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March 19th
(Continued from Page 1)
Aldermen were paid two dollars for each regular meeting actually attended when present at roll call. Other costs of running the city were considerable, on Section 30 of the Charter it was ?further enacted, That the Mayor shall for his services receive a salary of not more than three hundred dollars nor less than one hundred dollars per annum,? Under caption Revised Ordinances, Chapter XII and Sec. 91 in relation to salaries and fees:	?The	of-
ficers of the city shall receive as compensation for their services, the following salaries, payable out of the city treasury by warrant:
1.	The Secretary, two hundred and fifty dollars per annum.
2.	The Collector, five percent on all collections to be retained by him in settlements.
3.The	Assessor, seven per centum upon the amount of his assessments for his seryices; provided that such j compensation shall not be less than fifty dollars or more than one hundred dollars, to be paid on completion and approval of the assessment rolls.
4.	The Treasurer shall be allowed two and one half per centum on all money received by him for city purposes, except what he may receive form his predecessor in office.
5.	The City Marsha?., two hundred and forty dollars per annum.
(T The Street Commissioner, eight dollars per month.?
The Secretary for copies or transcripts from the books of office or other official papers got the handsome sum of ten cents per hundred words.
Minutes of the meetings of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen were written with painstaking care with indelible ink and for the most part in fine well-formed Spencerian script. Platt Rogers Spencer who taught the Spencerian Method of Penmanship - may his name be praised. The minutes are
wa8^)imted
1930^ His hook lists 89^colored Captains and the?vessels they mastered! Concisely and with accuracy Maxson?s chapters included Pearlington, Logtown, Napoleon, Gainesville, Schooners and Deep Water Vessels, Industrial Progress as well as Educational, Business, Political and Religious Progress. One paragraph in his conclusion is repeated here in direct quotations for it reflects the character of this truly progressive man:	?I
would therefore implore the colored people to have faith in God, cultivate a friendly spirit with all with whom you may come in touch, educate and acquire wealth. Doubtless you
Church was built in 1882
BY GENEVIEVE DANIELS
In 1882 fct. Paul Methodist <? Episcopal Church was Guilt on Good Children Street (now Sycamore). The period between 1865-1882 might well be called a period of reform. The Methodist Episcopal Church, predominantly white, was facing problems of what could be done \wsh the freed Negroes of the Jjiouth. They were increasing: in number and wanted and needed equal representation. Because of the freed Negro, the church set up standards of restriction. Because of civil and religious restrictions negroes began to move North. The exodus showed a marked decline in local membership.
The annual conference in Mississippi in 1880 included for the first time in history two Negro delegates to the General Conference. J. M. Shumpert, later to become pastor of St. Paul?s Methodist Episcopal in Pass Christian was one of the delegates.' He was 26 years of age when elected.
In 1809 the Negro population in Mississippi was 742,559, and the negro church membership rcent of the abut?of jeveryjff
jOl
Xtounty^TJbrary ' an excellent collection of reference books.
Richmond Barthe of Bay St.
Louis, a noted sculptor, has works on permanent display in the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney Museum of New York. His great American eagle dominates the entrance of the Social Security Building in Washington...his works are in private collections of France, England, Germany, India and other countries. Taken out of school at 7th grade level in Bay St. Louis by his widowed seamstress mother to help support his family, Barthe went on to merit two Julius Rosenwald fellowships, two Guger?ieim fellowships and numerous citations and awards. His first attempt at sculpture in 1928 exhibited in Chicago and named ?The Negro in Art? started him on his road to fame. One of Barthe?s works is a prized possession of the City-County Public Library.
Valena C. Jones nee Valena Cecelia MacArthur was bom in Bay St. Louis August 3,1872 and her teaching career started in rural Mississippi aroufui the\year 1890. She wks graduated from Straight College of New Orleans in 1892 and became principal of the Bay St. Louis negro school, five years later she went to New Orleans to teach in the public school system there. She died January 13, 1917 and in 1918 became the fourth black for whom a New Orleans public school was named. The Valena C. Jones building in Bay St. Louis was formerly a Negro public school named in her honor. Following the desegregation of schools the school was converted into space for Hancock County Senior Citizens, the Bay St. Louis Fire and Police Departments and Employment offices. Mrs. Jones retired from teaching in 1901 to become the wife of the Reverend Robert E. Jones, remembered as Resident Bishop of the New Orleans area for the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Reverend Jones edited the Southwestern Christian Advocate. Mrs. Jones made an outstanding contribution as an educator and was voted the'
?^Cliarles.3 teflw^^usiiand t>f-:
Amettef preached in the Valena C. Jones Methodist Church on Sycamore Street.
Louis Piernas - an early postmaster in the Bay St. Louis post office is remembered as a man of dignity and worth, popular with both whites and blacks and respected for his dvic contributions.
Piernas? tenures in office reflected the political climate of the times. He was ?in? with the Republican and ?out? when Democrats dominated. His local popularity, however, was unaffected by change-overs.
HC joins Rotary in May of ?25
The familiar cogw________
emblem of Rotary (International may be ,?seea on approach to \Bay St: >WiuiSj from the Bay Bridge. Pa Harris, a lawyer in Chijcago, organized the first Rotary Clilf in 1905. It waii called rotary because the members met in rotation at their various places of business. Club members are made up of a group of men, each from a different business or profession and they foster high professional standards, dvic improvements and international peace. Rotarian grants make possible scholarships for young people to study in several countries.
By the year 1925 Bay St. Louis organized its Rotary Club under the administration of Richard G. Cox, governor of the 17th District of Rotary International. The Club?s charter was officially presented on September 9, 1925 at a meeting held in Hotel Weston (now the Gulf Haven Nursing Home). First officers of the dub were Ernest J. Leonhard, Presi ,ent; Chas.
G.	Moreau, Viet President; Arthur A. Scafide, Secretary; Louis J. Norman, Treasurer;
H.	U. Canty, Sgt.-at-Arms. The First directors were:
7 VALENA C. JONGS. bora on^Angiutl * Valena Cecelia MacArthur began teachingscliooii ' Mississippi about 1890. Sbe was principal of the Ba Negro School 1892-1897 and taught from 1897-1901 its a pnblfcJ school teacher in New Orleans. Married in 1901 to tb^ Reverend Robert E. Jones, resident Bishop of the New Orleans area for Methodist Episcopal Church, Mrs. Jones no longer taught but kept actively interested in education. Several schools have been named in her honor including the Valena C. Jones in Bay St. Louis. At the age of 44 she died in New Orleans on January 13,1917 and is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.
A year following her death a New Orleans Public School was named in her honor.
Madame de Mezieres identity a mystery
^Jfgwation^te'ia
not. Jess than
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All land bordering the Bay of St. Louis was a land grant given to one Madame de Mezieres, so this reporter has been told. The date 1720, verified by the Department of Archives and History in Jackson, was the year she obtained title. A fire in the year 1853 burned the Hancock County Courthouse then located in Gainesville and old records were destroyed in that conflagration.
^Ihquirics >f*ade of lffcal. historians have shed little light on the identity of Madame de Mezieres, her full name? Where did she live? Why was she given this land grant?
A letter from Mrs. Myrtle Williams Payne of Camden, Arkansas said in part:	?I
believe I have found your mysterious Madame? and she enclosed a verifact copy, a biography of Athanase de Mezieres Y Clugny, the son of Louis Christophe de Mezieres and Marie Antoinette Clugny. Could this be the son of Mme. de Mezieres? At any rate, Athanase de Mezieres was
bom in	Paris of	a
distinguished family and became a soldier, explorer, Indian agent. DeMezieres came to Louisiana in about 1733 and rose through the' ranks from ensign to lieutenant	colonel.	He
prospered	and by	1766
possessed 35 slaves and 10,000 pounds of tobacco. His most vice was to supervise the Indian trade. He issued licenses to traders, cut off illicit traffic and induced Indians to deliver up Intruding Englishmen. He was appointed Governor of Texas, however he died on November 2, 1779 before taking oatl office. He is buried in Cathedral of San Fernand San Antonio. A versatile ana educated man, he wrote in French, Spanish and Latin. A prominent figure on our frontier, he is to be compared with his contemporaries, Juan Bautista de Anza and George Rogers Clark.
Of interest! But still undocumented is Madame de Mezieres - the mystery lady who owned so much land around the Bay of Saint Louis.
Lamb first woman president of CC
most,popular teacher in New ^rnest J'Leon^ar^? ChH9-~ V ? v ?. .. _ __Moreau. Gen: tRr Rpj- JcmilA ?
BY CAPT. MAX BERNS HANCOCK COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The Chamber of Commerce on November 13, 1925 was issued a grant of charter titled Bay St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. On November 15, l9454he corporate name wasj
as well as the introduction of the Naval Oceanographic office to NASA Test Site.
The Hancock County Chamber of Commerce is supported by dues from its members and by the Hancock County, Waveland and Bay Stj, Louis gove
Aldertriaf o _________________
St. Louis, thatgaid Adb^ancl the same is hereby; adopted,-and from and after its passage, declared to be recognized in the municipal law of said City of Bay St. Louis...?
In an attempt to compare these minutes with Acts of Congress a request was made and granted by Elbert R. Hilliard, director of the Department of Archives and History in Jackson. From the photostatic copy furnished I learned an act to establish and incorporate the Town of Shieldsborough was approved on the 21st day of January, 1818. At that time David Holmes was Governor of the State, Theo. Bames, Speaker of the House and D. Stewart, President of the Senate and Lieut. Governor. First Section of the Act follows:	Be it
enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi in General Assembly convened, that the place situated on the West Side of the Bay St. Louis, in the county of Hancock, known by the name of Shieldsboro, is hereby declared to be a town, under the name of Shieldsboro; and it shall be the duty of the owners thereof to deposite in the clerk?s office of the county court of the county aforesaid, within six months after the passage of this act, a plat of said town.?
In the belief that the original charter of the City of Bay St. Louis might be in the office of our mayor, I made inquiry qf Mr. Warren Carver and was furnished a small book entitled The Charter and Ordinances City of Bay St. Louis Approved March 19, 1886. Attached to the front cover of the booklet is a carbon copy of The Charter approval dates and a list of the City Officers. The list shows James A. Ulman as Mayor and of the four alderman only two identities were complete with name or initial as listed they are L. O. Piernas, E.C. Gardesbled, Etierfii^
Eld
iiuis iof Guiness JBoojc' .of
tor viss'vl
r	iy7?	.	.	...	?	*	ar . -V	*	'*
-'?celeliFations!'
^JjRrainMyJjthis reporter is?
*	iionpiilseiK by * the ; 'non-
?	conformity7 of acceptable dates. _My futile sekrch ends with quotations from favorite philosophers: Goethe said: ?The best thing we can derive from history is the enthusiasm that it raises in us.? Was it Tacitus who first said: ?An historian ought to be exact, sincere, and impartial; free from passion, unbiased by interest, fear, resentment, or affection; and faithful to the truth, which is the mother of history, the preserver of great actions, the enemy of oblivion, the witness of the past, the director of the future.? That, my dear Tadtus, is a very large order. When you are reincarnated I pray you will come to Bay St. Louis as an historian and tell us when we should celebrate the Bicentennial of Bay St. Louis - or the Tricentennial.
Wooden nickels' were legal during 1958
Citizens gladly accepted and spent wooden nickels in Bay St. Louis through August 2, 1958. Some even saved a few. City clerk and Commissioner Lucien Kidd during the Bicentennial year donated one of these coins to be placed in a safety deposit box to be opened on the anniversary of our Nation?s 300th birthday.
The nickel, about the size of a silver dollar, was imprinted on the front with the wording: ?One Wooden Nickel - 5 cents.? And on the reverse were the words ?Good in trade at any co-operative business or redeemable at face value at either Bay St. Louis Bank on or before August 2, 1958.?
This novelty was an advertisement used in celebration of Bay St. Louis? centennial. The;