This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

AGE 4 SECTION A THE SEA COAST ECHO. BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS., SUNDAY, JULY 4, 1976
if
*
Once boom
logtown is thrii
By S.G. THIGPEN
Back 60 years ago Kiln was famous for two things: One of the biggest and best sawmills in the country and for “moonshine” whiskey.
A man who moved to Kiln in 1912 - 63 years ago - said: “When I went to Kiln in 1912 it was just a wide place in the road, wild and wooly but it soon became widely known as a lively sawmill town and as the home of Kiln whiskey. One brand of Kiln whiskey was the “block and tackle brand - take a drink, walk a block and tackle anything”.
When Edward Hines Lumber Co. decided in 1912 to build their big sawmill at Kiln, men were brought in from everywhere. First came the mill builders, the millwrights, the carpenters. They wanted to build this big mill in a hurry. Men were brought in from long distances to do the
from Lumberton to Kiln and big logging camp with machine shops, etc. was built at old Wiehe just off present Highway 43 east about a mile south of Hickory Creek bridge.
Mr. Joe Roddy moved to Kiln in 1912 to help build the sawmill and has lived there ever since. He said, “We built one of the finest sawmills not only in the south but in the whole country. When the sawmill operation began about 1913 Kiln grew into one of the best small towns in the state and was for a time the busiest town between Hattiesburg and New Orleans and that includes Poplarville, Picayune, Bay St. Louis”. (This was before the big mills were built in Picayune).
Continuing to quote Mr. Roddy, “The company store carried a big stock of merchandise. The inventory ran around $75,000 equivalent now
hospital at Kiln before there was one at Poplarville, Picayune, or Bay St. Louis.
The sawmill at Kiln was one of the most efficient in the country. Lumber from Kiln was shipped by water down Jourdan River and by rail over the company railroad by way of Lumberton. There was daily passenger service from Kiln to Lumberton over the railroad and down the river to Bay St. Louis by boat. Both carried express and mail.
For years Kiln had one of the best semi-pro baseball teams in south Mississippi, playing teams from the coast, from New Orleans and other south Mississippi towns. There was a prize fight ring at Kiln. A number of prominent boxers were developed there.
There was a real nice picture show at Kiln for many years and a pool room.
Over the years the “shin-
scared back int Pretty soon oui again, this time w hind feet and look men there as if to your biggest ton ready for him”. A man decided not liquor and that’s t Bad Shinnie” got
“...the m
Because the business wa: profitable, more people got into th( making it. In th time more was I then could be sold began to accumu the shinnie had bi $6 or more per producers began t to sell their < Finally the compe hot that the Drice