Drake-Satterfield Collection (Z/1288)
Dates: 1870 - 1894.
One of the many descendants of this family, Rev. Benjamin M. Drake, came to Mississippi about 1820. On October 4, 1827 he married Susannah Priscilla Hawkins Magruder, daughter of Captain James Trueman Magruder and Eliza Ann. Captain Magruder retired from the sea and cleared a plantation from the wilderness in 1807 in Jefferson County near Church Hill, called "Mount Ararat." Benjamin Drake bought a small part of "Mount Ararat" which he called "Magnolia Springs."
One of Benjamin Drake's sons, Elijah Steele, married Ellen Davis Turpin, September 21, 1869. Elijah Steele was a lawyer and Ellen bore him six children: Joseph, J. Ruth, Katherine, Ellen, Henry W., and Laura Stevenson. In law he practiced with his father and brother for a few years, but left the law practice and bought a plantation. He later became manager of the Port Gibson Oil Works and spent the last years of his life as the vice-president of the Mississippi Southern Bank of Port Gibson. In 1870 Elijah Steele Drake bought a home in Port Gibson and named it "Roseland," but it has always been called "Drake Hill" by the people of Port Gibson. Elijah's youngest daughter, Laura Stevenson, married Milling Marion Satterfield December 19, 1901, thus uniting this family combination.
This collection contains personal correspondence relating to the Drake family, 1870–1894 (ff. 1–25); news clippings (ff. 26); music sheets belonging to Laura Stevenson, (ff. 27); and a diploma from the Chamberlain Hunt Academy belonging to Milling Marion Satterfield, July 2, 1889.