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The Bay St. Louis city pier before Hurricane Katrina. |
French explorers, led by Pierre le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Jean Baptiste le Moyne Bienville, came to claim the Gulf Coast area for King Louis XIV in April, 1699. d'Ibverville, finding the calm, beautiful bay too shallow for his ships, decided to locate his settlement in what is currently Ocean Springs.
Bienville returned four months later on August 25, 1699, to set his foot on the land and name the bay in memory of Louis XI of France, crusader and saint. Bay St. Louis had become a French possession.
This tiny jewel in the crown of the new world French colonies was originally inhabited by members of the strongest Indian tribe in Mississippi, the Choctaws. While having a mighty warrior reputation, the Choctaws of the Bay St. Louis area were friendly to the new explorers and shared the bounty of wild game and seafood to be found in their village of Chicapoula. So friendly were the Choctaws that d'Iberveille placed a few families with a sergeant and 15 men at Chicapoula, on the Bay of St. Louis, in December of 1699. (Chicapoula is Choctaw for "bad grass" describing the rockachaws or burrs commonly found in the landscape.)
A certain Madame de Mezieres was the recipient of a 17,000 acre land grant, north of what is currently Felicity Street, from King louis XIV. On January 3, 1721, two ships, La Gironde and La Volage, arrived and discharged 30 persons for the Mezieres concession.
In 1763, the settlement was given to Britain following the French and Indian War. At the close of the American Revolution in 1793, the land was passed to Spain. Seven years later, Spain secretly ceded the area to Napoleon but retained actual possession of the territory.
French and Spanish land grants opened the doors for development. Philip and John B. Saucier are recorded as the first residents of Bay St. Louis. This land later passed to Marshall and Joseph Nicaise. The heart of the present City of Bay St. Louis was granted to Madame Charlo in 1781.
The most important Spanish land grant was given to Thomas Shields in 1790, who began cultivation in 1800. This grant on the shore of Bay St. Louis was called Shieldsborough.
On January 11, 1811, the flag of the United States ws raised on the shores of Bay St. Louis, and in 1812, the area officially became part of the Mississippi Territory. Hancock County was formed on December 14, 1812, and named in honor of John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress.
Statehood came in 1817, as did the development of intense commerce within Hancock County. While the outlying areas of Logtown, Gainesville and Kiln became "mill towns," processing the abundance of pine found in the area, Bay St. Louis developed as a favored "resort" of Natchez planters and New Orleans aristocrats.
The charter of incorporation was adopted by the state legislature on April 21, 1818, making Shieldsborough the oldest established community on the Gulf Coast. The town became the county seat in 1860. Public opinion demanded that the name of the town be returned to Bay St. Louis, and the city of that name was incorporated by legislature on February 24, 1882.
Chicapoula, Shieldsborough, Bay St. Louis -- the name may have changed, but the personality of the area has remained. People relax leisurely and make an art of enjoying life.
