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www.sunherald.com ■ theSunHERALD ■ June 6,2003
there was a Hancock county; long before there was a State of Mississippi; long before there was a Mississippi Territory; long before there was a United States of America (and long, long before there was a NASA buffer zone), there was Pearlington — a gem on the Pearl River, a restful stopping point for hunters, explorers and folks who sought peace and quiet like no place on Earth.
Pat Wilson, who, with her husband, retired civil engineer Harry Wilson, moved from New Orleans to the town on the Pearl River 50 years ago says Pearlington is one of the state’s oldest communities.
Pat, who records names, dates and places for her adopted community, says the couple fell in love with the quietness of the town, its nearness to the Big Easy and “it’s a stretch of old world beauty that runs along the Pearl from that NASA buffer zone, which encroached on the north side of Pearlington” to Port Bienville on the south.
But the Wilsons were long ago preceded, of course; and she has penned stories and recollections of what happened in what is now Pearlington long ago.
Says she, “French explorer Pierre LeMoyne D’Iberville, scouting the coastline, saw that planting a flag in the name of France was not going to be an easy trick” since there were already natives there.
But Piere had it all upstairs.
So the local tradition story goes that he dropped off two cabin boys in what was then Indian territory so that they could live with the Indians on the river, learn their habits, learn their language, and then serve as his interpreters upon his return.
But unfortunately, the gallant Frenchman took an awfully long time picking them up. By the time he got back, one of them had died. But the other — Simon LeFavre — lived to create overwhelming harmony between the settlers and the Acolopissa Tribe.
Pat said she is not certain when the name Pearlington was adopted.
Besides rich in azaleas, pine forests and hanging moss, Pearlington could write its own history book and sell it to the movies.
j.f.H. L-iaiDome once uwncu a family plantation in Pearlington known as Laurelwood.
“They were supposed to make a park out of it,” Pat said, “but it’s since been developed otherwise.” (Claiborne, himself, incidentally, has been described as a “Confederate Yankee,” because he “had dealings with” both sides during the Civil War. Probably figured, what the heck, it’s always good to stay alive as long as you can.)
While “all denominations” are said to be represented in this strictly Bible Belt community, the Methodist Church is purported to be one of the oldest, dating back to 1813.
Pearlington’s own Gen. George Henry Nixon (later to become an illustrious member of the Mississippi Legislature) fought in the War of 1812 along side Gen. Andy Jackson.
“We used to have a commuter bus and commuter train serving our town,” Pat sighed, “but now we have neither.”
She has notes that tell of mail being delivered on horseback through Pearlington prior to the Civil War. After the war, a paddle boat brought letters and packages from Mobile to the dock at Pearlington, before it plied its way to the river’s mouth and across Gulf waters to the Mississippi River and New Orleans.
Today, Pearlington has retained one trait it always had and seems destined to retain — a realm of total relaxation. A host of retired Louisianans have discovered this Pearlington from the 17th Century, and they like it Pearlington is located in southwest Hancock County on old U.S. 90 several miles south of Interstate 10. Residents claim to enjoy the varied water activity on the Pearl River.
Especially when rocket engines are being transported. And when the Navy Seals “play in the water” in training just off the river banks at Pearlington, it’s like, “Wow,” say old-time residents. Some may at first have balked at the idea of NASA claiming a part of North Pearlington for its own. But now they relish the importance of their space-age neighbors.
Getting back downtown, there’s a handful of commercial
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Murphy Elementary School and Library (which, in conjunction with and thanks to Orange Grove Library, Kiln library and Bay St Louis Library aided and abetted this story) is one of the most progressive in . western Hancock County.
But wait — this just in: Pearlington now boasts a fishing camp “with food and bait,” and nearby
there’s a boat launch with “a tiny beach area.”
So there’s more to be said for change than meets the eyes. Pearlington is a town that entered the space age faster than any of the — like, “Ouch, that hurt! But now it’s all better.”
And dear old eternal Pearlington, surrounded also by the whims of nature, still retains her finest asset How, you ask, can an old world neighborhood hold onto its charm with the New Orleans neons glowing on the western
horizon, ear-splitting rockets spouting noise to its north, a hubbub of industrialization going on to its south?
Well, for starters — time stopped the commuter bus, time stopped the train, they took a census but didn’t tell Pearlington how many folks its got and they took out the dry goods store.
What more could the search for heavenly peace have to offer?
And in Pearlington you may follow that with all zzzzs you could ever want