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170
Louisiana?s Loss, Mississippi?s Gain
capitalized at $4,000. He paid $10 per thousand for logs delivered to the mill, worked 9 men, and cut 700,000 feet per year, which he valued at $84,000.
W. J. Poitevent had a mill at Gainesville, capitalized at $7,000. Its capacity was 5,000 feet per day. He used 12 laborers, and his monthly payroll was $300. He cut 1,760,000 feet in 1850, which he valued at $223,000.
D. R. Wingate?s mill at Logtown was capitalized at $20,000, and had a capacity of 5,000 feet per day. He employed 14 workers, and his monthly payroll was $210. The cost of logs delivered at the mill was $10 per thousand. His annual cut was 1,500,000 feet, valued at $150,000.
J. B. Toulme and D. R. Walker operated a mill which they capitalized at $9,000. It was operated with a crew of 10 workers at a monthly payroll cost of $150. Their annual production was estimated to be 1,200,000 feet, with a value of $96,000.
W. M. Brown, a Shieldsboro businessman, grossed $11,200. His mill employed eleven men and two women (Hickman, 1962).
These records do not show how many employees were paid salaries, and how many were slaves.
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Five years after coming south, Weston wrote his brother on June 1, 1851 {Echo, 1977, B5):
... I am doing rather better than I expected when I set in here. In six months I have sawed 1,100 thousand feet of lumber at fifty cents and 775 thousand lathes at 10 cents. The lathes will a little more than pay my board and other expenses, which will leave me $550 for six months work. Very fair business for a man without capital. But mind, this is not made without hard work and close application, so close as to almost entirely exclude me from society. There is nothing in my head but niggers and lumber 3-12 & 3-14, etc. By the way, what would Mrs. Boween think of me, if she knew that I, northern man was here a Boss over a group of negroes?to tie up and whip once in a while. You people think slavery a great sin, but let me tell you that they are as well off as the northern labourers. The law protects and provides for feed and clothing and a doctor in case of sickness?everything necessary for his comfort. But he is made to work, if he will not do his work he is whipped and a chain and ball put to his legs, put in the stocks, etc. If a northern man doesn't show to work he has to go without bread. This is the principal difference and no northern man coming to New Orleans can look on the fat, sleek smiling faces of the negro population and think they are unhappy.
Antebellum Period
171
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In 1852 Benjamin L. C. Wailes, a State Agriculture Department employee, traveled throughout the state to study its soils. In his trip through Hancock County Wailes reported eight mills at Pearlington and two other large ones under construction there (Hickman, 1962).
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Rebecca Nixon obtained a deed from the U.S. Government in 1841 for 73-41/100 acres in Pearlington, for which she paid $91.75. This land has passed through the hands of many prominent Pearlington citizens. It has also been owned by the W. W. Carre Company and the J. A. Favre Lumber Company. Today the property is known as the Baxter estate.
The oldest home standing in Pearlington today was built about 1853 by Phoebe Hawthorne, an early settler {Echo, 1978, 1C). It is located on Monroe Street, with its back toward the river. The house was owned in 1978 by Mr. and Mrs. T. V. Lott. Mrs. Hawthorne is said to have been the first school teacher in Pearlington. She opened Mrs. Hawthorne?s Private School in 1861 {Echo, 1958, 7b). Her husband owned the first mercantile establishment in town.
While old homes such as Elmwood Manor, the Monet Home, etc., are treasured as an important part of the county?s heritage, it should not be forgotten that homes such as these were utterly beyond the reach of the majority of people at that time. Perhaps 90 to 95 percent of Hancock county?s population lived in houses made of logs, and many of these were tiny one-room cabins.
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In 1854, Wingate formed a partnership with W. W. Cane, Henry Carre, and John Russ (Thigpen, 1965A). Almost all the laborers in the mill?except foremen and sawyers?were Negro slaves. Weston invested the money that he had saved to buy Russ? interest in the partnership. Two years later, in 1856, the Carres and Weston bought, on credit, Wingate?s one-third interest in the mill. Wingate moved to Texas, where he built a mill at Sabine Pass (Hickman, 1962).
Weston bought the Wingate home. On July 15, 1858, he was married at Gainesville to Lois A. Mead, whose father, a Gainesville doctor, was originally from Massachusetts (Thigpen, 1965A). This home, demolished a century later to make way for the NASA facility, was said to have been the second oldest house in Hancock County. It was built of heart pine and was located in a setting of massive oak trees and shrubs {Echo, 1978; 8D).