In compliance with the very general demand of the press and people, the legislature of Mississippi, in 1902, appropriated $50,000 for the purpose of securing and installing the products, resources, industries, and enterprises of the State at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.  This was the first appropriation ever made by Mississippi for a World’s Fair.  The bill providing for the State exhibits created a State exposition bureau of five members, specifying that the governor should be ex officio president and name his four associates, the following being the personnel of the bureau:  J.K.  Vardaman, ex officio chairman; Dr. O.B.  Quinn, chairman; Frank Burkitt, secretary; L.H.  Enochs; V.P.  Still.

At the first meeting of the bureau Col.  R.H.  Henry, of Jackson, was elected executive commissioner, and was charged with the duty of canvassing the State, with a view of procuring the exhibits.  He visited all parts of Mississippi, delivered exposition addresses in the different counties, and urged upon the people the importance of making the best exhibit possible at the exposition.  He devoted two years to the work.

The legislature of 1904 made an additional appropriation of $10,000 under the administration of Governor James K. Vardaman, who succeeded Governor Longino as president of the exposition bureau.  Several counties also made appropriations, as did some of the factories and mills of the State, the total appropriation aggregating about $62,000.

The Mississippi State Building was a reproduction of the last home of Jefferson Davis, known as “Beauvoir.”  This home is located near Biloxi, Miss., is of old-style southern architecture, massive in construction and imposing in appearance, and from its broad porches may be seen the “whitecaps” of the Gulf of Mexico.  The house was built by James Brown, a rich cotton planter of Madison County, and by him used as a summer home until the close of the civil war, when it was sold to Mrs. Sarah A. Dorsey, from whom Mr. Davis secured it.  It contained a large historic collection pertaining to the Davis family, much of the family furniture, the bed upon which Mr. Davis died, and the suit of clothes he wore when captured by General Wilson, in Georgia, at the close of hostilities between the North and the South; the object of the exhibit being to disprove the report that Mr. Davis wore a woman’s dress when arrested.  A statement of Capt.  J.H.  Parker, of General Wilson’s staff was attached, contradicting the falsehood.  The building cost $15,000 without furnishings or pictures.  It was built entirely of Mississippi lumber, the contractor being J.F.  Barnes, of Greenville, Miss.

In the horticultural exhibit the State showed all varieties of sweet and citrus fruits, pecans and edible nuts, together with a pecan horse.

In the Palace of Agriculture two exhibits were shown, the special cotton exhibit, including the 35-foot statue of “King Cotton,” and the collective agricultural exhibit—­cotton, corn, cereals, grains, hay, grasses, potatoes, peas, beans, sirups, honey, wines, cordials, preserves, pickles, jellies, canned goods, vegetables, oysters, shrimps, crabs, fish, etc.