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territory was at one time more than 3,000 people. The sawmill on the'banks of the river was operated continously from 1850 for almost 100 years.	<
During the days of	prosperity the	Weston Lumber	Company paid its men	on
the first and fifteenth	of each month.	On those dates, luggers manned by
Italian fruit peddlers from New Orleans would come up the river carrying fruit vegetables, fish, oysters, and other foods. While one peddler stayed on the ’ boat to keep store the others peddled their wares from door to door.
These boats were not the only ones who did a thriving business on pay day There was a floating saloon which was operated on a barge moored on the west bank of the river under	the protection	of Louisiana.	Since Mississippi Lay
forbade the sale of intoxicants within	five miles of	a school, the barges
stayed on the Louisiana side. These were also flourishing days for the "taxis" of those times which were oar-propelled skiffs carrying customers to and fron the saloon boat.
In 1962 the property of the entire town was bought by the U.S. Government as a site for testing rocket engines. Many old historic homes had to be tom down, including the Nettie Koch Home which had been built about I84.O. The original part of the house consisted of two rooms constructed of logs. Lean-to3 and ells connected to the house by latticed porches gave it a rambling appearance. The kitchen floor was made of timbers thirty inches wide and several inches thick, having been taken from a flat-boat that had drifted down Pearl River. The house was furnished with old relics, some of them having been brought from Denmark by Mr. Koch.
NAPOLEON
Located six miles	north of Pearlington,	this	site was settled in 1798 vhnn
Simon Favre received a	grant from the Spanish Government, on	the Pearl Rivor
near what later became	the town of Napoleon.	When	Favre came	here it is said
that he had two wives,	one of them Indian.
Noel and John J. Jordan played an important part in the early settlement of this community; the Jordan River being named for the two brothers.
NECAISE
Located nineteen miles north of Bay St. Louis.
PEARLINGTON
Located about nineteen miles southwest of Bay St. Louis, Pearlington uas named for the fresh-water pearls found along the nearby river bank. The place was once called Little Jerusalem for the proud class of people who lived here.
Pearlington was one of the pioneering lumber towns of this once-important lumbering area and later was the terminal for a Louisiana-Mississippi automobile ferry, now extinct.
Many large live oak trees covered with Spanish Moss, along with some of the largest and oldest Camelia-Japonicas on the Mississippi Coast grow in an around Pearlington.
SANTA ROSA	_	.r
Santa Rosa marks the Mississippi part of Honey Island Swamp, a wildli*e refuge and for many years the refuge of pirate bands as powerful if n°t 30 r notorious as the Lafittes of Louisiana. The King of Honey Island Swamp and 0. all the outlaws living there was Pierre Rameau.
SELLERS	,
Sellers was the site of a large vocational high school located on tne between Hancock and Harrison Counties. The school was approximately thirty


Hancock County History General History-of-Hancock-County-(11)
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