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The Progress of the Races
alter which it was shipped to New Orleans for market. They ran this business for sometime, or probably until the hardwood played out near the river in that section.
Dr. McGowan would not hesitate to indorse a note for a colored man of business integrity to get a loan from the bank. He was the leading physician for the colored fraternal orders at Pearlington and Logtown. When he died in 1918, the colored people mourned his death just like the white people.
This co-partnership demonstrates the fact that when a colored man is trustworthy and prepared, all barriers to his progress will be removed.
Courtney Young’s Shingles Courtney Young lived at Gainesville. When cypress was plentiful on l’earl River, he made shingles on the river and sold them from Gainesville to Pearlington, delivering them in a flatboat at any convenient landing where ordered. He made the best shingles on the river. His shingles would compare favorably with any shingles made on Amite or Blind Rivers, and shipped into New Orleans for market. A house covered with Young’s shingles, if put on with care, would make a good roof for 35 years. Since corrugated iron and tin have been used for fire-proof roofing, the use of shingles has almost been discontinued. However, Young’s shingles have supplied an absolute need in his day.
Improvement Association In the early ’seventies, under the leadership of the Rev. Taylor Fryer-son, the colored people at Gainesville organized what was known as the Improvement Association. Each member was required to pay so much into the association until they had raised enough money to buy a tract of land, after which the land was divided among them and they built up homes and farms on this wise. They also had a grocery store and sold goods at a reasonable price. Richard G. Burrell was the chief clerk and general manager.
Author Acker, the Builder and Merchant Author Acker was born and brought up at Gainesville. He received his education from the public school of that place. He is both a house and a ship carpenter. He built and repaired several houses around Pearlington and Gainesville. He also built a little schooner at Gainesville, which he owned, and ran in lumber and wood from Gainesville to New Orleans, and in freight from New Orleans to Gainesville.
Acker carried on a mercantile business at Gainesville with much success. It can be said of him as a young man, he never was too busy to fill his place in the First Baptist Church at Gainesville, both as clerk and superintendent of the Sunday school.
The Isadore Settlement The Isadore Settlement is about five miles above Gainesville on the public road leading to Columbia and Jackson. Zedo Isadore entered this tract of land shortly after the Civil War. It contains 88 acres. It was well timbered and fine for farming. Isadore was a farmer. He raised cattle, sheep, and goats; he also had a few head of horses. He died in 1870. His sons, Octave Isadore, Moses Isadore, Vallory Isadore, John Isadore, and Victor
The Progress of the Races *
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Isadore, heirs of his estate, did likewise. Besides, they sold logs, wood and charcoal, and shipped by railroad to New Orleans for market. Victor Isadore, the youngest son, had a half interest in a sawmill near Picayune. Ir. this settlement they had a building of their own that they used for a church and school house, but no pastor. They were all Baptists and had their membership in the First Baptist Church at Gainesville. The little church in the settlement was only for week-day meetings, or when the weather was too bad to go to Gainesville. Any preacher passing through the settlement who wanted to preach, they would gladly listen to and give him a collection. This tract of land has been sold and Isadore’s children have passed away, but some of his grandchildren and great-children are living at Nezan Landing, about two miles above Logtown. The Rev. James Norman, pastor of the First Baptist Church at Gainesville, married Mary Isadore, the daughter of Moses Isadore, and the granddaughter of Zedo Isadore, the progenitor of the settlement.
Educational Progress
In 1868, Major Samuel White gave the colored people at Pearlington lot No. 2 in square 22, to build a church and a school house on. With grateful hearts the colored citizens received the land and built the house and organized the First Baptist Church, under the leadership of the Rev. Charles Chase (died in 1891), who became its first pastor.
This building was used for a number of years as a church and school house, or until the Baptists under the pastorate of the Rev. Taylor Fryer-son bought lot No. 1, an adjoining lot on the corner, and built a new and larger church, to which the members repaired and worshipped. The old building was then used exclusively for school purposes until torn down in 1916, when a better and larger school house was built on another site.
Major White gave a square of land to the white and colored citizens of Pearlington for a cemetery, where both races have been buried without any friction. He owned nearly all of the vacant lands in and within a radius of three miles of Pearlington, and sold comparatively cheap and on reasonable terms, receiving as low as $5.00 a month on payments. This system enabled the colored people to secure land and build up homes. It is significant to note that his sons, after his decease, namely, Darrington and Albert White, followed his footsteps until they sold out all of the estate.
The colored people have always been anxious to educate, even in slave time when they were prohibited by law. Even in those dark days many of them secretly learned how to read and write. And since emancipation they have crowded the school-rooms to overflowing wherever an opportunity presented itself, and especially in the towns on Pearl River.
Men like Alexander Peterson, Samuel D. Snell, George Burton, James Thomas, George Thomas, James Burton, Olando Walker, William Winston, and others, in the early days at Pearlington, were outstanding characters in the interest of education. These men served as trustees and organized school boards to raise salaries for teachers and to foster education generally in the community.
Before the community developed its own teachers, nearly all of the teachers came from New Orleans. Among some of them were Rosa Humphrey,