utilizing a variety of aids to locomotion: skates, snowshoes, horseback and, later, a two-wheeled vehicle called the “yellow g1g.” Best known, however, was an ingenious combination of carriage, boat and sled which was truly a “vehicle for all seasons.” Wheels were put under the boat— shaped conveyance for road travel, and these were removed when, 'durmg the course of his travels, the intrepid missionary encountered a river or bay. Led by the bridle, the horse swam after the craft while it was paddled across the water. In winter, runners were placed under the serviceable vehicle, and its occupant travelled the rivers and bays, utiliz- ing it as a sled. The venerable relic still exists and may be seen at St.

Joseph’s Convent in Charlottetown.

Early in 1791, Father MacEachern laid the foundations of a large stone house on his father’s farm. He reserved one end for his own use and for a chapel. The location, however, was not convenient for the majority of his people, so, in 1796, he purchased what came to be called St. Andrew’s Farm from Lieutenant Burns of Stookley. An old log house on this property served as a temporary residence and chapel, pending con- struction of more commodious facilities. In 1802, Bishop Denaut of Quebec visited St. Andrew’s and chose a site for a new church. In a pastoral letter, dated August 24, 1803, he directed all the Catholics of St. Andrew’s, Naufrage, Tracadie, Three Rivers, Fortune and East Point to build at St. Andrew’s a chapel “sixty feet long by thirty-six feet wide, with a sacristy eighteen feet long by twenty feet wide.” The church when com— pleted, stood within the enclosure of the present burying ground. It had no steeple and was perfectly plain within and without. The only adorn- ment was a painting of Pilate delivering up Christ to be crucified. Prominent among the opponents of the building’s site was Captain John MacDonald of Glenaladale who would have preferred its being erected Within the boundaries of his own estate. For a time that crusty old warrior remained aloof, forbidding his tenants to support the project and having his brother, Father Augustine MacDonald, say Mass at Tracadie. He, however, eventually wearied of having his house crowded with people on Sundays, and his people soon returned to St. Andrew’s.

In 1819, Father MacEachern was made Bishop of Rosen, receiving episcopal consecration in the church of St. Roch, Quebec, on June 17, 1821. He became Bishop of Charlottetown in 1830, a separate diocese encom— passing Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick having been created in the previous year. St. Andrew’s thereby became the first cathedral church of the Diocese of Charlottetown. The first priest ordained within its walls was Rev. J. MacLeod of Cape Breton, ordained in 1824. Rev. Sylvain Poitier of Tignish became, in 1829, the first native Islander to be ordained there.

Shortly after 1819 Bishop MacEachern, with the assistance of the parishioners, built a two-storey house on the hill above the church, in- tending it to be a college for the education of young men for the priest- hood. It was at first, however, used as a parochical residence, and it was not until 1830 that the Bishop began casting about for ways and means of making his dream a reality. The need was urgent, for, since Char- lottetown had been made a separate diocese, it could no longer look abroad for men to guide its destiny. While in Halifax in 1831, Bishop MacEachern met Rev. Edward Walsh, 3. recent immigrant from Ireland, who had had some previous teaching experience. The priest was persuaded to come to St. Andrew’s, and he assumed the responsibilities of college rector. Funded In part by an annual government grant of £50, the fledgling institution had enrolled twenty students by Christmas of its first year of operation.

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