The Chronicle-star combined with the Moss Point advertiser., 1945-01-12

The act creating Jackson coun-
ty named the "house of Thomas
Bilbo" as the place for the courts
to be held till court house could
be built. AS stated previously
the land entries of Thomas Bilbo
lay on both sides of Pascagoula
river just above what is now
known as Wilkerson's few, just
where Thomas Bilbo's h, tg stood
we do not yet know. \ sAtner do
we know how long coust contin
ued to be held there. However
we do know that for over twenty
years the location of the county
seat was a bone of contention.
Complete records of the legis-
lative acts during the territorial
period are not available any
where. Even the piecing together
of fragments found at different
libraries have left gaps. All that
can be recorded here is what is
known and some implications of
these statements.
In 1915 the legislature pass
ed an act calling an election fol
May, 1916, to elect five men
whose duty it would be to select
a permanent seat of justice. These
five men were empowered to Sc
lect this county seat and to or
der the county courts to move to
their selected place. No returns
on this election have been found,
and, since the committee did not
have to report to the legislature,
no record of what they did is
found there. The implication is
that the county seat was at "the
house of Thomas Bilbo" from
December, 1872, to some time in
1916, at least, and maybe longer
In February, 1919, the legislature
appointed a committee, composed
of Archibald McManus, William
Eubanks, and Walter Denny,
whose duty was to build a Jail
Nothing was specified as 10
where the jail should be built but
the act was very specific as to
how it should be paid for. Then
the next year the legislature
postponed the time for the COM
pletion of the Jail till 1923. Then
in 1921, the legislature appointed
committee composed of Valen-
tine Delmas, John B. Bourdreaux,
William Gates, George Davis,
Sterling Dupree, Malcolm Black
and Peter Farley, Jr., whose
duty it was to select perma-
nent seat of justice" and specified
that until this was done the court
records were to remain at "the
old court house. wherever that
may have been. Then in 1922 the
court records were ordered to be
moved to the new court house
at Brewers Bluff" Brewers
Bluff is known now as Brewton
and the pit where the Jail stood
may still be seen after one hun
dred and twenty years.
The location at Brewers Bluff
lasted only four years and this
time the legislature made the
change to 'the house of Moses
Ward on Cedar Creek" This To-
cation was east of the Pascagoula
river, whereas the old location
was on the west, and the very
next year, 1927, an election was
ordered between these two plac-
es. We have no reports on
this election but other evidence
seems to indicate that the east
won This location became known
as Americus and while a few
more efforts were made to
change, the courts were held
there for forty years.
In 1887, or thereabouts, the
court house was burned by Jim
Copeland, the noted outlaw, and
thus all the early records were
lost.
The next change took place in
1853, when an Election was held
to choose between the site at Am
ericus and a place on the railroad
Just east of the Pascagoula river,
and Americus lost. The courts
have been held at Pascagoula,
for a long time known as Scran-
ton, since about 1870. The court
house has burned there twice,
thus destroying later records.
In 1910 George county was ere
ated by a legislative act which
specified that Lucedale would be
the county seat. This new county
took two rows of townships from
the northern part of Jackson
county. This row of townships
taken from Greene had been a
part of Jackson for the first ten
years of its existence, having
been added to Greene in 1922.