STEPHEN HITCHCOCK WILKES, son of Abner and Martha Crider Wilkes, was born on his father's plantation about eight miles west of Chester, South Carolina on 18 April 1794. Mr. Wilkes was a witness to a deed made and recorded in Chester County on 10 December 1817. The deed was from Josiah Cranford, Mr. Wilkes' brother-in-law, to Thomas Tanner and covered 66 acres of land lying on Long Branch and waters of Sandy River in Chester County. On the same day, Thomas Tanner sold this tract of land to Stephen Wilkes, however, no record has been found of the disposition that Mr. Wilkes made of this land.

Mr. Wilkes operated a store that was burned by John Hyatt, and for which Hyatt was tried and convicted at the October term of court 1818. It must have been shortly after this that Mr. Wilkes went west, as his father had done before him. He does not appear in the 1820 census of Chester County, and is presumed to have departed before that census was taken.

Stephen Hitchcock Wilkes and Mary McNeese were married on 18 March 1821. It is presumed that the marriage was in Alabama, as their first three children were born in that state in 1822, 1823, and 1826. He moved to Marion County, Mississippi in 1827 and settled near what was later Carley Post Office. In 1842 he crossed over the border of Marion County into Covington County, Mississippi, and established himself and family at what became known as Wilkesburg, about five miles south of the present Bassfield, Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi.

Mr. Wilkes was a man of action and lost no time in developing his property in Marion County. He built a dwelling, slave quarters, shops, barns, and other outbuildings and a general store. A small stream, Mill Creek, ran through his tract of land, and it was here that he built a saw mill, gin, and grist mill, along the lines of what his father had back in Chester County, South Carolina. In addition to operating the mill and store, Mr. Wilkes did a good loan business, and carried on considerable farming and stock raising.

Although his business prospered in Marion County, Mr. Wilkes was an ambitious person and soon concluded that it would be to his advantage and that of his family to move about three miles north, into Covington County, where a large stream, Holiday's Creek, would permit the establishment of a better and larger milling business, and where he would be in the center of a rapidly growing settlement of ambitious white settlers. He sold his mill and about 12 acres of land in Marion County to Mr. William Barnes for $2,000 on 4 June 1839, and for many years thereafter this mill was known as the "Billy Barnes" mill.

In 1842, Mr. Wilkes purchased from Marcus E. and Lydia E. Carter the Southwest Quarter of Section 31, Township 6, Range 17 West in Covington County and some adjoining land in Marion County -- 280 acres in all, with "buildings, rights, privileges (sic) and appurtenances. Mr. Wilkes lost little time in getting settled at this new location. It has been said that he brought carpenters and much material from New Orleans to build onto an existing two-room hewn-log dwelling which he made into a seven-room, two story house, five rooms on the first floor and two on the second, with separate stairs leading from the first. It is tradition that, in time of the War Between the States, signals were made from an upstairs window to men in the nearby swamp when it was safe to bring the stock out of hiding.

It is remembered that in Mr. Wilkes' time the dwelling was especially well furnished, with rugs and a piano in the living room. The kitchen was a separate house near the dwelling. A two-room house in the yard accommodated the overseer in one room, and the weavers in the other. The slave quarters were between the dwelling and the mill, and the store was about 100 yards to the north of the dwelling. Shops, barns, and other buildings necessary for the operation of the mill and plantation were built near the dwelling. The mill complex consisted of a saw mill, cotton gin, and flour mill, all operated by water power.

As a result of the rapid growth of the settlement around the Wilkes store and mill, the United States government established a post office in Mr. Wilkes' store on 14 March 1850 and gave it the name of Wilkesburg. Mr. Wilkes was the first Postmaster at Wilkesburg, and held the office until his death.

Mr. Wilkes bought most of his supplies for his plantation, and goods for his store, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the nearest wholesale market. He also shipped his produce, cotton, hides, furs, etcetera to New Orleans, where Mr. Joseph Lallande was his factor. Getting supplies and goods from New Orleans to Wilkesburg was quite a problem in those days. They were shipped across Lake Pontchartrain by boat to Covington, Louisiana, where they were stored in a Store House until further shipment could be had. Mr. Wilkes bought this Store House from Mr. Lallande in 1841 and later bought other adjoining lots, all located on Columbia Street in rear of the Court House. From Covington the goods and supplies were hauled in ox-wagons to the plantation at Wilkesburg, Mississippi, a distance of about 75 miles. In good weather the round trip would be made in ten days, but in times of bad weather and heavy rains, the wagons were sometimes as much as three weeks making a trip.

Mr. Wilkes was a charter member of St. Albans Lodge Number 60 of the Free and Accepted Masons formed at Columbia, Mississippi on 17 January 1844, at which time he was a third-degree Mason, having been before this a member of Olive Branch Lodge Number 34 of Williamsburg, Mississippi where he was initiated on 19 November 1839. He was again admitted to Olive Branch in 1848 and demitted in 1851.

He was a large man with blue eyes and a ruddy complexion and aristocratic bearing, but tolerant and well-liked by his fellow citizens. He was elected a Justice of the Peace in Marion County in 1831 and held that office until his death; he was also appointed a Trustee of Sixteenth Section Lands in Marion County. He dressed well and could generally be seen wearing a high silk hat and carrying a gold-headed cane.

Mr. Wilkes, "being in sound mind but in feeble health," made his last will and testament on 22 July 1858 and named his wife, Mary, and his son, Stephen H. Pinckney Wilkes, as executrix and executor; later, on 22 January 1859, he named his son-in-law, Charles B. Banks, as additional executor. Mr. Wilkes died on his plantation 7 March 1859, and was buried in the family graveyard only a short distance from the dwelling. The will was probated in Covington County, Mississippi on 11 Apr 1859, and was also probated in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. It is noted that the family name is spelled both "Wilks" and "Wilkes" in the copy of the will in Covington County, and "Wilkes" in the copy at St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana.

Just how and when he obtained it is unclear, but Mr. Wilkes owned a cast-iron, muzzle-loading cannon that he kept near his store and fired on holidays and special occasions such as horse races, elections, political rallies, and other occasions of importance to the community. After Mr. Wilkes' death, the cannon was to be seen in Columbia, Mississippi for many years. It was fired on the Fourth of July and other occasions by the high school students, and perhaps at times by others, however it became a thing of the past some years ago when some young men of the town threw it into Pearl River, near the old steamboat landing.

The following children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes, the information coming from family Bibles:

A. Martha Jane Wilkes
B. Mary Elizabeth Wilkes
C. Sarah H. Wilkes
D. John Ellis Wilkes
E. Eliza Ann Wilkes
F. Francis Wilkes
G. Nancy Ann Wilkes
H. Abner James Wilkes
I. Stephen H. Pinckney Wilkes
J. Joseph Asa Wilkes
K. Henry George Wilkes
L. Susan Malissa Wilkes

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Above information compiled from "Wilkes Family History and Genealogy - Thomas Wilkes (ca. 1735-1809) and His Descendants" written and published by Ivan Ernest Bass in 1965, Washington, D.C.