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cated almost on the same location in 1886. Some records indicate that the old church was then used as the first Catholic school (St. Mary?s) in the area when Fr. Schmitt was the resident priest here. Similar records indicate an attendance of 11 boys and 17 girls, but this building was later demolished to make room for the sacristy of the newer church. The church of 1886 may well be the majority of the present day structure with the exception of the side wings that were added in 1985 to accommodate the growing congregation. The present pews in the side wings were salvaged from St. Joseph Church in Fenton which was closed in the same year. In that year, this church was completely redone inside and outside. It had previously been remodeled on the inside sometime in the early 60?s, and some photos of that interior are to be found among many parishioners. Only one photo seems to exist to this day of how the sanctuary originally looked with the early high wooden altar. This photo can also be viewed at the Hancock Historical Society. It shows the original tongue-and groove wooden background by the altar, and the original altar rails that still exist to this day at a parishioner?s house as the railings of the back porch. (15)
Some of the mission churches of this parish seem to have had a relatively short life span. No traces exist today where many of them once stood. However the mission of White Cypress, the Infant Jesus of Prague church still stands in a dilapidated state on Highway 603, having been abandoned as a church when the present-day St. Matthew1 the Apostle Church structure was completed (1981) some miles further north at Necaise Crossing. The old mission church has been occupied as a family dwelling for some time since its deconsecration as a church, as has St. Joseph?s in Fenton.
No trace remains and very few photos exist of St. Louis King of France Chapel in Rocky Hill. It served the Rocky Hill community of Catholics for a number of years and, like all those mission churches, Mass was only celebrated there perhaps once or twice a month on a regular schedule as the priest made his rounds. This church was structurally damaged in Hurricane Camille in August, 1969, and subsequently had to be demolished. In the same way, Our Lady of the Pines Church in Catahoula, the last mission church of the parish to be built, had to be demolished and removed with the arrival of N. A.S. A. and its subsequent buffer zone. This caused a great displacement of homesteads in the 1960?s to facilitate the testing of the rocket motors being used in the space program of the time. This buffer zone extends for approximately 7 miles in a radius around the test stands, and provides a sound shield or buffer from the very loud noises generated in the testing program. This move, in effect, wiped out the entire western half of the area that at one time comprised part of this parish.
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In the same way, Holy Cross Church at Bayou LaCroix, which for many years had remained a mission of Annunciation, succumbed to the advances of the space program. However, a number of years prior to the advent of N A S A., it had been entrusted to the care of the priests of Bay St. Louis (1928). This area is historically interesting as the cemetery still exists at that location deep in the buffer zone, and in that cemetery there exists a gravestone marking the burial place of many of the last Choctaw Indian tribe members. The church structure was removed from the property and reassembled as an addition to another little church called St. Henry?s on Longfellow Road close to the Hancock County Fairgrounds, and behind the present K-Mart Store. The church functioned as a mission of St. Clare in Waveland to serve the community of that area north of Highway 90. It continued in active service with Masses being celebrated there twice weekly until it was destroyed by fire one Wednesday night in Lent in the early 1980?s. In effect it was at the time two churches combined - St. Henry and Holy Cross.
The community at Bayou LaCroix was never very large at any time, and the remaining members of the Choctaw tribe, numbering about 50 persons, resided in that area, as listed in church reports to the diocese. (16) Records also indicate that a Man, Zengarling, whose grave can also be viewed at that cemetery, ran a school on that site for the Indian children at that time. Church bazaars held on the grounds in the early 1960?s attracted a congregation of approximately 75 people, according to a priest w ho attended there as an associate from O.L.G. 1171
The parish of St. Clare in Waveland was established in 1912, and subsequently the missions of Clermont Harbor (St. Ann) and Lakeshore (St. John) were attached to St. Clare Parish until these areas later became an independent parish in later years. The mission church of Sacred Heart in Vidalia (Dedeaux) was also attended from here by Fr. A C. Denis, but it subsequently became a mission of St. Ann's Parish, Lizana. until it achieved the status of Parish in 1967 (having celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1992). In the Anslev community near Bayou Cadet, there still exists the structure of the old church of St. Ann. not having been used in quite a few' years.
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