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WHAT EVEfi HAPPENED TO DEAR OLD GAINESVILLE?
Bf Joe Pllet
Slitor*s Note: Joe Pllet is the editor of the Heritage Blition of The Sea Coast Echo. Her root* go deep in Hanoook County where her grandparents 11red, her aother and later on her daughter attended St. Joseph's Academy, she Is the wife of the late Colonel Nunes C. Pllet and relates the story of OalnesTille "the way It was told to her*.
Maok Herring
f
Ambrose Oaines had everything to win and nothing to lose when, with a roving eye and 1 tolling heel, this handsome young medical dootor arrived in the settlement of Cottonport, located on the beautiful Pearl Elver.
He oame prior to the time when Mississippi was a state and
C
before Hanoook County was formed. The Sottonport settlement seemed prosperous and there were people who needed "doctoring", a sizeable amonAt of cotton was being rafted or barged downstream to the Part of New Orleans. The year was probably 1809.
Dr. Oaines deolded this a likely spot to start a praotloe of medioine. m making Inquiries he learned there were some "squatters" and some land owners with uncertain titles. The land was beautiful and there was mass confusion. Dr. Oaines entered a olaim and a land grant was issued in 1810 ~