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

---

Russell Guerin
A Creole in Mississippi
2014-12-11 12:24:50
Follow-up on Book A, Police Court Minutes
...with special attention to the new Courthouse
Russell B. Guerin
Building of a new courthouse and jail was a major undertaking in the post-war environment of Hancock County. Certainly, money had to have been a problem, there being so little tax base at the time. It might also be assumed with some degree of conviction that labor too was scarce, given the loss of young men in the Civil War.
The last half of the Book A minutes, however, tell a story of improving conditions.
Streets were being cut, bridges were built, and people had jobs.
Still, big plans took time.
A review of plans for the courthouse and jail in the previous article is in order. Please recall that in March 1868 the town of Shieldsborough was using the Masonic Lodge for a courthouse. The usage was temporary, and one month later a proposal was made to exchange a lot of land in the city for a parcel owned by the county for the purpose of erecting a courthouse.
In December of 1871, John Mordeau was paid for the rental of two rooms to be used as offices of the Clerk and Sheriff, and Mrs. Eager was hired to remove the contents of those offices from City Hall to the Sea Side Hotel, and from there to the Moreau house. While the Moreau house was being used as a courthouse, it was not considered safe for the archives of the county, and the Board ordered that the hotel be designated the courthouse of the county.
Activities from Mid 1873
The activity so described in the earlier report essentially tells the story of the