EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI 251 EAST CENTRAL MISSISSIPPI 251 WEIDMAN’S Weidman’s Restaurant, founded by immigrants, has been at its current location in downtown Meridian since 1923. The establishment’s first location was at the Union Hotel. BLACK BOTTOM PIE AND PEANUT BUTTER Weidman’s has been serving family recipes since 1870. Peanut butter in locally made crocks and crackers on every table are a Weisman’s tradition dating back to World War II. his army against the Creeks in 1813 at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. One year later in the Battle of New Orleans, Pushmataha, a brigadier-general of the American army, led 800 Choctaws alongside Jackson’s army against the British. As the Revolutionary War was coming to an end, half- brothers Pierre and Charles Juzan moved into the Mississippi Territory and settled in the Choctaw Nation. Taking Choctaw wives, Pierre lived at the Native American village Chunky Chitto (Newton County) and Charles Juzan at the Native American village Koosa (Coosa) Town (Lauderdale County). For sixteen days in February 1814, during the War of 1812, Private Charles Juzan served under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson. Pierre served as a Captain under Jackson from December 1814 to March 1815 and was in charge of a company of 200 Choctaws. The brothers established and ran trading posts at Native American villages and in Tuscahoma (Choctaw County, Alabama). Doak’s Treaty of 1820 was ratified by the U.S. Senate on January 8, 1821, and ceded approximately 6 million acres of the Choctaw Nation in exchange for about 13 million acres in the Arkansas Territory. Pushmataha and Puckshanubbee insisted a large sum to be set aside as a perpetual school fund for the education of Choctaw youth. In late September 1824, a Choctaw delegation set out for Washington. They met with Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina for negotiations concerning another Choctaw cession. The Choctaw delegation held fast in their refusal to cede any more land, though they agreed to move the boundary of their Arkansas territory. In Pushmataha’s address to the Secretary of War, he said, “I can boast and tell the truth that none of the Choctaws ever drew bow against PHOTOS BY GREG CAMPBELL