The first soldiers were all from Ireland and most of them were of the Roman Catholic faith. It was years before they could build a church and at first their means would not support a full time priest so their services were very few and far between; especially, in the winter time when the roads were impassable for months at a time.
The first church was a log cabin with cracks in the walls that needed to be filled often to keep out the cold and other things. This may have been what it looked like.
When a priest did manage to make the long trip to Dalhousie services were held in one of the parishioner’s homes. It has been recorded that many time Mass was held at the John Gaul home opposite Black Duck Lake.
The Catholic church of the first Irish settlers was a small log structure that was built by the community on the lot of land where Carroll Gaul once had his garage. The land being too close to a waterway the cemetery was put on what was called Walker or Verge Hill. This property was believed to be owned by Francis Walker and is now in the Barkhouse family. Sadly time has taken its toll on this graveyard and it is all but unrecognizable.
It was not until sometime around 1891 that the Parish of St. Brigid’s
was established and the present day building erected.
St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church
1891
Mrs. John Long recounts that when she was a young housewife (mid 1850’s) some Catholics lived at Albany Cross, about 26 miles from St. Brigid’s (one of the families was a McBernie). Very early on bright Sunday summer mornings they would leave home and walk to East Dalhousie for Mass - please remember now that at that time you had to fast from midnight on to receive Holy Communion. Mrs. Long said they carried a lunch done up in a kerchief and on their way home they would set by a brook and eat their lunch.
To make this story even more noteworthy is the fact that they walked the whole distance in their bare feet only putting on their shoes as they got near the church! Shoes were a precious commodity and a Sabbath day’s walk of 50 miles would have soon had their foot wear worn out!
After awhile the United Empire Loyalists came bringing their families with names such as Saunders and Wilson and later still more people came from the nearby county of Lunenburg with German names such as Kaulback, Oickle, Lohnes and Barkhouse.
With this new influx of settlers the community soon had two more churches with strong congregations. St. Cyprian’s Anglican Church was just down the road from St. Brigid’s RC Church and at the other end of the community was the East Dalhousie Baptist Church (built in 1893).
St. Cyprian's Anglican Church
1887
East Dalhousie Baptist Church
1893
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