Alphabet File page 181
"His next venture in the mill business was alone and he seems to have operated alone until the Civil War.
"There were battles fought at Pearlington and at Gainesville in which superior Yankee forces captured these old river towns. Immediately thereafter New Orleans fell and all business on Pearl River ceased. Yankee patrol boats regularly visited all the towns up and down the river. All goods that were of any value were confiscated. If a person tried to keep anything that jayhawkers wanted they would inform the Yankees and they would take away the property of local citizens. If there was any objection expressed or any outcry on the part of the owner he would be put in jail. This happened to Captain John Orr who spent several years as a prisoner at Fort Pike during the war for protesting seizure of some of his property.
"During the war was little or no law and order in Pearlington. Pillage and robbery went unpunished, in fact, Federal soldiers winked at such lawlessness and were themselves involved in these crimes. Because of this condition the Hursey family went to live on the McCall old place southwest of Nicholson, making their home across Pearl River in Honey Island in order to be further away from Yankee marauders. Asa Hursey had bought out the heirs of Duncan McCall, his wife's brothers and sisters, and owned a good size tract of land near Nicholson which extended on both sides of the river. That old claim still goes by the name Duncan McCall Claim Section 4, Tonwship 7, Range 17 West. The river across this old claim on the Mississippi side is still known as McCall's River.
"While the Hursey family lived on the old McCall place across the river they were residents of Louisiana. Asa was either elected or appointed a member the Police Jury of St. Tammany Parish. Mrs. Crawford has a five dollar certificate issued to him by the St. Tammany Police Jury dated February 1, 1862. She also has a letter to Mr. Hursey asking him to list all the dependents of the volunteer company of the Confederacy so that their money could be drawn from the state treasury. This letter is signed by F.A. Cousin, president of the Police Jury.
"After the close of the Civil War the Hursey family returned to their home in Pearlington.
"The next venture of Asa H. Hursey was with the Walker Mill located on the Winchester Mill site on Bayou Galere above Shieldsboro, now known as Bay St. Louis. He employed freed men for the first time in this mill. Among his old papers are the bonds issued by these men with the bank stamp attached. Some of these men were Paul Benoist, Napoleon Jenkins, Jerry Leggett, and Banjamin Mittler. Co - partners in this business were a Mr. Hasam and a Mr. Pooley.
"In 1869 the military aide-de-camp who had power under the reconstruction acts. appointed Asa H. Hursey coroner of Hancock County. These were the last ventures of Asa H. Hursey and took place between 1866 and 1871, leaving the following Children: Emma, born 1843, married Charles McCarty, died 1912; Adelaide, born 1844, married Asa Downs; Asa II, born 1845 married Laura Jane Orr, died 1912; Nancy, born 1850, married Andrew Scott; Duncan, born 1853, married Caroline Parker; Richard, born 1858, married and moved to Calcaisseau, La.
"Mrs. Isabella McCall Hursey lived with her son Asa II until her death in 1885. Asa H. Hursey and his wife are buried in Pearlington cemetery. He was member of Moses Cook Masonic Lodge in Gainesville in 1854.
"Asa Hursey II followed in his fathers footsteps as millwright, sawmill builder and operator"
(This was taken from a photo copy of a small book. The name of the book is not shown. See VF "Hursey")
A Remarkable Man--Asa Hursey, Sr.
A remarkable man lived in Pearlington from 1845 until he died in 1912. He was a self taught architect, draftsman, engineer and millwright. He designed and built at Pearlington the first big sawmill in the United States with capacity to 200,000 board feet of lumber a day. This sawmill was also the first big sawmill in America to be built without posts-he used long trusses, constructed with lumber, to carry the roof load. Another interesting thing about this man, Asa Hursey, Sr., was that he kept a record of practically every personal transaction during his life. His granddaughter,
Mrs. Joe Crawford of Slidell, has 14 boxes, each about 20X12X6 inches, filled with his old papers. Mrs Crawford has written the following interesting history of the life of her grandfather and great-grandfather:
"Asa H. Hursey came to Hancock County, Mississippi, from
Rome, or Readfield, Maine, in the 1830's. He was born October 28, 1813, at Rome, Maine. He was the youngest child of Nancy and Richard Hussey.
"After his arrival in Mississippi he changed the spelling of his name from Hussey to Hursey, however, all his legal papers were signed Asa Hussey. His father was the son of Robert Hussey who served in the Revolutionary War. This branch of the Hussey family were descendants of a Richard Hussey, a weaver, who came to America in 1651. His loom is now on display in the museum at Salem, Massachusetts.
" Asa H. Hursey worked in sawmills in Maine. When he was only 21 he was part owner of a sawmill in Calais, Maine. This mill was probably located at one time in New Brunswick, Canada. He probably lived with his brother Stephen Hussey because Stephen died in Calais, Maine, in 1834. He continued in the mill business until 1838. His next venture was as an able seaman according to the paper issued to him by a Mr. Morse in Maine.
"Asa H. Hursey, like a number of other who settled on the lower reaches of Pearl River, apparently made his way to Pearlington the first time as a member of a boat crew. Christian Koch and Henry Weston were among others who first came to Logtown by boat. It is interesting to note that many, if not most of the early settlers along the Pearl made their way up the river instead of coming across country. "The earliest date of record in Hancock County for Asa H. Hursey is a receipt by Sherwood and Foster of Pearlington for some work he had done for a Mr. Daily, dated June 7, 1841. "He was in this area only a short time when he married Miss Isabella McCall on March 3, 1842. Richard Foster, Justice of the Peace, performed the ceremony. Duncan McCall, father of Isabella, owned two tracts of land on Pearl River, one in Mississippi southwest of Nicholson and the other in Louisiana across the river from the Mississippi tract. Apparently the newly married couple must have lived in the Nicholson - Picayune section for on March 28, 1842 he bought a bill of groceries from Leonard Kimball who operated a store and was postmaster of Hobolochitto postoffice in what is now nortwest Picayune. The receipt for the work previously mentioned and the bill for the groceries are now in Mrs. Crawfords possession.
"Among his papers are the articles of agreement between Asa H. Hursey and Emile Mazily dated June 18, 1844, stating that he bought a steam sawmill that was formerly owned by Ford and Boardman located on Pearl River above Pearlington. This mill could have been as far above Pearlington as Hobolochitto because Emile E\ma\ily sent him a letter dated February 22, 1845, and addressed it to Hursey and Mazily at the Hobolochitto Mill.
"This mill continued to run until December 1, 1848, when Hursey and Mazily were given a lease on the river front of Square 4 by the Pearlington Company for a consideration of $10 per year. The officers of the company were Samuel White, president, and Willis H. Arnold, secretary - treasurer. Included in the indenture are the householders who signed giving their permission to put the mill on the 'public quay.' When Pearlington was laid out by the Pearlington Company, the river front was evidently the public quay. The Town of Pearlington still has a small public quay in front of the Guittirez and Poitevent old places.