A Ghost House in Pearl River County
By Sara D. Sheldon
About four miles west of Poplarville, near the corner of Beach Road and Sam Smith Road, stands an old, abandoned house. The house is in a state of disrepair and is said to be leaning backwards. The house was the home place of Jesse Stewart, his wife Martha Ora Byrd Stewart and their children. Jesse and Ora were my maternal grandparents and I'm here to tell you that Grandpa Jesse's spirit has appeared me three times while I was visiting there.
The house was built in 1909 using Southern yellow Pine lumber and timbers. Huckleberry pegs and a few squared nails secured the timbers. It was built exactly like the William Calvin and Mary Jane Stewart house near the Pearl River on Highway 43 North This house is no longer standing. "Cal" Stewart was Jesse Stewart's uncle in in 1907, shortly before he died, Cal directed Jesse as to how his home was built and how the 1909 house should be built.
I can certainly attest to the fact that this old house is haunted, if one wishes to use that term.
Written by Sara Sheldon in 2011 and was first published in The Historical Reporter of Pearl River County in the May 2010 issue.
Pearl River County’s French Connection
By Jerry Stough
Historical Reporter Staff
Jean Baptiste Baudreau dit Graveline landed on the Gulf Coast in 1700 as a member of D’Iberville’s second voyage to Biloxy. Baudreau was listed as a member of the original voyage, but at the last minute he sailed to Canada with a relative of D’Iberville to procure more “coureurs de bois” for the expedition.
Baudreau was a merchant, adventurer, and maybe even a pirate. His sailing and trading skills helped keep the colony going during the hard times the early colony experienced. He traded with the Spanish at Pensacola (against the rules) and sailed a ship he purchased in France in 1709 across the Gulf to Mexico to obtain food and other necessities for the colony (also against the rules).
Baudreau dit Graveline had two children born on the coast, probably on Dauphin Island. There is some question as to who is the mother of the children. Jean Baptiste had married when in France in 1709. This wife died on Dauphin Island in 1714. It is generally agreed, however, that the mother of his children was an Indian named Magdalaine Pany. His daughter Magdelaine was born about 1711 or 1712 and married Pierre Paquette, Jr. His son Jean Baptiste Baudreau II was born about 1710 and married Catherine Marie Vinconneau.
Jean Baptiste Baudreau II was frequently in trouble with the government. He was once sentenced to serve out his life on a French galley ship. His father pleaded his case, and the governor issued a pardon. Jean Baptiste II died in 1757 when the French Governor had him broken on the wheel in New Orleans for his alleged part in the murder of a military officer.
Mary Urseline Laurendine, born 17 Nov. 1840, was a descendent of Jean Baptiste II. She married Joseph Albert Lamey, born 1 May 1828, a descendent of Magdelaine Baudreau. Their grandson Edward Lefferage Robbins married Jerusha Eubanks of Greene County and moved to Picayune to work in the timber business.
Before Jean Baptist died in 1762, he claimed to have legitimized his children with a church wedding. Baudreau missed by one year of living through the entire French colony on the Gulf Coast. When the French lost the French and Indian War in 1763, “Biloxy” became a British possession.