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Commissioners have - by the advice and with the oonsent of all parties Interested - laid off a street or road 21 feet wide running from the beach along the line of the Melite Lessassier Claim past the Cemetery to Second Street; as will more fully appear by reference to the map (Exhibit B)". This street was part of the Ccwand estate.
It Is believed that Jesse Cowand and his family occupied what was called "The Cottage" (now the property of Mr. and Mrs.
Hunter Kimbrough) while Elmwood Manor was being completed, and where they later moved. This Is the property bought by Jesse Cowand from Melite Lessassier on September 28, 1826, containing 88 acres (In what was then known as Choucoupouleu, Shleldsboro, and now Bay St. Louis), which deed Is recorded In Book A at pages 307-310, Hancock County Land Deed Records, and states among other things and In particular the following * * * "the said land sold with the buildings and improvements thereon". It Is believed that The Cottage was built by Lessassier and was on this property at the time of its purchase by Jesse Cowand. My grandfather's older brother (the second Jesse Cowand), in later years when the property was divided among the heirs, became the owner of the present Kimbrough property. This second Jesse Cowand was the father of Gertrude Cowand Penney. In those days there was another small building to the rear od the main house and connected by a covered gallery ?r porch which comprises a kitchen, store room and one ?ther room. This small building was moved in the 1920s by the then owner, C. Greer Moore, a real estate dealer from New Orleans, to the south of the main dwelling near the ravine and used as rental property and was destroyed In the hurricane of 19^7- This second Jesse Cowand was an Ordnance Sergeant with the 7th Louisiana Infantry curing the Civil War, having enlisted in 1861 and paroled in I865. He died in 1890 and was burled in the Cowand Cemetery.
It might be added here that my grandfather, Charles T. Cowand, who was the youngest child of Jesse Cowand, was born in the southwest bedroom of Elmwood in 1846. He told me when I was a small child that during the Civil War the Bay was the scene of a few skirmishes, and once a Federal gunboat took a trip up to Jourdan River and threw some shells about the country, one of which went through the roof of Elmwood. I can recall seeing this cannon ball on the grounds of Elmwood where It was set on a small pedestal of some sort, but it disappeared in later years. Charles Cowand fought with the Washington Artillery of Louisiana during the Civil War and died December 31, 1917 and was buried in the Cowand Cemetery.
Following the Civil War in I865 my grandfather and his brothers came home to ruin and desolation. The slaves were gone and there was no member of the family living in Bay St. Louis, his mother having moved to Canton, Mississippi, to live with relatives where she died In 1862. Weeds, trees and undergrowth had taken over the grounds in and around Elnmood. " Disheartened, my grandfather and his brother, Alfred, pooled their resources and established a place of business in New Orleans at what was then the corner of Franklin and Julia Streets where they dealt in groceries and plantation supplies, ship stores, wines and liquors (according to a bill head In my possession). This,place of business was destroyed
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Cowand family-compiled-H.-Cowand-Price-4
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