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It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

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12B PICAYUNE ITEM, WEDNI \Y, OCTOBER 3, 1979
News coverage
A copy of the Gainesville Advocate dated June 17. 1845 was sent to me by H.V Hen lev wno lived HT Eureka, California until his death. Gainesville was the county seat of Hancock County in 1845 2Tn3 a thriving town of something like 2000 people. An old clipping I have of somewhere near that time listed Gainesville, Biloxi and Pearlington as the principal towns in south Mississippi.
It is interesting to read the ads and the news in this old paper. There were no display ads such as we find in newspapers today.
There was a short notice of “New Arrangements; The New and Substantial Steamer IRENE; W.M.S. Huston, Master, will continue to run as a tri-weekly Packet between Gainesville and New Orleans leaving Gainesville every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, returning Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. For freight oV passage apply to the captain on board or to Sherwood, Harper & Co. in Gainesville.”
The st^mship Mad Anthony ran regularly between New Orleans & Gainesville. Other ads advertised steamboat service as high up on the river as Georgetown.
In this old paper were ads by-drygoods stores and general stores. There were several ads by Commission and Forwarding Merchants. These merchants must have taken produce from the people living in the area and shipped it to New Orleans for sale on a commission basis. There were other ads by receiving and forwarding merchants. Fort & Wilcox advertised themselves as Cotton Factors, which I suppose meant handling cotton grown in the area.
A firm of lawyers had their professional card in the paper. There were numerous ads for patent medicines - one saying “Purify the Blood with Moffatts Vegetable Life Pills and Phoenix Bitters” which
were guaranteed to cure many ills, among them Dyspepsia, Liver ailments, the Ague, general	debility, piles,
rheumatism.”
Those living in what are now _Pearl River and Hancock Counties and even on up into Marion	and Lawrence
Counties went to Gainesville to catch the boat to New Orleans. A statement from the postmaster said, “The northern mail via Columbia, Riceville and Hobolochitto, (now Picayune) arrives every Sunday evening by 5 o’clock and departs for New Orleans and Mobile via Pearlington and Pass Christian the same evening. The New Orleans and Mobile mail arrives every Wednesday morning on the return North by 11 o’clock.
W.H. (Harvey) Burks told me that an uncle of his carried the mail from Gainesville to Columbia once a week for many years before the railway came through. It is interesting to note that for a long time mail for Columbia, Monticello and Georgetown was carried on horseback from Gainesville once a week.
In this old paper there were market reports quoting cotton at from 6 cents to 9 cents depending on the grade. Bacon was quoted at 6 cents to 7 cents, coffee 6 cents to 7 cents, various other commodities also.
There were quotations from the New Orleans Money Market naming the exchange rates with England, dealings in soverigns, Spanish doubloons and Mexican dollars. Discount rates of New Orleans banks were printed in this old paper.
The Gainesville Advocate had agents in Columbia, Monticello, Holmesville, Shieldsboro and Hobolochitto. Three candidates for district attorney for the counties of Copiah, Lawrence, Pike, Marion, Hancock, Simpson, Covington, Harrison, Smith, Rankin and Scott had their
announcements in this old paper (O.F. McCarty of Monticello, B. Bacon of Columbia and S.A. Matthews of Holmesville.)
The editor placed this note just under the announcement “It is with great reluctance we are necessitated to refer candidates to our terms which are to be found on the first column of first page of the Advocate (Said terms: CASH in advance).
Surprisingly, there is very little local news in this old paper, most of the news being from faraway and evidently copied from other papers.
Here is one interesting news story copied from a New Orleans paper: “By the arrival this morning of the Steamer IRENE we
slow
received intelligence of the melancholy demise of General Andrew Jackson. We copy the following from the Crescent City yesterday: "Hie Steamboat Yorktown arrived at our landing yesterday with her flags at half mast. This unusual sight gave proof that something unusual had occurred. On making inquiry the Captain reported the death of General Jackson on the evening of the 8th instant.” Apparently it took 7 days from his death for the news to reach Gainesville. Now such news would be flashed over radio and television and people would know within minutes.
Quoting at random from the old paper:
“A milk man in attempting