Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917) and his brother, Julius Anderson (1863-1910) were among the last of the 19th Century entrepreneurs to establish commercial enterprises at Vancleave. They were outsiders from New Orleans and arrived in the community in 1895. In March 1896, the Anderson brothers acquired a fifty-nine year lease and the mercantile store and associated Bluff Creek warehouses of Andrew W. Ramsay (1830-1916). These structures were located on a three-acre parcel in the NE/4,NE/4 of Section 16, T6S-R7W. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk. 30, p. 478)
Since the Anderson operation was in the flood plain of Bluff Creek near the confluence of Mounger's Creek and Woodman Branch, it was very susceptible to seasonal flooding. The Anderson store served the Vancleave community as a trading post and communications center for the farmers, lumberjacks, box chippers, teamsters and charcoal burners who toiled in the immediate area. This was the time when an active naval stores, timber, and charcoal industry flourished in the immediate area. A coastal schooner trade ferried charcoal, turpentine, rosin, camphene, lumber, and some farm produce to New Orleans. These shallow draft vessels returned up Bluff Creek with food staples, dry goods, hardware, and other essential merchandise to accommodate the sylvan-agrarian based economy, which existed in the region.
Ramsay-Anderson Store and Home (circa 1909)
Built circa 1870, this mercantile store situated in the flood plain of Bluff Creek, near an area called Schooner Landing, was an important trading center at Vancleave for many decades. Erected by Andrew Washington Ramsay (1830-1915), the Anderson brothers from New Orleans, Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917) and Julius Anderson (1863-1910), acquired a long term lease in March 1896, from Mr. Ramsay on three acres in the NE/4 of Section 16, T6S-R7W. Here they continued in the mercantile business providing the farmers and forest workers of the region with food staples, hardware and dry goods.
Sydney J. Anderson was reared in a seafaring family and owned several trading schooners, which he utilized to ferry naval stores and charcoal from his Bluff Creek operation to New Orleans. The Anderson home adjacent to the store was built shortly after he acquired the Ramsay lease. The railroad tracks in the foreground were used by the L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company rolling stock to transport logs from the surrounding forests to Bluff Creek where they were rafted to their Moss Point, Mississippi saw mill for processing into merchantable lumber. Note the telephone pole and Bell sign on the store (third post left-first floor)., which indicates that the telephone exchange was in place at the time that this image was made, circa 1909.
Circa 1905, Sydney J. Anderson brought the telephone to the Vancleave region. It operated out of his Bluff Creek store. Cliff Dees (1886-1963) purchased it from the Anderson family after his demise in 1917. Mr. Dees employed, Ray Havens, to climb poles and do electrical work. (Down South, March-April 1956, p. 27)
From a letterhead acquired from Betty Rodgers, archivist for the Jackson County Archives at Pascagoula, the Andersons advertised their Vancleave venture as follows:
ANDERSON BROTHERS GENERAL MERCHANDISE
Established 1895
Headquarters For Omega and Ballard's High Grade Patent Flour
Wholesale Shippers of Pascagoula Charcoal
Highest Prices Paid For Country Products
Proprietors of the Vancleave Telephone Exchange
Sidney J. Anderson was born at New Orleans on April 24, 1867, the son of Charles Frederick Anderson (1822-1892) and Emma Werlein (1847-1907). His father was a sea captain, and young Sidney Anderson learned the ways of the sea from him. Before his twentieth year, he was master of the schooner, Maggie. (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5, c. 3)
In 1890, S.J. Anderson married Caroline Gaspard (1873-1950), the daughter of French émigré, Eugene Gaspard (1838-1889), and Barbara Martin (1852-1931). Miss Gaspard was a New Orleanian. They had two children born in the Crescent City: Malvina A. Bernard Cotter (1891-1971) and Frank S. Anderson (1894-1939). Mrs. Caroline G. Anderson's sister, Annie Gaspard (1888-1971), married Charles F. Rehage (1890-1977). They resided at Ocean Springs where Mr. Rehage was a dairyman for many years.
In addition to his commercial ventures at Vancleave, Mississippi, Mr. Anderson was a popular businessman at Ocean Springs. In February 1900, he acquired the Artesian House, a small hostel, which was situated on the southwest corner of Jackson Avenue and Porter. It may be of interest that Alfred E. Lewis II (1862-1933), the original owner of the Artesian House, erected the two-story, wood-framed structure circa 1891. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Bk 21, pp. 150-151)
The Lewis his family relocated to Sections 23 and 24, T6S-R8W, southwest of Vancleave, about 1895. They called their country estate "Sweet Heart". The H.P. Davis family resides on a portion of the old Lewis estate today. (Bellande, 1994, pp. 75-78)
Circa 1904, the Andersons changed the name of their Ocean Springs inn to the Oak View Hotel. They advertised in The Ocean Springs News of November 1915 as follows:
Rooms for light housekeeping.
Apply at the Oak View Hotel or S.J. Anderson, Vancleave, phone 109-2.
Caroline G. Anderson sold her Ocean Springs hotel to her mother in April 1920. Mrs. Gaspard ran the business until July 1925, when she conveyed the structure to the Crescent Realty Company of New Orleans. They were represented at Ocean Springs by W.J. Hardke (1877-1932) and John Leo Dickey (1880-1938), both natives of Niles, Michigan. Mr. Dickey, a civil engineer, had purchased "Bay View", the Biloxi Bay estate of Christian Hanson (1845-1914), in June 1922. He renamed it "Shadowlawn", and it was the home and bed and breakfast establishment of his granddaughter, Nancy White Wilson. She and spouse William ‘Bill' Wilson vended Shadowlawn to Mr. Mitchell and it was subsequently damaged by Hurricane Katrina and demolished by Mitchell.(JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk 48, pp. 87-88 and Land Deed Bk 57, pp. 93-94 and Bellande, 1994, pp. 80-81)
In addition to his hotel-apartment business at Ocean Springs, Mr. Anderson assisted in the 1905 organization of the Ocean Springs State Bank and served on the Board of Directors. Under the leadership of Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938), the bank board and stock holders erected their building on the northeast corner of Washington and Government in 1910. Although the property has had multiple proprietorships through time, it has remained a fiscal institution. Today, it is owned by the Cornerstone Group, a financial planning–brokerage enterprise. (The Ocean Springs Record, June 17, 1993, p. 18)
Sidney J. Anderson was also president of the Ocean Springs Electric Light and Ice Company, which was organized in 1903. Louis A. Lundy (1876-1941), a partner of Anderson in the ice company, would organize the Ocean Springs Packing Company in 1915, with L.M. McClure (1884-1940) and Joseph Zaehringer (1881-1969). Both plants were located on the Bay of Biloxi, south of the L&N Railroad bridge. (The Ocean Record, February 15, 1996, p. 20)
At Vancleave, Mr. Anderson ran a small navy. His trading schooners plied the shallow "Lake" waters between New Orleans and Bluff Creek, often mastered by men of foreign origins. Spaniard, Vincent Ferrer (1848-1910+) of the Ruby and David Burke (1848-1910+), a New Yorker, of Irish parentage, who commanded the S.J. Dixon, were some of these men. By this time, Francisco Juan (1843-1918), another Spaniard schooner master, had quit the sea and resided at Vancleave, where he was a merchant with his father-in-law, Willis Broadus (1834-1919).
Through the years, S.J. Anderson is believed to have owned the following schooners: Maggie, George Washington, Seven Brothers, Malvina S. Anderson, Frank S. Anderson, and the Caroline Anderson. Russell E. Barnes, a history professor at MGCJC (Perkinston) and authority on local watercraft, has provided the following information on several of these vessels:
Malvina S. Anderson-built at Handsboro, Mississippi in 1892, most probably by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1948), an 1883 Croatian-Italian immigrant. The forty-three ton schooner was 73.2 feet in length, had a beam of 23.3 feet, and had a hold depth of 4.3 feet. Mr. Anderson's obituary relates that "he built the Malvina S. Anderson, the largest boat of that time, a charcoal carrier along the coast". (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5)
Seven Brother-built on the Jourdan River in Hancock County, possibly by the Pavolina family. This vessel was twenty-four tons with a length of 54.9 feet, beam of 24.7 feet, and depth of 3.8 feet.
Maggie-built at Scranton (Pascagoula). This small boat was of only eight tons and length of 32.4 feet. I had a beam length of 12.6 feet and hold depth of 3.8 feet.I
It interesting to note that Mr. Anderson's brother and business partner, Julius Anderson, once owned the Josephine
Mestier. This was another Martinolich schooner constructed at Handsboro, in 1893. Two New Orleans lumber merchants, J. Louis Mestier and his brother-in-law, Peter Judlin (1864-1917), contracted for this and an earlier vessel, the Mabel E. Judlin. Josephine Judlin Mestier (1862-1914), was the daughter of two European émigrés, J.B. Judlin (1831-1880+) from France, and Alice E. Vatter (1842-1880+) of Germany. The Judlin family resided at New Orleans, where Mr. Judlin was a grocer. (Fenerty et al, 1991, p. 261)
Josephine's sister, Emma Judlin (1869-1958), married Eugene W. Illing (1870-1947) of Ocean Springs. Mr. Illing was a successful innkeeper and pecan grower, before entering the motion picture business circa 1904. His Illing Theatre was a landmark on Washington Avenue for many decades. (The Ocean Springs Record, October 5, 1995, p. 20)
A daughter of Peter Judlin and Henriette Monteverde, Mabel E. Judlin (1890-1953), married Henry Girot (1887-1953), a New Orleans tailor, who came to Ocean Springs circa 1923, where he helped organize the United Poultry Producers Association and develop the Cherokee Glen subdivision on the Fort Point peninsula. (The Gulf Coast Times, January 29, 1953, p. 1)
His only son, Judlin H. Girot (1912-1970), a former Alderman of Ward 4 (1951-1953), resided at Ocean Springs until 1953.
Mr. Girot's daughter, Beryl G. Riviere, has been a long time resident of Cherokee Glen.(The Daily Herald, January 5, 1953, p. 6)
Miss Mabel Judlin was the namesake of another trading schooner, the Mabel E. Judlin. This vessel was constructed at Handsboro by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1934) in 1891, for J.L. Mestier & Company of New Orleans. Mabel E. Judlin, built in 1891. (Barnes, 1998, p. 15)
The Mabel E. Judlin was 67 feet long, had a beam of 22 feet, and hold depth of 4 feet. Her sails were constructed by A. Gerdes & Brother of New Orleans. (The Biloxi Herald, May 2, 1891, p. 4, c. 2)
The Mabel E. Judland (sic) was reputed to be the fastest schooner in the entire Gulf and Caribbean. She hauled charcoal from the banks of Bluff Creek when owned by James E. Lockard (1862-1951) of Vancleave. The fledging United Fruit Company used the Mabel E. Judland (sic) as a model for their shallow draft fruit boats. (Down South, July-August 1960, p. 9)
In the Hurricane of October 1915, S.J. Anderson had a frightening experience. During the violent tempest, one of his schooners was anchored at the New Basin in New Orleans. With winds roaring at eighty-seven knots per hour, Anderson went to check on his vessel. He boarded the floundering boat and threw out double anchors to secure it. As Mr. Anderson was about to disembark his vessel, the wind hurled the roof of a cotton warehouse upon the wave tossed schooner, felling both masts and narrowly missing the anxious Anderson. The storm also claimed one of his traders in the Rigolets Marsh. (The Ocean Springs News, October 7, 1915, p. 2)
In late September 1917, the Andersons went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a renown health spa of the era. Mr. Anderson's health had been failing, and it was believed that this holiday would revive him. Unfortunately, he expired at Hot Springs on October 3, 1917. His remains were sent to New Orleans for internment in the Greenwood Cemetery. The wake was held at the home of H. Moskan at 2713 Bienville Street. Mr. Moskan was the brother-in-law of Sidney Anderson. (The Daily Herald, October 5, 1917, p. 6)
After the demise of her husband, Caroline G. Anderson relocated to New Orleans. She participated with her son, Frank S. Anderson, in a firm called the Orleans Advertisement & Street Guide Company, which was situated at 618 Commercial Place. In 1922, Mrs. Anderson moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, but returned to the Crescent City circa 1925. She passed on February 19, 1950, at El Paso, Texas. Her remains were sent to New Orleans for burial in the Greenwood Cemetery. (The Times Picayune, February 22, 1950, p. 2)
The complete lives of the children of Sidney and Caroline Anderson are currently unknown. Daughter, Malvina A. Anderson (1891-1971), married after 1910, Emile L. Bernard (1889-1950). Mr. Bernard worked for S.J. Anderson as his bookkeeper. They are believed to have reared (UPDATED INFO) six children: Vivian W. Bernard (1912-2012), Marjorie C. Bernard (1914-1999), Sidney J Bernard (1919-2008), Elvira Jane Bernard (1921-1988), Emile Louis Bernard (1926-2013), Faye G. Bernard (1931-2013), and Winifred E. E. Bernard (1929-2005). After the death of Emile Bernard, Malvina wedded a Mr. Cotter. She was a resident of Eddy County, New Mexico in 1954. Carlsbad is the County seat.
In February 1918, Frank S. Anderson married Katherine Usner of New Orleans, at the Usner home on East Beach in Ocean Springs. Deo F. Bertuccini (1893-1979) of Ocean Springs was his best man. (The Jackson County Times, February 16, 1918, p. 52)
The Frank S. Andersons had a daughter, Catherine A. Buendia (1919-1999). After the child's birth, the Andersons separated and he relocated to Texas. Here F.S. Anderson remarried and sired two children, Doris Jean Lewis and F.S. Anderson Jr. In 1954, these children were residing at Houston, Texas and Napa County, California respectively. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk.146, pp. 243-244)
The final fate of the Anderson store and home are presently unknown to the author. It is believed that they were torn down in the 1920s. Some of the materials may have been utilized in the construction of the C.L. Dees Red Cash Store post-WWI.
REFERENCES:
Jackson County, Mississippi Chancery Court Cause No. 2008, "The Estate of Julius Anderson", November 1910.
Magazines
Down South, "Charcoal Capital of the Coast", July-August 1960.
Journals
The Jackson County Times, "Sidney Anderson Dead; Many Friends Mourn", October 6, 1917.
The New Orleans Item, "Funeral of Sidney J. Anderson set Saturday", October 5, 1917.
The Time-Picayune, "Vancleave Man take by death", October 5, 1917.
The Times-Picayune, '[Harry Peter] Fitzner', July 22, 1949, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Caroline Gaspard] Anderson', February 22, 1950, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Jennie Gaspard] Fitzner', February 6, 1966, p. 2.
Since the Anderson operation was in the flood plain of Bluff Creek near the confluence of Mounger's Creek and Woodman Branch, it was very susceptible to seasonal flooding. The Anderson store served the Vancleave community as a trading post and communications center for the farmers, lumberjacks, box chippers, teamsters and charcoal burners who toiled in the immediate area. This was the time when an active naval stores, timber, and charcoal industry flourished in the immediate area. A coastal schooner trade ferried charcoal, turpentine, rosin, camphene, lumber, and some farm produce to New Orleans. These shallow draft vessels returned up Bluff Creek with food staples, dry goods, hardware, and other essential merchandise to accommodate the sylvan-agrarian based economy, which existed in the region.
Ramsay-Anderson Store and Home (circa 1909)
Built circa 1870, this mercantile store situated in the flood plain of Bluff Creek, near an area called Schooner Landing, was an important trading center at Vancleave for many decades. Erected by Andrew Washington Ramsay (1830-1915), the Anderson brothers from New Orleans, Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917) and Julius Anderson (1863-1910), acquired a long term lease in March 1896, from Mr. Ramsay on three acres in the NE/4 of Section 16, T6S-R7W. Here they continued in the mercantile business providing the farmers and forest workers of the region with food staples, hardware and dry goods.
Sydney J. Anderson was reared in a seafaring family and owned several trading schooners, which he utilized to ferry naval stores and charcoal from his Bluff Creek operation to New Orleans. The Anderson home adjacent to the store was built shortly after he acquired the Ramsay lease. The railroad tracks in the foreground were used by the L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company rolling stock to transport logs from the surrounding forests to Bluff Creek where they were rafted to their Moss Point, Mississippi saw mill for processing into merchantable lumber. Note the telephone pole and Bell sign on the store (third post left-first floor)., which indicates that the telephone exchange was in place at the time that this image was made, circa 1909.
Circa 1905, Sydney J. Anderson brought the telephone to the Vancleave region. It operated out of his Bluff Creek store. Cliff Dees (1886-1963) purchased it from the Anderson family after his demise in 1917. Mr. Dees employed, Ray Havens, to climb poles and do electrical work. (Down South, March-April 1956, p. 27)
From a letterhead acquired from Betty Rodgers, archivist for the Jackson County Archives at Pascagoula, the Andersons advertised their Vancleave venture as follows:
ANDERSON BROTHERS GENERAL MERCHANDISE
Established 1895
Headquarters For Omega and Ballard's High Grade Patent Flour
Wholesale Shippers of Pascagoula Charcoal
Highest Prices Paid For Country Products
Proprietors of the Vancleave Telephone Exchange
Sidney J. Anderson was born at New Orleans on April 24, 1867, the son of Charles Frederick Anderson (1822-1892) and Emma Werlein (1847-1907). His father was a sea captain, and young Sidney Anderson learned the ways of the sea from him. Before his twentieth year, he was master of the schooner, Maggie. (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5, c. 3)
In 1890, S.J. Anderson married Caroline Gaspard (1873-1950), the daughter of French émigré, Eugene Gaspard (1838-1889), and Barbara Martin (1852-1931). Miss Gaspard was a New Orleanian. They had two children born in the Crescent City: Malvina A. Bernard Cotter (1891-1971) and Frank S. Anderson (1894-1939). Mrs. Caroline G. Anderson's sister, Annie Gaspard (1888-1971), married Charles F. Rehage (1890-1977). They resided at Ocean Springs where Mr. Rehage was a dairyman for many years.
In addition to his commercial ventures at Vancleave, Mississippi, Mr. Anderson was a popular businessman at Ocean Springs. In February 1900, he acquired the Artesian House, a small hostel, which was situated on the southwest corner of Jackson Avenue and Porter. It may be of interest that Alfred E. Lewis II (1862-1933), the original owner of the Artesian House, erected the two-story, wood-framed structure circa 1891. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Bk 21, pp. 150-151)
The Lewis his family relocated to Sections 23 and 24, T6S-R8W, southwest of Vancleave, about 1895. They called their country estate "Sweet Heart". The H.P. Davis family resides on a portion of the old Lewis estate today. (Bellande, 1994, pp. 75-78)
Circa 1904, the Andersons changed the name of their Ocean Springs inn to the Oak View Hotel. They advertised in The Ocean Springs News of November 1915 as follows:
Rooms for light housekeeping.
Apply at the Oak View Hotel or S.J. Anderson, Vancleave, phone 109-2.
Caroline G. Anderson sold her Ocean Springs hotel to her mother in April 1920. Mrs. Gaspard ran the business until July 1925, when she conveyed the structure to the Crescent Realty Company of New Orleans. They were represented at Ocean Springs by W.J. Hardke (1877-1932) and John Leo Dickey (1880-1938), both natives of Niles, Michigan. Mr. Dickey, a civil engineer, had purchased "Bay View", the Biloxi Bay estate of Christian Hanson (1845-1914), in June 1922. He renamed it "Shadowlawn", and it was the home and bed and breakfast establishment of his granddaughter, Nancy White Wilson. She and spouse William ‘Bill' Wilson vended Shadowlawn to Mr. Mitchell and it was subsequently damaged by Hurricane Katrina and demolished by Mitchell.(JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk 48, pp. 87-88 and Land Deed Bk 57, pp. 93-94 and Bellande, 1994, pp. 80-81)
In addition to his hotel-apartment business at Ocean Springs, Mr. Anderson assisted in the 1905 organization of the Ocean Springs State Bank and served on the Board of Directors. Under the leadership of Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938), the bank board and stock holders erected their building on the northeast corner of Washington and Government in 1910. Although the property has had multiple proprietorships through time, it has remained a fiscal institution. Today, it is owned by the Cornerstone Group, a financial planning–brokerage enterprise. (The Ocean Springs Record, June 17, 1993, p. 18)
Sidney J. Anderson was also president of the Ocean Springs Electric Light and Ice Company, which was organized in 1903. Louis A. Lundy (1876-1941), a partner of Anderson in the ice company, would organize the Ocean Springs Packing Company in 1915, with L.M. McClure (1884-1940) and Joseph Zaehringer (1881-1969). Both plants were located on the Bay of Biloxi, south of the L&N Railroad bridge. (The Ocean Record, February 15, 1996, p. 20)
At Vancleave, Mr. Anderson ran a small navy. His trading schooners plied the shallow "Lake" waters between New Orleans and Bluff Creek, often mastered by men of foreign origins. Spaniard, Vincent Ferrer (1848-1910+) of the Ruby and David Burke (1848-1910+), a New Yorker, of Irish parentage, who commanded the S.J. Dixon, were some of these men. By this time, Francisco Juan (1843-1918), another Spaniard schooner master, had quit the sea and resided at Vancleave, where he was a merchant with his father-in-law, Willis Broadus (1834-1919).
Through the years, S.J. Anderson is believed to have owned the following schooners: Maggie, George Washington, Seven Brothers, Malvina S. Anderson, Frank S. Anderson, and the Caroline Anderson. Russell E. Barnes, a history professor at MGCJC (Perkinston) and authority on local watercraft, has provided the following information on several of these vessels:
Malvina S. Anderson-built at Handsboro, Mississippi in 1892, most probably by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1948), an 1883 Croatian-Italian immigrant. The forty-three ton schooner was 73.2 feet in length, had a beam of 23.3 feet, and had a hold depth of 4.3 feet. Mr. Anderson's obituary relates that "he built the Malvina S. Anderson, the largest boat of that time, a charcoal carrier along the coast". (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5)
Seven Brother-built on the Jourdan River in Hancock County, possibly by the Pavolina family. This vessel was twenty-four tons with a length of 54.9 feet, beam of 24.7 feet, and depth of 3.8 feet.
Maggie-built at Scranton (Pascagoula). This small boat was of only eight tons and length of 32.4 feet. I had a beam length of 12.6 feet and hold depth of 3.8 feet.I
It interesting to note that Mr. Anderson's brother and business partner, Julius Anderson, once owned the Josephine
Mestier. This was another Martinolich schooner constructed at Handsboro, in 1893. Two New Orleans lumber merchants, J. Louis Mestier and his brother-in-law, Peter Judlin (1864-1917), contracted for this and an earlier vessel, the Mabel E. Judlin. Josephine Judlin Mestier (1862-1914), was the daughter of two European émigrés, J.B. Judlin (1831-1880+) from France, and Alice E. Vatter (1842-1880+) of Germany. The Judlin family resided at New Orleans, where Mr. Judlin was a grocer. (Fenerty et al, 1991, p. 261)
Josephine's sister, Emma Judlin (1869-1958), married Eugene W. Illing (1870-1947) of Ocean Springs. Mr. Illing was a successful innkeeper and pecan grower, before entering the motion picture business circa 1904. His Illing Theatre was a landmark on Washington Avenue for many decades. (The Ocean Springs Record, October 5, 1995, p. 20)
A daughter of Peter Judlin and Henriette Monteverde, Mabel E. Judlin (1890-1953), married Henry Girot (1887-1953), a New Orleans tailor, who came to Ocean Springs circa 1923, where he helped organize the United Poultry Producers Association and develop the Cherokee Glen subdivision on the Fort Point peninsula. (The Gulf Coast Times, January 29, 1953, p. 1)
His only son, Judlin H. Girot (1912-1970), a former Alderman of Ward 4 (1951-1953), resided at Ocean Springs until 1953.
Mr. Girot's daughter, Beryl G. Riviere, has been a long time resident of Cherokee Glen.(The Daily Herald, January 5, 1953, p. 6)
Miss Mabel Judlin was the namesake of another trading schooner, the Mabel E. Judlin. This vessel was constructed at Handsboro by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1934) in 1891, for J.L. Mestier & Company of New Orleans. Mabel E. Judlin, built in 1891. (Barnes, 1998, p. 15)
The Mabel E. Judlin was 67 feet long, had a beam of 22 feet, and hold depth of 4 feet. Her sails were constructed by A. Gerdes & Brother of New Orleans. (The Biloxi Herald, May 2, 1891, p. 4, c. 2)
The Mabel E. Judland (sic) was reputed to be the fastest schooner in the entire Gulf and Caribbean. She hauled charcoal from the banks of Bluff Creek when owned by James E. Lockard (1862-1951) of Vancleave. The fledging United Fruit Company used the Mabel E. Judland (sic) as a model for their shallow draft fruit boats. (Down South, July-August 1960, p. 9)
In the Hurricane of October 1915, S.J. Anderson had a frightening experience. During the violent tempest, one of his schooners was anchored at the New Basin in New Orleans. With winds roaring at eighty-seven knots per hour, Anderson went to check on his vessel. He boarded the floundering boat and threw out double anchors to secure it. As Mr. Anderson was about to disembark his vessel, the wind hurled the roof of a cotton warehouse upon the wave tossed schooner, felling both masts and narrowly missing the anxious Anderson. The storm also claimed one of his traders in the Rigolets Marsh. (The Ocean Springs News, October 7, 1915, p. 2)
In late September 1917, the Andersons went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a renown health spa of the era. Mr. Anderson's health had been failing, and it was believed that this holiday would revive him. Unfortunately, he expired at Hot Springs on October 3, 1917. His remains were sent to New Orleans for internment in the Greenwood Cemetery. The wake was held at the home of H. Moskan at 2713 Bienville Street. Mr. Moskan was the brother-in-law of Sidney Anderson. (The Daily Herald, October 5, 1917, p. 6)
After the demise of her husband, Caroline G. Anderson relocated to New Orleans. She participated with her son, Frank S. Anderson, in a firm called the Orleans Advertisement & Street Guide Company, which was situated at 618 Commercial Place. In 1922, Mrs. Anderson moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, but returned to the Crescent City circa 1925. She passed on February 19, 1950, at El Paso, Texas. Her remains were sent to New Orleans for burial in the Greenwood Cemetery. (The Times Picayune, February 22, 1950, p. 2)
The complete lives of the children of Sidney and Caroline Anderson are currently unknown. Daughter, Malvina A. Anderson (1891-1971), married after 1910, Emile L. Bernard (1889-1950). Mr. Bernard worked for S.J. Anderson as his bookkeeper. They are believed to have reared (UPDATED INFO) six children: Vivian W. Bernard (1912-2012), Marjorie C. Bernard (1914-1999), Sidney J Bernard (1919-2008), Elvira Jane Bernard (1921-1988), Emile Louis Bernard (1926-2013), Faye G. Bernard (1931-2013), and Winifred E. E. Bernard (1929-2005). After the death of Emile Bernard, Malvina wedded a Mr. Cotter. She was a resident of Eddy County, New Mexico in 1954. Carlsbad is the County seat.
In February 1918, Frank S. Anderson married Katherine Usner of New Orleans, at the Usner home on East Beach in Ocean Springs. Deo F. Bertuccini (1893-1979) of Ocean Springs was his best man. (The Jackson County Times, February 16, 1918, p. 52)
The Frank S. Andersons had a daughter, Catherine A. Buendia (1919-1999). After the child's birth, the Andersons separated and he relocated to Texas. Here F.S. Anderson remarried and sired two children, Doris Jean Lewis and F.S. Anderson Jr. In 1954, these children were residing at Houston, Texas and Napa County, California respectively. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk.146, pp. 243-244)
The final fate of the Anderson store and home are presently unknown to the author. It is believed that they were torn down in the 1920s. Some of the materials may have been utilized in the construction of the C.L. Dees Red Cash Store post-WWI.
REFERENCES:
Jackson County, Mississippi Chancery Court Cause No. 2008, "The Estate of Julius Anderson", November 1910.
Magazines
Down South, "Charcoal Capital of the Coast", July-August 1960.
Journals
The Jackson County Times, "Sidney Anderson Dead; Many Friends Mourn", October 6, 1917.
The New Orleans Item, "Funeral of Sidney J. Anderson set Saturday", October 5, 1917.
The Time-Picayune, "Vancleave Man take by death", October 5, 1917.
The Times-Picayune, '[Harry Peter] Fitzner', July 22, 1949, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Caroline Gaspard] Anderson', February 22, 1950, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Jennie Gaspard] Fitzner', February 6, 1966, p. 2.
Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917) and his brother, Julius Anderson (1863-1910) were among the last of the 19th Century entrepreneurs to establish commercial enterprises at Vancleave. They were outsiders from New Orleans and arrived in the community in 1895. In March 1896, the Anderson brothers acquired a fifty-nine year lease and the mercantile store and associated Bluff Creek warehouses of Andrew W. Ramsay (1830-1916). These structures were located on a three-acre parcel in the NE/4,NE/4 of Section 16, T6S-R7W. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk. 30, p. 478)
Since the Anderson operation was in the flood plain of Bluff Creek near the confluence of Mounger's Creek and Woodman Branch, it was very susceptible to seasonal flooding. The Anderson store served the Vancleave community as a trading post and communications center for the farmers, lumberjacks, box chippers, teamsters and charcoal burners who toiled in the immediate area. This was the time when an active naval stores, timber, and charcoal industry flourished in the immediate area. A coastal schooner trade ferried charcoal, turpentine, rosin, camphene, lumber, and some farm produce to New Orleans. These shallow draft vessels returned up Bluff Creek with food staples, dry goods, hardware, and other essential merchandise to accommodate the sylvan-agrarian based economy, which existed in the region.
Ramsay-Anderson Store and Home (circa 1909)
Built circa 1870, this mercantile store situated in the flood plain of Bluff Creek, near an area called Schooner Landing, was an important trading center at Vancleave for many decades. Erected by Andrew Washington Ramsay (1830-1915), the Anderson brothers from New Orleans, Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917) and Julius Anderson (1863-1910), acquired a long term lease in March 1896, from Mr. Ramsay on three acres in the NE/4 of Section 16, T6S-R7W. Here they continued in the mercantile business providing the farmers and forest workers of the region with food staples, hardware and dry goods.
Sydney J. Anderson was reared in a seafaring family and owned several trading schooners, which he utilized to ferry naval stores and charcoal from his Bluff Creek operation to New Orleans. The Anderson home adjacent to the store was built shortly after he acquired the Ramsay lease. The railroad tracks in the foreground were used by the L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company rolling stock to transport logs from the surrounding forests to Bluff Creek where they were rafted to their Moss Point, Mississippi saw mill for processing into merchantable lumber. Note the telephone pole and Bell sign on the store (third post left-first floor)., which indicates that the telephone exchange was in place at the time that this image was made, circa 1909.
Circa 1905, Sydney J. Anderson brought the telephone to the Vancleave region. It operated out of his Bluff Creek store. Cliff Dees (1886-1963) purchased it from the Anderson family after his demise in 1917. Mr. Dees employed, Ray Havens, to climb poles and do electrical work. (Down South, March-April 1956, p. 27)
From a letterhead acquired from Betty Rodgers, archivist for the Jackson County Archives at Pascagoula, the Andersons advertised their Vancleave venture as follows:
ANDERSON BROTHERS GENERAL MERCHANDISE
Established 1895
Headquarters For Omega and Ballard's High Grade Patent Flour
Wholesale Shippers of Pascagoula Charcoal
Highest Prices Paid For Country Products
Proprietors of the Vancleave Telephone Exchange
Sidney J. Anderson was born at New Orleans on April 24, 1867, the son of Charles Frederick Anderson (1822-1892) and Emma Werlein (1847-1907). His father was a sea captain, and young Sidney Anderson learned the ways of the sea from him. Before his twentieth year, he was master of the schooner, Maggie. (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5, c. 3)
In 1890, S.J. Anderson married Caroline Gaspard (1873-1950), the daughter of French émigré, Eugene Gaspard (1838-1889), and Barbara Martin (1852-1931). Miss Gaspard was a New Orleanian. They had two children born in the Crescent City: Malvina A. Bernard Cotter (1891-1971) and Frank S. Anderson (1894-1939). Mrs. Caroline G. Anderson's sister, Annie Gaspard (1888-1971), married Charles F. Rehage (1890-1977). They resided at Ocean Springs where Mr. Rehage was a dairyman for many years.
In addition to his commercial ventures at Vancleave, Mississippi, Mr. Anderson was a popular businessman at Ocean Springs. In February 1900, he acquired the Artesian House, a small hostel, which was situated on the southwest corner of Jackson Avenue and Porter. It may be of interest that Alfred E. Lewis II (1862-1933), the original owner of the Artesian House, erected the two-story, wood-framed structure circa 1891. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Bk 21, pp. 150-151)
The Lewis his family relocated to Sections 23 and 24, T6S-R8W, southwest of Vancleave, about 1895. They called their country estate "Sweet Heart". The H.P. Davis family resides on a portion of the old Lewis estate today. (Bellande, 1994, pp. 75-78)
Circa 1904, the Andersons changed the name of their Ocean Springs inn to the Oak View Hotel. They advertised in The Ocean Springs News of November 1915 as follows:
Rooms for light housekeeping.
Apply at the Oak View Hotel or S.J. Anderson, Vancleave, phone 109-2.
Caroline G. Anderson sold her Ocean Springs hotel to her mother in April 1920. Mrs. Gaspard ran the business until July 1925, when she conveyed the structure to the Crescent Realty Company of New Orleans. They were represented at Ocean Springs by W.J. Hardke (1877-1932) and John Leo Dickey (1880-1938), both natives of Niles, Michigan. Mr. Dickey, a civil engineer, had purchased "Bay View", the Biloxi Bay estate of Christian Hanson (1845-1914), in June 1922. He renamed it "Shadowlawn", and it was the home and bed and breakfast establishment of his granddaughter, Nancy White Wilson. She and spouse William ‘Bill' Wilson vended Shadowlawn to Mr. Mitchell and it was subsequently damaged by Hurricane Katrina and demolished by Mitchell.(JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk 48, pp. 87-88 and Land Deed Bk 57, pp. 93-94 and Bellande, 1994, pp. 80-81)
In addition to his hotel-apartment business at Ocean Springs, Mr. Anderson assisted in the 1905 organization of the Ocean Springs State Bank and served on the Board of Directors. Under the leadership of Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938), the bank board and stock holders erected their building on the northeast corner of Washington and Government in 1910. Although the property has had multiple proprietorships through time, it has remained a fiscal institution. Today, it is owned by the Cornerstone Group, a financial planning–brokerage enterprise. (The Ocean Springs Record, June 17, 1993, p. 18)
Sidney J. Anderson was also president of the Ocean Springs Electric Light and Ice Company, which was organized in 1903. Louis A. Lundy (1876-1941), a partner of Anderson in the ice company, would organize the Ocean Springs Packing Company in 1915, with L.M. McClure (1884-1940) and Joseph Zaehringer (1881-1969). Both plants were located on the Bay of Biloxi, south of the L&N Railroad bridge. (The Ocean Record, February 15, 1996, p. 20)
At Vancleave, Mr. Anderson ran a small navy. His trading schooners plied the shallow "Lake" waters between New Orleans and Bluff Creek, often mastered by men of foreign origins. Spaniard, Vincent Ferrer (1848-1910+) of the Ruby and David Burke (1848-1910+), a New Yorker, of Irish parentage, who commanded the S.J. Dixon, were some of these men. By this time, Francisco Juan (1843-1918), another Spaniard schooner master, had quit the sea and resided at Vancleave, where he was a merchant with his father-in-law, Willis Broadus (1834-1919).
Through the years, S.J. Anderson is believed to have owned the following schooners: Maggie, George Washington, Seven Brothers, Malvina S. Anderson, Frank S. Anderson, and the Caroline Anderson. Russell E. Barnes, a history professor at MGCJC (Perkinston) and authority on local watercraft, has provided the following information on several of these vessels:
Malvina S. Anderson-built at Handsboro, Mississippi in 1892, most probably by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1948), an 1883 Croatian-Italian immigrant. The forty-three ton schooner was 73.2 feet in length, had a beam of 23.3 feet, and had a hold depth of 4.3 feet. Mr. Anderson's obituary relates that "he built the Malvina S. Anderson, the largest boat of that time, a charcoal carrier along the coast". (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5)
Seven Brother-built on the Jourdan River in Hancock County, possibly by the Pavolina family. This vessel was twenty-four tons with a length of 54.9 feet, beam of 24.7 feet, and depth of 3.8 feet.
Maggie-built at Scranton (Pascagoula). This small boat was of only eight tons and length of 32.4 feet. I had a beam length of 12.6 feet and hold depth of 3.8 feet.I
It interesting to note that Mr. Anderson's brother and business partner, Julius Anderson, once owned the Josephine
Mestier. This was another Martinolich schooner constructed at Handsboro, in 1893. Two New Orleans lumber merchants, J. Louis Mestier and his brother-in-law, Peter Judlin (1864-1917), contracted for this and an earlier vessel, the Mabel E. Judlin. Josephine Judlin Mestier (1862-1914), was the daughter of two European émigrés, J.B. Judlin (1831-1880+) from France, and Alice E. Vatter (1842-1880+) of Germany. The Judlin family resided at New Orleans, where Mr. Judlin was a grocer. (Fenerty et al, 1991, p. 261)
Josephine's sister, Emma Judlin (1869-1958), married Eugene W. Illing (1870-1947) of Ocean Springs. Mr. Illing was a successful innkeeper and pecan grower, before entering the motion picture business circa 1904. His Illing Theatre was a landmark on Washington Avenue for many decades. (The Ocean Springs Record, October 5, 1995, p. 20)
A daughter of Peter Judlin and Henriette Monteverde, Mabel E. Judlin (1890-1953), married Henry Girot (1887-1953), a New Orleans tailor, who came to Ocean Springs circa 1923, where he helped organize the United Poultry Producers Association and develop the Cherokee Glen subdivision on the Fort Point peninsula. (The Gulf Coast Times, January 29, 1953, p. 1)
His only son, Judlin H. Girot (1912-1970), a former Alderman of Ward 4 (1951-1953), resided at Ocean Springs until 1953.
Mr. Girot's daughter, Beryl G. Riviere, has been a long time resident of Cherokee Glen.(The Daily Herald, January 5, 1953, p. 6)
Miss Mabel Judlin was the namesake of another trading schooner, the Mabel E. Judlin. This vessel was constructed at Handsboro by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1934) in 1891, for J.L. Mestier & Company of New Orleans. Mabel E. Judlin, built in 1891. (Barnes, 1998, p. 15)
The Mabel E. Judlin was 67 feet long, had a beam of 22 feet, and hold depth of 4 feet. Her sails were constructed by A. Gerdes & Brother of New Orleans. (The Biloxi Herald, May 2, 1891, p. 4, c. 2)
The Mabel E. Judland (sic) was reputed to be the fastest schooner in the entire Gulf and Caribbean. She hauled charcoal from the banks of Bluff Creek when owned by James E. Lockard (1862-1951) of Vancleave. The fledging United Fruit Company used the Mabel E. Judland (sic) as a model for their shallow draft fruit boats. (Down South, July-August 1960, p. 9)
In the Hurricane of October 1915, S.J. Anderson had a frightening experience. During the violent tempest, one of his schooners was anchored at the New Basin in New Orleans. With winds roaring at eighty-seven knots per hour, Anderson went to check on his vessel. He boarded the floundering boat and threw out double anchors to secure it. As Mr. Anderson was about to disembark his vessel, the wind hurled the roof of a cotton warehouse upon the wave tossed schooner, felling both masts and narrowly missing the anxious Anderson. The storm also claimed one of his traders in the Rigolets Marsh. (The Ocean Springs News, October 7, 1915, p. 2)
In late September 1917, the Andersons went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a renown health spa of the era. Mr. Anderson's health had been failing, and it was believed that this holiday would revive him. Unfortunately, he expired at Hot Springs on October 3, 1917. His remains were sent to New Orleans for internment in the Greenwood Cemetery. The wake was held at the home of H. Moskan at 2713 Bienville Street. Mr. Moskan was the brother-in-law of Sidney Anderson. (The Daily Herald, October 5, 1917, p. 6)
After the demise of her husband, Caroline G. Anderson relocated to New Orleans. She participated with her son, Frank S. Anderson, in a firm called the Orleans Advertisement & Street Guide Company, which was situated at 618 Commercial Place. In 1922, Mrs. Anderson moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, but returned to the Crescent City circa 1925. She passed on February 19, 1950, at El Paso, Texas. Her remains were sent to New Orleans for burial in the Greenwood Cemetery. (The Times Picayune, February 22, 1950, p. 2)
The complete lives of the children of Sidney and Caroline Anderson are currently unknown. Daughter, Malvina A. Anderson (1891-1971), married after 1910, Emile L. Bernard (1889-1950). Mr. Bernard worked for S.J. Anderson as his bookkeeper. They are believed to have reared (UPDATED INFO) six children: Vivian W. Bernard (1912-2012), Marjorie C. Bernard (1914-1999), Sidney J Bernard (1919-2008), Elvira Jane Bernard (1921-1988), Emile Louis Bernard (1926-2013), Faye G. Bernard (1931-2013), and Winifred E. E. Bernard (1929-2005). After the death of Emile Bernard, Malvina wedded a Mr. Cotter. She was a resident of Eddy County, New Mexico in 1954. Carlsbad is the County seat.
In February 1918, Frank S. Anderson married Katherine Usner of New Orleans, at the Usner home on East Beach in Ocean Springs. Deo F. Bertuccini (1893-1979) of Ocean Springs was his best man. (The Jackson County Times, February 16, 1918, p. 52)
The Frank S. Andersons had a daughter, Catherine A. Buendia (1919-1999). After the child's birth, the Andersons separated and he relocated to Texas. Here F.S. Anderson remarried and sired two children, Doris Jean Lewis and F.S. Anderson Jr. In 1954, these children were residing at Houston, Texas and Napa County, California respectively. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk.146, pp. 243-244)
The final fate of the Anderson store and home are presently unknown to the author. It is believed that they were torn down in the 1920s. Some of the materials may have been utilized in the construction of the C.L. Dees Red Cash Store post-WWI.
REFERENCES:
Jackson County, Mississippi Chancery Court Cause No. 2008, "The Estate of Julius Anderson", November 1910.
Magazines
Down South, "Charcoal Capital of the Coast", July-August 1960.
Journals
The Jackson County Times, "Sidney Anderson Dead; Many Friends Mourn", October 6, 1917.
The New Orleans Item, "Funeral of Sidney J. Anderson set Saturday", October 5, 1917.
The Time-Picayune, "Vancleave Man take by death", October 5, 1917.
The Times-Picayune, '[Harry Peter] Fitzner', July 22, 1949, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Caroline Gaspard] Anderson', February 22, 1950, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Jennie Gaspard] Fitzner', February 6, 1966, p. 2.
Since the Anderson operation was in the flood plain of Bluff Creek near the confluence of Mounger's Creek and Woodman Branch, it was very susceptible to seasonal flooding. The Anderson store served the Vancleave community as a trading post and communications center for the farmers, lumberjacks, box chippers, teamsters and charcoal burners who toiled in the immediate area. This was the time when an active naval stores, timber, and charcoal industry flourished in the immediate area. A coastal schooner trade ferried charcoal, turpentine, rosin, camphene, lumber, and some farm produce to New Orleans. These shallow draft vessels returned up Bluff Creek with food staples, dry goods, hardware, and other essential merchandise to accommodate the sylvan-agrarian based economy, which existed in the region.
Ramsay-Anderson Store and Home (circa 1909)
Built circa 1870, this mercantile store situated in the flood plain of Bluff Creek, near an area called Schooner Landing, was an important trading center at Vancleave for many decades. Erected by Andrew Washington Ramsay (1830-1915), the Anderson brothers from New Orleans, Sidney J. Anderson (1867-1917) and Julius Anderson (1863-1910), acquired a long term lease in March 1896, from Mr. Ramsay on three acres in the NE/4 of Section 16, T6S-R7W. Here they continued in the mercantile business providing the farmers and forest workers of the region with food staples, hardware and dry goods.
Sydney J. Anderson was reared in a seafaring family and owned several trading schooners, which he utilized to ferry naval stores and charcoal from his Bluff Creek operation to New Orleans. The Anderson home adjacent to the store was built shortly after he acquired the Ramsay lease. The railroad tracks in the foreground were used by the L.N. Dantzler Lumber Company rolling stock to transport logs from the surrounding forests to Bluff Creek where they were rafted to their Moss Point, Mississippi saw mill for processing into merchantable lumber. Note the telephone pole and Bell sign on the store (third post left-first floor)., which indicates that the telephone exchange was in place at the time that this image was made, circa 1909.
Circa 1905, Sydney J. Anderson brought the telephone to the Vancleave region. It operated out of his Bluff Creek store. Cliff Dees (1886-1963) purchased it from the Anderson family after his demise in 1917. Mr. Dees employed, Ray Havens, to climb poles and do electrical work. (Down South, March-April 1956, p. 27)
From a letterhead acquired from Betty Rodgers, archivist for the Jackson County Archives at Pascagoula, the Andersons advertised their Vancleave venture as follows:
ANDERSON BROTHERS GENERAL MERCHANDISE
Established 1895
Headquarters For Omega and Ballard's High Grade Patent Flour
Wholesale Shippers of Pascagoula Charcoal
Highest Prices Paid For Country Products
Proprietors of the Vancleave Telephone Exchange
Sidney J. Anderson was born at New Orleans on April 24, 1867, the son of Charles Frederick Anderson (1822-1892) and Emma Werlein (1847-1907). His father was a sea captain, and young Sidney Anderson learned the ways of the sea from him. Before his twentieth year, he was master of the schooner, Maggie. (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5, c. 3)
In 1890, S.J. Anderson married Caroline Gaspard (1873-1950), the daughter of French émigré, Eugene Gaspard (1838-1889), and Barbara Martin (1852-1931). Miss Gaspard was a New Orleanian. They had two children born in the Crescent City: Malvina A. Bernard Cotter (1891-1971) and Frank S. Anderson (1894-1939). Mrs. Caroline G. Anderson's sister, Annie Gaspard (1888-1971), married Charles F. Rehage (1890-1977). They resided at Ocean Springs where Mr. Rehage was a dairyman for many years.
In addition to his commercial ventures at Vancleave, Mississippi, Mr. Anderson was a popular businessman at Ocean Springs. In February 1900, he acquired the Artesian House, a small hostel, which was situated on the southwest corner of Jackson Avenue and Porter. It may be of interest that Alfred E. Lewis II (1862-1933), the original owner of the Artesian House, erected the two-story, wood-framed structure circa 1891. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Bk 21, pp. 150-151)
The Lewis his family relocated to Sections 23 and 24, T6S-R8W, southwest of Vancleave, about 1895. They called their country estate "Sweet Heart". The H.P. Davis family resides on a portion of the old Lewis estate today. (Bellande, 1994, pp. 75-78)
Circa 1904, the Andersons changed the name of their Ocean Springs inn to the Oak View Hotel. They advertised in The Ocean Springs News of November 1915 as follows:
Rooms for light housekeeping.
Apply at the Oak View Hotel or S.J. Anderson, Vancleave, phone 109-2.
Caroline G. Anderson sold her Ocean Springs hotel to her mother in April 1920. Mrs. Gaspard ran the business until July 1925, when she conveyed the structure to the Crescent Realty Company of New Orleans. They were represented at Ocean Springs by W.J. Hardke (1877-1932) and John Leo Dickey (1880-1938), both natives of Niles, Michigan. Mr. Dickey, a civil engineer, had purchased "Bay View", the Biloxi Bay estate of Christian Hanson (1845-1914), in June 1922. He renamed it "Shadowlawn", and it was the home and bed and breakfast establishment of his granddaughter, Nancy White Wilson. She and spouse William ‘Bill' Wilson vended Shadowlawn to Mr. Mitchell and it was subsequently damaged by Hurricane Katrina and demolished by Mitchell.(JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk 48, pp. 87-88 and Land Deed Bk 57, pp. 93-94 and Bellande, 1994, pp. 80-81)
In addition to his hotel-apartment business at Ocean Springs, Mr. Anderson assisted in the 1905 organization of the Ocean Springs State Bank and served on the Board of Directors. Under the leadership of Dr. O.L. Bailey (1870-1938), the bank board and stock holders erected their building on the northeast corner of Washington and Government in 1910. Although the property has had multiple proprietorships through time, it has remained a fiscal institution. Today, it is owned by the Cornerstone Group, a financial planning–brokerage enterprise. (The Ocean Springs Record, June 17, 1993, p. 18)
Sidney J. Anderson was also president of the Ocean Springs Electric Light and Ice Company, which was organized in 1903. Louis A. Lundy (1876-1941), a partner of Anderson in the ice company, would organize the Ocean Springs Packing Company in 1915, with L.M. McClure (1884-1940) and Joseph Zaehringer (1881-1969). Both plants were located on the Bay of Biloxi, south of the L&N Railroad bridge. (The Ocean Record, February 15, 1996, p. 20)
At Vancleave, Mr. Anderson ran a small navy. His trading schooners plied the shallow "Lake" waters between New Orleans and Bluff Creek, often mastered by men of foreign origins. Spaniard, Vincent Ferrer (1848-1910+) of the Ruby and David Burke (1848-1910+), a New Yorker, of Irish parentage, who commanded the S.J. Dixon, were some of these men. By this time, Francisco Juan (1843-1918), another Spaniard schooner master, had quit the sea and resided at Vancleave, where he was a merchant with his father-in-law, Willis Broadus (1834-1919).
Through the years, S.J. Anderson is believed to have owned the following schooners: Maggie, George Washington, Seven Brothers, Malvina S. Anderson, Frank S. Anderson, and the Caroline Anderson. Russell E. Barnes, a history professor at MGCJC (Perkinston) and authority on local watercraft, has provided the following information on several of these vessels:
Malvina S. Anderson-built at Handsboro, Mississippi in 1892, most probably by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1948), an 1883 Croatian-Italian immigrant. The forty-three ton schooner was 73.2 feet in length, had a beam of 23.3 feet, and had a hold depth of 4.3 feet. Mr. Anderson's obituary relates that "he built the Malvina S. Anderson, the largest boat of that time, a charcoal carrier along the coast". (The Jackson County Times, October 6, 1917, p. 5)
Seven Brother-built on the Jourdan River in Hancock County, possibly by the Pavolina family. This vessel was twenty-four tons with a length of 54.9 feet, beam of 24.7 feet, and depth of 3.8 feet.
Maggie-built at Scranton (Pascagoula). This small boat was of only eight tons and length of 32.4 feet. I had a beam length of 12.6 feet and hold depth of 3.8 feet.I
It interesting to note that Mr. Anderson's brother and business partner, Julius Anderson, once owned the Josephine
Mestier. This was another Martinolich schooner constructed at Handsboro, in 1893. Two New Orleans lumber merchants, J. Louis Mestier and his brother-in-law, Peter Judlin (1864-1917), contracted for this and an earlier vessel, the Mabel E. Judlin. Josephine Judlin Mestier (1862-1914), was the daughter of two European émigrés, J.B. Judlin (1831-1880+) from France, and Alice E. Vatter (1842-1880+) of Germany. The Judlin family resided at New Orleans, where Mr. Judlin was a grocer. (Fenerty et al, 1991, p. 261)
Josephine's sister, Emma Judlin (1869-1958), married Eugene W. Illing (1870-1947) of Ocean Springs. Mr. Illing was a successful innkeeper and pecan grower, before entering the motion picture business circa 1904. His Illing Theatre was a landmark on Washington Avenue for many decades. (The Ocean Springs Record, October 5, 1995, p. 20)
A daughter of Peter Judlin and Henriette Monteverde, Mabel E. Judlin (1890-1953), married Henry Girot (1887-1953), a New Orleans tailor, who came to Ocean Springs circa 1923, where he helped organize the United Poultry Producers Association and develop the Cherokee Glen subdivision on the Fort Point peninsula. (The Gulf Coast Times, January 29, 1953, p. 1)
His only son, Judlin H. Girot (1912-1970), a former Alderman of Ward 4 (1951-1953), resided at Ocean Springs until 1953.
Mr. Girot's daughter, Beryl G. Riviere, has been a long time resident of Cherokee Glen.(The Daily Herald, January 5, 1953, p. 6)
Miss Mabel Judlin was the namesake of another trading schooner, the Mabel E. Judlin. This vessel was constructed at Handsboro by Matteo Martinolich (1861-1934) in 1891, for J.L. Mestier & Company of New Orleans. Mabel E. Judlin, built in 1891. (Barnes, 1998, p. 15)
The Mabel E. Judlin was 67 feet long, had a beam of 22 feet, and hold depth of 4 feet. Her sails were constructed by A. Gerdes & Brother of New Orleans. (The Biloxi Herald, May 2, 1891, p. 4, c. 2)
The Mabel E. Judland (sic) was reputed to be the fastest schooner in the entire Gulf and Caribbean. She hauled charcoal from the banks of Bluff Creek when owned by James E. Lockard (1862-1951) of Vancleave. The fledging United Fruit Company used the Mabel E. Judland (sic) as a model for their shallow draft fruit boats. (Down South, July-August 1960, p. 9)
In the Hurricane of October 1915, S.J. Anderson had a frightening experience. During the violent tempest, one of his schooners was anchored at the New Basin in New Orleans. With winds roaring at eighty-seven knots per hour, Anderson went to check on his vessel. He boarded the floundering boat and threw out double anchors to secure it. As Mr. Anderson was about to disembark his vessel, the wind hurled the roof of a cotton warehouse upon the wave tossed schooner, felling both masts and narrowly missing the anxious Anderson. The storm also claimed one of his traders in the Rigolets Marsh. (The Ocean Springs News, October 7, 1915, p. 2)
In late September 1917, the Andersons went to Hot Springs, Arkansas, a renown health spa of the era. Mr. Anderson's health had been failing, and it was believed that this holiday would revive him. Unfortunately, he expired at Hot Springs on October 3, 1917. His remains were sent to New Orleans for internment in the Greenwood Cemetery. The wake was held at the home of H. Moskan at 2713 Bienville Street. Mr. Moskan was the brother-in-law of Sidney Anderson. (The Daily Herald, October 5, 1917, p. 6)
After the demise of her husband, Caroline G. Anderson relocated to New Orleans. She participated with her son, Frank S. Anderson, in a firm called the Orleans Advertisement & Street Guide Company, which was situated at 618 Commercial Place. In 1922, Mrs. Anderson moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, but returned to the Crescent City circa 1925. She passed on February 19, 1950, at El Paso, Texas. Her remains were sent to New Orleans for burial in the Greenwood Cemetery. (The Times Picayune, February 22, 1950, p. 2)
The complete lives of the children of Sidney and Caroline Anderson are currently unknown. Daughter, Malvina A. Anderson (1891-1971), married after 1910, Emile L. Bernard (1889-1950). Mr. Bernard worked for S.J. Anderson as his bookkeeper. They are believed to have reared (UPDATED INFO) six children: Vivian W. Bernard (1912-2012), Marjorie C. Bernard (1914-1999), Sidney J Bernard (1919-2008), Elvira Jane Bernard (1921-1988), Emile Louis Bernard (1926-2013), Faye G. Bernard (1931-2013), and Winifred E. E. Bernard (1929-2005). After the death of Emile Bernard, Malvina wedded a Mr. Cotter. She was a resident of Eddy County, New Mexico in 1954. Carlsbad is the County seat.
In February 1918, Frank S. Anderson married Katherine Usner of New Orleans, at the Usner home on East Beach in Ocean Springs. Deo F. Bertuccini (1893-1979) of Ocean Springs was his best man. (The Jackson County Times, February 16, 1918, p. 52)
The Frank S. Andersons had a daughter, Catherine A. Buendia (1919-1999). After the child's birth, the Andersons separated and he relocated to Texas. Here F.S. Anderson remarried and sired two children, Doris Jean Lewis and F.S. Anderson Jr. In 1954, these children were residing at Houston, Texas and Napa County, California respectively. (JXCO, Mississippi Land Deed Bk.146, pp. 243-244)
The final fate of the Anderson store and home are presently unknown to the author. It is believed that they were torn down in the 1920s. Some of the materials may have been utilized in the construction of the C.L. Dees Red Cash Store post-WWI.
REFERENCES:
Jackson County, Mississippi Chancery Court Cause No. 2008, "The Estate of Julius Anderson", November 1910.
Magazines
Down South, "Charcoal Capital of the Coast", July-August 1960.
Journals
The Jackson County Times, "Sidney Anderson Dead; Many Friends Mourn", October 6, 1917.
The New Orleans Item, "Funeral of Sidney J. Anderson set Saturday", October 5, 1917.
The Time-Picayune, "Vancleave Man take by death", October 5, 1917.
The Times-Picayune, '[Harry Peter] Fitzner', July 22, 1949, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Caroline Gaspard] Anderson', February 22, 1950, p. 2.
The Times-Picayune, '[Jennie Gaspard] Fitzner', February 6, 1966, p. 2.
Gravesite Details
Age 50, Name on Plot Anderson, Date of Burial 10/6/1917, Ref: Cemetery Records
Family Members
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