Their Faith Was Important
St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church
Dalhousie East Baptist Church
St. Cyprian's Anglican Church
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.
Gradually more settlers came to live in Dalhousie, some receiving grants from the Crown in payment for a small sum, others taking the place of some of the older settlers, who had either died or moved away. Many of these newer settlers were Protestants and as their number increased they built churches. Soon there were three churches in Dalhousie: Roman Catholic, Anglican and Baptist.
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.
The first priest to visit Dalhousie came from Kentville and mass was held in the people’s homes. This was before the log church was built. It was not until sometime around 1891 that the Parish of St. Brigid’s was established and the present day building erected.
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.
The congregation of St. Cyprian was very active and well established in the community many years before the church building was erected. A burial ground was purchased from a Mr. George Taylor in 1849. For various reasons the church was not built until 1887 and on the grounds where it now stands, some distance from the original graveyard, which is now called the Toole Cemetery.
As with the Anglican community, the Baptist church was going strong in Dalhousie long before the building was actually built. Originally called the Sherbrooke West Baptist Church they changed their name to the Dalhousie East Baptist Church in 1883. Through the generosity of a few of its members, land was donated and the church built and dedicated in 1892.
A few other interesting bits of info concerning St. Brigid’s.
A Mr. George Keddy ran a watermill on the brook behind the Hiltz’s store. It was there that he and his son, Bamford Keddy, sawed the lumber to build the church. Mr. Keddy also had a shingle mill near where Carroll Gaul’s garage once stood (just up the road a few feet from the watermill). The shingles for the church were sawed at this mill. Logs were donated by each of the Catholic families. The men all helped to build the church as there was much rough work to be done. The women solicited funds and cooked for the men who worked.
Irish Fortitude
A little sample of the fortitude of the early settlers as remembered by one of the community's older residents.
Mrs. John Long (Catherine Butler 1825-1883) 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!