Catholic Parishes in PEI (c. 1885) by Rev. Alfred E. Burke
Please see the Contents page for information on this and other historical sketches of PEI Roman Catholic parishes, as compiled by Father Alfred Burke circa 1885.
The Mission of St. Thomas, Palmer Road
This mission was formerly a portion of Tignish parish and is composed of French and Irish settlers. The French are the descendants of those who removed from River Platte in the old parish of Malpec, to Tignish in the year 1799. Those veterans, when dying, divided their farms among their sons who in their turn shared their inheritance with their numerous olive branches, so that in time, the farms became too small to yield the means of substances, to their owners, who accordingly, removed back to the western shore.
To the same locality came Irish emigrants from Newfoundland and Ireland. About 1840 the late Henry Palmer, Esq. who owned a part of Township One, opened a road from Nail Pond to Mimminigash which road gave its name to the new settlement. For several years the residents of Palmer Road were obliged to attend mass in Tignish.
In the year 1807, a resident of the mission, Mr. Michael Noonan, offered a grant of three quarters of an acre of land for a church site, to Father MacDonald, the priest of Tignish, the only condition being attached that he was to be exempted from paying a marriage fee.
This offer was readily accepted and the building of the little church of the Immaculate Conception was forthwith commenced. At that time there were only twenty seven families in the parish and they all assisted in the construction of the church which was opened in 1870. It is sixty four feet in length by thirty in width and is furnished with very large galleries, capable of accomodating a considerable number of persons, but yet it is much too small to contain the Catholics of the rapidly increasing settlement. The altar is white and gold, at the entrance to the sanctuary are breackets, bearing statues of the Sacred Heart and of the Blessed Virgin. The stations of the cross are very small, but they are very fine old specimens of the engravers art.
New settlers are every day moving in to this district, and it is not at all uncommon for them to bring their houses with them. One frequently meets a long line of carts and truck waggons, loaded with walls, doors, windows, and sections of the roof of somebody's dwelling, which is put together on its new site by the united efforts of the neighbours of its owner, this sort of working party is here called a "frolic".
It was not until 1878 that a parochial house was built at Palmer Road. When it was completed the Rev. A. J. Trudelle went there as resident priest. In 1884 Father Trudelle left the diocese and was succeeded in Palmer Road by Rev. G. A. Picotte the present pastor.
First Catholic Settlers of the Mission of
St. Thomas - Palmer Road
Patrick Callaghan
William Shea
Maurice McInnis
John McInnis
John Mockler
George Kelly
Christopher Cadogan
Simon Luttrell
Francis Arsenault and three sons
Joseph Gaudet
Nazaire Poirier
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