Baptismal Sponsors: H. Gautier and Mrs. J. F. White.
[OLV-2, 254]
Noted living with parents [Eugene and Palmyre W. Gautier] in 1900 Federal Census: Jackson County, Mississippi -- Roll T623/812, Image #290, Enumeration District #44, Beat #4, East of line dividing Ranges 7 & 8, Sheet #12A, House #213, Family #213, enumerated June 21, 1900, by Charles E. Pabt.
Noted living with husband [Eugene Gautier] in 1910 Federal Census: Jackson County, Mississippi -- Roll T624/743, Image #975, Enumeration District #58, Beat #3, Pascagoula City, Ward #1, Sheet #16B, House #89, Family #97 (Spring Street), enumerated April 23, 1910, by Abner C. Steede.
Noted living with parents [Eugene and Palmyre W. Gautier] in 1920 Federal Census: Jackson County, Mississippi -- Roll T625/879, Image #784, Enumeration District #63, Beat #3, Pascagoula, Ward #1, Sheet #5A, House #67, Family #83 (Spring Street), enumerated January 6, 1920, by Busie Mae Greene.
Completed a WWI Civilian Draft Registration Card
(USGENWEB - abstracted by Raymond H. Banks)
Harold White Gautier completed a WWI Civilian Draft Registration Card
(Ancestry.com-1999)
Found:
State / District: Mississippi
Name: GAUTIER, Harold W.
Rank: Lt Col.
Page: 470
Regiment: 31 Division
Company: Gen Staff Sec G-2
BirthPlace: Mississippi
BirthDate: 17 Oct 1893
Source Information: Graden, Debra, comp. U.S. Military Records, 1925: Official
National Guard Register. [database online] Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2000-.
Original data: Secretary of War, Militia Bureau, Washington, DC. Official
National Guard Register for 1925. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office,
1925.
Found:
Residence: 39567 Pascagoula, Jackson, MS
Born 17 Oct 1893
Death Jul 1965
Issued: MS
Localities: Bigpoint, Jackson, Mississippi
Eastlawn, Jackson, Mississippi
Helena, Jackson, Mississippi
Orange Grove, Jackson, Mississippi
Pascagoula, Jackson, Mississippi
Pecan, Jackson, Mississippi
Three Rivers, Jackson, Mississippi
Wade, Jackson, Mississippi
[Social Security Record]
Found: PAGE 68
So a move got underway to change the name of the city. Some people got hot
about it. Young Mac Morgan and Harold Gautier, roommates at Ole Miss, had
many an argument over the matter. Mac said to "leave it alone. The town's
confused enough, already." And young Harold would say that he "didn't wanna
live in a town that a damned Yankee named for himself."
[PASCAGOULA,
SINGING RIVER CITY, Jay Higginbotham, Gill Press, Mobile, August, 1967]
Found: PAGE 71
These were also the days of the billygoat. The youngsters of Pascagoula
treasured that new fangled contraption, the bicycle. But even more coveted
was the ownership of a fine billygoat. For a billygoat could ride a boy all
over town like a minature horse. He could pull a wagon as good as any horse.
With one of these at his disposal plus a hat and a bandana, any young
Pascagoulan could be Hoot Gibson or Tom Mix. And if a goat by the name of
"Stallion" seemed incongruous, it didn't really matter. The plan was to ride
and shoort and many a youngster felt the ecstacy of being shot off his goat by
a smoking,
brandished finger. The billygoats could fight too, and did. The goats,
spurred on and coached by their mastermind trainers,
would charge savagely at their opponents and knock themselves silly. It was
much better than cock-fighting and less bloody, even though the billygoat
wound up as the butt of the joke. Meanwhile, the boys went off to war to the
tune of "Over There" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Harold Gautier and John Grant
headed the list of volunteers, but the roll also included Arthur Smith, Louis
Ros, Lofton Cox, Ollie Rolls, Joe Ros, Ernest Moore, Paul Carter, Laurin Ware,
Rex Moore and many others.
[PASCAGOULA, SINGING RIVER CITY, Jay
Higginbotham, Gill Press, Mobile, August, 1967]
Found: PAGE 92
[Fenimore and the Bank Robbers]
Early the next morning, Fearless Fenimore Hudson arrived with his woodsman,
Harry Bragg, his lawyer, Harold Gautier, a Negro named Coot Foster and one
bloodhound called Ol' Rube. The chief Deputy of Mobile County was there and
pointed to the swamps. "It's useless to go in there," he said. "It'll take an
army to smoke 'em out."
"If they're in there, I'll get 'em," said Fenimore. "You and Mr. Gautier wait
here with the dog till we find out something." Then Fenimore Hudson and Harry
Bragg entered the swamps with their boots on. They noticed a string of broken
briar patches and then stumbled onto a box of candy. This was where the trail
would begin and Hudson fired three shots which brought Gautier running up to
the clearing.
"Get the dogs," said Fenimore. "This is it." Then Harold Gautier sent the
Negro Foster with the bloodhound and he and the Mobile deputy circled back
around, trying to surround the bandits. With the bloodhound the trail was
quickly picked up. The trail took them through the gushy swamps and over high
ground, then to the campsite where the bandits had spent the night. The dog
was straining at the leash, so warm was the scent, and Fenimore pushed on past
a creek where the bandits had felled a tree in crossing.
Coming to a small clearing, they were stunned to see the face of the bandit
Dickson staring at them coldly from behind a clump of bushes. "Stop right
where you are or I'll kill every one of you," said Dickson. Hudson and the
other men stopped dead in their tracks. For an instant they waivered between
throwing up their hands or running. But neither of these alternatives would
fit the plan.
Suddenly, the manhunters fell flat on their faces in the high grass and
Dickson sent a charge directly over the head of Hudson. Then a deputy named
Coleman shot at Dickson but he also missed. Now the bandits Dickson and
Flowers faced their tormentors across the small clearing. The bandits were
well protected and the posse was well camouflaged. But no one made a move,
each side silently waiting for the other to make the first deadly mistake.
Then Dickson, using a sixteen gauge pump gun fired into the bushes and several
rounds were exchanged. Coleman, busy attempting to handle his gun, unleashed
the bloodhound who ran at the bandits, snapping and barking. The bandits
reloaded and then killed the dog. Then all was silent again. But the Negro
Foster suddenly went berserk! Thinking that Hudson and Bragg had been killed,
he raised up and fired his pistol wildly five times and then turned and ran.
Dickson, eyeing him calmly, took dead aim and when Foster stepped on the log
crossing over the creek, the bandit shot the fleeing Negro in the back.
Screaming, he fell into the water.
Then all was silent again. Dickson, also thinking that Hudson and his crew
were dead, shouted instructions to his partner. "That's three of 'em," he
said. "Let's git the other one and nobody can follow us." But as he stepped
from behind the tree toward his partner, Fenimore Hudson got a clear view and
shot Dickson with his .45, hitting him in the side and clipping off part of
the bandit's gunstock. At this point, Coleman shot him three times, one bullet
piercing his breast bone. Dickson backed away, slumped against a tree,
cursing wildly. He shot at his assailants several times, before Fenimore
Huson shot him in the head with a .45 slug. Dickson straightened up and slung
his rifle in the air and then spun around. By this time, Gautier and the rest
of the posse had come up and proceeded to pelt him with buckshot. As Dickson
fell, his hand went to his side and grasped his revolver. Then the kid
Flowers raised his hands and said, "He's dead. Don't kill me. I give up."
[PASCAGOULA, SINGING RIVER CITY, Jay Higginbotham, Gill Press, Mobile,
August, 1967]
Found: PAGE 112
[Phantom Barber - William A. Dolan]
Witness after witness appeared on the stand. Harold Gautier testified that he
did not wipe any fingerprints off the assault weapon. Was Dolan the phantom
barber? If the jury was convinced, many of the local citizens were not. And
some in pretty high places. Lawyer Harold Gautier believed that the whole
story was not told, that there were two different men involved in the case.
[PASCAGOULA, SINGING RIVER CITY, Jay Higginbotham, Gill Press, Mobile,
August, 1967]
Found: PAGE 136
[Krebs-McNeal Trial]
McNeal leaned toward the equally skilled Harold White Gautier. Standing
nearly six feet and six inches, Gautier was aliving legend around Pascagoula.
A sportsman and raconteur extraordinary, he was always in the middle of
everything, whether it be stalking down bank-robbers in the woods or chasing
murderers through the swamps. Standing before a jury, he could point his
long, bony finger at a witness and it seemed as though the condemnation of God
was being directed at the unfortunate victim. Old timers like to tell about
the time a bandit stopped at Pascagoula and drove the town into a frenzy with
a wild one-night spree of looting, robbery and assaults. Gautier grabbed his
gun, chased him down in the swamps, brought him to trial, prosecuted him,
convicted him, walked him to the gallows and personally hung him.
[PASCAGOULA, SINGING RIVER CITY, Jay Higginbotham, Gill Press, Mobile,
August, 1967]
Found: PAGE 147
[The Mayors of Pascagoula]
But the opposition struck back. They organized the "Committee for Self
Government" and fought the proposal, tooth and hangnail. J. Guy Krebs, Karl
Wiesenburg, Frank Canty, and Alvin Charlton, former political opponents, now
joined hands in a desperate effort to arrest the progress of the change of
government movement. "A change in system insured no change in morality," said
Wiesenberg. "Dishonesty thrives under any type of government." And Harold
Gautier, from his deathbed, waved a damning finger in protestation.
[PASCAGOULA, SINGING RIVER CITY, Jay Higginbotham, Gill Press, Mobile,
August, 1967]
Found: FOREWORD
For the past four years, I have been collecting and sorting the family papers,
acting on a suggestion by my kinsman and friend, the late Mr. Harold White
Gautier, during the summer of 1963 . . .
Harold White Gautier [page 12]
Born in West Pascagoula on October 7, 1893, he was the only child of Eugene
Gautier and Palmyre White. After attending the Pascagoula schools, Gautier
received his B.A. degree from Ole Miss in 1914, and an L.L.B. degree in 1915.
During World War I, he was Company Commander of the Pascagoula brigade in
France and eventually attained the rank of Colonel in the National Guard.
Returning to Pascagoula, he began a law practice which spanned half a century,
being associated, for a time, with Ebb and James Ford. He was City Judge of
Pascagoula and at various times served as City Attorney for Pascagoula and
Moss Point.
From 1940-1944, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the
Institutions of Higher Learning of the State of Mississippi, being appointed
by Governor Paul Johnson.
Although highly respected as an attorney, Gautier was unsuccessful as a
political candidate, having lost campaigns for District Attorney and Mayor of
Pascagoula. In 1948, he led a fight against the candidacy of Dixiecrat
Fielding L. Wright for Vice-President, despite the fact that he was a personal
friend of the Governor and a colonel on his staff.
Independent and outspoken, Gautier was a vigorous crusader against corruption
and bigotry. In addition to his public service, he was widely known for his
hunting and fishing prowess and his ability as a raconteur was legendary.
In 1920, he married Pearl Guessman [sic], and he died in Pascagoula on July 9,
1965.
[FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES, Brief Portraits of Some Ancestors and Members of the
Higginbotham Family of Pascagoula, by Jay Higginbotham, Colonial Books,
Mobile, Alabama, 1967]