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NEGROES W SERVED IN PUBLIC OFFICE
00068
AT PEARLINGTON, HANCOCK COUNTY
JOSEPH GRAVES, POSTMASTER & J.P. ETIENNE WILLIAM MAXON, POSTMAST] JAMES THOMAS, CONSTABLE AND FRED RICHARDSON, COMMISSIONER JACOB HOLMES,	OF ELECTIONS
TONY KELKER	ditto
L. J. PIERNAS, Postmaster Bay S1
Louis
UPA - 1937 - Hancock County
Prominent Negroes in Hancock County
Judge Joseph Graves vas the first colored man..to. hols_,a.,political
o	f f i c e~~on P earl River. He was first appointed Hart or Ma s t e r_a t Ship Island, Miss."J during Reconstruction days. He was the first colored Postmaster at .Pearlington,' and served alternately under Presidents Arthur and Benjamin Harrison. He was Justice of the Peace Cor the First Supervisor's District of Hancock County a number of years. He filled these offices with credit to himself and to the community in which he lived.
Joseph Graves ran for Sheriff of Hancock County, and John L. Collins for Representative, in the early Seventies. They canvassed every polling precinct in the County, and while they were defeated in the election every vote cast for them was duly counted.
Edward W. Rouse was appointed Postmaster at Logtown under Harrison. Failing to give the bond he did not serve.
Etieene William Maxon
Etienne William Maxon was first appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue at New Orleans by Col. H. C. Powers, Collector of Internal Revenue under the Sugar Bounty Act of 1891 and 1892. He weighed sugar for the United States Government in Saint John the Baptist Parish at Terre Haute, Reserve, Cornland and Ora Brothers plantation.
He was next appointed Commissioner of Election of Hancock County, and State of Mississippi, by Governor John M. Stone (Mississippi), anc served from August 1892 (o August 189^, inclusive. For his services rendered as Manager and Commissioner of Elections representing the Republican Party, and in County and State Conventions as a Delegate, he was appointed Postmaster at Pearlington, Miss., December 6, 1898.
He served from January 3» l899» to May 31» 1916. This was longer thai any Postmaster on Pearl River,, covering a period of 17 years and 5 months.
During his tenure of office he improved the Postal Service on that steam boat route. From two mails a day he improved the service to four mails a day.