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20
The Progress ok the Races
a member of the Corinthian Lodge, No. 144, Pearlington, Miss. He carried an endowment policy with the Masonic Benefit Association of Mississippi. His wife, Hattie E. Bush, was the beneficiary. She received the full amount of the policy, and spent it wisely in buying herself a good home.
Colored Engineers
Among the engineers on Pearl River were Jack Peterson, Pinkney Moore, Isom Brooklyn, Ilenry James, and Roscoe Lampton. Jack Peterson was the first and oldest engineer on the river. He engineered first on Captain William Poitevent’s boat at Gainesville. When Captain Poitevent discontinued business at Gainesville, he came to Pearlington and engineered on the boats of the Poitevent and Favre Lumber Company, viz, the Dial, Asa. and Pearlington. The Pearlington was the mail boat on the river for many years. Pinkney Moore engineered the Pearlington also, and the H.
C.	Warmouth. He engineered the Fred Dilley for the J. A. Favre Lumber Company, Isom Brooklyn, the II. C. Warmouth. This little boat towed all the logs fvom the big boom on Middle River, that supplied the mills at Pearlington.
Henry James engineered the Sarah and Edgar for the H. Weston Lumber Company. lie was not a product of the river, but came from Gulfport and worked there a few years. Roscoe Lampton was the grandson of Jack Peterson. He learned steamboat engineering under his distinguished grandfather, but engineered boats on Jordan River and around Bay Saint Louis.
Colored Sawyers
Among the sawyers on Pearl River were James Conley, Willie Delavior. John Richardson, Henry McCai-ty, Grant Amos, and Tyler Carter.
Conley sawed for the Poitevent & Favre Lumber Company and the J. A. Favre Lumber Company, and Henry Carre; Delavior for the Poitevent & Favre Lumber Company; Richardson for the J. A. Favre Lumber Company; McCarty for Henry Carre; Grant Amos for the H. Weston Lumber Company; and Carter for Captain Bill Poitevent and Captain Adolph Poitevent.
Grant Amos was probably the best colored sawyer on Pearl River. He sawed for the H. Weston Lumber Company a number of years. Amos was sick a few months before he died about 22 years ago. During his illness it was said that the H. Weston Lumber Company sustained a loss of SI.000 a month. If the same loss has continued ever since the incapacitation and passing of Amos, we must conclude that he was a valuable asset to the H. Weston Lumber Company. Amos saved his money, bought up some fine property and left his wife and children in good shape.
Carpenters
Usan Vaughn, Etienne Maxson, Joseph Graves, Voltaire Powell, Philip King, George Williams, Jerry Mundy, Jacob Holmes, Richard G. Burrell, John Smith, Bentley Powell, Thomas Powell, and Elijah John were among some of the carpenters at Pearlington and the vicinity. Usan Vaughn was a splendid wheelwright and house carpenter.
Ktienne Maxson was a ship carpenter. He helped to build and repair many schooners and steamboats on Pearl River. When ho was a boy he clerked in his
The progress of the Races
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master’s store; when he grew up he ran his master’s schooner and kept it in repair. During the Civil War he bought and sold cotton for his master, hauling it from 45 to 50 miles through the country to market, driving his team at night and hiding it away in the day time, for fear of seizure. He earned his first money as a free man in 1866, in building the schooner “Hornet” for Captain J. A. Favre and Captain William Mars. He was paid off in gold, and he kept a twenty-dollar gold piece of that money as a souvenir for 36 years. Whenever a stick of timber was needed at the shipyard to make a spar for a vessel, it was he who was sent to the forest to get it, because he knew the forest and how to select the timber. After scoring he would superintend the hauling to the shipyard and then convert it into use. In the days of Solomon, “A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.”
Joseph Graves was a good house carpenter. He built :he new First Baptist Church and the old and the new Holmes Chapel M. E. Church, the former under the pastorate of the Rev. Taylor Fryerson, and the latter under the pastorate of the Rev. W. H. Smith. He built several houses also at Pearlington. Voltaire Powell was a carpenter around the mills for the Poitevent & Favre Lumber Company. Philip King, George Williams, Jerry Mundy, and Jacob Holmes were house carpenters; George Williams and Jerry Mundy built several houses at Pearlington. Richard G. Burrell, John Sir.ith, and Jules Gaines were carpenters around the mills for the Poitevent & Favre Lumber Company and the H. Weston Lumber Company. Jules Gair.es built one or two houses at Pearlington, and he and Jacob Holmes built the Masonic Hall of Corinthian Lodge No. 144.
Bentley Powell and Thomas Powell, the sons of Voltaire Powell are excellent house carpenters. Thomas Powell generally worked around the mills for the Poitevent and Favre Lumber Company. Elijah John is a house carpenter. His work principally consisted in repairs and building fences.
Before the Poitevent and Favre Lumber Company and the H. Weston Lumber Company, bought and sold manufactured coffins, nearly all the coffins at Pearlington and Logtown, and within a radius of ten miles were made by Usan Vaughn, Etienne Maxson, Joseph Graves, Voltaire Powell, and George Williams. These coffins were made of the best cypress lumber and dressed accordingly. Except caskets, they looked as well as any manufactured coffin. George Williams probably made more coffins than any colored man on the
river.
I was about to forget to mention Henry Gaines and Richard Knox, who figured conspicuously as carpenters in the constructive work of their day. Gaines helped to build Captain John Poitevent’s fine house. He built and repaired several houses around Pearlington, and also built his own house
that he lived in.
Knox built the hall of the Court Patrons of Husbandry. He built and repaired several houses at Pearlington. He owned some fine property at Hands-
boro, Miss.
Blacksmiths
Richard Tyler and Reid were blacksmiths at Pearlington. Tyler’s blacksmith shop was located on the public road at the Mile Branch. Hi? work consisted in shoeing horses and repairing buggies and wagon?. I cannot recall