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28
The Progress of the Races
versity, New Orleans, respectively; Felton Winston, Eckstein Norton University, Cane Spring, Ky.; Matthew M. Winston, Southern University, New Orleans; George Peterson, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn.; Mabel Carmichael, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Ala.; and Alonzo Carmichael, Jr., Francis Junior High School, Washington, D. C.
Martin Proctor’s Contribution to Education
This book would be incomplete if the writer failed to say something praiseworthy of Martin Proctor, who was better known to the young people as Uncle Mart. Uncle Mart was a bachelor of advanced years. His occupation chiefly was firing and wood-chopping. In speaking of his age he would often say he had been here ever since the stars fell (fallen meteors 1833). This was regarded as a remarkable incident in his life.
The public school at Pearlington having closed on Friday and the private school expected to open on the following Monday, Uncle Mart was chopping wood very early on Monday morning near the writer’s home when his mother sent him out to get a sack of chips from the wood that Uncle Mart was chopping. Upon reaching. the spot, Uncle Mart questioned the writer to know whether or not he was going to pay school that morning. With a quick but sad response the writer said, “No, sir,” that his father was sick and had not been able to work for sometime, and that his mother had said they would not be able to send him this term. Upon this statement, Uncle Mart said, “Go home and tell your mother to send you to school this morning and I will pay for you and buy your books.” With a smile of gratitude and a word of thanks and in post-haste the writer gathered up the chips and returned to the house and broke the glad news to his mother. And when the bell rang for school he was there to enter his class.
It is gratifying to state that Uncle Mart paid for the writer’s tuition and bought his books for several years, even up to his accidental death. Uncle Mart was watching the dredge boat that was digging the log canal opposite Pearlington for the Poitevent & Favre Lumber Co., during the Christmas holidays of 1879, on a very cold night. Sitting near the furnace he probably went to sleep and fell against the fii'e doors and burned himself so badly that he died within a few days. Alas, for poor Uncle Mart! Peace be to his ashes.
Business Progress Matilda Burton and her husband, James Burton, were the first colored persons to start a business at Pearlington. They kept a boarding house, and in the summer sold soft drinks, ice cream, cake, watermelons and fruit. Matilda Burton bought up some fine property at Pearlington and rented several houses. She was the only colored person that owned a two-storv house in the town.
Emma Davis was the first colored person to run a mercantile business at this place. She sold groceries, dry goods and soft drinks. And when she advanced in years, she confined her business exclusively to millinery. She owned a good deal of real estate and rented houses. She also owned a half interest in the schooner Mamie A. D., with Captain Anatole McKan, which she sold to Malinda McKan, Captain McKan’s wife. Emma Davis and Mary
The progress of the Races
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Ann Brown were the oldest persons at Pearlington. They both died not far apart at the ages of 93 years.
Moses N. Peters came next in the mercantile business. He owned some fine property. Daniels Brothers and Company ran a grocery business. This company was composed of Wiley Daniels, Michael Daniels and Alonzo Carmichael. They rented from Captain Moses Peters, and at this same spot a certain man from Hattiesburg sold bicycles and carried on a profitable business.
Joseph Graves and William Singleton ran a butcher business. Graves ran an oyster business also, and Captain John Hardy ran the sloop Nellie for Graves and brought the oysters from the reef.
Carson Ford ran a good business as a butcher both at Pearlington and at Kiln. Captain Paul Barbino ran oysters with his sloop Ranger and sold them on his boat, where he made his home. He was the oldest oysterman on the river. But, alas for Captain Barbino, he and his sloop were lost in Lake Borgne, in the great storm of October, 1893. Captain John Douglass with his sloop Malissa helped to supply the town with oysters. He sold oysters from his boat, where he made his home until he married.
Emerline Davidson sold ice, ice cream, cake and fruit on her premises. Della F. Maxson carried on a splendid business on this corner, selling soft drinks, ice cream, cake and bananas. She gave a business impetus to this site, which was afterward called a lucky place for business. Malinda McKan succeeded her on this corner and excelled all in selling soft drinks, ice, ice cream, cake, fruit and watermelons. She made enough money to buy out Emma Davis’s half interest in the Schooner Mamie A. D., and built one or two houses. Georgia Cloud bought out this property, lived there, sold ice cream and fruit until the business of the town went down. Mamie J. Peters sold ice cream and cake on her pi'emises, which she sometimes rented out for business. James A. Allen, Jerry Stanley, Webster Clark, and John Richardson were in the saloon business on Pearl River in Saint Tammany Parish, La., opposite Pearlington. The three former did not stay in the business long. Allen moved to Hattiesburg, Miss., and there organized the Order of Gideons, and was president of the institution for a number of years, or until the fraternity discontinued operation in the State. He set up a branch at Pearlington, that worked very well. He is now in Chicago, in the real estate business. Stanley returned to his barber shop and Clark left the State. Richardson, the latter, continued his business until he made a good deal of money and bought up a lot of property. He owned and rented more houses than any colored man at Pearlington. He first owned a half interest in the schooner Minnie Otis, with Lewis Slade, then he owned the schooners Geo. W. Lester, Leta, and Geo. W. Rhode. Richardson at one time was worth more personal property and real estate than any colored man in Hancock County.
Albert Vaultz, in business by himself, and Fred Richardson, with his wife, Millie Richardson, were all three in the lunch-room business. They were splendid cooks and supplied many in the town with food, both white and colored people, and nearly all of the transient people, especially drummers.
A? stated in a previous chapter, Captain Willis Vaughn and Henry Willis