The town known as "The Kiln," has received nationwide notoriety due to one of its native sons, former Green Bay Packers' quarterback Brett Favre. The community, located 10 miles north of Bay St. Louis and Waveland, on the Gulf coast, was named for the kilns built by the early French settlers to produce tar and charcoal. In later years, with the growth of the timber industry, the town of Kiln was touted as having the largest sawmill and drying kiln in the South. During that period of the early 1900s, there was a hospital, a large hotel, and hundreds of mill-houses, none of which exist today. Later, the Kiln, as the town was commonly called, enjoyed a second boom when it became known as the Moonshine Capital of the World during the bootlegging days of Prohibition. It was said that an average of $4,000 of sugar a week was sold by a small local merchant. Kiln liquor had a reputation for high alcoholic proof and went under such names as Jourdan River Dew, White Lightning, Shinny, etc. The area around the Kiln is the fastest growing region of the county, which is, itself, one of the fastest growing counties in Mississippi. Ellis tracks the Kiln story from the early American Indians; the colonial periods of the French, English, Spanish; and the early migrations of Americans - to the present day. The book is liberally sprinkled with old and new photographs and drawings as well as names that are as familiar today as they were when the town's history began - Favre, Cuevas, Ladner, Nicaise, and Haas. The book contains brief histories of Kiln's neighboring piney wood communities - Fenton, Jourdan River Shores, McLeod Water Park, Holly Bluff, Diamondhead, and the NASA Stennis Space Center. A section is included on the town's athletic celebrities, including Brett Favre, in addition to archival and current maps, and a driving tour of the Kiln.
About the Author: Originally from New Orleans, in 1990, Ellis established permanent residence at his Pass Christian weekend home. His interest in writing lead to publishing vignette columns in local newspapers. Upon researching for his first community heritage book, he realized that a significant amount of misinformation abounded. This resulted in his seeking primary source in-formation from archival records in Mobile, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana, and from local courthouses and churches. Ellis's books are filled with treasured photographs and maps; and he takes special effort to seek out individuals, whether obscure or prominent - those who can add a touch of personal experience by revealing anecdotal interviews. Not being able to find a publisher, Ellis was determined to get his history books to the general public, so he learned to be a self-publisher and now distributes his history books through bookstores and gift shops and the Internet. He also publishes much information to his several web sites providing free access to information and photographs. Ellis's books are computerized in order to enable easy updating and error corrections. He calls himself an Historiographer and Scrutinier, which simply translates to a "writer of history with authenticity."