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ANTEBELLUM PERIOD
Inn was a lodging place, a barroom, and a meeting place for sailors and fishermen, and was well known to all boatmen who made the place their rendevous and general hangout. The passenger boat from New Orleans landed at Cantoni's wharf (Echo, 42; p4).
That same year (1849) J.F.H Claiborne had bought the Francois Saucier Sea Island cotton plantation at Mullatto Bayou (ECHO, 1979;2C). This location is, at present, the site of the Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission. The Saucier-Claiborne home was razed by the International paper company in the 1940s after it had become vandalized and terribly dilapidated.
Mississippi sent three companies of volunteers to fight in the war with Mexico in 1849. No one from Hancock County is known to have participated, however.
It appears that Raymond Cuevas was incorrect in stating that a Masonic Lodge existed in 1849. Lodge records indicate that the Bay St. Louis F. & A.M. lodge was organized in 1850 under the authority of the Grand Lodge of the State of Mississippi (ECHO, 1942;21). A lodge building was also erected that year on land owned by Madeline J. Saucier (born Toulme). On February 5, 1851, a charter was granted to the lodge as Bay St. Louis Lodge 147, domiciled at Shieldsboro in Hanncock County. Also, Perre did not open his bakery until 1871. " Anel	od	t~
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