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Dunbar Rowland Encyclopedia of Mississippi history
MISSISSIPPI	335
lying within the present limits of Mississippi, was erected into the two large counties of Hancock and Jackson. The original act defined the limits of Hancock as follows: ?All that tract of country lying south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude and west of the line running due north from the middle of the Bay of Biloxi to the thirty-first degree of north latitude and east of the Pearl river.? February 5, 1841, that portion of Hancock lying east of the line between ranges 13 and 14 was embodied in the county of Harrison, and February 22, 1890, that portion of the county lying north of the dividing line between townships 4 and 5, and extending from the middle of Pearl river east to the line between ranges 13 and 14 west, was taken to form the new county of Pearl River. Among the early settlers of the county prior to the year 1825, were John B. Lardasse, Chief Justice of the Quorum in 1818; Noel Jotirdan, Chief Justice of the Quorum, the same year; Elisha Carver, Assessor and Collector (1818); Samuel Slade, John Lott, George Sheriff, Alexander Frazar, Alex. Williams, Louis A. Caillaret, Solomon Ford, John Morgan, John Deal, William Stackhouse and John S. Brush, Justices of the Peace; John P. Saucier, Chief Justice of the Quorum (1820); Haman Hammond, James Toole, Elihu Carver, Sheriffs, and George H. Nixon and Zebulon Pendleton, Presidents of the town of Pearlington. The important gulf town of Bay St. Louis is the county seat, and, with the exception of Biloxi and Gulfport, is the most important city between New Orleans and Mobile. It is located in the extreme southeastern part of the county on the line of the Louisville & Nashville R. R., and contains a population of 3,500 inhabitants. It is the favorite pleasure resort of New Orleans people, one of the celebrated winter resorts for northern people and the center of a large coasting trade. It was originally named Shieldsboro for Thos. Shields, a pioneer settler, but subsequently was named for Louis XL of France, and given its prefix from its position on the Bay. Other important towns in the county are Pearlington, a thriving lumbering town of 850 in-