops to the growing numbers of Federal soldiers encircling their town.
Today more than 16,000 Federal soldiers are buried at the Vicksburg National Cemetery, visited by hundreds of thousands of persons each year. This western battle in the Civil War was one of the worst, yet least known by this writer until now.
After the war the city fell silent, river traffic resumed as well as railroad business. The city grew in reconstruction, part of which was the National Cemetery being encircled by the Vicksburg National Military Park dedicated in 1899, the Cemetery having been established in 1865.
Progress followed, in a book entitled Early Twentieth Century Vicksburg, Author J. Cyril O'Neil describes an advertisement for an automobile, from the Lee Richardson Hardware Co., described as an open sports model buggy with rubber tires and an operators stick. The early auto had been marked down from $125 to $90.
On July 2nd, 1903 the Natchez Bulletin praised the city of Vicksburg for its unusual building activity, after many months of very slow construction progress throughout the state.
With Vicksburg leading the way during this time of rebuilding, it would be no surprise for a city with vision and determination to issue city plates.
Vicksburg serves as a major hub for the railroad system in western Mississippi with the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley (Y & MV) and the Alabama & Vicksburg (A & V) leading the way.
Horse drawn street cars emerged in 1890 and by 1899 the street cars were electric. Twelve to fifteen miles of tracks were in the city.
There were only fifteen automobiles known at this time; they did not play a significant part of the cities transportation system.
In 1904 the Vicksburg Cosmopolitan described two of the early autos as follows: A standard two-seater Oldsmobile runabout, guided with a horizontal stick, priced at $650. Also a four-seater Oldsmobile Tonneau with a steering wheel at $950. Both models equipped with the luxury of having headlights.
Now comes the slow growth of a Western Mississippi city on the shores of the mighty river, steeped in history and just waiting for discovery.
Its 1999, here is our tie in to the Civil War... An ambitious artifacts collector is combing the countryside in and around Vicksburg to see what he can find. In one quest he locates a box of bottles dated in about 1905 - 1910, mixed in with assorted car parts and other debris there are three unusual looking license plates, all porcelain in manufacture and all three with a "V" prefix, numbers V329, V337 & V374 with the vertical MISS on the right side, there was no doubt these were license plates of some sort, but just license plates to a man who collects Civil War stuff and bottles and such.
At his next show he was bragging on his find to a man he met there, who just happened to be a friend of Len Harris in Alabama. He described the plates and their unusual good condition, which was later relayed to Len.
Len Harris is a very serious collector, he now becomes a hunter.
Quizzed as to who the man was, his friend could not tell him, but he said he knew his face. No telling what that might lead to so Len calls a friend who lives near Vicksburg and asks him to start asking around and see what he can find out.
Len remembers thinking, I have to track this guy down if its the last thing I do.... the next two weeks must have seemed like months, but finally, results.
The friend in Vicksburg had located the man. A frantic two week search had a trembling (I would suppose) Mr. Harris calling the fellow to see what he might have in mind for the plates. A deal was struck and the two plates Numbers V329 and V374 were sold.
Avid early plate collector Chuck Wesphal is informed of the find and soon becomes the proud owner of plate number V329.
News of the find spread; such noted collectors as Jim Fox, Jeff Francis, Jim Crilly and Gene Hauman all have concluded what we have here are the first known example of Mississippi pre-state city plates.
Although no documentation exists, it could be speculative that the city started issuing plates with V1 and simply continued the numerical sequence as the automobile population grew in Vicksburg.
Not since the discovery of the 1913 Mississippi passenger plate by Roy Klotz in the mid 80's has the collecting world been so rocked. This is news.
For more than 90 years the Magnolia state has held this secret from the most advanced collectors, hunters and historians, now here they are.
In being questioned about the plates Len related: Collectors like myself have always wondered why Mississippi, surrounded by four other states that used pre-state city plates, had never turned up an example of one. It has always been a poor state as states go, but not to have city plates surface, never made any sense, until now...
The plates are white on blue porcelain with a narrow white border and are in remarkable condition for their age and reported poor storage.
Len was born and raised in Alabama. He first started collecting license plates simply as decorations, but that quickly changed. He set his sights on a complete Alabama passenger run and began piecing the puzzle together. However, with the discovery of his first 1910 Birmingham city plate he admits his collecting goals were thrown away all together.
Now his main focus is on pre-state and city plates, however anything that has only a few known, or no other examples, remains high on his list.
I try not to collect anything that just going to sit in a box, what's the point? If it can not be displayed, I don't need it.
With the help of an understanding wife (Renee) I have my entire collection on display in our large den, pool room and garage. I've found that the fewer goals you set for yourself, the more fun you'll have in collecting.
Only one thing I've noticed will make Len beam brighter than talking about his plates,,, that is Leonard Hoyt Harris III. That's him with his Dad and the unusual Mississippi plate, and in a second photo shown with a rare Lexington Kentucky 1911, one of only two known.
At the recent plate gathering in Lebanon Tennessee little Hoyt stole the show with his priceless smile and apparent interest in getting out of moms arms to dig in the plates with the rest of us.
Len showed the porcelain Vicksburg as well as many or his one of a kind and interesting porcelains at the Tennessee meet and won top honors, if you visit the TNS web site (www.tagsnstuff.com) you will see these wonderful photos in color.
But what about V337..?.. Even since this article has been in the works, Len, with dogged determination approached the owner to price it. He was hesitant, wanted it keep it for himself, but couldn't resist setting a price. In a matter of hours the deal was sealed and the plate promised to yet another vintage plate collector, that early city tag will now grace the walls of the Jeff Francis collection.
TNS Thanks Len Harris for sharing this wonderful find with us and references info used in this article from the Encyclopedia Americana and EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY VICKSBURG by J. Cyril O'Neil...
PART OF THE FABULOUS HARRIS COLLECTION