Alphabet File page 223
Only once within the memory of Mr. Koch did water cover all of Logtown. In 1900 water was four to five feet deep in houses in Logtown in the lower spots. Even in the higher spots it got up 12 to 18 inches deep or well up on the second step of the houses on the highest points.
Mr. Koch remembers the morning of the flood. The river was low or about normal when he went to the sawmill to work in the early morning. As the water began to rise he stood with his father on the front of the company store and watched. It rose fast. Soon the mill was closed and all the men told to go home. Within just a few hours all Logtown was under water.
The old walk across the low place near the Methodist Church floated up against the fence. Several people on the river side tried to swim their cows across this low place but the current was so swift they floated up under the fence and drowned.
Water came into the heavily stocked company store and ruined thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. There was a great loss of boats, cattle and other things. The sawmill was completely flooded. Thousands of dollars worth of lumber and logs were floated away and lost. The water got so high that schooners came in straight across the marshes from Lake Pontchartrian.
Mrs. Koch heard a ferryman at Gainesville tell of hearing a rushing noise which he thought might be a cyclone coming but he watched a wall of water several feet high come rushing down the river.. He quickly tied up his ferry jumped in a dug out and made for the river bank, when a wall of water struck his boat, knocking it clear up on the bank.
Mr. Koch went out several days later with his tug boat and found debris everywhere. He towed one boat in serious trouble into Gulfport.
Mr. Will Seal, who lived at Walkiah, told me that the only time he ever saw water over the high ground was in 1900 when all the bluff was covered with about 12 inches of water. At the same time the railroad washed out all the way across Honey Island and there were no trains for several weeks.
Many people lived in Honey Island before 1900. Mr. Thornton Brown, S. told me of living there for many years before 1900. Water had risen a few inches over his farm several times but never enough to drown livestock, however in 1900 the water got so deep that a big mule was floated up into a live oak standing in his yard.
After the flood of 1900, many people moved out of Honey Island, abandoning their farms of rich land. Since that time only a few people have ventured to make their homes there. (SCE 12/25/1977)
1878 -
Rev. A. B. Nicholson, writing from Pearlington October 23, 1878 says "Yellow fever has been in this town ever since the first of August. It has visited this place several times, but has never been an epidemic, in the common acceptation of that word, though it proved fatal in nearly every case, so it has this year. No new cases at this date. Business of all kinds has stopped; church matters suspended; Sunday-school stopped; our flock scattered - some have crossed the last river, mostly young people. Logtown, two miles above here, a small place of not more than two hundred inhabitants has been awfully scourged by the fever, in fact I question whether any place in the South has suffered more than Logtown, according to its population. While the entire population has been prostrated; the death rate very heavy. In that community we had a new and beautiful church, a respectable congregation, Sunday-school and Missionary Society; but alas, how sad to-day. Our steward there Bro. Robert Carrie, a noble Christian gentleman, was among the first to fall victim to the disease, and none left to take his place. The fatality has been in the main among the young people. Gainesville is eight miles above Logtown. When I was there last but two cases were reported. The white population is almost gone. We Quarantined, but too late; the fever was in our midst before we began the work. We have a yellow fever doctor with us doing a good work Nurses have been sent by the Howards. Our local physician, Dr. Mead, though born and educated in the north met the monster face to face, with a moral heroism that entitles him to a great praise. We have today cold north wind." From the Christian Advocate, New Orleans, October 26, 1878 (PC&C p 38)
LOGTOWN REVISITED
Every Spring the beautiful Pearl River rises within its banks along its many bayous and tributaries as the water of the Spring rains makes its way toward the Gulf of Mexico. It flows swiftly along the eastern bank of the Pearl, past the small clearing where people come to fish, to view the beautiful curve of the river with its many shades of forest green, or perhaps they simply come home to remember.
It wasn't very long ago that this now-deserted landscape was alive with activity. Look closely and you will see among the wildflowers and vines along the roadside, the silent reminders of the people who lived here. Beneath that large oak tree still stands a set of steps which now leads to nowhere, but once graced the entrance to a home filled with the warmth and love of a strong pioneer family. There were many families here over the years. Chalon, Carre, Weston, Baxter, Otis, Goddard, Koch, Lott, Seal, Fountain, Bailey, Tinkelpa and Nelson are but a few of them. Near the river remain the foundations of the drug store, the hotel, the ice factory, the post office, the school house, the sawmill, the brick commissary, the silent movie house and all the other buildings that were the center of this once-thriving community.
There was an earlier settlement here and indeed, there are remains of it too. The Logtown shell mound of the Choctaw Indians still contains pottery treasures left by the proud people who had lived here for hundreds of years before white men came to the region.
Early explorers passed through followed by settlers. Joseph Chalon had a 1200 acre French land grant in 1788 called "Cabanage Latanier" that was later confirmed by the U.S. government. The Chalon place is better remembered as Palmetto Plantation. However, with the advent of timber harvesting, the landing became more and more popular for the landing of logs and hence came the name Logtown. In 1828, Mr. Chalon sold his land rights to Judge D. R. Wingate.
The Main Street (which was then surfaced with plank) still runs eastward from the river for about two miles to where it joins with the road built over the old Indian trail that ran from the site of present day Pearlington along the high ground to the Gulf of Mexico, (now Mississippi Highway 604).
To the north and parallel to Main Street run the waters of Bogahoma Bayou which once was the dividing line between Logtown and the Negro settlement of Possom Walk.
As we proceed eastward from the river, along the north (left) side of Main Street stood the homes of Frank Mitchell (engineer), Henry Hall (manager of the commissary), the Park View Hotel, Roy Baxter (only the steps remain), an auto repair shop, the jail and court house, Sid Otis (son of the mill V.P.), Horatio Weston (president of the mill - palm trees are still visible), the homes of Dr. Mead, Tom Casonova and another Casanova family, and the Logtown Cemetery. In front of the cemetery were the homes of Givens Parker and Noah Fountain, M.D. Immediately east of the cemetery on land now enclosed in the cemetery, stood the Logtown school house.
Next, along the street came the homes of George Summers, and George Davis. The Coney Weston home (photo in this book), was next. The D.R. Wingate - Henry Weston - Asa Weston home ajoined. It was a handsome, twelve room plantation type cottage, surrounded by giant oaks, sweet olive, wax myrtle, camellias and palmettos and was ccupied by his descendant, Lamar Otis, in 1962, (photo in this book).
David Weston built "Sunshine Cottage" next door for his bride, Pauline, and carried her across the threshold on their wedding night. The house had 7 rooms, six fireplaces and 12 closets. It remained her home until she was over ninety years old. Then came the home of mill supervisor, Luthor Russ, the Baptist Church, (sketch in this book), the home of Dr. J.Q. Fountain, M.D., Dr. Calvin Fountain, druggist, Alva Honea, the Campbell family, Ralph Howze, Harold Weston, another Casanova family, John Howze, Rene Sacerdotte, George Roch, Joe Howze, Deans Store and Chris Favre.