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PAGE 4 SECTlOi THE SEA COAST ECHO, BAY ST. LwJIS, MISS., THURSDAY, MARCH.6, _1975
Penney history illumi
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GERTRUDE COWAND PENNEY
Editor?s note: The following history of Bay St. Louis by Gertrude Cowand Penney first appeared in the pages of the Echo on Feb. 11, 1905, a year after Stephen Michel Penney took Miss Fannie Gertrude Cowand as his bride in January 1904. A little less than two weeks later, the young bride took the article as it had appeared in the Echo and placed it together with a handwritten letter and placed both in a sealed bottle which was then deeply imbedded in the plaster of one of the bedrooms of the family home located at 806 North Beach. The tiny time capsule was not seen again until early 1963 when'it was accidentally discovered during the course of some remodeling and repairs in preparation for occupancy by the home?s new owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hunter S. Kimbrough, who had just purchased the house. Mr. Kimbrough took the bottle to the office of then attorney Dan Russell, where the two men, not having the slightest idea of what they would find, ceremoniously broke open the bottle to examine its contents.
The discovery of Gertrude?s ink written letter and the front page of the Feb. 11, 1905 edition of the Sea Coast Echo was featured in the pages of The Daily Herald, along with a brief background of the Kimbrough?s.
Editors Note: Joe Pilet, a member of the Hancock County Bay-Waveland Bicentennial Committee and representing the Gulf Coast Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, is largely responsible for .research making possible the following history of Bay St. Louis which reaches back to the year 1768. Gertrude Cowand Penney, author of" the history, once lived in the home now owned and occupied by the Hunter S. Kimbroughs, 806 North Beach, Bay St. Louis. She died of child-birth complications in 1906, and was buried in the private Cowand Cemetery located on Leopold Street.
Surviving Mrs. Penney are her only child, Miss Gertrude Cowand Penney of New Orleans and Gulf-Coast relatives including Mrs. Jesse Cowand III and Mrs. Helene Price of Highland Drive in Bay St. Louis, Malcolm A. Cowand of Julia Street in Bay St. Louis and Miss Ruby Cowand of Gulfport.
The Calendar issued this year by the Hancock County Bank is an ideal blending of the present and past. On the new style grey cardboard is a
History and Progress of the land first known by the Indians as ?Chou Cou Pou Lou? and later as Shieldsboro in honor of General Shields. -History far back as 1768 -Interesting historical facts from Original documents in the writer?s possession ? Some History of today, showing our remarkable progression.
(Written expressly for The Sea Coast Echo. Copyright applied for.)
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A century or more ago now beautiful little City of St. Louis was a mixed tlement, called by the red i ?Chou cou pou lou?, by white man ?the Districl Bay St. Louis.?
In 1768, when the Frei and Indian War came to end and peace was m; between France and Engla France gave up all 1 territory, part of which ? given to Spain. Spain terwards gave it secretly be to France. Thus for a time t little village of ?Chou cou p lou? was governed by t Spanish.
About that time, to e courage imigration, tl Government gave grants land to whomsoever wou cultivate the ground and ma! their homes here in tl District of Bay St. Loui Many men of French ai Spanish extraction avail* themselves of the Gover ment?s offer and became tl owners of extensive tracts land.
After Spain had returm France her territory it w; necessary for all the: Spanish grants to be co firmed by the Fren< Government.
In the early part of the ye; 1794 the Baron de Carondele then Governor of the: provinces, had the Spani; grant of one Louis Ale: Lessassier made good by tl French Government, which 1 represented.
Later in the same yea upon a return trip fro France, this Louis Ale: Lessassier suffered sh wreck and lost his paper among them his grant to lam at Chou-cou-pou-lou in tl District of Bay St. Louis.