The dark stream oozing from twin culverts into tall grass on either side of Seaman Road is the beginning of Fort Bayou, a waterway that widens as it flows south and westward through Ocean Springs, then into Biloxi Bay. 

The bayou is said to be named for Fort Maurepas, which French explorers built near the bayou’s confluence with the bay in 1699.  And the always rural community between Ocean Springs and Vancleave around the head of the waterway eventually took the name of the bayou, a name that endures today. 

How long this community has been called Fort Bayou is uncertain.  But oldtimers agree that there were people here long before the Civil War.  They say that during the war, Yankees camped here.  Some say there was burning and pilfering, while others say the troops just looked around.

The virgin yellow pine, rich farmland and the challenge of the wilderness lured early settlers.  But deep love for community and family has kept many of their descendants here.

Ninety-year-old Raymond Mallette said long before his birth his parents were trying to farm in the area they called Big Bend, west of the spot where Interstate 10 crosses over Fort Bayou Road.  But the land was far from fertile and George Lumas and Louis Quave Mallette moved northward, buying land for $1 per acre. George L. Mallette’s brothers Bill, Henry and Alex had the same notion.  So many of the Mallette kin have stayed in this area that it could be called Mallettetown, as Pascagoula could be called Krebsville, but there are many other families here.

Before the Civil War land records show that Pierre and Usant Quave owned land in the southern part of the community around Antioch Road.  The Quaves had a large plantation, worked by slaves, and Usant deeded land to one of the earliest churches here, Antioch Baptist.

Fort Bayou has been a predominately white community, but relationships have been traditionally good with the few black families who have lived here off and on over the years.

Early families here were headed by John Noble, Frank Martin, Maximillian and Jules Garlotte, Frederic Dupree, Quitman Rouse, John Parker, Edward Richards, Enoch and Andrew Ramsay and Thomas Davis.  Around 1900 a family of Overstreets, William Devro, Alfred E. Lewis, Thomas Ellis and his family, Charles Webb, W. M. Griffin and Delanceys came to the community.

Some settlers, like Bill Willis, stayed for years, then left.  He sold his land to George W. Noble and moved off.  But the Nobles have stayed and their heirs have divided the property among themselves.

More than land is handed down from father to son, or uncle to nephew at Fort Bayou.  The sawmills that have been a strong part of the heritage of this community have been kept running, but on a much smaller scale than yesteryear, because they have passed to subsequent generations.

George Noble has an old-fashioned syrup mill that started in the family of Frank martin, then passed into the Mallette family and then to him.  Fort Bayou is a place where autumn still means syrup-making time to the old families.

Farming and raising stock were important livelihoods years ago and cattle is still raised around Fort Bayou today.  But many families made their living from the timber, whether it was cutting it, processing it, shipping, or burning it for charcoal.

There are still three small sawmills in the neighborhood, one owned by Arthur Noble and two by Mallette families.

“They take care of local business.  If you want a barn built, they cut the timber the way you need it.  It’s made to order,” explained Jean Brown of Pascagoula.  A retired teacher, she plans to return to her native Fort Bayou.  Sawmilling is in her blood.  Her grandfathers were George L. Mallette and Andrew Campbell, who was a partner in the Harding and Campbell sawmill on Green Pond off Seaman Road.  “It’s a way of life that is hanging on – barely,” she said.

The people who have moved around here since the 1970s when the large farm, formerly owned by Mr. and Mrs. Victor G. Humphrey, was sold and subdivided into three- to 10 –acre tracts.

Humphrey and August B. Casey originally bought the land together between 1912 and 1914, from various owners.  Later Casey sold out to Humphrey.  In 1928, county Supervisor Port Myers had a road built that passed by the farm linking Mississippi 57 with Old Fort Bayou Road and named it Humphrey Road.

Mrs. Humphrey remained after her husband died and leased some of the property to Donald Campbell for a dairy.  In the 1960s she sold to Vertis and Norman Ramsay and they sold the property to Humphrey Farms, Inc., which subdivided the land in 1972 and 1975.

Gradually, ranch-style and two-story homes were being built on the neatly kept acreage in Humphrey Farms.  “When we moved here in 1973, there were very few houses.  Now they are scattered all over,” sad Mrs. Bill Walton, who lives in Humphrey Farms.

The modern homes are not out of place in the old community.  There are very few of the old homesteads remaining.  The weathered, nearly 90-year-old home of George W. Noble is nestled under the trees on the property of his son, George Noble, on Robert Walker Road.  No one had lived in the home for many years.

On the property, Noble and his brothers have built a rough lumber summer house, or camp, equipped with a wood-burning stove, old time cupboards, tables and chairs and the hand-finished desk their father once had at his sawmill.  Entering the room is like a step back into another era.

Noble said that Robert Walker Road was once cut through to Antioch Road, one of the older roads in the area.  Fort Bayou Road, is another old road, but it did not follow today’s route.  The major highway was Seaman Road, which linked Fort Bayou to Mobile, Wade and Hurley to the east and Ocean Springs and points west.

While old homes are scarce, natives say there is evidence throughout the community that reveals its long history.

“There are so many old homesites here.  You can tell there were houses there from the old oak trees and the old wells,” said Keble Delancey.  There are remnants of charcoal kilns and probably a few whiskey stills survive the many that were once hidden from the revenuers.

“The people here have been very independent and self-sufficient,” remarked Kell Martin, a descendant of early settler Frank Martin.  Born in South Carolina in 1834, Martin is not related to the well-known Englishman William Martin who ran a store and post office in Vancleave for years and his brother James Martin, who lived at Martin Bluff.  George L. Mallette, then his sons, Raymond and Hubert, butchered cattle and supplied meat as far as Biloxi.  The Nobles had a smoke house.  Residents raised much of their food.

Martin’s uncle, Jack Martin, had a neighborhood store along Antioch Road in the 1920s.

George W. Noble also had a store and for a time ran the post office.  In the 1920s, Jane Seymour had a store, followed by H. D. and R. V. Walker about the time of World War II, followed by Ronnie Mallette, who kept his business open until recently.

The Fort Bayou post office was created in 1881 with Hiram Davis as the first postmaster.  William Richardson took over the next year, locating the post office “precisely at the head of schooner navigation on a bayou called Fort Bayou, or south of today’s Humphrey Road and east of Cherokee Rose Road.  He was succeeded by mary W. Richardson.  In 1891, Mary S. Hill, a former schoolteacher, became the postmistress and kept the job until her old age in 1914.  It is thought that the post office was discontinued for awhile until Noble began operating it.

From 1896 to 1898, Alfred E. Lewis ran a post office in the eastern part of the community called Shilo, no doubt named for the old Methodist church nearby.  The post office was located near Southern Bay Drive off Old Fort Bayou Road.  At that time, the post office had been moved about three and one-half miles to the southeast closer to Mississippi 57.

Shiloh Methodist Church is remembered well by Mrs. Elsie Fletcher and Mrs. Nellie Mae Davis, the daughter of Sardin Davis and granddaugher of Mary S. Hill.

“My father took us there every Sunday,” said Mrs. Davis. “Uncle Billy Devro held everything together.  He was the most religious man I ever knew.”  Oldtimers say that it was probably the first church in the area, but no one remembers when it was organized and when it was disbanded. 

The church burned years ago and the members opted to begin attending the Vancleave United Methodist Church.  The only reminder is the cemetery that is along Humphrey Road that was once on the church grounds.