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Staff photo by Odele Peranich
Descendant. . .
Mrs. Jeanne Doby Williams, 84, who makes her Spanish land grant recipient. Doby settled a por-home at 319 Main St. Bay St. Louis, is a fifth gener- tion of the Pearlington area on the Caune (Cowan) ation descendant of John B. Doby, an 18th century Bayou.
Soldiers sold grave markers
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stopped his horse and while he was waiting for the letter, some hogs sleeping nearby in the brush, jumped up and his horse, frightened, reared and threw him against an oak tree,” she said.
“I don’t know whether his neck was broken or his skull fractured, but he bled profusely before they picked him up and he was dead.”
It was told, she said, and passed on by the slaves, that where Thomas’ blood touched the ground, the violets grew the largest.
“Yes, they were great big violets,” she said, "but, that was the kind of violets they were—it wasn’t because he bled there—but the slaves believed this."
Legal documents show that on the death of J. B. Doby in 1843, his son Louis, who never married, assumed charge of the family finances for his mother.
Records indicate slave purchasing for Thomas was done in Louis’ name.
The Doby slaves were never sold, said Mrs. Williams, and any slaves given by J. B Doby to his children were required to be returned when they had fulfilled their usefulness.
“J. B. was a devout Catholic," she said, "and he considered his slaves human beings. He would not separate families and would never part a child from the parents. They managed their own children and of course, were provided with doctors and medicine,” she added. “They were each allowed to have their own little garden.
“Now, once in a while,” she said, “he’d rent out some of his young colored folks to help some of the neighbors, but at night they had to be home, because he wanted to know where they were."
The Doby-Arambouto union produced two children. One, Thomas Doby Jr., husband of Marie Pa-
mela Callejas and great-grandfather of Mrs. Williams, died in 1864.
This union, Doby-Callejas, produced one child, Charles Thomas, husband of Secessia E. Llambias and father of Mrs. Williams and four other children.
Making quite a little history for herself, Mrs. Williams has an accumulation of more than 50 years in education service as a teacher and principal. She has taught children at Pearlington, Log-town. Kiln, Gainesville, Clermont Harbor, Lakeshore, and Bay St. Louis in private and public schools. At retirement at age 65, she continued substitute teaching until age 75 and still privately tutors students.
Her marriage in 1919 to Ora Elmer Williams apparently didn’t slow her activities down as she has received numerous awards and merit citations for various volunteer work including a 1941 presidential citation for her services in registering service-aged men from Lakeshore and Clermont Harbor duty in the armed forces.
Still active in club organizations, she has been cited for volunteer participation with local senior citizens groups and received awards for alumni duties with the University of Southern Mississippi.
The J. B. Doby Claim, according to the county courthouse, is recorded among such 18th century claims settled by Joseph Favre (Bayou La Croix), John B. Ladner (Fenton), Joseph Chalon (Clermont Harbor), Simeon Favre (Napoleon Community), Louis Boisdore and Anthone Carroll (Ansley), Isac Graves (Pearlington), John J. and Noel Jour-dan (Jourdan River area), J. B. Necaise (sections of Kiln), John B. Quave (sections of Fenton), Mary Parrish (Bay St. Louis, south) and Madame Charlo (sections of Cedar Point area), Pierre Carco (Lakeshore) and Dr. Ambrose Gaines (Gainesville).	______	______________________
were engaged in the construction phase of MTF — working to build facilities to test rockets which would one day boost Americans off the launch pad on their way to the moon.
MTF was the second largest construction project in the country, superseded only by launch facilities in Florida.
On April 23, 1966, a test version of the Saturn V space vehicle’s second stage was static fired for 15 seconds at dawn, marking MTF’s initiation as a member of the space team.
Stands 200-400 feet high, set on bases larger than a football field, had been built to test the rockets.
The buffer zone was a protective area and the removal of some 850 dwellings a necessity. Noise from the tests was deafening, and at least once, according to official reports, was heard as far away as Mobile where 100 decibels were recorded in the downtown section.
Then, in 1970, Hancock County was rocked back on its heels when NASA said it was mothballing MTF.
I Although the announcement signaled the end of the space program, it was felt most keenly locally as a blow to the economy.
Manager Jackson Balch was determined to fight for other utilization of the site.
For the government to dispose of the facility, "to walk away after all that had been put out by the people," Balch said when he retired in 1975, was, in his estimation, "the height of irresponsibility.”
What developed from Balch’s efforts was a unique consortium of environmental Research agencies, representing federal and state governments, and universities, interracting and applying space technology in a variety of
pavilions, playgrounds, lighted tennis courts, a shuffleboard court, wading pool, conces-sion-recreation activities building, parking areas and the class A campsite which provide electricity, water and sewerage connections at each spur.
The park site consists of 300 acres of 16th section land which were incorporated into the City of Waveland in order to give the State Park Commission a 99-year lease on the property, and 80 acres purchased by the Hancock County Board of Supervisors with We Care funds and a Bureau of Outdoor Recreation grant.
Initial contracts have been let on a highway hospitality station adjacent to Interstate 10 and Mississippi 607 in Hancock County.
The welcome center is one of seven being built around the state by the highway department.
The groundwork contract — for grading, drainage and erosion control on the 60-acre site — totaling just under $894,000, was awarded to Bond Paving Co. of Gulfport in February.
Phase I is expected to be complete in July 1977.
Bids on a 2,400 square foot brick, colonial style building will be taken in the spring of 1977, highway department officials said.
The project has been in the works for several years, but was delayed when public objection to the original site choice developed.
The highway department had planned to situate the welcome center 10 miles inland and work had begun, when the 1972 legislature passed a measure requiring the highway department to hold public hearings on such matters.
the
AQUARIUS SPA & HEALTH CLUB
WHAT SHAPE ARE YOU IN?
on Hiway 90 next to the new library.
Our New Club Will Feature:
1. Complete health and weight analysis 2.. Individual exercise programs
3.	Special diet consultation
4.	Roman steam bath
5.	Authentic Finnish sauna
6.	Hydro-therapy whirlpool spa
7.	Free nursery with attendant
9.	Vanity area - Hair dryers
10.	Juice bar
Pre-opening membership specials are now in effect. (Limited to the first 100 members.)
Call me today at 467-3444 or 467-3880.
HWY 90 BAY ST. LOUIS