Captain Leathers was identified with the famous _Natchez-Robert E. Lee_ steamboat race from New Orleans to St. Louis, on the Mississippi river, in 1870. The prize was $20,000. The race has become an epic. So thrilling is it in the history of river traffic it was dramatized in a recent celebration on the Pacific Coast.
Captain Leathers of the _Natchez_ lost the race to Captain Cannon of the _Robert E. Lee_ not because he had a slower boat but because of his over-confidence. He traveled nonchalantly and made all his regular stops. In the pinch he would not jeopardize the safely of his passengers by pressing his boilers beyond the safety point.
Captain Leathers lived in Myrtle Terrace for many years, and the place is still known as the "home of the Captain of the steamboat _Natchez_". It is now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Dan Tucker, who have reclaimed the old lines of the house and have added modern interior improvements.
In the long ago, when each Southern plantation was identified by a specially chosen name, the naming of homes around Natchez was a great event. When land was opened and a home built, a recorded name was given, and neither time nor change of owner or occupant changed the name of that plantation. Interesting indeed are the stories of the names selected.
"Propinquity" was named in 1810 by its owner, Brigadier General Leonard Covington, and was so named because its lands adjoined Fort Dearborn where he was in command of a troop of Light Dragoons. Today Propinquity is appropriate as "near to nature".
The plantation belonged originally to one William Belk. The records shows that in 1797 a committee met at this place for the purpose of appointing a Public Safety organization, the first American political assembly held in the Lower Mississippi Valley.
For several generations Propinquity has been owned by the descendants of Jane Long, the famous "Mother of Texas", who spent many happy days in this quaint old home. It is still a reliquary for interesting possessions of the Texas heroine.
Situated on a side road off the original "Natchez Trace", this old house is built on simple early American lines. A wide center hall with a deep mahogany stairway runs the length of the two huge rooms on either side. Green shuttered, small pane windows, a solid three-panel front door with straight glass sidelights, and a small upper and lower portico complete the simple picture of this old home.