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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
December 24, 1871. He secured a situation in a drygoods store, which he held until May, 1872. In July of that year he came to Bay St. Louis, and established himself in the drygoods business. His long years of experience in the employ of other men and in his own business have been of incalculable use to him. He is a complete master of the details of the trade, and by close attention and industry he has accumulated a competency. He is treasurer of the St. Joseph society, of the Catholic Knights of America, branch 486, and of the People?s Building and Loan association of Bay St. Louis, and in all these positions he displays that excellent judgment and wise management that have characterized his private dealings. Mr. Planchet was married to Miss Louise Chioua, and they have had lx>rn to them four children. Besides his commercial interests he owns a considerable amount of property, and
is in very comfortable circumstances.	__________
?	- ?? Pottevefit XFavre. One oTThS'HTOSr gratifylllg' exgmples" 3? Business expansion presented by the history of Hancock county, Miss., is that of the corporation known as the Poitevent & Favre Lumber company of Pearlington, Miss. It was established on a small scale in 1866, by the above mentioned gentlemen, and owing to their excellent business qualification it has become the largest plant of the South. They do a business of immense proportions, the annual product of their establishment amounting to forty million feet; their lumber being principally of pine, cypress and mahogany. They own niue forty-to-fifty-ton schooners, six large schooners and brigs, which ply between Mexico, Buenos Ayres, and other foreign ports; also one light-draught stern-wheel boat, running from Jackson, Miss., to New Orleans, employed in carrying cotton, and four tugboats of ten to seventy-five tons each. Their mill premises are equipped with an elaborate outfit of every description of machinery adapted to the requirements of their business, including a large amount of valuable special machinery; the mill is kept constantly running to its full capacity, and gives employment to about one hundred and fifty workmen, one hundred of whom are employed on their schooners and brigs, and the rest as lumbermen and in the sawmill. Their mill is a two-story structure, 300x82 feet; has brick floors, corrugated galvanized iron siding, slate roof; boiler shed. 63x75 feet, with slate roof; twelve steel boilers, forty-two inches in diameter and thirty feet long, and four flues. The mill proper cost ?150,000, not including their finely equipped planing-mill, dry houses, wharves, etc. They own about ninety-five thousand acres of good timber land in Hancock county, Miss., and St. Tammany parish, La., which keeps their mill constantly supplied with the finest timber. They were the originators of the East Louisiana railroad, which they still own, but it is run under another corporation. Thirty additional miles of railroad were built to tap the Northeast railroad, and their road is now out of debt and paying a large profit. It was built with money made from the sawmill and vessels owned by Poitevent & Favre, who have never had occasion to regret the investment of their money for this purpose. Their trains run immediately from their mill to the city of New Orleans, there being also a daily train from Covington to that place. They keep in constant use eleven coaches, two baggage cars, four fast freight cars, eight ordinary freight cars, sixteen long cars of forty thousand pounds? capacity, three passenger and two freight engines, all of which are equipped with power brakes. These cars were built in New Orleans and are models in their way, four of the passenger cars being especially handsome. This road is one of the finest in the South, is largely patrouized and has proven a very paying enterprise. In addition to this they are the proprietors of three good retail stores, two being at Pearlington, and one on the lino of their railroad at Florenville. John Poitevent, the senior member of the firm, was !>orn in Mississippi in 1840 to William J. and Man- A. (Russ) Poitevent, natives of North Carolina, the father being a descendant of the French
-topical SOCIETY Hancock c- y ?:;:,30520