Legends and Lore of the Mississippi Golden Gulf Coast Read Online Free PDF Page B

Episcopalian minister who was very popular along Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast. At one time, he had a residence in Waveland, and his story of the Pirates Cave was most likely fueled by stories that were told and retold by visitors and locals.
    Thomas Nelson Ayres was born in 1841 in Sing Sing, New York. In 1873, he was ordained an Episcopalian minister, and the next day, he married Maratha Demay Morrison of Holmes County, Mississippi. The newlyweds were sent to Bryant, Texas, where his ministry would begin. After eight years, they were reassigned to Baltimore, Maryland. The Ayreses had five children. Due to Mrs. Ayres’s failing health, they headed south to Mississippi’s Golden Gulf Coast. He was assigned to the missionary churches in Ocean Springs, Mississippi City, Bay St. Louis and Waveland.
    In the mid-1890s, they had a residence in Waveland and New Orleans. In 1894, double tragedies struck the Ayres family. On July 13, Mrs. Ayres died at their Waveland residence, and in late 1894, their son Nelson passed away. After the death of his wife, Reverend Ayres permanently moved the family to New Orleans. He continued to write various articles for the Times-Picayune . Some of the titles included “The Autobiography of a Gun,” “The Foreshadow” and “Saved by a Hurricane.” He also wrote “In Lilliput Land,” a series of children’s articles for the Times-Picayune . The biggest change in his life came on December 21, 1896, when he was ordained a Catholic priest.
    For a good, effective legend, the person relating the story should be believable. The Reverend Ayres was a most respected minister from New Orleans to Mobile, and his ability to weave a tale shone in “The Pirate Cave.”
    This tale begins with Reverend Ayres and a person identified only as “my companion” riding alone in a train’s passenger car. His companion took a draw from his Havana cigar and blew “a great cloud of smoke from his mouth and nostrils.” The companion stated, “No, I am not as old as I look.” Here Reverend Ayres reflected that he looked old and at the same time young.
    His hair, his eyebrows, the delicate moustache that curled youthful around the corners of his mouth, even his eye lashes were as white as snow, while around his eyes and on his brow were graven heavy lines as if made by the chisel of time; but his cheeks were round, and flushed with ruddy health, and his figure showed lithe and muscular through his well-fitting suit .
    Ayres’s companion stated that he was scarcely forty. Their casual conversation began to turn dark and interesting, and Ayres reported his companion as stating, “‘Sometimes a man turns gray in one day,’ he replied, communicatively, turning his sharp black eyes full upon me.” Reverend Ayres stated that he had heard of such cases, and his companion said, “Well, I am one,” as the deserted passenger car clanked along the rails.
    Ayres’s companion began his story: “I hardly ever speak about it, I never think about it when I can help myself, but I feel strongly reminded of it tonight.” Turning toward the rain-drenched window, trying to peek into the driving rain mixed with howling gust of wind and the blackness of the midnight hour, Ayres’s companion said, “It was such another night as this, and just such a spirit ridden gale.”
    Reverend Ayres looked nervously at the window before leaning toward his companion. Ayres’s companion said that it was ten years ago that he was at Bay St. Louis in Mississippi on a visit to research old grants. He remarked that some of the earliest settlements in the United States were on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He was “sauntering and smoking” along the shoreline when he arrived at the site of an old crumbling brick wall that was protruding from the bluff.
    The banks of the bluff were thirteen to fifteen feet high. The embankment