St. Catherine Creek

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]

Drainage basins and physiographic districts in Adams County Mississippi

Landmarks in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Vidalia, and Natchez circa 1863

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

See also

• St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge

References

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.