Alphabet File page 393
TRAINS
"Train travel," according to Weston, "was very much in vogue. Five or six day trains came through and they stopped about five minutes in Bay St. Louis to take on coal and water. Those trains brought employment to about a hundred people and in addition five or six persons with sandwiches, figs, and garden produce to sell would meet the trains. They had their trays attached to long poles and would hold them up to the windows for passengers to make a selection. Then there was a train called the Fashionable Limited. It came through at night and there was a German man, father with several children, that made up a band. This band would meet the Fashionable and entertain with music while the train took on coal and water. Then they would pass a hat for free will contributions. This man practically supported his family from the band proceeds."
TURTLES
There was a turtle canning factory in Bay St. Louis. These huge sea turtles were brought in by train. The reptiles were alive, but placed on their backs so they couldn't move and great numbers were brought in. They say turtles have seven different flavors in their meat and a negro named Charlie sold veal, fish, beef, chicken, lamb, etc. sandwiches all made from turtle meat. He was very popular with train passengers."
FERRIES
Weston recalled something of the road conditions and travel routes used by touring cars in 1917. He pursued a highly prized Index Map of Automobile Routes. Roads were dirt or gravel and a typical route from Mobile to New Orleans follows; Route 701. Distance from Mobile to New Orleans 164.2 miles. Route crossed the iron bridge in Mobile and followed a fair graded sand road to Orange Grove and Scranton (now called Pascagoula). There it was necessary to take the Pascagoula Ferry (boat left on signal) and rates for car and passengers was $3.00. It took an hour and a half to sail across the bay but usually one waited for the ferry.
Straight out from the ferry landing and upgrade bearing left the route included Ocean Springs, Mississippi City, Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian, DeLisle, Rock Bayou, Fenton, Kiln, and Logtown where different directions said "fork at the mill and bear left and follow the plank road to the Pearl River Ferry. The fee at this ferry was $2.00 and the time consumed in crossing was two hours. After straightening out from the ferry landing the route took passengers to Slidell, Lacomb, Mandeville and here another ferry crossing Lake Ponchartrain. Auto rates for this crossing were $5.00 plus $.75 cents for each passenger and $.40 cents for children under eleven. Time for crossing was two hours. Next town was Milnburg and then New Orleans.
"I recall my trip from Logtown to New Orleans in 1926 when I went to register at Tulane University," Weston said, "It took four or five hours. From Logtown there was a cable ferry at Pearl river then on to Slidell and to Rigolettes and a shell road led to Chef Menteur where there was a cable ferry to New Orleans." Weston graduated with the class of 1931 but he didn't make many of those long arduous trips home to Logtown in the college years.
SAW MILLS
Nollie W. Hickman wrote a book titled Mississippi Harvest and it gave an account of lumbering in the longleaf pine belt from 1840-1915. Haratio Weston treasures his copy of this readable and informative book. Quoting from the book Weston read: "By 1840 there were ten sawmills in operation in Hancock County and in that part of Hancock which became Harrison County in 1843. "Because logs had to be brought to the mills by water from interior forests, and lumber shipped to outside markets by boat, almost all of the early mills in the coast country were erected at river mouths or on the banks of bayous which extended a few miles into the interior. In Hancock County the mills were a short distance up the Pearl River from Lake Borgne and at the head of the Bay of St. Louis, Pearlington, Napoleon, Logtown and Gainsville, located on the Pearl, were early sawmill sites. Logs, both cypress and pine, were manufactured into lumber, staves and shingles and shipped by schooners and brigs to the market to the outside. New Orleans was less than a day's journey away by water.
"One of the earliest of Pearl River lumbermen was W. J. Poitevent who came to Gainsville in 1832." In 1860 Poitevent owned two sawmills one at Pearlington and the other at Gainesville. D. R. Wingate was an associate of Poitevent and active in lumber business until 1856. In 1854 Wingate formed a partnership including W. W. Carre and Henry Weston. Two years later Carre and Weston bought Wingate’ interest in the mill. In the mill almost all the laborers, except foreman and sawyers were negro slaves.
The book deals with Knights of Labor, a group organized to reduce the work day from 16 hours to 12 and later 10; Camp Cars; the Company Store and reforesting. Weston said. "This volume is valuable from a historical standpoint and it reflects much about the politics, economy and culture of our people."
Horatio Weston retired in 1970 and now lives in Waveland. He says his memories of being brought up in old Logtown are pleasant, happy ones. (SCE 2/2/1993)
Weston, Harold - See "Perkins, Gertrude" letter from sister Mary Perkins Re: Hurricane 1947
Weston Hotel Capacity 100 (Daily Herald 3/28/1927 Pg 14 sec.11)
WESTON LUMBER COMPANY
The Weston Lumber Company is having electric lights put in their mill. (SCE 11/26/1892)
The H. Weston Lumber Company has sold the schooner, "CORINNE H." to C. K. Russ for which they will accept his store in part payment. (SCE 11/26/1892)
Weston, H. Lumber Co., Masonic Temple Bldg. (Ph 49-55)
THE OLD MILL by Mildred Otis Fountain
The H. Weston Lumber Company "Old Mill" on the banks of Pearl River and Bogue Homa Bayou, Logtown. this mill was approximately in the same location that Henry Carre', Henry Weston, and W. W. Carre' operated their first mill in 1857. Mill Number One, better known as "Old Mill" completely burned on Monday, October 26, 1914, along with the company's 60 ft. combined passenger and freight boat "THE PELICAN", and a tug boat, THE "PALO PINTO". (VF - From papers in the SCE files compiled for a special edition and loaned to the HCHS)
Weston, Harold B. 806 S. Beach (Ph 48 thru 55)
Weston, Henry - Mr. Henry Weston was born January 9, 1823 in Bloomfield Maine, now Showhegan. The oldest son in a large family, he attended Bloomfield academy and began working in his father's sawmill when he was ten years old
He ran logs on the Kennebec River, cooked in logging camps, and sawed and piled lumber and had other jobs around the mill until the fall of 1844.
Mr.. Weston went to Wisconsin where he managed a mill on the Eau Claire River. When he was 23 years old in 1846, he left that severe climate to come south. He traveled down the Mississippi River by steamboat to New Orleans, where he was advised to go to Gainesville to see W. J. Poitevent who operated a mill there, at this time, Gainesville was the largest town in Hancock County and was the county seat.
He worked in the Gainesville mill until July 1848 when
Judge D. R. Wingate hired Henry Weston to run his mill in Logtown. On July 19, 1856 Henry Carre, W. W. Carre, and Henry Weston bought the mill from D. R. Wingate.
On July 15, 1858 Henry Weston married Miss Lois A. Mead from Jordan River, Mississippi. They had nine children; Addie Eliza, Asa Sidney, Horatio Stephen, Daniel Cony, Carrie, John Henry, David Robert, Abner Coburn, and Lois Angella. Later his six sons assisted in the lumber business.
In 1874 the W. W. Carre Lumber Company dissolved with Henry Weston, the downer. The H. Weston Lumber Company was chartered in 1888, and was in operation until 1928.