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REMINISCENCES BY A FRIEND OF THE ECHO FROM 50 YEARS AGO
Scion of Noble and Pioneer Family Writes of Toulme And Saucier Families? Incidents and Travel.
SERVED THE ECHO STAFF WELL NIGH THRU FIFTY YEARS
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BY HARRY STTUART SAUCIER
AS a man treads his way down the valley and into the twi-light of life, that which sustains him most and often wreathes his wrinkled countenance into a merry smile, when his tired old eyes glitter with that re-caught glqw of youth, and ; for the moment his step gets springy . and light	that is retrospection.
Ill the panorama of the past he sees and hears things that live with him , down thru the dusk; some sad, which have been assuaged by time, others happy which time intensifies.
Dear old Bay! What food you give to sustain me thru the twilight.
?Twas there I first saw the light ?three score and ten? ago. My father also was born there nearly a cen-
?	iury ago, in the house next to the Tulane HoteL My grand mother planted a white camelia there in V 1846, the year of my father?s birth.
The white camelia bush is on the v'property known to day as the resi-J dence of Dr. C. L. Horton and family, and after 95 years survives and bears annually. It certainly is a ?thing of beauty and joy forever.?
ucier Family Settled on Coast Latter Part of Eighteenth Century.
: My ?grandfather was born in New Orleans in 1808 because of the lack of medical facilities at the Bay. Hi6
-	- father ? was an officer under Gen?l. Andrew Jaokson at the battle of New Orleans in 1815. his sword was lost in the St. Stanislaus fire. The Sau-cier family settled on the Gulf Coast
?	:j irT~the~latter part of the eighteenth
cffitury, having been granted a concession of land in \yhat afterwards became Hancock and Harrison counties. They engaged in the lumber ' business on both Jordan and Wolfe : . rivers. On Jordan river and Bayou ?aCroi^they planted Sea-Island cotton and sugarcane. * A disastrous jVirricane of 1856 (so my grandfather old me) flooded the plantation with alt water rendering the land worthless for cotton and sugar cane for several years.
The Toulme family (from which thfe writer?also descends) arrived on the coast in the early part of the nineteenth century when they were obliged to flee Santo Domingo at . night on their own ship when the negroes rose in rebellion (they were
?	^Saucier Brothers Married Toulme
Sisters.
*	Two Saucier brothers (Henry arid Evariste) married two Toulme sisters (Victoire and Madeline). The double ties bound families into a friendship that was never questioned. With numerous slaves and lots of business everything rolled along happily until the civil war broke upon them and after four years left them poor. The plantation where sugar cane was raised on Bayou LaCroix is still
j HARRY STUART SAUCIER
I Harry Stuart Saucier, native, and | a scion of oldest and representative | families of Bay St. Louis, including ; the Toulme families, pioneer settlers | end builders, was one of the earliest ; writers for The Sea Coast Echo and J continued on down thru the half cen-I tury only a few years ago after _iqov-i ing to Lafayette, La., where he re-1 sides. " (
| Mr. Saucier, in addition to writing S news, was perhaps better known to ; older readers of The Echo as the author of the famous Jacques Pistache Letters, all of which ran in serial form for over a long period of years, so great were their popularity. In this edition The Echo carries two of such letters written, original, and are published in reminiscence of other days and as a tribute to the letters of other times.
Mr. Saucier and Mrs. Saucier and their three daughters reside In Louisiana, and their fine son, 'Ensign Harry S. Saucier, is in the Lend-Lease Department, at Washington, where he holds responsible position. The Echo is proud of the privilege to carry this picture, and to pay tribute to a friend tried and true. In this we are joined by the many friends of Harry?s in Bay St. Louis.
known as the ?Sugar Field.?
My father, reaching the age of sixteen in 1862 ran away from St. Stanislaus *and home and joined the Confederate army at Mobile. Seven members of the families paid the supreme gift to their beloved Southland. My father and his uncle Captain J. V. Toulme returning alive.
When the writer was ?growing up" the Bay (known as a port of entry by the U. S. Government as Shields-boro) was a beautiful fishing village, a lovely jewel in a turquoise setting of the sea. Two world famous sports trained along its beach road: John L. Sullivan and Eob Fitzsimmons. Both expressed their fondness for the place.
The Old ?Treaty Oak? Fell Prey To Storm.
The King of all the beautiful trees
was ' old ?Treaty? oak which was neai >pposite the present Catholic rectory. It was easily over six feet in diameter and a roadway ran between it and the bluff. Many people used to stand there to witness the trotting' races between Bob Ogden, Eugene Dupre and other sports. Many sportsmen loved the Bay and made it their summer headquarters ?racing boats as well as horses. The writer well remembers the Catamaran races (double-hulled) of Boardman, Sadler and others.
In those days the Indians would come into town on Saturday evenings in their picturesque costumes, peddling their beautifully woven baskets, Sassafras roots and Gumbo file, with the squaws carrying their little papooses in baskets on their backs.
There was no law against it and the cattle roamed the streets at will, it seemed that by common consent they made a rendevous at the courthouse square . . . we boys used it Hugo Hoffmann?s corral.
The ?Gay Nineties? ushered in ?nd with them came a quiet, unpretentious soft-spoken young man who declared that he liked the Bay and was going to make it his home, furthermore he was a reporter and intended doing something about it. Fact was he was going to start a j newspaper. Word quickly got around and the wise acres stated: *What do we need with a newspaper, can?t we I tell each other all the news between | here and Bayou Gallere. Shucks, it I won?t do.?
j But our new friend and citizen, Charles G. Moreau, would not be disheartened, he?d made up his mind and no high wind, salt water or blitz could deter him. So there in that little fisher-village that could not boast of anything modem was born THE SEA COAST ECHO, a weekly edition that promised the people all the news all the time?and brother, that word has been ?The Real McCoy? for this past half century. Quick to see a desired improvement and to foster it, The Echo kept the fires burning.? If there was anything that required the civic interest of the people Tfce Echo was its most devout advocate and champion. Today the once fisher?s village has been groomed into a real city that holds her place with head aloft, proud of her own accomplishments.
A Damon and Phythis Friendship 'Lasting Over 50 Years.
When the Echo was launched this writer and the editor formed a friendship which has continued uninterruptedly this half century. At | the outset friend Moreau was very kind and offered to print whatever we would like to see in type, so we gingerly offered a ?spring? poem after that whenever we got a toehold on a rhyme, The Echo would suffer and the writer began to believe he was of great importance.
The spring of ?92 brought surcease to the suffering Echo when we left j under contract for South Ahierica I to build the Cartagena-Magdalena j railway and ship docks, in company ' with our buddy Dixon L. Witter | (who later was in the Boar War of : S. Africa and died in Cape Town.) j We left the ?States? aboard the I laree sailing vessel Charlotte (which
! is JSiamesa-j?nr	) wn octiurday,
Mav 7. 1892 and we walked the decks of that cussed windjammer for forty-one lone. hot. days, arriving at the beautiful walled city of Cartagena on June 17 with about, two gallons of water in the tank. Ten days out of Mobile wp sighted Point San Antonio Jieht at the western end of Cuba, there we got into a dead calm and dri^?^ v^tween there and sight of Merid^ Li^bt off the coast of Yucatan. Ten simmering days of this and we got out of the Channel of couth af the Isle of Pines,
JUDGE J. A. GENTLEM SCHOOL Al
fn
JOHI
Judge John I the best known county, a reside He served as * over a quarter c tively re-elect term, and time commended by his splendid ac decisions of hi sustained on ap Julge- Breath secretary-mana Loan Associati' for over thirty passing in rect years.
He was liig own right and Madeline Toulr away long yea tative of the ol( Mrs. Vicky surviving dauf 31, 1941, his Breath passed Eagan is a ste Saucier a step Judge Breat] ing, cultured a known. C. A. Roger M. Boh
one of the m ever saw. It about two mi deep sea wate coral and spc twenty-five f< a small entra (small mouth a large entra as it was clos cis Drake, th< the city. Th mountains, tl Cocoanut tre< Every Sun and sponges, Back in the i Dique and a profusion The city, vi about twenty
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