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iloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula, Miss., Sunday, May 30, His name was Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur Bienville. and the Indians called him “Big Legs." He is referred today as Bienville, the brother of Pierre LeMoyne, Sieur d'Iberville, who founded the French Colony at Biloxi Bay in 1699. Although he was possibly the man most responsible for the survival of the young Colony after the death of the first governor, De Sau-vole de La Villantray, Bienville today is most vividly recalled as the man who founded with city of New Orleans, Mobile and Biloxi, and made New Orleans the last capital of French Louisiana. When he became governor of the colony in 1702, the move of the young French colony was underway from Fort Maurepas at Ocean Springs to Mobile Bay, and then, in 1710, he founded what is today the City of Mobile. It was a few years later that he returned to what is now the Mississippi Gulf Coast, relocating the colony at Fort Maurepas, and later, in 1719, he moved it again to a site near where the Biloxi Lighthouse stands today. The* After two and one-half years in Biloxi, the capital was moved to its final location — New Orleans. During his long life which spanned 88 years, Bienville was governor of Louisiana several times, and he had greater control over the Indians between Mobile and New Orleans and Natchez than anybody ever enjoyed. Jean Baptiste, born at Ville Marie (now Montreal), Canada in 1680, entered the French Navy as a midshipman under the command of his brother, Pierre. . As a naval officer, he served at the siege of Pemaquid in Acadia in 1696, and in the victorious campaign in Newfoundland in 1696-1697, and in the capture of Fort Nelson on Hudson Bay in 1697. In addition to being a capable Naval officer, Bienville was later an outstanding general in the Indian wars. His knowledge of Indian dialects were invaluable in negotiating while exploring the lower Mississippi River and Red River. Bienville spent many years in the French Colony, and resigned from his last term as governor in 1743. This was 44 years after he sailed into Biloxi Bay with his brother, Pierre, to claim for France a settlement near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Leaving New Orleans after he resigned, he returned to Paris, France where he lived for another 25 years before he died on March 7, 1768.
Hancock County History General Newspaper Clippings LeMoyne-Bienville-1976