This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.


sides, my grandfather was rich ? rich ? not what people call rich n maybe, but very rich for that day. He raised stock ? cows, horses, everything on the island. Butchers came to the island from New Orlea and bought cattle by the boatload. He raised all kinds of vegetables especially potatoes, which he sent to the city, as well as fish and oysters. Oh, yet, he made a great deal of money.
One day in July, 1820 my grandfather saw a barge run ashore at Goo Point -- one end of the island. Ha waded out and saw two men shovali sand in order that the boat might yet off. They refused assistance o vice. Strange sounds were heard aboard. My grandfather came ashore got Mr. Ferris, a man who had participated in the Buttle of New Orlea and who had come to the island to visit my grandfather to whom he was greatly attached. They boarded the vessel and found the captain chai hand and foot to the cabin floor. Ho could not speak for weakness. ' tied up the two men in the boat, took the captain ashore and put him a warm, nice bed, and my grandmother fed him weak soup -- a tablespooi at a time. They took the man to Bay it, Louis where they were put in the calaboose from which one escaped, and the other was hanged after trial by military law. My grandfather and Mr. Ferris continued on to New Orleans and informed the insurance company oi: the occurrence. Th< insurance people sent over and brought the captain and the boat's can of silk to the city. The boat was from France en route to Me// Orlean: laden with silk goods of the greatest value.
My grandfather had a brother living on Deer Island, John Joseph Cu< and I liked to visit him. Deer Island then was only about a quarter < a mile from Biloxi. It looked just like a channel, the water between, ow it is much wider, both the Biloxi side and the island having gone gradually into the water. I was a bad little boy and with my cousins we would run the cows and deer into the water to watch them swim over, Drowned? No, it was not far, and	they always	came back.
There were only two priests on	the coast then, Father	Gerin at	Bile
and Father Bierot at Bay St. Louis. They would come to the islands al once a month; the former had Deer Island and the latter Cat Island.
My father moved to Shieldsborough (now Bay	St. Louis)	in 1849,	and
can remember every house there at	that time.	Yes, I can	see them	now.
There was first, beginning at the West End the Jackson house, Maximil] and Bernard Bourgeois and Victor Ladner's old place. What is now cal] ".vaveland" then was known as "Grand Bend, " and there were the homes ol Captain .foods John Merchant and Colonel J. F. T. Caliborne. The latte raised sea island cotton, and his plantation was called "Sea Glen." f had another plantation farther down the coast too, what is now Baldwir Lodge, on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The Jackson place al was a cotton plantation. Each place had its own gin. The cotton was shipped to New Orleans. It was a fine grade, and bought a good price. The next house was Mr. Peters' ? he was collector of customs in New Orleans and lighthouse inspector, and this was his summer home. Next came Pollock, the former's son-in-law, then the Lockett place. Emile O'Brien -- Fink, he was a bank cashier in New Orleans -- Parsley and t Nixon Hotel. This was a nice place and always full in summer. Then c
2	homes of Carson, Napoleon Fayard, Eugene Ladner, Carver, Spotorno, nrnold, Luke Mitchell, Lafitte, Auguste -- later known as the Stocktor House ? the homes of Nicaise, Judge John Graves ? who was sheriff of


Cuevas 066
© 2008 - 2024
Hancock County Historical Society
All rights reserved