These colonists were deliberately given land grants in the colony because they were Protestants.19 Penal laws prevented Catholics from owning land, except by the special permission of the Governor. A special directive to the Governor from England in 1764 ordered that Acadians were to be allowed to have land provided that they took the oath of allegiance to the British crown.20
About this time Michael Francklin secured a large land grant at Minudie and River Hebert and persuaded Acadians to be his tenants.21
Some of these were women and children who had escaped deportation. Others were from Fort Edward (Windsor) which they had left because of maltreatment by their "overlors." Colonel Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres also obtained a grant of 8000 acres at Munudie, beside the Francklin grant. 22 Acadians squatted on his lands. English writers claim that he objected to this and attempted to get rid of them. French writers declare that he encouraged them to become his tenants.
In 1760 Acadians moved back to their former lands in Memramcook. Some had been hiding in the forest since 1755; others made the long trek back from the southern colonies. Although their return was not legal, it was tolerated, for the land-grantees needed tenants to hold their grants. Less than one hundred years later this toleration resulted in acrimonious disputes over land titles. As the years passed and they were unmolested, they began to have a feeling of security. Missionaries visited them from time to time from Quebec, and the Acadians at Minudie could easily cross over Cumberland Basin to attend Mass and receive the Sacraments at Memracook.23 Thus Minudie became a mission of Mamramcook; by 1829 there were about 50 families there and they had erected a small chapel.24
The first resident priest at Memramcook was Joseph-Thomas-Francois Le Rous, who, after serving in the Magdalen Islands and Prince Edward Island, was ordered by Bishop Briand to take charge of the Memramcook parish and its missions in 1785.25 He was indefatigable in the care of souls. His last years were made miserable by illness, yet he remained with his people until he was relieved in 1794. Before he could leave he died and was buried at Memramcook.
His successor, Thomas Power, was an Irish Capuchin who had come to Nova Scotia in 1787.26 Having studied for some years in Paris, he spoke French. He remained for eleven years, but becoming involved in some dispute with his parishioners, he retired to Cumberland county to work among the English-speaking Catholics there and died in 1806. He was buried about six miles from Minudie. In 1935 his remains were exhumed and re-interred in the Catholic cemetery at Parrsboro.27
The place of origin and the identity of these English-speaking Catholics were unknown. Local tradition holds that around 1800 a group of Scotch Catholics settled in the district but moved on after a few years because of the impossibility of obtaining the services of a priest.28 Certainly by 1840 there were enough Catholics there to send a petition supporting Bishop Fraser against the supposed attacks of the Catholics of Halifax.29
The isthmus of Chignecto was only remotely affected by the growth of the Catholic Church elsewhere in Nova Scotia. Although it came under the jurisdiction of Bishop Burke, the first Vicar Apostolic of Nova Scotia (1818-1820) and of Bishop Fraser, the second Vicar (1827-1842) and the first Bishop of Halifax (1842-1844), there is no record that either ever visited the area. The Memramcook priest took care of Minudie and perhaps other Catholics in Cumberland went there for his administrations.
William Walsh was appointed the second Bishop of Halifax in 1844. Having put affairs in Halifax in order, in 1845 he turned his attention to the outlying districts of the diocese. In November of that year he sent James Kennedy, Parish Priest of Dartmouth, to inspect conditions in Cumberland.30 The latter visited Parrsboro, Minudie, Nappan, Amherst, Wallace, Tatamagouche, and other places, and made arrangements for a priest's residence. It seems that no priest resided in Minudie until 1848, when Thomas Lyons was appointed missionary priest of Cumberland.31 Since Patrick Phelan, the Parish Priest of Dartmouth, was recorded as having been in the district before Lyons, it seems that probably the priests from Dartmouth visited the county once a year at this time. This is suggested by the fact that the entire region from Dartmouth to the Bay of Fundy was in the Dartmouth missionary district, and Phelan spent a month in 1849 visiting the area from Maitland to Nine Mile river.32 It was relatively easy to cross by boat from Windsor or Maitland to Parrsboro or Minudie.
Father Lyons took up his residence at Minudie. In the same year, 1848, Bishop Walsh made his first visit to the district, administered confirmation at several places, arranged to have churches built at Parrsboro and Minudie where the old chapel was in ruins, and perhaps in other places, and blessed land for use as cemeteries both at Minudie and Parrsboro.33 The Bishop was the first priest to celebrate Mass in Amherst, which he did in or near the church that was being built one mile from the town. On August 7, 1848 he blessed land that is still used as a cemetery, and promised the people to return the following year to bless their church if they should finish it.
The land in Amherst had been obtained in 1847 from Doctor James Page, who it was said gave the land when everyone else refused to sell land to Catholics.34 In March, 1849, Father Lyons received Dr. Page into the Church. His conversion caused so much bitterness against him that his practice failed, and he was forced within a few years to move with his family to Halifax, where he received a friendlier reception. The Page family in the years since has made notable contributions to Catholic life.
Patrick Madden succeeded Lyons in 1849 and remained until 1852. For a few months at this time the district was again without a priest, for M.L. Lafrance of Memramcook was there in October and Patrick Power also had baptisms there.35 James Rogers succeeded Madden in May, 1853.
The church in Amherst was very inconveniently situated for most of the parishioners. Father Rogers was able to buy a lot on the corner of Church and Prince (now Prince Arthur) streets, where the Fire Station stands, and in the winter of 1853-1854 he had the church removed from its foundation and hauled to its new site.36 The Nappan Catholics objected, for they did not relish having to walk one mile further to church, but the will of the majority prevailed. Local tradition reveals that, because of this, they ceased to attend church services, though they did not sever connections with the Church and always remained Catholics.
The Catholic population in Cumberland was slowly increasing. Ship building along the shores of the Bay of Fundy, shipping between Nova Scotia and the United States, were bringing prosperity to the region. Extensive lumbering and mining operations caused a demand for laborers; consequently Catholics who did not have money to buy land were able to obtain employment in the predominantly Protestant area. In fact by 1856 the number of Catholics warranted the attention of two priests. Archbishop Walsh (Halifax became a Metropolitan See in 1852) divided the county into two parts.37 He appointed Henri Berthe, a priest recently arrived from France, to take charge of the western part, that is of Minudie, Ragged Reef, Maccan, Parrsboro, Spencer's Island, and other places which left to Father Rogers, Amherst, Nappan, Pugwash, River Philip, and other places to the Pictou county line. The records mention these places because probably there were Catholics living at each of them. Berthe arrived at Minudie on May 20, where he was met by Rogers who stayed with him for two weeks because a typhus epidemic was raging at the time. Rogers took over his new mission at Amherst on June 1, 1856.
Amherst at last had a resident priest, but not for long, for within a year Father Rogers was stationed in Bermuda.38 Evidently he was not in Amherst long enough to begin a parish register for none existed until much later. Father Berthe has no baptisms recorded at Minudie, and by 1857 he was Parish Priest at Wedgeport.39 The fact that beginning in 1857 separate registers were kept for Minudie and Parrsboro indicates that it was decided to make Parrsboro the headquarters of the eastern division. Moreover until 1866 it seems that only one priest was appointed to the district instead of two.
Evidently the priests inserted records into whatever register was at hand; for example from 1863 until 1867 all Minudie records were inscribed in the Parrsboro register.
John Wood's name appears in the registers in 1857. From that year until 1861 Peter Danaher was the priest in charge. he was succeeded by Patrick Dunphy, who left in 1864, probably because of bad health for he died the following year.40 Robert Raftis was at Minudie in 1864. There is a gap in the registers for over a year from 1864 until 1866, which suggests perhaps that various priests attended the Cumberland missions and did not keep records. In the summer of 1866 John R. Lovejoy had baptisms recorded in both registers. Thomas Maher was appointed resident priest at Parrsboro in 1866, though he had charge of the entire county. Finally in 1867 Philip Walsh was given charge of Minudie, and this year marked the complete break between the two districts.
Needless to say the period between 1857 and 1866 was a time of stagnation, at least as far as the Catholic Church in Cumberland County was concerned. There were various reasons for this. The Acadians at Minudie had had a prosperous community, even though they were tenants not owners of the land they tilled. In 1824 Colonel Des Barres, the owner, died in Halifax at the venerable age of 104.41 His heirs decided to sell his various land grants. But the Minudie Acadians whose families had farmed the same land for generations regarded their farms as their own. Eventually Des Barres heirs sold their rights in Minudie to Amos Seaman who demanded full price for the land. The Acadians could not pay the price, so they departed for Memramcook where Des Barres' heirs sold their grants there to Acadians at nominal prices. Consequently Minudie ceased to be the prosperous and growing community that it had been.
Between 1853 and 1866 Halifax Archdiocese lost nearly half its priests. Father Thomas Lyons died in Bermuda in 1853 aged 49. Patrick Phelan seems to have left the diocese in 1854. William Dillon died in 1858 at the age of 28 after only one year in the priesthood. Archbishop Walsh died the same year. William Hannigan, six years after his ordination, died in 1859. Berthe left the diocese the same year. Joseph P. Roles left in 1860 and in the same year James Rogers became the Bishop of Chatham, New Brunswick. Denis Canon Geary died suddenly in 1862. James Kennedy died in 1864 and within a year Patrick Dunphy and Robert Raftis died too. So Archbishop Thomas Louis Connelly, who succeeded to the See 1859, was hard pressed to maintain the church in the major centers and could not think of expansion in the missions.
That the Cumberland missions were as well taken care of as they were was due to the opening of the Halifax-Windsor railway, which made it possible for a priest to leave Halifax and be in Cumberland within a few hours. although the railway was officially opened in June, 1858, it had been running for some time previous to that.42 Travellers from Halifax went by rail to Windsor and took a boat for Parrsboro. Faster communications meant that priests could cover more territory. It also meant a growth in industry, which attracted more Catholics to the area.
Priests stationed at Parrsboro from 1866 to 1879, who also served the Amherst mission were: Thomas Maher, 1866-1868; James T. Quirk, 1868-1869; William J. Mihan, 1869-1872; Patrick W. Brown, 1872- 1875; and James T. Bresnan, 1875-1879. While Mihan was at Parrsboro the Goverment extended the railroad from Truro to Amherst, and he had the added burden of taking care of the Catholic workers in their camps along the track.43 Truro took on a new growth and attracted several Catholic residents. Mihan completed the church there, which had been begun by Peter Danaher of Enfield, and for a time Truro was his headquarters while he still had charge of the missions in eastern Cumberland County. At this time Parrsboro was taken over by Minudie. This arrangement did not last long for in 1872 the Archbishop made Truro a separate parish and Parrsboro became once again headquarters for east Cumberland.44
Brown stated that at this time his charge embraced Parrsboro, Amherst, Pugwash, Wallace, Nappan, River Philip, Spencer's Island, North Shore, Streets Ridge, and Greenville.
The Catholic congregation at Amherst in 1870 numbered 16 heads of families.45 In 1873 the congregation, numbering 80 souls gave $115 for the Pope and the following Sunday gave another $85 to repair their chapel; this small group was made up largely of poor persons.46
It is interesting to speculate on the missionaries' methods at this time. Although the Council of Halifax expressly forbade the saying of Mass or the conferring of Sacraments outside a place reserved for the worship of God, the missionaries must have had to celebrate Mass very often in private houses.47 Probably the priest visited a place like Spencer's Island, where there could not have been many Catholics, at regular times. There he said Mass in a house whose owner perhaps reserved a special room for him that was used for nothing else. Catholics from the surrounding district would gather when the priest arrived. After Mass babies would be baptized, young couples would make arrangements to be married, many would consult the priest about their problems. Then he would visit the sick, prepare the dying with the last Sacraments; and finally move off to the next station where his work would begin all over agian. The ordinary routine would be changed now and then when the priest had to go off for a funeral.
There was no question of having Mass every Sunday. If a mission or station had Mass once a month, the people must have thought themselves especially blessed.
Small Catholic groups were scattered here and there through the predominantly Protestant population. Undoubtedly, under the circumstances, some Catholics ceased to practice their religion, especially if they lived some distance from the church or station. What was far more common was the marriage of Catholics to non-Catholics. Children of such marriages were as often as not brought up as Protestants. This was especially true in places where the Protestant church was a center of recreation as well as of spirituality. This probably explains why many Protestants through Cumberland county today are descended from Catholics.
Catholics in Nova Scotia owe a great debt to the priests who sacrificed a comfortable living in Ireland to spend their lives travelling from place to place, searching out their people, often without hope of material reward. That results were as rich as they proved to be, that the Church was established and grew in such unfavorable circumstances, is certain proof of their devoted care.