Vignettes - Etcetera

Mystery of the Honey Island Swamp-Rat Killings

Mystery, intrigue, and legend have enshrouded one area of the lowest part of the Pearl River basin for centuries—Honey Island Swamp.  Located between the East and West Pearl Rivers, it has engendered tales of pirates, ne'er-do-wells, robbers, murderers, and other unsavory characters.  While respectable, honest people have lived there through the years, it has also… (read more)

Bay St. Louis Bridge

Did you know that the first bridge across Hancock County’s Bay of St. Louis was not built until 1926?  While Robert L. Genin had procured a franchise for a privately built bridge across the Bay of St. Louis as early as 1912, it took the efforts of Horatio S. Weston, president of the Hancock County… (read more)

The Hancock Bank Building

One of the most photographed spots in Bay St. Louis following Hurricane Katrina was where Main Street meets Beach Boulevard.  Although the spot is one of the highest points on the entire Gulf coast, the hurricane did its best to ravage this historical intersection.  Storm stricken residents, however, both present and dislocated, took some comfort… (read more)

The Bicycle Craze in Hancock County

After its invention in Germany in the early 1800’s, the bicycle went through several modifications and updates to enter the “Golden Age of Bicycles” in the 1890’s.  Between 1890 and 1895 the bicycle craze came to Hancock County.  Even though the fad came to the county, no one in the area  owned a bicycle.  To… (read more)

Sheep Raising in Hancock County

Long before foreign settlers arrived in the area now known as Hancock County, Mississippi, Native Americans lived on and worked the land.  Europeans brought domesticated crops and animals with them when they came to settle this newly found land.  Among the animals were sheep. In one of his letters, J. F. H. Claiborne praised Hancock… (read more)

Mosquito Lore

People who must endure the mosquito population during the sultry summers and autumns of the South tend to create stories on the various sizes of these pesky creatures in their areas.  Such exaggeration is not a new phenomenon.  In the M. James Stevens collection of papers in the vertical file of the Hancock County Historical… (read more)

Bay Saint Louis Brag Sheet of 1915

Back in 1915 when I.F. Banderet was Bay St. Louis city Marshall, F.H. Egloff was tax collector and L.B. Capdepon was mayor, these men and municipal officers got together and came up with the following list of pluses. The list was printed as an advertisement in support of a Catalog of the City Schools of… (read more)

Early Telephone Service

Telephone service came to Bay St. Louis August 18, 1899 and 47 total telephones were initially served by this exchange. One year later the total number of telephones had climbed to 108 and by 1905 to 190. It wasn’t until 1910 that the total number of telephones served by the Bay St. Louis exchange passed… (read more)

19th Century Medical Quackery

The term of Andrew Jackson has been called the Age of the Common Man. Basic trends included anti-intellectualism, rejection of experts and belief that the common man was the best person to decide his own destiny, even in  matters of life and death. One consequence was the rapid growth of medical quackery. As an American… (read more)

Devil’s Swamp – 1830 Indian Hideout

Long before the advent of the French explorers, the area now known as Hancock County was inhabited by Native Americans, members of the Choctaw Muskhogean family.  The area of present-day Bay St. Louis contained an Indian village called Chicapoula (or Chou-cou-pou-lou), meaning “bad grass.”  Living in this paradise, the natives hunted plentiful game such as… (read more)