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construction. Hundreds of homes in Hancock and Harrison counties were built by me, some of the outstanding ones being Waveland School, Dedeaux School, the Echo building, the Tulane Hotel, the E. J. Gex home, the Walter Gex, Jr. home, and Aimes and Gaspard homes, and hundreds of other homes. By the year 19 30 I bought and put in operation at Clermont Harbor a sawmill, primarily to put me in a better buying position. The sawmill proved to be another success and after some years I left the contracting field to concentrate on the lumber business.
About 1927 I built for myself a home on Third Street, Clermont Harbor. Later I sold this home and bought three acres of land at the east end of Third Street. Here I built a large house to take care of my larger family, I, my wife, and four children.
The depression years of 1930 were upon us. Through good management and lots of luck, I was able to maintain a full crew of men, not one of my men lost a days' work during this period. Even when the banks were closed, each man was paid in full by cash each payday. Needless to say, I had many friends during this trying period.
The period 1930 to 1940 was spend mostly improving and extending the business of the Clermont Harbor Lumber Company.
I manufactured lumber from log to finished product, by far the largest operation of this kind in Hancock County, Mississippi. Like many other projects of this kind, the end result was, I had all the facilities but suitable timber became scarcer and scarcer. The time had come to look for something else.
About this time I established a modern broiler plant at Clermont Harbor, which proved to a profitable venture. I raised and sold thousands of broilers, but with feed costs rising and the advent of World War II, I was forced to close this plant.
I also established a plant, Clermont Manufacturing Company, for the manufacture of articles from a new product, "Plexiglass." The main product was a picture album, for most part, wedding pictures. These were sold only to professional photographers. This was a high quality product selling for fifteen dollars each.
These were sold nationwide and in many foreign countries. The endcame when the hurricane of 1947 destroyed this plant.
My first venture was the antique business, and my stock of antiques was still intact, so I decided this would be the proper time to re-enter this field of work.