Natchez, Mississippi

Myrtle Bank terrace, Natchez, Mississippi, ca. 1900, from the Stewart Photograph Collection,* via Mississippi Department of Archives and History Commons on flickr (both photos).

The two houses shown here are about two blocks from each other, both on N. Pearl Street.

Major Benbrook residence, corner with B Street, ca. 1895, also from the Stewart Collection.

The neighborhood evidently had good water pressure. Both houses still stand.

In ancient Greece, the first hoses (for fire fighting) were made from ox intestines. In the late 17th century, Jan van der Heiden and his son sewed leather into long tubes for Amsterdam’s fire department. Then, in 1821 Boston, James Boyd invented a rubber-lined, cotton-webbed hose. By the 1870s, the first rubber and cotton fiber hoses for gardeners appeared on the market.

In 1895, a garden hose was the subject of what is believed to be the first comedy film, L’Arroseur Arroséby Louis Lumière. You can see it here.


*By brothers Robert Livingston Stewart and William Percy Stewart of Natchez, Mississippi, from ca. 1890 to ca. 1905.

3 thoughts on “Natchez, Mississippi

  1. Shoot me with that hose, full water pressure. Didn’t know this history of garden hoses. THANK YOU !!!

    Beloved has a commercial creeping hose wheel with battery and solar panel. Setting it up yesterday, I got shot, by accident with water. Not amused.

    To think I had been worried about snakes, not the hose !

    At our ca. 1900 home, this is surely the 1st solar paneled creeping water hose.

    Garden & Be Well, XOT

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