This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

Napoleon, the store eventually becoming the back of the Napoleon Baptist church. According to the WPA, it was near two large oaks and one large cedar tree.xlx
The only existing town on that segment of Pearl River within our study area is Pearlington. The village ofNapoleon, named for the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, this village lay six miles north of Pearlington. Simon Favre, who received a grant from the Spanish government, first settled it in 1798. This was a smaller community compared to Gainesville and Logtown, and like the latter, it is survived by a lovely cemetery and contains the remains of the daughter of Simon Favre. When still a town, its people also engaged in the timber industry, and practiced agriculture and stock raising as well. Benjamin Wailes, not one to bestow idle compliments, considered the town ?handsome.? He wrote in his journal that it was first called Pearltown.xx The first printing press in Hancock County was located here. (Source: Stennis Space Center Historical Office)
Book C, p. 14, Hancock County Deed Records. October 19, 1845 Bates et al to N. L. Mitchell.
In this instrument, Joseph Bates and his wife Mariah. James Mitchell and wife Sarah, and Willis
B.	Harvey and wife Martha Ann, are said to have ?obtained by Deed Of Conveyance, and executed by heirs of Simon Favre,? the Pearl Town tract, which they sold for $1,000. The former property of Simon Favre consisted of 1,000 arpens which was laid out in Town ofNapoleon. (R16WT8Sect 31, on-the land office maps being an old Spanish grant to Simon Favre.) The said wives relinquished all their ?rights of Dower to which otherwise they might have been entitled.? All wives signed, along with their husbands. It w'ould appear that the wives were the heirs, although it has not been possible to find their names together in the Favre geneology. An alternate possibility is that these parties might have obtained their claim through purchase from ?heirs of Simon Favre.?
Book C, p. 16: November 27, 1844. In this related document, John and James Graves, heirs of Isaac Graves, claimed to have become possessed of certain tract on Pearl River known as Pearl Town tract of 1000 acres. It was said to have been ?derived in this wise ... belonged to estate of Simon Favre and sold at auction to pay debts of estate and our said father was highest bidder which was knocked off to him at $800 and for some time after the heirs of said Favre took possession and have ever since kept it from the claimants.? Nonetheless, John and James Graves
13