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

---

courthouse midway through 1873, but in July of that year, the Board of Supervisors rented a house of Mrs. A.A. Ulman for use as a courthouse. She was paid $250 to cover the months of June through January of 1874.
At the end of that rental term, a renewal was negotiated to use the Ulman house till the end of December, 1874.
Eventually, plans for a real courthouse began taking shape. On February 10,1874, the Board ordered "that the offer of John Estappa to build a Court House on the corner lot in Bay St. Louis according to plans and specifications this day filed by him be accepted." Though the amount of the bid was not mentioned at this point, he was to be required to post bond in double the amount of his bid.
[Editor's notes: It is interesting to see that in the minutes reporting the above meeting, both names - Shieldsborough and Bay St. Louis - were used to identify the city of the location of the future courthouse. Also interesting is that a large, scratch X sign appears in the margin here and in other places where the courthouse was planned.]
During the meeting of the following April, it was reported that a proposition had been made by the "Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Shieldsborough" agreeing to pay $700 toward the cost of the courthouse.
Finally in the June 1874 term, it was declared that the building built on Main St. by Estappa for the County of Hancock "be received and that same be declared the Court
House of said County of Hancock on and after the 8th day of June AD 1874." It was also ordered that $600 be paid "to Peter Ramond for extra work done in changing the stairs also for furnishing the Clerk's office...with the Bar, 2 Witness Stands and 27 Benches."
Estappa was paid $3,500 "out of the Special fund for building Court House."
By July, it was being readied for occupation. John Martin was paid five dollars for hauling books and records of the Clerk's office to the new courthouse.
Once more, activity had slowed, for reasons not specified. But then in October 1874, John Saucier was authorized to buy two dozen chairs for use in the courthouse.
Courthouse in Use
The next step of significance occurred in March of 1875, when Jno. Saucier was authorized "to insure the building now used as a Court House for the sum of $3,500 with some Insurance Company in the City of New Orleans."