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112	By	The	Rivers	Of	Water
the peace. The sheriff was Ellis Fairbanks and John Deas was the coroner. All of these names strike a spark of recognition in most of us as they all had settled along the Pascagoula. Wheeler Gresham, was the father of Joseph and John Gresham, later to be identified with the sawmills at Old Denny.
Jackson County
On December 14, 1812, Mobile County was divided into Mobile, Jackson, and Hancock Counties. The Courthouse for Jackson was placed on McRae’s Bluff, as it is know today, near
Benndale. Thomas Bilbo, James Ware, Wheeler Gresham, Benjamin Youngblood, and Robert Williamson were appointed justices of the quorum • today they are called supervisors. The Courthouse was in the home of Bilbo. A Post Office and a Land Office were also placed there. Nearby was a school.
We know that Gresham and Williamson were
* ' ' ,
McRae Bluff site of first Jackson County Courthouse 1812. Now near the community of Benndale.	phf>to	Buddy	SeUers
neighbors, living near what is now Bexley. They came with the Howells and others from Georgia.
Malcolm Moore, Moses Collins, and George Davis were made justices of the peace. Perry King was sheriff and William Bates was clerk of the court. Most of these officers lived on the west side of the river, in what is now George County. The people along the coast were slow in getting interested in self-government.
According to the Digest of Territorial Laws in the State Archives, the following voted in the first Jackson County election held on May 25, 1813.
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