D’Evereux Hall Natchez, Mississippi

In August of 1854, Bishop Jacques Van de Velde, SJ, of Natchez, Mississippi, visited Bay St. Louis where he met several Brothers of the Sacred Heart and Father Stanislaus Buteux, the pastor at Our Lady of the Gulf. The bishop was so impressed by the brothers that he wrote in French to Brother Polycarp Gondre, superior general of the brothers in LePuy, France, asking for three brothers right away to teach in Natchez and some later for Vicksburg. "I prefer your brothers to all others," he insisted. Bishop Van de Velde died the following year, and it was not until eleven years later, on November 1, 1865, that three Brothers of the Sacred Heart went to Natchez to conduct the Cathedral School.

In the same contract by which the brothers took charge of the school, they agreed to manage an orphan home for boys. Bishop William Elder of Natchez started the orphanage when William St. John Elliot, a wealthy Catholic, left in his will provisions for the diocese to open a male orphanage to be incorporated under the name D'Evereux Hall Orphan Asylum. The diocese opened the orphanage in 1860 in a small frame building on a plot of land consisting of 35 acres on Aldrich and Pine streets in Natchez. The little orphanage which could accommodate only 12 small boys was administered by the Rev. Frederick Muller, a diocesan priest, but Bishop Elder wanted a religious congregation of men to manage it in order to give it greater stability.

On December 15, 1865, three more brothers arrived in Natchez to direct D'Evereux Hall. The bishop began immediately to construct a larger brick building that was completed the following year and was filled right away with 41 orphans. Additions to the building were made in 1879 and 1910 to increase the capacity of the orphanage since yellow fever epidemics had orphaned many children in the area. The 1910 building put up by Bishop Thomas Heslin provided more spacious living accommodations for the brothers whose number at the orphanage had increased to ten. D'Evereux Hall on the highest hill in Natchez made an impressive sight.

In 1938 Bishop Richard Gerow took a personal interest in the orphans' welfare and determined to make D'Evereux Hall one of the finest charitable institutions in the state. He spent $30,000 to renovate the buildings. By then the only brothers in Natchez were the seven who remained at the orphanage after the brothers had withdrawn from Cathedral School in 1935 when the boys' and girls' schools, both very small, merged into one larger school under the direction of the Sisters of Charity.

In 1947 Brother Basil Harrington replaced Brother Lambert Fairfield as director of the orphanage. The seven brothers there worked with about 50 orphans each year. They ranged in age from 6 to 17, but most of them were still in the elementary grades. They attended classes at either the orphanage or the Cathedral Elementary School. In 1949 Brother Florian McGinnis, who had already managed the orphanage for a six-year term, returned as director. He had been an orphan himself at Boys' Industrial Home in Mobile, and he always showed a great love for and understanding of the orphans even if his ways were considered old-fashioned.

At least seven brothers had been assigned annually to D'Evereux Hall since 1878. But in 1950, Brother Martin Hernandez, provincial, changed that. Pressed for manpower because the previous year seven professed brothers had left and another had died, and not wishing to withdraw student brothers from the newly opened scholasticate and interrupt their studies, Brother Martin cut the staff at D'Evereux Hall from seven to five in 1950-51, to four in 1951-52, and to three in 1952-53. But by 1952, the enrollment at D'Evereux Hall had dropped to 35 boys and the brothers had discontinued teaching classes on the campus. Working with Brother Florian in 1952-53 were Brothers Ephrem Falgoust, who prefected the boys, and Henry Moulin, who was old and infirm.

In 1953 Brother Edgar Gagnon, who was 50 years old, succeeded Brother Florian as director. Brother Edgar served six years and provided very well for the orphans under his care. He saw to the installation of a new heating system in the dormitory and acquired new playground equipment. An article concerning the brothers' work at D'Evereux Hall appeared in the Vicksburg Herald, September 18, 1954. It stated: "Too much praise cannot be given to these noble men, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, for the splendid work they have accomplished since taking charge of the orphanage. Practically 1,500 of Mississippi's homeless boys found a home there. One hundred and ninety-three boys from Warren County received their training at D'Evereux Hall since it was established. At present there are 12 boys from Warren County at the orphanage. All of these received and still receive the best of moral and educational training and have proved themselves valuable citizens of our state."