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•■st, again ad-■ >roar' » tc *-fix in
IJJUC, th.:."'
vanced L soldiers v es. With r -his hand 1. ; * .cet asked them to destrc Embarrassed by tl impressed with the C' unarmed priest, they hats and turned bad time they had retired :and returned to Ship ling Bay St. Louis aim;
BAY ST LOUIS ! BECOMES COUNTY SEAT ! From the time Hancock County jwas created in 1812 the site of i the county seat jumped around er-Iratically. At different times Court jwas held at Bay St. Louis and Pearlington, then at a place called Center, but mostly at Gainesville,
bile, at least forty or fifty out hacks or cabs that met all trail. Hardly had a passenger alighted before he or she were taken in charge, bag and baggage, wit! competition so keen that often or driver would grab the passeng another grab the bags ai ad toward different hacks. The. s no doubt but that the railros depot was the busiest place in towi v-1 all day long.
-I. [DAYS OF PICNICS
Those were the days of picnics, of Father LeDuc’s Annual Church ridge for ■-•icerts, '.es out : for its A danc-: -s, of the-
Bay St. Louis History
Con'inued From Page Four
not function throughout the war years.
During those trying times the beloved priest of Bay St. Louis, “Pere” LeDuc, and a former altar boy named Pierre Prudeaux, had a small schooner appropriately named “Hard Times” which frequently ran the blockade to bring in precious food and supplies with Prudeaux at the helm. However, he made one trip too many and was captured by Federal gunboats, taken to New Orleans and imprisoned. Later and returned to his boat.
which between 1812 and the War between the States was an important shipping center. About 1846 it ■oked as though it would remain ,t Gainesville.
But in 1853 the Court House at_________
Gainesville burned down and court which°Bay"stTTouis w activities subsequently moved to Bay St. Louis
Fair, of playing aurC cut glass prizes, of bicycle ridin; to Brown's Vine} . scuppernong chai:' es and masquerade -J
atrical performances (Cecil B. De-Mille, of present Hollywood prominence, once played in Bay St. Louis with a traveling troup -f light opera singers) and, of co th*> boating and saltwater I
fcut not until 1867, two years after the war, was an official action taken. That was when the Legislature authorized an election to determine the permanent location of the County Seat.
There was 'intense rivalry. The Gainesville supporters claimed the most votes and the County Board then known as Police Board elected to stay at Gainesville. But the Circuit Court decided that Shields-boro had received the “majority of legal votes” — a wording which suggests ballot stuffing. Anyhow the County Seat came to Bay St. Louis then officially incorporated
as Shieldsboro.
THE COMING OF THE RAILROAD
In 1872, five years he was released'Louis became the Cr... the Bay—without iNew Orleans, Me I as Railroad (purch
Just as the century ,
Bay St. Louis was headi
second half of its centui
porate existence it dramt
monstrated its civic gr
maturity with the orga-
its first bank, The Hanc	-
Bank in 1899 — with t-
tion of electricity in 1.
the construction of a n>
in 1902 and the organic
second bank, the Mer*:
and Trust Company in 1.
But the great day for . . „i. Louis was in 1928 when the ferry across Bay St. Louis was replaced with the wooden bridge across the Bay — built at a cost of *752.610.65
of creosoted pilings a This project which wj suit of the hard work , 'iy St. of Horatio S. Weston <~
■	t, the | then President of the 1
■	Tex-|ervisors, suddenly trar L&N!St. Louis from an ind-from!isolated resort town
longer]western Portal of th
:ber.
?y
r
.d m
S-
- ^
took its present recogn.:	m; as
one of the Eight Sister Civ. oy the Sea that now comprise the clos-recrea-
jBucciline’s Wharf at Washington!tion land to the midcontinent of
THE WAR HERO OF	|in 1881 > came throu^
BAY ST. LOUIS	jthen on the little city Wc
Thp camp “Ppt-p” TPn„r h** dependent upon the “Camellia” and'sissippi Guif Coast. I
~ F* » JMsnci thPTedfair.f x ^ ■— ~
as the brave priest who saved Bay Bay and	0rleans>	landing	_	........
the WarS	*	'-heir freight and passengers at jest year round saltwater
Inthe Springof 1864 accompany j ancj the Toulme Wharf opposite the the nation. tt i	^	i	even	the	seven	million	dollar
In the early 1880’s Bay St. Louis acquired the G. W. Dunbar Oyster and Shrimp Canning Company at the north end of the Bay, a woolen mill at Nicholson Avenue in Wave-
of Federal soldiers ,'anded from j Crescent Hotel. Fort Pike at Chef Menteur and were opposed by a company of Sibley’s Cavalry of Alabama. The Confederates won the brief skirmish and took a few prisoners which were removed to the home of Mrs.
Giacomo Monti near the German settlement at Brown’s Vineyard.
A few weeks later 200 Federal troops came back in the gunboat “Commodore” to rescue the prisoners. It so happened that a Captain Marshal of the Grays was in town on a reconnoitering expedition and was caught by the Federal soldiers at the corner of Union and the beach, then called Front street. He was shot and wounded >y a Union soldier and would have ieen finished off with the bayonet ad not Father LeDuc intervened.
In the meantime the soldiers con-ved the idea of burning the town retaliation for t.h» -»npnt. defeat
steel and concrete low toll bridge opened twenty-five years later in August of 1953.- was as important as this first highway bridge across the Bay whwii first united
land and a tannery right in town;Bay St. Louis	with the rest of	the
on the site of the K	of C. Build-jGulf Coast.
ing on Main Street.	In 1888 itl That bridge	ended its	history	as
adopted its first good	road system(an isolated community.	Today	its
—and in that year boasted 50! story is merged and fused with the miles of shell roads.	I	entire	Mississippi	Gulf Coast. It is
In the Gay Nineties the famojusithe community where travelers L&N Excursion trains from New coming east over the Old Spanish
Orleans to the Gulf Coast not only stopped at Bay St. Louis to let off passengers but made a full twenty minute stop for refreshments. In those days a full fledged restaurant was operated in the depot. And after the advent of the dining car obsoleted the restaurant the Bay St. Louis “fried oyster” and “fresh fish” sandwich vendors who met the trains were local ins-
Trail or U. S. 90 on its long land bound trek from California, first catch sight of the beauty of the Bay of St. Louis and the Gulf of Mexico beyond. Today as the Western Gateway to the Mississippi Gulf Coast it greets its visitors on the celebration of its 100th Birthday — and as the western portal of the fastest growing year round saltwater recreationland in the nation
r — ■*