Vignettes

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)

Seafood Canneries in Bay Saint Louis

There were two prominent seafood canneries in Bay St. Louis in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth centuries.  G. W. Dunbar Sons established an oyster and shrimp canning company on North Beach Blvd. at the north end of present-day Dunbar Ave.  The Peerless Oyster Company was located on North Beach Blvd., where North Second Street… (read more)

Henry Weston (1823 – 1912)

Did you know that this October 29th will mark the 100th anniversary of the death of Henry Weston, one of the most successful and well-known businessmen in the history of Hancock County? Born in Skowhegan Island, Maine, in 1823, Henry Weston moved to New Orleans in early 1846 looking for business opportunities and a healthier… (read more)

The Louisiana-Mississippi War of 1905

In the 1890’s the South endured annual plagues of yellow fever, borne by mosquitoes.  Even though the Army Yellow Fever Commission headed by Major Walter Reed confirmed in 1901 the hypothesis of Cuban scientist Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay that yellow fever was caused by a mosquito, most of the South ignored its implications.  Mosquito control… (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)

John Law (1672 – 1729)

Controller General of Finance who presided over the boom and bust of the Bank of France and the Mississippi Company in early colonial days.   FAILED MILLIONAIRE-FINANCIER John Law, mathematician, financial genius and gambler, is depicted in most history books as the arch villain who brought down the Louisiana colony with his wild schemes. He… (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)

The Republic of West Florida

With the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, it was assumed that the area known as West Florida was a part of the United States. However, Spain claimed the lands as her own. Ultimately in 1810, citizens of West Florida revolted from Spain and set up their own country known as the Republic of West Florida. From… (read more)