Alphabet File page 256
A tribute was paid to The Echo building some years ago when Colonel R. H. Henry of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger visited in Bay St. Louis, and was so impressed by the paper owning its own building that he returned to Jackson to build the second paper-owned building to house his own paper.
Next to his newspaper, Mr. Moreau is more devoted from a business standpoint to the Merchants Bank and Trust Company, of which he was an organizer and director, and of which he is at present president, a position of trust and honor which he has held for some years, sharing with his associates in the success of the undertaking.
For a long period of time Mr. Moreau has been connected with the management of the local homestead association, as its president for many years, having served on its board. This activity is indicative of his abiding faith in the land values of Hancock County. He has invested extensively in realty, seeing despite the market values which fluctuate a permanent intrinsic value in the land itself. He advocates personal ownership of homes, and is enthusiastic over the growing tendency in his own city toward such goals.
Mr. Moreau is essentially an organizer and has participated in the formation of many of the local organizations, and has held office in most of the worthwhile civic groups of the city. He was president of the Bay St. Louis Fire Company No. 1 for some years and financed through public subscription the building of the fine fire hall which was later destroyed by fire, and which preceded by many years the city owned fire station.
He was organizer and charter member of the Bay St. Louis Rotary Club, and served as its president for three consecutive years, an unusual honor accorded to him by his fellow Rotarians because of his excellent contribution to its progress. On many occasions he has represented that body at state, district and international conventions.
Keenly aware of the value to his community of a Chamber of Commerce, he assisted with its formulation and has served on its board of directors, and at present is the president of the Bay St. Louis Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Moreau is an advocate of entertainment for the whole community and in this particular relationship was responsible for the operation of the first motion picture house in the city. This interest in pictures has grown with the years and today Mr. Moreau is one of the best informed men of things relating to the popular entertainment of the day.
Among the organizations of which he was charter member and strong supporter were the Commercial Club that flourished for some years, the Bay-Waveland Yacht Club, and the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus. As a member of the King's Daughters Chapter he has contributed materially to the progress of the local King's Daughters Hospital, and his wife, Mrs. Moreau serves that body as a member of the board of directors, only one of her many charitable interests.
Always interested in educational institutions, Mr. Moreau has rendered valuable service to the local schools, both public and parochial. Appointed a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bay St. Louis City schools under the John K. Edwards administration, he served for a number of years as president of the board. During his tenure of office the school became a twelve-grade institution in order to meet the state requirements for the approved list in order to have the graduates prepared to enter college directly from the local high school. The City of Bay St. Louis has no citizen who is a better "fan" of the local schools than is this newspaperman, a fact which he proved substantially when he was one of the first in the state to open the columns of his paper, to school news, prepared and submitted by the local schools. Not only did the city school take advantage of this opportunity to present its messages to the public through print, but the two parochial schools, likewise used The Echo, until now those institutions, St. Stanislaus College and St. Joseph's Academy, as well as the Bay St. Louis High School have their own school papers--papers which had their beginnings in the school page in The Echo.
Never tempted by the call of politics for his personal ambition, yet Mr. Moreau has been definitely interested in local, state and national political field all his life. This interest has taken the form of working behind the lines for advancement of his friends to the posts of duty where they may best serve their community's needs. Named by various governors as a member of the Board of Election Commissioners of Hancock County, he resigned in 1916 because of his many duties. However he has been for many years a member of the City Democratic Executive Committee and is now chairman of that body, and office that has been his during much of his public life. For 50 years Mr. Moreau has been a member of the Mississippi Press Association, and seldom misses the sessions of the annual convention where he is greeted by the newspaper of the state as “Charlie", a title that he likes above that of any other which members of his profession could bestow upon him. Also he is a member of the National Press Association.
Mr. Moreau is a native of New Orleans, La., where he attended parochial and public schools completing his education at St. Mary's. Due to his frail health, his family moved with him to Bay St. Louis in 1889, and since that time this has been his home.
He was married on January 14, 1897 to Miss Angeline A. Piccaluga of New Orleans, who has proved a wonderful helpmate to Mr. Moreau throughout their 44 years of wedded happiness. Their only child, Marie Louise Moreau, born October 13, 1897, graduated from Bay St. Louis High School, and was a student of Sophie Newcomb College , New Orleans, when she died on October 10, 1918, victim of the dreaded influenza epidemic of that year. A young woman of rare physical beauty and mental attainment, her death has been an irreparable loss to her devoted parents.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Moreau are devout members of the Roman Catholic Church and are strong supporters of the local parish, bearing their material gifts when they seek the spiritual guidance of the house of God.
Mrs. Moreau is essentially a homemaker and the lovely home of Spanish architecture on Carroll Avenue is her pride. The house is a veritable store house of treasures many of which they have secured on their various trips throughout the United States and into Canada and Mexico. Both are excellent travelers, either by auto or train, and they plan semi-annual pilgrimages east, west, north and south, as the fancy takes them.
The Moreau home is a meeting place for the many friends of "Charlie" and "Minnie." as their friends love to call them. From intimate groups of closest friends, to larger gatherings of acquaintances the home adapts itself, the groups often overflowing into the garden where seasonal flowers and evergreens are beautifully cultivated.
Mr. and Mrs. Moreau are known socially throughout the Coast section and in New Orleans. In New Orleans Mr. Moreau was a member for many years of the Chest (Chess/Checkers?) and Whist Club, and has been actively associated with several of the exclusive Carnival associations. When the first Carnival organization celebrated the annual feast day in Bay St. Louis seven years ago, Mr. Moreau was selected as King, an honor accorded annually to a prominent business man of the City, Mrs. Moreau's friend, Miss Marie Bertrand of Pass Christian reigned as queen in Mr. Moreau's court.
To return in closing to The Echo, and Mr. Moreau's relationship to it, it is my happy privilege to pay not only a personal tribute, but one for all members of the Echo staff to Mr. Moreau as an employer. He gives to those who work for him his abiding friendship, his interest in their personal affairs, his counsel in their problems, and permits them a most delightful freedom of action, which resolves into a strong loyalty to the "boss." and results in long years of service in his employ. Mrs. Moreau shares to an unusual degree in that same interest and thereby enshrines herself in the hearts of THE ECHO STAFF. (VF MOREAU)