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Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Diamondhead
The Town of Shieldsborough was incorporated on January 21, 1818<2) followed by the establishment of a Post Office on October 11, 1819 with the appointment of John B. Toulme, an early settler, as its first Postmaster. Another incorporation took place in 1838 and again on January 4, 1858 as Shieldsboro continued to expand its corporate boundaries. It was not until March 2, 1875 that the town's name was changed to Bay St. Louis. As a matter of interest, Bay St. Louis celebrated its Centennial during the first week of January 1958 only to find out later that the town had undergone previous incorporations back to 1818. The celebrants in 1958 were not aware of the town's earlier incorporations.
In 1820, seven hundred men of the Eighth Regiment, U.S. Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor, built a road from the Pearl River to the western shore of the Bay of St. Louis. The medical officer attached to the troop cantonment at the road's end described a bayside strip of homes and summer cottages, three or four miles in length, with "the little village of Shieldsborough" in the middle. He characterized the area as a long-established summer retreat for the Creole population of New Orleans and the planters of the Natchez District. A small permanent population consisted primarily of descendants of the original French and Spanish settlers.
By 1842, Shieldsboro boasted a first-class hotel in addition to a number of boarding houses. The hotel owners and a number of public-spirited citizens raised funds to extend the town's wharf 80 feet farther into the Bay so that boats could land during all seasons without danger of running aground.
Like other Coastal cities, development progressed more quickly with the establishment of railroads in 1872 by the New Orleans, Mobile and Chattanooga Railroad, later to be purchased by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in 1878. In 1928, the 2-mile wooden bridge to Henderson Point replaced the ferry boat service. With the construction of Highway 90 along Bay St Louis and Waveland, so many praline and gift shops sprang up that it was called the "praline capitol of the world." Signs were posted all over in paint and neon, along-side shell piles. Pralines were made daily in family factories by locals who used their various special recipes.(3)
Early Bay St. Louis was a health resort with attractions which still remain, such as yachting, boating, sailing, sport fishing, hunting, hammocking and rocking chairs. The community still provides seafood, dairy products, farm fresh vegetables, poultry, fruit orchards, and pecans for both local consumption and export.
The early fishing canneries at the Bay were Peerless Seafood and Dunbar-Dukate. Dave McDonald, President of the Port and Harbor Commission, reflected that some of the row houses for the factory workers were located at Felicity Street. Every morning at 5 am the canneries would blow their whistles if they wanted to hire laborers. Within a few minutes of the whistles, the laborers would trudge down to the factories.
During the early 1900s, large, live turtles were shipped in by train to a turtle canning factory. These turtles were placed on their backs to keep them from moving while being transported. They were
(2)	The Shieldsborough incorporation is the oldest Town Incorporation on the Mississippi Coast. A copy of the original document was received as a courtesy of the Hancock Historical Society, Charles Gray, President.
(3)	WPA recorded History Files, Hancock Public Library
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