F. L. Claiborne and William Brooks, as counsel in the struggle. over division of the property which followed the death of Hutchins, and Lewis arranged with George Poindexter, attorney of the other heirs, an amicable arrangement. In April, 1807, he was appointed attorney-general for the counties of the Natchez district, an office he resigned in 1808. In 1810, when he removed to Opelousas, Gov Claiborne, of Louisiana, offered him the place of parish judge of Attakapas. Under the State government, 1812, he was made district judge. During the time of the codification mania in 1820-25 he attacked the penal code proposed by Edward Livingston, and caused its rejection. This triumph, however, caused a renewal of the cry of "shoemaker," that embittered his life, for it actually estranged many from him. After 27 years as parish and district judge, he died Nov. 15, 1848. (Autobiography, Miss. Archives.) Judge Lewis was the first master of a lodge of Masons in Mississippi. · Lewisburg, a post-hamlet in the east-central part of De Soto county, 10 miles east of Hernando, the county seat and nearest railroad and banking town. It has three churches and a school. Population in 1900, 72.

Lexie, a postoffice in the southeastern part of Pike county, situated on McGee's creek, a tributary of the Bogue Chitto, 18 miles east of Magnolia, the county seat.

Lexington, the capital of Holmes county, is an incorporated posttown on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley R. R., 12 miles west of Durant, and 62 miles north of Jackson. It is located in the hills, and is surrounded by a good agricultural district producing cotton, corn, oats, rye, Irish and sweet potatoes, strawberries, sugar cane and all garden trucks. It has a money order postoffice, and telegraph, express and banking facilities, a court house, nine churches and two schools. The Lexington Advertiser, a Democratic weekly, was established here in 1838. The Bank of Holmes County was founded in 1889, and has a capital of $40,000; the Bank of Lexington was founded in 1896, capital $40,000; the Bank of Commerce was founded in 1902, capital $40,000. The town has an electric lighting plant and three hotels. Among its present manufacturing enterprises may be mentioned an oil mill, cotton compress, broom factory, and saw mills. There is a city debt of $7,000 on railroad bonds; the assessed valuation of property is $1,000,000; the tax rate is 6 mills. Population in 1900, 1,516, an increase of about 500 over the census for 1890. The present estimated population is about 2,200.

Liberty, the county seat of Amite county, is an incorporated posttown, about 50 miles southeast of Natchez and near the west fork of the Amite river. A short branch road now connects it by rail with McComb, on the Illinois Central R. R. The town is located almost exactly at the geographical center of the county, and was selected as the seat of justice in 1809, the year the county was formed. It was incorporated in 1828. In 1863 the Federal troops destroyed the college buildings and burned much of the town.

After the war, the town was rebuilt, and is now a prosperous little place of about 600 people. The Liberty Bank was established here in 1902 with a capital of $25,000. It has a male and female academy and one newspaper, the "Southern Herald," a Democratic weekly, established in 1866. J. W. Forsyth published the "Liberty Advocate" here for many years prior to the founding of the "Southern Herald." In 1871 the patriotic citizens of Liberty erected a shaft of Italian marble in honor of the 282 soldiers it sent forth a decade earlier to fight the battles of the Confederacy. This is the first monument erected in the South in honor of the Confederate dead. There is a large saw mill and manufacturing plant located here, a fine cotton ginnery, and brick works. When the railroad is extended, the town will add to its already increasing population. A substantial hotel has recently been opened for business.

Libertyhill, a post-hamlet of Lafayette county, 16 miles east of Oxford, the county seat. Population in 1900, 22.

Libraries. The State library had its inception in the joint resolution of the legislature of 1817, authorizing the secretary of state to purchase for the State such books as the secretary of the Territory was required to purchase, "and also Mellish's map of the United States, Darby's map of the State of Louisiana, Arrowsmith's map of the world, four copies of Ludlow's new map of the State of Mississippi."

The State library was established by act of Feb. 15, 1838, but we find no records showing the name of the first librarian. William Wing was librarian in 1841-42. The librarian in the early period of the office was also the custodian of the capitol.

The library was at first under the management of trustees, and the library committee of the legislature sometimes passed on the purchase of books. In 1848 the legislature called for a report of purchases in the previous four years, and the public documents of 1850 contain a catalogue, showing a considerable collection of legal works, court reports, and books on medicine, political economy, theology and church history, travel, biography, fiction, poetry, etc., the dryest part of which yet remain upon the shelves. A catalogue of the State library covers fifty-five closely printed pages. of the House Journal in 1857. At that time the rules and regulations of the library required it to be open every day except Sunday during the legislative and court sessions. At other times it was to be kept open three days in each week.

The librarians after William Wing are as follows: James M. Lewis, 1842 to 1848; John W. Patton, 1848 to 1852; M. M. Smith, 1852 to 1854; James McDonald, 1854 to 1856; R. C. Kerr, 1856 to 1858; B. W. Saunders, 1858 to 1861; F. W. Johns, 1861; Marian Smith, 1866; John Williams, 1870; J. D. Worles, (negro,) 1870; I. N. Osborn, 1872 to 1876; J. B. Harris, for Mrs. Mary Morancy, 1876 to 1880; F. M. Shelton, for Mrs. Mary Morancy, 1880 to 1884; Frank Johnston for Mrs. Mary Morancy, 1884 to 1892; T. J. Buchanan for Miss Rose Lee Tucker, 1892 to 1896; Mrs. Helen D. Bell, 1896 to 1900; Miss Mattie Plunkett, 1900.

In 1891 the State Library was, according to the New York World, "the second in value of its kind in the Union, the Massachusetts library only outranking it," having reference to its superiority as a law reference library.

The State library now contains about 60,000 volumes, including law reports and public documents. In volume V., Mississippi Historical Society publications, is a list of the libraries in the State with an estimate of the number of volumes from a publication of 1893. The University of Mississippi library, the second in importance in the State, and the largest of general resource, was then reported at 13,000 volumes, (now about 20,000); the St. Stanislaus College at Bay St. Louis, 50,000; Mississippi College at Clinton, 2,200; Fisk Memorial Library at Natchez, 5,000; Holly Springs State Normal, 3,000. There are a considerable number of other libraries in the State containing from 1,000 to 2,000 volumes. One of the most successful public libraries in the State. is the Ricks Memorial of Yazoo City.

Liddell, a hamlet in the southern part of Montgomery county, 8 miles east of Vaiden, the nearest railroad and banking town. The postoffice at this place was discontinued in 1905 and mail now goes to Vaiden.

Light, a postoffice of Rankin county, 14 miles east of Brandon, the county seat.

Lightsey, a postoffice in the northwestern part of Wayne county, 18 miles west of Waynesboro, the county seat.

Lilac, a postoffice of Montgomery county.

Lily, a postoffice of Attala county, 10 miles north of Kosciusko, the county seat.

Limerick, a postoffice of Yazoo county.

Lincecum, Gideon, was born in Hancock county, Georgia, April 1793, the son of Hezekiah Lincecum of French ancestry. He attended school in a log house in South Carolina; served in the war of 1812; was tax collector of his county; studied medicine and taught school on the boundary line of Georgia and the Creek. country; moved through 500 miles of wilderness to Tuscaloosa, Ala., with his wife and his father's family, then to the Tombigbee river country, building his cabin near the present site of Columbus. In 1819 the government surveyed a road from Nashville, Tenn. to Natchez, which crossed the river where Columbus now stands. He went there to see what kind of a place it was; found a man with some goods in a flatboat; bought the goods, built a house and opened a store. The legislature appointed him chief justice, with authority to appoint all the officers, of the new settlement. He was also appointed to lay off the town, which was located on school lands, and to lease the lots for 99 years. He appointed four other county justices and a county clerk; organized a county court and appointed the county officers. He was also school commissioner and sold enough lots to bring $4,500-enough to begin building schools; removed to Cotton Gin, and was in business there eight years. He lost his health; became destitute, and in 1830

began the practice of medicine in the country; was successful; removed to Texas and settled near Houston April 1848. He died November 28, 1873.

Lincoln County was established quite late in the history of the State, April 7, 1870, and was named for President Abraham Lincoln. The county has a land surface of 574 square miles. It is located in the southwestern part of the State and the counties of Lawrence, Franklin, Copiah, and Amite, were divided to form its area. The original act defined its boundaries as follows: "On the east by R. line between ranges 9 and 10 east; on the north by T. line between townships 8 and 9, except sections 3 and 4, included in the present corporate limits of the town of Wesson; and on the west by the present boundary line between the counties of Copiah and Jefferson; on the south by the present boundary line between the counties of Copiah and Franklin, to a point one mile east of the point where said boundary line intersects the range line separating R. 5 from R. 6; thence due south to the township line, which separates T. 4 from T. 5; thence east along said township line to the commencing point." The act located the seat of justice at Brookhaven. Lincoln is bounded on the north by Copiah county, on the east by Lawrence county, on the south by Pike and Amite counties and on the west by Franklin and Jefferson counties. It is in the heart of the long leaf pine region and its timber has always constituted its most valuable asset. Brookhaven, on the Illinois Central R. R., is the county seat and largest town in the county. It has a population of 3,652 (1906), is an important industrial center, has several planing mills, foundries, machine shops, cotton gins, grist mill., etc., and is the seat of Whitworth Female College, founded in 1859, and one of the best female colleges in the State. Other towns of importance are Bogue Chitto and Norfield, and the little towns of Montgomery, Hartman, Thayer and Derby, all on the railroad. The Illinois Central R. R., runs through the center of the county from north to south and two short branches extend east from Brookhaven and Norfield, giving the county excellent rail transportation. Wesson, a manufacturing center of importance, is just across the northern border of the county, in Copiah, and is an important market for agricultural products in the northern part of Lincoln. Owing chiefly to her wealth of timber resources and to the prominence of the lumbering industry, Lincoln has passed the great majority of her sister counties in the total value of manufactured products, which had attained the very respectable total of $1,767,239 in 1900. The principal streams in the county are the Bogue Chitto, Amite, Homochitto and Bayou Pierre rivers, which with their tributaries are extensively used in logging operations. The general surface of the region is undulating-level on the bottoms. The soil is sandy loam on the ridges and fertile on the numerous bottoms. It produces cotton, corn, sugar-cane, rice, oats, peanuts, potatoes, all kinds of vegetables, fruits and melons. Church and school privileges in Lincoln are very good and the