History of Benjy’s Fence in The Sound and the Fury

Abstract

Faulkner Journal Edward Belk Perry History of Benjy’s Fence in The Sound and the Fury T he county courthouse was arguablythe most significant building in Wil­ liam Faulkners work (Hines, Tangible Past48; Bork 144). In “The Court­ house (A Name for the City)” in Requiemfor a Nun Faulkner writes: [A] Square, the courthouse in its grove the center... the offices ofthe lawyers and doc­ tors . . . each in its ordered place; the four broad diverging avenues . . . becoming the network ofroads and by-roads.... But above all, the courthouse: the center, the focus, the hub; sitting looming in the center ofthe county’s circumference like a single cloud in its ring of horizon, laying its vast shadow to the uttermost rim ofhorizon; musing, brooding, symbolic and ponder­ able, tall as cloud, solid as rock, dominating all: protector of the weak, judiciate and curb ofthe passions and lusts, repository and guardian ofthe aspirations and the hopes. (499-500) The courthouse was enclosed by an octagonal-shaped iron fence which re­ mains a mystery (Mayfield, Images 40-41; Aiken 76). Was it created by a black­ smith or in a foundry, i.e., was it wrought iron or cast iron or both?1 What hap­ pened to it? Where is it now? The purpose ofthis paper is to describe the history ofBenjy’s fence. Lafayette County Mississippi was organized as a territory in 1798 and was admitted to the Union in 1817. The Choctaw Indians ceded their land in north Mississippi in October 1830 at the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, and the Chickasaw Indians ceded their land at the Treaty of Pontotoc Creek in October 1832 (Aiken 57, 62). The federal government hired private contractors to survey northern Mississippi into townships and sections (66). Volney Peel was born in 1805 in Bedford County, Virginia, and moved with his family to north Alabama near Huntsville. There he studied civil engineer­ ing and practical surveying and was employed as a draftsman in the land office ‘Iron fencing became popular in the 1830s and could be either wrought or cast, depending on the manufacturing process. Iron fencing could be a combination of both wrought and cast iron such as cast iron posts and panels with wrought iron gates. Cast iron is an iron based alloy with at least two percent carbon. The iron is heated to a fluid state and poured into a mold which allows a more detailed design. Wrought iron is iron that has been drawn out and shaped over a period of time using repeated force and heat by a black­ smith and is more expensive than cast iron. Wrought iron fence components are usually fused or riveted together either by lap joints or welding (US Natl. Park Service 6). 51 52 Edward Belk Perry History ofBenjy’s Fence at Florence, Alabama. In 1832 he received an appointment from the federal government to survey the territory of north Mississippi then occupied by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. He left his wife and child with her parents, who had moved to Hardeman County, Tennessee, and spent two years survey­ ing. When his work was completed in 1834, he bought land in what would become Marshall County, Mississippi, and moved his family to a pioneer cabin he built there, the first white man to settle in the county (Biographical 576-77). Later he built Hickory Park in the Laws Hill community, fourteen miles south­ west of Holly Springs, north of the Tallahatchie River above where the town of Wyatt would be located (Miller, Lost Mansions 67-68; Fant 1). The Treaty of Pontotoc Creek caused a land rush that would see the population of north Mississippi explode. Thousands of acres of land were available for rock-bottom prices and cotton prices were high. Three years after Peel moved there, in the spring of 1837, Marshall County had 13,500 people and the white population was the most for any county in Mississippi (Aiken 67) and Holly Springs was the third largest town in Mississippi (Miller, Lost Landmarks 128). Lafayette was one of a dozen counties created on February 6, 1836, by the Mississippi Legislature in the territory ceded by the Chickasaw Indians (Sobotka 27...