| Name | James Robert GORDON |
| Birth | 6 Dec 1833, Quincy, Monroe Co. MS |
| Death | 28 Nov 1912, Okalona, MS |
| Occupation | Planter; U.S. Senator |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Education | Univ. of MS 1855 |
| Father | Robert GORDON (1788-1876) |
| Mother | Mary Elizabeth WALTON (1813-1869) |
James Gordon went to school in the old field schools of Pontotoc County. At Tocsish to Jesse & Thos. Bramlett, to Hon Rittain R. Webb, Cherry Creek, Pontotoc Co., Dr. Harots in Holly Springs in 1848 to Whitehorn in Holly Springs in 1848&9. LaGrange College 1850. Entered sophomore at University of Mississippi Sept 1852. Graduated in Class of 1855.
Planter, Editor, Journalist . A writer for various magazines and journals (including Scribners, and Century Magazines, Forest and Stream, Field and Farm)
Was a member of the state legislature in 1857, 1878 & 1886. Elected to State Senate for 31st District for four years beginning Jan 5th 1904. Has serve on state executive committee and always actively working for the democratic.
Captain Chickasaw Ranger, Co. B. Jeff Davis Legion, commission Feb 7th 1861; armed and equipped company at own expense. Raised and organized a Regiment of cavalry know as 2nd Regt. Miss. Vol. Cavalry, Armstrongs Brigade. Fought under Genl. J.E.B. Stuart in Virginia, Van Dorn, W. H. Jackson and N. B. Forest in Miss and other states. Was sent to Europe by President Davis in 1864. Had yellow fever in Bahama Islands, was captured on return the night Fort Fisher Fell at Wilmington. Escaped and went to Canada. Reported to the Hon. Jacob Thompson in Montreal and was like him charged with being an accomplice of Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Lincoln, some months after surrender was permitted to return home by Genl. Dix, who gave him a safe guard to report to him in New York and was satisfied with his innocence.
He married Feb 7th 1856 Carolina Virginia Wiley, daughter of Yancey Wiley and his wife Annie Thompson Wiley who lived near Oxford. Mrs. Gordon was a niece of Hon. Jacob Thompson, a granddaughter of Nicholas Thompson of Leesburg, NC and a granddaughter of a daughter of Hon. Bartlett Yancey, a distinguished lawyer, politician and statesman of North Carolina. She was active in church work and for soldiers in the war...
Col. James Gordon and Mrs Carolina Virginia Gordon were the parents of only two childen and there was twenty years and seven months difference in their ages. The oldest, Anna, married John T. Barrow. she was born Dec 18th 1856 and is the mother of three children, Gordon T. Barrow, Mary Virginia Barrow and John T. Barrow Jr. Robert James Gordon was born July 27th 1877. Is now a law student at the University of Miss." (written Nov. 10, 1903 by James Gordon)
Note that James Gordon was appointed United States Senator in December 1909 by Gov. Noel to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator McLaurin. He served only until Feb. 10, 1910, when he was succeeded by LeRoy Percy, who was elected by the Mississippi Legislature.
The following is James Gordon's biography in The History of Monroe County:
"James Gordon was born at Cotton Gin Port in Monroe County Dec. 6, 1833. He attended the University of MS at Oxford, and graduated in 1855. In 1856, he was the representative of his county in the State Legislature. He married Caroline Virginia Wiley in February of 1856. She was the daughter of Yancey Wiley of Oxford, MS. According to Goodspeeds "Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi," during the Civil War, James Gordon raised a company of cavalry arming it and equipping it from his own private means. He captained the company, took it to Richmond and was attached to the Jeff Davis legion under General Stewart. After the battle of Seven Pnes in 1862, he returned to MS and recruited a regiment of cavalry of which he was made Colonel. The outfit was know as the Secon MS Regt Cav of Armstrong's Brigade. He was later sent to Europe by President Jefferson Davis on a mission. On his return, he was captured and was a prisoner of war until he escaped in Feb. of 1865 and went to Montreal, Canada. During this time in Canada, he met John Wilkes Booth, and was later suspected by the United States Government of implication in the assassination of President Lincoln. He was later cleared of any suspicion. He returned to Mississisppi in 1865 after taking the oath of allegiance. He was elected as a representative to the State Legislature in 1877 and agan in 1885. He was later U. S. Senator. James Gordon was also an author under the pen name Pious Jeems. He contributed to many of the foremost publications of his day, including the magazines, Century Magazine, Turf, Field & Farm, American Field and the London Field. He died Nov. 28, 1912 and was buried at Okolona, Chickasaw County, Mississippi."
Note that in the 1860 census of Chickasaw County, MS, the value of James Gordon's real estate was $122,700 and the value of his personal property was $128, 725.
The following description of James Robert Gordon's late Civil War experience is from William A. Tidwell, Come Retribution, p. 406: "Jefferson Davis persuaded him to go to England in 1864 to help arrange the purchase of a privateer. Gordon's return was delayed when he contracted yellow fever at Bermuda. He finaly reached Wilmington aboard the blockade runner Blenheim which steamed blithely into port on the night of 24 January 1865 without the captain being aware that Fort Fisher had been captured by a federal amphibious force on 15 January. The next morning the vessel was taken as a prize, and the crew was removed to Old Point Comfort, Virginia. At Old Point Comfort, Gordon talked his way out on 22 February by telling the Yankees that he was the son of athe duke of Argyle and was fleeing from a scrape in Scotland. In a few days he reached New York City, where he was concealed, probably by John Potts Brown, an astute Confederate commercial agent. As Gordon told it later, he went on to Montreal and reported to Jacob Thompson. ...
James Gordon clearly arrived in Montreal on 8 March 1865, in the middle of an important Confederate operation. After the war, in talks with visitors at Lochinvar, he said that while he was in Canada he worked on plans to capture President Lincoln and had met John Wilkes Booth. Although this was know to many people in rural Pontotoc County, it caused scarcely a ripple. In the bitter poverty of the postwar South, who would condemn a plan to capture Lincoln."
| 1 | Carolina Virginia WILEY |
| Birth | 13 Sep 1836, Withville, Wythe Co. VA |
| Death | 27 Feb 1903, at residence near Okolona, MS |
| Father | Yancey WILEY (1805-1886) |
| Mother | Eliza Ann (Anna) THOMPSON (1812-1850) |
| Marriage | 7 Feb 1856, College Hill, Lafayette Co., MS |
| Children | Annie (1856-1914) |
| Robert James (1877-1920) |
| 2 | Ella NEILSON21 |
| Birth | ca 1851, Mississippi |
| Marriage | ca 1905 |