St. Catherine Creek

Drainage basins and physiographic districts in Adams County Mississippi
Landmarks in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Vidalia, and Natchez circa 1863

Saint Catherine Creek is a stream in Adams County, Mississippi, United States.[1] Its principal drainage basin is in the vicinity of Natchez, Mississippi.[2] The main village of the Natchez people was located on St. Catherine's Creek.[3] The first plantation in the Natchez district was established in 1718, during the French colonial era, along St. Catherine's Creek.[4] The second capital of Mississippi Territory, Washington, could be reached by St. Catherine's Creek, in seasons of high water.[5] Circa 1808, water for the village at Washington was said to be "well supplied by wells about forty feet deep, and about a quarter of a mile from the east end is a delightful spring, near the bank of St. Catherine's creek, where is a hot and cold bath — the price of bathing is three eighths of a dollar."[6]

The name of the creek almost certain derives from the French: Concession de Saint Catherine commissioned in France in 1719 and planted in the New World and then extinguished by the Natchez massacre of 1729.[7]: 231 

  1. ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: St. Catherine Creek
  2. ^ Ground-water resources of the Natchez area, Mississippi (Report). 1985. doi:10.3133/wri844341.
  3. ^ "Annual report of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History 1955-71". HathiTrust. p. 61. Retrieved 2024-08-19.
  4. ^ "Mississippi : a guide to the Magnolia state / compiled and written by the Federal writers' project of the Works progress administration". HathiTrust. p. 238. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  5. ^ A New Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of North America and the West Indies. 1833. p. 432.
  6. ^ Cuming, Fortescue (1810). Sketches of a tour to the western country : through the states of Ohio and Kentucky, a voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and a trip through the Mississippi territory, and part of West Florida, commenced at Philadelphia in the winter of 1807, and concluded in 1809. University of Pittsburgh Library System. Pittsburgh : Cramer, Spear & Eichbaum. p. 292.
  7. ^ Phelps, Dawson A.; Ross, Edward Hunter (October 1952). "Names Please: Place-Names Along on the Natchez Trace". Journal of Mississippi History. XIV (4). Jackson, Mississippi: Mississippi Historical Society in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History: 217–256. ISSN 0022-2771. OCLC 1782329.