History of Benton: The first settlements and the founding of Hannah's Landing. (1820 - 1827)
Before there were planes, railroad and highway there was the river. The main river of this region was the Mississippi River. On the banks of this mighty river the first true cities of this state were built. Vicksburg, Natchez and Greenville. The oldest of these river towns is Vicksburg. It was from Vicksburg that the first wave of settlers arrived. Old Benton names such as Potter, Brewer, Croft, Perry, Guilder, Smith, Bell, and Sharp came from Vicksburg and pushed up the mouth of the Big Black River and on the high bluff's that overlook a gentle 'S' curve in the river landed and settled.
With the river being the main means of moving people, supplies should come to no surprise that the first towns of this region were located on the banks of the many tributaries that feed into the Mississippi River. Many of those town's still endure today as tiny hamlets or villages. Among those first settlements were Satartia, once a thriving river port on the Yazoo River the population had now shrunk to around four hundred from the sixteen hundred that once called the village home at its height. The word Satartia comes from a Choctaw word meaning “Pumpkin place”, likely due to the small gourds that once grew in the area. Further down river one find the now bustling city of Yazoo City, once named Manchester. And finally we come to Benton, Benton was the first major settlement of this area.
The history of Benton is closely tied to the development of this region and its history. And to truly understand the history of Benton we must travel back to 1820 when the Choctaw Nation sold portions of their northwestern lands to the United States with the signing of the treaty of Doak's Stand. This opened up large areas of Mississippi in which the towns of Yazoo City, Benton and Satartia are located for settlement by both white and black Americans.
With the creation of this county a port was deemed necessary. Since the low lying delta was subjected to flooding each spring it was deemed the port needed to be located on a high bluff. After much debate among the bankers and cotton brokers in Vicksburg chief among them was a planter and lawyer named William Alex Bell, it was decided that an expedition be launched and such a spot found. Mr. Bell himself put up three thousand dollars to fund the expedition with the understanding that he would be granted three thousand acres of land in return should a suitable spot be found. If not he was to be refunded his three thousand dollars. It was he and he alone who hired a steamboat captain named William Joseph Potter. Who was married to youngest sister Hannah Susan Bell who was now Hannah Susan Potter.
The expedition left Vicksburg on March 23, 1823. Commanding the expedition was William Joseph Potter who had under his command, three steamboats, each boat carrying around a hundred men. At first Mr. Potter wanted to go up the mouth of the Yazoo River, but the mouth was blocked by trees and stumps. And so dishearten he then took his small force up the mouth of the Big Black, some twenty miles upstream from the mouth of the Yazoo. The Big Black empties into the Mississippi halfway between the two. For two days he sailed till he reached a gentle 'S' shape bend in the river. It was within the bend he spotted the high bluffs. The bluffs flowed down to greet the river.
Without giving it a second thought he knew this was the place. The high bluff's would provide shelter for the town during the seasonal overflow and the gentle banks would provide a perfect place for ships to moor and unload and reload. Mr. Potter returned to Vicksburg on March 31, 1823 and the next day informed Mr. Bell of his finding.
Mr. Bell with the support of another regional planter John William Sharp and Joseph LeRoy Percy organized another expedition and a survey crew was to accompany the expedition this time. The survey crew was ordered to survey the land and draw up a map and plot out a city. Once the map was to be produced, lots of the newly formed city were then to me offered for sale. It took the team a month to survey the area that would become downtown Benton. John William Sharp was keen to have a port so near, as he owned a large plantation near the proposed site.
On April 4, 1823 a chartered steamboat filled with potential buys left Vicksburg. Two days later on April 6, 1823 the boat docked at the area that would be the end of Main Street. The steamboat severed as a floating hotel as the potential buys checked on the lots for sell. A day later, an auction sale was held and most of the choicest downtown real estates had been sold.
By 1827 all the lots had been sold, and business, hotels and houses were springing up. Trade bloomed in the town. One of the first businesses was a general store that was opened by William Joseph Potter, he called his business Potter Mercantile. And soon it became a stable, selling everything and anything. That same year, The Benton Hotel opened its doors, also that year Hersey Brewer arrived and opened up a hardware store called Brewers Hardware.
And finally four years after that first steamboat landed the settlement had grown large enough to earn the statues of a village. And a new name was given to the village, up to this point in time, people had been calling the landing, just that Landing. Some called it Bluff Point, but then others started calling it Hannah's Landing after William Joseph Potter's wife, Hannah Susan Potter. The name stuck and finally four years after that first boat landed, the town had a new name. Hannah's Landing.
