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Prosperity, depression
The church did not have a pastor for many years, but one of the assistant priests from Our Lady of the Gulf in Bay St Louis was given the responsibility for the area. The congregation increased, and in 1886 a larger church was built on nearly the same site as the pre-sent-day church.
In the next couple of years, the area grew rapidly, and many lumber mills were established in the county. The lumber industry became a major business that employed many people.
Tracks were put in to haul lumber, and the timber was , sawed and cured in the kiln.
; In 1919, the area was officially 1 known as Kiln. As the years went on, many pastors were appointed to the church.
One of them was Father A.C. Denis, a native of Belgium, who served until 1945, seeing the church and its parishioners through the Great Depres-sioa The church suffered along with the rest of the country.
The mill, which supplied the church with electrical power, was tom down, and poverty was commonplace.
“We were a poor parish, ” said Josephine Ziloan Schyou, an older member of the church. “Father Denis used to go and buy dog food from the store. Later, we found out that he was 1 eating it We stopped selling it to him.
“I remember Father Denis used to count out the strains of spaghetti that he used to cook, fcSretors said
I ilda Curet^retors doesn’t miss much.
I And on Sunday morning, “with the Lord spar-_____I ing me,” the 94-year-old woman was present to receive a certificate honoring her for being the oldest parishioner alive at Annunciation Parish’s 125th anniversary.
“I remember when people used to put tokens in the plate instead of money, ’£1Siretors said. Though the tokens were worthless, they allowed poor people to put something in the plate.
Gretors is among 650 families who celebrated the rich history of their parish and their church’s anniversary. For a day, the church traveled back to the time of its founding, through period costumes and other trappings of the 19th century.
The Church of the Annunciation was built in 1869 in an area of what was then Wolftown and is now DeLisle. The parish was founded in that same year and from then on, most of the baptism records and marriage licenses were kept in the church.
G fyetors was honored for being the oldest parishioner in the Annunciation Catholic Church by the Most Rev. Joseph L Howze, bishop of Biloxi.
Story by
Katrice
Franklin
Photos by
David
Purdy