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w	"ELMWOOD"	S‘-._-*TED	AS	HOME
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WPA - 1937 - Hancock County Interview with Jesse Cownad
One of the earliest settlers of the coast on Day St. Louis was Jesse Cowond. Mellte La Sassier's grant of land dates tack to 1?86 and Jesse Cowand bought from La Sassier allthe tract lying on the water front known as the Cowand-Fleld Cotton Plantation.
In an interview with his grandson, Jesse Cowand, a citigen of Bay St. Louis in 1937» the latter said that his grandfather began work on his home, now ^Elmwood Manor" but left to fight in the v;ar of 1812. He completed the house after the war and it is one of the oldest homes in Hancock County.
The bricks were brought over from Spain as ballast on ships and some from Pensacola. The sills, made from cypress logs, were floated down the Mississippi River.
Jesse Cowand said the home was on the Plantation where Sea Island Cotton was raised. There are still signs of the field on the place as the ground is still in ridges.
Cowand said that when his grandfather built the home there was , an Indian shell mound on the grounds. The lime for the cement was taken from the shells in the mound which has now entirely disappeared.
Jesse Cowend’s father, Charles T. Cowand served in the Civil War, and Jesse Cowand himself in the Spanisjz-American War.
"Elmwood Manor" is now owned by D. V. Richards, Manager of Saenger Theaters.
It is nearer the type of the Ante Bellum days than any other home of Hancock County.