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Whatever happehecTto" UIIib ▼»;.__
Spirit of lost town
revived on NASA tour
By JOE PELET 1 Ambrose Gaines had everything to win and nothing to lose when, with a roving eye and itching heel, this handsome young medical doctor arrived in the settlement of Cottonport located on the beautiful Pearl River.
He came prior to the time when Mississippi was a state and before Hancock County was formed.
The Cottonport settlement seemed prosperous and there were people who needed “doctoring.” A sizeable amount of cotton was being rafted or barged downstream to the Port of New Orleans. The year was probably 180S.
Dr. Gaines decided this a ( likely spot to start a practice of medicine. In making inquiries he learned there were some “squatters” and some land owners with uncertain titles. The land was beautiful and there was mass confusion. Dr. Gaines entered a claim and a land grant was •issued in 1810 to Ambrose Raines and signed by John V. Morales, a representative of the Spanish Government.
"fljie land embraced 500 arp^pts (something over 500 acres). Delighted with his newly ' acquired property, it was promptly re-named “Gaines'Bluff”.	*
Dr. Gaines generously gave | small parcels of the land to the squatters arid claimants and then he planned a town and sold plots.
In so doing these real estate
transactions brought him considerable wealth for that place and at that time.
Meanwhile, in 1817, Mississippi became a state and Hancock County was formed. Dr. Games had to pay! taxes on land and a slave he owned. Total taxes ran $2.75.
Water transportation in those days made Gainesville, Pearlington and Biloxi the three most important towns in South Mississippi.
“Physician heal thyself” In the yellow fever epidemic Dr. Ambrose Gaines died along with many others who were victims of the dreaded “black vomit.”
Gainesville lived on <ss a trading center, an important logging and lumbering community and a trappers’ paradise.
The first county seat of Hancock County, located in Old Center, was moved to Gainesville in the early 1830’s (the exact date when Gainesville became the second County seat has not been verified(. The Courthouse burned in 1853 and all the old records were lost. Gainesville, how and all the old .records were lost. Gainesville, however, remained the County Seat until 1857.
Whatever happened to the bustling, thriving, pioneering river town named Gainesville? The L. and N. Railroad was built in 1840 and with that event water tran-sporation was no longer of
prime importance. The population shifted gradually to the coastal community.
But still, on a winter’s night, they say - when the wind is in the trees, the spirits of Pierre Rameau, hot-headed Murrel, and Copeland, the terrible -these pirates and freebooters 6f>. infamy in old Gainesville ancTjIoney Island Swamp -moveKthrough the shadows,, checking, on booty and buried treasures-..
Copeland -- hanged for murder. Rameau deserted the American cause and was" killed with the British in the Battle of Chalmette. And j Murrell, bravest «nd boldest,^ of the lot, escaped' from the j dungeon at Old Center and his ; fate has been lost in oblivion.
Whatever happened to Gainesville? Ask the birds 1 that sing in the early stillness of morning. Seek an answer from the reptiles that sun 3 themselves along the river’s j bank - perhaps the alligators j may be able to tell you. >.ivi
."J I
When all else fails wei] suggest you take one of the tours provided by NASA/s;] Thousands of vistors do. Youf^jj too, may walk on the grounds | once a land grant to Ambrose ^ j Gaines. Who knows, you could kick up an arrow head, or a * mini ball, or a button from a Confederate soldier’s uniform” :? - or a fossil.	j,*
Whatever happened to dear 3 old Gainesville? Take the tour I and see for yourself!	,£flj