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’’V \ 's* x ‘n ^ ^ « AS TOID BY IIORATIO WESTON "I’m no writer, but I can tell you something about it." explained Horatio Weston when asked about I.ogtown in its hey-day. Horatio was born 1 in Logtown in 1908 and has the vantage point o( being a descendant of the founder of
H.	Weston Lumber Company. The family kept letters, scrapbooks, photo albums, and collected books on lumbering and travel in the lyongleaf Pine Belt. In an interview we poured over some of these documents and Horatio Weston made comments ... sometimes comical ... sometimes serious, but always interesting. Here's what	he said:	!
CHILDHOOD	j
MEMORIES	i
“Our public school in Logtown went through the twelfth grade. There were only four teachers. I don't know how in the world they did it. And the building had only four rooms! A bell was erected on a post and somebody rang it when it w as time for school dismissal. Boys used to slip out and tie a sweet potato to the end of the bell	rope then a hog would !
come along and eat the sweet potato, pulling on the rope and the bell would ring as early classes dismissed. Sure, we brought our lunches, walkud to school, and when necessary | the girls went to the privy and the boys just went out in the hushes. Later on a sort of a sanitary disposal was in- I stalled."	j
SWEET DREAMS "For entertainment,” Weston remembered, “we used to come to Bay St. l-ouis to the Airdorne to watch moving pictures. There was an airdorne built out over the water and people sat on bleachers out in the open. The management furnished an insect repellant called Sweet Dreams - and it smelled like sweet dreams - nothing else quite like it. If it rained the patrons went inside the building, the camera was reversed, and the show went on. Admission for school children was a nickel and candy was given away on Wednesdays and Saturdays."
THE SEA WAIX “In about 1914 a sea wall I was built along Bay St. I,ouis beach front. It was a vertical 1 wall and constructed to ' prevent erosion and storm damage. Later on they started pumping sand behind the seawall to strengthen it, and before they finished there was the storm of 1915. I was about seven years old and remember vividly my father brought me to see the effects of the storm. None of the buildings were destroyed in , the area where sand had been pumped behind the wall, but the unfilled end had been destroyed. The dredge from which the sand was being pumped was lost to the storm and I believe the men aboard were drowned."
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 j Bay St. lx>uis to take on coal I and water. Those trains
brought employment to about P a hundred people and In ad- [ dition 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 train 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. I/Ouis. 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 v travel routes used by touring cars in 1917. He perused 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. Itoute crossed the iron bridge in Mobile and followed a fair graded sand road to Orange ('.rove 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 a while for the ferry.
Straight out from the ferry landing and upgrade bearing left the route included Ocean Springs, Mississippi City, I Gulfport. Long Beach, Pass Christian, DeLisle, Rock Bayou, Fenton, Kiln, and 1 logtown where directions said I "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 two hours.	After
straightening out from the ferry landing the route took passengers to Slidell, l.acombe. Mandeville and I here another terry crossing' l.ike Pontchartrain. 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 Milneburg and then New Orleans.
"I recall my trip from
I.egtown to New Orleans in 1926 when I went to register at Tulane University,” Weston said. "It took four or five liimrs. From logtown there was a cable ferry at Pearl liivcr then on to Slidell and to the Itigolettes and a shell road Ini to Chef Menteur where there was a cable ferry to New
Orleans." Weston graduated with tlie Gass of 1931 but he didn’t make many of those long, arduous trips home to Logtown in the college years.
SAW MILLS
Nollle W. Hickman wrote a. ■ book titled Mississippi Harvest and it gave an account o( lumbering In the longleaf pine belt from 1840-1915. Horatio 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 becnmc Harrison County in 1843. “Because logs had to be | brought to the mills by water j 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 l.ake Borgne and at the head of the Bay of St. Ixiuis. 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 j brigs to the markets outside. > New Orleans was less than a day’s journey away by water, i
“One of the earliest of Pearl River lumbermen was W. J. Poitevent who came to Gainesville in 1832." In I860 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 part- j nershio including W. W. Carre and Henry Weston. Two years later Carre and Weston bought Wingate’s interest in the mill.
In the mill almost all the laborers, except foronen and sawyers were negro slaves.
The book deals with Knights of Labor, a group organized to rcduce the work day from 16 hours to 12 and later 10; script I as payment for labor: Camp Cars; the Company Store and reforesting. Weston snid: "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 . 70 and now lives in Waveland. He says his memories of being brought up in old Ixigtown are pleasant, happy ones.