Long before foreign settlers arrived in the area now known as Hancock County, Mississippi, Native Americans lived on and worked the land. Europeans brought domesticated crops and animals with them when they came to settle this newly found land. Among the animals were sheep.
In one of his letters, J. F. H. Claiborne praised Hancock County as a “country…peculiarly adapted to sheep.” He noted that the soil is sandy and produces a countless variety of shrubs for grazing. In addition the land provided food all winter with its wild grasses, reeds, and rushes. Likewise it rendered natural shelter for the sheep during the winter months.
Claiborne also proposed that wool growing would be more profitable here than in the North. In more northern climates, he surmised, the breeder must own or rent every acre of land for his flock to graze upon. He also remarked that sheep require a wider range and are harder to pasture than any other stock. For these reasons, the farmer had to hedge, fence, or wall in the land and pay taxes on it. In addition, buildings for shelter had to be built, and food for long winters had to be provided. Moreover outbreaks of disease could destroy two-thirds of the flock. Nevertheless, the shepherd in the North grew and prospered.
Claiborne proposed that one could graze five thousand sheep or more along the Gulf Coast without owning a foot of land or paying any taxes. He said that one’s flock could graze from the Pearl River to Mobile Bay and never stray from public land which furnished an inexhaustible pasture. His further arguments were that farmers needn’t provide barns for shelter nor food for the sheep. A stronger argument which he made was that diseases common to sheep were unknown in the area. Claiborne held that the salinity of the grasses kept the sheep free of such disease. Such a conclusion, of course, is open to speculation. He did say that locally raised mutton was very delicate and of superior quality.
An article in The Sketch Book of Hancock County, published in the early 1900’s supports many of the suppositions presented by Claiborne. It asserts that sheep raising had long been an important industry of the county and that the animals were practically self-supporting because they ranged during the entire year, received no feed from the farmers, and had no shelter or protection except what they could find for themselves. In fact, their owners seldom saw them except when they were rounded up for shearing and marking. The Sketch Book also supports Claiborne’s assertion that disease was almost absent among the flocks. Although many young lambs were killed by dogs and hogs, the natural increase of the flocks was about twenty-five per cent annually, which was more than enough to pay for the minimal cost of shearing; thus all income from the wool was net profit.
Wool and hides from the sheep were sold each year to vendors in Bay St. Louis and in Pass Christian and Woolmarket in Harrison County. Waveland’s biggest industry in the 1880’s was the Ulman Woolen Mills, built by Alfred A. Ulman. Located on the eastern side of Nicholson Avenue just north of the railroad tracks, the business produced wool blankets. However, one of its most popular items was a woolen shawl made in a large black and white block pattern. With these two products the mill became recognized for its superb workmanship and for merchandise of long-lasting, superior quality. A result of the mill’s success was the opening of Jeff Davis Avenue to build homes for the mill workers, the area being known as Ulmanville.
Sheep raising flourished in Hancock County for many years, but it began its decline in the latter 1800’s. Perhaps a few farmers raise sheep nowadays for their own use, but the mass production of sheep has ended. In fact, the Ulman Mills ceased production in the mid-1880’s, and the only remnants of its existence are two homes on Nicholson Avenue, made from one of the production buildings.
SOURCES:
Letter of J.F.H. Claiborne in the M. James Stevens file (III) at the Hancock County Historical Society. Letter originally pub. in the Daily Delta, 2 Sept. 1849.
Scharff, Robert G. Louisiana’s Loss, Mississippi’s Gain. Lawrenceville, VA: Brunswick Publishing Corp., 1999.
Sketch Book of Hancock County, The. No publication information given. Reprint.