was founded by captain william harris hardy, a confederate railroad builder.he city was named after the captain's second wife hattie. about hattiesburg all weekend here on american history tv. >> we are in special collections in hattiesburg, mississippi. his collection is very large. we have boxes of archival material related to theodore bilbo. signed photos his he would distribute to fans. he was a mississippi politician 20the first half of the century. he was a state congressman, and by the 1930's he had been elected governor, and he had put in two terms as governor. term at the end of the 1920's, and of the 1930's and then served a term for years later. then he was elected to the u.s. senate in the mid-1930's. he served until 1946 when he was removed from the senate. -- removed from the senate after being elected for a third term because of bribery charges and because of his views regarding race relations. very well-liked within the state by poor white residents. because he really took advantage of the new deal project to improve the state. and to really he