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

---

Bay St. Louis an Indian village before Bienville
Editor’s note: A Golden Jubilee Edition of The Sea Coast Echo was published in 1942 with Charles G. Moreau, the Echo’s founder as publisher. The following article was contributed for the Golden Jubilee Edition by Rev. Leo F. Fahey of Bay St. Louis, who was later ordained as a Bishop at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church, Bay St. Louis.
By Rev. Leo F. Fahey
Long before the advent of the French explorers, the City of Bay St. Louis was in Indian village bearing the name of C'hica-pula. Here the primitive children of the Choctaw-Muskogean family lived in a veritable happy hunting ground, for the creator gave this Gulf Coast a special touch of beauty; and to supply the needs of His people, He filled the waters with abundant fish and the forests with plenteous game.
In all probability, Robert Cavalier de la Salle was the first white man to explore this part of the coast.
According to Jacques de la Metairie, the official historian of this expedition, La Salle descended to the mouth of the Mississippi River; and on April 7, 1682, he went to reconnoiter the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. (1) In 1868, Tonti the Faithful friend of LaSalle came as far as the Gulf to seek tidings of his lost leader. On this trip Tonti examined the coast 30 leagues towards Mexico and 25 leagues to wards Florida. (2)
When Pierre le Moyne d’Iberville came to plant the Fleur de Lis of France on the Gulf Coast, the historian tells us: “On the 12th of April, 1699, d’Iberville set out to visit a bay about nine leagut.s from Ship Island, to which he gave the
name St. Louis. But finding the water very shallow there, he concluded to fix his settlement at Biloxi. (3)
1.	Mississippi The Heart of the South, Rowlands, Vol. 1, p. 129
2.	Mississippi, Province, Territory, State, Claiborne, p. 16
3.	Historical Collections of La. French, Vol. 3, p. 15
This, however, was just a casual visit to sound the depths of the water, and it remains for his brother, Jean Baptiste le Moyne Bienville, to set foot on the land and give it the present name.
Let us read the account of this event as described by Peni-cault, the journalist from the frigate Le Marin: “We shortly afterwards found a beautiful bay, about one league in width by four in circumference, which was named Bay of St. Louis, because it was on the day of St. Louis we arrived there.
“We hunted there three days and killed 50 deer.”... “The writer describes a trip up the Mississippi River, and on returning he writes: “Next day we camped at the entrance of Bay St. Louis near a fountain of water that flows down from the hills, which Moyne Bienville named Belle Fontaine. (1). We hunted several days around this bay and filled our boats with venison, buffalo and other game. (2) According to this evidence it is safe to say that Bay St. Louis was discovered and named by Bienville on the Feast of St. Louis, Aug. 25, 1699.
1.	Belle Fontaine is now called Pine Hills.
2.	Mississippi. Claiborne, p. 20.
These first visits of d’Iberville and Bienville estab-
Cellular South announces 1999 Conerly Trophy developments
lished a happy precedent, and soon colonists from Biloxi found their way to this land of plenty.
The Hon. J. F. H. Claiborne, author of Mississippi as a Province, Territory and State, was well acquainted with the history of Bay St. Louis; for he lived for years on a plantation a few miles south of the Bay, now called Claiborne, Miss.
In an address delivered at Bay St. Louis, July 4, 1876, to commemorate the centennary of the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Claiborne said: "In December of the same year, 1699, d’Iberville placed a few families here in (Bay St. Louis) with a sergeant and 15 men, in a small fort, near where the Toulme Mansion (Judge Chandler’s) now stands."
(1. Toulme Mansion was located on the beach between Carroll Avenue and DeMontlu-zin Street, Where Dr. C. L. Horton now resides).
On Jan. 3,1721, two ships. La Gironde and La Volage arrived with about 300 persons for concessions of M. LeBlanc and Court Bellville on the Yazoo River, and Madame Mezieres of the Bay of St. Louis, and Madame Chaumont on Pascagoula Bay.
From the record of land grants it would appear that the colony of Madame Mezieres settled on a 17,084 acre grant north of Felicity Street. The colonists sent over by d’Iberville and Madame Mezieres were the pioneer settlers of Bay St. Louis.
During this period the “filles a la cassette” or Casket Girls, arrived from France. These women were imported to furnish brides for the colonists.
Some were sent by force, others came willingly; some were of questionable morals, others were of irreproachable character.
Each young lady, carrying a trousseau packed in a little chest, anxiously waited as the representative of the Ursulines arranged a suitable marriage.
The descendants of the Casket Girls are still found on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
The treaty of Paris, Feb. 10, 1763, brought to an end the long fight between France and eng-land for supremacy in North America. The Most Christian King of France ceded to His Brittanic Majesty, the Mississippi River, the Port of Mobile and all the possessions on the left side of the Mississippi, with the exception of New Orleans, which he ceded to Spain.
The lilies of France over Fort Conde at Mobile were lowered and the British flag was raised to the music of bagpipes.
The British were now in possession of.the Coast; but their rule was destined to be of short duration. On May 8, 1779, His Catholic Majesty of Spain declared war against England; and Galvez, the Provincial Governor of Louisiana, quickly commenced hostilities with his traditional enemy.
Within a space of two years Galvez forced the capitulation of every English stronghold on the River and along the Gulf Coast. Spain again came into possession of the territory of West Florida.
In the fall of 1800, Spain secretly ceded Louisiana to Napoleon, by the Treaty of San Ilde-phonso, Spain, however, remained in actual possession of
beautiful coast, a primitive people of mixed origin; retaining the gaiety and politeness of the French, blended with the abstemiousness and indolence of the Indian. The people are universally honest ... a more innocent and inoffensive people may not be found ... I am greatly impressed with the beauty and value of this coast.
“The high sandy lands, heavily timbered with pine; and the lovely bays and rivers from Pearl River to Mobile will furnish New Orleans with a rich commerce, and with a delightful summer resort.” (Claiborne, pp.306-7)
The American Atlas of 1823, gives the population of Hancock County as 1,594. Concerning the climate of the state, the Atlas says: “The Bay of St. Louis, in the southern part, is esteemed as one of the most healthy places in that latitude; and is the retreat for many of the citizens of New Orleans during the sickly season. (American Atlas, 1823, No. 29.)
Hancock County of which Bay St. Louis is the county seat, was established Dec. 14, 1812,. during the territorial era. On Feb. 5,1841, this county was divided and a portion of it was embodied in the newly formed County of Harrison.
Another division rook place Fe. 22, 1890, when Pearl River county was established.
This settlement was originally known as Bay St. Louis. Subsequently it was called Shieldsboro, after Thomas Shields one of the early settlers.
For many years both names were used. The Mayor and Board of Aldermen, at their first meeting Jan. 4. 1858. attempted to clarify the matter by incorporating the city under the name of the City of Shieldsborough.
This evidently did not meet with general approbation; so on March 2, 1875, the first name was restored, and the city incorporated as the City of Bay St. Louis.