This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Napoleon Drew Marne From Rescue Party
-1
By S. G. THIGPEN. SR.
f Not many people realize that this section right here where we live has such an interesting history. 'No other section of Mississippi, or Louisian.-], has a more
*	romantic past ‘.nan has this area up and down Pearl Paver.
There is a combination of romance. intrigue and mystery in the history of Napoleon community and of how it got its name. Mrs. J. A. Wheeler ol' Napoleon just lately gave me information which, along with old stories I have been to-d and have read, furnished most of
*	the data on which-my story of t Napoleon is based.
■Napoleon got its name from the , fact that Jerome Napoleon, brother of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France, once camped on the high banks of Pearl River just southwest of where Napoleon Baptist church now stands.
The Emperor-had been imprisoned on the Isle of Elba. His brother Jerome and others loyal to h i m plotted to rescue him from this prison. Due to the world-w i a e fame' and the great prominence of the Emperor, and because of his many enemies, the strictest secrecy was vital to the success o! their plan'to rescue him.
If Napoleon Bonaparte was to be rescued, they had to have a place of reiuge for him, and that’s where our interest in this story comes in. Jerome and a few of his faithful and loyal followers set out to visit the New Orleans area where the Emperor was thought to have many faithful friends and followers.
; They slipped . away from the coast oT France in an ordinary cargo boat with the crew' disguised as an ordinary boat crew. The y carried with them an ordinary cargo for those times, but known only to Jerome and those the very closest to him, they also carried S80.-000 in gold with w'hich they hoped to finance their clandestine opera-i tion in this area.- They hoped that the great magic of the' Bonaparte name, along with their ^skilful planning would stampede this sec-
tion to the banner of the Emperor and' that they would establish a new nation here with him as its head.
Tiie Bonapartes had friends and known followers in the New Orleans area that they hoped to contact and from whom ihey hoped for enthusiastic aid. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was uneventful but they were warned of dangers in the Gulf of Mexico from pirates and free-booters who infested those waters in tijose times. No ship that could no." fight its way there was safe.
When they entered the Gulf of Mexico they tried to hide by day and travel at night. They did not dare to try to go up the Mississippi River, which was by far the best way to go to New Orleans, because of the buccaneers who were known to hover around the mouth of this great river.
Neither did they dare'to try to go by way of 'the Rigolets and Lake Ponchartrain because of the pirates and robbers who pounced on all ships in that area from their headquarters on Honey Island. Their r>lan- was vo "land on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and then work their w^>* by secret and little used passages into the city of New Orleans. ...
By skilfull and careful planning and manuevering-, they made their way to land in the general area of where Waveland now stands. They were met there by trusted aides who had come on before and who had rounded up pack mules and supplies for their trip on in to New Orleans.
The small band with Jerome at their head and with the $80,000 in their possession made their way with loaded pack mules to a point in a wooded area with dense under-prowth about 3000 feet back from Pearl River and just to the southwest of the uresent Napoleon church. The strictest secrecy wjs necessary as the bandit infested Honey Island lay just across Pearl Ri'/er. ;
They camped under two big old
live-oaks- in-the thickest, part OI the, jungie-like area. {The oaks are stiil known as the Napoleon oaks.) While camped there one of the pack mules died. They ■buried' the;mule because they wanted- no tell-tale buzzard^' telling tlie nearby bandits they were there. Also as legend has it, they buried the S80.000 in gold.
Jerome had witl* him only men in whom he had the greatest trust, yet he realized the great temptation that a great sum1 of. gold offered to even the most trusted merl to desert him and- try to- take the money for themselves:	It	is	said
he went through the pretense of burying the gold a little way from their camp, but that he' arid his most trusted lieutenant slipped out in the darkest night and placed' it in another place so that only the two of them knew where it was. Up to this good day no one knows whether they ever came back for it.
They now made their plans to I try to slip into New Orleans to con- j tact their friends there. Pe aril River with its many passages was' dominated and controlled by one') of the most dangerous gangs of I criminals	ever	to operate in	theJ
Gulf Coast area. Honey Island w‘a.o‘ the headquarters for this, gang.! They would make -raids. in fast! boats in the gulf, and even into’ New Orleans itself, gbinff' ill andl out through little' knowri and se- j cret passages to and from their, hideouts up and dow'n Pearl River. They maintained' several hideouts , so that if one was discovered/they 1 would have others to' go to. • One I such hideout was said to be'across, the river	from	Nicholson. .	.	(
The leader of these criminals was i Pierre Rameau who wa/ w i d e 1 y j known as the "King of Honey Is- ; land.” He was born and reared ; in Scotland and came from a good | family, but as is often' the case-! he took the easy way lo mal<e money and became a brigand and ■» oirate.	His	real name	was	Me-
Crillough	but	he operated- nuder
the name of Pierre Rameau from Konev Island in his illegal actiyi-:ies. In New Orleans he maintained one of. the city's'finest homes j under the name of Col ‘Loring, who oassed as a mine owner and opera-ior in Mexico. This information came from the book, “The King of Honey Island” which w'as' published in 1892. According 'to ..th 1 s book, many of the greatest for-
tunes
tirr.es ties. *
r t
; In > Piern and ; sippi, to’.y gen.3 from up in on fl: Thf me k with get 1 they in tr. Of tr now sklor on a sailb with the :
0 s \ \
■the* A-! sen-*' m He bv>-v furif oars in i! a ft be-io spe' part It ar t h.f.l w hi
bfrC-
a:>
ir.tc
be.*-
bu.-bo 3 v
tirr.
w
the
ra;
sec
>u:
1ht bn th* b^ me thi ba
un
ed
up
be