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PEARLINGTON
Located about nineteen miles southwest of Bay St. Louis, Pearlington was named for the fresh water pearls found along the nearby river bank. The place was once called little Jerusalem for the proud class of people who lived there.
Pearlington was one of the pioneering lumber towns of this once-important lumbering area and later was the terminal for a Louisiana-Mississippi automobile ferry, now extinct. Many large live oak trees covered with Spanish Moss, along with some of the largest and oldest CameliaJaponicas on the Mississippi Coast grow in and around Pearlington. (Hometown Mississippi by James F. Brieger)
Pearlington - Prosperous Lumber Town Near The Gulf.
Just a little distance (nine miles) above the mouth of the Pearl River, where the limpid and beautiful waters are poured into the bosom of Lake Borgne, and forty-four miles from New Orleans, is situated the bustling and thriving little city of Pearlington. It occupies a proud and beautiful position on the east bank of the river, and its 1500 inhabitants glory in the fact that no town along the entire river course, excepting Jackson, the capital of the State, equals it in point of population and commercial importance. * * * The steamer Pearlington makes two trips daily to English Lookout, La. making close connections with trains on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. The steamer carries passengers and the mail. The schedule of the Pearlington is kept in perfect adjustment to that of the railroad, for the comfort and convenience of all passengers, and for speedy delivery of the mails. * * * The Pearlington is in charge of Captain R. S. Boardman, whose genial and obliging nature has won for him great popularity with the traveling public.
Besides this close contact with the Cresant City, Pearlington enjoys all the enlivenment and business advantages of constant and direct communication with the West Indies, Mexico and the States of Central and South America, through means of its immense lumber traffic.
The town is by no means youthful. Its history has covered a period of fully 100 years. The first settlements were made in the latter part of the last century. The oldest citizens remember it, and speak of it as a town of considerable size and business importance in their boyhood and girlhood days. IN 1820 the Pearlington Company was organized for the purpose of giving form to the town and developing its growth and prosperity. Capt. John Poitevent possesses a curiosity in the shape of a copy of the Pearl River Gazette, which was published at Jackson on the 9th of August, 1823. It contains an elaborate and interesting account of a Fourth of July celebration held at Pearlington